Umbrella image of the week

From a Greek carnival. Be warned, you might want to turn your speakers down before you head to the site. I got quite a shock, but am now sambaing round the office.

Brollysites

A couple of unusual sites for the umbrella enthusiast…

This site, subtitled “An Appreciation of the Mundane: Discarded Umbrellas Left to Die Lonely Umbrella Deaths” does exactly what it says on the tin.

I suppose it’s appropriate to follow that with Ai Ai Gasa who make jackets, shirts and dresses out of discarded umbrellas. While the one above is a little Bill&Ted future for my tastes (but not for many people I know – the word is being spread) the skirts they do are lovely and ruffly and, of course, waterproof. Which makes them the perfect items to go with and under the umbrellas that will one day become them. If you see what I mean.

International Um… umbrella

Just a quick announcement from what the Plymouth Evening Herald called my “Cawsand studio” in their article on Friday… 

Um… umbrellas are now available all over the world as I have added international shipping rates to the shopping cart buttons. Each umbrella has its own page on the site.

In other news I’ve bought some fantastic fabric paints which will soon be applied to the canopies of plain Um…s and some great ribbons to adorn the insides. Production begins next week and I can’t wait to show you the results!

The latestbrella

It’s all photos and updates these days, isn’t it? Well, I’ve been busy and hot damn is it sunny out there – I’m distracted from my rainwear by the blistering heat… I’m thinking of heading back to the beach as soon as I’ve told you about the latest in the umbrella world.

First of all the new Channel 4 sculpture which was made from 2000 umbrellas (none of them mine, sadly) by artist Stephanie Imbeau. Pretty bloody lovely. Umbrella art is clearly a fashion set to stick around a little while longer. 

This guy got fed up of umbrella bargers and stabbers and invented his own wee faux-weaponry to make pretending to shoot them a little more authentic. Pnow! Zap! Kping!

And in my own news an Um… umbrella is set to feature in the April edition of oh-so-hip and oh-so-funky 247 magazine, which is distributed all across the South West and is pretty damn wonderful. I shall of course post a link when this happens.

Cut out and keep

It’s been a busy week at Um…, which is good because the last few have been blissfully but unproductively distracted. I’ve been preparing lovely pictures of the umbrellas like these to send out to the press to entice new custom and have bagged my first feature with the Evening Herald. I’ll post here when it’s published.

Umbrella image of the week

Okay, I’m not sure it’s been a week but I’ve found another great blog post about umbrella art installations. Sounds like the way to go for the brolly dilletante. I absolutely adore the light cast by these hanging umbrellas from this guy’s flickr page.