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Swan time

February 5, 2010 in Conversational, Me by wendren | 2 comments

Swans In South Africa we have a lot of birds but the swan is not one of them. In Switzerland they were as common as Cape Town’s seagulls. It is funny how one notices things that make a place different and that are taken for granted when you live somewhere.

Swans in a muddle

Being on holiday is wonderful. It is frightening to think it was only a month ago. It feels like a year ago. This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately – what are we going to do about how time flies so fast? We are all lost in what day of the week it is and we cannot believe that January has already passed. I am no exception but my worry is that I do not know how to slow down and still keep up.

I don’t want it to be December and I am still reflecting on the single day that I walked down the lake in Switzerland and swans followed me. Now, I am about to jump into my car to rush around for the day and I admit, I barely notice things. Something has to change, everyday needs to last longer and not just pass by in a blur.

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Goals Achieved

February 1, 2010 in Events, Me by wendren | 6 comments

Every year I am left shocked when I find my goal sheet from the previous year. Last year I got as far as scribbling them down (with a few pics) and briefly mentioning them in a blog post. Other than that, I have to shamefully admit that they sat in an unopened file on my desktop. As it is a new year I decided to open it even though I was afraid I would discover a list of unachieved goals. To my greatest joy, this was not quite the case.

Goals 2009 Those highlighted with green mark the goals that are in process of becoming a reality and those highlighted with yellow mark those which have been achieved exactly.

I think my biggest achievement from 2009 is the one which has just happened > I have been given a spot as an Emerging Creative at the Design Indaba 2010. Out of the blue last Friday I got an email informing me that I have been given a stand at the exhibition! I am SO excited about this space even though my to-do-list is running off the page at the moment becuase the event is in 3 weeks time.

Note to self: Must add ‘make 2010 goal list’ to the to-do-list.

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Carol Mills Fabrics

November 9, 2009 in Me by wendren | 3 comments

fabric-books Quite some time ago I designed two fabric ranges for ‘Carol Mills Fabrics’. The first book consists of five and the second four fabric designs (all in various colour ways).

cape-flora

cape-wine-and-marine

cape-fishing-and-arrival

My favourite fabric is ‘Arrival’ (above right).

indigenous

pinotage

‘Pinotage: Grape of the Cape’ (above) was used for wine cooler bags.

stormy-sea

All these fabrics are still available in most fabric stores as far as I am aware.

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Stationary Tin

November 6, 2009 in Me, Wren by wendren | 2 comments

I have had my pencil tin for years. It works for me. In fact, it is like a useful dustbin. Everything and anything that could classify as ’stationary’ gets thrown in and every now and then I have to empty it out onto my floor to scratch for the safety pins and paper clips at the bottom.

There are a fews things that my pencil tin HAS to always be in stock of: Double sided tape, a good black felt-tip pen, pritt glue (the others are just no good), my fine-tip scissors (which is perfect for threads and opening the button holes for the coffee bags), lots of dog clips, a disapearing fabric marker, at least two permanent markets (for writing the addresses onto envelopes), a metal inch/cm ruler and a clutch pencil (that has lead).

I have set up a flickr group called: Stationary containers. In a way I think that a stationary container can tell quite a lot about a person. If you get a chance, why not snap a picture of yours and add it to the flickr group. It is fun to reflect on different stationary collection solutions.

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Travel Plans

November 5, 2009 in Me by wendren | 4 comments

Today is a big day – Jeremy and I are booking our tickets to go to Switzerland to visit friends (who are more like family) and spend two weeks snow boarding down some gorgeous slopes. I am shivering with nerves clicking that ‘pay now’ button becuase …well paying for anything big always makes me nervous, but at the same time, shivering with excitment that I might get to experience my first ‘white christmas’.

Pocket Books

The flight is going to be long but I found these beautiful notebooks full of puzzles: crosswords, hangman, word searches, logic puzzles and various forms of sodoku that would be wonderful time-fillers. They are so pretty and nothing like the cheap paper ones you usually buy from the airport. I think that these Pocket Posh books would make great travel gifts … hint hint

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Textures of Addo

October 23, 2009 in Me by wendren | 5 comments

Most of the animals at Addo were amazing models and allowed me to really take some gorgeous close up photographs. The elephants were my favourite to stare at becuase of all their wrinkles, creases and mud marks.

There were a lot of big tortoises at Addo and I got to really ’study’ them and I found them quite fascinating. Look at how the loose skin on the back leg pulls and folds.

Warthogs are always so funny to watch run. Unfortunately these ones were so comfortable with the vehicle they just carried on eating their grass whilst I snapped away. Their eye hairs are very long.

