rosehip

Just in....these lovely notebooks, notecards & giftwrap from Rosehip. Love the apple print! Notebooks come in A5 & A6 sizes and start at £2.50.

perthshire open studios

We've just got our bundle of brochures for the upcoming Perthshire Open Studios - so if you would like to plan ahead you can pick one up here at boo vake. Alternatively you can download it from the POS website here.

pittenweem arts festival

hilke macintyre

The Pittenweem Arts Festival opens this weekend (1st-9th Aug). If you have never been this is when the good citizens of the picturesque Fife fishing village open their houses, garages & sheds to a multitude of local and invited artists. There's about 100 exhibitions so unless you've got a week best not to try to see everything or you'll go bonkers and loose the will to live. My advice would be get your hands on a programme, go for a cup of tea and mark off what takes your fancy.
Not to miss for me would be boo vake favourite Hilke MacIntyre (of course!) who will showing paintings & linocuts (above) as well as her wonderful ceramics, beautiful jewellery from Hannah Louise Lamb, gorgeous ceramics by Gavin Burnett, and equally gorgeous glass by Nicola Cairns.

in the shop

A few (not very good) pictures from around the shop.

megan price (mr ps)

Aah...more lovely print at boo vake, this time screen-printed homewares & bags by Manchester based Megan Price (aka Mr Ps). We have her great tea cosies (with hot on one side and tea on the other), bags printed on both sides with images celebrating everthing from bingo to breakfast, the great (in)decision bag (with yes please on one side and no thanks on the other), and teatowels with themes of lollies, tea, cake, breakfast & sauce! As you can see Megan's influences are vintage signage, eating & drinking, and a love of the British seaside.

teatowels designs - my favourite 'saucy' is bottom right

prices from £8.50 for a teatowel, £14 for the bags and £30 for the teacosies

Yesterday local lass and stained glass artist Sarah Honeyman was the second boo vake supplier (that I know about) to brave the fourth plinth in Trafagular Square. I caught a wee bit online and she looked like she was completely taking it in her stride sketching away- So congrats Sarah! ....although I'll be wanting to see what's in that sketchbook ;-)

jane foster

Just arrived..... some fabulous screen-printed cats by Brighton artist (and vintage fabric magpie) Jane Foster. Jane's work is very much influenced by Scandinavian design and she is a big collector of 50's and 60's textiles and ceramics.
Each cat has a hand screen-printed linen face and is finished off with a different vintage or retro fabric. £16 each and in the shop now!

český krumlov - czech trip (pt 2)

Some more pictures from our recent trip to the Czech Republic (part 1 here). After our cycling adventures we ended up in the picturesque town of Český Krumlov for the Five Petalled Rose Festival (and met up with a few friends from Perth). The festival happens every year but this year it marked the 700th anniversary of the town's existance so it was a wee bit special.

The river Vltava loops it's way around the old town of Český Krumlov making it great fun for an endless stream of canoeists and raftists, who could - if they liked - go around once, hoick their boats out of the water, walk a few metres and do the same thing over again.

it was a bit wet this morning

Loads of medieval type things happening - markets, street entertainment, a massive costumed parade - strangely not out of place in the cobbled streets of the old town - and more importantly lots of laid back eating and drinking - wandering around with beer in hand wondering why we're not allowed to do the same back home.

Men with tight trousers on horses about to show off their manly jousting and general horsemanship skills. This was just a rehearsal before they got all dressed up for the proper do the next day but much more fun as it got a bit busy then. A lot of strutting going on. Most impressive.

A sneak pic of the them all dressed up. Ken must have stood on somebody's head for this as the rest of us couldn't see a thing.

The grand parade as seen from our friends' rather plush hotel accomodation in centre of the old town.

We were very lucky as Ken's long-standing buddy Aleš Dvořák (brewer at the massive Budvar Brewery, tank commander, and a bit of a star in the brewing world) comes from Český Krumlov and let us have the run of his childhood apartment -which was still packed full of the fittings and furniture from the 60's and 70's and a real joy for me. Not quite the old town but with a grand view of the castle. Perfect.

I'm not one for buying things for myself when I'm on holiday but I came across this bangle and leather brooch in a wee shop in Český Krumlov and I had to have them! The bangle is made of coloured acrylic and is printed with lots of great fat woodland creatures. Thinking now they would be great for the shop - unfortunately I didn't think to ask about the maker at the time.

more donna wilson

Nothing brings a smile to my face more than opening up a new box of knitted creatures from one of my favourite designers Donna Wilson. And today was one of those happy days....meet (clockwise top left) Rosie, Rufus, Berty & Pierre! Now who wouldn't want to take one of these guys home with them (I've had to stop myself carrying them about the shop). Also, along with the ever popular 'make your own monster' kits we now have some 'make something with me' ones where you can (with a few suggestions on the back) make anything you please.

