Check out the newly launched Elders, by Justine Trickett
Have you heard of Elders yet? This is a shop you need to know about if you’re looking to support small businesses this Christmas and well into 2021. Or if you just LOVE vintage and unique homeware.
“I created Elders out of a desire to share indulgence, immersion and joy” says photographer Justine Trickett, whose recently launched Elders collections offer a range of vintage glassware, photographic prints, and fine bone china of her own design.
The pieces are a mixture of old and new, born out of nostalgia for dinner parties (or simply any pre-pandemic gathering) and the reaffirmation that our surroundings can contribute towards a sense of oft-needed escapism - our memories built as much on the jokes we’ve heard over dinner as on the sight of candlesticks dripping their wax on the table.
While Justine’s prints and selection of vintage glassware are special additions to any setting, the centrepiece of Elders is undoubtedly the fine bone china. A gold-edged dessert plate and coaster, called Pollen, featuring a richly-coloured design of dried flowers in russets, greens and straw hues. They’re beautiful quality and are pitched at little treats - cheeses and desserts for the plate; and martini glasses, Champagne flutes and salted nuts for the coasters.
“The design of the Pollen plate and coaster is actually a circular photo and the lens I used also warps photos so there’s something not quite real about them. That was something I was interested in, as a form of escapism but I think also as a commentary for this year. It’s reality, but not quite. And the dried flowers in the photo are some I’ve kept for a long time - they’re part of a desire to redefine beauty and show the value of the supposedly imperfect, the value of age and of change.”
Justine worked with a ceramics company in Stoke-on-Trent to have the photo translated into a 7-colour screen print for transferral to the fine bone china. It’s a labour-intensive process but the results are central to the ethos of Elders - lasting quality and the kind of attention to detail that makes for pieces you’ll treasure. It is deliberately the antithesis of throwaway culture.
Slow consumption, reuse of products and packaging, recycling and repair are values that Justine wants to promote through Elders. So far she’s sourced cotton and cotton-linen fabric remnants as part of a creative solution to packaging for the fine bone china, and the coaster sets are being presented in old cigar boxes (inspired by her grandfather, who was an avid cigar smoker).
“I did a lot of thinking this year and I realised that setting up my own shop and brand could help with working towards having a healthy planet to live on. It isn’t the fastest or most direct route but I think that capitalism can have a positive impact - for example if excess profits are invested back into the environment - and that brand culture can encourage us to think critically about sustainability and how we consume.”
“But I wanted to do this while sharing joy. After all, if we’re all feeling drained how are we going to find the energy to tackle adverse climate change?”
