All Things Considered

Clothkits

I have fond memories of wearing clothes from the 1970's fashion label, Clothkits, and often wish my Mum had stashed my old garments away for me to reminisce over, and to later dress my children in. But this could all change, as I can now be the one to introduce the clothes and dolls to my girls, because Clothkits is back in business.

Clothkits first started in Lewes in1969. The simple concept behind the clothing kits, was that you were provided with the beautiful screen printed fabrics (which you cut to size), buttons, thread and anything else needed to complete the clothing, and all you had to do was stitch the fabric together.

I recently found an article about entrepreneur Kay Mawler's new business venture, and I was excited to see that artist Rob Ryan has been asked to become involved with, I'm assuming, fabric designs.

And if, like me, you loved the Clothkits dolls, you will probably love the new dolls pictured above. And if you have no idea what I've been rambling about, get acquainted with some Clothkits images at Flickr.

Aylsham, Banksy and Tesco

Not  necessarily three words you'd expect to see together in the title of a blog. But bear with me.

Secretive grafitti artist Banksy has just struck again - with this work on the side of a pharmacy in London's Essex Road (which, coincidentally, I used to walk past every day).

We assume that the image of two small children pledging allegiance to Tesco is tongue in cheek!

Tesco have recently started building their new store on the edge of Aylsham and only time will tell how much of an impact this has on the town.

But there are some positive campaigns going on in the town - the ongoing promotion of Aylsham's Cittaslow status and the recently launched project to make Aylsham Norfolk's first plastic bag free town as of 3rd May 2008.

We've always used paper bags at the gallery, but we're still pleased to be supporting the scheme - which for us is as much about the general principle of recycling.

Find out more about the project.

Hope & Greenwood

I came across Hope & Greenwood, 'purveyors of splendid confectionery', through an article in a magazine some months ago. At that time their site wasn't yet launched, so I had visions of them selling my childhood tooth decayers like Spangels and Texan Bars. Sadly they don't, as of course the manufacturers ceased production of these sweets years ago, but they do have a fabulous selection of other tradional British sweets: parma violets, flying saucers, rose and violet creams as well as a feast of other glass jar favourites. I think that having a bag of vintage sweets on your journey to your old fashioned farm holiday, could be a perfect time-trip hit. Read above....

The Perfect Pie

The friends behind Brays Cottage, Nell and Sarah, believe in quality foods, local produce and the Slow Movement. The rare breed pigs are lovingly reared in North Norfolk by Nell at Brays Cottage. Nearly all the meat from the pig is used for the pies, meaning you get hearty mouthfuls of succulent meat in amongst the crumbling pastry and onion marmalade.

So with fussy food critic Giles Coren exclaiming ... 'this was quite the most extraordinary pie I had ever known: deeply porky without any nagging gameiness, spicy without being peppery, firm and insistent in its flavour and very lean, and with just enough fat to lard the mouthful but not grease the palate', it admittedly makes me want one NOW.

This got me thinking about how great a parcel of pork pies would be to give or receive at Christmas, and because you can order them on-line either cooked, chilled, or frozen, it means that you don't have to pig out on them in the festive week! Apart from purchasing them on-line, the perfect pie can be found at the monthly Golden Triangle Farmer's Market, a number of Norfolk Deli's, and a few other locations. Click here to find the full list of stockists.

Christmas Card

We're delighted to announce that apart from a handful of copies at our gallery/showroom we have now sold all 1250 copies of the charity Christmas card printed this year.

For every card sold we're donating 75p of Maggie's Centres.

With locations across the UK, each Maggie's Centre is a place anyone affected by cancer can turn to for help. The centres are open to everyone - not just to people who have been diagnosed with cancer, but also to their families, friends and carers. Their Dundee centre was designed by architect Frank Gehry. Find out more >

Thanks to everyone that purchased the cards - you've generated £937.50 for the charity. We'd like to add to this, making a total donation of £1200.00.

Next year we'll have to print a few more copies! 

Ernest Race

Following an education at St. Paul's School, London, Ernest Race studied interior design at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the early 1930s.

Having spent time working in lighting manufacture and textiles, Ernest Race Ltd. (later renamed Race Furniture Ltd.) was set up to design and manufacture his designs.

He's perhaps best known for the BA chair (designed in 1945) manufactured from re-cast aluminium and the Antelope chair designed for The Festival of Britain in 1951. These designs were awarded gold and silver medals respectively in the 10th Milan Triennale in 1954.

In the early 1960s, Race became Isokon's design consultant and it was during his time here that he re-designed the Penguin Donkey.

We were really pleased to find a 3-pieces Wing sofa and armchairs a few years ago. It was in fairly tatty condition and the fairly complex re-upholstery (with its metal frame, everything has to be hand stitched) stopped it being the bargain we thought it was. That said, it should last for years. You can see the sofa in a couple of our St. Jude's press articles.

Race Furniture Ltd. are still operating, mainly producing auditorium seating for concert halls and auditoriums. Our friends a Retrouvius approach the company about re-introducing the wonderful Ernest Race rocking chair - which they are now producing in small quantities.

We're offering these in any St. Jude's fabric - see our furniture page for further details.

