PROUD TO SELL BRITISH
We are all about sourcing good, honest, British products here at the Little Present Company. It is with great pleasure that we introduce 3 creative artists to you: each with a different medium, but all sharing that essential ‘British-ness’ which is our ethos at the Little Present Company.
Sarah Watkins, founder and designer of Fairbourn Children’s Furniture is right up our ethical street. It was after her son was born that Sarah tried, unsuccessfully to find furniture and attractive accessories for her home. Using her background in design, she set about creating her unique range of wooden items which are based on the Shaker principles on honesty to the materials: “whatever is fashioned, let it be plain and simple and for the good”.
Her carved and painted words Love, Dream and Angel are brilliantly adaptable. Made from solid wood from renewable sources, they are painted and distressed by hand in her workshop. They can be wall-mounted or table top displayed and are available in a range of soft pastel colours (£36 each). Her cheeky Bunny, Gingerbread Man and Love Heart blackboards have been flying off the shelves since we introduced them into our range in November, and at £12.99 each, it is hardly surprising.
All of Sarah’s wooden accessories are made by hand. The soft palette range and integrity to the wood give each one a lovely vintage feel. She gleans ‘real pleasure’ from creating beautiful pieces. Designed, produced and sold from North Yorkshire through the Little Present Company, these Fairbourn wooden accessories have ‘local’ metaphorically stamped all over them.
Similarly local to us at the Little Present Company is Dick Willis’s furniture workshop. We are the only on-line distributor of his stunning range of hand-crafted children’s Windsor-style furniture which he has been producing since the late 1960s. His empathy for the wood and his intrinsic knowledge of early 18th Century domestic furniture has earned him a faultless reputation and a loyal following. Pieces of his furniture are extremely popular presents to mark important occasions, such as a birth or a Christening, and Mr Willis is able to engrave initials and dates along the back rung of the chairs. Each child’s chair is £75 and made to order.
We have recently introduced a range of children’s solid Oak and Elm stools. Each one has been whittled and carved locally in Bedale, no one the same. The average size is around 21cm tall and at £25 each, it is a solid investment in a life-lasting piece of elegant furniture.
We inherited Maxine Pharaoh when we bought the Little Present Company in 2009, and she has continued to be one of our top-selling artists. We are proud to sell her new collection of personalised children’s clocks and chalkboards (all £24.50 each). Each item is hand-made in her St. Ives workshop in Cornwall. Using her skills of collage and story-telling, Maxine has a range of personal and bespoke gifts for children that will be treasured for years to come. Some items are part of a limited edition of 50.
Handmade using traditional materials from blanket, cottons, linen, buttons and with stitched detailing, Maxine’s cushions (£36) are personalised with a name of your choice to create an absolutely stunning keepsake gift. They are made to order with much care and attention to detail, and to the very highest standard. Maxine sells through a few websites, but she is one of our biggest treasures and we have her most affordable prices.
Claire Ramshaw, of Ava.P, has always been creative. “I've always drawn and painted since I was a little girl. It's always been my passion. At school I'd add pictures to essays and reports to try and get a better mark!” 
