About us
This is the story of how we came about setting up our new venture, some of the things we tried on the way, how we ended up working with leather and developing the products we have.
After years of working for others and stifling our creativity, we decided enough was enough, and that it was time to do something about it. With a dream of having our own little cottage industry we brain-stormed options based on what we like doing. Considering our love of being out in the countryside, going for walks and enjoying the fresh air the name "Happy Hedgerow" was soon born! The name reflects our love of nature and the importance of the countryside to our native wildlife.
The intention is for Happy Hedgerow products to be simple, beautiful and useful. The hard decision was in which materials we wished to work with. Enjoying drawing, painting, sewing, woodwork and generally being creative meant a broad scope of materials. We decided to come up with a list of things we could make in various materials and considered whether we needed to acquire more skills.
First on our list was waistcoats (we love casual waistcoats that are suitable for a range of occasions) which can be surprisingly hard to come by. Gran's old Singer sewing machine was resurrected, and many happy hours have been spent planning colour and pattern mixes to create stylish effects. However sewing is really only Iris's thing and we ideally wanted to develop a range of products that we could both have a hand in creating. This is where the leather work came in.
Leather was an area we were both interested in but did not know much about. We were fortunate to come across a couple running courses on how to make small leather products. Thanks to McGregor and Michael, we learnt the basics and equipped ourselves with the necessary tools. The sofa went and was replaced by a large butcher's block that we turned into our leather-working bench. Production began.
The next step was to incorporate our love of the countryside into our products. Currently this is achieved with motifs which include ivy leaves, butterflies, birds and horses. The range is growing all the time as we come up with new ideas. Since those early days we continue to experiment with a variety of products. We hope you enjoy our story and our shop. Happy browsing.
Iris & Jason