International Jewellery London 2011
We had a simply fantastic show at International Jewellery London this year! We decided when we booked the stand this year that we wanted a change from our previous looks – we’d done frames two years ago, last year we did vintage white and birds so this year the colour of the stand was going to be important, so went for a bright pink pink, complemented by the most wonderful Designers Guild pink and gold wallpaper and added in vintage display cabinets painted black.
It looked great and the feedback we had from everyone coming to the stand, exhibitors and buyers alike was brilliant. I particuarly loved the wallpaper, and as we’re looking into opening a boutique in the not too distant future, it may well form a template for our interior decoration scheme. We were showing our new Autumn-Winter 2011-12 ranges, both our Objet Trouvé mainline range and our Trouseau bridal range (there’ll be more about those in the next post) and the whole look set the scene for the jewellery without detracting from it and generally went down a storm!
I really like draping the jewellery over vintage pieces that I have kicking around – and as I grew up in a house filled with collectors and collectibles I have a rather wide variery to choose from! So I chose my Mothers Chinese jewellery box that I always coveted (but was never allowed to touch!) as a child, my Grandmothers button box and beautiful Limoges dressing set in addition to other lovely bits and pieces, and of course the vintage feather birds that seem to unwittingly be becoming a bit of a trademark!
Being a pretty sociable type, I’m always ready for a chat and in addition to happily chatting to buyers attending the show, its always lovely to catch up with old friends in the industry. Its such a small world, and it was lovely to bump into the ever charming Katherine Bree, who makes delicious semi precious stone jewellery, and I couldn’t help cooing over the beautiful new Owl and Crow pieces by Chris Hawkins . One of the bonuses of showing at IJL is that you also get to meet loads of other exhibitors and I was delighted to meet the lovely Malcom Morris, who in addition to showing his stunning Apple Blossom and Magma ranges was also launching his beautiful new Seaweed collection at the show and the charming Alexis Dove who makes the most beautiful jewellery inspired by nature. So thats it for another year! We’re looking into doing a couple more trade shows next year, but will mention more nearer the time. All in all it was fantastic this year and we all throughly enjoyed it!
And now, breathe…
Oh dear, I really must get in to the habit of updating this blog far more frequently than I generally manage. It’s usually a sign that I’ve been particuarly busy, and indeed I don’t think I’ve stopped to catch a breath since April! So from now on I will try my best to update at least once a month, and more frequently if possible!
Its been a fantastically hectic summer here at Warner Towers, loads of press coverage, loads of orders and commissions, and not to mention all the prep for International Jewellery London, our main trade show of the year.
We’ve been lucky enough to have had so much brilliant press coverage this year, and were just delighted to have made the Cosmopolitan Bride 2012 Hot List! A big thanks to the ever lovely Miranda Eason and Sally Dixon at Cosmo Bride!
For the last couple of months we’ve been working flat out to prepare the Autumn-Winter 2011-12 ranges to be launched at International Jewellery London. Although these ranges were designed back in February (we work at least 6 months in advance), theres always loads to do and final changes to be made to all the samples. Couple that with the huge number of orders we have been lucky enough to have come in, and our studio has been working flat out! More about IJL in the next post!
Vote for Us and Win!
We’ve been shortlisted by industry bible Professional Jeweller to win a stand at Treasure, the sumptuous jewellery show held in London during London Jewellery Week in June.
In order to win one of the three coveted places available at the show, we need to gather as many votes as possible by Tuesday 19th April!
Vote for us here!
And as a little thank you, we’ll enter everyone who votes for us into a prize draw to win jewellery of your choice upto the value of £200, just drop us an email here or message us on Twitter or Facebook to let us know you’ve voted.
Thank you so much!! xx
Rescued, Rethought and Reworked ~ The new AW10-11 jewellery ranges
I hinted in a previous post that I’d had a bit of a rethink regarding the content of my ranges. While I liked using the vintage brass components, I really wanted to move the ranges up a notch and make them more precious. I get a real kick out of precious metals and stones; and there’s just something about the quality of silver and gold that really appeals to me. I also felt that in order to move the collection forward I really needed to get back to basics and use all my skills as a designer, making all my own components in precious metals rather than simply relying on what vintage base metal pieces I could find.
