Colour Establishment

We have reached the stage in project new home where we are making good and decorating the naughties bedroom. We are not even close to choosing colours for the walls as we are still at taking the layers upon layers of paint off the 1930’s fireplace and taking down the badly put up picture rail stage. But being a women, and a picky woman at that, the colour we choose is an important decision. I refuse to do what Mr Kircher would do if I let him, which is pick up any tin of paint in the shop, probably the nearest to the cash desk and not really worry or care about the shade, mood or feeling of the room it will be situated in. Luckily he is colour blind so I am in charge of colour!

RED- Annafie dress

I am big on colour. I have always been drawn to colour. My favourite colour is RED.

Whether it’s because my favourite dress as a child was my RED boat dress or whether my love for red happened much later in my life, I don’t know.

What I do know is that colour has a big impact on our children. Otherwise why would all the toys in my house be so brightly coloured?

ORANGE- Porcelain Breakfast set

Children are drawn to colour and respond to it. Round about the age of 18 months a child will be able to recognize different colours as they do shapes, size and texture. They probably won’t be able to name a colour till they are 36 months old, but they will be able to point to the correctly coloured shape if you ask him/her to “point to the RED square”.

YELLOW -Mibo paper friends

Eighty percent of information the brain receives, is information accepted visually. Colour stimulates the visual sense and encourages the retention of information. While studying for my GCSE’s I used cue cards in various colours to help me remember facts, figures and findings while studying. Parents are also encouraged to use cue cards in various colours to help children learn through play.

Colours also create different moods. Hues of BLUE, GREEN and VIOLET induce relaxation. Whereas RED, YELLOW and ORANGE stimulate and increase brain activity. 

GREEN - Syot Pedal Car

BLUE - Organic cotton blanket

So with all the above in my mind, I am looking to the things the naughty has warmed to in her little life so far as to clues of her colour preferences. This could be a little problem…apart from the very loved Mr Elephant who is a pale GREY, all the things in her life so far are pretty much rainbow coloured.

When Sarah and I trowel through the products we carefully choose for our children and u-ni-k, we try where possible to always remember how important colour is. Every colour.

So we won’t have a typically BLUE section for boys or a predictable PINK section for girls. We’ll have an array of wonderful rainbow colours to help our little ones learn and grow with the simple things around them.

VIOLET- Organic cotton hat

INDIGO- Recycled Sari Kantha stitched blanket

Taking over the world with Florals by David Earp, founder of Shuktara

With the gorgeous mention of our baby blankets in ST Kids (Sunday Telegraph) by Daisy Bridgewater, we have asked the orginator of the blankets, David Earp to tell us about his story of how he started his gorgeous charity Shukara and about his love of florals. Without florals the world would be most certainly a very dull place! So celebrate florals with Shuktara and u-ni-k.


The shuktara blog, by my very dear friend David Earp.

The Shuktara family

I was delighted when I found out that Anna, who I had known from egg in London, was going to start up an online company, with a friend, selling beautiful heirloom products for children.  I met Anna at egg some years ago, when I started selling my blankets there.  As Maureen who owns the store was choosing her designs, Anna and I hatched our own evil plan to take over the world with florals.

Shuktara girls gang *

Before coming to India at the end of 1998 and starting shuktara (www.shuktara.net) I had been working at Portobello Market selling vintage clothing and textiles.  Then on one of my trips to India I visited Calcutta and decided to start a home for children with disabilities who had no family to care for them.  I gave up my flat share, sold my car, closed down my stall and packed a bag for India.

Many friends of mine came out to visit and as much as they were delighted to see what had been created for these children and young people, they were concerned about my passion for textiles and often asked me why I wasn’t doing anything.  It just wasn’t the right time for me then.

Shuktara Girls, photo by Paula Harrowing

Some years later I saw very dilapidated blankets lying on the roofs of people’s homes.  They seemed to be layer upon layer of random textiles and on further investigation I discovered what I like to call village kantha.  With little spare money for people to buy blankets in the colder season, they would stitch together old pieces of lungi/sarong or bed sheet, sari or dupatta – layering them and patching them as they went along, finally finishing off the entire piece with a running stitch.  I loved this mismatch of textiles, the worn upper layer suddenly revealing a vibrant check or a faded floral underneath and so I decided to try and recreate the same thing myself.  With the help of my staff and women from their villages I made a handful of oddments.

David outside the boys house with Ramesh and Sunhil

I carried this bag of kantha blankets with me on a holiday to Goa, to show some friends of mine, who immediately snatched them off me and told me that they would take them to show Maureen at egg.  I was almost immediately contacted by Anna about egg having exclusivity on my blankets for about 6 months and Maureen’s beautiful store has continued to support us by stocking shuktara products.

In a world that is frequently seen as selfish and uncaring and only out for oneself, I have continually been moved by Maureen’s generosity of spirit in passing our products and our charity and myself on to other clients, rather than hold on to me – with the exclusivity tag.  It therefore came as no surprise when Anna asked me to work with her on some exclusive baby blankets for u-ni-k of course with Maureen’s blessing.

The beautiful baby blankets 

It has been wonderful for me to work (again) 
with Anna on this new project, pushing for 
everyone to start enjoying hand made 
one of a kind beautiful imperfection – 
and our evil plan to take over the world 
with floral …. continues







http://www.shuktara.net/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/shuktara/117414948032
http://www.eggtrading.com

*Image includes Prity, Tamina, Ipshita, Riya and Lali with Priyanka (holding Prity) their tutor, Nandita their activity co-ordinator and Tenaya & April (Gallaudet University interns)