we like... I Know by Isabel Knowles

I'd like to introduce a new semi-regular feature over here on Ladybird Likes called 'we like...' - we will be featuring some of our favourite designer, makers, crafters, and artists with mini interviews or profiles accompanied by photos of them and their work. we know so many crazily talented people and we want to shine the spotlight on them a bit more. so without further ado our first 'we like...' feature Isabel Knowles, the insanely talented designer behind the clothing label 'I Know.' here at Ladybird Likes we love pretty dresses, yummy fabric, and beautiful photos, and Isabel ticks all three of those boxes, plus many more!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

Hello, I'm Isabel :) I design and make dresses and other clothing from my little home studio in Devon.

Describe a typical day for you.
My days vary a lot. I always have different priorities of what needs to be done, I aim to be in my studio by 10 and I often work way into the night. I am fuelled by lots of tea and coffee and radio 6. I try to do any sewing I need to do as soon as I get into my studio. After lunch I normally take the dog for a walk and get out of the house as you can go a little mad working from home. Some days I spend planning new collections and doing computer work and others are spent madly sewing until way into the night. I'm not the best at sticking to a 'routine' so I seem to do a lot of the latter.

 

How did you get into fashion? Have you always wanted to be a designer?

I don't know when it became my 'thing' or a business idea. I found some fabric I loved and made some clothes and set up an Etsy shop and website just to see how it went. I've always loved sewing and making my own clothes since I was little and was really into wearing awful homemade things when I was about 14. I hope my style has got a little better since then though.

 

 

How do you measure success?

This is a tricky one, I am always comparing myself and my business to other people who are doing a similar thing. I don't think there is any real way to 'measure success' personally I think it is about putting energy and time into your business and enjoying it too, but that's easier said than done.

 

 

What is your biggest creative/business achievement to date?

Oh golly, I'm not sure! I think it's just all the little things that add up to the fact I actually have my own business. I always feel really proud when I look back at my photo shoots and look books because that is such a fun creative part that I love. I think every dress I make is a little achievement and it is so satisfying getting feedback or pictures from the lovely ladies who buy them.

 

 

If you could go back in time would you do anything differently relating to your work/business?

I don't think I would. I'm too busy planning future projects to dwell on the past :)

 

 

How do you get yourself motivated when you're having a 'meh' day?

There's no real formula for snapping out of a 'meh' day. I definitely have my fair share of them. I have finally decided that there is just no point beating yourself up about it. When I'm feeling rubbish or unmotivated it doesn't help trying to force myself to do what I don't want to, as it only means I create bad work, which will make me even more annoyed. Just take a break, get out of your own head and come back feeling refreshed... hopefully.
 

 

What's your favourite item you've ever made?

I love making pretty dresses, but actually some of my favourite things I've made have been for Videopia which is what I have been doing over the last few summers and it is just a lot of fun. I love making costumes and silly things with lots of papier mache and all in ones etc, I made a killer lion costume for the Wizard of Oz earlier this year, I liked making that a lot.
 

 

What's your dream for your business?

At the moment my main dream is to be able to move into a bigger studio and maybe grow the business enough that I could employ one other person to help out. I love having my own business but I really miss working with people and bouncing off ideas or just having someone to natter to. I have big dreams of a spacious modern studio space and it is my main aim at the moment to work towards that. In the long term, who really knows...(cheese alert)..., world = oyster? The skies the limit right!? Hmmm.

 

Thanks for the peek inside your beautiful world Isabel!

lions and pugs and owls, oh my!

 that's right everyone - we have FOUR brand new animal-themed necklaces up in our etsy shop right now! if you follow us on twitter or instagram (we are @ladybirdlikes on both if you're not following us yet!) you will have seen sneak peeks of these new necklaces already, but they are now available for you to purchase! as always, we only make jewellery featuring the things that we like...

the fluffy cat on this necklace may look grumpy, but we like him because he makes us smile every time we look at his little face!

we've collected owl related bric-a-brac for many years now - there's just something about a wise old owl that we cannot resist, so we had to create an owl necklace.

they're called the king of the jungle for a reason - ever since watching The Lion King we have had a huge soft spot for lions, so we wear our lion necklace with pride (get it pride)

it's no secret that we get all gooey-eyed whenever we see a pug. one day we hope to have a pug baby of our own. but until then we will just ooh and aah over our pug necklace instead.

 so folks, which of our new necklaces is your favourite? we can't possibly choose just one, so we have claimed one of each for our own jewellery collection and have received LOTS of compliments on them so far.

oh, and if you haven't already 'liked' our facebook page please head on over there and do so. we will be holding a giveaway on there on Friday to win a gift voucher for our etsy shop, but you won't hear about it unless you like the page!

pick me up 2013

a bit late I know, but a while back me and the boy-o (yes, if you haven't already heard I have a boyfriend now, and I promise I will share more about him on here really soon!) headed to Pick Me Up at Somerset House. in case you haven't heard of it before, Pick Me Up is an annual graphic art fair in London - lots of lovely artwork to look at and buy, plus interactive demos and workshops and talks and stuff. every year I mean to go, and every year something comes up last minute and I end up missing it. but not this year!

this neon fried breakfast piece was one of my favourites from the whole day - I want it on the wall of my kitchen (when I have my own kitchen obvs!)

