We’re back and Spring is here!! This little blog post is just to fill you guys in with what we’ve been up to over the past few months. And where to start?!  Well, we’re now living on a farm in the beautiful Cotswolds and good grief, it had to happen. Wobble and Squeak Clothing needed to grow and the universe provided us with the perfect people and the perfect place to allow us to do so. Put that energy out there lovelies, and you will be given exactly what you need. We promise!

Bare Bones
So. It begins.....

In between festivals last summer, we were working hard.  Through the power of the internet we managed to find a farmer with enough space to house us and our business (Robin and Niki, we can’t thank you enough for what you have done for us!)

Arr de do dar Tractor!

Ar de do dar Tractor
Gonna build a wall!!!

So, on our weekends off from festies, we made the journey west in the Wobble Wagon to bring our newly found wilderness to life. Looking back at the task that confronted us then is slightly mind boggling, but we knew in our hearts it was the right place to focus our energy.  Through the months of June to September 2018, we converted what was originally an open and draughty barn into a fully functioning warehouse and workshop, complete with insulation and cladding.

Working hard
Shiney Shiney

We didn’t stop there though. Wobble and Squeak’s passion lies in the Sacred Geometry prints we know you all love, so we also built a brand new out building on the side of the barn, to house a wet room with industrial sinks for our many dying processes. Even after all that, what we had made was still a work in progress but the life move loomed large. Time, as we know all too well, waits for no one.

Clad me up Scottie

Thankfully, with a ‘little’ help from our friends (we love you guys) we packed up our tiny house in Portsmouth after the busy festival season had come to an end, and moved our whole business and the contents of our little home 100 miles from the south coast to the Cotswold Hills, and in doing so started a new Wobbly chapter of our lives, BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

The days are now getting longer and we have arrived back from our annual trip visiting our old friends in Rajasthan, who have again helped us turn our ideas from sketches on paper, into brand new original designs for this season, as they always do.

Both Nellie and I feel so, so privileged to keep being given the opportunity in life to do what we truly love, and can only urge you all to trust that if you keep putting out those positive vibes, you will be rewarded with everything and anything you need. Where we find ourselves now, is living proof.

Please stay tuned for our Spring Summer collection, coming May 2019. Mucho loves as always Wobblers.x

Sitting on the express train as it speeds across the desert on its journey back to Delhi, we reflect upon an epic 3 month adventure in our amazing India.  It is still a country of incredible extremes. Devastating poverty somehow melds with vast wealth. The peace and tranquillity found in the rural countryside meets with a blaring hubbub in the big polluted cities. The snow and ice of the Himalayan foothills border deserts which descend over hundreds of miles towards palm fringed beaches and blazing sunshine. Oh yes, India has it all!  This vast subcontinent and the nearby countries that surround it, as our fellow travellers tell us with great joy, are lands of vibrancy and colour, sights, sounds, smells (both mouth watering and then nauseating), music and laughter; weddings, funerals, festivals, Gods and Goddesses, not to mention a plethora of flora and fauna. Believe me when I tell you, it will never cease to amaze and enthral.  To watch from a bus window as a monkey trots by on the back of a hog as if it were a jockey riding a horse, does not appear in the least bit strange to tired eyes, just as the sight of a brightly painted Indian elephant clumping across a bustling city intersection, its huge back laden with goods for market would not draw much attention from passers by. Phew! And they are just the fragments that I have recounted in the few minutes it has taken me to scribble down my thoughts.

Indian elephant

A brightly painted Indian Elephant with rider.

Enough about that though! Believe it or not, we are here each year first and foremost to visit our fair trade tailors who help us to come up with new, original designs for our website and festival stall, and as you can probably tell it is an amazing place to be able to complete this task.  When we first visited in 2012 we saw all of the things I have just described, and more.  We were properly travelling back then, both Nellie and I each living on 500 rupees a day (roughly £5) for food, travel, accommodation and the occasional beer if the regional laws allowed. Usually they didn’t but, “Sab Kutch Milega,” as we were later told roughly translated to, “anything is possible”, helped us out when a cheeky pick me up was required. (This is a universal phrase you will hear all over India, a country that has 22 official languages and hundreds more regional dialects.  It can be very useful when bargaining and haggling, as it will always bring a laugh and a smile from the seller (wallah) you are attempting to converse with, so use it wisely my friends)

Indian currency with languages

Indian bank notes depicting some of the various official languages of India.

We knew throughout that first experience of this unique and contrasting land, it was somewhere that would draw us back whether we liked it or not, so after a lot of discussion between ourselves we began speaking with the very same wallahs we had been attempting (poorly at that stage) to get the best deal from on a new t shirt or mirrored purse, only this time with a burgeoning idea buzzing around in our heads.

