Okay, so I write for the blog in a totally separate capacity but this is an unashamed plug for my event business Doily Days! John (head honcho) suggested it and who am I to turn down free publicity? Especially at this time of year when the evenings are getting lighter, the daffodils are ready to pop open and we’re all looking forward and planning for the summer – cakes piled high at garden parties, champagne glimmering in the sunshine at weddings. Hmmmmm…

Doily Days is a vintage/country garden event business. We provide the following services:

• Vintage china Hire
• Country cottage flowers
• Catering i.e. afternoon teas, hog roasts, BBQ’s
• VW Campervan hire for weddings, proms etc
• Wedding favors – 4oz jars of old fashioned sweets, jams and chutneys (personalised and topped with mismatching fabric)

You’ll also find recommended marquees on the website – The English Tea Tent and The Cornish Cream Tent. Two marquees that we love and are perfect for Doily Days weddings.

I like to call myself ‘Creative Director & Event Stylist’. I have a real passion for vintage and retro, I enjoy creating the wow factor for relaxed events… and I really love cake! The business has evolved since I set it up in 2009 and has taken on a life of its own. Friends often refer to things – cafe’s, furniture etc – as ‘very Doily Days’ and it makes me feel very happy and proud.

I regularly update the facebook page with pictures from events, links I see and love and exciting news from the Doily Days world. ‘Like’ the page here http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Doily-Days/129453690398292

I’m a Twitter newbie but finding my feet.Find me @DoilyDays or click the bird!

Visit the website www.doilydays.co.uk. The gallery has been updated with all the best pictures from the events we’ve done – so if you like something you see, get in touch!

By Helen Ruff

When I was younger I remember we had an absolutely hideous sofa in our lounge – it was green and brown, flowery and swirly and I remember being acutely embarrassed when my friends came over to play. Looking back I think it was Sanderson fabric and bang on trend for the 80’s! Fair play to my stylish mother…

Paisley Fox aka Helen Price from Brighton collects and cherishes vintage fabric and turns them into stylish, unique cushions for the home.

She works for Jo Franks at Love Frankie in Kemptown (featured on the blog January 2010 http://www.thebrightoncollective.co.uk/blog/2010/01/you-gotta-love-frankie/) where she sells the fruits of her labour.

“I love hearing people come into the shop and say they’re convinced they recognise the fabric” explains Helen “I hear people say “I think my nan/mum/aunt had that fabric for her curtains!” – It is just hilarious! And has often sold the item to the buyer”.

I’d certainly love a cushion to remind me of the sofa of my youth! I’ll keep an eye out for the fabric on my charity shop/car boot missions… and I know who to commission to whip it up into a cushion!

Helen studied textiles at college but switched vocation to study Media at University. Since graduating she realised a career in the media wasn’t for her and set about looking for a creative role. She completed a three month internship at Love Frankie and now works there four days a week.

“I think the opportunity at Love Frankie reignited my love for the sewing machine” says Helen “and I’m so glad it did, Jo Franks who runs the shop is a real inspiration and I can’t thank her enough!

Helen confesses she is literally obsessed with anything from the 60’s and 70’s (a girl after my own heart) and the vintage fabrics, be it a chintz floral print or a retro 60’s asymmetrical design, appeals to her so much more than modern day fabrics.

As well as the cushions, the vintage fabric is available on vanity mirrors and handmade brooches and Helen also makes button earrings, button hair grips and cameo necklaces. All available in store (St Georges Road, Kemptown or online www.lovefrankie.com)

Helen sources most of her fabrics from local flea markets, charity shops and old hand me downs from relatives! “I’m a sucker for wastage and cling onto every bit of material” Helen tells me. “Some fabrics I don’t like as much as others, but I know that someone, somewhere will love it and offer it a good home”.

Paisley Fox can also be found on Etsy www.etsy.com/shop/paisleyfoxdesigns and facebook www.facebook.com/paisleyfoxdesigns

By Helen Ruff

Sometimes you can stumble across a shop which you could happily spend an age in. It could be because there are so many items that appeal to your loves, or that it smells wonderful, or that there are so many nooks and crannies that the browse becomes a treasure hunt from one space to the next. And sometimes a space can tick all the boxes, and more.

This is what I adore about Tantalus (Bond Street, Brighton) – it has a bit of everything I love to experience when I am shopping. For a lover of old, pre-loved items that bear the glorious textures of � history it is an Aladdin’s cave of useable antiques and beautiful things, which double up as an eclectic range of changeable shop fittings for the stunning smaller goods also available for sale.

