MOLLIE MAKES OUR DAY

This month we have been lucky enough to be included in Mollie Makes magazine in their feature piece called Winged Things. It's always lovely to see anything of Clementine & Bloom in the press and we were very excited in the magazine aisle of Sainsbury's rushing to buy it and having a quick flick through at the checkouts!

But best of all this time we even had a lovely lady at The Contemporary Craft Festival say she had just seen us in Mollie Makes and was delighted to find out we were exhibiting so that she could see our work for herself. As you can imagine we beamed with pride.

So a big thank you to Mollie Makes for featuring us and if you haven't seen this magazine before make sure you get a copy, not just because we are in it, but because it's always brimming with beautiful, creative ideas and projects.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

If you have been reading the blog for a while you may remember this post. That lovely journal accompanies us to all events and trade shows and is regularly commented on and admired. With this in mind and Father's Day looming I decided another handcrafted book would make the perfect gift for my dad (now in his 80th year) to record his plethora of stories.

The book is bound in dark brown embossed leather with plenty of pages for anecdotes and photographs and is available from these lovely people.

So here's wishing all those wonderful fathers out there, and especially this handsome man, a very Happy Father's Day!

DEVON DELIGHTS

Last Thursday we packed up our van full of stock and our trusty display boxes and headed off to The Contemporary Craft Festival in Devon. Despite being a longer drive than anticipated (and us turning up a little later than intended) we drove through beautiful rolling countryside and even passed by Stone Henge.

Of course we had to include our mandatory stand picture! The great thing about using these boxes is that no two exhibiting spaces have ever been the same allowing us to play around with how we display the collection.

The festival itself had such a good atmosphere - not only was there lots of beautiful work by very talented designer/makers there was also a tipi tent for talks, children's craft tent, Punch & Judy show, live music, storytelling and so much more.

 

As you can see from these pictures we had the most glorious weather, and to top it all off we stayed in a lovely B&B called Broadhayes in the small, picturesque village of Broadhempston. This amazing view was from our bedroom window. If you walked down the garden past the chickens and ducks and along a tiny lane you would find a fabulous little pub - the perfect way to end the day!

HOMEGIRL LONDON

We are just back from The Contemporary Craft Festival in Devon and whilst we try and get our heads (and hands!) back into studio-mode to make all the orders that have come in over the weekend we thought we would share a link to a recent feature about us on the Homegirl London blog.

It's wonderful to be featured on such an interesting blog, if you haven't seen it already pop across as it is brimming with home, lifestyle and interior finds. Special thanks once again to Homegirl London for profiling Clementine & Bloom. Enjoy!

INSIDE AND OUT

Despite having family close by we have never visited Kingston On Thames before but after the Designed Interiors exhibition in the Market Town Hall we know we will definitely be going back.

                                    

The town is beautiful with amazing architecture...

important historical connections...

and a balance of artisan foods and vegetable market stalls along with the usual high street shops.

Inside the Market Town Hall building was beautiful, with exposed brick arches, iron fretwork and industrial columns making a wonderful venue for the featured designer/makers work.

With a love for all things insects we were delighted to be showcasing our work alongside beautiful collages of butterflies by Emma Troy and this 'Birds and Bees' wallpaper by Smink Things.

And of course no blog post would be complete without a snapshot of our display from the weekend!

CONTEMPORARY CRAFT FESTIVAL

Just a quick word to let you know we will be exhibiting at the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

We have heard so many good reports about this show that we are more excited than two grown up women should be. This is only enhanced by the fact that it takes place in a particularly beautiful part of England with a gorgeous coastline and fabulous cream teas so we definitely have a holiday vibe going on!

If you live in the area or are just visiting do check this event out from 7th to 9th June - you won't be disappointed :)

CHARABANCS AND RACING DUCKS

On Monday we were treated not only to a Bank Holiday (an extra day off work) but also a gloriously beautiful day - this is a rare thing at the moment in England. We thought we needed to make the most of both of these occasions and headed out to the sleepy village of Loose in the Kent countryside to watch some Duck Racing.

