Behind The Scenes...

Susie Watson Designs is about making beautiful handmade products for the home.
Susie designs all the time; she can switch from a glass vase to tweed fabric, to new wallpaper ideas in the space of a few minutes!

The most important thing for us is to make sure that you can see the quality, skill and effort that goes into the making of these products.

We invest heavily in great photography, so we thought you might like to see what goes on behind the beautiful images you see. These are some sneak shots of a recent shoot which took place in Susie’s house.

Internal rooms are always quite tricky. As well as constantly moving light levels, it’s always a challenge to get full width room sets into a narrow shot, and usually takes quite a bit of juggling.

We always have to factor in the dog element. All three of Susie’s dogs are very excited by the arrival of all these strange people and the movement of their home whilst the shoot is in full flow.

Monty however doesn’t really see why anything and everything shouldn’t be tested for comfort.

He was very taken with the beautiful Duck egg sofa shot, which he felt showed him off to his full advantage, and wasn’t moving until he had a decent shot of himself taken.

Night shots can be stunning if they are successful – for those of you who have tried night photography, I’m sure you will see the skill behind this shot.

Waiting until just the right time of the evening when day light ends and night takes over we shot repetitive images to make sure we hit just the right amount of darkness. The result shows it was well worth the wait.

Along with our new zoom facility on our website, we very much hope you enjoy shopping our products, and feel we provide you with the best view we can before you buy!

Moving Indoors For Winter

The temperature is dropping and the evenings are shorter, and this makes us all here want to move indoors for winter and make a cosy home to retreat to.

Imagine curling up with a good book in front of an open fire, and suddenly winter doesn’t seem so bad!
This chair of Susie’s is covered in screen printed red Shalini linen fabric, accessorised with rich olive and lovat green velvet cushions. These are mixed with hand printed linen in our Bloomsbury green.

We mix piles of throws into our range which not only adds beautiful colours, but are so comforting and warm for this time of year. 100% Shetland wool means they are really durable for everyday living as well.

Susie’s colour eye really displays itself in the throws, she mixes the unusual and comes up with such great contrasts and themes of colour, which really compliment each other.

The Bloomsbury design also comes in curtain and upholstery fabric shown below. We make our curtains super thick with interlining and instead of using plain cream linings we use piping stripes in contrasting colours and they are finished with a Beech Fan Edge.

Our curtain and blind making service offers a comprehensive package, either provide your own measurements and fabric choices and let our in store teams do the rest of the planning for you. They will calculate everything you need and then you are able to use our curtain make up service, or take your fabric to a curtain maker of your choice.

Alternatively you can visit one of our shops and arrange to meet with one of our teams of in house stylists, who will help you put a scheme together. For a very competitive fee they will even arrange a visit to your home.

All you need now is a gorgeous mug to warm your hands, and a delicious cup of tea!

Susie Watson Designs - Christmas 2012

Well we know it’s early but no matter what you do, Christmas will be in our lives very soon.

Here at Susie Watson Designs we have been involved in Christmas for quite some time, as there is so much preparation that needs to be done in order to get these gorgeous products here for Christmas shopping.

At the moment Mr Ravi and his team over in India are busily trying to finish the Christmas stockings and advent calendars, as well as making tea towels and aprons.

We feel that things like the stocking and advent calendars can become real family heirlooms, they are so beautifully made you would never get tired of bringing them out at Christmas time.

Whilst all you ladies may be stuck in the kitchen on Christmas morning, you may as well wear our light hearted Frank Christmas Apron, and get everyone else drying up with the Boris tea towels.

The Christmas dinner for many of us is one of the most important meals of the year and Susie wanted to create a range of ceramics which were again things you would want to collect, keep and use year after year.

In addition to the little Dove motif, she has added the new Robin design which is on our Christmas mug, mini pitcher and candlepots.

These blend beautifully with things like the Christmas jug and cake stand which make bigger statement pieces. Rather than hide your Christmas cake away in a tin make it pride of place on this lovely display stand –even finish with some of our red piping stripe ribbon.

No house is complete without its’ Christmas decorations, and we have a delightful collection of hand painted ceramic decorations and hand blown glass baubles. These look stunning on the tree and again can become collector’s items each year.

Relax in candle light in the evening or enjoy a candle lit supper with our collection of dinner candles and scented candle pots. These also make such useful gifts over the festive period; a box of 6 hand painted dinner candles comes smartly boxed ready to gift wrap, and the scented candle pots make lovely little stocking fillers.

To see our full range of Christmas products go to www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

We have stores in the following locations:

Alresford,
Marlborough,
London
Tunbridge Wells
Marlow - Opening Soon!

You can visit our shops page here

Hamish's Elderflower Cordial Recipe

Courtesy of www.ashridgetrees.co.uk

A lovely refreshing summer drink perfect for in the garden.

You will need:

- 35 fresh elder flower heads

- 2 oranges, rough sliced,
- 2 lemons, also rough sliced,
- 2oz tartaric or citric acid,

- 3 pints boiling water,
- 3lb granulated sugar,
- 1 Camden tablet per gallon of cordial,
- Large plastic container,
- Glass or food grade plastic bottles with airtight caps,
- A Siphon tube,
- J-cloths or wine filtering fabric,
- A large sieve.

