We are One!

Well, this is a bit of a belated post since I've had a crazy busy couple of months! Paper Aeroplane officially turned One Year Old on 1st June, hurray! To celebrate (as mentioned previously) I collaborated with the lovely Amy from Ziggy Sawdust and put together a Pop-up Shop. It's been four weeks since the opening day already.... We had great fun and I loved collaborating with Amy; I think collaborating really helps you to think in a new way and it was great to embark on such a big project. Neither of us had done anything like this before so it was a huge learning curve, but we were so pleased with the results and even more pleased with all the lovely feedback we received.

The 'before' shot...

It took us nearly two 18-hour long days to get everything installed in the gallery space (with a bit of help from Queen, Blondie and Wham! on vinyl), and we opened with a party on Friday 24th May, with balloons, plenty of David Bowie, friends, family, party bags, prosecco in paper cups, and, of course, two great big Birthday Cakes from Lovecrumbs. Amy and I had nearly all of our meetings in their shop in Edinburgh, so it was only right that we had their cakes at our Birthday Party!

 

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Photograph © Tim Courtney

Amy and I also worked on these two pieces especially for the Pop-up Shop - a 1950s gate-leg table and a headboard, painted in Ziggy's signature colours, and adorned with my own hand-lettering. It was great fun working together, and for me, on such large-scale pieces! We might even make some more things together...

We also had our wee promo video played, over the whole duration of the Pop-up Shop, on the gigantic TV screen on Lothian Road in central Edinburgh, which was very surreal to see! We managed to capture most of it with our cameras....

The Pop-up Shop was open for five days, the first day being the sunniest, warmest day of the year so far (I think!), which was just wonderful. It was so nice to see all of our work together in the space, and to showcase what we've created in our first year of business. The garage-style gallery space had big concertina doors along one wall, which we had open every day. We seemed to catch the attention of just about everyone walking by!

We both launched brand new arms of our businesses at the Pop-up too. Amy has started to make jewellery made from pieces of old chairs (how genius is that?!), which she displayed on the backs of more old chairs attached to the wall. I launched my own bespoke stationery service, offering tailor-made stationery for Weddings and extra-special events! Get in touch if you'd like to know more...

So, the Pop-up Shop was the perfect way to reflect on Paper Aeroplane's first year, and I'm really excited to begin the second. I've got loads of ideas in my head (and some on paper!).

You can see lots more photos of the Pop-up right here. Ziggy Aeroplane will also be appearing again in the very near future! Watch this space!

Photograph © Tim Courtney