Its been a fun few weeks for our three bebe Handmade to Retail Trade winners as they finalise their creations in preparation for the retail market . The first of our winners are NSW company - i found love. Here at bebe we have fallen in love with their beautiful mobiles, so much so that our resident merchandiser featured them in the window the day they arrived. We can’t wait to see what else this creative pair has up their sleeves.
Meet the founders of i found love:
Sonya:
my personal style-
I try to surround myself with things that I love and have collected over the years. Our house is full of music, art and books to hopefully inspire. I have tried to create a home that is beautiful yet comfortable ,one which is full of life and has the space for our children to dream. I love Danish design at the moment with its philosophy of simple abundance and it’s link to nature. I love the consideration of the raw materials that go into a product. I find style inspiration from classic movies and magazines and love to have fun with both interiors and clothing. I like the idea of reinventing oneself with a new outfit and love how clothes can change the way you feel on any day.
things I can’t live without
Family, music, films, and books. Things that I like and that make me feel creative…the ocean, photographs, cookbooks-especially Nigella Lawson, my Skeppshult bicycle, markets, fireworks, colouring pencils, white winters, rainy days and fresh flowers.
in 10 years time I would love
to have a little more time to do the things that I enjoy like cooking, would love to be a much better photographer, be ploughing my way through our recently planted vege patch, and to have taken my children on a wonderful trip to some special locations around the world.
Rachel
My personal style-
I am inspired by the Swedish artist Carl Larsson’s depiction of a lively, creative family set against the exquisite lightness and lustre of his wife Karin’s decorating style. Our home is decorated with a mix of great practicality and great whimsy. The furniture, pictures and ornaments are an eclectic mix of glorious op shop treasures, family antiques and modern pieces. My wish for the children is an understanding and value of their ‘roots’. Living with pieces that were loved and treasured by previous generations of our family is a tangible way of achieving this.
I appreciate clothes that are made of pure materials, without synthetics. I adore my children in clothes that are full of innocence, celebrate childhood and that are label free…that is to say, my children are not providing free advertising on their shirt for a manufacturing company.
Since the age of 14 I have been addicted to the thrill of hunting at op shops and the quickening of the senses when a treasure is un-earthed. I am now sharing the fun with Rory and Araminta who have taken to it like ducks to water!
things I can’t live without
a sense of the eternal, my family, my library of read and re-read favourite books, my child-hood book collection of Milly Molly Mandy, Mumfie, The Bullerby Children, Lotta, The Moominpapas, Noel Streatfield, Little House on the Prairie and Drina series, natural, honest surfaces, my mulberry tree, old friends and the easy understanding of many adventures and heartaches shared with them.
in 10 years time I would love
to have finished renovating our 100 year old home, and to have returned to Nick’s birth place in the UK and mine in Papua New Guinea with our children.
Still intrigued? Read more about how i found love came to be….
We met when Rachel’s husband Nick began teaching Sonya’s son Rory and realised our boys shared a name. Friendships can be founded on such simple premises.
Between us we have eight children. Sonya and her husband Michael have Rory, Millicent, Adelaide, Ewen and Portia. And Rachel and Nick have Rory, Araminta and Calliope.
We both live in Dubbo in the central west of New South Wales and enjoy modern country living based around a fantastic seasonal lifestyle. We both feel incredibly lucky to have amazing regional produce at our fingertips and wide open spaces for the children to adventure in. When we feel in need of a touch of sophistication and a good coffee we move our work meetings to the long table at Pete’s ‘Newtown Providore’s’ deli.
We have only in the last few months set up our company i found love. This was inspired in part by winning the Alimrose design competition with our Eskimo/Mikki dolls. Prior to this we had simply enjoyed the pleasure of dreaming up creations and making them for friends and family.
Sonya has recently finished designing and overseeing the building of their new family home, and is enjoying putting in a series of vegetable plots and an orchard.
After the birth Of Calliope, Rachel finished her work as CEO of Anglicare Western NSW and is now enjoying the privilege of mentoring a group of fantastic Christian girls with her friend Shobana.
We were drawn to Bebe’s Handmade Challenge by its appreciation of the personal investment in a hand-made Australian product with a modern edge. In addition, the value of winning business mentoring from such a reputable and wonderful company as Bebe was too enticing to ignore! We are most grateful for this opportunity entrusted to us and are enjoying the adventure.
I found love’s iconic newspaper print boats and silhouette mobiles have a nostalgic appeal and their simplicity is enhanced by the use of pure cottons and linens.
The Boats mobile depicts boats bobbing in a harbour and the newspaper print fabric draws on childhood memories of sailing paper boats. We thought it was charming to re-invent an old classic in a modern fresh way. We both feel a love for the magic of childhood and the value of the past. Orders are packaged in traditional brown boxes, with brown string, hand stamped and finished with a photograph.
We envision i found love’s range broadening over the next few years to include a range of cloth dolls and timber products finished in wax.
Check out i found love’s winning creations here online. Further pieces are also available in the Butterfly range in our Melboune store.