Jonathan had a go at screenprinting as part of the Print Club workshop space - what a pro! (I didn't have a go as I am the clumsiest, most awkward human being ever and would have almost certainly broken something or got covered in ink.)

I also reeeeeally loved these embroidered fabric pennants. I'd like to make something similar to hang up in my studio for a bit of motivation....

and how AWESOME is this sign for the event?! it's wood with loads of holes drilled in, and then someone cross-stitched (in wool) the design on. love love love. it got me thinking about possibly including some embroidery elements on wood in a new range of jewellery.

oh and lastly we stumbled upon the Moomin shop in Covent Garden after Pick Me Up, and obvs I had to take a photo - I didn't buy anything but could have easily spent a fortune in there.

did any of you guys visit Pick Me Up this year? what did you think? what were your favourite pieces?

they also like ladybird likes

we blogged last month about some of our favourite blogger ladies that had snapped pics of themselves wearing Ladybird Likes jewellery - but that was only half of them! here are the rest - we love getting style inspiration from blogs, there are some super stylish gals out there and we are honoured that they like Ladybird Likes as much as we like them!

Amy from The Little Magpie wore this heart themed outfit which included our limited edition 'love hate' collar clips (they're now sold out though boooo!) - we love wearing shirts layered under dresses so we can wear collar clips all the time!

 one of my all time favourite bloggers is Kaelah from Little Chief Honeybee paired not one but TWO Ladybird Likes pieces in this super cute outfit. I spy a typewriter key necklace and an ampersand brooch. also, how adorbs is Kaelah?!

 it would seem the lovely Lucy from Fine and Bambi is a big fan of our collar clips judging by this blog post where she featured two pairs of our collar clips - we love them too Lucy! you can get the black cat collar clips and kiera butterfly collar clips in our Etsy shop if you fancy adding some fun to your wardrobes too!

 what girl doesn't have a huge style crush on Liv from What Olivia Did? I absolutely adore this 1960s schoolgirl outfit she put together featuring our blue moon collar clips - how incredible is that dress she's wearing?!

friday favourites

1. Untitled, 2. Between Worlds, 3. child's plate, 4. schreibmaschine_brief_gr, 5. phonograph, 6. Sausalito Ferry Company, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled

Austin 2013 (part 1)

I'm such a slack blogger, can't believe I've been back from Texas for like three weeks and am only just getting round to posting photos from my trip! it was such an incredible two weeks - however I didn't take that many photos. our aim for the trip was to just become Austinites and as it's not a very touristy (in the traditional sense) place we just hung out, ate lots, wandered round the shops, got in some pool time, saw some local live music. it was perfect, and for the first time in over a year I actually felt relaxed!

here are the first installment of photos, which are mostly from the area right around our motel - we stayed in SoCo which is basically just a really long road which runs through Austin. the top part is called Congress Avenue, and that runs through the city, and then it crosses over the river, and that bottom part (where we stayed) is called South Congress Avenue. it's quite cool, lots of interesting shops, LOADS of amazing places to eat, bars, live music venues.

 

Magnolia Cafe is where we had breakfast almost every morning - it was so yummy there. I had pancakes or breakfast tacos pretty much every morning. once I even had both. oh yes.

pretty much my favourite thing about Austin was all the street art and posters and stickers everywhere - it's such a cool place, and there was always something to look at and snap photos of

these pieces of street art were outside the MexicArte museum we visited and were some of the best pieces we saw during our trip (that dancing lady is my absolute fave!)

the MexicArte museum was showing an exhibit of masks when we were there - a mixture of traditional style ones used for folk dances and religious festivals, which were SUPER creepy looking but quite fascinating (some were made with real human hair and stuff!) but they also had a section of the Lucha Libre masks, which was so interesting. they had original posters from Lucha Libre films which are really popular in Mexican cinema, as well as Luchador costumes and masks, and a film reel showing a documentary about Mexican wrestling.

we walked past this huge lion mural almost every day as it was just up the road from our motel, so I had to get a snap in front of it (excuse the mess that is me - my hair went majorly cray cray in the humdity!)

so I have another three posts about Austin (including one about the Renegade Craft Fair) coming up over the next week and a bit, so stay tuned folks! and if anyone else is thinking about going to Austin, or is planning on going and needs some tips, just holler as I have so many recommendations!