Sunday 26 September 2010

Where to start !

Welcome to Little Walton Bank, phew it's been quite a few weeks for our new company, the fact that it's taken 18 months to get here is a story in it's own right. If we were in a film I'd probably make the screen go wobbly as I take you back in time to one night in January in 2009............

That night I returned from work, had a glass of wine and made the decision that has shaped the last 18 months of my life. Why couldn't I create a new tableware brand , I'd been designing under a big pottery brand for 16 years ! I felt that the consumer was being offered little choice and at that time was faced with a barrage of  imported products that lacked soul and integrity. It seemed to me that my beloved english pottery industry was collapsing around my feet. I'll warn you now I'm known for being a bit of a pot geek. Anyway...I contacted a few old friends from the industry and they all took me seriously! to be honest with my lack of business background I thought they would laugh me out of the room when I told them what I had on my mind, they all seemed to think it could be more than just a dream it could be a reality. These friends from now on will be called my Dragons and to be honest without them I wouldn't have got this far. So as well as working full time and looking after my family I started to put a plan together...planning isn't my strongest point so I enlisted the help of a very special friend Hayley....more about Hayley later. Oh and my little sketch book, which now features as the backdrop for my website, never left my side.

Oh at this point we are now about 6 months in...we needed to find a house as our house had been sold... We knew we wanted to stay in our lovely town Ashbourne , the only issue with living in a beautiful historic town is the short supply of interesting houses, this was move number 4 in our 14 years in this town so it had to be right, to be honest we were getting a reputation for our constant itchy feet. The estate agents eyes lit up if they caught us looking in their windows and with the help of our very patient and brilliant estate agent we heard about Walton Bank or Little Walton Bank as we now affectionately call it. It's an old Georgian listed building with room for a studio and a pottery. At this point I'll just let you all know that my husband Graeme Reed is a brilliant artist infact you should check out his website www.graemereed.co.uk  Anyway Little Walton Bank gave us the space we wanted , kept us right in the town and was quite a curious find as it was a jail in the Napoleonic war...yest we've got bars at some of the windows and hooks on the cellar ceiling. We loved it instantly and jumped through hoops to secure it, we moved in July 2009.......thanks Jo !


                                             Little Walton Bank July 2009


....story to continue later..................