Chocolate

As I type this, I’m tentatively munching on a small piece of  Montezuma’s chilli fired dark chocolate and I have to say, it's making me feel a little un-easy.

Now, I like chocolate and I like chillies and I know that the Mexican’s love the two together but for me, I’d rather keep them separate. I want chocolate to be comforting and to be able to savour the indulgence rather than being puzzled by the fiery combination I have just experienced.

Montezuma’s is a British award winning chocolatier (so please don’t let my uncertainty of the chilli bar put you off) and it is just one of the many excellent chocolatiers in Britain who know a thing about mixing textures and extracts with chocolate covertures. It seems that us Brit’s are becoming quite refined with our bittersweet cocoa preferences and we are buying more and more artisan bars, sourced and produced through ethical means.

Another award winner based in Norfolk is Booja Booja who makes organic, vegan, vegetarian or wheat-free handmade truffles. The hand painted packaging in the luxury range also won an award from the Soil Association and is sourced directly from artists in Kashmir, helping support families in the strife torn region.

But one of my favourite chocolate shops is London based Rococo, which for the past 23 years has been producing an intriguing array of flavour combinations. But being a sucker for tradition, I can’t resist the wonderfully quintessential fondant flavours; rose, lavender and geranium – so much more refined than chilli, wouldn't you say?

Laundry Room

One of the noticeable side effects of setting up the gallery is a sort of obsession about how shops 'work'. Whether they're big or small you find yourself analysing the bits you like and the bits you don't. And a night out with Marie and Will from Old Town will often end with a discussion about the highs (and lows) of being part of this nation of shopkeepers.

Whilst pottering around Norwich on Monday I caught up with twins Oli and Alice Pointer at the Laundry Room. As I've said before, I struggle to stay out of my Old Town clobber but was delighted when Laundry Room opened in 2005.

It's small but perfectly formed, selling a really focussed range of clothes - mixing English made shirting with cult Swedish denim (I'm rather attached to the Acne jeans illustrated here) and artisan sportswear.

Visit the store at 18 Pottergate, Norwich NR2 1DX - see the website for full details and online shopping.

Borough Market

It will come as no surprise to the readers of this blog, that I LOVE FOOD. People who don’t ‘get’ food, baffle me. How can people not care what they eat? When I shop, I gaze at the contents of people’s trolleys, and often wonder how interesting it would be to be a till girl. I was told recently by a checkout assistant that I had the healthiest shopping she had seen all day. I was pleased, but then I was in Asda…

At the other end of the food shopping experience to Asda is Borough Market, and boy, is this a shopping experience to savour. This culinary emporium is situated next to London Bridge in the borough of Southwark, which for the past 250 years (actually 2,000 years read more here) has been home to wholesale fruit and vegetable traders. More famously now, it is a foody haven, especially at the weekends.

The market became more well known in 1998, when writer and campaigner of Food Lovers Britain Henrietta Green, invited 50 British food producers to sell their wares at a 3 day event held at Borough Market. The success of this market was instant and it soon became a weekly fixture, selling top quality foods from around the British Isles along with some International destinations too.

I often dream about escaping Norfolk and the place I often wish to be, is Borough Market. I would start the day (early) at The Monmouth Coffee Company on the edge of the market, drinking the tastiest coffee made with the creamiest Jersey milk. I would sit, sip and gaze at the produce and plan by route and my meals for the next few days. I then head in, eyes on stalks, nose twitching confused about whether to turn left or right…what if some one buys the last sourdough loaf, or the queue at the Brindisa hot chorizo stand is too long to stand still for?

The handmade chocolates, pastries, fresh seafood, organic meat, fruit, vegetables, beers, puddings, preserves, cheeses is overwhelming, almost too much for me to cope with. At this point I’m relieved I have left the children behind but have had the sense to bring a huge rucksack; you definitely either need one of them or a granny trolley, as one thing you don’t want to have to deal with, is not having enough hands to carry your exquisite produce home.

Is Etsy the new eBay?

Gone are the days where I would sit, search, watch, bid and buy items from eBay in the hope of getting something special or perhaps a great bargain. I have now turned my attention to Etsy, a website for sellers of handmade items to showcase their wares. Etsy is a global web based craft fair and a fabulous place to discover new talent and buy affordable artwork as well as finding some great vintage items (strangely, no longer very obtainable on eBay).

To help with your searching, the developers at Etsy have come up with some excellent browsing tools.

- The ‘Geolocator’ shows a map of the world where you can click on any place in a country to find out what products are being sold by who.
- For the colour co-ordinated there is ‘Colors’, click on a colour and it simply returns items of that hue. Magic.
- There are also more visual and interactive ways of searching like ‘Connections’ and ‘Treasury’, which suggest items from members’ favourites as well as the more obvious and usual ways of searching through the categories.

Here are some of my bookmarked Etsy stores:

Knitwit - knitted gloves and accessories
FiFi Lapin -  fashion illustrations with a bunny twist
Fluffington - fabric buttons
Little Red Pear - retro fabric stuffed toys
Sugarloop - serigraph print illustrations
Simply Wood Rings - rings made from salvaged lumber