focus focus

I met another Ruth last Summer at my friend Toni’s house. Quite rare for 2 Ruths to be in the same room together, even more so to be in the same industry and so we had a lot to talk about, her from John Lewis and me ex House of Fraser. Through her I found out about a new venture in Brixton, Treehouse, Work and Play

It is really affordable and ran by 2 very down to earth and friendly people, Albert and Grace. Theres space for the children to play, read, draw and they advocate healthy living and so Organix foods and drinks are available as refreshments.

I've been using their hot-desking service a few times recently and for £3 an hour its rude not to!

Ruth inspired me into thinking about pulling together a group of people as a focus group for research into my brand and boxes. So I posted a message on Crystal Palace mums and Streatham mums Facebook group to see who would be interested in participating.

To be honest, I really did fear that I wouldnt hear from anybody. No one would be interested. And the the paranoia set in.....what if no one likes my boxes? What if I get NO response at all….
As a budding entrepreneur/mumpreneur I am constantly being reminded to believe in my brand and myself and the rest will follow which is quite hard to sustain and sometimes just need to be reminded from real strong women.
Quote - Eleanor Roosevelt 

‘Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent’ and

‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!’

And lo and behold! I had my first focus group last Friday which was a brilliant success! All who came loved the the story behind the brand, the boxes and the designs. They gave me plenty of positive feedback and I gained an insight into my prospective customer. 

Heres one question for your persusal:

Would it be of interest to you and would you be more likely to buy if the products were:

Fairtrade - %profit going back to the villagers

Eco friendly – production process eg mendong is a rapid renewable source

Or it doesn’t really interest you and you’d just buy based on the fact you liked the product?

Hello is there anybody out there....?

Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb is now erupting in my brain as cuvcuv blog/facebook page goes live today!

My attention and focus goes to you now, my lovely prospective customers and friends as I work to get this brand out there. Please check out my posts to keep up with how cuvcuv is progressing.

Its been nearly four years since stumbling across Lana's workshop in Indonesia in May 2009. I have since had my daughter Cecilia, who as planned, was conceived on our trip and as she has only just had her third birthday, I have been beavering away at making this happen for probably about two years.

I'm so excited about getting a reaction and I cant wait to get my first order! 

I have plans to hit the independents on my list this week and hope I give the chosen buyers something to think and get passionate about.

My top 10 are as follows:

Graham and Green

Couverture and Garbstore

Labour and Wait

Handmade Interiors

Darkroom

Ben Pentreath

Pitfield

Aria

Petersham Nurseries

Olive loves Alfie



I love these brands! I love what they do and hail their ethos. Every season I salivate over their new ranges, and with great determination and style they have supported and kept like-minded creative souls in business. 

I can see cuvcuv's home storage sitting really well within these brands - watch this space and wish me luck!

where it all began

I left my buyer job at Fortnum and Mason to embark on an extended inspirational trip to the Far East. My intention was to find the right people to work with so that when we returned, I would have projects to work on and launch my own brand. 
My favourite part of my job as a buyer was sourcing and working with independent creatives, developing a commercial product that would sit on the shelves. Now I wanted to do that for myself. 
Spending 5 months in India, I spied two opportunities that were promising and exciting (more from those later!) but I was yet to find something that would blow me away and that I could really run with until I found Lana's workshop in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

We had flown to Yogyakarta (also known as Yogya, pronouncing the Y as a J) about two thirds of the way into our trip. We had been away for 7 months and having spent 5 weeks island hopping from Bali to Lombok and the Gili Islands (just off the island of Lombok) totally blissed out - with only horse drawn carts to get around, 

I still cant believe the beauty of the pale turquoise water on
Gili Meno

we were catapulted back into city life.

As you can imagine the islands were hard to leave but instantly I fell in love with Yogya city. 

I knew it was here that great things were going to happen! I felt very at home. The pace was relaxed but busy - mixing the old with the new. The most wonderful fresh food, indoor markets and street food vendors selling bakso and soto 

We were back into the culture of this vast continent. 

One afternoon, I literally walked off the street, into a shop that caught my eye and after a lot of smiling, nodding and giggling, I met Lana, the owner of the workshop and the seed in our relationship was immediately sown.

I couldn’t believe what I saw - rows and rows of rolls of colourful printed mendong. 

I have worked with this fabric mendong before out of Indonesia, knew it sold well made into boxes, home office and table top in the UK and immediately could see huge potential in what Lana's workshop were doing. 

Her team of workers construct and assemble the product whilst her brother supplies the woven and printed mendong fabric from villages in East Java.

The quality of workmanship was excellent and the working conditions were impeccable. Everyone looked happy and I was ecstatic at finding something like this that adhered to everything I was looking for in a possible partnership.  I asked about own printing, colours and confirgurations and she told me they can do any bespoke design, colour and print to my specifications. Each piece is individually handmade with careful detailed attention to finishing and I realised then that this was the beginning of my story.

The mendong home storage range AW/13

I chose these designs as a starting point for cuvcuv. 

Giving a fashion element that is commercial and classic.

I really liked the animal print too. Could instantly see them in pastels/brights for a children's room. Project for the future, I hope!

The range of boxes come with handles or with a lid and each style can serve a different purpose depending on which configuration or design.

When asked what Lana had that was the newest technique, I was shown some beautiful 2 way weaves and something more textural. 

Great to be able to have such a choice to play around with!

Wayang Kulit in Yogya

Yogya is a truly vibrant and cultural city renowned for being a centre for classical Javanese fine art and culture such as ballet, drama, music, poetry, batik and puppet shows. 

At Yogyakarta's centre is the Kraton, or Sultan's palace and it is here where we saw the artists at work making the puppets used for shadow plays wayang kulit (wayang – Javanese word for shadow and kulit ‘skin’)

 They are made out of very thin buffalo skin (leather) and are cut with such precision and are then supported with carefully shaped buffalo horn handles and control rods. 

 Wayang kulit is a unique form of theatre employing light and shadow. When the puppets are held up behind a piece of white cloth, with an electric bulb or an oil lamp as the light source, shadows are cast on the screen.

The plays are based on romantic tales, especially adaptations of the classic Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Some of the plays are also based on local happenings. It is up to the conductor or dalang or master puppeteer to decide his direction.
Its unfortunate that we didnt get to see a show but I dont believe that was my last chance to appreciate this ancient art.