gilhoolie Archives -

Most of the time I’m working on orders that come in from interior designers who I work with regularly, and clients that find me on Google, from all over the UK. But when I get some free time I always go back to doing something creative, like drawing or working on my machine embroidered lampshades. I even bought a new shelf for my workshop to display them on (which I’m hoping my lovely husband will put up above my desk for me this weekend). Don’t get me wrong, as I don’t work full time I also get to do most of the errands and driving around, and housework, washing, ironing, gardening, cooking etc etc (but I’m not complaining!) I’m very lucky that running a creative business lets me do a bit of everything, including volunteering once a week which I love and find really rewarding (and lots of dog walks with friends, with the odd coffee thrown in). Can you tell I like to be busy?!

My next task for gilhoolie is getting kind of urgent now and it is to set up some kind of shop page on here so that you can buy these embroidered lampshades, or maybe I’ll just put them on Etsy, I’m not sure yet. They take a long time to make and the process itself is all very organic, that’s what I love about them. No two will be the same and they all feature my illustrations of flowers, taken from gardens I visit as well as the botanical books I seem to be collecting. I feel very lucky that I have the time to do this and now that I have my workshop to work in there are simply no excuses! The new space is working out brilliantly for making lampshades and being creative too, especially as I’m in the heart of the garden which is looking lush right now by the way.

Here is my latest lampshade creation in front of our new veg patch (lots of scrummy courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot, rhubarb, peas, French beans and broad beans in our cooking right now!)

And below are a few close ups going around the lampshade. The first is an allium as it’s opening up. The second is supposed to be a hellebore but it changed a bit as I started working. And I’m not sure what the third yellow one is but it’s out of an amazing book I found in Waterstones when we were in Bath recently. Spot the buzzy bee too, about to land on the hellebore!

This time next week I’ll be on a lino printing course in Oxfordshire as I’d really like to have a go at printing my own fabric again. I’m thinking about combining the machine embroidery with printing but not sure if I’m being a bit too optimistic, we shall see, watch this space! Thank you for reading…

Please visit my new shop to buy this embroidered lampshade and other one off gilhoolie designs.

A lot of my lampshade orders come from clients who find me on Google searches but I also have a few local Interior Designers and curtain makers that have been ordering from me since I started gilhoolie. It works really well and I love having a relationship with them (must try and grow this in 2021!) – I can advise them on fabrics as well as shapes and sizes of lampshades (see my guidelines if you need help with this). It’s also a great way for them to use up spare fabric that would otherwise go to waste or sit gathering dust in their workshops.

2020 has been a strange year but I have felt blessed that many people have taken this time to update their homes by ordering bespoke lampshades. The gilhoolie Design Assistance service that was going so well up until Covid has suffered a lot as designers have cut back but I hope that will pick up again sometime next year.

Anyway, I thought I’d share with you some of the orders from Interior Designers this year and give them a little mention at the same time. The main orders have been from Niki Schafer, Samantha Johnson and The Silk Road, thank you to all of them! And thank you to Sarah Wooldridge who lives along my road and is very kind helping with ordering fabric and samples for my clients, I really appreciate it!

If you are an interior designer who would like to discuss ordering bespoke lampshades with gilhoolie do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you…