Meet our stockists: Little Beach Boutique

We have some really amazing stockists around the UK and in Europe so felt it was about time we shared some of them with you! For our very first feature we are starting close to home with the beautiful Little Beach Boutique, located in the North Laine area of Brighton. 

We asked shop owner and designer, Suzanne a few questions:

How long has Little Beach Boutique been open and how did the business come about?

The North Laine shop opened in June 2014, but Little Beach Boutique began in one of the fisherman's arches on Brighton seafront, which is where the name came from.

I began on the seafront in 2011 after working for a charity for nearly ten years. I had been making my own glass products for a long time as a hobby and decided to throw myself into it full time and have a complete career change. The seafront shop was a great place to learn the principles of running a small business and I started looking for more space where I could sell other products as well as my glass - and be open all year round.

What do you like most about owning your own boutique?
I love the scope to be creative with displays and choosing beautiful product ranges. I also love being able to work with other creative businesses and local makers and showcase their products. Another perk is being able to hear the comments people make about the shop and being able to make bespoke pieces for them for a special occasion.

There are so many amazing designers out there, how do you choose who to stock in your shop?
Yes, there are so many wonderful designers out there! Lots of people, (such as Maria Allen!) introduce themselves and their products when they come into the shop, which means that they have already researched the shop and think their products would fit well here. I tend to choose products with a story behind them, with unique qualities and a personal touch to be able to offer customers something they won't find elsewhere.

You are a designer yourself, what do you make?
I make glass in the workshop here. My main range is the Brighton tiles, which is a range of local landmarks that I screen print onto glass and kiln fire. I also make one off glass dishes and sculptural pieces as well as coasters. I run glass workshops once a month in the downstairs space so people can learn to make some of these things themselves.

What is your favourite thing about Brighton?
I love the balance between the friendliness of a small community and the liveliness of a much larger city, especially in the North Laine, where there is always so much going on but always someone familiar to say hello to.

What is your top tip for Christmas shopping?
Late night shopping in the North Laine - so festive, so cosy, mulled wine, fairy lights...something unique and beautiful from an independent shop...what more could you ask for?!

Above: A selection of beautiful hand crafted Brighton themed products available at Little Beach Boutique

Little Beach Boutique is open 7 days a week and is located at 74 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YD. Opening Times: Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm, Sunday 10.30am - 5pm.

You can contact suzanne by email to littlebeachboutique@googlemail.com or call the shop on 01273 697275

Design your own cufflinks

We often get requests to make bespoke cufflinks for our customers. Many people like the freedom that our service gives to create a really unique and personal gift for a loved one, friend or colleague. Whether it's a cufflink personalised with your child's own drawing for Father's day, a silhouette of your friend's much loved pooch or an illustration that means something special to you and your partner, the possibilities really are endless!

We get so many requests for bespoke cufflinks that we have recently launched our Design Your Own Cufflinks. This service allows you to choose between a sterling silver or rhodium plated cufflink setting and gives you complete control over the design etched onto the wooden discs.

Here are some great examples of bespoke cufflinks and some more information about the images to use or avoid for the best results.

Designing your cufflinks

It's important to note when designing your cufflinks that laser cutters only see in black and white, this means it will etch the areas that are black and leave the areas that are white. An image in colour or with many areas of grey will not work as effectively as a black and white line drawing. Here are some examples of images that work well and those that don't:

The dragonfly illustration on the left is beautifully detailed when enlarged but on the small scale of a cufflink it looses detail, by removing detail in the version on the right the end result will be far more effective.

Here is a good example of a multi-toned image which has been desaturated ready for etching. The image on the left has too many shades of grey to give an effective etching but by increasing the black in the image on the right the etch will work well.

Here is an example of an image which will not work as an etching. Unfortunately as the image is desaturated and the areas of grey are replaced with black or white you can see that the varying tones and detail of the image are lost. It's best to avoid images with too much detail and bear in mind the size of the cufflink when choosing your design.

The ideal image or design is one that has been designed in black and white or can be easily desaturated without loss of detail or overall effect. It's good to keep this in mind as you design your cufflinks. If you are not sure whether your image will work please email us at info@mariaallenboutique.com and we will be happy to help.

Image size

Images need to be as large as possible and the optimum quality is 300DPI. If your image is less than this then please let us know and we will be happy to help.

Copyright images

We must also take into account any copyright that the image may have, if you do not own the copyright of the image then we will not be able to use it. We can however design you a similar image that we own the copyright for. Any image or design you have drawn or made yourself will not have copyright and will be fine for use. Not sure if your image is copyright? Email us at info@mariaallenboutique.com and we will be happy to confirm this for you.

Placing your order

You can place your cufflink order online by visiting our website here. Once we have received your order and your images we will work with you to design artwork that you are 100% happy with. Once you are happy, your cufflinks will be made and sent by 1st class post. We aim to make and deliver all personalised orders within 2-3 working days, but please be aware that if considerable art work time is required for your order this may increase.

Now let your imaginations run wild and make sure the next gift you give is a truly personal one!

Stylist Live - Friday 16th October

On Friday we visited Stylist Live at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. The four day event ran from Thursday - Sunday and was the first of its kind for the Stylist Magazine team. Hosted by Edith Bowman and Down O'Porter it was a festival of culture, catwalks, cocktails and conversation.

The event included inspirational talks and Q&As from Davina McCall, Caitlin Moran, Lorraine Pascale and Katie Piper, exclusive performances by Laura Mvula and motivational career talks by the Stylist team themselves.

There was also the opportunity to shop at the carefully selected boutiques, beauty bars and food stands including Aveda, Birchbox, Helene Birman, Katie Leamon, Oliver Bonas and many more.

We thoroughly enjoyed this fun and inspirational event and even had the chance to pitch our Personalised Honeymoon Luggage Tags to the editors for their notoriously popular Style List shopping pages!

For more information about the Stylist Live event visit their website here. As we eagerly await next years event, we look back over some photos of the day:

Our metal engraver

We recently introduced a new piece of engraving machinery into our studio allowing us to offer custom jewellery engraving to our customers. We now offer personalised metal engraving on all of our metal jewellery, including cufflinks, necklaces, key rings and bracelets. Adding a custom engraving is a great way to add a subtle and sentimental message to a gift.

Here are some photos of our engraver in action and the beautiful results it produces:

Our wooden bicycle key ring engraved with a message for Father's Day // Engraving the key ring // Engraving the men's leather bracelet // Our men's leather bracelet engraved with an anniversary message and the recipients initials.

Our gold arrow tie clip engraved with an 8th anniversary message // London skyline cufflinks personalised with the names of the recipient's children // A subtle initial engraving on a gold plated heart necklace // A name engraved on the reverse of our wooden and sterling silver constellation necklaces

If you have any questions regarding our metal engraving service please get in touch at info@mariaallenboutique.com and we will be very happy to help you!