Ever since the lovely Cass from Haven Workroom told me about The Papered Parlour (just take a look at their website home page for starters), I’ve been smitten with this new independent craft venue for London – everything from the concept, to the artisans involved, and of course, the space.

This fabulous venture, founded by 2 young visual artists Clare and Louise, is based in Clapham and is inhabited by artists, designers, musicians and theatre practitioners. They have set up the space like a parlour, running workshops, hosting performances and displaying exhibitions while the artist studio is arranged in a communal way  – shared work benches are placed in the centre of the space and individual work stations around the outside…

Clare says that when artists have a big project on and need a little more room they can book the workshop space during the week to complete projects.

“The studio was always intended as an antidote to art school where departments were kept separate and designers didn’t talk to fine artists” writes Clare, “It is now flourishing with activity and has a lovely atmosphere that’s made up from a mix of painters, illustrators, photographers, animators, milliners, textile artists, musicians and theatre designers all working alongside one another. ”

This year The Papered Parlour will be taking part in the London Design Festival as well as the Lambeth open studios in October. Check out their classes for upcoming workshops, parties and hires &  booking terms for info on booking this fab space,  and the artist studio to see who’s in there now, working away.

Congrats Clare and Louise for creating such a wonderful business and creative space. The Papered Parlour looks like just the type of place I’d love to find myself in, and I have no doubt your beautiful space will continue to flourish over the coming years, meanwhile I’ll be sure to come and visit soon.

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Have a wonderful weekend, mes amis! I hope you enjoyed this mini series on new creative ventures. I hope these posts inspire you to visit these special places if you are in their vicinity, and also maybe to think about branching out on your own, making something with your own two hands – there is nothing more encouraging than visiting other people’s magical places to help you along the way.

The sun is shining here in Amsterdam and although I have no weekend to speak of with the book launch month approaching and my other lovely book to continue writing and photographing (I’m “flat out like a lizard drinking” as we say in Oz language), I won’t get to enjoy the sunshine. But, it has found it’s way into my little boat home studio via the dancing, sparkly water reflections on the ceiling and walls. So pretty! It’s enough to keep me inspired the whole weekend through.

xx

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all images courtesy of The Papered Parlour.

Jane Schouten, creator and curator for Dutch online (and offline) boutique All The Luck in The World not only makes gorgeous art but restyles vintage and found furniture in the most inspiring of ways. Above is one of my favourite items – the  medicine cabinet – from her latest collection of  treasures, and below is another…

…the happy cabinet. So bright and cheery!

If only this gorgeous boutique was in Amsterdam, I would have included it in my book! But here it is in the (blog)house instead, be sure to check out Jane’s online boutique and also her flickr photos – I particularly love the images of the pretty, tranquil spaces throughout her home. Below is the full collection of  latest treasures…

A couple of years ago I bought a bag (the one in the top of this set of sold goods in fact) from Jane and it remains to be one of my most favoured everyday items. I have no doubt you will find something in her collection that you will fall in love with too.

It’s been a busy few days for me, thank you for your patience in waiting for me to announce the lucky recipient of the above! You do not have to be patient for a minute longer. The lucky recipient is…

comment #74: Terry! Congratulations!

Thank you everyone who participated, you made this giveaway extra fun and special. And a big thank you to Cassandra from haven workroom for giving away such a gorgeous treasure.  Terry if you could please send me an email with your address details so that I can let Cassandra know, and for the rest of us who missed out, Cassandra has offered a 15% discount off everything in her store, click here to read her post with code details. I have my eye on the peacock cushion, and the tropicals, and the stripes and…

Thank you again mes amis. I’ll be back here again in uno momento…

xx

I’m not the least bit bashful to admit that I’m quite alot in love with haven workroom.  This wonderful atelier based in London is run by New Zealander Cassandra Ellis who creates custom-made contemporary quilts, cushions and lampshades from vintage silks & cottons, as well as restoring and up-cycling vintage furniture. It’s a dreamy space (both online and offline) of inspiration, great ideas and loads of gorgeous fabrics for making all kinds of marvelous…

Cassandra runs quilting workshops at the papered parlour (i’ll write more about this fab place in coming weeks), and has also recently started taking orders for quilts made with your own personal collection of fabrics (read more about it here)…

…a little montage of inspiration I compiled from haven workroom.

A couple of weeks ago while I was in isolation-writing-retreat mode, Cassandra wrote to me with a very special thought: she wanted to offer you guys, my dear readers, one of her beautiful handmade cushions in lieu of my absence. I thought that was the sweetest and most thoughtful idea ever!

So we chatted back and forth (a bit of “no don’t be silly!” from me and a little of “it’s my pleasure, don’t think twice about it!” from her and so on) and I decided that instead of announcing her offer to you then when I was not blogging so much I decided to wait until today, in celebration of me (and hopefully you) being back regularly here in the (blog)house…

Cassandra even let me pick out the cushion to offer you from the haven workroom online boutique and since I know how much we all love shades of aqua, turquoise and ruby red combined, I thought this one would be utterly perfect…

This gorgeous cushion is made from vintage japanese silk backed in hand-loomed cotton and measures a generous 50 x 50cm, for more of a look-see, click here.

Now I must admit, I’m a little envious that you guys get a chance at owning this cushion! But I know you will love it as much as I would and that makes me happy. So what do you have to do to be the lucky recipient? Well I’ve decided that it would be wonderful if you could all visit cassandra’s blog, website, or shop – have a browse, have a wander and then all you have to do is leave a comment below: It’s about sharing the love really.

That’s it!! That’s crazy good.

I will choose and announce a winner randomly via some fancy-random-selector-computer-application-thingo this Friday, May 7th. But you have to make sure you have left a comment on this here post otherwise you will not be in the draw. Cassandra will send the cushion to you the following week.

As you know, giveaways don’t come by here regularly (the last one – and first one – was over a year ago!) so you know then that this is super, super special.

Thank you dear Cassandra! And thank you, my dear readers,  for your company, generosity, enthusiasm and encouragement over the past 2 or so years that I’ve been a blogging lass.

xx

PS tomorrow I will announce the details of the amsterdam: made by hand book launch! Oh, this week in the (blog)house is already so gooooooooooood…

Before I skip on out of the (blog)house I just had to let you know that Parisian artist Aurélie Mathigot’s beautiful fait main home is featured in this month’s issue of marie claire maison, photographed by Eric Flogny. It’s a gorgeous spread, full of Spring colour and inspiration.  Above is a little snippet of the 8 page article, I hope you can locate yourself a copy of the issue because it truly is a lovely story. I had the pleasure of photographing a number of Aurélie‘s pieces for Paris: Made by Hand while in Astier de Villate and The Collection – her little crocheted eclairs and cupcakes were among my favourites. Here is more of a glimpse of Aurélie‘s beautiful work via her website…

I also wanted to let you know that the new Angus & Julia Stone album called down the way is available on itunes in Australia now. I bought the album this morning and listened to it while on my morning walk along the amstel…



Click here to listen to and the boys, a track I keep coming back to over again.

And one last thing – Paris: Made by Hand has been featured on the Vogue Italy trend blog, how cool is that?! Click here to have a read and be sure to ‘vogue it’. Merci beaucoup Nirit Sumeruk – or I mean grazie mille –  for writing the piece – you rock.

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Okay, one last post coming up!