'make something with me' kits £8, creatures £37-£39.

new roobedo

The very welcome return of Ruth Morris (aka Roobedo) to boo vake. This Pitlochry based textile designer works wonders with Harris Tweed and makes the most beautiful bags, purses, brooches and now egg cosies - a selection of which can be found at boo vake.

well done claire!

I would just like to say WELL DONE GIRL!! to boo vake supplier and soapmaker Claire from Barony Crafts who this morning did her stuff up up on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Antony Gormley's one and other project.

new islay spalding jewellery

We've just received a new batch of colourful resin & silver jewellery from the lovely multi-talented Islay Spalding. Each piece is hand-made by Islay and is entirely unique. You can find out more about Islay here (oh... and have a look at her biomorph page on the website - love it!!). You can also follow her on her blog here. Thanks Islay!

prices range from £19.50 - £96

louise kirby - kirby textiles

Some lovely new hand-printed silk scarves brought in the other day by Louise Kirby (aka Kirby Textiles) a textile designer based in Dundee. The colours are much more vibrant than show up on the photo - especially the orange and pink stripe (my favourite) - I would say the green is apple and the blue is most definately turquoise. We have these in two sizes, the wider of which has a contrasting colour/design on the reverse side. We also have a few of her cotton scarves in classy black & white. Find out more about Louise here.

Louise at work in her studio

Prices range from £24 for the cotton scarves to £44-£72 for the silk.

cycling in south bohemia - czech trip (pt 1)

A few pics from our recent cycling trip to the Czech Republic. The start was the Budvar brewery in České Budějovice (funnily enough!) and from there we headed north. The plan was to travel light, follow our noses and arrive back in four days time. And the rules were....No 1: REMEMBER WE'RE ON HOLIDAY!! Well...there was only one rule!

day one:
České Budějovice - Hluboka nad Vltavou - Týn nad Vltavou - Bechyně

there was a lot of this!

Bechyně from the 'Rainbow' bridge

day 2:

Bechyně - Dobronice u Bechyně - Zvíkov

...and a lot of this! This was only puncture no 1.

Dobronice u Bechyně

We cycled over every kind of surface, on main roads, country roads, cycle lanes, forest tracks, muddy farm tracks, riverside paths and even over fields (although I think we may have strayed a bit there).

Zvíkov Castle. Beautiful and dramatic Gothic castle which sits out on a peninsula where the river Otava runs into the Vltava.

day 3:
Zvíkov - Písek - Protivín - Vodňany

The brewery at Zvíkov (Pivovarský Dvur Zvikov). We stayed here (it has rooms I'll have you know!). Enjoying a rather strong beer at 10 in the morning. Thanks to the lovely brewer (who was all strapped up after a car accident) for his hospitality.

A beautiful ride along the river to Písek. A way we would have almost certainly missed if we hadn't been abducted from the higher ground by a retired gentleman on his bike who showed us the error of our cycle-ways. This was by way of a very welcome riverside drinkery (where Ken's tyre exploded and the fourth or fifth repair was made) before being escorted into Písek where we were shown the sites. Thanks Písek Pavel!

Písek with the oldest bridge in the Czech Republic

enjoying the countryside.

I don't have any pictures of the town of Vodňany - our place of rest for night 3. We chose this place for no other reason than it was half way from where we left in the morning to where we wanted to be the next day. We must have cycled around the place and surrounding villages for a couple of hours looking for somewhere (anywhere) to lay our weary heads and cursing having left sleeping bags behind as we would have happily slept out in the woods at that point. Finally we found a pub with rather grim but welcome hostel type accomodation attached. The owner was drunk. The naked lady poster count was a bit on the high side. The phone rang throughout the night. I don't think anybody ever stops in Vodňany.

day 4:
Vodňany - Kratochvíle - Holašovice - České Budějovice

Kratochvíle, a Renaissance Chateau built in the late 1500's for the last generation of the Rožmberks. It was extremely hot when we got here but I managed to get a quick walk round the gardens while Ken took in 'everything' from a bench in the shadows. Like every bit of water around these parts the moat here is full of carp. It's very hypnotic just sitting there watching them.

We had a quick peek at Holašovice -a UNESCO world heritage site- seen as a typical example of so called "rural baroque" architecture in South Bohemia. And also a source of well needed water before we both expired. Culture over we headed back to České Budějovice to drop of our bikes at the bike-shop. And then it was off on the bus southwards to the lovely little town of Český Krumlov for the Five-Petalled Rose Festival (pictures soon) and a bit of relaxation.