Gift Guide: Urban Vagabond

Ahead of the last few days of Christmas shopping, Joe caught up with local designer makers, Urban Vagabond to find out what they do.

Please tell me a little about yourself and what you make.

We are Val and Vikki Taylor, mother and daughter. We have always loved to make and create, learning our skills from generations before us. In 2011, after a family bereavement, we decided life was too short and started Urban Vagabond. Our work mainly centres around textiles and our current range includes knitted accessories from mittens to headbands, organza brooches and cute bow hair accessories.

Describe a favourite piece you have created.

Val: This Christmas has been all about our gingerbread people! Gingerbread girls and boys, large and small! I love working in felt and particularly enjoyed making our gingerbread girls.

What makes you unique?

Vikki: Tricky question for us.  As a young company, we are learning all the time and honing our ideas, practices and styles. One of my favourite quotes is by William Morris (British textile designer), “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” I try to remember this as often as I can in my creations. We just hope that customers are happy with the quality of our products. We try to keep the price as low as possible too!

What are your best sellers this Christmas?

Vikki: Definitely our gingerbread people. They have been a big crowd pleaser at all our events. All our handmade decorations seem to do really well wherever we’ve been! It’s great to see so many people looking for something a little different.

Where can people find you and your products?

Vikki: We’ve tried to attend as many markets and Christmas fairs as possible this year, but also online. We have an online shop with Folksy and also take requests through our Facebook page.

We also have a variety of our products on sale in Charabanc in Blackpool town centre.

What does 2014 have in store for you?

Val: To keep on learning and defining who we are, to perfect product photography, to travel further afield with our products and to start planning next Christmas in March – failing that, world domination will do!

Images from Urban Vagabond Facebook page.