To see more pictures of my trip to addo visit my Addo flickr set. There are some photographs that would make fantastic desktops. Currently I have a photograph of an elephant on my desktop but next week I will feature this close up photograph of the ostrich. (P.S. I have to mention how cute this little elephant photograph is).

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A Guinea Pig Day

October 15, 2009 in Me by wendren | 7 comments

My day started last night when we were discussing how in some cultures, guinea pigs are eaten for supper. This was just one of those unusual and nonsense conversations. Ironically this morning I got a phone call from my mom telling me her story about a guinea pig that somehow seemed to be the mould of my day.

Guinea Pig

Walking out of school yesterday my mom noticed a ‘bergie‘ walk past her pushing a trolley. In the trolley, in a bird cage, my mom spotted a cute little Guinea Pig. She asked the bergie where she got this poor creature from and in a accent that is very unqiue to Cape Town, she responded “No mad’am, I promise, I had found it!” When asked what she planned to do with it the women replied that she was hungry and would eat it. My mom quickly offered her R20 for it and walked away with the ‘rescued’ Guinea Pig. It found a home with one of the children at the school’s after care.

My day was filled with unexpected news that although good, is life changing for some, followed by a very serious meeting that had me shivering with nerves all day (I am not good at formal meetings especially when a product that I really believe in is hanging on it) followed by mad dashes around and panicking about a huge wholesale order that will come through. Not to mention that I have not even begun to think about packing for my holiday at the Addo Elephant Park which starts tomorrow. I feel a bit like that poor Guinea pig about to get eaten hoping to be rescued.

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A New Chapter

September 25, 2009 in Me, Wren by wendren | 12 comments

brown paper

When Wren started I was at a very difficult point in my life. I was struggling for direction and although I knew I had to go forward, I was making it up as I went along hoping for the best.

My first product was made out of necessity. I liked it but never felt it ‘true’ to myself but I did not know what the ‘truth’ was so it had to do. Now a year and half later I am starting to find my feet, lift my chin and stride proudly ahead. I have a much stronger feeling of where I want Wren to grow to and the products that you will see introduced over the next few weeks (hopefully) will clearly show this new direction.

Upside Down me

I am taking a much more natural and upside-down design point of view. Now that I know a little bit about bag designing, sewing and marketing I have started to push this knowledge. – I have a laptop bag made from paper that is coming out soon. It is awesome beyond belief. – I have an antique linen and leather bag that is so close to be finished I am bursting at the seams. It is beautiful in every sense. – Made from my favourite fabric: the coffee sack, is a new bag that has taken over a year to collect the parts but hopefully not another year to make it.

I am finding the challenge of pushing materials to their limit the greatest adventure ever and in this, I am finding direction, peace and pride. I am having the time of my life.

Read what the other Merry-go-round bloggers say about their NEW CHAPTERS: Mariana, Lily, Jenny, Sara, Agathe, Fabienne, Charlotte and Ruth.

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A Box Of Treasures

September 15, 2009 in Interesting Finds, Me by wendren | 4 comments

Colour Dye Box

A box arrived at my post office and opened to reveal a treasure: natural colour dyes. There is Indigo, Purple blue, Rose Fuschia, Anise and Jujube. Colour is my weakness and dyes are my dream, as many as you know. I have a collection of unknown natural dyes and mordants and even though I do not know how to use them, I love soaking in their colours. Now, thanks to my very dear friend Daniela, I have a collection of ‘named’ dyes and have decided to share some of the stories of the colours with you over the next week.

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Merry-go-round : The story of Wren

July 31, 2009 in Me, Wren by wendren | 10 comments

This month’s merry-go-round question is ‘What inspires us: a peak into journals, pinboards, folders or wherever we keep our little snippets of inspiring stuff…’ Ive written quite a few posts on this topic in the last while and I’m afraid I have shown you all my inspiration secrets. See here, here, here, here, here and not forgetting to mention my last merry-go-round which borders on this topic.

Rather than taking a back-seat from this month’s merry-go-round Ruth and a few others directed some questions my way as a replacement.

Why birds?

There is no reason ‘why birds’ really. But I will tell you how Wren and the label came about…
Whilst I was hating my old job and dreaming about starting my own business I was creating a logo for a bed-linen company. I used birds for some of the samples.The client did not select any of my designs but I liked them, so I kept them (and I now cannot find them to share with you -sorry).

In high school I made and hand-painted a bird cloak that was quite a hit and when my school friends heard about my bird label they all picked up on the connection – I on the other hand had completely forgotten about it.

I guess birds have somewhat always been there but honestly, I just think I drew something and liked it. It probably didn’t help though that at the time of my label everybody was going through a phrase of loving cute little birds.

