I have entered the iZettle Elevator Pitch competition and if you help me win by voting for me, I will give Doris away to one of you picked at random to say thank you for voting!
So all you have to do is follow this link ☞http://bit.ly/18y3XCn and click on the little love heart until it turns red. (you've got to be in the UK, on Facebook and be over 18) then like Ziggy Sawdust on Facebook and you're in!
I've slipped down to 8th place so I need your help! Every vote counts!
I am currently in the midst of redesigning my website! I am quite enjoying it but I am fearful of some technical hitches coming my way soon!
I will let you know when it's set to go live when I have a better idea myself, but for now I thought I would share some 'Before + After' collages that I have put together to tell the stories of my furniture. Here they are:
'Grace' redesigned vintage telephone seat
'Mick' redesigned 1970s cocktail cabinet
'Twiggy' redesigned 1960s dressing table
'Marianne' redesigned 1960s dressing table
'George' upcycled free-standing display shelf!
'Marilyn' redesigned original 1950s dressing table
I am not long back from a much needed, amazing 2 week holiday in France with my family.
We all had such a lovely time and, if it wasn't for this wonderful weather that we are getting at home just now, I would be wishing I was jetting back there again tomorrow!
Although I did get stuck into some work while I was out there, it was such a luxury to have more than one day off... I had a whole 14!
France is such a beautiful country and we were staying in the heart of the Dordogne countryside. We visited an abundance of pretty towns and the Brocantes (junk shops) and Vide Greniers (car boot sales) were an absolute dream! And, I have never eaten so many Pain Au Chocolats in my life... so all in all it was a fabulous holiday!
Here's some of my favourite photos to sum up the trip:
Last year, I acquired some lovely old furniture
from a lady, after meeting her brother one day on a train to Aberdeen… (You can
read the full story here!) One of the pieces she very kindly gave to me was
this vintage chest of drawers. It was really beautiful piece and had been
extremely well loved, but some panels were missing, others were falling off,
the beading was chipped and broken and the drawers were very stiff and heavy.
I made the decision to use the chest of
drawers in a new way, and create things from its different elements. I had
already made a big ‘Z’ for Ziggy out of three of the drawers for my workshop
wall, but just recently I had the idea to make a piece of furniture out of one
of the remaining drawers.
I love mid-century furniture legs, so I
ordered a reclaimed set, then got to work sanding, drilling, screwing,
cleaning, priming and painting… and in the end, I got this!
I was struggling to think of a name for
this piece, but Fiona helped me when we were installing the Pop-up Shop. A Wham!
record I own (…guilty pleasure!) soon became the soundtrack to all our hard
work, so Fiona wanted to dedicate a piece George Michael. So meet George, the
freestanding display shelf!
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I'm sure you will have already heard that I am putting together a Pop-up Shop in Edinburgh, with fellow creative business owner Fiona Purves from Paper Aeroplane, to celebrate our businesses first birthdays! And it is opening THIS WEEK!!
To paint a clear picture of what it's all about, I will give you the 'official' description :)
Two Edinburgh based designers are bringing their products together and hosting a Pop-up Shop in the city, to celebrate their businesses first birthdays.
Ziggy Sawdust's lovingly upcylcled vintage furniture and Paper Aeroplane's playful greetings cards and prints make the perfect pairing as they are both full of colour, fun, nostalgia and sentimentality.
The amalgamation of the brands is set to create an alluring and endearing visual display. Think bold. Think quirky. Think mini installations of the designers’ products alongside flowers, balloons, garlands and other fun party paraphernalia.
We have also made a short promo video!
It was filmed by Jess Connell and Nikki Godley, and the cute little tune was made especially for us by Fiona's boyfriend Tim!
We have been planning this Pop-up Shop since Fiona and I first met in February... we have really put our heads together to organise something (that we hope will be!) very special.
It's funny to think that the two of us have only known each other since then. Fiona saw the video Future Positive made about me and Ziggy, and thought our products would work well together.... and things have just snowballed from there! Turns out it's not just our products that work well together, but we do too!
From the outset, Fiona and I were very conscious that we don't want our Pop-up shop to simply be our products in a space. We want it to be visually exciting, fun and we want to get people talking! And to be able to make this vision a reality, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to help us fund the project. At the time of writing this, our project has raised £1,163 and we still have 4 days to go!! So we are two very happy bunnies!
If you didn't know already, Kickstarter is a website which helps creative people launch creative projects... with the help and support from people who would like to see the idea succeed. If you've got a spare moment, have a wee read about what we'd like to achieve & watch our video, and if you can pledge a little something to help us reach our goal, not only will we be forever grateful, but we will also send you a pretty special reward to say thank-you! So it's a win, win!
