‘George’ the freestanding drawer!

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! 

We're Popping Up Soon!

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

I'm in i-on!

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!