Hotel Elephant Christmas Gift Guide
Christmas is just around the corner, so nows the time to start thinking about your Christmas shopping! Shopping with small businesses means you can give your friends and family unique handcrafted gifts, whilst supporting local and small businesses. This is also a great way to shop sustainably. We have put together a Christmas gift guide of some of our favourite small and local businesses covering a range of gift ideas and prices.
LIBERTY ANTONIA SADLER
With a focus on fat femmes & queer figures, Liberty Antonia’s prints and zines aim to affirm & celebrate through drawings and poetry. In 2020, Liberty added new work to their Etsy affordable art collection, including wearable art such as patches, new zines & stickers. All works are hand-checked & signed by the artist, with everything made with care and sent to you with kindness.
Liberty Antonia Sadler is an artist & filmmaker based in London, working with mediums of drawing, text and moving images to explore issues of body politics, focusing on the experience of living in a large femme body. Working within a personal-political context, she uses characters, radical softness & raw playfulness to discuss themes of abjection, vulnerability, queerness, gender, food, the erotic & the psycho-sexual. Liberty Antonia is an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins & her research explores the power of subjectivity within art practice.
Price range: £ - ££
Where to buy: You can purchase directly from Liberty’s Etsy store, where she offers prints, zines, badges
Social: @libertyantoniasadler
Tihara Smith
Tihara Smith is a fashion, accessories and lifestyle brand. Founded by designer Tihara Smith after graduation from University for the Creative Arts Epsom and showing her Windrush-inspired collection at Graduate Fashion Week 2018. Tihara is inspired by interesting textiles, bright colours, tropical flora and fauna. She strives to create distinctive pieces that each have a story, and allow people to have a little piece of the Caribbean.
Price range: £ - ££
Where to buy: You can purchase directly from Tihara’s website, where you can purchase items such as art prints, tees and candles.
Social: @tiharasmith
Based in her London studio, Mairi Gillies has been honing her skills in woven and constructed textiles for the past several years. Originally getting into textiles at a young age, it was during her BA Hons degree in woven textile design at Central Saint Martins where she found her love for weaving. Keeping sustainable practices at the heart of everything she does, Mairi utilises secondhand and donated materials within her weaving. Working with the ethos of ‘not needing to buy new to create new’, Mairi produces textiles of bold colour and texture which convey experimental play and communicative storytelling through woven material.
Price range: £ - ££
Where to buy: You can purchase directly from Mairi’s website, where you can purchase a selection of woven goods.
Social: @wovenmairi
Rosanna is an artist and textile designer based in London. She graduated from a master’s in textile design when she started working in interiors. She started her business at the end of 2020, wanting to combine both her interior experience and her passion for textiles to create high-quality, sustainable and cruelty-free pieces.
Price range: ££ - £££
Where to buy: You can purchase directly from Rosanna’s website, where you can purchase a selection of somewhere. Use code ‘MERRYCHRISTMAS’ for free shipping.
Social: @rosanna.corfe
Oh, James… creates beautiful candles with a minimal design that would add a nice touch to any room that they happened to be lucky enough to sit in. Each candle has an amazing scent throw, burns cleanly, and has as low of an environmental impact as possible. To achieve this, each Oh, James... candle is produced with responsible, non-GMO, clean-burning, natural soy wax, and 100% cotton wicks. The fetching glass container can easily be repurposed or recycled. Using various combinations of the finest fragrance and essential oils gives Oh, James... candles their amazingly strong scents. Nothing used in the candles has ever been tested on animals, so you can enjoy each of my creations completely guilt-free.
Price range: ££
Where to buy:
You can buy directly from the Oh, James … workshop open houses: Saturday 12-4:30pm and Sunday 12-4:30 pm.
Or
You can buy directly from the Oh, James.. website.
Social: @oh_james
Collage Club is a workshop series celebrating the art of cutting and sticking! Embracing hands-on techniques and using scissors as a drawing tool, Collage Club is perfect for anyone keen to flex their creative muscles and get making without having to produce perfectly proportioned, boring drawings.
Each session features a range of activities including speed-collaging and collaborative image-making, and every workshop is packed with top-notch magazines and colourful paper for participants to rip, snip, glue and stick into something brand new. All levels of experience are welcome and all materials are provided!
Price range: £-££
Where to buy: You can gift one of their in-person or online workshops. They also offer Collage Club paper packs which you can order on their website.
Social: @collageclubldn
Decima Clay Studio
Decima has prepared a series of short 2-hour workshops to get you into the festive spirit. Join them at their studio for a hassle-free and relaxing activity-filled day. All materials and firings included.
Price range: ££
Where to buy: You can book a place at one of their workshops via the website.
Social: @decimaclay
Viola Wang
Viola Wang is a children's book author and illustrator. Born in China, Viola graduated from Tsinghua University with a major in oil painting. She then moved to London, where she completed her master’s in animation and illustration while working as a graphic designer. Viola is also a graduate of the Children's Book Illustration MA at Cambridge School of Art, and a winner of the Sebastian Walker Award.
Price range: £ - ££
Where to buy: You can buy Viola’s prints via her Etsy or her children’s books via her website.
Social: @violawangstudio
Elena Shvab is a London-based milliner and textile designer of Russian- Israeli heritage. Taking inspiration from nature, history, contemporary art and modern culture she continues working with bold shapes and experimental textile techniques to create dramatic silhouettes that she handcrafts in her studio.
She creates two seasonal collections a year. Alongside these main collections, she offers bespoke commissioning services for private clients around the world. Some of these works can be spotted at major events like the Royal Ascot and the Melbourne Cup Carnival. She also provides millinery workshops and classes.
Price range: £££
Where to buy: You can buy Elena’s work via her website or gift one of her courses.
Social: @elenashvab_millinery
Miriam is a London-based Illustrator, Artist and Educator. Her work encompasses drawing, painting, etching, weaving, textile design and picture books. She was Highly Commended by Faber Children’s and the Andlyn Literary Agency in their inaugural FAB Prize. She is currently a Lecturer in Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. Formerly working at Norwich University of the Arts and University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. She has held Workshop Illustrator/Facilitator roles in organizations and charities such as The Sorrell Foundation at Somerset House.
Price range: ££
Where to buy: You can buy Miriam’s work via her shop.
Social: @miriamelgon