New sample t shirts made and stabo HQ sold

It has been an incredibly frantic time here at stabo central. We have sold our house which has put us in a scramble to find another property - not an all together restful exercise.

And possibly more interesting we have been making some new sample t shirts which we're trying out on the stalls in small batches. This rather peculiar image is of us doing some screen exposing on our home made exposure unit.

You shouldn't really hold up the lid with the lights on but I thought it might make a good photo.

All in all a busy time now and what looks like the rest of the year


Here's a quick look at the samples. Hope to put them on the website soonish.

What Would Terry Do?

I imagine Sir Terry Leahy, Tescos' Boss, when considering new display methods for say washing powder or charcoal brickettes probably sits down with his colleagues and has a conversation about previous displays. Then using the stunningly analytical technique of vague recollection rather than documented sales figures considers their success. On the back of this he probably grabs hold of a random collection of materials from his workshop and the floor then sits down at a sewing machine and gets stitching.

Even if it turns out not to be Tescos' strategy it's what we did.

So awaiting a tsunami of increased badge sales we will be presenting our new badge display to a suitably underwhelmed public this weekend at a stall near you.

Cool places to shop

Liscious, 125 Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6AH

I spent Wednesday wandering aimlessly around Oxford although this turned into wading as the afternoon progressed and the heavens opened.

One of the more interesting shops was Liscious, 5-10 minutes north of the main shopping centre. It sells a great combination of secondhand furniture both old style and updated (reupholstered, re-painted etc.) and vintage clothing. Lured in by the vast dolls house in the window (about the size of Blenheim palace in dolls house terms) and funky upholstery it really is a bit different.

The white floorboards of the shop floor go both upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards and you wind up the staircase stumbling into an area complete with mobile phone charging and erected ironing board that looks like someones living room perhaps it was an installation or perhaps it really was someones home.

Comfortably the most expensive thing you can buy at Spitalfields market...

Our house no. 21 High Street Benwick, March,
Cambridgeshire, PE15 0XA.

Mildly frustrated by sluggish housing markets we took we have decided to advertise our house on our three market stalls. As we designed and built the workshop and garage (and still have some of the injuries to prove it) we can even sell it at Cambridge Art and Craft market where 'we make what we sell'.

We are sure the £107,000 asking price makes it the most expensive item for sale in any of the markets we attend. Were anyone to come along with the readies we always bring a trolley with us which we could transport the dosh home in.

Anyway now we've started this mode of unconventional house promotion we might as well continue so without further ado;

This is truly the most sensational offer you will ever see and were it not for the fact that we would like to live a little nearer London and Cambridge and would like even more space for our workshop we would not be moving.

It is a two bedroom, two reception room, mid terrace Victorian house with bathroom and kitchen. Apart from the bathroom (laminate flooring) and kitchen (tiled) the flooring is 0riginal wooden floorboards throughout. There are original fireplaces upstairs. There is also a backyard with oil tank for the oil fired central heating an access road, 55ft+ garden, workshop and garage.

The workshop is ideal for those who want to work from a home in an office, workshop or combination of the two. There is mains electricity, wifi internet, double glazing, good security and a wood burning stove.

For more information please see our estate agent Ellis Winters' website or Right Move.

Reduce, Reuse, and Remember to post a blog

In the spirit of regular blogging we posted our first blog about 2 months ago and have done nothing since. I think our problem was that we wanted to avoid posting blogs about the day to day minutiae of our work, unfortunately that left us with nothing to write about. Anyway my new Resolution is to Remember to post blogs and bang on about anything.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle the mantra of all keen environmentalists, or in our case when you decide to consolidate all the leather scraps you have been saving for the previous three years you realise quite how much you have collected. This in turn encourages you to seriously focus on Reducing the amount of space the scraps are occupying ideally by Reusing them and finding a new product to make from them. Preferably something small which only uses scraps and doesn't create further waste. Hence the recent inclusion of circular screen printed pin badges, shaped brooches and key fobs into the Stabo repertoire.

So be assured that whenever you buy one of these products you are doing something great for the environment albeit our environment as every badge sold gives us a little bit more room in our workshop.

The pictures show Ed using our press to cut out the badges at the end of the process. As you can see from the image to the right 'One of our dinosaurs is missing' where Ed got a bit over enthusiastic and threw the finished product in with the waste, our intention to use up rather than create waste hasn't entirely succeeded but we've made a start.
R