Christmas Market

This Saturday I will be taking part in the St. John & St. Philips Christmas Market in Den Haag. I will be selling Christmas decorations and stockings as well as my other products, Cushions, scarves, toys and brooches. Come along and check it out!

Ary van der Spuyweg 1, 2585 JA The Hague, 070 355 5359                                                                    

                                                             
Directions:

Tram 1 to Ary v d Spuyweg 

(near the Peace Palace)

Christmas decorations and stockists

I have started working on some christmas decorations for the up coming season so I can sell them at craft fairs. So far i have made a christmas tree and reindeer, what do you think of them?

Also my talvi and stads/natuur collection are now being stocked at Kelly's Expat shopping in Den Haag so if you're in the area go take a look!

Kelly's Expat Shopping

Piet Heinstraat 105

Zeeheldenkwartier

2518 CE Den Haag

Nederland

http://www.kellys-expat-shopping.eu

New Flyer and photos for my website

Here is the flyer I made to advertise my products for the run up to Christmas. What do you think?

Some images of my work that I took at the weekend. I think they look good on the wood.

Hoog en laag: first glimpse

So I have neglected my blog for over a month now and am very disappointed in myself. I have had a really busy September though, I started a Masters course in Design cultures at the VU in Amsterdam and am enjoying it a lot. I am also in the process of registering my business so it's official and I can really have a go at making it successful. On the downside this means that designing has taken a back seat and I hardly get anytime to sit down and really get my teeth into new ideas, but I have had a few free days recently and have come up with quite a few designs and here is the first that I have actually got around to making:

It's called Stenen and will be in my etsy shop soon and hopefully will have some friends joining it from my Hoog en Laag collection.

The Critters take over Woool!

I went and did a little photo shoot at Woool today. I had the best models, my critters:

Spot the squirrel!

Get down to Woool now before they all go :)

Woool

 Westeinde 61, 

2512 GV Den Haag

woooldenhaag@gmail.com

0703629000

woool.nl

HUGE SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP!!!!!!

To celebrate fair isle inspired knits and snow themed collections on the cat walk this season I'm selling my Talvi collection knits for even less! go check out my etsy shop and grab yourself an original snowflake scarf!!!!!!!!!

Check out Lumi I and II
Also my Poro with his snowflake body is in the sale.


GO GRAB A BARGIN NOW!!!!!!!

The Critters are complete!

So I finished off my critters collection yesterday and they are now for sale in Woool

L-R  Sunny, Oli and Bill

Smartie

(prices range from €25 - €34)

Critters!

I have been absent for a while due to creative block and due to being super busy. I am now full of ideas and have a new collection on the way...

But right now I have a critters collection specially designed for a shop here in the Hague. It's a knitting shop called Woool run by a lovely lady who has helped me out so much since I moved to this strange country. She took some of my work back in February and since then has sold quite a few of my toy animals, so I decided to make a small range of animals that she can sell at her shop. Currently they are exclusively for Woool but if they're successful maybe they will be seen elsewhere. These are the first 2 critters:

Oli and Smartie

new ideas

I have started working on a collection for autumn/winter 2010, it's inspired my home countries landscape, Scotland, and my new landscape, the Netherlands. I've begun playing around with some ideas, first of all looking at Dutch city patterns Scottish country landscapes. I'm thinking of working colour and texture from the rugged landscape of Scotland and regimented, neat patterns from Dutch landscape.


But first of all I have worked on some cheap skinny felted scarves that will be the basis of my collection, this first design is inspired by Dutch buildings, I have a mountain Scottish inspired one coming soon...  I hope to have the collection finished by the end of July and things may have changed a lot between now and then. I hope you like it, tell me what you think.

This is just a a design in progress, but I hope you like it!

Creative problem solving

I am currently working on my collection for autumn/winter 2010 but I have come to a block in my design process. My problem is that i have only been working on my business for 10 months so can't work out what sells best. So what should i make for this years collection:


Should I make more of cut out designs such as:

I did sell more of my cut out scarves last winter than any other design

Or work more on patterned fabrics such as:

I feel patterned cushions or scarves could be successful if I produce them in a more appealing end product and make sure the pattern is exciting and desirable.

Or should i go in a completely different direction following my creative developments and coming up with different finished fabric idea altogether.

I was thinking of creating cotton/lambswool fabrics using finishing processes to create unique fabrics that have exciting textures.

OR....

Should I just do a bit of each and see what sells this season coming.  I would love your suggestions! 

Cluck Cluck

I have been busy making curtains for the past month and I now have time for working on new products. I started with making a little chicken brooch for a friend, I hope she likes it! It has made me want to make more quirky, low cost products to go alongside my more expensive time consuming pieces.

