I am especially pleased with these two creations.
🥰 The bag is made from the finest Nappa Leather and it was printed/made by the same company who makes Liberty of London bags. The company is a family run business based in London.
🥰 The muslin shawl is printed and made in Donegal. I love to visit the family run factory! It's right in the heart of Downings, where the sea air is good for the soul.
🥰 Lastly, I love the painting. The original is sold, but I love that you can take this print everywhere you go; to keep to warm in winter and it's a fabulous cover-up on summery days.
It will be on line in an hour. Tap the link
https://lespapillons.co.uk/collections/trending-products
]]>Liberty of London use their own brand of cotton lawn called Tana Lawn, named after Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
Les Papillons cotton lawn is printed in Ireland, using paintings by Caroline Dilworth whose studio is on the outskirts of Irvinestown.
There is a special offer on the Les Papillons cotton lawn shawls during the month of May. Click the link: https://lespapillons.co.uk/collections/clothing
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January is when I take time to assess what worked (and what didn't) and prepare for the year ahead... I'm already thinking about Christmas!
The fastest growing product in 2022 were the painting experience days, so Tourism NI has given me some money to expand into that area. Fermanagh is a tourist destination and my background is in tourism, teaching and craft, so why not combine it all with my love of hosting?
If you'd like to book click on the link below and use the discount code EMBRACEAGIANTSPIRIT
I'll have a little surprise gift for the first 3 people to book.
I'm really looking forward to meeting you and passing on some of the technics I use to create little art to wear. See you soon, Caroline
https://lespapillons.co.uk/products/paint-your-own-experience
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🐷A common word for a pot used for storage in the 15th Century was “pygg”, as in “salt pig”.
🐷Over 600 years ago people stored their savings in an old pot.
🐷The pot was a closed pot with no lid, or gap that a hand could dip into. If you needed the money you had to SMASH the pig!
🐷Around the same time potters, who noticed the similarities in the shape of a pygg pot and a pig rolling in mud, began shaping the saving jar into the shape of a pig. This became a trend.
THERE ARE THREE LITTLE LES PAPILLONS LOOKING FOR THEIR HOME. HEAD OVER TO THE CROCKERY SECTION 🐷
]]>I picked some and I'm hoping that they'll fill the sitting room with their delicate perfume. For centuries people brought Meadowsweet into their homes for the same purpose, but they also used it to sweeten jams, wine and beer. It flowers at this time of year through to September so perfect timing for harvest time and gathering hedgerow fruits.
The name does not refer to the damp meadows you find the flower in. Meadowseet gets its name from the Mead it was added to, in order to enrich the flavour.
I think it looks really pretty in this Les Papillons Milk Bottle.
https://lespapillons.co.uk/products/lavender-and-bee-milk-bottle
]]>It's called The Imposter Syndrome.
Having pride in my work and accepting compliments is something that has taken me years to come to terms with; to say “Thank you.” instead of feeling embarrassed and wanting to hide.
I’ve always painted, but it was never a career option at school. Get an office job. Get a public relations job. Earn a steady wage. So painting remained my hobby.
Painting is good for the soul. It helps organise thoughts, zone out, relax and ease worries. I highly recommend it. I take classes and no matter how little confidence people have in their abilities, art classes always end up with smiles on faces and something to feel good about.
Les Papillons became a reality when after an unsuccessful operation for arthritis on my “painting” hand left me unable to write properly and unable to hold a large brush/palette knife. It was a low point. My head felt as if it was full of static electricity and butterflies. I needed to paint to quieten a very busy brain!
I found that painting small was a way of limiting the pain whilst keeping me sane, but what do you do with small paintings? Really small. A centimetre or so in size? Wear them! Again easier said than done. There was no one else at the time doing it. I loved miniature portraits from the 17th century. I wanted to reinterpret that idea for modern life, so I did.
Landscapes, garden scenes and pet portraits are my favourite, but not everyone wants to wear art, so I looked for ways to make art practical. Cushions, tea towels, bags. Those were my first products. All locally printed and made. Crockery and clothing came next. The crockery is all thrown on a wheel and painted individually. The fabrics I use are bamboo, sustainable cotton, Irish linen, sumptuous velvet and materials made from recycled plastics and wood pulp.
There's a new outdoor range coming. Keep an eye out for it on Facebook
]]>Millennia ago the county was submerged under a shallow tropical sea and if you're lucky and look at the rocks along the exposed shore you can find coral fossils.
The Lough has been low recently and if I'm honest the weather has been damp and bleak, but nevertheless the search began. Fossil finding!
We found none.
I think I shall stick to painting the Lough!
]]>Pets are the heart of many homes and in preparation for this Christmas I've been painting pet portraits, on brooches and necklaces, to be opened tomorrow morning.
The first wearable portrait I painted was Ginger. He is our splendid cat. He doesn't bite. He doesn't scratch. He adores snuggles and he helps keep the rodent population in check.
A decade ago Adam had a poem writing task set for homework, so we decided to make our new kitten the subject to wax lyrical about.
You can order your own pet's portrait through the Painted Jewellery section: Bespoke Painting.
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Growing up in Northern Ireland during that time was about entertaining yourself. I loved to play with my Grans' Singer sowing machine. She had three in the house. I'm not sure why. They were riddled with woodworm, but they still worked and I used to sew rags together to dress the (wooden) peg and spool dolls. These memories are where the idea for the lamp bases came from.
I spent my childhood playing with dogs, looking for horses and riding motor bikes. My first was when I was 10. It was a Italjet50cc! On quieter days I'd be sewing remnant fabrics on one of the Singers. Wooden spools of ribbon and thread were beautiful. The plastic ones these days don't possess the same charm. This lamp base and twine is a nostalgic look back on how things used to be made. I collaborated with Tracy and Declan from Ballynagran Crafts, Tyrone. They specialise in wood turning. Once I had the raw base at home waxed it and wrapped twine around it.
The Les Papillons Spool Lamp is topped off with a shade, which is printed from one of my paintings, printed by Noreen in Donegal.
I have one of these lamps available on line. If you would like to order more get in touch. They would look perfect as a pair of bedside lamps, or a quirky side lamp.
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That's my friend. Actually the two you see in this photo are both my friends.
Aisling is my friend who models Les Papillons for me. You'll get to know her. She's lovely; lives a stones throw away from me and is the first person I call to model, give her opinion on new ranges and have a Gin Night with.
The other friendly face in the photo is Fat Flint. He's not fat. It is a term of endearment. Flint is a very good natured pie-bald pony, who I brought home from Scotland. I feared that he would end up in a can if I left him behind me. He is arthritic...like me.... and a geriatric gent. He tends to open doors and walk about the kitchen robbing the contents of the fruit bowl!
I use Flint's stable for photos as it provides a sheltered photography position in daylight. He loves the attention and carrots we bribe him with to stop him snuffling the products being photographed.
Here's a wee ditty I wrote about Flint a few years ago. Some of you may have already heard it.
Flint's Ode to a Bucket