A vintage cut glass cake stand holds jewellery, or deliciously smelling soaps artfully wrapped in tissue or organza. A printers tray frames spools of brightly coloured ribbons like miniature artworks. Display cabinets bearing hand painted signs from a bygone era are resurrected honestly as holding areas for new pieces which need to be kept safe before sale. An old chemist’s cabinet holds the newest and very best organic and natural scents from some fantastic makers.

But the use of reclaimed and antique pieces must be treated with care – a scheme can fast fall from the beautifully eclectic to the realms of the dusty and dark junk shop, so a really keen eye has to be at work to ensure the interior ties together well. The key to this is to master the art of merchandising display, which many people play at but few conquer. I am glad to say that the interiors of Tantalus tie together fantastically to create a light, almost ‘gentleman’s club’ feel, with interest, intrigue and eclectic elements pulling the visitor from one section of the shop to another.

And the fact that the interior changes so often means that you will always discover another beautiful thing whenever you visit. I guarantee you could go in looking for a natural soap and come out with some beautiful socks and a bottle of the nicest smells you nose has ever experienced.

A truly lovely interior.

Tantalus, 28 Bond Street, Brighton,� 01273 738828

Written by Claire Potter

I’m a sucker for assembling things yourself. I wish I meant flat pack furniture or running up fabulous home wares in the blink of an eye but I’m more thinking along the lines of fajitas or hoi sin duck wraps!

I’m also a lover of anything vintage and when I came across Robbins & Bobbins I was really impressed by the concept.

Basically, the clothes are made to measure you. You pick a vintage pattern from the website, pick the (recycled) fabric you like and get in touch. How good is that? Almost as satisfying as a fully loaded fajita wrap dripping with sour cream. Anyway, I digress… it must be lunchtime.

The brains behind Bobbins & Robbins is Katy Robbins. Influenced by her mother and grandmother she has been sewing since she was a little girl. ‘I built up my ideas for a made to measure collection gradually’ Katy tells me. ‘I had heard so many comments from friends and family saying ‘When I find a skirt that fits me at the hips, it never fits at the waist’ and things like that’

Katy was given a dressmaker’s dummy for her birthday and realized the potential of its adjustable frame. ‘When something fits me properly’ says Katy ‘I feel good about me for being me and I really loved the idea of being able to share that with other women’.

I listen with dreamy interest when Katy tells me she’s inspired by history, from Gabrielle Chanel’s creation of the modern women’s’ look to the extravagance of Dior and Mary Quant’s miniskirts.’ I love the feeling that vintage looks evoke’ she says. Me too!

The patterns in the collection, that include a 40s bodice and Peter Pan blouse, have been adapted from vintage 40s or 60s patterns from Ebay or second hand shops or put together through looking at books on vintage fashion. The fabrics are sourced in charity shops and antique shops.

Katy has a degree in Anthropology and Religious Studies which has given her an insight into Material Culture. She tells me she considered going to art college and doing fashion but was concerned she wouldn’t make a living from it. She has ended up going back to art and design because she hasn’t been able to resist!

Bobbins & Robbins products are available to order online at www.bobbinsandrobbins.co.uk and Katy will be at the Friends’ Meeting House on Ship Street, Brighton on Saturday 6th November from 2-5pm where she’s holding a Bobbins & Robbins tea party! She’ll also be at the Handmade Brighton Fair on Sunday 12th December at the Komedia from 11am selling soft toys and ready to take orders for made to measure clothing.

Written by Helen Ruff

Madison Honey Vintage is Kimberley Vernonn’s creative outlet: ‘I create romantic and dreamy, fabulous hand-made limited edition jewellery, using vintage and modern trinkets to create cute little kitsch treasures.’ Named after her baby daughter Madison Honey , Kimberley’s company has been trading since December 2009. Being made redundant gave her the opportunity to transform her lifelong hobby – she has always made jewellery for family and friends – into a business she could develop at the same time as being a full-time mum.

Kimberley loves to scour boot fairs, flea markets and charity shops for beautiful vintage jewellery which she then recycles into her own modern designs, often inspired by the trinkets themselves. ‘I’ve been really into nature inspired pieces recently as I found a vintage necklace with gold plate leaves…’ Ranges popular with her customers are the Skull Cameo Lockets with black satin bows, French charm necklaces and Alice in Wonderland charm bracelets. No two pieces are ever quite the same but Kimberley has a passion for her occupation, and she says every piece is made with love.

There is nothing Kimberley loves more than to be given a commission to source unusual or rare charms – she’s currently on the look out for scissors and other sewing related charms for a fashion designer client – and expects to grow this service when her website is up and running soon. She will also invite prospective customers to contact her with ideas for customised pieces. She confesses to having recently been tempted to keep for herself a one-off bracelet she made especially for a friend using skull cameos and vintage silver charms: ‘I had to control myself…!’

