xmas eve

it's xmas eve and we were hoping for snow today ....
maybe if we wish hard enough, we will wake up xmas morning
to a beautiful snowy white wonderland
{we'll let you know}

in the meantime, it's been lovely & sunny today but so chilly,
everything feels cold and still and blue .....

thankyou for all your support this year
and we will see you in 2010.

have a beautiful xmas & new years

sammy & glenn


{images: sammy}

sammy's wish: shiny & golden

a collection of beautiful shiny golden pieces
that have caught my eye


Plan B Cable Tie Ring Kit
by Ambre France

instructions for use:
Plan A*
1. Fall in Love
2. Get Married
3. Live happily ever after
*If Plan A fails resort to Plan B

Plan B
1. Cut ALL ties


Golden Jubilee Rings
adjustable jubilee clip rings
by Ambre France


gold plated metal vessels
by Adi Toch


left: hand carved oval Hawaiian black coral band
and brushed oval gold band
right: cloud ring
by Christina Odegard {at Matin Gallery}


left: cluster ring
right: puddle ring
by Christina Odegard {at Matin Gallery}

thankyou Lynne

what a lovely surprise today! - looking through posts at some of our
favourite blogs, we saw that we had been featured
on Tea For Joy by the lovely Lynne.

we have been following Lynne's blog for a while now and she

features some great stuff, including some really nice
British made work.

you can take a look at the post {here}

thankyou Lynne!

our last posting days for xmas

here are our last posting days for xmas:



for posting outside of the uk,
please contact us

www.pachadesign.co.uk

the weekend

a huge thankyou to everyone that came to visit
us at the weekend.
we hadn't opened our studio at xmas time before
and were a little worried that if the weather
was bad we wouldn't get that many visitors.

but the sun came out and it was a lovely fresh winter weekend.
we made mince pies, little lemon biscuits &
orange with cinnamon bicsuits and mulled wine
which everyone enjoyed.



lots of xmas presents were brought - our leaf lanterns,
oak chopping/serving boards, reclaimed cornish slate mirrors,
oak tea-light blocks, reclaimed cornish slate clocks
& more - so we had a really successful weekend.



the xmas open studio was our last event of this year
but you can still buy from our website {here}
or buy our work from exhibitions {here}

thanks again to everyone that visited!

thanks lily

we wanted to say thanks to Lily at Les carnets du design
for including us in her latest post
"Ideas for Christmas"

Lily features some beautiful finds on her blog and
has posted 4 lovely selections for xmas ideas so far.

you can check out her blog {here}

thanks Lily!

our xmas open studio ..... so far

we thought we'd show you a few pictures we took yesterday
of our xmas open studio here in Welcombe.
it was a beautiful sunny winter's day, quite chilly but we
had plenty of mince pies, snowflake biscuits & mulled wine
to keep our visitors warm.

we were open yesterday until 6pm, so as it got dark we put
little candles in jars everywhere and a few faery lights here & there.
it looked quite magical.



this morning is just as sunny and we are making another
batch of mince pies & biscuits, the mulled wine will
be ready for 11am too.


we will be open until 4pm today
hope you can visit us.

{click here for details}

sammys wish: books

books are always on my wish lists
here are a few I want at the moment:

paris: made by hand
by
Pia Jane Bijkerk

the suitcase series
volume 1
by
Camilla Engman

snowflakes and schnapps
by
Jane Lawson

home is where the heart is?
by
Isla Crawford

and

etcetera
by
Sibella Court


{any other recommendations ?}

glenn's wish: emmeline hastings sculpture

another artist's work we saw at "wrapped up", when we went to
give The Devon Guild more of our mirror's,
was Emmeline Hastings stunning sculptures.

we both loved them, but Glenn spied them first and was
really taken with them - they looked beautifully fluid and light,
almost like tiny little feathers.

Emmeline's pieces are inspired by the visualisation
of sound and music - the sculptures are her interpretation
of hearing & feeling the vibrations of these sounds.

Using perspex, stainless steel and silver, Emmeline creates beautiful
tactile sculptures that give optical effects and the illusion of movement.

to see more of her work, you can visit her website {here}
and she has some lovely pieces on show at The Devon Guild
xmas exhibition "wrapped up", on until 3rd jan 2010.

sammy's wish: pauline edie jewellery

I totally fell in love with Pauline Edie's jewellery when I was
looking online to see what other makers were putting work
in The Devon Guild's xmas exhibition "wrapped up".

I did a post about the exhibition {here} and had to mention
her work because it totally intrigued me when I came
across her website.

We delivered work for the exhibition and then, about a week
and a half later, got a call to say that most of our mirrors
had sold already. So we delivered a few more and got to
see the exhibition set up and Pauline's beautiful jewellery!


Inspired by childhood stories and illustrations, Pauline uses
porcelain, white precious metal, gold glaze and

oxidised precious metal for her brooches, rings,
bangles and neck pieces.
Some of her pieces have her sketches transferred onto the porcelain too.