Now I’ve reworked pieces from my extensive collection of vintage accoutrements (ie, stuff!) in sterling silver and 22ct vermeil; using some pieces as they are and altering and combining other pieces together to create something entirely new. This means that the collection retains the essence and authenticity of the vintage pieces used, while emphasising the essential elements of my own handwriting. The versatility of this way of working enables me to push the designs forward in a way that I wasn’t able to do before and create a more personal collection.
Objet Trouvé, the often fanciful, frequently enchanting and beautiful mainline range is fashion led and indulges every whim and fancy as the mood takes me. This season I’ve been inspired by L’Oiseau Bleu, a darkly romantic 16th Century French fairytale by Madame d’Aulnoy and have created a collection dripping with flowers, birds and mythological creatures, combined with White Topaz, Cape Amethyst, Blue Topaz and a sprinkling of Cubic Zirconia for a dash of sparkle.
Trousseau is a celebration of marriage. All brides should possess a collection of wonderful things to make up their trousseau and this season, I was charmed by the eponymous spirited heroine of the Georgian novelette Evelina by Frances Burney, and have created a beautifully romantic collection ornamented with flowers, bows and ribbons, embellished with White Topaz, Rainbow Moonstone and Freshwater pearls.
As collector from birth and growing up in a veritable treasure trove, I adore the delicacy, attention to detail and often, sheer quirkiness of vintage and antique geegaws, bibelots and curios, and was determined to celebrate the beauty of these trinkets and trifles by transforming them into contemporary pieces of jewellery. Often whimsical, frequently amusing and consistently beautiful, my designs remain always very feminine.
And the winner is…
We were delighted by the phenomenal response to our participation in Vogue.com’s Fashion Night In shoptacular! I hope everyone had as much fun as we did, sipping cocktails and taking orders; we even found a few minutes to do just a little shopping ourselves! All in a good cause of course! …
Well done to everyone who entered our prize draw, we had an unprecedented number of entries and its a shame we just had to choose one winner! We’re delighted to announce that the winner is Sarah Jane from London, who has chosen our Lola Earrings and Aurelia Necklace, which she has planned to wear at her Wedding next year! Congratulations Sarah Jane, do send us a pic!
Vogue.com’s Fashion’s Night In!
We’re delighted to be taking part in Vogue.com’s Fashions Night In and have a whole host of treats planned!
Everybody loves a discount and we do too, so to thank everyone for the phenomenal response we had, we’ve extended our offer and are givng all customers a lovely 10% discount off ALL orders placed between 6pm and Midnight on the evening of the 1st November 2010! Simply enter the code FNI10 at checkout!
Win! Hands up who would like to win £150 worth of jewellery of your choice from our boutique? To enter, simply register your details on our website before 11.59pm on the 1st November, and you’ll be entered into our prize draw. You can choose from both our Objet Trouvé mainline range and our Trousseau Wedding & Bridal jewellery range, so its entirely up to you! The lucky winner will be announced on our blog, Twitter and Facebook and will be notified by email the following day and asked to choose their favourite item (or items!) upto the value of £150. Good Luck!!
We’re also launching our extra special Limited Edition Hellebore Necklace just for one night, before it actually goes on sale one whole week later. This rather romantic necklace is a layered chain beauty, with a gorgeous Victorian heart and beautifully detailed bow (there’s a hint of this little treasure here). We’re delighted to be donating 10% of the proceeds from the sale of every Hellebore necklace to the Kid’s Company charity.
International Jewellery London 2010
As soon as all the wedding preparations were done and dusted, I started straight on all the prep for this years International Jewellery London, held at Earls Court 2 from the 5th – 8th September. This year, as I was basically changing the entire range from mixed metals to precious metals, (more on that in my next post) I had rather a lot of work to do, but thankfully the range had been designed earlier in the year, so at least I was able to concentrate on the manufacture of the collections and stand design.
I was delighted to see that the label had a fantastic amount of interest – even after the success of last year - as I’d changed the range from base to precious metals I didn’t know how it was going to be received, as there are just so many fantastic designers competing for buyers! But I was quite overwhelmed with the success of the show this year, and buyers were even placing orders once the show had closed and we were packing up the stand!
