Posts Tagged ‘bristol’
Belle and Boo Lampshades
Posted on: 01/08/2012
Back in December I was unsure about Quincy Lampshades so I cast my net and looked for a paid job. I applied for a post I found via Gumtree – a small Bristol-based business was looking for a customer service assistant. I could do that, no problemo, what with my understanding of ensuring every customer’s happiness, especially when it comes to small business. The reply I received was unusual… I was rejected on the grounds that perhaps I wanted to supply lampshades to them instead! A sign? Or serendipity?
Today, after 8 months (during which time I happily decided to go full-tilt with Quincy), Belle and Boo are now proudly selling beautiful lampshades made by me.
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- Classic Belle and Boo
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- Hello Boo
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- Pirate Games
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- Ava and Friends
“Welcome to the world of a bob haired little girl called Belle and her adorable bunny friend Boo – a charming world of innocence, warmth and adventure. Belle and Boo is a British lifestyle brand known for original, nostalgic ‘story book’ illustrations of children. The collection includes gift items, books, framed artworks, stationery, home wares and a beautiful collection of girls’ clothing.
Belle and Boo has universal appeal and is available in over 500 stockists worldwide. The collection is loved by grown-ups and children alike, with every treasured product designed to embody all that adults and children love about traditional, old-fashioned story telling.”
Lampshade making workshops are coming to Bristol’s first dedicated sewing cafe! Cordial and Grace is a fantastic sewing parlour in the heart of Clifton Village, with sewing machines available to hire by-the-hour throughout the day. On Sat 11 and 25 Aug I will be giving workshops… fancy it? Wow your friends and add something truly unique and yours to your home. Making a lampshade is hard to resist! Just bring half a metre of your favourite fabric and during a very sociable three hours you’ll make a beautiful lampshade and enjoy the cafe’s wide choice of freshly ground coffees, loose leaf teas, soft drinks and a slice of homemade cake or a cream tea - probably the best workshop refreshments in Bristol! 
New Bristol Lampshade Making Workshop
Posted on: 08/07/2012
The next Lampshade Making Workshop at the Bristol Folk House is on Saturday 13 Oct. We had such a great time at the last one… Louise from Sew Scrumptious blogged all about it.
Love Local
Posted on: 19/04/2012
Live Local, Love Local, Buy Local – should we endeavour to embrace this concept? Can it be done?
It’s difficult. I know. Our village has a monthly market selling local produce and crafts. Aside from selling at it, I rarely visit. Why? I am lured into the convenient world of online grocery shopping offered by the big supermarkets and I loll there. I can shop on my phone from the comfort of my bed for goodness sake! But, it is possible to get the best of both worlds. Popping along to the village market, picking up a few bits and bobs for dinner, buying the freshest of bread and chatting to friends really can’t be beaten. It might be a tad more expensive and a bit bothersome, but as your shopping bag bumps against your leg on the walk home you feel a connection to your community that can’t be had from an app on your phone.
This Christmas past I attempted to buy gifts from small companies or direct from designer-makers in the UK. It was a challenge. Amazon won out, especially when it came to compiling wish lists for the children. But, if you know where to look (and therein lies the challenge) you can find the most marvellous things. I am proud to say that I sell my lampshades with Love-Local – an online retailer specialising in gifts made in Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. Here’s some of the best from the sunny South West -
Sherrington Baker Boy Cap
Leather Mini Satchel
Bristol lampshade making courses
Posted on: 13/03/2012
Whilst I adore going over to Bath to teach lampshade-making at The Makery and here at my home, I really wanted to bring the course here to my home town of Bristol. Et voila! I will be teaching at the Bristol Folk House on Sat 30th June, 10-1. Be quick – there are 10 places only and it’s extremely good value at just £28.25.
2011
Posted on: 02/01/2012
My world grew this year. It billowed outwards and encompassed a world of new friends and touched lightly on the shoulders of business. With this alone, I am happy. I have been delighted by reciprocated kindnesses and taken aback by other’s selfless generosity. For me, this year has been about people.
