Urban Cottage Industries | WEEKLY

The weekly mailout - archived

Week 8

Collection

Dear Folks....

It's been a crazy, brilliant, mad, beautiful year - full of firsts (first baby, first house, first Hollywood movie)

First Up... The new Martin Scorcese flick 'Hugo' premieres tonight. It's magical and stunning. It's also the largest and most complicated project we ever got involved in (we supplied literally hundreds and hundreds of bulbs and fittings) and we're so happy with it we could cry. In the still below (inside the clock) every light fitting you can see (clock face & mechanics) was designed and built here at Historic Lighting (bespoke Marias w/ball & socket joint | Long Tube & Globe 120 filament lightbulbs | 16 bar rusty cage | bronze ES bulbholders | fabric cable). 18 months ago we were penniless, childless, homeless and working off a rented kitchen table. It really feels like we're dreaming, but we're not - it's actually true. This kind of bespoke project work is still easily the biggest area of our working lives and income. We're completely immersed in it - for every hugely prestigious project we get around to telling you about, there are 50 less-hugely-presitigious ones that we don't.

Hugo_Cabret_Historic_Lighting

Second Up... we've invested our newly aquired life savings in purchasing (not very expensive) and housing (very expensive) the UK's largest collection of Linotype machines. Linotypes are a fantastically wonderful chapter of all our print and social history and this lot would otherwise have been sold for scrap. No long term plans yet, but for starters, we're hand debossing moleskines on an industrial scale. Why not visit the website moleskinepress.co.uk type in some text (before 12 noon) and it should magically appear through your letterbox the following day - at £14 a pop you don't have a lot to lose. We're sponsoring Linotype: The Film (along with 5000 other people) which explains the magic of Linotypes better than we ever could.

moleskine_press_personalised_emboss_deboss

Third Up... Snowflake christmas cards are back in stock. They are individually die-cut from empty cereal boxes we buy from schools and printed on our nearly 100 year old letterpress. But you already know this because we tell you every year.

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Fourth Up... the new recruit arrived as planned. Douglas Eric Wilson (9lb 11oz). Very life changing. We received many kind words & cards from our customers, which reminded us that you are a generally great bunch of coconuts and helped make a difficult time better. Thanks also for the much needed patience during the days we were unable to work.

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Have a great christmas / new year. Fingers crossed we'll all meet up somewhere nice in 2012.

Previous weekly mailouts are archived here

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2011
 
 


Week 7

Collection

Dear Folks....

It's been while since you've heard from us - the baby is nearly here (due date tomorrow) and with that in mind we've deliberately kept a little bit quieter than usual.

One project we can't keep quiet about any longer is Danny Boyle's Frankenstein at the National Theatre, London (we supplied 1000+ Filament Lightbulbs and 3 kilometres of Fabric Cable - attached images © Nick Murray / National Theatre). Tickets sold out months ago, but this email is to tell you about tonight's live broadcast to 200+ cinemas across the world. For most of you this will be one and only chance to see it.

Putting our lighting to one side, it's a unique and completely brilliant piece of theatre and if you can get tickets for tonight's broadcast at your local cinema, grab them (find your nearest cinema here). A busload of our friends and family watched it at Margate cinema last week - it really is a magical experience.

Fingers crossed, next time you hear from us we'll be parents....

Soph & Stan

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week 6

Collection

Dear Folks....

Our Vintage Style Indoor Festoon Lighting turns a practical lighting solution into something beautiful. Each festoon is bespoke - choose any length of cable (bright red or black & white stripes), any spacings betwen the bulbholders and any bulbs from FilamentLightbulbs.co.uk.

By our calculations short lengths for your bedroom come in at under £60 and mega long ones for your marquees and big tops are around the £350 mark (we can also sell / loan 2500w dimmer packs for festoons up to 40 bulbs long).

Massive thanks to collaborators David-from-Bistrotheque & Josh-the-photographer, who were instrumental in bringing this unique product to the world and bacchus pr who were the first people to use it earlier this week (secret party images below are © Spencer / bacchus pr)

Soph & Stan

Fabric_cable_festoon Historic_Lighting_Festoon

Vintage_Style_festoon_Lighting

Bacchus_PR_EMI_PARTY

Bacchus_PR_EMI_PARTY_2

 

 

Previous weekly mailouts are archived here

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2010

 

 
 
 


week 5

Dear Folks...

We are excited about the launch of Labour & Wait's new shop for two reasons. Firstly, because we designed and supplied the lighting and it is hands down the most successful scheme we've ever got involved in. Secondly, because it was L&W that gave us enough self belief to set up our business in the first place and we like stories that go full circle.

It also means that we've supplied lighting to two of the six 'Best New Shops' featured on Time Out Magazine's recent cover (Lily Allen's & Labour & Wait). It might sound dreadfully self obsessed to tell you that, but we've worked our fingers to the bloody bone this year and we like to think our success isn't just all a big coincidence.