We were not disappointed, there was everything one would expect from such an event - an ancient old pub serving superb English ale, colourful tents selling homemade cakes and jam, and a coconut shy which proved to be a challenge for both young and old!

                              

                              

Then there were the ducks, all 200 of them, plus an array of handmade boats.

Unfortunately none of our chosen ducks crossed the finish line first but we all had a great time and enjoyed the slow-paced simplicity of the day. In fact this wonderful old road sign summed it all up perfectly!

DESIGNED INTERIORS SHOW

Phew! This year seems to be passing by in a flurry of show dates and it feels like we can hardly catch our breath. On Friday we made a welcome (but rather chilly) return to Greenwich Market and it was so good to meet up with some old friends again there. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can make this a regular date in our diary.

In the meantime we are taking part in our first pop-up exhibition with the lovely people from The Lovers Lights Contemporary Craft Gallery. We are very excited to be selling our cushions and lampshades at the Designed Interiors Show at Kingston Market Hall in Surrey on the 1st and 2nd June. Entry is free so do come along and say hello!

WE KEPT CALM AND CARRIED ON

A few days later than intended but finally we have caught up on some much needed rest and the back log of orders that came in whilst we were exhibiting in the Launchpad area of Pulse 2013 at Earls Court. This was our third trade show in as many months and we're now beginning to feel like old hands at putting together a display. Developing on from our stand at BCTF we created a picture wall to add to the homely feel but also to display our designs in an interesting way.

Things didn't run smoothly for too long though as there we were, pitching to buyers our beautiful creations in the slightly surreal environment of the huge hall, when disaster struck. The large white frame holding our Clementine & Bloom logo broke, cascading down the wall and taking out all the other frames with it!

But as "overcome and adapt" is one of our mantras that's just what we had to do. A re-jig of the tea towel, a bit of borrowed double sided tape from the lovely Roddy & Ginger,  we balanced the sign on the edge of the sofa and hey presto we were back in business.

Three days is a long time to spend standing up but as always it has been great to meet new people. Our neighbours Sally Nencini and Seven Gauge Studios made the days so much more enjoyable.

As that's it for us for trade shows this year we have already begun to put the cogs in motion towards designing and making our next collection. Exciting times indeed...

MARKETS UNITED

For those of you that were unable to attend Sunday's Market United event hosted by I Love Markets in Shoreditch Town Hall we have gathered together some of our photographs from the day. As always we met some really lovely people and ended up buying bits and bobs from the other stall holders - oops!

We like to share with you all a picture of our stall; it's always good to go to new venues to showcase our work as each place requires a new stall design forcing us to think about how we display our items. We were particularly pleased with how the trunk looked and it made it really inviting and accessible for customers to access the cushions rather than placing them on the table. Strangely enough though this had a negative effect on the tea towels (our most popular market buy) as they were effectively blocked by the trunk. It just highlights the importance of finding a good balance for displaying your products.  Definitely something for us to think about...

We absolutely loved the quirky clothing by YU Square Knitwear by the lovely Ringo Yu. The pictures we took on the day don't do the work justice so I have copied a few across from her Etsy shop. In true Clementine & Bloom fashion it's the fabulous combination of colours and patterns that make us want to own one!

And no day out is complete without a slice of cake from Utterfly Fluttery, although we couldn't indulge ourselves due to food intolerances (I know, poor us) we can verify on behalf of other stall holders that they were delicious! Really loved the personalised I Love Markets cupcakes, now all we need to do is have a Clementine & Bloom event all of our own so that we can order personalised gluten free cakes!

BIG AND BEAUTIFUL

We love our job!

On a daily basis we get to play with gorgeous fabrics in beautiful rich colours like this commission we recently finished for a customer in London. They live in a period property with large rooms and 9 foot high ceilings so needed a big lampshade that had impact and wouldn't get lost in the space.

We were sent a swatch of the wallpaper lining one wall of the room that they would like to coordinate with and then we  got down to some printing. The silk is a lovely raspberry tone screen printed with copper butterflies.

The finished lampshade was a whopping 65cm (our largest to date) and was fitted with a diffuser to cast the light across the space more effectively.

Big and beautiful - just how we like it!