Lavender, love it or loath it?

The workroom currently smells of lavender, and my husband hates it. I'm not too bothered either way, I find it quite relaxing but its not top on my favourite smell list (that would be Rose or Oud).

My nana and mum both asked me to make some lavender bags for them, realising it was not so much a request as a notification of demand I set to work.

I grow lavender here at the stone tent, so it was easy to pick a substantial amount, hang up in bunches, and dry. After two weeks, I pull the lavender off the stalk and away we go - dried lavender, full of a fresh strong lavender smell! It takes moments to sew little bags to fill with it.

I have lavender in amongst my welsh wool, its not only a relaxing smell used in herbal treatments for relaxation but it also repels moths from all of my gorgeous pure wool products, apparently the plants attract bees (I've seen that in the garden, positively buzzes with bees); the plant also repel rabbits, who don't like the smell - just like my husband!

As I was sewing some bags I made some for the etsy shop. I had panels I'd embroidered for a project I didn't complete so I made a sweet three piece set. Draw sachet, clothes hanger bag and a bag for the doorway.

Very pretty even if I do say so!

Sara and Heart Etsy Shop

Wonderful Willow Pattern

Wonderful Willow Pattern

We all know it, that bright "Blue and White" china that can be found in kitchen cupboards up and down the land. Its long been a stable of UK homes and is somehow now a symbol of reassurance, a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake on some blue and white china somehow makes everything ok. 

What most people don't know though is that the chinoiserie willow pattern, depicting a Chinese love story was in fact imagined and created in Staffordshire, a long way from the exotic Orient. Believed to be first developed by the founders of Spode and Minton in the 1780's, its now entered the nations very fabric, from Nanas favourite Roast Joint Serving Platter, to washed up pieces of sea pottery on the Cornish Coast.

The love story of the willow pattern is quite romantic, and on closer inspections of most pieces all the characters can be seen.

The Romantic Fable: Once there was a wealthy Mandarin, who had a beautiful daughter (Koong-se). She had fallen in love with her father's humble accounting assistant (Chang), angering her father. (It was inappropriate for them to marry due to their difference in social class.) He dismissed the young man and built a high fence around his house to keep the lovers apart. The Mandarin was planning for his daughter to marry a powerful Duke. The Duke arrived by boat to claim his bride, bearing a box of jewels as a gift. The wedding was to take place on the day the blossom fell from the willow tree.
On the eve of the daughter's wedding to the Duke, the young accountant, disguised as a servant, slipped into the palace unnoticed. As the lovers escaped with the jewels, the alarm was raised. They ran over a bridge, chased by the Mandarin, whip in hand. They eventually escaped on the Duke's ship to the safety of a secluded island, where they lived happily for years. But one day, the Duke learned of their refuge. Hungry for revenge, he sent soldiers, who captured the lovers and put them to death. The gods, moved by their plight, transformed the lovers into a pair of doves (possibly a later addition to the tale, since the birds do not appear on the earliest willow pattern plates).- Wikipedia.

So why write a blog post about Willow Pattern? Well, this is your heads up! It last had a revival in the 1980's, the newly wealthy collected it to adorn their country kitchens and its popularity resurged. When I first started dealing in antiques in 2008 nobody wanted willow pattern, I couldn't give it away, but things are changing, now as soon as I get it in stock, it sells. So, take heed, the fashion is changing as people start to love willow pattern again!

The Wool Problem

The Wool Problem

There comes a point in every crafters life, if you're a serious crafter, when you just have to admit you have a "problem". I always thought once I quit the 9 to 5 and decided to make my money from things I make that the need to "craft as a past time" would be over. I thought that I would suddenly have spare time, that my need to create would be my work time and so suddenly making as a past time would be over. I was so wrong, on so many levels.

Firstly, anyone who is self employed would tell you that its very difficult to separate spare time from work time. You work twice as hard as when you worked for anyone else. Your life, work and all time mingles together until your "job" is just "who you are". However, when you become a self employed crafter that precious mythical "spare time" is suddenly needed for "your own projects". Hence, the wool problem. 

These few days in between Christmas Day and New Year, where you feel festively fat and strangely full of cheese. That special time when you're not 100% sure what the day is. When you're desperately trying to eat all the food in the fridge before starting the "New Year New You - diet to end all diets" and therefore best eat all the food rather then waste it. This time, this is special and precious crafting time, when I can make my own projects guilt free, whilst simultaneously eating cake......eating ALL THE CAKE. This is when the wool problem happens.

