Our photographer, David Adams, had to turn climber to get the best images for our autumn campaign. We love the wild and windblown feel of his shots – over on the Damselfly website now.
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For the Damselfly autumn photoshoot we went up into the wild hills on the borderland between England and Wales. The Stiperstones, not far from our studio, is a strange and beautiful place of high grey stone outcrops and windblown bilberry and heather. At this time of year the bilberries – or winberries as we call them – are ready for picking. They’re so tiny that it takes a while to pick a handful but that only seems to make them taste all the better. They’re little bursts of vitamin C that feel like they’re setting up your immune system for the winter.
There are folks in our village who say that as children they would be sent up the Stiperstones to pick berries to earn enough money for school shoes. If they couldn’t pick enough they would have to wear old boots patched with whatever could be found or stuffed with newspaper to cover holes in the soles. You can see the winberry bushes in amongst the rocks.
The pictures here are winners from a competition to capture the atmosphere of the place, run by the managers of the site, Natural England. Thanks to them for permission to use these stunning shots.
Our own gorgeous images, by photographer David Adams, are over on the Damselfly site now.
Photographer – Jonanthan Rich
Photographer – Michael Martin
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Summer is passing so quickly. Seems only a moment since we were in the woods with the Queen of the May in her Damselfly dress …
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We had a fantastic time at the show. Great to meet so many new customers and to have such positive feedback. This was the first time we’d been to a big retail event and it was so good to see and hear that people really appreciated the details – hand embroidery, silk ribbon, silk linings, hand cut chiffon feathers, Swarovski pearls … . We lost count of the women who looked through everything with great delight even though they only had boys! We also lost count of all the discerning grandmothers out there who bought a treat for their grand-daughter. A big thank you to all of you.
We were very pleased that Louisa Parker Bowles, who was doing the Editor’s picks for the show, chose Damselfly to talk about on the main stage!
The feather dress was our best seller (as expected from our web sales profile) closely followed by the Emma dress for flower girls. Watch this space for some very exciting developments on the flower girl/bridesmaids front.
The girls were a bit tired by the end of the show ...
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We’re busy working to prepare for Spirit of Summer. Big thanks to all of you who have written to say that you’re coming to visit us there – we’re looking forward to meeting you.
The studio is overflowing …
And … at the show we’ll be introducing our new line: beautiful linen dolls with silk dresses made to co-ordinate with the main range. We’re making the dresses ourselves but the dolls are hand made in Lithuania, where they grow the flax and produce the linen. Each doll’s face is hand painted and so each one has a slightly different character. We love their hair too, made from flax fibres and plaited into a braid or a little bun. We need two pretty names – any ideas?
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Today my daughters asked me what I’d like for Mother’s Day and we ended up listening to Natalie Merchant’s Leave Your Sleep album. They took me to see her at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham for my mother’s day treat a couple of years ago and we’ve been listening to this utterly, mesmerisingly wonderful album ever since.
It’s a collection based on the work of poets (some famous and some not) who have written for children across three centuries. It is, in the words of critic Brian Selznick, “a work of deep scholarship, compassion and love. It basks in the contradictions and joys of childhood – a magical, transporting tour de force.
If you want an album that will move you, amuse you, make you think and get you dancing in the kitchen with your children to the story of Ebenezer Bleezer and his outrageous ice cream flavours, then this is a must.
Five years in the making and involving over one hundred musicians, the words and stories of the poets on the album evoked their own musical themes. The resulting batch of ” wide-ranging styles is spun into a glorious victory … there are tunes with Celtic flair alongside orchestra-draped waltzes, country & bluegrass, jazz, reggae, klezmer, R&B, Cajun, Balkan, and Chinese folk. In the end, Merchant’s musical ideas and their inspired realizations draw it all together.” [Mark Salaeski]
If No One Ever Marries Me
Laurence Alma-Tadema (1865 – 1940)
If no one ever marries me,— And I don’t see why they should,
For nurse says I’m not pretty, And I’m seldom very good—
If no one ever marries me I shan’t mind very much;
I shall buy a squirrel in a cage, And a little rabbit-hutch:
I shall have a cottage near a wood, And a pony all my own,
And a little lamb quite clean and tame, That I can take to town:
And when I’m getting really old,— At twenty-eight or nine—
I shall buy a little orphan-girl And bring her up as mine.
Equestrienne
Rachel Field (1894 – 1942)
See, they are clearing the sawdust course
For the girl in pink on the milk-white horse.
Her spangles twinkle; his pale flanks shine,
Every hair of his tail is fine
And bright as a comet’s; his mane blows free,
And she points a toe and bends a knee,
And while his hoofbeats fall like rain
Over and over and over again.
And nothing that moves on land or sea
Will seem so beautiful to me
As the girl in pink on the milk-white horse
Cantering over the sawdust course.
The Sleepy Giant
Charles E. Carryl (1841 – 1920)
My age is three hundred and seventy-two,
And I think, with the deepest regret,
How I used to pick up and voraciously chew
The dear little boys whom I met.
I’ve eaten them raw, in their holiday suits;
I’ve eaten them curried with rice;
I’ve eaten them baked, in their jackets and boots,
And found them exceedingly nice.
But now that my jaws are too weak for such fare,
I think it exceedingly rude
To do such a thing, when I’m quite well aware
Little boys do not like to be chewed.
And so I contentedly live upon eels,
And try to do nothing amiss,
And I pass all the time I can spare from my meals In innocent slumber—like this.
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Just love this colour. I’m immersing myself in it – literally (well up to the elbow anyway). I’ve been in the dyeing workshop today trying out more colour mixes. Where does eau de nil become aqua blue … that is the question?
We have a poster of the first image by Tim Walker on the wall in the design studio. To find out the source of the images, check out my Pinterest page where you can find the info: http://pinterest.com/faitht/
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Inspired by her daughter Marguerite (or Marie-Blanche as she was known), Jeanne Lanvin first became known as a designer of dresses for girls. This is the start of a series showcasing these stunning pieces, made with all the couturière’s skills that would later make her famous. One of my favourites to start with …
Girl's Dress - Lanvin 1925
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