Connections

Connection is the word that we would have inscribed above the door in Snapdragon's imaginary shop. It is the word at the core of what we aspire to do. Connect with the seasons, with the soil, connect with our customers, with the community. Only connect. This blog is a symptom of that quest.

Yesterday Carolyn wrote a very astute comment on my post about the demise of the Country Living Scottish Fair, questioning whether handmade was enough of an intrinsic value in itself.

It was a comment that made me think - because I am very vociferous about the fact that the similar catch all "organic" covers a multitude of sugary sins. I think that she is right - why do I get worked up about the need to preserve the hand made in Britain?

If I want to buy a salad bowl why do I go to the local craft gallery rather than Habitat? If I wanted to buy a doorstop why Primrose Hill rather than Cath Kidston?

And I think that it stems from this basic need for connection - connection at some level to a discernable human maker.

I do not feel comfortable buying from chain shops - I was in Edinburgh shopping yesterday and was very put off by the impersonal nature of the shops. The place where I did buy ( a party dress from East) was largely because of a wonderfully engaging member of staff. When I do part with my money it tends to be either in craft or antique shops.

I don't really know where this post is going - I think it is very hard to justify the allure of the handmade using pure logic. Yet it seems that, like lighting an open fire, growing your own vegetables or making jam, there is something more, something unmeasurable. All these things, if judged on a strict value for time and money basis, would probably fail, yet they are the parts of life that give me connection and are therefore, for me, beyond value.

That is how I feel about the hand made (though not all handmade) and the reason that I think it is worth fighting to promote.

I would be very interested to hear what items people value as hand-made and which they don't.

Thanks again for all your comments and e-mails.

Daisy doll - Mark 63

When the girls were younger we had a book of miscellaneous bedtime tales - my favourite was a one called Ruby. I can't remember the author but the story was about the adventures of some toys - led by the eponymous Ruby - who escaped from the reject bin at the toy factory and eventually found happiness by being adopted by a little girl.

They were obviously paying attention to their bedtime stories as the girls' bedrooms are now full of mutanty dolls - scooped from MY reject bin. Dolls with fat heads, dolls with thin heads, dolls with backwards shoes, dolls with felt hair (that did NOT work), dolls whose faces turned out to be really really scary.

I am amazed that I have actually persevered with this - I am not patient by nature - but here we have The Finished Daisy Doll.

Her body is made from vintage French linen and wool gingham with vintage ticking shoes; her titian locks are the jute string I use to bind my sweet peas; her reversible dress is a Liberty print with gingham as the alternative.


My idea with the dolls was to, as I have mentioned in the comments to my last post, make something that could be customised, either as a bridesmaid present or just a really nice present to a little girl. I could match hair colour and style (within reason), eye colour, perhaps even a favourite dress. I would love to have a go at making one as a copy of a bridesmaid's dress.

I do like this red headed girl though - very Scottish - I would have loved long wavy red hair.

She has been sitting in the shop today and has received lots of lovely complements (just look at her blushing) - I need to work out timings and costings before she can go on sale.

An excuse for a play about - wip

At the week end I was asked whether I made rag dolls. I had a material rabbit with me on my stall at the Green Gallery opening that sold encouragingly fast, so I said that I would give it a go.

So this week has been a parade of prototypes - and my girls are now proud owners of a series of slightly wonky versions, rejected because their faces were too fat or because, as Katie said, "Mummy are her feet meant to be backwards?".

I think that I am now getting somewhere and the photo is of the latest prototype - there are some changes to make - everyone preferred an earlier version's hair and I need to work out a better solution for the clothes.

I want the finished doll to be quite old fashioned looking - like those early C19th wooden dolls with their painted on hair and secretive faces but I also want her to work as a dress up doll so that her clothes come off and she can have alternative wardrobes - perhaps a ballet tutu.

I also want her to have outsize hands so that she is easy to hold hands with (perhaps not quite as large as this prototype).

Her name will be Daisy - in homage to the Karine Polwart song that seems to be on constant play here. Perhaps she shall have red hair, perhaps I will work out how to make her dungarees. Perhaps I will stop faffing about and actually make a final version . . .

Everyone's talking about it. . .

Cherry Menlove from Tales from Pixie Wood has done a post about the PR fiasco that is the Sainsbury's Anya Hindmarsh "This is not a Plastic Bag". Read about it here.

I had held back from commenting on this as it could be interpreted as an attack on a competitor but Cherry's post has given me courage!

