On Line Businesses-Branding-Sixties Influence

Since the Covid Lockdown many people have become inspired to create new businesses on-line. Some have merely diversed and if necessary have created an on line side to their existing business. Others that have lost their jobs have taken a complete leap of faith and created new websites and I have to say wow!! how diverse and interesting some of them are.

People are using their imaginations once again and combining items and skills that otherwise would not have been displayed together side by side in one business, out of necessity sometimes with husbands, wives  or partners

linking their skills under one website.

I decided to use my own name as my Business name, that is what I am known in on my Saatchi, Instagram and Facebook accounts, so it seemed logical to keep it all the same. In the website I have combined Painting, Drawing, Styled Vintage Ensembles, Dried Floral Art and now restyled and rescued Hats !!!

I am of course hearkening back to the 1960s/1970s, a magical time. There was a distinct frisson and excitement in the air then. The Hippy culture was the main thing at that time, which was a return to Nature, festivals, communes and love. Everyone wore strange outfits some secondhand and a pre runner to Vintage as we know now. Everyone wanted to look different unique, the stranger the better!! So different to the mass fashion code now where everyone wants to look the same as the next person.

I was running my own Craft Gallery when this was all happening. I was lucky I ran it from my cottage in Kent. This is where the interest in dried flowers came. Dried flowers were very popular then in interiors. I had several displays in the cottage but not for sale in the gallery, that was reserved for pottery, textiles, and jewellery.

All the dried flowers on this website are sourced locally from Kent from Essentially Hops Canterbury (essentiallyhops.co.uk) and Craftwork Master Thatchers (craftworkmasterthatchers.co.uk) from Sandwich.

All the flowers are dried naturally and more importantly undyed. I always used to hang a bouquet of flowers upside down when they were finishing their time in the vase, to dry in the air naturally. That way you would get a second life out of them often more beautiful when they were fresh.

The latest section on the website to be added “A Lot of Old Hat”,is for rescued and refurbished hats. In the sixties it was the fashion to wear hats, usually large ones and I always felt it added flare to an outfit. So many of these beautifully made hats have been lingering in cupboards and wardrobes over the country unused and unworn and slightly battered. I have added flowers, ribbons, beads and silks to update them and give them a new lease of life.

I hope to eventually build the website to an on line emporium, where people can visit and feel the same excitement in browsing through the different sections as we did all those years ago in the 1960s, that magical time.