Supplychain….Vintage Amethyst

Twitter is once again responsible for us coming across another fantastic local supplier of home and wedding gorgeousness!

Vintage Amethyst is an online boutique based in County Durham and run by the lovely Alison. We spoke to Alison to find out more about Vintage Amethyst….

Tell us a bit about how Vintage Amethyst came about.

Vintage Amethyst first started with me making jewellery. I had wanted to sell my jewellery alongside pretty vintage home-wears & things I had up-cycled on my website which I had called Vintage Amethyst (this as you can see is where the name comes from!) but the jewellery was so popular that I concentrated on that.
A friend then asked me to join her at a monthly craft market & I really enjoyed it but my heart belonged to pretty home-wares & things I personally enjoyed buying. I had already been selling a few little bits & pieces that I had made or painted (things like old boxes painted & distressed) on E-bay & so these then became part of my monthly stall.  I have always loved the vintage, Shabby Chic style & have always painted furniture for our home & so Vintage Amethyst just grew from there. I eventually over the years I had to slowly fade out many items that were handmade or finished by me on the website as I was so busy & just couldn’t keep up with everything & so then I decided to concentrate more on sourcing pretty home-wares, gifts & wedding day accessories, lovely delicious things that I personally would love to buy!

What sort of products do you sell?

I sell a pretty range of soft, romantic, vintage style home-wares & gifts. Lots of white, lots of hearts.
Pretty things like rose garlands, cake stands, vintage style signs, heart chalkboards. A lot of the items are much favoured by brides too for their special day so I have a dedicated Wedding Day Collection also.

What is your best selling product?

There are two really. My best selling products are the really beautiful vintage style birdcages & also the wonderfully romantic rose garlands which come in ivory or soft pink. I think these things are so popular as they are such beautifully romantic items which people love to buy for their home & also for gifts plus brides love them for their wedding day decor so they seem to appeal to a wide audience.

Is your whole house crammed with gorgeous vintage inspired items?

You know it really is! My home & pretty home-wares are my passion, I love the look of painted old furniture so our home is full of painted furniture. I have lots of whites & greys in our home, it is such a fairy-tale look, which I just love. Some of our furniture are items passed on to us by our parents & grandparents & so it is lovely to keep for sentimental value but to have it in our style too. I love to shop for vintage items too, so we have a lot of lovely old things like clocks, mirrors, glass-wear, plus of course our home is filled with Vintage Amethyst goodies!

Do you have a claim to fame?

I’m afraid I’m really boring, I don’t. I was never in a Milky Bar advert as a child or anything fun like that!
*giggle*. The only really claim to fame I have is that my husband James is an artist & in 2009 he & his gallery were asked to feature in an episode of BBC1’s art show Imagine, hosted by Alan Yentob.
He was filmed with regards to the process of commissioning a piece of art, and he was filmed from start to finish through a portrait commission & filmed with Alan Yentob.
The BBC film crew even filmed at our home, talking to James in his studio & filming him painting, which was a really odd experience as I was hid away out of their way, all nervous for James.
You can see his work at www.james-paterson.co.uk

Tell us something interesting about yourself

Mmmm this is a toughy! Strangely I am actually a published photographer! I love taking photos but I’m not a professional photographer by any means. My husband James has a book published which is based upon a large series of work entitled ‘Ex Post Facto’ & some of my photos of James’ studio are in the book, which is really odd for me.
Plus a magazine did a feature on James & his gallery & used one of my photos of James painting for a full page photo for the article ~ I didn’t even know until the magazine had come out! James forgot to tell me that he had passed some photos of him painting on to them!

What is your absolute favourite thing to do?

It may sound boring but simply spending time with James.

Well we hope you agree that Vintage Amethyst is worth a visit! You can check out the website or follow on Twitter,  Facebook or the lovely blog.

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