The Aesthetes

We have had more people read our blog this month ( nearly as much as our homepage) than having a look at our items.
So we have put a notice up that we now have some sale items.

SALE BROGUE MEETS STILETTO OIL PAINTINGS

SALE BEBIASED OIL PAINTINGS

SALE - GIFTS

SALE LE FLEA C'EST CHIC


More news and changes starting in January 2011!
Thank you
The Aesthetes Team

At the end of last month local businesses were invited to have a Christmas tree at the Our Lady's Convent chapel for their Christmas Fair which was to raise funds for a school in Africa ( we put details on our facebook and twitter pages).

We had 10 days to design a tree. There were many options, as long as it was tree shaped. We didn't want to place a normal plastic tree with plastic decorations as it was to advertise our business for a few hours and our products are an alternative to mass produced items. When designing our tree we had to keep in mind certain aspects
1. Safe and sturdy (children running about etc..)
2. Design had to be contained as
a) The tree would be in a chapel ( no Yoda on the top of the tree)
b) Our town is very provincial ( a locals word not ours) so don't go too far with the design.

So first things first we decided the decorations will take the most time. What to do? We had 2 options - cross stitch and working with some wood that we had due to pollarding ( this needs another blog). The wood needed to dry so we decided on cross stitch.
We remembered seeing some wonderful graffiti by a group of American artists. These artists painted on walls and buildings in bright colours certain uplifting phrases and  sayings such as " Holler and hear my heartbeat" and " See me like I see you, beautiful".  So we decided to cross stitch lines from traditional Christmas carols in a toned down graffiti style.
Our tree was made from boxes that we had ( if your item was sent in a box with a tiny hole, it was part of the tree!) and some left over wallpaper which was given to us. Our tree did stand out.

Whilest we were making our decorations and viewing the response to our tree (before we took the tree to the fair) we did get some quite unpleasant looks and comments ( locally may we add, we had an order and they have sold out). One comment was " cross stitch is what they do in The Towers"

One of us calls it "the grey coat syndrome".
She had a grey coat years ago. Fleecy on the inside and waterproof it was like a parka. In winter it was warm, in summer it kept the rain out and doubled up as great pillow when traveling. The over 50's hated it - " lovely girl, but that grey coat". The under 50's loved it - "can I borrow your coat I'm just popping out quickly please. Excuse me, where did you get your coat from".

Broadsheet magazines have raved about the return of cross stitch this year and sales speak for themselves. Everything will have  positive and negative responses  as long as the positives are from  people who matter. There's no point in trying to please everyone. It's just down to "the grey coat syndrome"

It had to happen one day.
The term "handmade" is now used so loosely even the  lucky lucky chaps shout it out aloud.
There was a time when "handmade" conjured up images of a crafts person happily ( though not late in the afternoon), (or when it is cold), (or when the light isn't good) creating items from scratch. Putting thought into the design and colours. Stepping back to see if the item needs tweaking and then the item is ready to be admired or set aside by the public.

Now the word "unique" has started to be used quite freely too, though in a suspect manner.
I was taken aback when I noticed a medium sized colour advert stating that a shop sold "Unique Homeware". The trouble was that the items in the image were of  cream/white painted furniture. Not even unique cream/white painted furniture, but the type that has been seen everywhere for the past 4 years and as a result copied and mass produced.

The word "unique" used correctly should encompass values of which there is only one, unequalled and  unusual. Such as "handmade" should return to be viewed as a self possessed art form instead of dodgy overseas practices.
So how do you know that your item is as "unique" as you are lead to believe? It used to be that if an item was  handmade or unique it would  not be 100% perfect as only manufacturing machinery  could do that. Unfortunately mass manufacturing,pumping items out as fast as possible and cutting back on the quality of materials the roles have swapped. The standard of unique or quality handmade items has stayed the same and the quality of mass manufactured items has fallen.
Do a bit of research, not hours, just a few clicks.  All unique items will be signed somewhere by the maker. All of our handmade items are hand signed or sewn. Also we only have one in stock so there is no point in asking if we have any more to match that item.

There are some incredibly beautiful handmade "unique" items available, even cream/white painted ones. And you can spot the not quite unique pieces quite easily maybe subconsciously even though a shop will not purposefully advertise their products as "Slavishly Homewares"

The Aesthetes