I skip to the yarn shop with some extra special Christmas money, intent on buying wool to make something for myself. I have wool in the Craftorium, I have industrial quantities of wool in the Craftorium, after all, its for work. Nevertheless, this is new wool, wool for me! So after drooling at the selection I settle on an extra thick cable wool acrylic mix in a beautiful shade of tangerine. I don't need this wool, for the snood I intend to make myself I have plenty of beautiful wool in the Craftorium, but I buy it anyway.

I bring my purchase home, settle in front of the telly, with all the Christmas lights on, this is my time! I have a coffee in my favourite Christmas mug, I'm making for me! yay! I then realise my largest crochet hook is 7.5mm. Not big enough for this cable wool. It's too late to go back to the shop, no worries, I'll knit. Not my first choice, but its ok, I can knit the snood. I need to make for me. I soon realise my largest needles to hand are 7.5mm too. They aren't big enough for this wool, but it ok, I'll start anyway. After all this is my project time.

So here I am, knitting for myself, with wool that's too thick for the needles, the "wool problem" truly kicking in. I have less chunky wool, but I cant use that, I need the new stuff for me. I am sat on the sofa kitting with wool under such tension on the needles that its squeaking. A tells me my knitting sounds like Nicolas Cage in leather trousers, it's squeaking with every stitch, but this isn't my fault. After all as any true sufferer of "The Wool Problem" will tell you, no real crafter ever says they have too much wool, its just not words we utter.

Back to the squeaking knitting and cake x

That Post Christmas Day, Pre New Year Lull. 

Time to think about what we do...

Being self employed, these few days in between Christmas day and New Year leave me with a bit of a quandary. I'm not working, and that cant be right can it? Anyone in any form of retail will tell you that the run up to Christmas is incredibly stressful, that is added to ten fold when the business is your own, and then even more so when you hand make the majority of the stock, so this sudden "thumb twiddle time" is a bit of a shock. I tend to use it to plan roughly what I intend to achieve within the year. So, let me tell you about the three main ways I fill the hours of the day, well, the working hours of the day with anyway.

Firstly the Antiques and Vintage goodies. For seven years I've dealt in Antiques, Collectables and Vintage goods in Hay-on-Wye the Book town, famous for its Annual literature Festival. www.hayfestival.com  Found nestling in the Welsh borders, frankly, it's known for being a bit eclectic. We have a unit in Hay Antiques Market and I'll be honest, I LOVE IT!

I source and stock a collection of vintage and antique furniture, renovate pieces and source an array of English china, along with other items, most of all, I love the sublime characters I meet in the trade and in Hay-on-Wye itself. If Dickens was still alive and kicking, he'd find a gold seam of Characters to use in Hay. I promise to tell you about them sometime.

I also run a little design firm called Elam & Eager Fauxidermy. I make life size textile taxidermy, using vintage upholstery materials, such as Sanderson linen and welsh wools. After all what else do you do with a BSc Hons in Zoology? We've made Badgers, Black Bears, Hares, Foxes, Stags, essentially what ever takes our fancy, we'll try and have a go.

We currently only sell them at events but I think its time to move online, don't you? Each of our lovely beasties gets signed, named and dated when finished. We've sent them around the world, and I'm incredibly proud of every characterful beastie we've made in the craftorium. Each one is unique in its own right. The best bit, is when I get a photo of them proudly hung on the wall and "re-homed". It's all born out of our love of the Natural World.

Then there is Sara And Heart. With its roots in my Bespoke Handmade Jewellery Company (Sarah Elam Jewellery) that I started in 2003. We make hand made individual jewellery designs,

and under the same Design House source items for Vintage Decorative Living. We also make soft furnishings from vintage welsh wools and vintage linens. For years we've mainly attended fairs and markets in the Cardiff area with our goodies. We've just finished the well known Cardiff Christmas market, 43 days trading in the centre of the city. Hard work to say the least.

In between all of this I travel around visiting Antique Fairs, sourcing goods, gardening, cooking, renovating the house, walking the dog and doting on my niece.

Not a bad way to fill the hours of the day :-)