Progress with the knitting

As I knit away on the tube en route to and from work, meetings, social events people do stare but no one ever said anything. I kind of felt that the ones kind enough to give up their seats for me would feel more virtuous when they saw me pull out my knitting from a lovely Heather oscar Laundry Bag size small and start to knit. No one ever said anything until this week when not one but two people of Indian descent said I was very slow. One of them also mentioned that I was using a traditional India Knitting technique which to me was simply knit one, knit one, knit one... They both said their mothers were much faster. I have some of our products made in India and have visited there twice but I never made an association between knitting and India. Sure the Native Indians(aboriginal people of Canada) on the West Coast where I am from make the most amazing Cowichan Sweaters but these guys were from India not Canada.
So I did some research. I went through several pages of Google without anything significant until I found this entry on a blog called Knitty . This entry is about Tracey Hudson's trips to the Himalayas, how the local women taught her to knit, and how although they have a huge range of colours the wool only comes in acrylic and in one gauge. Everyone knits with the same size needles and at lightning speed. What are the odds that both of the people on the tube who said I was slow were from the Himalayas?
I have also included how my blanket in progressing not sure this will be the final order for the colors and will perhaps add an 8th. Any thoughts?

European Talent in Japan

Hello. Apologies for the delay in posting I have been exhibiting with the EU Gateway program in Tokyo. 38 companies were invited to exhibit as guests of the EU to help boost exports to Japan.
It was my first time in Tokyo and on my next entry I will post some picts from our sight seeing but for now I want to feature some of the creative talent that were my co-exhibitors. Images are in reverse order.
Erica Wakerly, http://www.printpattern.com/, does very cool metallic wallpapers.
Jobs Handtryck(hand painted textiles) http://www.jobshandtryck.se from Sweden do very beautiful bright coloured textiles. My favourite is the Tistlar. It was designed in 1949.
Edouardo from Alto Pampa, http://www.altapampa.com/, creates the most beautiful simply luxurious textiles from alpaca and silk in South America. I am in love this blanket and have asked for it for Christmas.
Showroom Finland, http://www.showroomfinland.com, do these lovely bird mobiles laser cut from plywood I will be ordering one for the baby's nursery.
Refer + Staer Aps from Denmark make very cool pendant lamps, this would look great over a staircase, next house hopefully.
And finally , Lange production, also from Denmark make great furniture including their bent plywood pieces.
There was much much more but these stood out for me and I would purchase them all if I could. I was very pleased to be included in the show with them.
Until later. S

Baby Preparation

I have decided that I do not have quite enough to do so I have started knitting a patchwork baby blanket for our imminent arrival. I have selected some really lovely colours from the Rowan Cashsoft DK range and am really curious how it will turn out as the patchwork pattern will have an evolving design process. I will put some pictures up as soon as it starts really taking shape. The last blanket I knitted was for my gorgeous nephew it tooks 6 months and gave me RSI, it has taken me over 4 years to pict up the needles again.
I do want to add more blankets to the range next winter so if you have a favourite homemade blanket at home send me a picture.

This week I am also busy getting ready to go to Tokyo for the European Union Interior Design Mission. I had to have our new product catalogue translated into Japanese. I sent them the Indesign document assuming they would translate it directly into the document. Instead they returned the translation in a word document with the English beside the Japanese characters. Fine, I started putting it into the document except the way the document was designed I had to break some of the words to make the fit i.e table runners, except how do you do it when you don't know the language? In this catalogue I have promised to preview our new collection bags except I leave in 5 days and have yet to receive a picture of the samples.
Note to self always give it about 5 times more time than you think any project will need.

I will send picts from Japan. S

Sick of fraudsters

On Saturday, we moved to our new studio in Bermondsey. I am really excited to be in our new home. I want to thank our friends who helped with the big move, it was a long day moving 100's of boxes and could not have happened without them. I owe you dinner.
It'll take ages to get it all organised but that process is always ongoing.

I am incredibly frustrated by all the people who contact étoile attempting to commit credit card fraud. It is hard enough to run a small business without trying to protect it constantly from fraudsters. They come at you from all angles trying to purchase goods in volume, asking for interior design services etc.. Whenever something is too good to be true, and it seems like it'll be a good day as soon as they mention they can only pay by credit card your heart sinks. Of course they could purchase whatever they like via Paypal on the site but they are trying to by pass it with all sorts of special conditions. I have now declared war on the fraudsters and am investigating how I can cooperate with the police and the banks to use the information they give me against them.

To end on a lovely note my friend Nicole bought one of these lovely Urchin Pouf by Christien Meindertsma made of strands of felted wool that are knitted together. I will definitely be looking at getting one in the near future. The colours are divine and would look fabulous with some étoile prints.

