Red Ruby Rose is now on facebook
It took me a little while to fathom out the difference on facebook between personal profiles, groups and pages but with the help of this fantastic Squidoo article I got it sorted. If you're on facebook please do pop over and say hi!

It's been a busy month here, catching up on custom orders and fixing some pressing house repairs before autumn. That hasn't stopped me squirrelling new fabrics though and I've just listed some new embroidered silks and linens, including these new peacock designs and pretty birds and roses.

I'm also starting to think about my own Red Ruby Rose website, which would work alongside my Etsy shop but would be tailored more to the UK market, listing in Sterling. More info on that soon.

Bird and rose, available at Red Ruby Rose

Peacock feathers, available at Red Ruby Rose

Rambling rose, available at Red Ruby Rose

Sage peacock feathers, available at Red Ruby Rose

New original printed silk clutch, silhouette branches

The latest in my collection of Red Ruby Rose originals is printed silk. I'm quite excited about this one (don't I always say that?) as I've been searching for a while for a bespoke silk printing company here in the UK. There are lots of print-on-demand fabric houses around now but not so many who'll offer silk as a textile option as it's tricker to print and needs a different set of dyes to other fabrics.

So, my first test batch arrived today and it's gorgeous - even nicer than I'd hoped and the sandwashed habotai silk feels beautiful. I have twelve other designs that I'll slowly add to the shop over the next few weeks, a mixture of old favourites and some new prints too.

This silk is so great that the thought of a new line of contemporary silk scarves in original prints crossed my mind. That would be fun! When my poor old hands finally declare that enough is enough from all this bag making then it's certainly a thought.

Sandcastle at Red Point, Wester Ross

At the beginning of June I took a little birthday break up to the west coast of Scotland. It's a beautiful place even when it rains but we were lucky enough to have sunny skies and only a few hints of the dreaded midgees that descend in swarms and terrorise hapless visitors.

This time we took a couple of boat trips, both of which were truly memorable. The first was a whale watching trip that departed from Gairloch and took us out to the Northern tip of Skye - worth it just for the scenery let alone the promise of whales, dolphins and other assorted marine life. It was a breathtaking couple of hours and we saw minke whale, porpoise and puffins. Imagine my delight when I read on the BBC that the very same boat, a month later came upon a superpod of around 1,000 short-beaked common dolphin. I think that the boat owner, Nick Davies, must have the best job in the world, at the very least he must have felt like the luckiest man alive that day.



Video by Nick Davies, owner of the Hebridean boat cruise company, aboard Orca 1, surrounded by a superpod of dolphin

Our second boat trip was on the achingly beautiful and rather haunting Loch Maree. There are several isles on the loch upon which we alighted but one in particular, Isle Maree, was really quite spooky. I took some photos of the Victorian money tree but as we went further into the island I had an overwhelming sense that I couldn't take any more photos, especially inside the druid circle. Very odd.





In other news, it's been a busy month in the shop so I haven't had a chance to make or list many new styles but there are some new prints in the pipeline including original prints on silk, can't wait for these, they should be in the shop by mid July.

Just a quick post to say a huge thank you to everyone who commented or contacted me after the Quit your day job article on Etsy. I received an overwhelming and touching amount of feedback. It's been a busy few months and it feels like time to recharge the batteries so I'm going away for a few days and am leaving the laptop behind. Fresh sea air here I come!

One of the best things about being on Etsy is the direct link between maker and buyer. I love the messages and images that are sent to me, building up little stories of the bags on their travels once they've left my hands. Also when I'm at the Post Office there are often times the PO staff and I joke about hand delivering the packages that are going to the most exotic places. Hawaii anyone?

Thanks to Susannah for sending me the lovely photograph above of her wedding party, with clutches replacing bouquets. Her wedding looked fabulous, there are more over at the Brides Cafe. Photographers are Anika London Media.

I was delighted to find this vintage Liberty peacock print. Over the past couple of years I've made clutches from quite a few different versions of this fabric, including silks, wools and cottons in various colours, but this rich blue colourway is especially lovely with the teal and gold highlights. This clutch is now available in the shop.

In other news, I'm really looking forward to gigging in Bristol tomorrow night with Cue Fanfare, we've been rehearsing the last couple of evenings and it's been a while since we've played a show so hopefully the tequila will be flowing. I'm nervous about it for various reasons but will expand upon all that soon in full Spinal Tap style.

A couple of years ago I found a beautiful piece of embroidered silk in my occasional trawl of favourite London fabric shops. It was a real find, and I made a limited edition four clutches out of the piece.

Finally I've tracked down more, and a pristine new length arrived last week. Yippee! I can hardly bear to cut into the silk as it's so gorgeous, so it will remain intact for a few more days and then I'll be making a new batch of clutches like the ones above from the original piece I found.

I'm a bit behind on new listings at the moment... lots of new fabric here but there aren't quite enough hours in the day at the moment, will aim for updates next week.

All the buds and blossoms are blooming in the garden, it all looks so fresh and lovely. However, my slide film photos had other ideas and captured a more ethereal and dusky scene. I can't believe these pics were taken on a bright sunny Spring day!

