Nikki Henderson’s extensive training as a hair stylist and colourist has proved invaluable when it comes to her unique handbag designs. She has become well known for her innovative use of shade and tone. Each bag is handmade with intensely coloured cottons, linens, silks, brocades and blended fabrics.

Her ‘Double-Booked’ bags have become a runaway best seller. They are made with denim, twill or corduroy for strength and are built to last. My favourite is the denim bag (above left) with printed cotton flap with a cute house pattern.

I also picked out this beautiful ivory bag (above right) from the ‘Mischief’ range. Each bag in this range has twin easy grab handles and a zipper closure. Nikki describes them as follows, ‘An innocent but eye-catching mix of eclectic cottons, these bags will charm the pants off of anyone who gets in your way.’

The full range, which includes bags for going out (Lady of the Evening) and bags to take you from day to night (Burning the Candle) can be found at www.doppelgangerhandiwork.com.

Aiveen Daly is one of my favourite furniture designers. She makes no secret of the fact that her furniture is often inspired by couture clothing and her brand new collection is no exception. Her aptly named ‘Stiletto’ chairs all have super-skinny glossy black legs and come in a range of stylish designs. Each handcrafted piece has been christened with a quirky, evocative name.

My favourite is the red silk Can Can chair with corset detailing at the back. In contrast, I also picked out the slinky black Flapper chair, made in the style of a 1920s Flapper dress.

To view the collection go to www.aiveendaly.com.

Australian brand, Raindrops Jewellery created this lavish ‘Serendipity’ bracelet. For me it conjures up images of the 80s, pirate treasure and the romantics .

It’s chock full of chunky semi precious stones - chalcedony, quartz and rose quartz, combined with pretty mother of pearl nuggets and freshwater pearls. The charms and stones hang from intertwined silver chains and a string of hot pink leather completes the look.

To view the whole range go to www.raindropsjewellery.com.

For anyone in or around Preston this weekend don’t forget the Preston Sunday Market.

What: Everything creative - paintings, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery, fashion, music, furniture, toys, photographs. . . .

Where: Old Fish Market off Earl Street, Preston.

When: 10:00am to 4:00pm.

For further details see our earlier post.

I’ll be there on the Aurora Bloom stall, so come and say hello!

David Mckeen of Hollytree Woodcrafts transferred his engineering skills in metal to working with wood. He has produced a beautiful range of boxes, towers and other products made from Elm, Burr Elm, Scottish Yew and Beech.

The wood that David uses has been taken from trees that have been felled due to ageing, disease and coppicing. He has a real respect for the powers of nature and a passion for creating with wood. He does not believe in felling trees for the purpose of his work.

The Hollytree Woodcrafts website is full of beautiful handmade items. I particularly like the ‘Secret Towers’ range (above right). Each tower has a concealed drawer. This is only accessible if you find the secret switch that is hidden inside one of the other drawers. A perfect hidey - hole from prying eyes and meddling siblings!

I found this ‘PS I Love You’ cigar box bag on the Girls’ Night Out website. It’s a one-of-a-kind design and each panel has been decorated with 1960s romance comic book images. The lining is luscious velvet and a velvet cushion keeps your odds and ends safe.

As well as the cigar box bags, Girls’ Night Out have a range of sparkly jewellery and watches. And what’s more, each product is named after a cocktail and is accompanied by its own special recipe. Think Chocolate Almond Cream, Ambrosia and Pink Cream Fizz.

To visit the Girls’ Night Out website, go to www.girlsnightoutdesigns.com.

I’ve just bought a gorgeous new bag. It’s a ‘Burgundy Tie Flapover Satchel’ by Andreea Florisca, made from brown chenille with bands of brown and red leaf patterned fabric. And what’s more Andreea Florisca is having a super sale with most items reduced to £10! Full details can be found in the forum at www.indiequarter.com/forum. I don’t normally repeat forum articles but I had to share this!

I placed my order on Friday and it arrived this morning. It’s beautifully made, fully lined with a roomy pocket for my phone and other loose items. And what’s more, it’s big enough to hold my book - a prerequisite for bags as far as I am concerned!

First up to appear in ‘Day in the Life of’ is Jennifer Perkins from Naughty Secretary Club. Our American readers may also know Jennifer from Austin Craft Maffia and Stylelicious.

