Settin’ Off Again – Chairmaker Mike Abbott
Above: an ash settin' chair, right, Mike Abbott settin' “I tried retiring in September 2015 - that lasted about six weeks” laughs Mike who has spent a lot of his working life teaching hundreds of people via his courses and thousands via his books about how to make...
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
During the delicious, and as retailers frankly frivolous break between Christmas and New Year, I had a belated birthday treat of an outing to the potteries museum in Stoke-on-Trent. The collection of ceramics that it houses is a revelation; whilst describing...
Birds by Mark Hearld, Curtains to Calendar…..
We have been producing a letterpress calendar for nine years but this year is really special for us. For the first time we have commissioned original artwork from one of our favourite artists, Mark Hearld. Mark studied at Glasgow School of Art and then at The Royal...
Show me a Sign
Sign-writer Hannah Sunny Whaler’s exhibition “Fairground” in “Little Tinsmiths” shows her incredible control of a simple sable brush and traditional enamel paints to create some very uplifting artworks. Hannah lives and works in Bristol, studied Illustration at...
Tinsmiths in Town
We arrived in London last week paint brush in hand and with a sample of Tinsmiths made to measure curtains and blinds, lighting, cushions, rugs, world and artisan textiles, artist prints, homeware and hardware. This area of London has a village feel and is well-worth...
Spring Life – Mark Hearld & Paul Young
Our 2016 programme of exhibitions is starting with an exuberant flourish of British style and sensibility. 'Spring Life' features the work of Mark Hearld and Paul Young. The exhibition at our Ledbury showroom opens on the 19th March and runs until the 23rd...
Tinsmiths Desk Calendar 2016 – Hellmuth Weissenborn
This year with our calendar we have gone for a different format; a folding desk or pocket calendar, each month with it’s own exquisite wood engraving. As ever the calendar has been skilfully printed by Martin Clark at the Tilley Printworks here in Ledbury. The wood...
Jacquard
Picture this! 18th century Lyon and a race is on to revolutionise the production of elaborately patterned fabrics. This race, ultimately, was won by Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752 - 1834) whose name is familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in textiles and to...
Signs of the Times
Writing signs by hand might be considered anachronistic but Tinsmiths has had a wall waiting for the right writer for ten or so years. Last week, signwriter Hannah Whaler originally from Malvern, brought her brushes and brilliance to Tinsmiths Alley and enlivened the...
Pashmina
We recently received some wonderful Pashmina shawls so light and so soft that everything else that I had ever encountered that described itself as ‘cashmere’ felt rough in comparison. I quizzed our supplier Sadhu about the softness of these Pashminas and it soon...
Corduroy
I can think of no other textile so quintessentially ‘English’ and ‘country’ as corduroy – think farmer, cord trousers held up with baling twine or the upper classes off for a day’s shooting. So I was surprised, after a little investigation, to discover that it is a...
Chintz
To describe something as "chintzy" nowadays is to describe it as rather blowsy, a bit "Mills and Boon" and not very sophisticated. So let's see whether this is deserved....... Chintz, when first discovered in India by pioneering European tradesmen was a hand printed,...