What Cancer Cannot Do

So here is what I have learnt in the past six weeks about cancer and its limitations.

Cancer can't diminish love, it can't prevent friendships from deepening and new ones blossoming, it can't silence laughter, it can't suppress memories, it can't shatter hope, it can't conquer courage, it can't invade the soul, it can't steal an eternal life from the universe......and it sure as hell can't stop me playing with the barkcloth and making lampshades.

FollyandGlee

So I am back from the hospital this afternoon chemoed up to my eyeballs and delighted to announce the shop is back up and ready for business. My sincere apologies to customers old and new for slow responses and the absence of a phone service - I'm working on it promise.

I hope you like some of the new barkcloths. I'm on an imposed quarantine for a few days and hope to get a few more together.

My aim is to launch a lampshade fundraiser for Cancer Research but I want to do it properly and there are many talented folk I'd like to ask to help - this will take some energy and concentration both of which I'm a little low on at the moment.

FollyandGlee

For now any purchase from the shop will be my wig money. Yes having gone short for the  first time in 20 years last week in preparation it was still a shock this morning to discover rather less on my crown than when I went to bed. Not being so keen on sporting a "monk like do" it may be time to take the rest off......but its so cold!

FollyandGlee

I have wrestled a little with whether or not this blog was somewhere I wanted to share my f****** cancer journey but never fear it won't be the focus. In many ways the mental scars are more scary than the physical ones and I know that in doing and sharing more of what I  love I'll be protecting myself. The other deciding factor in going public is of course the hope that others who have to embark on this journey to the dark side get to see its not all darkness. My favourite t-shirt of all time reads "blessed are the cracked for they let in the light". And I am a little cracked at the mo.

Take care and go hug a loved one x

Transform Your Wardrobe at a Cascade Lampshade Making Workshop

I'm very excited to be running the first of several brand new lampshade making workshops for Cascade next weekend. 

You may well have read about Cascade as they were Mollie Makes "website to watch" in Issue 20 and declared the "new style saviours".

Cashmere Jumper Roses on a Velvet Skirt Lampshade

 Cascade is about sustainable style – helping you make more of what you already have in your wardrobe and offers stylish and practical ways to Restore, Revive and Remake clothes and accessories.They run creative craft workshops in and around Brighton and Sussex using vintage or preloved materials, offer wardrobe surgeries and hold regular pop-up shops selling beautiful, handmade, upcycled products. If you love beautiful things, and want to make more of what you already have, then you’ll love Cascade.

Cashmere Jumper Roses on a Velvet Skirt Lampshade

 What a great concept. Obviously FollyandGlee Lampshades are made with upcycled fabric as the vast majority of Barkcloth I hunt out had a former life as a curtain, bedspread or tablecloth. Inspired by Cascade's concept I'm really keen to explore the options for  making lampshades from clothing. 

Man's Party Shirt Lampshade

 

Nothing in the wardrobe has been safe. A cashmere jumper I had shrunk on too hot a wash was a wonderful mustard colour and made up as rolled roses made the perfect partner to an old velvet skirt repurposed into a shade. My man's former party shirt quickly became a panelled patchwork shade complete with butons covered with fabric from the cuffs.

Wool Skirt Lampshade

A wooly winter skirt had languished unworn for ages but yielded enough fabric for 4 tall shades embelished with a few pinking sheer roses.

Wrapping Paper Lampshade

 Why stop with clothing? I had a stack of off-cuts of Rie Elise Larsen wrapping paper left over from another project. Laminated to fire retardant lampshade PVC paper is perfectly safe and is great to work with.

So if you'd like to make more of what you've already got and can do with lighting up these winter evenings come and join us on a lampshade making workshop. The first Cascade workshop on Sunday 18 November will be to make the pannelled patchwork shades from repurposed fabrics and paper. The second on December 6th  will be to make a lampshade again from repurposed fabrics but trimmed with handmade flowers. Both are no-sew workshops and you need absolutely no previous experience or skills. 

You can get all the details and book one of the last remaining places with Cascade online or by emailing hello@cascadestyle.co.uk or phoning 07799 071919.

Selvedge Winter Fair November 10

I am absolutely chuffed beyond chuffedness to have been invited to exhibit at this years Selvedge Winter Fair on November 10th at Chelsea Town Hall.

Selvedge Winter Fair 2012

I am in complete awe of this magazine and the folk that are featured in it. Some of the most creative textile artists EVER. I thought that maybe I could write a blog post featuring some of my favourites but to be honest the more I look at who will be there the more I fall in love with.....and if I'm honest the more I panic that I'm not worthy!