Instructions

- Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Allow it to cool properly.
- Add the orange and lemon slices to the cool sugar water.
- Stir in and make sure the tartaric or citric acid is dissolved.
- Add the elder flower heads.
- Cover it up with a lid or cloth (we like to use a 5 gallon (25 litre) home winemaking plastic barrels) and leave it for 48-72 hours.
- Strain the mixture and leave for another 48 hours.
- We then siphon it all to another container, leaving the sediment/dregs behind and then we add 1 crushed Camden tablet per gallon of cordial.
- Shake well, and then leave for 3-4 hours to settle.
- Bottle, leaving behind any more dregs.
- If you don’t want to use two large containers, then you will need to add a crushed Camden tablet at the rate of 1 per gallon (1/2 a tablet to a 4 pint milk container for example) and carefully siphon directly into that.
- Shake the bottle well after you have filled it and do the top up tightly. Shake it again an hour or two later to make sure the tablet has dissolved. It will then keep for ages – as in years.

Always use sterilised bottles:

- Microwave: 2-3 minutes should kill anything.
- Oven: put glass bottles into your cold oven. Run it up to about 140C, keep it there for 10-15 minutes and then leave it to cool.
- You can also use Milton or just boiling hot water.

How long you can store your cordial:

- With no acids or tablets – 3-4 weeks in the fridge. Freeze in plastic bottles for longer storage.
- With the citric or tartaric acid it will keep for 3-4 months in the fridge.
- With the Camden tablets, elderflower cordial keeps almost indefinitely in a cool, dark place.

Dilute the cordial to taste (about 1:5) and Enjoy!

Susie Watson Designs Hand Painted Pottery from Sri Lanka

We’ve a little update on our team working in Sri Lanka, Susie kindly brought these photos back with her from her recent trip.

The factory was started in 1968, and it is still a family owned business. Some workers have been there over 30 years, with grown up children working alongside their parents.

Many of the techniques employed have not been used for many years, and when Susie’s business came along, some skills had to be reintroduced and re learnt.

The staff are incredibly skilled decorative painters; Duleeka is the paint making girl who mixes and creates the new paints, spots are dropped on by hand, bands are drawn with paintbrushes. Priya apparently can paint the bands with her eyes shut! And all of the designs are placed onto the ceramic by hand cut sponges - Deepika does these and is an expert. Depending what time of year it is they will be painting all sorts of things, Iresha is really good at Christmas designs at the moment.

She is finalising the painting of some of Susie’s new Christmas designs which we think are beautiful and a lovely addition to the Christmas pottery collection.


Susie will have been working on the designs here in the UK before she goes to Sri Lanka, and then when it’s sampled over there, any adjustments can be made.

These will be made now and shipped over to us in time for late autumn delivery and ready to go for Christmas time!

Wedding Season

It’s that time of year again – the gorgeous English Summer Wedding.

We love going to weddings here at Susie Watson Designs; the excitement of the day, seeing all the preparations come to fruition and everyone coming together for the day to celebrate.

It’s always a dilemma what to give the happy couple these days and there are many new thoughts about donating towards something special such as a honeymoon or large household item.

We still think that to give something beautiful and lasting is a long treasured gesture. For those of us who are married, we still look at gifts given to us that are still in the home many years on, and they are a constant reminder of the giver.

There are so many beautiful things here at Susie Watson Design to choose from, but we really like the statement pieces such as our jugs which hold bundles of fresh flowers.

The large bowls sit on the side and hold everything from fresh fruit to the mail and car keys and look stunning as a centrepiece for a table.

In the bedroom we think one of our butterfly tree quilts would make a gift that would become an heirloom with its’ exquisite embroidery and delicate colours.

We are constantly amazed at the care and skill needed to create our hand made products, and this care seems especially fitting for a gift to celebrate a wedding.

Whatever you chose from a cushion to ceramics we are sure your recipient would be thrilled.

We also have extra services for the bride and groom; a full wedding list service, and even party hire of our ceramics range to create that Susie Watson Designs ‘look’. Details of these can be found on the wedding page of our website.

Stores are now available in the following locations:

Marlborough
London
Tunbridge Wells
Alresford

Becca's trip to India - The colour process.

Susie is fascinated by colour and one of the most important aspects of this trip was to ensure that the exact colour matches to her artwork were achieved.
Susie herself has spent hours in the colour sheds in India with the local colour masters, and Becca didn’t hesitate to follow in her footsteps. When the process begins, it’s referred to as a ‘mind’ colour, which means we have to get it into the physical form!
Nothing can happen until these colours are finalised, and they have to be produced time and time again as further printing takes place.

You can see from the images below, the bolt which secures the screens so there is no movement whilst the layering process is happening.
The straight side of the screen is the edge of the fabric. The wavy edge is where the next screen merges onto the first, with a skilful hand it is invisible to us, quite amazing!
A chemical process stops any colour appearing on the fabric where it is not required.

