Perfume and Peonies - 10 June 2008
May brought with it some delicious weather, which we took full advantage of with some lovely lunches and walks in Norfolk with friends.
Walking in the Bluebell woods
The artist Rob Ryan, known for his wonderful paper cuts and prints, came to visit us with his lovely wife Lorna and their delightful daughter. Our other guests included the most popular man in PR, Julian Vogel from Modus Publicity, with his wife, the very talented architect Sally Mackereth and their sweet children.
Flowers were in abundance, both wild and cultured, with bluebells carpeting the woods and our irises putting on a great show.
Our Irises in full bloom
Back in London there was the thrill of yet more flowers at the Chelsea Flower Show. There are clear trends in the display gardens every year. This year the style was to feature flat black ‘infinity’ pools in strict architectural tanks. They act as horizontal mirrors and reflect the garden in a pleasing way, but to see the same idea repeated in quite a few gardens seems to detract from its originality and beauty. Colour wise most people showed restricted palettes of greens and whites. Peonies are the ‘it’ flower for 2008.
The ever-present infinity pool at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The cleverly named Cans Festival in Waterloo, an impromptu show of international graffiti artists organised by Banksy, was great fun: filled with witty and exciting images. The mass of people that the exhibit attracted goes to show the huge draw that this, the most democratic form of public art, has on the public.
Soup cans at the Cans Festival in Waterloo, staged by Banksy
This time of year is packed with college shows and we visited a couple of good ones, held in great locations. The London College of Fashion held their show at the back of the Royal Academy, while the University of Brighton displayed works in the old Billingsgate Market.
Metal Fringes at the London College of Fashion Show 
Lucy Wightwick showing at the Uni of Brighton Show
In the English Eccentrics studio, we have combined flowers, nature and art to create six candles for the EE range. We smelt the first samples of our two latest additions, Tea with the Queen and Wintergarden. I’m very excited about these new scents.
As a group the candles look really colourful and the scents are all original and very varied. Now work begins on the development process for our next fragrances, with a visit last week to our perfumiers Robertet.
English Eccentrics' new range of fragrance candles
During the visit we smelt so many exciting things that our brains were exploding from sensory overload by the time we left! We inhaled everything from natural florals, like lily and iris, to aldehydes which smelt of seaside ozone or ironed linen. It was a heaven scent day at the office.
Choose by category:
browse by colour:
