As I walk through Portobello daily, I notice the local small business loosing ground to chains and corporate retailers. The face of Portobello changes with the gentrification of the area.
I have noticed a young woman, selling beautiful wooden spoons, woven fabrics and hand made pottery. I spoke to her and she told me some of her story.
She comes to Portobello all the way from Richmond, she says that Portobello offers a lot more than her local market.
She sells the beautiful and sensitively crafted work of her father who lives in Lithuania. All her other products are also hand made there.
Violet says on her web site:
“When I made my home more than 200 miles across the country,
my father was saving his handmade carved spoons for me, until I came back to visit him.
He had been collecting wood since then and used his best pieces for gifts.
His special talent is revealing the natural shapes and character of the wood.
That is why every piece is unique and impossible to replicate.
Combining natural grain and modern lines makes them both delicate and handy.
With a passion for nature and creativity Whole Grain Homes was born.
Me and my father live more than 1500 miles apart now,
but he is still sending the packages full of unique hand carved wooden objects to me.
I style them and make them the meaning of Whole Grain Homes.”
Her story resonates with me as I too come from a country where natural materials are carved into useful products and I too am far away from my family.
I think Violets story is both inspiring and beautiful.
You can see more on her story on http://www.wholegrainhomes.co.uk/our-story