RIVER COMBING

It felt like Spring was definately in the air yesterday, the sun was shining and I thought a walk along our local riverside was overdue. We were rewarded by the site of glittering bluey green mountain water trickling over pebbles and the riverbanks swathed in pure white snowdrops.

River combing is a favourite family activity and clad in our wellies we waded upstream on the hunt for fragments of old broken pottery, washed downstream from the ancient farms scattered in the valley - discarded broken pots mainly blue and white Staffordshire or earthy stoneware. The joy of discovering these small treasures is exhilarating and the urge to press on upstream becomes addictive!

The love of this activity is shared by Hannah Marshall - one of the Shop Floor Project jewellery designers. Hannah spends a large part of her life searching out wonderful examples of these fragments which she skillfully crafts into unique pieces of very wearable jewellery. So if you are looking to buy for someone special these make beautiful gifts - and you never know it might even start a whole new wave of river combers. Good hunting!

You can view Hannah's collection in The Jewellery Room 2 at The Shop Floor Project

The Dressing Up Box - Ideas for Spring

We've just launched the new Dressing Up Box with ideas for updating a favourite dress and well-worn blazer for Spring. Why not take a look and be inspired to take a fresh look at your own wardrobe and find accessories in the shop to update some of your favourite clothes.

Don't forget if you'd like help with updating an item of clothing or have a special event coming up and you'd like us to put some ideas together for you - just email us at info@theshopfloorproject.com - we love dressing up!

Pennies from Heaven

The Old Coin Collection by Natalie Thakur

These extraordinary purses are based on three British coins that are no longer in circulation; The Half Penny, Half Crown and the large One Penny. With the skill that Natalie Thakur’s work has become known for, each circular piece of leather is carefully embossed with bespoke metal plates that Natalie designed with permission from The Royal Mint.

These double sided purses are likely to become as collectable as real coins.

Click here to see and buy the full collection.

Just In today - New Spring Summer Hosiery Collection

The long wait is over! The new season tights by award winning design duo Bebaroque are here and just in time too!

I know we want it to be spring already and shed some of those winter clothes but it’s still far too cold for bare legs - there's still a bit of snow up here! Fear not, with these exquisitely printed and embellished tights you could team them with floaty dresses, oversized jumper dresses or under next seasons tailored shorts and still be perfectly snug.

Chose from beautiful cascading florals, intricate Art Nouveau shells or the tattoo inspired Sailor design. Packaged in the most lovely illustrated envelopes these make a perfect gift to yourself!

From £25, the full collection is available from the Modern Hosiery Department

New Publication featuring The Shop Floor Project

It's been quite a year for us here at The Shop Floor Project. After winning the award for Best Site Design, having a sell-out Christmas and featuring in lots of brilliant magazines and newspapers here and in Europe we have also been featured in a new book.

iCatching: Shopping Design Online selected forty of the most 'innovative websites from around the world' and collated them into one large 'coffee table' book. Imagine our surprise when we opened it to find that we had an eight page spread all about our shop!