A truly beautiful Minxy mix of charm, inspiration, practical advice, and pretty projects to simplify and beautify your life and home. - Jane Brocket, The Gentle Art of Domesticity
Catherine Swan
Paper butterflies by Catherine Swan
I was in at The Mint yesterday for a meeting with an old colleague who now works at Historic Houses Trust. She gave me a wonderful tour of their collection of vintage lino floor coverings, wallpapers and fabrics, and I even got to carefully flick through a 1920s edition of Home Journal, the magazine du jour for the ladies-who-lunch set. Well worth a look if you have the time or the inclination.
I was also introduced to The Mint Shop, stockng commissioned artworks such as these paper butterflies made with the Trust’s vintage prints by Catherine Swan (also responsible for the stamp-filled heart I admired in a magazine a while back).
What’s the saying? I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like… these are on my wishlist.
Heart of stamps by Catherine Swan
Every time I visit your blog I leave with a new idea! I have been collecting stamps for a few years – not in a snorty-laughy ‘ooh, that’s a really rare one’ way, but because they’re so pretty. I haven’t been able to figure out how best to display them, but that stamp heart is awesome and I’m going to copy it.
Thanks for the kind words about the blog. I hope you use Catherine’s work for inspiration rather than simply copying it, though – how about glueing your stamps into the shape of your first initial, or into another shape altogether? Catherine uses a box frame on her works, which really adds to the whole look… it makes them appear more precious, somehow. I do love a box frame
Hee – yes, that’s very true, I shouldn’t (and won’t) just rip off her idea alltogether (plus, I can’t draw a decent heart to save my life, and I’m not sure that my husband will love a giant heart on the wall). The initial idea is a really good one – or maybe the outline of a country (NZ, in my case)?
I love that idea, it would look fabulous! Please send a pic when you’re done and I’ll pop it on the site x