As you know, we don't often introduce new pieces and entirely new materials are even more rare. This is why we are perhaps a little bit overexcited to finally be able to share this launch with you.
What is the material? Rescued oak.
What are we making? Our first piece (there will be more) is an occasional bowl. It could be a fruit bowl, somewhere to keep anything you walk in the door with like mail, keys, loose change, your wallet, or it could be for whatever you like... we use ours as a centrepiece for dried flowers and candles on our dining table.
Want to know the full details? We are so excited to be working with Gaze Burvill on an exclusive collection of homeware. Gaze Burvill designs and manufactures the most incredible outdoor furniture at their Hampshire workshop.
We are working with oak that has been gracing some of Britain's most beautiful gardens, in bench form, for the last 25 years. Gaze Burvill's commitment to repair old benches is why we have this wonderful wood to work with. We collect the seat slats that need to be replaced, they bear all the hallmarks of decades spent in the outdoors, providing places to sit and enjoy nature at its best. We have reimagined these slats of rescued oak into occasional bowls.
Each piece is entirely unique, no two will ever be the same. They are made by carefully cleaning and sanding each slat, then matching up pieces which have shared curves. We then use a planing tool to create a shared angle, which allows us to join the slats. The whole piece is then sanded, waxed and oiled several times before we subtly laser etch our logo in one corner.
One of Gaze Burvill's Broadwalk Benches
Elvis & Kresse and Gaze Burvill are both B Corps who are committed to circularity, we have shared values and environmental vision. We are working together because life is too short for good companies not to collaborate and design a beautiful future.
Various sizes are available and each piece is a one-of-a-kind. If you would like to choose your perfect piece, please do get in touch and we can send photos of our existing stock.
Last week we were named Future Icons by Country & Townhouse along with 50 incredible individuals - including David Attenborough and the King!
The list is overwhelming to be on, some of these people are our heroes, some are our friends (quite a few are both!) but all are incredibly hard-working. They are earth focussed, they are systems thinkers, they understand that a good legacy means making the world better for other people's grandchildren.
We also won an award for the best environmental initiative by a brand... for all our work at the farm.
Elvis was there to collect!
We have been truly delighted to be asked by Diana Hamilton-Jones to add a logo to any of our pieces in commemoration of James Braidwood, the Father of the Modern Fire Service. Keen to learn more about the Bicentenary of the founding of the world's first
If you would like to have one of these lovely logos on your piece, let us know!
In September 2008 Diana Hamilton-Jones was invited by the late Dr. Frank Rushbrook, former Edinburgh Fire Chief, to attend the unveiling of the statue of James Braidwood he had commissioned and which now stands proudly on The Royal Mile next to St. Giles Cathedral. James Braidwood was his hero and Diana's great, great, great grandfather. She was inspired by Dr. Rushbrook to continue where he left off to raise Braidwood’s profile in the public conscience and by giving talks and bringing him to the attention of various groups, schools, the media and politicians she has been endeavouring to do just that. James Braidwood’s contribution to society is immeasurable, but sadly, he remains little known today, even amongst fire-fighters.
He was born in Edinburgh on 3rd September 1800. The Braidwood family was well respected in Edinburgh society; his father, Francis, was a well-known cabinet maker and builder and his uncle, William, had been Minister of the Original Baptist Church for 40 years and in 1805 was appointed Manager of the newly formed Caledonian Insurance Company. James was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and then studied to be a surveyor in his father’s building company. It was here he learned so much about building materials and how they react under stress, especially fire.
The 1824 Great Fire of Edinburgh finally forced the authorities to consider forming a municipal fire service. Prior to this time there was no organised fire-fighting leading to a great deal of damage and loss of life. James Braidwood, who had impressed the authorities with his organised approach to fire-fighting when assisting as a volunteer was appointed as Superintendent of Engines to the world’s first municipal fire service, The Edinburgh Fire Engine Establishment, on 23rd October 1824.
From a blank page he created a science of fire-fighting, he recruited a team of 80 men, trained them and oversaw the design of their equipment and uniforms. Their safety and well-being was of prime importance to him, as well as providing an efficient service to the public he served. He took notes on every fire attended and by 1830 published the first book in English on fire fighting and training fire fighters.
Word of his expertise spread throughout the country as well as abroad and in 1832 he was invited to move to London where, in 1833, he was appointed the Superintendent of Engines to the newly formed London Fire Engine Establishment (later the London Fire Brigade). Again he built up a strong team of men, who like those in Edinburgh, grew to love and respect him.
His peers, superiors and the authorities also held James Braidwood in high regard. He was always polite, persistent in his desire to provide the best service through constant improvements, diligent, selfless, courageous and devout. He worshipped every week at the Scottish Church in Covent Garden and became a Sunday School teacher there; his charitable work included assisting at the Ragged Schools which clothed, fed and educated some of the many homeless children roaming the streets of London.