The stars of the show are rewired task lights which are now available at HistoricLighting.co.uk for £145 - pricey but nicey. Take your pick from the 20 plus colours / styles at FabricCable.co.uk. The task lights can be supplied with either a long cable + plug or with a short cable and a wall mountable pattress / gland (as seen at the shop).

Fabric Cable has been taking over our lives recently and we'll be launching a new range of Fabric Cable related stuff in the New Year (Sophie's last project before bringing our new arrival into the world). For those of you who share the dream we've shot and edited a little film of the weaving process. Music (as ever) dates from when Stan was in a band.

stan & soph

Fabric Cable Factory Tour from Urban Cottage Industries on Vimeo.

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2010
 
 
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week 4

Collection

Dear Folks...

Kornflake.co.uk is the only non-lighting part of Urban Cottage Industries - it's where we turn redundant breakfast cereal boxes into fantastic greeting and business cards. It's a very small but very important part of what we do, which grew from our love of traditional letterpress printing and our desire to make sure UCI takes it's ethical and social responsibilities seriously. We source the raw material using local schools - offering the schools a fundraising scheme and the school kids an incentive and an opportunity to take part in a real recycling process that's actually pretty cool.

In time for Christmas we've created Snowflakes*, the world's most environmentally friendly Christmas cards. Each has a unique design taken from those everyday breakfast cereal boxes and is expertly cut and printed on a 100 year old cast-iron letterpress. The envelopes are die cut from surplus posters, so they're pretty eye catching too.

Stan & Soph

Kornflake_merry_christmas

snowflakes_cards

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Kornflake_merry_christmas

Previous weekly mailouts are archived here

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2010
 
 


week 2

Collection

Dear Folks...

Last Christmas, Annika from United Visual Artists asked us to box up and gift wrap some filament lightbulbs for her hard-to-buy-for brother back home in Germany. Looking back it was a bit of a scrappy affair - Sophie wasn't around then so the wrapping was very 'Yorkshire bloke' - functional, but lacking some je ne sais quoi.

We've got our act together this year and are taking pre-orders (DHL delivery on 12.12.10) of our 'Christmas Selection Boxes' - £69 Half Dozen & £99 Dozen (+VAT) inc DHL delivery. Our most popular designs (choose from screw / bayonet / or a mixture) in a nice box and all tied-up with fabric cable, holly and a little letterpress gift tag. Pre-order opens today at filamentlightbulbs.co.uk. The bulbs are Swissmade and are marked out by their distinctive hand-stitched filaments and their superior long-life.

It might seem pretty shamless - plugging Christmas options in October - but we're hoping that someone on this mailing list will know somone who's involved in a 'Christmas gift ideas' type newspaper / mag feature. Fingers crossed - we've just invested our life savings in an exclusive agreement to represent Righi in the UK. We love filament lightbulbs.

Stan & Soph

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2010
 
 


week 3

Collection

Dear Folks...

Sophie and her friends always have a good laugh when the fashionistas ring up and ask Stanley where it's at. To be fair, it's only ever people who haven't met or seen a picture of him who call. Fashion heavyweight Lily Allen and sister Sarah Owen are the latest people to make that mistake shine their fashion flashlights on Stanley's hard work. Working with Jackdaw Studio they commissioned some Hollywood Mirrors. Three big ones at their new shop 'Lucy In Disguise' to be precise.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, an actual Channel 4 crew filmed Sophie delivering them. This will be on telly in February (it's a documenatry about Lily Allen, rather than just Sophie).

The good news is that the design has come a long way since that very shaky first effort some of you will remember from the old bathroom at Boleyn Road, they're all grown up and quite - dare we even use this word - glamourous now.

Each and every mirror is made to order, using as many (or few) bulbs as you like. Lead time is a couple of weeks and prices range from about £200 for a little 'un up to about £700 for the ones you see below.

Stan & Soph

Lucy In Disguise Hollywood Mirrors

hollywood vanity mirror 1

hollywood vanity mirror

hollywood vanity mirror

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lily-Allen_shop_mirror

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2010
 
 


week 1

Collection

Dear Folks...

Sophie recently discovered a bun in her oven so we jumped out of the East London frying pan and into the countryside. The Dalston show/ware/workflat & party terrace is no more. Thanks to everyone who helped make the Dalston operation such a success. From a couple of dodgy ebay listings to international magazine shoots in under a year - fingers crossed we can rekindle some of the magic down here in Blean.

We'll be sending out a weekly email which we like to think will be more lovely than the usual rubbish they send you these days. If you fancy giving it a chance, check your junk mail next week for stanley@urbancottageindustries.co.uk - if not just click the unsubscribe link below and you'll never hear from us again...

Stan & Soph

New Address:

Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. | holmcrest | denstroude lane | blean | CT2 9JT | 0207 193 2119 | blog

© Urban Cottage Industries Ltd. 2010 Photo courtesy of Josh van Gelder (a friend to whom we owe more than we dare to remember)