Prints in progress and a Royal ceremony

Lilac in bloom at the Old Rectory

There is so much to be inspired by at this time of year. The garden is bursting with blossom, rhododendron flowers and trumpeting tulips. The azaleas are zinging; bees are buzzing around the scented lilac and and the stately beech trees offer gentle green canopies under our glorious April sunshine. The children are enjoying just simply playing and being in the garden; collecting worms for the terrapins, building moats around the herbaceous border and acquainting themselves with the world of bugs and garden beasties - Childhood bliss and plenty of fun - inspiration for our next collection of prints which will be shown at Bubble this June. Although, time is of the essence - I think we have about 6 weeks until Bubble which will fly in. There is much to get through over the weekend if we are to get our sample prints over to Portugal in time to sign off on lab dips and new garment styles - summer t-shirts for girls and boys and a fun and versatile ribbed cotton dress.

What better time than now to design for  Spring/Summer 2012 as summer fever is everywhere  - it gives an energy and vigour to our design process, albeit a little bit frantic. Gardens in bloom are sometimes psychologically hard to enjoy as you know they're going to be over all too soon - thoughts like 'next time I see that bloom we'll all be a year older, things might be different then, all is well with the world now  - live in the moment etc.' push their way in. The only answer is to take a photo on the iphone and sally forth with the jobs in hand - romantic gardens do that to you as you get a bit older!

Prints in progress

Without wishing to directly use my children as product research tools, I briefly described to them today what Stephanie and I plan to put on our next prints. I have to be very subtle in asking what they think as one of my children in particular doesn't like to see disappointment in my face(which he is very quick to pick up oneven if I'm trying my best to hide it!) So I wait for the opportune moment when no one's picking an argument and I casually throw out the question that if they were to design a cool top to sell to the shops what would it be like. This kind of market research on one's own kids is a bit biased and warped as the answers that I get back are very predictable to their individual personalities. Themes range from Butterflies to Guns but I am glad to say that Beetles and Dragonflies did get a mention which is where we're at right now!

Wedding bells sing!

On a fashion note - I thought Kate Middleton's wedding dress was incredibly beautiful. I don't think there was a single detail in it that jarred with her presence and the essence of the day. My favourite image of the day was of Kate and Prince William leaving the Abbey in their 1902 carriage flanked by red and gold cavalry. The colours and sheer sensory elegance were all but too much. Raise a toast to the Happy Couple!
As for the Mother of the Bride, equally as elegant as her daughter. Do check out Carole Middleton's company www.partypieces.co.uk, which has had quite a bit of media coverage since the announcement of her daughter's engagement.  It's full of useful tips on throwing children's parties and has some very insightful parenting blogs.

Old Rectory Garden party - June 4th (Save the date!)

Come to our party

Launch of new Irish children’s clothing line – Old Rectory
 
The launch of Old Rectory, an Irish children’s organic clothing line will take place on Saturday June 4th, 2011 from 2- 6pm at the Old Rectory, Dunganstown, Co Wicklow.
 
The collection is designed by sisters Joanna and Stephanie Sloan, who will host a garden party and sample sale at their Wicklow print studio. Tea, cakes, children’s entertainment and print demos will take place over the afternoon. This event will benefit the Jack and Jill Foundation.
(Please see website www.oldrectory.ie for further details and directions)
 

Bird house pyjamas in sizes from 6months to 7 years.

With Spring in our step and the garden coming into bloom, we have been inspired to host a garden party to celebrate the launch of our online children's clothing shop. So come June our online shop will be live! Our afternoon garden party will include a sample sale of Old Rectory children's wear, quick demo's of How to Screen Print, demos of Willow Weaving, Drawing and some Gardening Tips along side servings of home made cakes, tea, fresh juices and some good old fashioned fete-style games for the children. Our clothes are 100% organic and we have chosen a ribbed cotton that is luxuriously soft as well as durable. Our samples have a few minor differences to our actual production run due to hit the shelves in June; thus is the nature of designing and developing clothes - we are always seeking to improve and experiment a little further. So don't forget, when you become a loyal customer of ours do give us lots of feed back - we want to make sure these clothes work on a practical front as well as looking gorgeous.

Swallow blanket and baby grow

Stephanie and I have been ruminating on the design of our gift boxes - the final look is there in our mind's eye.....it's just putting all the design elements together and carefully choosing a colour, size, final material.....gosh lots of stuff....on that note, back to work...

March round up.

March daffodils

Along side preparations for the launch of our online web site and getting press releases out - oh yeh and battling with technology, what I would do for a young techie geek! I'm know I would do what I am doing right now in a fraction of the time if only the computer would do as I say...does that ring familiar to anyone out there? Growing a business with the necessary reliance on today's technology is a huge learning curve and very time consuming.

However, after what feels like a wasted morning trying to burn a screen printing tutorial onto a DVD and sending out group emails, neither of which my vintage desktop is liking, hopefully I'll successfully post this blog, get outdoors and clear my head of file sizes, attachments,  et al.

Hello blue skies

For me March is always a bit hectic as we are in the middle of a run of birthday parties for the boys. Also, suddenly the garden needs digging and preparing for it's own spring/summer collection of fruits and vegetables. We planted 2 more plum trees in the orchard (just because I love plums!), more raspberries and 50 strawberry plants(plenty of strawberrry and ice cream eaters here). I'm not sure if the strawberries will fruit heavily this year but I am going to give them a bit of extra encouragement  with some of Prince Charles's Highgrove organic potion which my mother was talking about.  The snowdrops were stupendous at Ballard farm and we, at the Old Rectory have enjoyed hosts of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing under Wordsworth's lonely clouds.

The last of the snow drops at Ballard Farm

Half of our chitted potatoes were planted. The rest are sitting in the garden shed - I can't decide as to whether to plant the rest in the old pig paddock or give over that space entirely to sweet corn as it is sunny and sheltered on 3 sides- what better place to try our hand at producing heaps of those succulent cobs.

Little helpers getting the potato patch ready

Potatoes planted

At the studio we ran a workshop for Enable Ireland in March. The students were great and went home with printed t-shirts to show to their parents and friends. There was comaraderie and rivalry amongst the students as their true passions for premier league football teams and an infamous vampire became apparent in their screen print designs!

A visit from Transylvania

Is Chelsea the best or...

Man U?

Emma Tamplin, a professional life couch and founder of www.attractinlove.com, took the studio space for a weekend and gave a much in demand workshop in the Law of Attraction and How To Find Love. This workshop helps men and women understand how to use their intuition alongside Life Coaching and N. L. P. in order to draw them to what they want and need in life and love. Emma, a great friend of mine, also lives in Brittas Bay and we hope to welcome her back to the studio in the near future.

Emma Tamplin at the Old Rectory Studio

March workshop


Our 1 day workshops are a great way of sharing our skills as print designers with students who want to develop ideas and interpret them onto textiles. As well as tutoring and meeting new people we also get to show our new clothing collection to fresh eyes and beg for their honest opinion! So far, reactions have been really positive and encouraging which is a wonderful boost for Stephanie and I. On tho the next thing - our minds are buzzing with ideas for 3 new prints for Spring/Summer 2012. Just walking around the garden and country side is giving endless inspiration which, with time, discipline and an artistic hand will hopefully lead to our next collection.

Student's work - a beautiful tote bag

Drying the prints

Pulling a print

Over the next couple of months you should see some refreshing changes and updates to our studio web site. We want to make it a bit more lively so we are going to add a short movie clip showing a quick Step by Step guide to screen printing. Our little sister Louisa is Director of this project and I look forward to seeing what her choice of music is for the sound track!

Lifting off the screen