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Coats and Hats

It now feels like winter in starting to approach. Just a few weeks ago we were waring t-shirts, now we are layering up. Coats, Scarves and hats are most definitely needed. Here is our folding Edie coat stand to take care of it. Very stylish and yet practical too. Use at home in your hallway or at work for your businesses waiting area, lobby, office or foyer.

‘we got one for our business as clients walk in and need to stay. It looks so stylish and gives our business the upmarket look’ says Alice.

Enjoy the winter with our Edie Coat stand – by Mark Lowe 

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New product  | Hellene wooden propagator: Mark Lowe x Olivia Aspinall

Perfect for test tube propagation

We’re excited to launch Hellene, our new wall-hung wooden propagator and planter, in collaboration with our friends Olivia Aspinall, a surface and product design studio just up the road from us in Nottingham.

Fusing innovative design with traditional craftsmanship, it presents a pleasing combination of visual textures: oak, terrazzo, glass and foliage, with a hint of pattern and colour. It has an elegant, slim shape and is a timeless, functional design piece for your space.

An eco-friendly propagation unit made without plastic

We believe in making objects that will stand the test of time, as we’re against today’s throwaway plastic culture. We use FSC-certified European oak from sustainably managed forests and waste products from Olivia’s studio.

Olivia Aspinall’s eco resin in terrazzo

 We first met Olivia at a Primary Studios market, set up by our friends at Lane, another Nottingham-based homeware brand. We had a stall next to Olivia’s and immediately hit it off. Since then, we’ve collaborated on a number of products using Olivia’s terrazzo composite discs, including our coat racks, chopping boards and cheese boards. We also share a stand at Nottingham’s Sneinton Market Avenues for local independent brands.

When we first started designing the propagator, we knew we wanted to finish it with a terrazzo composite. We chose pieces of handmade eco resin in terrazzo, which are made with waste pieces and recycled offcuts from their studio. The eco resin is hand cast, sanded and sealed. Every single piece of Olivia’s terrazzo composite is unique, with different shapes, flecks and colours, in the same way that every piece of our wood is slightly different, due to it being a natural material.

Olivia said: “We love working with Mark and Marianne for our homeware collections. It’s always wonderful to find local makers that make beautiful products but primarily it’s really important to us that nothing in our studio goes to waste. Mark Lowe uses our studio offcuts in the most considered way, adding little highlights of pattern and colours into their wooden pieces.”

A practical, space-saving propagator

We designed the propagator for everyone, not just our green-fingered customers. We want the cuttings and flowers to be seen and enjoyed as much as possible. It’s wall-hung to take up minimal space and to maximise the beauty of the flowers. It’s plastic-free, sustainable and beautiful and a small, affordable piece of design.

Green-fingered gifts

They’re the perfect gift for your green-fingered friends who want to get started with horticulture at home. A great addition to any houseplant collection, they’re an ideal plant-related present, particularly for those who are fascinated by the growing process.

 

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Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair online – NOW On

Ongoing through to Friday

We are proud to be part of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft fair online 2020.

In 2019 we enjoyed being part of the GNCCF in October in Manchester. This year will be very different and will be held online and on the earlier dates of July 25th -31st.

They have tried to make the ‘show’ as self contained as possible. The idea being that you can visit the show site and see work that is for sale directly. For us, customers will still be able to order the products to their specification which, is the way most customers purchased products from us in the real life shows. The show has been going for many years and there are lots of regular visitors to the physical event. We hope that lots more will be able to attend in its online form this year.

Thank you for visiting and we look forward to seeing you in the coming years.

We are proud to be part of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft fair online 2020.

Mark

 

 

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GNCCFonline : 25-31 July 2020

We are proud to be part of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft fair online 2020.

In 2019 we enjoyed being part of the GNCCF in October in Manchester. This year will be very different and will be held online and on the earlier dates of July 25th -31st.

They have tried to make the ‘show’ as self contained as possible. The idea being that you can visit the show site and see work that is for sale directly. For us, customers will still be able to order the products to their specification which, is the way most customers purchased products from us in the real life shows. The show has been going for many years and there are lots of regular visitors to the physical event. We hope that lots more will be able to attend in its online form this year.

Thank you for visiting and we look forward to seeing you in the coming years.

We are proud to be part of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft fair online 2020.

Mark

Facebook event link

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Mark Lowe featured in Creative Tourist dot com

 

We are really happy that Mark Lowe is featured in the creative tourist – creativetourist.com. This follows on from our connection with Great Northern Events and advertises the Great Northern Contemporary Craft fair.