I have made and sold over 200 lampshades. Selling via 5 online shops, one bricks and mortar, two pop-ups, a load of markets and fairs, and from my own home. I have supplied wholesale and forged a partnership with an interiors supplier. More on-line shops are lined up for early next year, but they’ll be fewer markets and shows – I have to be pickier. Discovering that my grandfather was a lampshade-maker in the 50s was a joyful surprise. Over 20 people have learnt new lampshade-making skills from me. I have embraced and enjoyed social media, networking, and selling. Lampshades have been ripped apart, sold for peanuts, got squashed in boxes. Pricing and quoting has been difficult (the amount of quotes I’ve given for bespoke lampshades without a reply in response is really quite surprising, and dispiriting). I have got through 12 rotary cutters, 2 steam irons, 2 metal rules, one pair of scissors, 100m of fabric, 50m of PVC, hundreds of ringsets, roll upon roll of tape, corner punched hundreds of compliment slips, price-tagged, listed, and spent many hours ironing! Oh, the ironing. I have grappled with a gazebo, carted around huge boxes, have frozen and fried to a crisp at various markets. I am in profit, and by a decent margin.
What does 2012 have in store? A new range of lampshades. An e-commerce enabled website. A rebrand. Perhaps my own shop on the Gloucester Road, Bristol, for one week only. What would you do, if you were owner at Quincy Lampshades?
Lionheart Magazine
Posted on: 06/12/2011
I used to be an editor. Law and physics were my thing. I was very good at correcting High Court judges and Chinese physicists. Originally, I wanted to be a journalist, but I got sacked six weeks in. My love of books, writing and illustration did not suffer, so when I read of a young woman determined to publish her very own print magazine I offered my support. A bit of proofreading perhaps? But no, Helen Martin wanted my stay-at-home-mum to small-business-owner story. These past months I have followed her progress in awe. This Sunday she launches her very own Lionheart Magazine:
I wanted to inspire with a collection articles, illustration and photography that will affirm a reader’s sense of belief in themselves and their capabilities in some way … I knew that if I put everything together and made a physical, printed publication into the vision I could see, it could be amazing … My own paper inspiration, I have always kept. Then I tried to do as much market research and go to as many meetings with editors, publishers, stockists … to try and perform this dream, with as much knowledge as possible. Always hanging onto that ethos, so integral to Lionheart Magazine: print, created with no compromises – only a roar in the heart.
Read Helen’s writing here and watch a video here. Be sure to buy Lionheart Magazine when you see it, or buy now. Inside you’ll find the heart of a determined woman and many others, including mine. Or drop in to the launch party, Sun 11th Dec, at 40 Alfred Place, Bristol. I’ll be giving a lampshade-making demo and I’ll have an armful of shades for sale at market price.
My first ever lampshade-making tutorial went brilliantly well at The Makery in Bath last week. I felt surprisingly confident and well prepared. My nerves hardly surfaced, even when faced with making the biggest, most humungous lampshade ever (more on that another time). Each lovely lady let their style shine through with their choice of fabric and each went home with a beautiful lampshade, lovingly made by their own fair hands. And on time too! Having to explain processes in a clear way was a difficult at times, but once I was able to show the students what I meant the tricky bits were clarified to everyone’s satisfaction. What always surprises me is the ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ and ‘isn’t it beautiful’ when a flat piece of material and PVC is rolled into the final drum shape of a lampshade. It’s a transformation that elicits much astonishment, even though it’s an obvious step!
I have three more dates with spaces (Jan, Feb, March) at The Makery.
In contrast to teaching eight people, earlier this week I took a one-to-one tutorial at my home in Bristol with a lady who had travelled from Cornwall to learn all about lampshades. She hopes to expand the upholstery business she works at and offer their Interior Design clients the option to buy bespoke lampshades. She got the very best information – all the bits and bobs that I wasn’t able to convey to a large group.
If you’re interested in one-to-one tuition, please contact me.
Cabot Circus
Posted on: 08/11/2011
I was like a rat today. Carefully treading through stinking rivulets of waste and sniffing my way along corridors in the dark and dingy underbelly of Cabot Circus, Bristol. Most unlike a rat though, I was pushing a very noisy and unwieldy cage full of lampshades and pushing the wrong buttons in various lifts, in the hope of finding the Made in Bristol Pop-Up Shop. Bright lights, white walls and the smell of success greeted me on arrival. Oh to be bathed in shop heaven!
Quincy Lampshades are looking totally lush here. Gracing the windows and giving displays a lift. Find Made in Bristol between Dwell and the Sony Shop on the Glass Walk until Mon 14 Nov.
Lampshade Making Course
Posted on: 11/09/2011
Quick! If you want to make your own lampshade(s) and live anywhere near Bath – sign up! I’ll be tutoring sessions at The Makery on Thurs Nov 17th, 10-1, and Sun 11th Dec, 10-1. All you have to bring is half a metre of your favourite fabric. You choose the diameter and the depth. I provide the materials and the know-how. You’ll skip home admiring your very own lampshade, handmade by you.
