Snail Mail

Just a few of our designs now available online at Oyster Moon

At Oyster Moon nothing gives us more pleasure than creating new designs and it seemed only natural that we would put them onto greeting cards. Doing so gives us the opportunity to offer some of our artwork that isn’t available in our prints, mugs or tea towels. And lets face it, in these strange and worrying times we live in, who doesn’t love to send and receive snail mail.

Theres something quite lovely about picking up a card off of the doormat, opening a crisp white envelope and discovering a beautiful design and a special message, a wonderful hello from a friend or loved one and to know they’ve thought of you. For a few moments they are in the room and the distance, no matter how near or far, has disappeared.

We’ve all got so used to that immediate contact via text, phone or video and as great as that is, how wonderful to have that moment just between yourself and the sender, that smile that happens as you read their message to you and that warm, fuzzy feeling as you place the card onto the shelf and know someone is thinking of you. It sits there quietly, minding its own business until you glance at it again and the smile returns.

So with that in mind we’ve put together over 30 of our designs into a lovely range of greeting cards. We’ve given you the opportunity to use them for any occasion and also left them blank inside for your own sentiments, ravings, thoughts, love and messages.

Here’s hoping you share the smiles and receive some in return.

To be or not to be - that's a Trade Show

Michele just before first day opening.

A major trade show can certainly give you a case of the ‘what ifs’. We’ve recently taken part in Top Drawer for the second year and had the best four days. We were alongside the giants of the industry and held our own.

As one of hundreds of vendors it’s easy to be bombarded by products and colour from every corner, to wish you had been the first to have the ideas that your seeing on other stands and our latest event was no exception.

Standing in the middle of Olympia, surrounded by such clever design from around the world, it’s easy to want everything and to be everything and to forget what inspires us. We met some amazing people from country and coast, from the top of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall and all points in between. As we talked to them and showed our product line and designs it became clear that we didn’t need to be everything to everyone. We just needed to believe in our artwork and stay true to who we are and continue growing Oyster Moon.

We took the opportunity to introduce several new products, which were all met with great comments and received some fabulous orders and requests for some different ocean art. Our Hug a Mugs, notebooks and A3 prints showed we are constantly complimenting and growing our product line.

Our Spotted Dolphin design caught the attention of a few who were surprised to find out that these amazing mammals live off of our northern shore. The watercolour was a favourite at the show and we have now designed a Really Large Mug with the dolphins around it and a Spotted Dolphin greeting card.

The World is our Oyster and at Oyster Moon we celebrate our beautiful coast which continues to inspire.

Everyone needs a Hug (a Mug, that is)

Dear All,

Summer has come and gone, leaves are falling and we are looking into the face of shorter days and winter’s wet, windy weather, but it’s not all doom and gloom.

At Oyster Moon, we are always trying to make the day a little brighter. We think our latest product will do just that, it’s small, but makes us smile every time we look at it.

You may remember, when we first came up with the idea of putting our Ocean collection onto bone china, we had some issues with curves! The Hug a Mug was our first choice, we just couldn’t make our larger designs work on them. Being practical, we went with the Really Large bone china mugs and are happy to say they are very popular.

But we just couldn’t forget about those fabulous Hug a Mugs.

Fast forward a few months and we were looking for something new to add to our range of products. The sample Hug a Mug we’d ordered, and not used, sat on the shelf looking at us! Loving a challenge and not wanting to give in - we brainstormed and came up with four designs, two of which, use our Ocean collection in mini form and two have new graphic designs.

We love being positive, pretty things and, of course, the colour blue! We are Oyster Moon, after all! So here they are, four new Hug a Mugs, four positive sayings and four cute designs, there’s something for everyone. We can’t say enough about how well each mug sits in your hands, the teeny, tiny designs we’ve added to the front of the beautiful bone china and the message tucked away inside. We love them!

It just goes to show, sometimes when something doesn’t work out the first time, give it a chance, take some time and think about it and maybe, just maybe that something might turn out to be something wonderful!

With love and of course, hugs.

Oyster Moon

xx

Each mug comes with an inspiration message inside.

Déjà Vu

Last year we had the best time on Hayling Island photographing our products and today it was déjà vu!

Once again, March delivered and we headed down to the water. We love coming up with new things and took our latest editions to the beach today.

The misty morning cleared up just as we paid for our parking and jackets were quickly discarded - we were in for a treat. With help from our friends Q and Winnie - the photoshoot soon got going.