Getting Up

Typically I try to get up around 9 in the morning, this does not always work out for me, but this is my average. I am one of those people that has a very exact first thing in the morning routine. Step one I go to the front bathroom in my house and wash my face. Step two I go to the back bathroom and brush my teeth. Step three I grab the first of many diet cokes of the day. I am just starting to question why my toothbrush and face wash are in different bathrooms so that my morning routine is more complicated than it should be.

Starting Work

Naughty Secretary Club has been my full time job for about 5 years now and I have always worked out of my house. My office is the master bedroom while my husband and I sleep in a room half the size. After my morning routine the start of the day is always about replying to emails and just waking up. For instance I am ahead of schedule today and it is not even 9 and I am already on question number 2. I usually come into my office, click on my ITUNES first off and start checking email, My Space, the Austin Craft Mafia and Stitch have a yahoo group I check in with and then I try to blog. My assistant Ginger gets here at about 11 so for the first two hours I kind of just spend quite time drinking diet coke (my coffee) and waking up.

Working Day

Since I work from home the only other people in my work space besides my assistant Ginger who is here 4 days a week is my cat Georgie and my dog Lucy. They love me working from home and when I am away on business my husband says when he gets home from the office they are a mess. A working day for me is sadly a whole lot of emails. For running a jewelry business sometimes I feel like I spend more time in front of a computer than I get to designing. Typically Ginger will let me know what she is out of and what I need to make in order for her to fill orders so I might spend the afternoon actually putting together jewelry. I have had 2 assistants in the past, one that specifically makes jewelry but currently I am doing that job. Working from home is really low key and not that exciting. There are days when I never even get out of my pajamas. There are also those days that Elle Accessories, Teen Vogue and Cosmo Girl all call on the same day needing me to custom make them samples for a photo shoot and I am designing and making jewelry like a crazy woman. Those days are pretty exciting.

I also spend 5 weeks a year in Los Angeles filming my new TV show Craft Lab on DIY. I go back for another 65 episode shoot in September. Those days are way crazy. I wake up at about 6am read over my scripts, listen to some music, drink a diet coke and then have to be at the studio around 7:15, 7:30. I go into make up and then after that wardrobe where people pick out my clothing and I just sit and try to slyly work in my jewelry with every outfit. About 9 I go on set and meet my first guest of the day. We film for about an hour and a half then I race out of the room, change clothes, get my make up touched up and then race back to set and meet guest number two. Somewhere in-between is a quick lunch then after lunch is a repeat of the morning until 7 at night. Yes there were days where I shot 4 episodes. At 7 I go back to the hotel read over my scripts for the next day, order room service, call my husband, check my email and pass out by like 9 from exhaustion. So that month is a little different than normal.

Lunch

I usually don’t eat lunch, or even breakfast for that matter. I am trying to be better about that. I will occasionally go and meet up with friends for lunch. Most times my days are too busy for me to go off and take a 2 hour lunch. However, friends like Vickie Howell and my sister Hope Perkins live within a mile of me so that makes for a nice occasional lunch time distraction.

Evening

Sadly I don’t really have an end time. This is what working for yourself is like, work is never really over. It really depends. If my husband is going straight to band practice from work that day then I might work from the time I get up in the morning until he comes home from practice at midnight and we go to bed. If he has the night off I usually stop around 6 for us to have dinner, walk the dog or ride bikes and then in the evening if we watch a movie or something I might make jewelry or click around on the lap top while we watch. I am kind of obsessed with my business. This is not to say that several days a week I do not see my friends and hang out, however my friends are in the craft mafia or run their own businesses so we still end up talking about work a lot of times!

Last Word

Thing I Like Best About Being an Indie Designer

I absolutely love making and designing jewelry. I never get sick of that part of the job. Every time I get new beads or baubles it is like Christmas day and I run around my studio trying to match them up with other pieces designing as I go. When I get on a roll I can make like 15 revamped vintage necklaces in a day. Not exactly mass production, but that is a lot for one person!

Thing I Like Least About Being an Indie Designer

Sometimes I miss being a secretary and having an office job. Coming home at 5 and work is just over with nothing for you to think about. The part I am finding tricky is all the extraneous things that go along with running a business like hiring accountants, lawyers, book keepers, assistants, web designers, graphic designers. I know how to make jewelry not keep the books and those things are equally important parts of running a business that have to be dealt with.

[Wow - what a great start to the feature - Thank you Jennifer! If you would like to appear in ‘Day in the Life of’ email Jenny at info@indiequarter.com.]