Spotlight: Vandertas Accessories {Plus A Super Exciting giveaway!}

Today I'm really excited to be bringing you another post in the spotlight series, as well as a giveaway! I love to champion small, independent businesses and makers and this post is all about a maker who is local to me which makes it even more special!

I discovered Nienke Vandertas and her beautiful leather and canvas accessories brand Vandertas at the Fresh Artisan Market in Norwich back in May. At the time, my beloved Vivienne Westwood purse was on its last legs and given that I'd had it for seven years I was pretty attached and didn't really want to have to replace it. However, I spotted Nienke's gorgeous purses on Instagram during the lead up to the market and as soon as I picked one up I knew I'd found 'the one.'

I chose a beautiful soft grey leather with contrasting yellow panels and stitching and the happiest gold lining! I've loved using it so far and Nienke very kindly sent me the matching card wallet too as my various cards didn't quite fit!

I was really excited to learn more about Nienke's work and it's a fab interview! She has also sent me two of her gorgeous grey canvas foraging bags to give away to you lovely lot, so read on the the end for the details of how to enter and be in with a chance of winning! 

Over to Nienka...

1: Can you introduce yourself and describe what you do?

I’m Nienke Vandertas and I design and make leather and canvas accessories under the name Vandertas. I’m originally from Haarlem, The Netherlands and have lived in the UK since 2000. My background is graphic design, but by chance rolled into freelance event design after a few years living in the UK, which I still do along side my bags.

2a: How did you life as a maker begin? 

My Dad is a gold and silversmith and I remember from a very early age making things and being in my dads workshop. On our family holidays I would make jewellery from shells and sell them at the local market - I think I was about seven. A few years later my Dad started to show me how to use certain tools and I started making earrings and bracelets from perspex. I did consider studying gold and silversmithing, but decided to do graphic design instead.

I didn’t realise I would even like sewing, as it never occurred to me…but after being given a sewing machine for my birthday in 2003 I found my passion! Once I started sewing, I couldn’t stop. Funilly enough I never made clothes, always more utilitarian items; bags, purses and wallets and other accessories. 

2b: When did you start working with leather and why do you love the material?

This was early days. I was already using heavy duty materials like army canvas, but at a market I found some leather offcuts. When I got home and started putting it to the the test I realised my sewing machine was perfectly capable of sewing leather and that was it. Slowly, I started finding out more about the material, where to find nice leather and how best to use it. There were not that many leather merchants online at the time, so it was a process. I love the fact leather is very pliable, doesn’t fray, is very durable and combines very well with all sorts of other materials. 

3: What is your favourite item to make and why?

My favourite item to make is the gladstone (doctor's) bag. Every gladstone I make feels like a little gem, each has it's own character I guess. This character depends a lot on the materials I use make them; a doctors bag made out of a thick shoulder hide has a completely different look and feel as if I was to use a thinner leather.

The exterior is always a plain colored leather, but as soon as you open the bag it will either be lined with beautiful vintage fabric or a bright metallic foiled leather. 

I’m proud that I have doctors and midwives amongst my customers, who use their doctor's bag everyday at work.

 4: You use a lot of recycled and vintage leather and fabrics in your collections. Is this for ethical reasons as well as aesthetics? 

I would say mainly aesthetics, but its very good re-using anyway of course. Vintage fabrics have, in my opinion, much nicer designs. Very rarely I find a modern material I like. Used army canvas I use because it has a nice worn look, which gives a bag character. 

5: Living near the coast has always been a huge inspiration for me. What are you major inspirations?

It’s hard to think of where I find my inspiration as I guess it comes from so many different things. An afternoon lost in the Rijks Museum or Bag Museum in Amsterdam, finding a piece of beautiful fabric at a carboot sale. Any old style typography and design, fashion I like – particularly 1910’s till early1960’s.

6: You also teach leather workshops in Suffolk. What is the best thing about teaching other people to make something with their hands?

To see how proud students are with what they’ve made after finishing the workshop and realising the potential they have to create at home too!

7: What are you plans for the future of Vandertas?   

Keep on making!

***

How stunning are Nienke's accessories! She has very kindly sent me two of her foraging bags which were designed for the Alde Valley Spring Festival in 2012. They're made from used army tents, finished with bronze poppers and are just perfect for foraging or as a bag for general use. They proved so popular they became part of Nienke's main collection and I have one of each size to giveaway! 

So, to be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is: 

1: Head over to Instagram and follow both me (@thesaltedtail) and Nienke (@vandertas) 
2: Comment on the giveaway image (which the same as the one at the top of this post) telling us what treasures you'd collect in your bag if you won! 