So instead....go take a peep at the Selvedge website and blog there is much to make the heart quicken. And when you think you've finished pop over to the Fair's Pinterest gallery - you'll be there some time.

What will I be taking? Well I'm hoping to finish off lots a handsewn traditional lampshades in some of my finest wintery vintage barkcloths. This sort of thing... 

 For supporting me at FollyandGlee here's a little thank you - a voucher for 2 for 1 entry - just print and present on admission.

All Hail the Queens of Granny Chic

Its unlikely, even if you have been hiding under a damp stone, that you've missed the fever pitch excitment about the iminent launch of Granny Chic- crafty recipes and inspiration for the handmade home from Dottie Angel and TedandAgnes.


from Granny Chic Published by Kyle Books 2012 Photographer: Catherine Gratwicke

 The rather unlikely You Magazine gave more than a sneak peak of some of the bestest projects on Sunday under the rather amusing title Gran Designs. And of course the Aunty to the Bloggers publication Mollie Makes has wisely chosen to feature the showstopping Patched and Pierced lampshade project in their latest issue.


from Granny Chic Published by Kyle Books 2012 Photographer: Catherine Gratwicke
reproduced in Mollie Makes Issue Twenty

Now don't for a minute think that if you've seen the above that there is no need to buy the book. Believe me it is full to the brim with LOTS more lovely ideas. My favourites include the recipe for making your own vintage decals....

Vintage decals from Granny Chic Published by Kyle Books 2012 Photographer: Catherine Gratwicke

.....and the handy dandy jars.

 from Granny Chic Published by Kyle Books 2012 Photographer: Catherine Gratwicke

Above all else however it's the styling of this book that sets it apart. We'd expect little else given the perfection of Tiff's photography for DottieAngel's adventures and the sheer exuberance and flair of Rachelle's home with TedandAgnes. But my oh my did the girls push the boat out on this one....I have scoured pretty much every page now and I tell you there is not a shot where the attention to detail is not 100%. Every little nook and cranny of their beautiful homes oooozes Granny Chic style.

From the little things eg gorgeous homemade fabric tape holding postcards to the wall....

from Granny Chic Published by Kyle Books 2012 Photographer: Catherine Gratwicke

from Granny Chic Published by Kyle Books 2012 Photographer: Catherine Gratwicke

to the grander schemes like marvellous Maude's liberty print makeover.

With so much attention to detail does it not feel over styled, unliveable in? Nope for as the girls point out Granny Chic has all embracing ways - nothing is perfect ...just perfectly placed to make the most of each other's best bits.

I am most flattered to have supplied a few bits and bobs for the new book of which more later .....go get yourself a copy ordered first - its out in less than two days - and we can scan the fabulous details together.

Ceramic Swans Rock!

Where do you keep your toothbrush? I confess to having kept mine for sometime now in a granny pink ceramic swan.

My ceramic swan tooth brush holder

I'm mighty pleased with the arrangement. Not only does he do a fine job of keeping my toothbrush out of harms way but he's a great place to sneak away my floss etc.

Despite him having done such a sterling job for so long i am afraid to say I have never bothered to find out anything about him. Lucky for great design lovers Trish Scorgie is not as lackadaisical as I.

Trish is the founder of VolpeandVolpe and is on a mission to bring a slice of our ceramic heritage back, put them into a modern context, make them relevant again, trace them back to their original owners.

Volpe and Volpe

With the demise of so many Stoke On Trent potteries and the rise of cheap import markets lots of great peices have been forgotten. Now thanks to VolpeandVolpe the swans are back in six magnificently moodly colours: goose grey, matt black, natural, pistacchio, heather moore and gilbert green.

What is more they have friends. A fox string holder .....

Fox string holder from Volpe and Volpe

and (my husbands Christmas present to be) a too cute Mole string holder.

Mole String Holder from Volpe and Volpe

Fabulous.

This weeks Shoplocket 40% off bargain

Carry on lighting...with Babs

This afternoon I have come to a momentous decision. It is a decision driven by the heart and not the head. One which will no doubt create many hours of measuring and fiddling and re-measuring and bending and quite possibly some bad language.

I have fallen in love with Babs. She's pink, she fills out her  cover to bursting and she's very, very curvy. here she is:

I am ignoring the horrid beading around her middle and the hair raisingly horrid feel of the crimpolene cover. She is definately not from these shores as her fittings are most definately European and this adds to her appeal. What is more........

....she has a sidekick. Mini-Babs who sits atop a rather dashing Saarinen/tulip style lamp base.

Definately worth the long process of templating their wire frames me thinks. Hopefully if we all keep our fingers and toes very tighly crossed we might have some Babs shape wire lampframes to re-cover or paint in a few weeks time.

oooh Matron.