At last some progress being made!

Exactly the same process can happen for cushions with mini screens being made for the new designs being trialled.
When this colour and print process has been perfected, the fabric is then dried and rolled for delivery or given to Mr Ravis team to make up in to the range of textile accessories Susie has designed.
The next time you pick up one of our beautiful textile products consider the work, ingenuity and skill needed, before it makes it’s way to you!

Our Woman In India... Contact Made!

After some modern communication issues Becca is able to tell us more about her trip to India.

We’ve all been fascinated in the office about the complicated processes which are required for screen printed fabrics, and the skill needed to produce them.

After spending some time in Mr Ravis factory Becca moved on to the screen printers. As you can see from the countryside she travelled through, she was in an agricultural area, and one of the crops being harvested was Tumeric which is piled for drying pre manufacture into a product we all recognise. It’s a valuable crop so whilst this process is going on someone sleeps in shelter made from the drying crop.

At the factory the new screens are under way...

Becca has previously taken Susie’s original designs at home and put them on to computer software. This allowed her to strip each colour from the design, layer by layer, until she had a set of drawings, which once laid back on top of each other again made the finished full colour design.

These layers of the design represent one screen print frame, so a whole series of these frames is needed to make a panel of the finished design. Becca hands over her work to the experts!

The base fabric is laid out, and it is a meticulous process of positioning each screen to ensure the pattern is perfect. If the subsequent screens are not laid on top in exactly the right position the next colour layer will not match the pattern required.

The colour application is also a tricky process – just the right amount of colour has to be applied, and with just the right amount of pressure. By the end of the week they even let Becca have a go!

The temperature during the day was about 38 degrees, with very high humidity, and added to the tough change for her in temperature, she was also fighting a bit of jet lag.


Work was interrupted by standard power cuts throughout the area twice a day which also meant that the work had to start at 6am to get some printing in before they began, and working until early evening – definitely not a glamour job!

We loved the fact that Becca travelled half way around the world, and to and from the factory, exhausted, with her Susie Watson bag!!

Well Done!

Our Woman In India

Evening,

I just thought I would send a quick update.. Bed is calling, so I shall be brief and get more to you tomorrow.

After a very VERY long flight (made even longer by the snoring man next to me and the screaming child in front) I arrived safely... having got off the plane in a fleece hoody, I didn't feel at all prepared for the 34 degrees waiting for me (bearing in mind it was 6 degrees when I left the UK on Sunday) However, I'm yet to keel over so I would say it's been successful so far!

The drive from the airport to Karur was certainly an eye opener, I'm fairly sure you wouldn't be able to survive driving here without a fully functioning, and very loud, horn. There doesn't seem to be any rules of the road, with motorbikes, cyclists, cars, trucks and the odd cow flying in all directions.

Having arrived at our suppliers I managaed to do a little bit of work, looking at the new hellibore cushion and possibly a new version of a bird cushion (images to follow). I had a lovely tour round the factory by Sowbi, who took me up on the roof, where Susie shot the beginning of the textile film. It's really nice to be able to put it in context.

Anyway, I'm super tired so I'm heading off to bed now in preparation for a full day tomorrow.

Speak soon,

Becca

Inspirational Fabrics from Susie Watson Designs

Interview with Susie Watson.

Our little factory in Karur lies in the heart of the cotton weaving area in Southern India. It is from here that some of the finest cotton in the world is produced. It is run by Mr Ravi and his delightful family whom I have been working with for many years.

Only the best cotton will be sent for weaving and every batch of yarn will be dyed with the utmost care. The amazingly skilful team care passionately about all the beautiful products they make for us. How very lucky we are.

For the past year I have been working in Rajasthan with him to create an exciting new range of designs for hand block printing on linen. The designs we have created are totally unique and I am thrilled with the final results and really grateful to the talented people who worked so hard to perfect them.

Block printing is a remarkable way of creating pattern, and quite unique to this area of India. Each block is intricately carved by hand from wood, exactly to our original artwork, often starting as a simple sketch.

Our Rose design alone has more than 15 different blocks with each layer of colour applied separately. It is an enormous challenge to produce this on a commercial scale, but we think their efforts are worth it!

Our fabrics are made by humans not machines, small variations are part of the handmade charm and should not be considered a fault but a reflection of their uniqueness.

All of our fabrics are available at the following locations as well as online at www.susiewatsondesigns.co.uk

Susie Watson Designs Marlborough
114 High Street
Marlborough
Wiltshire
SN8 1LT
Tel. 01672 514542

Susie Watson Designs Fabric Showroom

5 High Street

Marlborough

Wiltshire

SN8 1AA

Tel. 01672 511281

Susie Watson Designs London

125 Northcote Road

London

SW11 6PS

Tel. 0207 2289955

Susie Watson Designs Alresford

16 West Street

Alresford

Hampshire

SO24 9AT

Tel. 01962 734171

NEW STORE Opening May 2012

Susie Watson Designs Tunbridge Wells

15 High Street

Tunbridge Wells