The Futuristic

I am always in awe of people who can not only write music but have the courage to get up on stage and perform it. I saw a great band on Saturday night, that happens to be my husband's, it is only their second gig but they rocked it. It is Indy rock and would appeal to many. My favourite song is Penelope. Check out The Futuristic's music on their my Space page, http://www.myspace.com/thefuturistic.

I love music when it can evoke images and inspire you creatively. Perhaps it can evoke a memory that has strong images attached. Two of my favourites are Interpol's Evil and Neil Young's After the Gold Rush.

Today, we did a lifestyle shoot for our new cushions in the range. We have always used my summer house in the back garden as our location but this time we moved indoors and used my front room. It is small so was a bit or a challenge but I am happy with the images and we will include some of them in our new catalogue for next year. Paula Beetlestone, who shoots all the images for our website, did the picts today and as usual did a wonderful job. I always enjoy working with her. Ercol lent me my dream bench(see photo above) for the shoot their 450 love seat, which I will be buying as soon as I have a bigger house. S

Icons

One of the things that inspires me is people. I am always surprised by what some of the people, mostly women, I know can endure and keep going. People can be so incredibly strong.
I won't name particular people but I can probably say most of my closest girlfriends have been through a lot and I respect them all very much.
Frida Kahlo, was one of those strong women, the film about her life was so beautiful and I left the cinema mesmorised and completely inspired to create and be creative throughout my life.
She was practically crippled in a street car accident when she was a girl and taught herself to draw while she was bed ridden. These injuries continued to plagued her for the rest of her life.
Yet, she was will full and modern in a time and country where women were not supposed to be.

Women like that give me the crazy ideas I have had to start a business on my own, travel to India on my own to meet suppliers, to move from Canada on my own etc.. because once I get an idea in my head and especially once it has left my mouth I feel like it is as good as done and I follow through with it. Intrepid, I believe, I have been called. I do hope this baby gets a little, just a little of that so whether a he or a she they won't be scared to try things. S

The September Issue

I moved to London to do a placement at British Vogue and was not sure if I would be here for a month, a year or 10 years. Now 11 plus years in, married and with a baby on the way loads has changed but what hasn't is that one off my favourite things is a crisp new issue or Vogue British or American will keep me well entertained for a few good hours.
Tonight, I went to see the September Issue with my great friend Claud, who I met during that placement at Vogue. I thought seeing behind the scenes, with access to Anna Wintour was fascinating. Grace Coddington has always been a stylist I hugely admire but now she is my new hero. She holds her own with Anna and isn't afraid to slag off her decisions, behind her back of course. She truly cares about her images and creating fantasy, her vision is amazing. Most of the images that inspired me to where I am now are hers. I never got to work full time at a magazine but I had the chance to create images for over 13 years first in Canada, then here for the Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, and lots of indy mags. Now, I do still art direct which I really enjoy and I love creating the images for étoile.
Until tonight, I hadn't been to the cinema in ages but writing this blog is inspiring me to get inspired again. Being pregnant has slowed me down considerably and I find it hard not to be able to do everything I used to do but I am going to keep trying. If you have anything to share with me that you have found interesting lately do let me know. It could influence our 2010-2011 collection. S

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the étoile home blog. The reason I decided to write a blog is to share the crazy adventures of running a small business etoile home in London amongst all the great talent that exists in this city. I also want to share the things that inspire me and my business directly and indirectly.

I have just come back from doing back to back trade shows in Paris and London. Things feel more positive in the market place and we managed to pick up a few new stockists including one in Geneva and Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant Gift Shop in Padstow. Maison et Objet in Paris is hard work 5 long days on your feet and I am always itching to look around and see what everyone else is doing but the show is so huge that it is difficult to see much when you have to stay and man your stand.

We ship the samples and the fixtures for our trade shows by road then meet them there to build and dress the stand. I usually do all this on my own but luckily I had the help of my great friend Nicole this time. I really thanked my lucky stars she was there when my tools to put together and hang the shelves, tables and rails failed to show up and she keep me very calm. The logistics company had no idea what happened to them and could only suggest I go and buy new ones. Which we did and lost 2 hours of set up time. We borrowed a drill from a neighbouring stand and when we finally finished the set up at 9pm we took the drill with us for safety. In our haze of exhaustion, we left the drill on the RER train at Gare du Nord but didn't realise it until it was too late. We were gutted, we had been so happy to finish and now so sad that we lost their drill with little hope of ever seeing it again. The next morning we enquired by chance if anyone had turned in a drill and a very good Parisian Samaritan saw we had left it, took it with him to his stop and handed it in. We were so unbelievably happy and amazed by our luck.
This my first blog and it will have some tweeks and amends. We are looking for your feedback, on the blog, on our website, the products, your experiences, what you are looking for for your home and anything you think relates to this blog or our website. S