As featured in previous posts we are going to be part of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. Originally this was to be in early October from a venue in Manchester. Due to it having to be cancelled they managed to get a grant from the Crafts Council and were able to put together an online show – 25-31 July 2020. We will, no doubt be posting further promotion for this in the next week or so.

see our image and link here.

to see Mark Lowe being featured in the Creative Tourist

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Great Northern Events – Makers Profiles

A few bits of news regarding Great Northern Events and the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

Last Autumn we were involved in the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester. This is run by Great Northern Event who also run a number of other contemporary craft fair as well as a few other events. Unfortunately this year events have been cancelled so, with help from the Crafts Council UK they have come up with a number of new initiatives.

Firstly they have compiled an online – Makers Profile. This covers most of the makers who have been involved in the events over the last few years and acts as a directory with links to the makers website.

The second will be an online market with more details for each maker enabling them to add individual pieces of work. Through links people will be able to buy work from the site. The GNCCF will be live between 25th – 31st of July. More details and promotion to follow.

GNCCFonline will feature the 160 designer-makers who had originally been selected to take part in our 2020 fairs. As ever, they have all been handpicked by a panel of craft experts to ensure the work on sale showcases the best in cutting edge design and beautiful craftsmanship across a wide range of craft disciplines.

For now here is the links to the Makers Profiles and, of course our own profile

marklowe.co.uk

 

Keep safe

Mark

 

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Article in the – Lock Down – Beestonian, Creative Beeston

Thank you to Debra Urbacz for letting us be part of the ‘Lock Down’ article, ‘The New State of Independents‘  for Creative Beeston/Beestonian magazine. We enjoyed putting our answers together with Marianne doing the final ‘interview’. It’s the second time Mark Lowe has been feature as part of the Beestonian magazine, thank you, we are always grateful for the publicity.  We’re also always very keen to be part of the local community, it’s such an important aspect of being an individual or business in any area.

Debra does a brilliant job supporting and publicising all the creative people in our local area – of which there are lots. supporting local business in any form is really important. we all need a boost in so many ways!

Thank again and keep safe, Mark

The New State of Independents

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Development of products and Etsy revamp news

Good Morning

Development of products and Etsy revamp news.

I just thought I would do a quick check in this morning. I hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. We are trying our best to keep busy and are looking at aspects of the business that, for various reasons, have been low on the to do list.

I hoping to continue work on a few products that have been put on the back burner including my forever ongoing Overhead lamp. I’ve got some of the development work at a positive point but it feels like there is loads to go. I generally  think products end up much better when you take time to develop them. I tend to have a good few sessions on one and then leave it for a while. When I come back to them I can soon see what bits have worked and what was not good (I was too immersed in it at the time). So, we have a long way to go but hopefully we can creep nearer over the next few weeks. – I’ll keep you updated.

We’ve also been working on our Etsy shop over the last week. It was set up a couple of years ago but had not been our best form of outlet. We had a few sales through it recently so thought it would be worth a bit of time. We will be doing some exclusive promotion through Etsy very soon, so keep your eyes to the ground.

Cheers all

Mark

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Being Sustainable with all our packaging

At Mark Lowe we are always trying to be as sustainable as we can. A big part of this is being sustainable with all our packaging. We are always working on how to make our products more sustainable. We know that our customers are not the type of people to buy and then throw away objects after a year or so. Our customers buy our products to last for many years maybe even forever!

When it comes to packaging we want to do the same. Most of our products are posted in some way (see a previous blog on me driving to south Wales for an alternative). We have to make sure that whatever has been ordered will survive the journey, therefore we have to use enough packaging to protect your precious cargo.

We have updated our packaging over the last 6 months and now only use paper packaging for all our products – our shades do come in a plastic bag as this comes from our shade manufacturer. – We have found a good alternative to bubble wrap through a company called Kite packaging which does the job very well. (see picture below).

So, we will continual to work hard and be sustainable with all our packaging.  I think we are doing well so far.

Mark Lowe

 

Sustainable packaging at mark lowe

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Featured Nottingham Creative for The Creative Quarter.

Featured Nottingham Creative – for The Creative Quarter.

Thank you to the Nottingham Creative Quarter for featuring us in their weekly newsletter/online in their ‘Featured Business’ section.

I enjoyed answering a few questions regarding the business, other businesses and Nottingham in general.

It’s nice to get questions and then to really think about how you should answer. It was nice to mention some friends and fellow creatives that I have worked with and that have helped me – Olivia Aspinall and Joff and Ollie have been really big helps to us and good friends as well. It’s also nice to talk about where we go in Nottingham for food and drinks.

Follow the link and have a look. Article

Keep Safe

Mark