FROM THE STUDIO
Pushing boundaries, rediscovering old skills and seeing where they take me
August 2026 · From the Pomme d’Or studio in Devon
I’ve been meaning to start writing regularly from the Pomme d’Or studio for quite some time. In fact, I’ve written a few blogs over the months. They’ve just never quite made it onto the website! Sometimes the timing didn’t feel right, sometimes life became particularly busy with caring responsibilities and, if I’m truthful, sometimes I simply wasn’t feeling what I’d written enough to press the publish button.
So rather than trying to write a ‘blog’, I’ve decided to do something a little different. Once a month, I’m going to look back at what’s been happening in and around the Pomme d’Or studio – what I’ve been making, experimenting with, learning and occasionally getting completely wrong! And August seems a very good place to begin.
Making the most of the time I have available
It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable summer, both personally and creatively.
One thing I’ve become increasingly conscious of is the importance of using the time I have, rather than waiting for the time I’d like to have.
Running Pomme d’Or has to fit alongside the rest of life and, particularly, my caring responsibilities. There isn’t always an uninterrupted day waiting conveniently for me to disappear into the studio. But I’ve realised that doesn’t have to stop the creative process. An hour here, half a day there; researching an idea one evening, trying it the next time I have a little space. Somehow those snippets of time add up.
And this summer, they’ve added up nicely.
“I’m choosing to use the time I have,
rather than waiting for the time I’d like to have.”
Rediscovering skills I’d almost forgotten
One of the unexpected pleasures of recent months has been properly reacquainting myself with a sewing machine.
It’s a skill that had lain largely dormant for around 30 years. Now I’m wondering why on earth I left it so long!
I’m certainly still learning.
I’ve stitched things together and subsequently wondered why I did it in that order. I’ve encountered seams so bulky that my sewing machine has made its feelings on the matter perfectly clear. I’ve unpicked things. Changed things. Tried again.
And every mistake teaches me something.
That’s becoming one of my favourite parts of this whole creative adventure: working out why something didn’t work and finding a better way of doing it next time.
A little French inspiration
Earlier this summer I took Rosie, one of my denim shoulder bags, to France with me.
There’s something particularly satisfying about seeing a bag that has spent so much time on my worktable suddenly doing exactly what it was made to do.
Rosie came with me as we explored little French towns and villages, wandered around markets and generally enjoyed being away from everyday life for a while.
Those wanderings provided plenty of inspiration too.
I love looking for materials in places where I don’t quite know what I’m going to find. A French brocante, a charity shop, an independent fabric boutique tucked away somewhere – all have the potential to produce that little spark of “Ooh… I could do something with that.”
Quite what that ‘something’ is may take a little longer to work out!
Pomme d’Or is changing too
This summer also saw a small but significant change: Pomme d’Or Gift Ideas became simply Pomme d’Or.
It may look like little more than removing two words, but to me it represents something much bigger.
Over time, I’ve realised where my heart really lies. I love taking a base bag and seeing something more in it. Embellishing it, reworking it, adding texture and detail and turning it into something individual. I love upcycling and finding ways to give existing materials a completely different character. And I particularly love the fact that the finished piece isn’t something you’re likely to see everywhere else. But I’ve also realised I don’t want to define Pomme d’Or so tightly that I stop experimenting. Which brings me to another development this summer…
What happens if I make the whole bag?
Rather than only reworking and embellishing existing bags, I’ve started exploring making bags completely from scratch. That opens up a rather enormous rabbit hole!
Fabrics. Interfacings. Linings. Zips. Webbing. Hardware. Construction techniques. Which materials work beautifully together and which most definitely don’t.
And then there’s the joy of discovering independent fabric shops with unusual prints and immediately imagining what they might become.
For me, so much of the fun is in the research and the adventure of it all.
I don’t yet know how big a part completely handmade-from-scratch bags will eventually play within Pomme d’Or, and I’m quite happy not knowing. I’m experimenting!
Some ideas will undoubtedly turn out to be whims. Some will be wonderful to make but simply not economical to reproduce. Others may start as an experiment and become something I want to develop much further.
Part of my job is allowing my excitable creative imagination to run free. The other part is occasionally catching it by the ankles and reminding it that I’m running a business, not simply making things for a hobby! Finding the balance between the two is all part of the adventure.
August’s project: Gaia
And if there were one bag that summed up much of this month’s learning, it would be Gaia.
Gaia has been a proper base-bag rework – taking what was already there and working out how I could make it feel distinctly Pomme d’Or. I took it completely apart to embroider, change the zips and line with a pretty Rose & Hubble cotton fabric.
There have been decisions to make, techniques to learn and a few occasions when I’ve had to rethink my original plan.
She’s pushed my sewing skills further. She’s made me think much more carefully about construction, bulk, linings and finishing. And, inevitably, she’s taught me things that I would do differently next time.
That’s precisely why I’ve enjoyed making her.
It’s easy to show only a beautiful finished piece. But behind it are usually experiments, changes of mind, mistakes, research, little victories and quite a lot of learning.
I think I’d like these monthly studio posts to capture some of that too.
So, where next?
I’m not entirely sure and that’s rather exciting!
I know I want Pomme d’Or to remain individual. I don’t want to chase trends simply because they’re trends, or start producing the same thing over and over because that’s the easiest option.
I want to keep embellishing. Keep upcycling. Keep experimenting with making from scratch. Keep hunting through brocantes, charity shops and fabric boutiques for things that make my imagination start whirring.
At the same time, I need to discover which ideas make sense for Pomme d’Or as a business and which should remain enjoyable experiments.
Most of all, I want to keep learning.
So that’s August from the studio: old skills rediscovered, boundaries pushed, mistakes made, ideas explored and an imagination that’s proving rather difficult to contain.
Let’s see where it takes me next!
♥
Until next month,
Anne-Marie
Designed, handcrafted and finished by Anne-Marie.