Hi Everyone - just to let you know the latest - another lovely tweed recycled accessory is now up for sale on my Etsy shop. Please visit the shop to see a full description. Suffice to say, that if I have to stand on a feezing cold railway platform or bust stop at 7 in the morning this winter, I WILL be using one!
This is a sister product to the colsca, and there will be more and various to come!

Hi Everyone, 

This coming Sunday, 14th July, I will be showing my bespoke tweeds again, (www.ateliernaturalhistory.co.uk), including my summer Harris Tweed jacket sample, sample colscas, and a companion to the colsca - the bagamuffin. (This a combination of a bag and a muff - hence the name!) I will have tweed fabric swatch books and sample cards for you to drool over, and inspire you to imagine a top quality bespoke outfit for yourself. 
This happens at the the Fine and Country polo event, which is advertised as the 'biggest in the country', and I am told that there are 5000 prebooked visitors already. 
General public can enter for £5 I think, (please check DB polo club website: www.dbpoloclub.com), and you can watch polo matches (chukkas), bring your own picnic, and with any luck, the weathershould last :-)
Hopefully, you won't need your tweed jacket this weekend, but come the Autumn......

Please have a look at my website below, and hope to see you there! 

Details below: 

Fast Cars, Luxury Jewellery, Professional Photography and even Helicopter Rides – this years Fine & Country Warwickshire Gold Cup is set to be the best yet!‪#‎fineandcountrypolo‬

The event is being held at the prestigious Dallas Burston Polo Club, near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire on Sunday 14th July, 11am-5pm. More than just a Polo Tournament, the day is ideal for children with pony rides and bouncy castles, and even better for adults, taking advantage of the wide selection of premium exhibition stands. 

Take a look at this video for what is in store:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_P3PXzGlY
http://www.fineandcountry/polo
www.fineandcountry

Ahhhhhhh, at last!!

The  photos by Pier Corona of my tweedy clothing - jackets and trousers which were kindly loaned by the woman who commissioned the work originally, and modelled by the lovely Emily Harkness, are in the current issue of Four Shires magazine!! And they look beautiful - thanks to Four Shires' quality printing, but most of all to Pier the photographer, and Emily who had just the right look for this shoot. 
I don't think it's available online (but will be as a back issue after this month), but please have a look at a copy if you live in or anywhere near Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, or Gloucestershire, UK. It's the monthly county glossy of this area, along with Cotswold life....
This made my day, after having the 4th visit to the dentist in a week (root canals!).....took my mind off it at least! 
:-)

At long last, I have finished the design for the Atelier Natural History Tweeds flyer AND the business card. Some things just go smoothly and easily, but others just take a bit of rejigging and rejigging and, and.......! Anyway, here it is, a slightly different version from the one I posted yesterday on facebook, but this is the finished article - hope you like it.
On the 'Summer Tweeds' subject, I have more swatches of summery colour tweeds on the way from the Isle of Harris, and plan to have a sample jacket made in time for a show I am doing. This is for the Ladies Day @ Dallas Burston Polo Club not far from here, near Southam in Warwickshire on Sunday 23rd June. Tickets for Ladies day are available here or here but entrance to the grounds is free, so it would be worth a visit if you are into polo, horses, or just fancy lunch/coffee in the impressive clubhouse in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside. There will be a lot of stands in the Shopping Village, and Louis Mariette, milliner to celebrities, will be doing demonstrations of his headpieces. More details to come... really hope to see you there, and don't forget that entrance is free!

New business card image

As well as the design and make part of my life, I do other stuff too.... I am a lover of words amongst other things - I love a beautifully turned phrase, and music, song lyrics (I have been known to write one or two), poetry, and good prose are very important to me. I think that these things are life enhancing...
A friend of mine told me that the Cockney rhyming slang for a Harris tweed suit is 'April flute'. O.K. I get the  flute bit for 'whistle and flute - suit', but April????? Turns out that - now keep up - the provenance of 'April flute' is therefore: April in Paris - Harris, whistle and flute - suit', get it??!
So just to see if there were any nice accompanying images to brighten up this post, I googled 'April in Paris' and found this fab and cool 50's jazz album cover....Thad Jones was an American Jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. I digress.....I liked this image anyway, and the one below, so here you are! Words and music in action - here's Thad in action - though there's not a lot of action going on - he's just standing there enjoying it!! A little something for everyone I hope - words, visuals and music - what more could you want?

Have a look at this - the article is interesting from a tweed business point of view, but scroll down to near the bottom for the rear view of a group of tweed clad young ladies.
Could this be the Highland grouse moor equivalent of, dare I say it, groupies? 'Estate tweed', has a new meaning.....http://www.breanishtweed.co.uk/pdf/Field.pdf

Very pleased to announce that I will apparently have a nice article with photos about my tweedy stuff in Four Shires magazine in the June issue... Sorry - to explain to those not local to me,  it's one of those monthly county glossies, and will hopefully reach my potential customers in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire. Very strange how the tweeds have developed out of the wedding dress business...strange but true! The article will explain a bit, but the word count is very limiting!
Will let you know when it's actually out...

I'm doing another bit of research about Harris tweed: The questions are, ' Have you ever/do you own(ed) a garment made from Harris tweed? How old is it? Could you state your feelings about it? '

These are some responses I've had so far, but I'd love some more if you could spare a minute or two? (Proper names and manufacturers omitted.)

' I had a Harris tweed jacket when I was a student and loved it. Not very trendy at the time but really well made, and (considering it came from a charity shop) fitted like a glove. Much to my chagrin I left it near a fire to dry and burnt a large hole in it. Feelings? I miss it, boohoo! '

 ' ***** has just bought me a ********** Harris Tweed and I recently got one with matching waistcoat from *********** but its not Harris Tweed and you can tell the difference ,the Harris Tweed will put up with bad treatment it's warm doesn't crease and is shower resistant. ********** had one when she was a child her grandmother recommended it as her father was a tailor. My dad was also a big fan.'

This is a really great blog from a fantastic website. What I love about the whole Harris tweed thing is that it really comes across as non glitzy (although the quality of the goods is toppest of top notch!), it's understated, and seriously promotes the best possible quality. They obviously have great advertising and promotion people, and they are doing a great job of maintaining the appeal of traditional, quality style through non gushing, but interestingly informative text and amazingly good photographs. Please have a look if you love top quality goods that should last a lifetime. 'Cheap stuff' and the the 'throwaway society' don't appeal much to me!
See below:
http://www.harristweed.org/blog/

Ooooooooh, just found these online, and I do love them.....not surprising, as they are by RocketDog, a pair of who's lovely vinyl plaid short boots I already own! I guess I could customise some exisiting shoes with tweed, but making shoes from scratch I've never done. (With the exception of some calf-high moccasins I once made from an old sheepskin jacket. I loved them until they disintegrated....)
On the other hand,  hats I have made before, which gets my brain going re the tweed.....as far as accessories go, in existence already, there's the colsca, the 'bagamuffin' - (combination of bag and muff) now in the design drawing stage, and now the hat.... not to mention the fingercuff, in thought process now. 
Any requests or suggestions please feel free to contact me in reply to this, or through the contact page of Atelier Natural History, my website for the tweeds. 
The patchwork tweed coat with beautiful, unvarnished, resin scented buttons from Helsinki is approaching completion. See the buttons here. Photos of course when it's all finished....
Speak soon,
Bobbie