I thought you might enjoy knowing a little bit about the work that goes into creating a Holly&Lil collar. One of our latest designs is the beautiful Union Rose a design I, (Elaine, Hollys owner), have been working on for many years.
It started life when we were asked by Harrods to show some of our designs at their annual dog walk. Most of what went down the dogwalk were from collections on sale in Harrods already.
But they allowed me the opportunity to design a few specially for their theme... THE WIZARD OF OZ.
I had several ideas/images from the film that I knew I wanted to cover... The Rainbow, The Poppy Field, Ruby Slippers and Emerald City.
The Rainbow was a huge feat for our craftsman but I drew what I wanted and he produced the most amazing collar. So lovely and smart yet super colourful. A joy! It has gone on to be used on the BBCs Search for Dorothy and was awarded to the winning Toto!
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| The Rainbow Click on Image to see on our webshop |
I myself worked and sew the Emerald City and Ruby Slippers; a wonderful mix of Sequins, Crystals, Millefiori beads and Swarovski. They are still some of my favourite collars to sew and up there with our best sellers. Click on Image to shop....
But the one I could not crack was the poppy. At last I came up with some ideas on paper.
My man then worked on this design and our first collar was created in 2009 for the dog walk - it had 4 poppies on the collar for maximum effect and was created on a wide collar as Cookie, our in house Bulldog at the time would be wearing it!
And so the show came and Eddie, Lily and Cookie were the stars!
Sadly Holly was not picked to walk but looked and gave Lily support from the sidelines
The Rainbow and Emerald City and Ruby Slippers became part of our ranges and we still sell them. BUT I was not happy with the Poppy collar - it looked too much like propellers not petals. PLUS the cost of making it was astronomical. Would have taken it beyond the reach of most of us.
So the years rolled on..... and we tried and we tried. Producing a flower was possible but producing a flower that a dog could be a dog in, was another thing.
However I also opened up my thoughts and became interested in the Tudor Roses as well as Oz poppies...
And I loved the name Union Rose which was another name for The Tudor Roses - the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.
And at last we had a look - at first with Petals and without the Green leaf.
Holly tested the original design and we found the petals a tad annoying they held the dirt when she rolled in stuff. I finalised that I wanted a black calf with yellow piped collar and decided a black patent heart gave that teeny bit of gloss to my design. Then I realised that the green Leaf was the final touch. And so the UNION ROSE was created and is now online on our webshop and will be available at Discover Dogs 2013 and in our shop from the 11th of November! I hope you love it and feel all our agonising was worth it! Some just wait for us to do all the hard work them imitate the design - very badly - but this one is a corker and as hard as any we have done to produce so beautifully yet still take quite a bit of wear and tear. I feel stupidly proud and pleased with it and Holly has been wearing hers for MONTHS and it looks wonderful!
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| The UNION ROSE please click on Image to shop |
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