Have a Rice Christmas

For several years now we’ve visited Denmark on "J day" - not solely for the event itself but it happens to have been the time when Rice has invited us to visit their showroom. J day is the day that several Danish breweries launch their Christmas beer and the day is used as an excuse for a Christmas launch party across the country. We’ve joined in the festivities for several years at Copenhagen’s kitschest bar - Central Hjornet. This particular bar is known for it’s huge array of Christmas decorations - the entire ceiling is covered in baubles, so many that you can no longer see the ceiling for all the bling. 

It is part of a big tradition in Denmark of Christmas decorations - we know several small shops in Copenhagen who do a selection of glass decorations featuring everything from Father Christmas to random fruit and vegetables. These decorations are collected, a few each year, and treasured.

Well this year Rice have launched their own crazy collection of glass decorations in typical Rice style. Kitsch and glamorous, gorgeous, unusual and certainly unique, these little pieces of Christmas bling cheer me up. They are wonderful little Christmas birds and modern takes on Danish retro decorations which really catch the eye. If you are looking for an unusual way to celebrate then look no further.

Think Local: Introducing Little Nell

It’s always good to find a local supplier we really like. Over the years I have worked with several Bristol designers and makers and Penny from Little Nell is one of our most local, living and just one street away from our Totterdown shop. Her work also fits with the Geometric shapes and patterns and gold accents we love so much at the moment so she we were quick to snap up some of her work when we found her at the London trade show. In future we’ll be meeting at the local pub to discuss business!

Look Inside the Box

Beautiful Bath House

It’s always worth looking inside the pretty box. Packaging design is one of my favourite things and really nicely presented and designed packaging get me going. Some of the best is from Bath House - their products are packaged in textured card, embossed and often foiled. Beautifully presented items which make giving them a joy.

Even better though is that once inside the box you find a company which is committed to UK manufacture. Based in Cumbria, Bath House have a beautifully high quality range of products with well balanced scents and natural ingredients wherever possible. Their latest Classic Collection features the fragrances of Pomegranate; Jasmine and Mandarin; and Juniper Gin. We love them!

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Don't forget we are still running our competition to win a set of Rice DK Autumn Winter 2016 melamine.

On Trend with Bloomingville and House Doctor Vases

Find a selection of Bloomigville ceramic
vases on our site.

The natural textures and shapes of ceramics are all the rage this season. Despite a surface sheen to both ceramics and glass, one of the beautiful things I find about them is that the material is natural. I used to work a lot with glass making pieces of stained glass, often kiln firing small pieces. In glass you find small bubbles or seeds, light catches the imperfections in blown glass and refracts light in imperfect ways. Ceramics, similarly, show texture and colour where the glaze has pooled on unusual shapes - thicker in places creating variations - or where the process of firing in a kiln has caused unusual blooms. These small inconsistencies are something to be treasured and celebrated to me. They make each piece unique and unusual - like well worn faces they can each tell a story.



These vases by Bloomingville are a case in point. Collect them and fill with succulents or flowers, a selection on the table is like a landscaped miniature garden full of sculpture, shape, colour and texture and inviting the eye to linger. The retro glass "LID" collection by House Doctor compliments it well and if you buy the brass lid component the vases can become candle sticks. Mix and match shapes and sizes for a truly stunning centre piece.

And if you ever get a chance to work with a kiln and either glass or ceramics I would recommend it. The excitement of not quite knowing what will come out is a joy.

The House Doctor "LID" collection

Competition Time!

Our favourite company Rice launch a new range of 6 prints each season and each season tells a story. This season’s “Be Extraordinary” range is dedicated to the creatives amongst us. They feature hand drawn illustrations, unusual patterns and paint splodges. The soft and inspiring colour palette would look so at home in an artist’s studio that we want to fill them with paint brushes, squeezed out tubes of acrylic and scraps of torn paper ready to collage together something both fabulous and definitely extraordinary.

We’ve got a competition for you to win a set of these extraordinary patterns - just check in to our Facebook page, Instagram feed or twitter and tell us what you find inspires you to make something extraordinary. For each social network you interact on we will give you an extra entry so up to 3 per person.