Kimberley’s creations can be found here on The Brighton Collective website.

She sells at some craft fairs as well (including Telscombe Craft and Gift Market on the third Sunday of every month) and dreams of a bricks and mortar shop one day, to go alongside her online business.

Written by Catherine Meek

There’s nothing I love more than browsing the pages of design magazines – Elle Decoration, World of Interiors, Homes and Gardens etc. I also love to flick through Country Living and Country homes and interiors. I often come across images that I just adore – whether it’s a cushion, a lamp, a vase of flowers. Last year (there was a period of time when I had a LOT of time on my hands) I went through the magazines cutting out anything that caught my eye. Since then I have occasionally got this folder out and used the cuttings to create cards for friends. It’s cheap, it’s personal and scores a LOT of brownie points!

I was really interested when I found out about Rosie Granger who has been making collages for six years. ‘I’ve always been a collector of interesting bits & bobs – pictures from newspapers & magazines, old labels, tickets, scraps of tissue-paper and lovely vintage paper…’ explains Rosie (to my delight!) ‘and I have a couple of books full of words I’ve ‘collected’ – lyrics, or passages from books & quotes which I use in my artwork’.

Her artwork has a real retro, nostalgic and idyllic feel to it. ‘I love the style of the ’40s and ’50s’ says Rosie. ‘The fashion, design and the music’. ‘And things of a quite utilitarian nature really capture my attention, so I often use pictures of vintage radios, telephones and clocks in my collages’.

Rosie came to Brighton in 1989 to study Art History at Sussex and, like many, stayed on in Brighton after graduating. At that time Rosie’s artwork took an illustrative style using pen & watercolour. She sold paintings & handmade cards through Brighton outlets and had a market stall once a week.

Rosie tells me how she gradually moved away from drawing and painting as a result of the demands of a young family. ‘I started making these collage-pieces about 6 years ago, as birthday cards for friends and family’ she explains ‘I think my two daughters have had an influence too, with butterflies, flowers and glitter also featuring, these days!’

Polly from ‘Cross Street Press’ (who I will also be featuring on the blog) encouraged Rosie to come up with a few collage pieces to frame and show alongside her lino-cuts. The originals and some Limited Edition giclee prints are on sale in Brighton in the Frame Factory www.frame-factory.co.uk where Rosie works part-time as a picture framer.

By Helen Ruff

Sara Norwood creates wall art, cushions and accessories. Her work blurs the boundaries between textile design and illustration. Here is the recipe for her particular style:

- A teaspoon of narrative

- A dash of novelty

- A pinch of interactiveness

- A small portion of humour

- A tablespoon of imagination

- A large tablespoon of fun
Sara’s ethos is to create art and articles in the most eco friendly ways as possible and inject them with humour and imagination. Having always been fascinated by animals they regularly appear in Sara’s work, as do street scenes, often of Brighton and sometimes the two combine to tell a story.

I really love the fact that Sara uses vintage fabrics as the backing for her cushions!

‘My work is inspired essentially by everything around me’ explains Sara ‘I am a bit of a big kid and love anything a bit magical or off-beat’. She tells me fairytales and folktales often inspire her as well as graphics and illustration. ‘I love the imagery of 1970′s craftbooks, as well as funky vintage fabrics and Scandinavian textile design. I am also a huge fan of Japanese craft, design and Kawaii culture’.

Before settling on textiles Sara turned her hand to varied creative pursuits – from graphic design to pottery (!) but drawing has always been her main passion. She holds a first class honours degree in Surface and Textile Design and is a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen, a prestigious association for designer-makers founded in 1887 by William Morris and Walter Crane.

Originally from London Sara moved to Brighton with her family when she was 12 ‘I love Brighton’s laid back quirky atmosphere’ says Sara ‘and the fact that there are all walks of life here. You never know what you’re going to see next, you can be walking along the road and see someone dressed up as an enormous white rabbit and not even turn your head…..in this way, living in Brighton very much inspires my work!’

Sara’s work can be viewed and purchased via her website www.saranorwood.co.uk, at Pebbles Homestyle & Gift Store, 86 High Street, Rottingdean and Pardon My French!, 15 St George’s Road, Kemp Town. She is happy to undertake commissions – perhaps you would like a personalised accessory or art piece, incorporating your pet or street into a design…..

By Helen Ruff

The Baglady of Brighton revamps, revives, and recycles vintage fabrics, trimmings and odd bits and bobs to create unique and unusual bags, pouches and purses.