I don't think I could make a purse much smaller than this! As a magpie of purse frames of all shapes and sizes I'm gathering quite a collection of different types. This tiny purse would hold a few coins or a special piece of jewellery. Not hugely practical but very sweet. Not currently listed, I'm considering whether to attach a keyring or chain, or to include it as a little extra with a larger clutch.

*excuse my lumpy hand... purse making and guitar playing doesn't make for pretty paws!*

I've become an addict to What Katie Wore, a blog penned by Londoner Joe, portraying his girlfriend Katie's daily wardrobe feats. Quite a task! Her style is fabulous and she carries off colour and style combos that makes black-addicted mortals like me quake in their boots.

Look looky what Katie is wearing today... nice clutch :)

Another new design, this time taking the hipster into a petite little coin purse on a chain. This one features printed leather with the little birdy on both sides... more coming soon.

A couple of new things to share, firstly I'm now offering custom silk labels for my clutch bags - perfect for marking a special occasion or whispering a secret message to a loved one.


Also, I'm going to be adding original printed leathers to the hipster bag range. First up, ethereal flower, (which will have a long chain attachment) and bird on a wire to follow.

Finally, the atom clutch makes a reappearance. Yay!

I'm planning my next batch of fabric designs at the moment and would love to include at least one hellebore print. The previous owners of our house were really keen gardeners and I often get pangs of sadness that I can't maintain the garden to the standards they kept. However, I'm still delighted by the surprises that appear year after year from their ambitious planting endeavours - especially the different varieties of hellebores. As plants go, they hang their heads low and look fairly dowdy at first appearance but when you lift the flower and peek you're greeted by the most astounding display.
I took these photos with cross-processed film so the colours are weirdly saturated but I think it helps add to the otherworldliness of these early Spring blooming beauties.

It feels like Spring has finally sprung and here's a new hipster bag that I've just listed in sunshine leather nappa leather to match the daffodils blooming in the garden.

Timeless paper kindly featured my Liberty clutch this weekend as part of an article revealing the launch of a the new range of Liberty of London goodies at Target today. Having a peek at the website it looks like a lot of the homewear range is already out of stock. Understandable as some of the items are fabulous.

Liberty prints only selectively float my boat. I adore using the original Hera peacock print, originally designed by Arthur Silver in 1887, and the contemporary update is equally lovely.


However, I've never been a fan of the vast majority of the cotton dressweight fabrics, which always to me seemed a little fussy and twee. I think it's the scale, I'm drawn to larger bolder prints rather than their delicate little florals. Also, the staff in the textiles dept at Liberty have always been so haughty (maybe I've been unlucky) which makes the buying process a bit miserable.

So, I skipped the fashion section of the new Target collection and went straight to the homewear where this gorgeous cushion and cakestand caught my eye. Looks like they sold out within hours of being listed. This collection is currently available in the US but looks like selected items will be available via Liberty in April.

Liberty of London for Target floral cushion

Liberty of London for Target floral cake stand

I've been adding some new items (and some old favourites!) to the shop this week, including several more hipsters

Plus, the lovely retro seedheads and a few other goodies to come.

Due to the favourable exchange rate at the moment also I'm including free international shipping for the rest of this month. Yippee!

Finally, I have a giveaway going on over at Luv2have's blog this week.

I've been keen to try out my new camera as much as possible, especially as it gives me an excuse to get out of the house and catch a bit of fresh air. Not always the easiest thing to do when the bag-making is busy.

As I'm shooting film I need a reliable lab so I was happy to discover Photographique, a friendly independent professional lab and gallery in the centre of Bristol. Tempting as Asda and the cheapo online labs are, it feels better to be supporting the local guys. (Especially as Bristol's one and only public access colour darkroom has just closed due to lack of funding. I was gutted I hadn't used it more often but it's such a specialist niche now).

Last week I dropped some film off to be processed and mooched about taking some pics while waiting. There's a fabulous flower shop next door to the photo lab and the florist kindly let me take some snaps (above and below)


Moving on, I wandered over to Corn Street, right in the centre of Bristol which has frequent farmers/crafts markets. I happily stumbled across a distinctive vintage stall that I'd seen once before and loved. The owner has a fabulous eye for eclectic ephemera which would appeal to any left-field magpie collector. On this occasion I picked up some eccentric old photographs which I'll post soon. Here are some of the other glorious bits and bobs on his stall.

I thought it would be nice to have some bags in the shop that are a little more practical for everyday and so here's the hipster bag. It features goatskin leather with a Liberty peacock lining and a long skinny leather strap so the bag sits low on the body. More styles coming soon!

Feresaknit, congratulations for winning the clutch giveaway! (My partner Robbie chose the random number 27. He thought I was going to impress him with a Derren Brown type number trick and was a little disappointed to instead be a number generating monkey for this giveaway).

Also, special thanks to everyone for the ace jokes and sayings. My very favourite was from Cindy Hellcat Vintage whose joke made me chortle:

A pirate walks into a bar, and the barkeep says "Excuse me, cap'n, but did you know that you've got your ship's wheel stuck in your pantaloons?"
"Aye," says the pirate, "that thing be drivin' me nuts! Aaargh!"