It's been a busy couple of months with custom and wholesale orders and as summer unfurls I've decided to briefly close up shop at the end of this month and dedicate the whole of August to other projects. Namely, learning basic video editing, recording and writing tracks for the new Cue Fanfare album and creating new designs. Exciting! I'll be back online in September, hopefully with lots of new designs and energy to share. Wishing you a fabulous summer!
Last week I went to a Textiles fair in Dorchester, Dorset and found this amazing vintage fabric featuring bold blooms and exotic birds and butterflies. It was one of those 'I don't want to cut it' moments when I made my first bag, but the details and colours are so gorgeous that it can stand up to cropping into the design.
Bloomsbury Belle, clutch bag with silk lining $85
New Red Ruby Rose activity has been a bit thin on the ground this month, I've been dividing my time between wholesale/custom orders and visiting my parents who haven't been in the best of health of late.
My mum and I have been for some rejuvenating walks in the Blackdown Hills, revisiting old haunts and finding new trails and unexpected Spring treasures.
Apple blossom in the garden and scenery along the Blackdowns Herepath.
Hestercombe Gardens, a classical romantic English garden at the foot of the Quantocks, designed by Jekyll-Lutyens.
Ferns and follies at Hestercombe
Eerie pines at Otterhead Lakes
Woodland walk at Otterhead
Black swans at Otterhead
An amazing walk up to Wych Lodge (Swan Lake) with swathes of bluebells, cowslips, butterflies, ancient meadow and rare marsh orchids.
A windy Spring garden
Still lives
Last autumn I posted some thoughts about iphone toy camera apps. I was tentatively dabbling with hipstamatic and then settled on Plastic Bullet which I've been happily using ever since. Some of these images have been influencing and inspiring my textile designs, which resulted in Red Giant Software (the developers of Plastic Bullet) kindly featuring Red Ruby Rose on their blog.
They've now got two new iphone apps, Noir for brooding cinematic pics and Movie Looks for video colour tints. I've been playing around with Noir and it is very nice indeed, I like the simple clean interface and moody results.
I'm aiming to be a little quieter on the Red Ruby Rose front over the summer, I do have some new fabrics and styles to list but feel it's also time for a bit of holiday and time on the music side of things.
Queen Anne's Lace, embroidered silk clutch bag
Blue Belle, embroidered linen clutch bag
I've added two new clutches to the shop today, both with a bridal flavour. The top design is a pretty embroidered silk, in person the embroidered details are raised in cream and sparkly silver, very tactile. I love the pale cornflower blue of the Blue Belle clutch, and it has chunky embroidery which makes for a nice contrast.
Had to grab a bit of sunshine today, such amazing weather for early April.
All the cherry blossom is blooming...
..with the shadows on the ground making striking patterns.
These were taken on Mother's Day, Magnolia blooms and Mum and I looking like shadowy Hitchcock characters....
...and the Somerset countryside. It was rain and showers and everything looked hyper-green like a scene straight out of Tolkien.
Thought I'd share some fabulous pics that Adriana sent to me of her wedding clutches. Photos by Lina Jang photography and the full blog post is over at Tammy Golson Events. Adriana's a stunning bride and it looked like a wonderful day!
New Red Ruby Rose silk scarf collection, modelled by Kerry, photographed by Toby Farrow
I launched my first collection of silk scarves last year, fully aware it was a learning curve, both in the response to the designs and also the size and price. The feedback was that although lovely, they were on the expensive side. So, with this in mind I've gone back to the drawing board and created a brand new collection.
The new scarves, although smaller in size are versatile; they can be worn as a hair band, bandana or bow, corsage, belt or wristlet.
Anchors silk scarf, $48
Birds on a wire silk scarf, $48
Mandala silk scarf, $48
They come with their own trimmed down bespoke gift box too which makes them lighter for posting. Designs to start with, including Morpho butterflies and Forest Lights and five new patterns. More to follow!
Feathers of Inspiration are giving away one bamboo clutch this week, so head on over if you get a moment and good luck!
Beautiful crocus blooms signal that Spring is nearly here.... hurry up! Pics taken with my iphone last weekend.
Elephants, printed silk clutch bag
My new batch of original silk prints are here. They all feature my own textile designs and this time I thought I'd try heavyweight dupion silk as I like the idea of the natural slub and weave of the fabric showing.
My only concern with this finish is that it would affect the quality of the print but this wasn't a problem at all. As ever the company who print my silk designs came up trumps. The colours are rich and true, and because the designs are printed using acid dyes (the correct dye for the fibre) the black tones are a dark inky black rather than pale charcoal. So much so that I'll be running down the stock on the panama cotton and replacing it all with printed silk in future as I just can't get this print quality and depth on the cotton.
It also means I've been able to bring back a couple of my favourite designs, the two swans and bamboo as they have solid black backgrounds. Yay!
The designs are now available in my Etsy shop (US dollar), Dawanda (Euro), and of course my own shop (UK sterling).
Which is your favourite?
Forest lights, printed silk clutch bag
Golden lion, printed silk clutch bag
Blue peacock, printed silk clutch bag
black bamboo, printed silk clutch bag
green fern, printed silk clutch bag
Angelica lace, printed silk clutch bag
Flowerwheel 8x10 photogram photographic art print
Feathered feather, 8x10 photogram photographic art print
My blog has had a spring clean, thanks to Dionne at Studio Chic Design. I've also finally reopened my Etsy print shop Polaroids and Pinholes after an extended break. I was finding it tricky to juggle two Etsy stores but I'm going to give it another go as it was sad to neglect the photography. As well as the traditional darkroom photography techniques, polaroids and pinhole prints, I'm planning on branching out and adding some of my recent cross-processed and iphone pics and I hope this will also feed back into new textile designs.
Back in April last year I posted about a tiny bird purse I'd made. At the time I didn't list the purse but stored it away and promptly forgot all about it. Yesterday I was tidying my studio (a reluctant chore) and I found the tiny bird nestled in a drawer along with seven minature frames. This was the perfect excuse to stop tidying and so I made seven tiny purses to go with the bird. Fiddly to make but very sweet! The top frames are a mere 1.5 inches, so they are perfect for keeping a delicate piece of jewellery or just as a little keepsake.
A sample from my new product line, the written word printed silk clutch
Before Christmas I ordered some letterpress cards from Ragamuffin Press on Etsy. The cards arrived and were beautiful. What also struck me was the envelope that they arrived in. The postal address had been beautifully hand scripted with a traditional dip pen and it was absolutely charming, a delicious contrast to the usual Paypal shipping labels. I stuck the envelope on the wall and thought no more of it.
Chevron letterpress postcards by Ragamuffin Press
I must have thought about it on a subconscious level though, as I woke bolt-upright one night with an idea to personalize a clutch on the outside, in a contemporary way but using delicious script. The first thing was to scour the web to see if anybody was doing anything similar but I couldn't find anything. There were plenty of customised labels and embroidered names but nothing quite like I was imagining.
So, I contacted Beth at Ragamuffin and a plan was hatched. Before I knew it a fabulous envelope stuffed full of hand-scripted loveliness arrived on my doorstep. Complete with little side-notes and scribbles. A treasure-trove!
So, these have become the basis of my new range of personalised bridal and bridesmaid clutches, printed onto pure silk and completely customised.
Something a little different!
