Tag: blog

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Welcome!

I just thought whilst I was photographing, listing, measuring and generally sorting what planters and window boxes I have made it would be a nice idea to introduce myself properly. 

This is my world of Metal Garden Planters. 

Welcome, my name is Fiona, I have 2 children (12 and 9) 1 mini dachshund and an OAP Cat who thinks he is a teenager still. I live in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, famous for being voted the most boring town in the UK one year, being the birth place of myself, Margaret Thatcher, Doris Stokes and Sir Isaac Newton to name a few. 

The image is of me, no makeup, not having done my hair and dressed for the cold,  about to set off in my VW Flatbed, with some roofing sheets on the back. I sell a variety of Box Profile and Corrugated roofing sheets, and manufacture the flashings to finish the edges in house. It was from the waste I was generating in terms of making the flashings which lead me down the path of making metal boxes. 

I was on the hunt for an office bin one day, and the cost shocked me, let alone the fact they are all fairly boring looking so after some cutting, measuring, and general faffing with the Guilloline (not the kind the Frenchman used to lop off the heads of Aristocracy) but a blade which can cut thin metal sheeting safely, and my bending machine (its clamp with a lever that once lifted puts a fold in a metal sheet in its simplest form) A bright yellow tall, square bin was created, and 6+ years later it is still used daily. 

So thats how I started, if you have any specific questions for future blog posts I would be happy to answer them, in the meantime I will continue selecting troughs, and planters along with a special gardeners gift pack I am pulling together. 

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Who is LouLou & Reg

Hi and welcome to my very first blog.

My name is Lorna and LouLou & Reg is my small business that I love with a passion. I started LouLou & Reg last year (2018) because I had another small business selling home décor but could never find the kind of items that I wanted to sell, so I thought I would make them instead of sourcing them and voila LouLou & Reg was born!

I live in the South of England with my husband and our son and we live in our forever home in a lovely part of Hampshire.  I have always been very creative but woodworking was new to me (except the woodworking that you did at school – did anyone else make a wooden robot?)

 I knew that I was doing what I loved and what I should be doing, when I bought my first sander with some birthday money that I was gifted and after that my husband bought me my very first multi tool and screwdriver set, which made my year!

 When I applied to be a seller on The British Craft House, I was very nervous as I know this website is and will be amazing for hand crafted
items.  When Dottie accepted me as a seller I was over the moon and still nervous as I want my little piece of The British Craft House to be a success which means hard work but I am up for the task. All of my items are made from start to finish by hand, from cutting each piece of wood by hand, to sanding and painting by hand.  I design the wording, choose the font and paint with acrylic paint, each sign that has wording and I love it.  Where I can I recycle old and discarded wood and MDF as I love that each piece of wood has it’s own story and re-purposed wood is an unwanted item being given a new lease of life!

 Thank you for reading my first blog and I hope to bring you updates that will take you on a journey with me, in this wonderful new home for handcrafted items.

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A little bit about me

About me

I have been sewing since I was very young. I didn’t learn anything about sewing from my Mum, she was a knitter, and made our cardigans and jumpers, but my Dad taught himself to sew using my Nan’s old Pfaff sewing machine (one of the old hand crank models), and I too learnt to sew on this machine. People were always amazed that he made mine and my sister’s dresses! So I suppose I come from a creative family, in fact my Dad’s Dad was an upholsterer. My Dad was always making things for us children. I remember him making cardboard Thunderbird models and a garage with a working lift for my brother, and a dolls house for me, and dolls bedroom sets for me and my sister that included bunkbeds, wardrobes and dressing tables. Unfortunately neither my daughter nor my son seem to have inherited the ‘crafty’ gene, but I can see a little of it in my grandchildren.

My Dad was an inspiration and a great teacher. At first I didn’t really know what I was doing, my first attempt at making a dress for my doll was basically a tube with holes cut in for the arms! Not technically brilliant, but I was delighted that I had made something that my doll could actually wear. At school we were taught cross-stitch and I remember making a sewing needle book, In fact they thought me so good that I was asked to help the younger children. In my last year at junior school the girls had to make a completely hand sewn sleeveless blouse – lots of backstitching in that! At secondary school I continued to learn and even made my own school summer dress. 

Since then I have made everything from clothes for myself and my daughter, to curtains and soft furnishings. In fact I had my own business making the latter for a few years. I gave up my curtain making business, (not because it wasn’t successful – it was, I had a three month waiting list), but to look after my Granddaughter so that my Daughter could go back to work. Once she started school I got a part time job working as a merchandiser for a well known greetings card company. Gradually the job changed, became more pressured and my hours were cut, and I soon started hankering after working for myself again. I began thinking about making bags – why? I don’t really know where the idea came from, but it did and it stuck. So having nursed this ambition for a couple of years, I finally took the plunge and left my job in June 2010. On October 23rd of that year I launched Wild Rose Designs, selling handmade evening bags. I’ve since added everyday bags, accessories and accessories for the home as a nod to my former soft furnishings business. I also offer a bespoke service.

My inspiration

I love beautiful things! I have neither the income nor the lifestyle where I need lots of fabulous evening bags, but they’re so gorgeous that I just want to make them. I draw inspiration for a lot of my evening bags from the Hollywood glamour of the 1930’s, I do love a bit of bling!  For my everyday bags, the chic designs of the 1960’s give me lots of ideas. For my home accessories it can be anything from retro, to ostentatious silks and velvets in rich jewel colours. Anything beautiful really.

I feel very privileged to have been able to set up a business doing what I love.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Meet the Artisan, Max Pring, aka The Crafty Welsh Mam

For me it’s all about the metal, the thing I love most about it is that it’s so versatile, you can melt it, recycle it, hammer it, bend it, stamp it, shape it, fuse it, mix it, add stones to it and if that’s not enough you can texture it, paint it, heat it, etch it and polish it too.  You will see the majority of these techniques used in my work as I do love to play!.

I find my inspiration from the lush Welsh countryside, living near Pontypridd in the Rhondda Valleys I have beautiful views across the rolling hills and a wildlife reserve just down the road. There’s also a lot of old industrial sites where nature has stepped back in, but you can find some really old interesting textures and patterns on abandoned machinery so I’m never short of inspiration and try to protect the environment by being as environmentally friendly as I can be in my work using recycled materials where I can and plastic free packaging.

I learnt to knit and sew when I was really little, sat next to my lovely Nan, my first make was a hand-sewn dress for my Tiny Tears Doll, I can even remember the colour it was purple with flowers and made from an old dress of my Nan’s. I still knit and sew  nowadays but only occasionally as my real passion is for metal jewellery, though I’ll always find time for a bit of papercraft or drawing, often sketching out new designs and little pictures for etching or making my own boxes or hand finishing my packaging with hearts and making little matching gift cards to go with each order.

I have a small bench in the spare bedroom, but have to decamp to hubby’s garage for hammering and using the blowtorch.

As well as being a maker I have a day job working in the NHS in Human Resources and I am very fortunate that I love both my jobs, my passion for metal matches my passion for people. When I’m not metalsmithing or working you will find me colouring in with my granddaughter, baking or reading with an occasional night out at the theatre.