For ages I did not know what to call my business (or for that matter, what I was even going to do as my business). Often I would waste time paging through my designs and on one of the hopeless days I came across the designs which featured the little bird (now the Wren bird) and it was like it was meant to be. It was decided that I would use the bird as the logo and now I just had to find the name for the company (something that is not as easy or as fun as it sounds). I went through hundreds of names and very organically, whilst driving to collect the embroidered bird labels Jeremy suggested ‘Wren’. It’s a little bird, just like the drawing and it is a play on my name, Wendren, in a way. I did not hesitate for a moment in saying: “THAT’S IT”! …and that’s the story of Wren.

Merry-g0-round bloggers: Mariana, Lily, Jenny, Sara, Agathe, Fabienne, Charlotte, Nikki and Ruth.

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Friends

July 27, 2009 in Me by wendren | 4 comments

A friend wrote a post about the paddle bags I have made and has left me pretty shaken (to put it mildly). Signing up with the mutual admiration club here, Alexa Cole is somebody who I admire hugely (again, an understatement). She can do whatever she sets her mind to whether it is being a sales rep (which everybody said she couldn’t do) to being a medalist at the International Canoe Marathon Championships and THEN to opening her own business: Orka Paddles, and making it a HUGE success. But enough… let me leave it at that. Our friendship is one that I treasure.

But the point of my post is that I came to a big realisation. I have been putting work above everything, hiding behind it as a great excuse for just about everything. My friend circle is barely a full-stop now and that needs to change.

I need to start making time for friends whether it’s a simple cup of coffee or a whole day gallivanting wherever. Just because the day does not fit into my ‘to-do list’ does not mean it is any less important. Friends are important and I need to prioritise them. I’m even thinking of giving up the fight and joining the dreaded facebook.

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Moving …on

June 29, 2009 in Me by wendren | 5 comments

This weekend I moved. From Fish Hoek to Lakeside. There are many good things about this move but clearing a space that you loved is never without its heart wrenching moments. Even with blank walls and empty floor there are features of this old house and of my space that I wish I could take, but cannot.

This is the lock on the interleading door between the two rooms. The doors were once painted (as was the trend many years ago). Stripped, this beautiful lock revealed a stamp: ‘Manufactures Beddow & Sturvey, Original No 60′. Click on the image to zoom in.

This door and lock has not yet been stripped.

The house has 3 beautiful free standing cupboards. The one I had in my space is either from Art Nouveau times or inspired by it. There used to be a toggle to open the cupboard door but they got lost and I made a poor improvisation by sliding a key ring onto them. It worked but does not add to the aesthetics.

I love the curves of the window handles. As you can see, the windows too have been painted several times, once blue like all beach houses and now white.

This is the latch of the top window. It does not work very well anymore as the clip has come loose and is held with one screw. But it is these niggly things that make this house special and treasured for its age and memories.

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A cup of orchids

June 23, 2009 in Me by wendren | 1 comment

My mom grows Orchids at the back of the house and this year they have bloomed, bloomed and bloomed. She has given away to just about every relative and still there are not enough vases for them all. My branch of buds are now dying and the beautiful flowers are falling off one by one but I cant bring myself to throw them away becuase the colours are still gorgeously saturated. Instead I put them in a cup of water and over the past few days, this cup has become rather full.

To view more of my orchid photographs visit my flickr orchid photo album.

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Bark Patterns

June 18, 2009 in Me by wendren | 1 comment

Like any old person, there are lines that tell the tale of time. This tree has so many different lines and the compositions of texture are beautiful.

The picture above is looking through one of the two tree’s towards the sunrise over the ocean. An amazing view, I know. I will definitely miss this when I am no longer here.

There are some sections along the tree that are satin smooth (see above). I love how right against this is a rough section. These trees are an artist’s dream.

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Number 60 Trees

June 17, 2009 in Inspiration, Me by wendren | 4 comments

My house has the most amazing trees. They are over 100 years old, as is the house, and you can spot them in any postcard of Fish Hoek or in any history book (although much smaller).

My house was first bought by my grandparents many years ago and has since been passed down to my grandmother and now to my mom. It was the one of the first homes in Fish Hoek so it really has a monumental history and not only one made by family. Sadly this is where the chain will end but these trees will carry on growing and always be beautiful.

My house looks out over the ocean towards the rising sun. These pictures of the tree were taken early this morning when there was still a golden glow to the air, hence the glow to these pictures.

The tree’s are a type of Mountain Cypress. My grandmother declares that they are one of a kind here in Cape Town but we are all certain that there are more of them around although nobody knows for sure.

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« Older entries

Me

Swan time

Goals Achieved

Carol Mills Fabrics

Stationary Tin

Travel Plans

Textures of Addo

A Guinea Pig Day

A New Chapter

A Box Of Treasures

Merry-go-round : The story of Wren

Friends

Moving …on

A cup of orchids

Bark Patterns

Number 60 Trees

Wren SHOP:

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