For two extra chances to enter you can:

1: Repost the giveaway image on instagram (either in your main feed or stories) tagging @thesaltedtail and @vandertas so I can find it! 

2: Sign up to receive my email newsletter 'The Treasury' (which is launching soon) by clicking 'The Treasury' tab at the top of this page.

Two winners will be chosen at random on August the 11th. The first name drawn can choose either the medium or small bag, and the second name drawn will win the other! 

Good luck! 

(All images except the first are courtesy of Vandertas)

Twenty Eight Trips Around the Sun

This is a photo of me aged five, finally being allowed to lick the spatula after making a Victoria Sponge! You know what the most remarkable things about this image is, aside from my decidedly sinister face-pulling? It was taken 23 years ago, and that red plastic sieve is still is in regular use at my parents house! 

Anyway, Saturday before last I celebrated my 28th birthday! Yep, 28 times round the sun. This time last year, I wrote about my 27th birthday, and when I read that post back, I realised how many of the things I was hoping for I've managed to achieve this year. I wrote about how I was ready to stop wasting time, and get off my bum and do things, I had just begun to realise that our little cottage was far too small and maybe it might be time for a change, and I also wanted to learn about house plants!

Vintage Mischief: Salvage Hunting in Suffolk

I write a lot about how much I love living in Norfolk, but in truth we are only just across the Norfolk/Suffolk border, and Suffolk is pretty special too! 

Just down the road from us in Beccles is one of the best vintage shops around. Vintage Mischief is run by Simon and Danielle, and specialises in mid-century, retro and industrial pieces. It is filled with everything from watering cans to record players, and is wonderfully curated so you don't have to sift through hundreds of bits and bobs to find the gems - every item is completely take-homeable! They were recently featured on Salvage Hunters (and we all know if Drew says it good, it must be true!) and popping over is one of our favourite ways to spend an hour (and some pennies) on a Saturday morning.

The shop is set out over several rooms, and furniture spills out into the courtyard at the front, as well as into several smaller buildings surrounding this.  I discovered I'm being very drawn to yellow things - particularly light fittings - we loved some of these ones! We also loved this hilarious deckchair complete with it's own sunshade!

One of the most exciting parts of the shop is one of the upstairs rooms, full to bursting with kitchenalia, brightly coloured crockery, glassware and some fantastic patterned items. I adore those grey and yellow chairs and the way everything is organised by colour!

Can you spot the little mug with the crocodile? It's a character from the Timbuctoo books which Rodger Hargreaves wrote before he wrote the Mr. Men and I had quite a few of them when I was little - I very nearly took it home with me. 

We had been hoping to find a mirror for our bedroom when we made the short drive over to the old dairy barn this morning. We didn't buy a mirror, but there were several we liked, including this large round one.

We also both loved this chair, but again left it behind as we've made a decision not to buy anything if we don't know for sure where we're going to put it! Otherwise we run the risk of filling the house with random pieces of furniture but having no finished rooms!

Isn't this floor fun! Vintage Mischief is definitely the place to go for vintage children's books (which we're both rather fond of!) They also have a large collection of Ladybird books (you can see them on the left in the first image) which I find really hard to resist, I just think the illustrations are amazing! 

The only part of the shop more exciting than kitchenalia is one of the smaller rooms attached to the courtyard. It's full of haberdashery supplies, patterns, fabrics, jars full of buttons and piles of amazing vintage towels that make me feel like I'm three years old and at the beach with my Nanny. I could lose hours (and hundreds of pounds) browsing through all these. Did anyone else have those striped flannelette sheets growing up? 

The wall between this room and the one next door is made of just that, doors!

There were a few bits we couldn't leave behind though. We've been planning to have a very loose nautical feel in our bedroom once we get round to decorating it, and I've been looking for a sunburst style clock because I always think they look quite compass like. This one is the perfect size and I love the style of the numbers! It's not working, but it should be fairly easy to fix, and it's made by a company called 'Smiths' (you can just about make it out under the hour hand) so it was meant to be ours! 

I also bought some little terracotta pots for my growing collection of succulents! I paid a pound for all three, and there were literally hundreds of them in all different sizes so I'm sure I'll end up back for more. I particularly liked the bigger ones because they have no rim, and the little one was too cute to resist! 

I also bought a couple of bits in Trip Trapp, the vintage clothing shop within the grounds of the old barn - but I think I'll save those for another post! 

I've you're ever in Suffolk, I can't recommend this place enough!