Selected by Dragons’ Den investor Deborah Meaden

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:26:12 +0000

Dragons' Den investor Deborah Meaden aims to buy her Christmas presents from British manufacturers this year and is using Twitter to tell the world who she likes best.

In her take on the Twelve Days of Christmas, each evening Deborah selects just one British manufacturer to promote to her 35,000 plus Twitter followers in her ‘Twelve Tweets of Christmas’ project. Her criteria is top quality British made goods that make ideal Christmas presents.

Deborah's Seventh Tweet of Christmas went to your very own Susan Green Books. To say I am thrilled is ooh… just a minor understatement!

Deborah's one of the most well known and well respected business people in Britain, a successful entrepreneur, investor and champion of small businesses. She's focussed on marketing and communication, things designer-makers like me love to use Twitter for.

Twitter is a great way to get the news about new products and last Christmas posting dates out to your customers, but not forgetting it's core purpose - networking - I'd like to introduce you to the other British makers that Deborah has championed in her Twelve Tweets of Christmas so far:

Kent Brushes - The World's Finest Brushes, est. 1777
Melt Candles - exquisitely fragranced hand poured candles
Huddle and Bliss - premium baby clothes
Chambers and Beau - personalised jewellery
Comins Tea House - fine teas and British tableware
Abahna UK - luxury bathing products

Deborah also mentioned Folksy, Made By Hand Online and Unique British Gifts, online stores which sell a whole host of goodies by a variety of British designer makers.

There's still just enough time to nominate your favourite British maker, just tweet @DeborahMeaden with the maker’s name and website and don't forget to include the hashtag #BuyBritishHelpJobs.

And there’s still enough time to buy Christmas presents from these great British businesses. If you'd like to gift one of my hand bound journals this Christmas, please order by Monday the 19th. If you're a last minute sort of person, I can send by Special Delivery up to Wednesday the 21st, but it will cost you a little extra.

Happy Christmas!

Susan x

“Library visit binds Susan to a new career.”

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:57:38 +0000

My first taste of work came at 16 when I did work experience at the Blackmore Vale Magazine in Stalbridge, Dorset, a well regarded and very arts-friendly local weekly news magazine.

I was rather intimidated when on my first day of work the editor asked me to take notes in shorthand. Shorthand?!

I was clueless, I was intimidated, and I felt very inadequate. But everyone (even that fearsome editor) at the BVM made me very welcome and was happy to show me the ropes.

I did everything from typesetting letters to the editor, copy editing news stories, writing book reviews, editing photographs and laying out pages (using the old fashioned method of cutting and pasting... I mean proper cutting and pasting, with scissors and glue).

My favourite job was the last minute proof reading of the magazine before it went to publication. I loved the adrenaline rush of working under pressure and it taught me the difference between an allowable ‘typo’ and a glaringly obvious and troubling mistake that must be corrected.

Anyway, I loved working at the magazine and went back for casual work during several summer holidays. It’s where I learnt to work quickly, thoroughly and to write succinctly and with an eye to the real world, outside of academia.

They’re skills I put to good use at school and university and in the freelance copy services work I do now alongside my bookbinding work.

The BVM is an institution here in Dorset. It’s well-loved, well-respected, well-read and well-written. It’s full of information, not just current affairs affecting our area, but tons of visual and performing arts listings, local sports team results, regular columns and of course business, property and employment pages.

Unlike the daily newspapers and digital media, where scare stories shout from the front pages and bad news stories are depressingly de rigeur, the BVM - and its sister publications the Stour and Avon and the Fosse Way magazines - abound with good news stories of community spirit, local achievements and the abundance of our countryside both in terms of its people, natural resources and businesses.

So it’s a feeling of life coming full circle and immense pride and gratitude that the sister publication to the BVM, the Stour and Avon Magazine have printed an article about me and my work in this week’s edition: “Library visit binds Susan to a new career.”

My thanks to Marilyn Barber, the news editor, who interviewed me at my home studio.

Susan x

Save Our Libraries

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:41:02 +0000

You’ve probably heard: there’s no money any more. County councils are slashing their budgets and here in Dorset we’re particularly concerned for the future of our library service.

My local library, Colehill, is one of 20 (out of a network of 34) libraries that could be closed under Dorset Country Council’s plans to reduce its spending.

There’s a great deal of community action to prevent this happening, and local news publications are regularly running stories on this issue.

Dorset’s residents collected 13,000 signatures to a petition asking our County Council to reconsider their proposals for our libraries. Colehill alone collected 1,500 signatures!

Last Saturday we went to a Save Our Libraries event, where everyone borrowed their full quota of library books - twelve! How great is that?! Twelve books to get lost in, learn from, be inspired by, be helped by and all for free, all at your home, all at once!

Of course you can also borrow audio books and current release DVDs, and so cheaply, too:

I borrowed mainly non-fiction books. Practical ones - on cooking, DIY, Photoshop, digital photography, and so on - to demonstrate how important it is that we each have free access to information that helps us be healthy, happy, fulfilled, self-reliant, capable members of society.

With information you can achieve anything; “Knowledge is power”, as the philosopher Francis Bacon said.

Of course non-fiction is important, too: stories are escape, delight and solace. With the stories others write, the stories of ourselves are told back to us so we may learn how to better inhabit ourselves.

It was a chance encounter with a library book that set me on a new career path, at a time when I was unable to work due to ill health, at a time when I knew I’d never have the high-stress, travel-filled career I’d planned whilst studying International Development at university, but didn’t know what exactly to do with my life.

I’d never considered bookbinding and I’d never have bought a book on the subject, but I happened to see one in a library and took it home.

That library book gave me a whole new life. And that’s but one timely reminder of why we must save our libraries from closure. This weekend I’ll be writing to Angus Campbell, the leader of Dorset County Council to tell him as much.

Read anything good, lately?

Susan x

“You’re truly Truly Scrumptious”

Wed, 9 Feb 2011 21:39:02 +0000

Keeping healthy and eating more than my usual share of fresh salads and whole foods lately, I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon in the studio.

Leather I’ve previously described as ‘brown’, ‘deep brown’ on a thoughtful day, looks really very chocolatey. And the grained calfskin leather with its little rivulets and speckles looks suspiciously like white chocolate mousse.

You know the taste of almost-but-not-quite-burnt toffee? And the rich unctuousness of butterscotch? And that deep glossiness of fresh blackberries and the perk scarlet of strawberries? It’s all here!

The only leather I’m not getting confused and hungry over is the powder blue; I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything blue.

How about you?

Susan x

P.S Here’s that Truly Scrumptious song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’ll make you feel good, I promise!

January sale

Sat, 1 Jan 2011 14:10:32 +0000

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your patronage in 2010, I hope your hand bound journals have been a pleasure to use, a delight to give and a joy to receive.

Start 2011 with a little gift from me: 10% off items from my Etsy shop with code WEB0111 which is valid throughout January.

Happy new year!

Susan x