The ‘Baglady’ herself– designer & creator Katy Dormer (who is much more glamorous than she sounds!) fuses together an array of unusual textures and patterns in clashing colours. ‘Giving a new lease of life to old and almost new, means everything has a use and nothing gets wasted’ she says.

Materials are bonded together using traditional techniques such as weaving, quilting and embroidery.

On her website www.bagladyofbrighton.com she features different styles such as ‘Seaside Inspirations’ – these pieces take inspiration from Brighton seascapes. ‘The designs and textures evolve from observing the tidal ripples and the vibrant, moody colours of the sea’ says Katy.

The ‘vintage’ section features luxurious satins, lace and pretty floral prints.

‘Camp Kitty’ is a character that also features on Katy’s bags and purses so I asked her about her inspiration for this. ‘The kittys came about after I was given a box of whiskers cat treats for my cat Clyde’ she explains ‘He turned his nose up at them and instead of throwing the box away I thought the lid would make a great template and so it did!’

Katy explains that she scours charity shops for fabrics and is very lucky to have lots of great resources donated. ‘Its amazing what people hold onto because they love the colour, pattern or texture’ says Katy ‘it feels good to revive what’s been stuck in a cupboard for years!’

Katy grew up on the outskirts of St Ives in Cornwall, she studied Art in St Ives and Falmouth and Textiles in Farnham, finally moving to Brighton where ‘Baglady’ was born. ‘I started making a bag for my sister for a birthday present’ says Katy ‘she had a friend who loved it so I made another and so it started!’

I asked Katy how she came up with the fantastic name ‘Baglady’: ‘It popped into my head one day when I was having a sort out and caught myself laughing of the image of me headfirst in a bin bag rummaging for fabric to re use before it went in the bin!’

Katy tells me she has recently met knitwear designer Suzan Pearson through Brighton and Hove Chamber of commerce and they are in the process of setting up a design collective to share an open studio. She says she is looking forward to working with creatives from different disciplines.

The Baglady of Brighton’s studio is at 19 Montpelier Place, Brighton and appointments can be made by contacting Katy on 07747650795 or bagladyofbrighton@googlemail.com

Her work is also sold via Retail Therapy; 101 Gloucester rd, North Lain, Brighton and at a regular craft market on 1^st Saturday of every month at Friends Meeting House, Ship street, south lanes, Brighton

By Helen Ruff

Gillian Bates is a lady who does like to be beside the seaside!

She is a professional designer-maker who specializes in embroidered textile art. I discovered her when my quests for blog subjects took me East to an old haunt of mine – the elegant seaside town of Eastbourne.

Gillian is a self confessed fabric lover who produces textile art in the form of wall hung canvases. ‘I’m a little bit obsessed, it’s perfectly true’ she says ‘I go funny around fabric’.

She collects vintage and reclaimed fabric to incorporate into her work.

Gillian is heavily influences by her local environment. ‘The brilliantly idiosyncratic, seaside towns of Sussex, their wonderful residents and stunning architecture continue to be the single, greatest driving force behind my work and a constant source of enjoyment and inspiration’ she says.

She goes on to explain that other influences include seaside postcards, vintage film footage of seaside holidays and mid 20^th century tourism advertising.

I know what she means exactly – I’ve got such vivid images in my mind! – old black and white images of people sporting amazing retro swimwear, donkey rides, deckchairs, windbreakers…. Punch & Judy! Even wandering along the promenade in Brighton or Eastbourne these days you’ll be struck with a whimsical sense of nostalgia… the bandstand, seagulls stealing your 99, tourist shops selling sticks of rock and ‘kiss me quick’ hats, the amusement arcade…

Anyway – I digress!

Gillian explains why her work is so heavily focused around her local area ‘I believe that habit and habitat draw a veil over our eyes. We become so accustomed to the people and places we see everyday that eventually we fail to see them properly at all. My aim is to pull back the veil and in doing so reveal the extraordinary and beautiful wonder of everyday life’.

In addition to textile canvases Gillian also produces a range of other contemporary textile products. Her quirky and colourful textile postcards are particularly popular – the debut collection having completely sold out. The handmade textile postcards are created using digital images of the original, textile canvases. They are printed on cotton and backed with a white 260 gsm postcard. Postcard designs include ‘Brighton Pier’, ‘Eastbourne Pier’ and ‘Bournemouth Pier’ and are an absolute bargain at just £3.50!

Gillian’s obsession for all things textile led her to successfully gaining a BA(Hons) in Textile and Surface Design in 2007 . During her studies she was shortlisted for the RSA Fashion Interiors Bursary Award.