Keukenhof flowers

Last month I went to the Keukenhof garden here in the Netherlands. There were so many rich colours and beautiful textures. It has really inspired me to use more exciting and vibrant colours in my work.

I'm currently working on a new collection inspired by my surroundings here in the Netherlands and also the countryside back home in Scotland so watch this space!

New member of the gang

As it's coming up to Easter I thought i would make a product inspired by this time of year. After a bit of playing around with egg cosies and daffodil inspired patterns I settled on making an Easter bunny, so welcome konijn:

New stockist

Here is my newest stockist here in the Netherlands:

It's a shop in Amsterdam specialising in Dutch design, although I'm not Dutch I live and work here now and it's a great compliment to have my work in a shop like this. (click on the image and it will take you to their website)

Order for Amsterdam

I have spent the last week working on an order for a shop in Amsterdam, and it's finally finished!  I had to come up with some new colour combination's for my products and here is the complete order:

This bottom photo shows the new bag colours, I'm pretty pleased with how the colours worked. Unfortunately I made the handles a little larger in the new colour combo, as they're handmade by me they differ slightly so hopefully this won't be a problem!

new colours for stads/natuur collection

I was asked to create some other colour combination's of a small selection of products from my stads/natuur collection by a shop just outside Amsterdam. So I have been busy the past few days coming up with a couple of alternative colours for my Bladeren scarf and my Bladeren skinny scarf and here is what I came up with:

I hope you like them. I'm going to be working on a interior collection and bag collection in the coming months so watch this space for new and exciting products!

Monday moodboard

As it all white and wintery out I thought I would compile some winter images and goodies.

Snowy Photo from Vaida: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27799128
Winter corsage from Ayawedding: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36923546
White Freshwater Pearl hair pins from MGMart: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37407970
Winter ornaments from BlueTerracotta:http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33414837

Monday Moodboard is a game played with all the members of the Etsy EuropeanStreetTeam. For more lovely moodboards, please check in on FleurFatales blog.

New Stockist

I have a my first stockist in the Netherlands! It's a wool shop in the Hague called 'woool' run by a lovely woman called Pauline from England. She is stocking my Talvi collection and pieces from my Stads/Natuur collection. I'm hoping that I will have more stockists over here soon :)

Sunshine award

I received a sunshine award from Mami Made It. Thank you :) I now have to pass in on to 12 other people, it has taken a while to come up with them but here they are:

But first the Rules to accept the award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers (no deadline).
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

http://ultimateorganicsoaps.blogspot.com/
http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com/
http://planetfur.blogspot.com/
http://swiedebie.blogspot.com/
http://www.fleurfatale.blogspot.com/
http://kajadesign.blogspot.com/
http://starrybluesky.wordpress.com/
http://kraplap.blogspot.com
http://viltalakim.blogspot.com
http://www.jealousydesign.blogspot.com/
http://latouchablesbagsandthings.blogspot.com/
http://www.positivityblog.com

New collection continued...

So I have sent off my first pile of stock to a shop this year and it has made me think: What other products can I make? Although it is still winter I am thinking scarves won't sell in a couple of months time. I added a little critter to my collection along with another skinny scarf, but I have vowed to make this the last scarf of my Stads/Natuur collection. You can buy the following at my etsy shop.

Blaadje skinny scarfEekhoorn

So my mission for February and March is to make a couple of bags for my new collection so watch this space for new products!

Poro Poro Poro hat and scarf

I was asked by my mum if I could make a hat and scarf set for her friends 2 year old just before Christmas. I wasn't too sure about making a hat as I'm not very confident in shaping on the Passap but I decided to try it anyway... I decided to use my poro poro poro pattern as it's a cute, fun pattern (also my mum had pointed out that kids would like it) Anyway after a few attempts I finished it and sent it off yesterday and here it is:






I'm not very aware of what kids like or dislike so have decided to do some research of baby and kids clothes and products I could knit and sell. I have listed this hat and scarf set on my etsy shop and have made a smaller one for my nephew who is almost 4 months old. I'm working on a baby/children collection inspired by animals so watch this space for updates....

More of my new collection...

These are 2 new additions to my urban/nature collection. Everything is named in Dutch as thats where the inspiration I got for these items came from. The cushion is called 'Blad' leaf in Dutch and the scarf is called 'Stads' which is urban in Dutch. There are still more items to come.
You can buy these items from my etsy shop

Happy new collection!

Happy new year to all! I am back from a wonderful Christmas in Scotland with my family and a lovely new year here in the Netherlands. Now it's back to work. I'm hoping 2010 will bring more success for my mini business so have a new collection already half way completed. It's inspired by urban nature and consists of scarves, cushions, arm warmers and hats! I am also going to start a baby range of blankets, hats etc. so look out for that in the coming months!

First off here are some photos of a couple of my new collection scarves