Down in the woods today !

October 27, 2017

It was a crisp morning with Winter light filling the studio today. There was of course the to do list that comes at this time of the year, as we scramble to get everything in order before the Christmas rush.  But the outdoors were calling and so we left it all for a hour to go foraging in the woods beside our studio to see what we could gather from nature for a little Christmas gift wrap photo-shoot.  

The Lulu + Belle studio is located just between the seaside villages of Rush and Skerries and we are lucky to be nestled between the sea and its wind-swept beaches and a few little pockets of lovely woodland.  This little wood is just behind our studio and it's a great spot to blow off the cobwebs and to let Amy, our big gentle lab, have a wander. 

The poor girl has had a surgery on her leg recently so she still has to wear the leash on every walk in case she goes bounding off doing damage to her new knee !  WE didn't find much initially, lots of ivy, ferns and a few big oaks dominate the entrance to the woods.  Then towards the end of the little woodland walk was gold - lots of fallen pine cones and fir tree branches - exactly the type of thing we had in mind to add some atmosphere to our gift wrap shoot.  Storm Ophelia had swept nearly everything off the one big old Fir tree and left it bare. 

We gathered up our finds from nature in our pockets were headed back to the studio for coffee and think about how we were going to shoot it. 

Photography is one of the greatest challenges of small business owners - it is the make or break of an online shop or business.  WE have spent plenty of days out in the studio garden, trying to capture the perfect shot of a new pair of earrings or necklace in natural light...until one gust of wind has blown away our whole carefully arranged set up, earrings included, off into oblivion never to be seen again !!!  

So we tried for an indoor shoot today - just using the daylight studio lamps that we use to make jewellery on one of our workbenches to light some gift wrap ideas.  We found a little star cutter in an old craft box, to cut out some perfect little gold stars to finish the set up. We are still undecided between three gift wrap options this year.

• A lovely rustic and Nordic inspired gift wrap option with a matt finish Winter white paper finished with rustic twine. 
• Or a luxurious gold wrap sheet with a slim Italian silk white ribbon (our obsession with pretty ribbon is life-long) for a more vintage feel 
• Or a mixture of both - matt white wrap with a slim white silk ribbon for a luxury Scandi feel....with of course a little piece of fir wrapped inside each ribbon !

Our gift wrap will be available as an add-on in our online shops but every Lulu + Belle order will be shipped in our signature gift boxes as standard ! 

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