You’ll also need to fill in the form below so we know how to contact you if you win. And in even more great news, we have a 20% discount code which will get you a discount on any of the “Be Extraordinary” Rice range so if you just can’t wait you don’t have to! Simply add anything from our Rice Autumn 2016 range to your basket and use the code MyExtraRice20 or mention the code in the shop. The code is exclusively for new Autumn 2016 stock.

Competition and discount code end at midnight on 20th November 2016. Competition open to UK residents only. Delivery to UK addresses only.

The competition is now closed.

Stay at Fig1

The kitchen of our new Airbnb with some colourful finds from the shop

My sister recently had a baby boy - a big, bouncing and boisterous baby boy who was so keen to come into the world he was born, as if auditioning for an episode of call the midwife, on a bathroom floor in a terraced house in Totterdown. A true Totterdowner. 9 years ago we decided to start a bright and colourful business in this bright and colourful corner of Bristol - we always loved our area and wanted to bring new facilities to it, but like many in Totterdown we moved here, we weren't born here. However our business was, and like my nephew, it grew and changed. Each time I see him he's a little grown. You can still see the changes but, like the changes to our shop, you really realise when you stop and look back at the first photos just how significant those changes are.

I made this origami shirt from some double
sided paper by Rosehip mounted in a Nkuku
frame

So after 9 years of our little shop in Totterdown growing, doing well on line and becoming a stockist of many different Danish and British brands, we realised we needed to make a few changes to the property we were based in. We've redone our shop layout to allow a much bigger storage and packing area, and this, in turn, has freed up the space above the shop. Excitingly we're now renting this out on as short term lets on Airbnb. It's a self contained flat with a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom which can sleep up to 4.

It was a great chance to decorate up the space with some of our favourite finds from Nkuku, Rice, House Doctor and other great stockists. We've had real fun making an eclectic space full of small works of art, finds and trinkets from the shop. We've used simple postcards and graphic art in Nkuku frames, together with some home made art to decorate the place. The kitchen is full of colourful Rice kitchen items, and of course we've used a mix of lighting from House Doctor, Rice and Nkuku to really set the flat off.

Now we've finally finished decorating and the first few guests have stayed with us we'd love you to look at what we've done. Our very first guests were my brother inlaw's family, come to see the baby, already setting down memories so in years time we can all sit down and marvel at how he's grown. It seemed fitting.

Find our Airbnb listing here.

Tissue Paper Flowers - Great for Gift Wrapping or For Easter Gardens.

When was the last time something a stranger said to you changed you? Conversations with strangers are forged of pleasantries about the weather and “excuse me but do you have the time”, not memorable things. But one year when I was exhibiting some of my glass work at the Totterdown art trail, a stranger replied to my “it’s just a hobby” with “But hobbies are when some of the best things are made - they’re when people make things because they want to, not because they have to.” It’s an easy thing to forget when working creatively - that feeling of the freedom to take your time playing and to do things because you want to do them.

I think of that conversation when I’m busy trying to get the best photo of something, make something for a shop display or create graphics for use online - if you make and do things with the freedom and joy of doing them for the sake of it, it will be better.

In the early days of Fig1 my sister and I used to make these paper flowers for shop displays - they’re relatively easy to do. Although we have some artificial flowers in stock it seemed good to spend a little time making some from some of the funky Rice tissue paper.

1. Layer up three or more sheets of tissue paper roughly 13cm x 50cm (50cm is the overall width of the sheet I was using - this size doesn't have to be exact).
2. Fold the paper into a concertina along the longer edge. I made the strips of the concertina roughly 2cm wide
3. Your now left with a 13cm strip of paper 2 cm wide. In the centre, twist round a pipe cleaner, some copper wire or tie with string. If using wire I used a piece 80 cm long in order to leave a long "stem" on the flower for gift wrapping. I used pliers to twist the wire so that it forms a nice tight grip around the paper.
4. Optional - you can shape the ends of your paper so that the tips are semi circles or triangles - this does make the paper more likely to tear in the later stages.
5. Open out one side of the paper into a semicircle then start to pull down the innermost piece of tissue into the centre of the flower starting at one side of the semi circle. Work your way round to the other side.
6. Repeat step 5 with the piece of tissue below the first and with each piece of tissue until this half of the flower is formed.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the other half of the flower.

The tissue can tear a little but then nature isn’t perfect either. These flowers can be great for gift wrapping or for making for your Easter garden.