Well, I think that's me got you all up to date with what the Pop-up Shop is all about! So if you are looking for something to do in Edinburgh this coming bank holiday weekend, it will be open to the public from Saturday 25th - Wednesday 29th of May.
We would love to see you there! Fiona illustrated the beautiful map above ↑ to help you find us, and the address is:
First Birthday Pop-up Shop
Whitespace
11 Gayfield Square
Edinburgh
P.S You can also keep up to date with all our progress and see the Pop-up Shop come to life by Liking our collaborative Facebook page called Ziggy Aeroplane! ☞www.facebook.com/ziggyaeroplane
Very, very excited to be featured in i-on Magazine's Interior Design Special this month!
Kind words and a very nice photo of 'Mick' the cocktail cabinet and 'Elton' the Elephant... along with one of me coincidentally matching my furniture exactly!
We're on p.36-37 and you can have a wee read by clicking here ☞http://ow.ly/kBrHh
This is my favourite quote from the piece:
‘“I saw men offloading Mick Jagger from a van into a junk yard, and I just knew I had to have him”, says Amy. Don’t worry, The Rolling Stones front man hasn’t been kidnapped, ‘Mick’ is an old cocktail cabinet. Saving old furniture from the dump isn’t just a hobby for the young designer, it’s a business.’
... If only it was the real Mick Jagger (circa 1965) that I'd kidnapped!
Have you heard of HowDo? If not, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon! It's a free social media app which allows you to effortlessly make quick, spontaneous tutorials about anything you fancy.
I have often thought about doing video or blog tutorials, but I have always been put of by how long it would take. HowDo makes it so fun to capture ideas and share your way of doing things. You simply take a series of photographs highlighting the steps of what you are doing, and then record little sound bites to narrate the sequence.
For my first tutorial, I decided to show you how to make a big, fluffy pom-pom!
I had the pleasure of meeting the very inspiring Nills and Sofia from HowDo at the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire at the beginning of the month. They carried out a little interview with me and posted it onto their blog :)
Being kept so busy in the run up to my
stint as ‘Maker of the Month’ at Concrete Wardrobe, I realise I haven’t
introduced you to the new additions to Ziggy’s collection!
Elvis
So first of all, I’ll introduce you to
‘Elvis’, the 1950s chest of drawers!
I found him in his original state, at the
back of a second hand furniture depot. He was looking a bit dusty and had lost
one of his original handles but I could see his potential!
Inspired by The King, the blues and his
blue suede shoes, I decided to paint the body of the chest of drawers navy,
refinish the wood on the drawer faces and painting pretty original 50’s drawer
to match the inside of each drawer, with each being painted a different shade.
And it’s little mid-century legs were each painted a different colour too!
Harry
I spotted this telephone seat in the window
of a charity shop as I drove past on the bus. I gave the shop a call and got
them to reserve it for me straight away. I thought that with a splash of colour
and a new seat cover, it could be transformed into something pretty funky!
When I was getting to work, I discovered a
date stamp underneath the seat- 13th March 1979, meaning this is one
of the youngest pieces of furniture that I’ve worked on!
And it has it’s original, quirky, pullout
memory slide!
I went for blue colours to tie this in with
‘Elvis’ and I chose to reupholster the seat with white fluffy fabric. It’s the
same fabric I used on a 1970s ottoman called ‘Debbie’ from my first collection…
do you remember her?
She was named after Debbie Harry because of
her stiletto heels and peroxide top. And with the telephone seat’s fluffy top,
and the obvious references to telephones in Blondie’s big hits ‘Hanging on the
Telephone’ and ‘Call Me’, it seems fitting to name another piece after Debs, one
of my all time heroes!
Elton
And, for a bit of fun, here’s Elton!
My dad had an old wooden elephant sitting
by the side of his sofa, blending in with the décor and not getting much
attention and so he gave it to me, thinking it might be fun to Ziggify!
With him being ornamental, I decided to go
all out there with colour and pattern! I added polka dots, eye patches and
coloured in his tusks… he was largely inspired by Elephants in Indian Kerala culture, but
with his eccentric feel, it seemed apt to name him ‘Elton’ after Elton John!
Doris
I’ve been a bit negligent and forgot to
take a photo of this wee 1950s chair before I done it up! But it was looking a
bit scuffed up and was covered in a yellowing varnish, which I was itching to
sand off!
Colour blocked, with a little fluffy
pillow, its mid-century character has been brought to life. And being from the
50s and having a touch of glamour and pizzazz about her, I’ve called her
‘Doris’ after Doris Day!
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