I love the whole collection but I think my favourite piece
is the rapunzel's hair neck piece.

You can see more of her work on her website .. {click here}
and also in the "wrapped up" exhibition which is on
until the 3rd of january 2010.


{a little wish came true - I bought one of Pauline's rings from the exhibition}

our wish lists

whenever we do a show or take work to an exhibition,
we always see beautiful handmade work from other
designer makers that we so want to buy.

we come back from a show or a gallery delivery and ask each other
what our favourite things were and what we would buy
(most of the time we love the same things)
and, sometimes,
if we are sneaky enough,
we buy each other a surprise gift from the show or gallery
while the other isn't looking.

so we thought we would share a few things from
our "wish lists" with you - hopefully they may even
give you a few ideas for xmas.

{1st wish in the next post}

thanks pia!

a big big thankyou to pia for including our
little leaf lanterns on her "holiday gift ideas for the home"

such a lovely surprise!

pia's blog is one of our favourites, always full of beautiful things,
inspiring photography & words, and sounds sometimes too!
and lovely stories from her houseboat in Amsterdam

so we were thrilled when we spied our leaf lanterns on her
recent post .... thanks pia.

be sure to check out the rest of pia's hoilday gift guides - she has
good ethics when it comes to how we should all think about
buying gifts - handmade, local, recycled, vintage - ethics that
we feel strongly about too.

our 1st xmas open studio

*our 1st xmas open studio*

Sat 12th Dec (11am-6pm) & Sun 13th Dec (11am-4pm)

come & join us at our studio in Welcombe
for snowflake biscuits, mince pies & mulled wine
and to buy your handmade xmas gifts

*mirrors*clocks*leaf lanterns*
*lamps*chopping boards*tea-lights*
*furniture & more*
(and we are giving 20% off almost everything!)

well barn, well farm, Welcombe,
near Bideford, Devon, ex39 6hg

Welcombe lies on the coast at the border
of North Devon & North Cornwall
inbetween Bude & Hartland.

*follow signs to our studio from the A39 at Welcombe Cross*
*we are 150 yards from our lovely local pub*

hope you can visit us
merry xmas

sammy & glenn


{w: www.pachadesign.co.uk}
{e: info"at"pachadesign.co.uk.}
{t: 01288 331505}


{p.s. how was your weekend ? hope you had a good one}

a few thankyou's

before we tell you a bit more about what we have been doing over the last week or two, and give you details about our 1st ever xmas open studio (next weekend) - we wanted to say a few thankyou's for the press we have had lately.


thanks to Cathy for the interview that she did with us about why commissioning furniture is often the greenest option - Cathy writes an eco column for House & Garden magazine and the article is in the Dec 09 issue.


one of the blogs we love and always look at is Remodelista so when
we saw our oak edge and slate dining table featured on
the blog we were really really pleased!
thanks to Julie for featuring our work here.


the new look Wildcurl site is now online - it's a great website to find out what is going on in North Devon - it lists events, gigs, films, places to stay, places to eat, surf reports and so much more. Helen, who runs the site, has kindly put some info about us along with images of our work in the magazine section - take a look here.


thanks to the London Lisbonite blog for featuring our leaf lanterns
in the post "in honour of the humble tea-light" - it was a
lovely surprise to come across your post.


and thanks again to the lovely Gigi at The Magpie's Fancy for putting the leaf lanterns she bought from us with her treasures and photographing them so beautifully and using the image as the header on her lovely blog.


{we hope we haven't missed anyone - let us know if we have}

a two week blur

gosh, what happened to the last 2 weeks - it's all a blur! We have been so busy with shows and exhibitions and deliveries and making work .... and driving! We have been to Surrey, London, Bath, Warminster, Bovey Tracey, Bristol and everywhere inbetween it seems. This is the first chance we have had to sit down and post on the blog what we have been doing. Lots to catch up on and tell you about.


First things first - thanks to everyone that came to see us in Chiswick at British Contemporary Crafts. There were some amazing designer makers there and we met some really lovely people but were a little disappointed at the number of visitors (maybe the awful rain on Sunday put people off). Thankfully, during the quiet bits of the show, we had Sue, Michelle, Megan, Nic and Jackie, and Jessica to chat to.


we also managed to deliver a few pieces to customers, inbetween the London show and taking work to galleries for xmas exhibitions - we took one of our square reclaimed oak coffee tables to a customer in Surrey and delivered a beautiful full length reclaimed slate mirror commission we made for a customer near Bath. It's always nice to see where our pieces are going.

Had a flying stop in Bath mainly for food, to visit the Toast shop and also one of our favourite furniture shops (tell you about that another time). Then sped home via Bristol (where I snapped a few abstract shots of the Clifton suspension bridge which looks beautiful all lit up at night).