Riot van by a Spanish lake

Our old converted riot van next to a lake somewhere in central Spain (2011).

For as long as our jobs would possibly allow, our summer breaks from university had previously been spent driving our old converted police riot van (aptly named the Riot Fairy by our friends) to various European countries and festivals giving us the opportunity to take in their incredible markets.  Nellie had also starting creating the first items of clothing we ever made, to sell on fly pitches or blanket market stalls that we set up along our way, so with a view to mass (well sort of) producing some designs that we had been working on for fun, we tried our luck and gambled big.  It was a massive decision as it meant that we would be using the rest of the money we had meticulously saved whilst balancing full time jobs and university with a view to spending years away, but the thought of going back to the 9 to 5 grind spurred us on.  Little did we know that it would be a long hard road that lay ahead, with its shared box bedrooms crammed full of us and our stock, the second jobs, the long hours, the sleepless nights, the missed weekends and the lessons we would need to learn (we always call mistakes lessons unless we make them twice) but, tadaah!!!!! It was all worth it in the end because I find myself on this train writing away

Train heading into the mountains

An Indian Express train heading in to the mountains.

6 years have now passed and our business has progressed, but we still work with many of our original tailors and suppliers who we can now thankfully call our friends.  We have seen their progression too. New houses and workshops with battery banks to deal with the numerous power cuts have been built and better sewing machines have been purchased. This in turn has provided new jobs and a good wage for countless people up and down the supply chain, most of whom are still incredibly poor by Western standards. From the cotton pickers in the fields, to the men and women spinning the raw material into fabric, the couriers who ship the finished products, to the tailors and seamstresses (this is not a wholly male dominated profession) who create the garments that we stock in our shops, they and their families have all benefited.  We are particularly careful to visit the places where our stock is being produced and meet many of the people I have just mentioned in person. Because of this close working relationship we can guarantee that everyone we have the pleasure of working alongside are of working age, are paid a FAIR wage and get decent length, regular breaks (these are usually at the most frustrating times when we ourselves are most busy, so I can certainly vouch for that, but this is INDIA and we love it!!!)

Some of our happy workers

Some of our tailors busy at work.

As we near Delhi and I reach the end of this chapter of our story, all I feel is gratitude for the life we have been given. The light has now faded outside but from the open doorway of our carriage it is still possible to see the very same stars that we reached for when Wobble and Squeak was born.  Live, love, laugh and most importantly, be happy with what you do and trust your heart to direct your life. If you don’t like something, change it, as you and only you have the power to do so. Travel far, dream big and sunshine adventures await you. We did and implore you to do the same!!!

Please check out our summer collection coming soon. Much love Wobblers.xxxxx

With the new website build in the forefront of our minds, this spring we undertook our first outdoor location shoot.

Spring Photo shoot 2017
Spring Photo Shoot 2017

It was a slightly daunting task having to organise models from different areas of the country, hire vans, a photographer, makeup, hair, props, studio space and all the other things that go with such a project but we knew with our passion and a little bit of luck, the weekend would be a success.

 

Wobble and squeak photoshoot

We are lucky enough to be blessed with some great scenery right on our doorstep here in our home town of Portsmouth. From beaches to urban forest, abandoned buildings, to World War Two bunkers, we have it all and with the help of a great support team (you know who you are) we think we pulled it off. Please have a look through the web pages on this site and you will see some of the finished pics!

This year we managed to get on site nice and early (unusual for us) and begin the job of setting up our festival space on the hottest day of the year so far! With wet towels on our heads to help us keep cool in the blistering heat we put up the stall frame, covered it with tarpaulins and wired in lighting, mirror balls, projectors and our UV setup.

 

Glastonbury Festival 2017

Glastonbury Festival 2017

 

The festival itself starts on the Wednesday and runs right through to Sunday so during it, we met what seemed like thousands of happy Wobblers and Squeakers. As always we made new friends, saw loads of old ones and worked our Wobbly socks off. Monday evening came as it always must and we saw the sun set over Pilton, the stall already having been neatly packed down, and we were ready to drive home. Next year is a fallow year meaning there will be no festival in 2018 but rest assured, we’ll be back bigger and Wobblier than ever in 2019!!!!!

 

In April 2016, we decided our mark one festival stall needed redesigning so it could carry more of our beautiful creations and allow us the room to add extra decor, lighting and visuals for our customers to enjoy. We enlisted the help of our talented friend Chris who is himself an experienced engineer, and he set about drawing out the new plans to meet our specific requirements (all for the price of a nice bottle of whiskey!!)

New Stall Build

New Stall Build

Once completed, our original frame was driven north to market stall manufacturing company Gavin Kenning Engineering who cut up and re-welded it exactly as Chris’s plans set out. So, when you come to visit us in a field somewhere over the summer months, you’ll know a little bit more out the space you are standing in!