Why open my soul?

This blog lets you go behind the scenes of my company étoile home and what it is like to run a small business and what inspires my to keep going and creating things for you to enjoy in your home.

Saturday, 9 July 2011

An étoile update


I have been busy designing new prints every evening after days filled with admin and sending our orders, nappy changes and baby feeding. The themes will either be a earth, wind and fire or fire, water, earth and air.
I am trying to assemble 2 groups for a focus group on étoile home, its products and its future direction. Interested in attending? The 2 dates are July 17th and 21st. We welcome fans and sceptics. I promise goodies and wine.
What else is new, due to the big gaps in postings, there should be something right? Let's see, we are looking into printing some of our fabrics here in the UK, we have new handmade scary toys (see picture attached) that are filled with recycled wool and uses chopped up old jumpers along side our fabrics. We are also working on recycled, reknitted wool cushion covers. I was never aware of how much methane decaying wool emits.

I have my fingers crossed that our washbags and tote bags will be ready soon. We lost our first supplier and then it took ages to find another but finally we have a found a UK company that make great quality bags. I am just waiting for final samples before we head into production. I think they will look great and cannot wait to get them on our site. Keep your eyes peeled.

So lots of big things on the way. I hope it'll be a really productive Autumn/Winter for étoile.
As usual I will keep trying to post more often. S

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Illustrate This!







Once, I was ambivalent about illustration. I studied figure drawing at University, I found it extremely dull to draw the the unattractive man modelling in the nude. My discovery of less realistic styled illustration has changed my views on the art. I am now love, love, loving it.
I have bought some to hang on my walls from local artist Carl Harris aka "Cat Boy", I keep buying books by Alice Melvin for my daughter ( I wish she had more), and I hoping to collaborate with some for future fabric collections.


Here are some of my favorite illustrators. Enjoy. Top to bottom: Carl Harris, Chris Houghton, Harriet Russell, Andrew Bannecker, Andrew Foster, and Alice Melvin.

Print and Pattern is a great blog to help inspire you http://printpattern.blogspot.com/.
S