When Blue & Grae contacted me looking for a local product photographer, I almost fell off my chair!

Last year I spent a considerable amount of time time looking for someone to help me with a little project I had been thinking about, I searched for leather craftsmen (and women) and came up with nothing so I shelved my project for the time being.  Then lo and behold, the incredibly talented Blue & Grae move all the way from Brisbane, Australia and set up shop literally on my doorstep, the universe moves in very mysterious ways I have come to realise in my wise old age.

A little story for you, you know I love a story… My Grandmother, now 96, worked in the army for many years, amongst other places at Guildford Army Barracks (now rebuilt as Cardwells Keep).  She worked making uniforms and specialised in leather coats for the officers.  As a child, I remember visits to her home (where she still lives very independently but under the watchful and caring eye of my mother) and watching her working on her old Singer treadle sewing machine, my brother and I would sometimes stay overnight and be lulled to sleep by the soft rhythmic sounds of her sewing on that beautiful piece of history.

I hadn’t really thought of this for many years until I visited Blue & Grae last week for a product photography session and saw a bag of leather offcuts in the corner of the workshop.  It reminded me of the almost identical bag that sat in my Grandmother’s spare room, and how she would let me go through finding the largest pieces to make saddles and bridles for my toy horses.  Being pony mad as most young girls are, I spent hours cutting the leather into tiny strips, making buckles from soldering wire and assembling the pieces into miniature replicas of working tack.

So, you can imagine my joy at finding these guys so close at hand for so many reasons, their incredible handcrafted creations resonated with me both from the past and looking to the future.  Their talent  is evident in the quality and design of their bags and bespoke laptop and tablet cases, traditional craftsmanship meets modern needs.