Our newest products are three beautiful cotton Tea Towels printed in Cornwall. The crisp white background takes our watercolour artwork beautifully and when ironed - as of course we did for the photos - almost look as if they are paper prints. We have three super designs, Ocean Collection, One in a Million and Sea Turtles and wanted to show them off to their best, but soft cotton can be difficult to bring to life in a photo - that is unless you have an amazing sun-bleached and ocean washed breakwater!

With the wind barely a breeze we draped our new Tea Towels on the wall and, with a kind offer of a quick photograph from Q, managed to capture them in all of their glory, while Winnie ran around finding driftwood, but looking very cute.

Thankfully, the playful twin labradors who decided to crash our shoot, steered clear of the table which had our beautiful Really Large Bone China mugs on and one of our shell filled Hurricane lamps. Otherwise we would still be there picking up the pieces.

We’ve also taken elements of our blue watercolour prints and made them into Giant, signed designs. Our Narwhal, Nautilus and Blue Lobster can now be purchased in large frames (53cmx53cm) and we think they look great.

So, all in all, it was a successful day and we look forward to next March or even sooner for our next photoshoot on the Coast. We really enjoy bringing new products to Oyster Moon and hope you enjoy them and seeing our photos.

Gina & Michele - Oyster Moon with our new Tea Towels

Giant Watercolour Prints

Our assistant - Winnie! - Sorry Q.

Like having a baby!

Earlier in June Oyster Moon went into labour, well... sort of, we had our second major event! 

Doing a major art and craft event is like having a baby!  Hard work, painful, makes you sweat and can bring you to tears, but they also bring great rewards and when it's over, amazingly, you forget all of the angst. 

Last year we took Oyster Moon to Alexandra Palace at the Country Living Fair, our first major event, playing with the big boys. Four days of setting up/breaking down and non-stop selling, then squeezing everything that was left back into the car. Exhausted and completely drained and swearing up and down we wouldn't do another major event!

Fast forward 9 months and a convenient lack of memory - "Oh look, there's an amazing event in early summer." we heard ourselves saying over coffee one morning. "Well, Ally Pally, was pretty good. Wasn't it? We met amazing people, it was fabulous exposure for us and some great sales (all true, but we had conveniently forgotten the aching feet, the months of stock build up, financial stress, exhaustion...) and we were once again full of optimism - "Let's do it."

So we did.

We weren't happy with a small stand like before. Oyster Moon had grown and so we signed up for a large one. We also hadn't done a show before set in a marquee.  We soon learned that tents hold a few challenges, not the least, wobbly flooring, condensation, tent pegs (tripping hazards!) and no walls to hang artwork! Not a problem. We invested in some wonderful new metal display stands, came armed with gravel bags, rope, lighting, all of our product and so much enthusiasm!

We were so fortunate the weather was dry leading up to the event and during the event it wasn't too hot. We loved every minute of it, although someone, who will remain nameless, (Gina) lost her voice the first day in and could only smile and wave. 

We spent three lovely days at the Stansted Park Garden Show in Rowlands Castle, Hampshire.  If you've never been to Stansted Park, you should go. Even when there isn't a large event taking place, the grounds, house, Farm Shop and especially the Tea Rooms are fabulous.

We can highly recommend it.

We can also highly recommend the wonderful Stansted Park staff and volunteers, event organisers, helpers, fellow crafts/gardening vendors, food vendors and most importantly our lovely customers, new and returning. We had a great time, met lots of wonderful people, ate ice cream and cake, drank Pimms (purely medicinal for the croaky throat). We ooh'd and ahh'd over plants, and other amazing crafts and, despite the long days, aching feet and angst, we just loved being in such a fabulous setting. 

And now a month on.... roll on Christmas events. Labour pains? What are those?

Stansted Park, Rolands Castle, Hampshire

Being keen - we were the first to arrive!

Three car loads and one and a half days later - we were ready.

Bespoke designs, coastal art, Giclee prints, greeting cards and lanterns.

Just a couple of our wonderful family, who came out to support us. 

Keep in Touch

At Oyster Moon we love the coast and surrounding countryside and can't get enough of beach combing our local shore. So we've designed cards from some of our favourite finds on our days out, added a few amazing creatures from under the sea near and far and put them together with some of our other art in our new greeting card range.

There's something for everyone and every occasion.

In this day and age of Tweets, emails and Facebook comments, its lovely to keep in touch with friends and family by snail mail. Everyone loves to receive a card and we think our beautiful designs would be lovely to send or receive.

At the moment our cards are only available for purchase through wholesale, but we hope to have them in local stores near you soon. So if you see something you like, let your local shop know!

Here are a few of our favourites.