So again it was a pretty good experience. Lots of interest, a stack of brilliant orders and loads of new contacts, which is the whole idea. I bribed my OH to help out again, as he’s a bit of a showman and it was all I could do to stop him from parading up and down the aisles shouting ‘Roll up Roll up’! The show is definitely quite social - I again bumped into a load of old friends and colleagues whom were either exhibiting or visiting which was lovely!
The one drawback to the show this year was the completely unnecessary tube strike, which really affected visitor attendance on the Sunday and Monday. Happily this didn’t seem to affect the placing of orders, and the show certainly recovered on the Tuesday and Wednesday, but its the last thing a small business needs when you’ve invested so much time and money in preparing for the trade show. Having said all that, I was delighted with the show this year and International Jewellery London will certainly be on our show schedule for next year and I’ll have to see what else we can also get up to!
Rock n Roll Wedding!
Oh dear, I think I have rather alot of catching up to do! Its been completely manic (in a good way!) here for the past few months. I got married earlier in the year, and being a just a little bit of a control freak and not being able to account for a Claire Pettibone frock or top class wedding planner in the miniscule budget, arranged pretty much everything myself!
As the vintage theme seems to pervade everything I do, and my OH lives and breathes music it seemed totally natural to have a new vintage rock wedding, and where else to get married than Marylebone Old Town Hall!
Uh Oh Its Nearly Christmas!
There’s been so much to do after the IJL trade show {see my previous post, ‘Showdown’ for the nitty gritty} that again, to my great chagrin, I’ve been playing my usual game of catch up. Oh to be one of those super organised people who were probably girl guides, boy scouts or something in their youth and have everything ready three months before absolutely neccessary; whether it be trade shows, Christmas Shopping, birthdays, or whatever. I’m afraid I have never been ~ and clearly by now, never will be one of those peculiarly talented people! I have a theory that I’m privately a bit of an adrenalin junkie {after all, I must like to live dangerously as I ride a motorbike and work with sharp implements, although admittedly not simultaneously}, and actually enjoy the pressure of problem solving within a very short space of time. True to form, I do seem to work very well under pressure…
I have just uploaded the new Autumn- Winter 2009/10 Objet Trouvé range onto my website. I’ve been fascinated for some time by Art Deco Illustrators such as Georges Barbier, Umberto Brunelleschi and {of course} Erté, so used their sumptuous visuals and inate humour of the foibles of fashionable society {@ you Monsieur Barbier} as my inspiration.
Its a theme I can see myself pursuing for the next couple of seasons as theres alot of life left in it yet ~ I haven’t begun to scratch the surface, and the colours and overall feel of the illustrations lend themselves to a whole host of beautiful colour mixes and palettes. I’m currently finalising the images for the new Trousseau range, which will be uploaded in a week or so. Of course I’ll post images and links when its done. There’s a distinct vintage pearl theme running through it this season…
Its just hit me, of course, that its mid October, which means that for all the self employed designers, artists and crafts people out there that uh oh, its nearly Christmas! That thought, if nothing else should give me the adrenalin fix I need…
The Exhibition@London Fashion Week
This season LFW moved to Somerset House and its environs. Its a gorgeous setting for the designers fortunate enough to exhibit within the Somerset House grounds themselves, but only about 30% of the designers (fashion, accessories and jewellery) are actually sited there, and the remaining 70% were at 180 Strand, an imposing converted steel and glass office block 100 yards down the road. Somerset House featured exactly who you’d expect to see, Mawi and Erickson Beamon sparkled edgily and Laura Lee twinkled delicately, while at 180 Strand Jacey Withers did his usual stunning display and Alex Monroe continued his au natrel theme, complete with grass, of course. It was only a whistlestop visit and unfortunately I neglected to take my camera with me, but imagine if you will, Ostrich feather wigs, giant bows, frilly lacy colliers, a pearl encrusted top hat all juxtaposed with a cherry fascinator wearing mannequin and you’ll get a flavour of the Top Shop sponsored New Generation designers offerings. Un Nouveau Ideal over at Typepad illustrates this admirably! I love going to have a look, its much more exciting than the usual trade shows. Its a veritable visual feast and an aural cacophony, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And never mind the fashion, the people watching is just sublime…