The bag seems to me to be a failure on all counts - it was given the kind of gimmicky pre-launch hype that turned it from being a useful object into a fashiony "must have" object that will be discarded as soon as it ceases to be fashionable. It seems to be a really bad design in terms of a carry it in your handbag as it is too big to scrunch up - see Jane Perrone's verdict on this aspect of it here and then here. So as soon as the "see me with my Hindmarsh bag" moment is over it will be discarded. Finally and most importantly it is manufactured in factories where there are severe doubts about working conditions (and here
and here).

It is all such a travesty - something that should have been positive - encouraging people not to take a plastic bag at the supermarket - has just been done so badly because people have been blinded by fashiony types and celebrity pre-launches. Am I the only one that actually thinks it is a very unattractive bag anyway? - I like a lot of Hindmarsh's designs but not this

However all is not lost - there are a lot of great bags out there - as well as my bag that folds up into its pocket there are lovely totes at Cherry's and Samanthas which would scrunch up nicely into a handbag. They may be a bit more expensive than the Hindmarsh bag but they are made with love and care in Britain, won't date, are actually designed to work and will last for years and years. Unlike the latest "must have" they are proper "limited editions" and will get people asking you where you got them. Cheapest is usually not best (or cheapest) in the long run.

Knackered but happy

Now off for that wine.
Thanks to Sally, Jo and Euan.

Aprons

Last year the most requested items at our Country Living stand were the aprons that Sally and I were wearing. I didn't have any for sale at the time but subsequently made some up - mainly for B&B owners who wanted something out of the ordinary for serving up breakfast.

So aprons were always on my list, but with one thing and another they have turned out to be the last thing to be sewn up.

I actually have a problem with aprons. I have as euphemism would have it, a curvy figure. I have a bust and hips with a waist inbetween. In most aprons I look like a badly tied parcel with a baggy bit above my bust and not enough material to wrap round my ample hips. I never feel like a capable confident domestic goddess in an apron. I feel like I am in a hospital gown.

Over the years I have tried the tie on 1950s pinnies and the amazing wrap dresses from the 1940s - the sort of thing you should wear to scrub your step in a Hovis advert - but nothing looked right.

So this year I decided to tweak last year's apron pattern and come up with something flattering to the non-beanpole. And it has worked - I used a couple of beautiful drapey linens so there isn't that bunchy cardboard effect that you get with ticking or denim, I was generous with the side flaps so that they don't stick out and most importantly, I scooped the neck so that it sits properly.

The result is a very high class apron indeed with a lined top, an Irish linen pocket, vintage button detailing ans a handy clip to attach a cloth to so that you can wipe your hands.

It is a pinny for Nigella or Marylin (or me).

Name cards

When I am organising wedding tables I often find myself talking brides out of having too many flowers on the table.

There has been a fashion recently for alternating high and low arrangements on tables - a mix of low down rings and towering 4 feet high vases. The idea is that people will be able to see the flowers over the guests' heads and that they won't get in the way.

I feel that the tall arrangements - often in skinny conical vases - make the room feel quite claustrophobic, like there is something hovering around, and as they are inherently top heavy they can topple over if the table is nudged (I have seen this happen and it makes a mess).

I prefer to have small scented arrangements and to mix these with attractive place settings and candles. The photo is of one of the zinc pots that I use as a place card holder - it is really a candle-holder but here it is as a place card holder filled with buttons. It can also be filled with beads, shells, small flowers, sweeties etc. etc.

I am going to try and persuade my sister-in-law-to-be to have them filled with loveheart sweets.

As candles I like to use glass tealights - they give a lovely glow and can be ordered from Luckycats in bespoke fragrances.

Prototype bag

One thing that I would like to make this year is a shopping bag.
A couple of years ago I looked into getting jute bags printed with the Snapdragon logo - I had intended to sell them at cost at the farmers markets instead of using carrier bags. With one thing and another we stopped doing the markets and I didn't pursue the idea.
Now everyone seems to be producing these bags - Sainsburys, Tescos, Greenpeace, the RSPB - and, happily, people are using them instead of plastic.
I still like the idea of a bag though so before Christmas, when we did a couple of markets, Sally and I spent our time quizzing people about the jute bags, did they like them, how useful were they, was there anything they didn't like, anything that could be improved on? The thing that people felt could be improved on was their bulk - the jute bags can't be stuffed into another bag. So I began thinking about making a bag that folds into a pocket. There are a few of those about but they are all in thin material that tends to fold out into very saggy ugly bags which squash all the shopping together.

I spent last night making up bags in different materials, trying to get a compromise between stability and foldability. This is the result and I am pretty chuffed.

The bag is made of linen and canvas with a lining of a printed satin cotton and it all folds up into an integral pocket less than 20cm square.
I am going to make some up to take to the Country Living Scottish Fair to see how they go.