British Designer, The Print Tree

The Print Tree is a personal favourite on Etsy. Her choices of fabrics are fantastic and her bags are so beautiful. I am itching to see what she will come up with next. 

What I also find refreshing and very charming are her fabric brooches and buttons. These make me want to rip all my boring buttons off my coat and jazz it up with these lovely little things.

Cumulus Project

Cumulus Project is an online company based across the pond in Vancouver. This company has the ethos of "One of a kind...One at a time" I can really appreciate this as it highlights the maker and the product; where as if it was on the shelf the customer wouldn't necessarily understand the love and care gone into the making of a product. The item featured at the moment is a Hand-Stitched Chain-link Quilt.



 





"Made from organic raw undyed cotton baton and fabric, this whole-cloth quilt is hand-stitched with a repeating chain-link pattern. While vaguely reminiscent of the traditional wedding-ring quilt pattern, this contemporary motif conjures a new heritage--one perhaps that weighs warmth and security against utility and protection"

It is very hard not to appreciate the workmanship that went into this beautiful handmade product.

British Illustrator, Jen Collins

Hello Jenuine a.k.a Jen Collins, makes some genuinely lovely cards and prints that have a nice hand drawn quality to them.

This gocco print of a Bison is a particular favourite of mine.

British Designer, Mr P.S

Mr P.S a.k.a Megan Price creates a lovely range of printed textiles and products. I love the whimsy and Britishness in her designs, when I see them can imagine having a nice cup of tea and a crumpet.

Designs of the Day

British company Gas & Air Chairs and tables.
This is a wonderful redesign of a product that is so easily disposed of in landfill sites across the country. This company salvages the crates and turns them into these environmentally friendly deck chairs that come in a range of colours. Found via Design Milk







Nightlight by FloppyDiskCreations
Canadian sadly not British but such a brilliant nightlight! 

Thelermont Hupton is a British Company that makes lots of quirky products.
In particular the blown glass lights are very nice.  

 

The Plan: The Future

Though our first objective is to open a shop and studio in Liverpool the overall goal is to repeat this process and open shops where you are across the UK. By working together, us creative independent types could create a network of shops and work toward creating new employment opportunities for ourselves. By collaborating on projects or simply coordinating our efforts we could make a great organization that would benefit thousands of individuals across the UK.

We need you!
Join us and sign up.

The Plan: The Studios

A building in Liverpool will be home to a new group of artists studios. We want to install specialized equipment like a letterpress, kiln, or a screen printer. These workshops will be used by makers local to Merseyside to produce products for the shop. We will also rent out individual studios for independent artists and designers to use.
The location for this workshop would be around the rope works area is one of the vacant buildings. We would seek funding to fully renovate such a property and kit it out with all necessary equipment.   

The Plan: The Shop

We will open a shop in Liverpool City Center. This shop will sell all sorts of products made by freelance designers from across the uk.
To begin with we will operate with a sell and return policy. You send your products to us, we display them in the shop and sell them for an agreed price, we forward the money on to you taking a commission for the organization. If however the products dont sell then we shall send them back to you.
Successful designers that sell popular products will then be commissioned with new orders and asked to regularly supply the shop.  Simple as that really.

Ideas Tap

I recently signed up and created a group on Ideas Tap. This network of young practitioners is a fantastic resource. Already I have been contacted by multiple people with their own projects in my area. As well as industry news and funding opportunities, its a good place for people just starting out in their careers. Check out our group Creative Crowd.

scouting and spying in windows

If you were in Liverpool City centre on Wednesday you might have seen me and Bobatron peeking into shop windows and taking some sneaky photographs. We decided to find out which units were up for grabs and find the perfect location for our shop.

This is a vacant space at the Bluecoat Gallery that both me a bob have fallen in love with. It would need alot of work and I mean ALOT but it is in a fairly good location and from what I can tell the rates would be good. I love the rough look of the exposed brick and the beams.

This is another possible space in a shopping area called Clayton Square. That's me flat up against the window peering inside, thanks Bob! Not much would be needed to be changed, bit of paint and some shelves. This is a more practical choice though the daring part of me wants the challenge of the Bluecoat space! We shall see...

Hello

Wooooo first post!
Break the ice so to speak, Im Jen and that is Bob
If your here you have come to learn about our little enterprise.
Sit Back. Read. Enjoy.