Brand Focus : Miel Studio

25/7/2018

Miel Studio is a paper goods brand producing beautiful, tactile and functional products to help you lead a creative life. Think beautiful pastel coloured artist portfolios, hot foiled notecards, letter writing sets and hand bound sketchbooks wrapped in ribbon.

Miel was established at the start of 2017 with my good friend and business partner Ruth Haughton. We design and make products from our studio in an old Buttermarket in Redruth, Cornwall.

In The Beginning

Having been self employed for many years but always skirting around the edges of creative jobs it was a bit of a dream to get the chance to design and produce our own products. It's a whole different bag to the shop though. I absolutely love sourcing other peoples wonderful work and have no problem at all shouting about the great things all these talented people are doing. We have quickly found it's much scarier promoting your own work!
Ruth had a similar trajectory, she did her undergraduate degree in fashion and always imagined she would take a creative path but a similar lack of confidence meant she fell into other things. She had been teaching In Madrid for several years before relocating to Cornwall. When we met a few years back through her fiancé, a good university friend of mine we soon realised we had a lot in common. After they moved to Falmouth in Cornwall (lured by the beaches, creativity & slower pace of life) we started talking about ways we could work together. We both had a passion for all things paper and had coincidently both been learning bookbinding. What started out as a collaboration soon became the start of a business venture and so Miel Studio began. It is such a joy to spend time designing and making. In our opinion there is nothing better than the joy of a hand worked object that has been made with care, thought & time. We are so pleased to have this creative opportunity.

The Future

As is so often the case in life we have a lot of balls in the air and it's a constant juggling act. I'm sure all self employed people can relate! Time is split between the shop in Penzance, the studio, Ruth's partners new business in Looe and most importantly of all Ruth's darling baby Miri. Miri took us all by surprise and turned up very early just as our Christmas season was starting last year. Thankfully despite being teeny tiny and her and Ruth being in hospital for months she is doing really really well and now provides the entertainment on our studio days!
Although time is so often against us we are slowly getting back on track and currently having a lot of fun working on our new collection. It will include some of our favourite products from our first collection which have been updated and improved alongside a selection of carefully considered new items. We have beautiful new hot foiled cards and tags, handprinted Endpapers and some gorgeous new colour combinations. We are also working on a collaboration with a beautiful shop and will be appearing in a book all about some of the amazing hidden makers in Cornwall (Make : Cornwall). Exciting times ahead!

To keeps tabs on upcoming news such as Christmas markets, the launch of our online shop & stock deliveries to Endpaper follow Miel on social media (links below) or take a look at our website.