Through his expertise he was able to save several buildings of national historical significance including the medieval Westminster Hall when the Houses of Parliament were destroyed and the White & Jewel Towers at the Tower of London.
Throughout his career he wrote extensive reports to his superiors informing them of his progress and also making requests for much needed improvements in fire safety, as well as writing Fire Prevention Reports for leading establishments, including Buckingham Palace, the Admiralty, the Bank of England and the British Museum, so becoming the first Fire Prevention Officer. He worked closely with the London City Missions from whom he requested support for his men who had been traumatised by their experiences, so becoming the first Well Being Officer.
On 14th November 1838 he married Mary Ann Jane Jackson, a widow with 4 children and together they had a further 6. His 3 priorities were now his family, his faith and the fire service.
On 22nd June 1861 a fire broke out on Cotton Wharf, Tooley Street in the Thames Docks. It was a fire he had predicted and warned about many years earlier, repeatedly advising on the safe storage of goods in the warehouses which had been growing in size. His advice was ignored and he was killed on the first day of the fire, which burned for 2 weeks, whilst assisting his men. It was 2 days before it was possible to recover his body. Queen Victoria was notified of his death and she wrote of it in her diary and sent a personal letter of sympathy to Jane Braidwood.
James Braidwood was buried on 29th June 1861 in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London. His funeral was the largest for a commoner since that of the Duke of Wellington, the funeral procession stretching for 1.5 miles with crowds lining the streets 10 deep.
James Braidwood was a man of vision; he created a science where there was none before, he pioneered many aspects of fire-fighting including multi-agency cooperation, introduced new equipment including a rudimentary breathing apparatus, a hand pump and fire retardant materials. Some of his methods form part of basic training today.
Together with the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service I am co-hosting a special service at St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh in October 2024 to honour James Braidwood and celebrate 200 years of municipal fire-fighting in Scotland. It is my hope that this momentous occasion will be marked across the country and further afield and will lead to him receiving the honour and recognition he so richly deserves.
The Scottish Fire Brigades Heritage Trust has commissioned a special coin to commemorate this bicentenary year; funds raised by the sale of the coin will be donated to their charities. https://sfbheritagetrust.org
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This is a question that we are asked a lot, and largely people are confused because it isn't one thing. It is best defined by what it is not... it is not derived from animals.
Firstly, just the term vegan leather is an oxymoron, if it is vegan it can't be leather and if it is leather it can't be vegan. So really we should be calling it a vegan leather alternative... but that just takes too much time. Some people also call vegan leathers 'sustainable leather alternatives' but be careful of this one, a vegan material isn't necessarily sustainable. More on this in a moment.
Secondly, fire-hose is vegan! It contains no animal derived materials and we do not use animal derived glues, trim, or lining... so our entire fire-hose collection is vegan. You can read our full post on that here.
Here are a few examples of 'vegan leathers' to give you a flavour of how diverse the range is and how you really need to interrogate each one to find out if it is truly delivering what you are after.
Pleathers - The first leather substitutes have been around since the dawn of the polymer age because that is essentially what they are, they are plastic. PVC, polyurethane, nylon....
Frankenpleathers - This is my least favourite group... these are composite materials that are very hard if not impossible to recycle. This is when you marry up two types of material in such a way that they can't be shredded, melted, and made again. You can do this with straight plastic, but not a nylon reinforced polymer or synthetic rubber (like fire-hose, which is why we have to rescue and reuse it!). I would never, ever manufacture a material like this, they need to be phased out. Some examples include naugahyde, truck tarpaulins, and a lot of the 'vegan leathers' that you see on the market. If a natural material like cotton or cactus or any of the 'fruit' leathers is coated in plastic then it is a frankenfibre and we have no recycling for that.
Natural materials - Now leather is a natural material. We have been using animal skins for shoes longer than we have been the dominant homo sub-species. But not all leather is natural, a lot of it is treated with pretty hideous chemicals and / coated in polymer! The natural materials I find more interesting are cork, waxed canvas... but again, ask about coatings. What kind of wax? Were any adhesives used?
Biosynthetics - This is the future, naturally derived, grown, processed (hopefuly with renewable energy) and totally biodegradable. There are some mycelium examples that are quite interesting and also some made from agricultural waste like Mirum and Treekind. We are actually working on something ourselves - and it could be special... entirely derived from a waste that is currently clogging up landfills in the UK to the tune of 6000 tonnes each year!
Now back to that thorny sustainability question. The most sustainable materials are the ones that already exist. Reduce consumption first, buy second hand, or focus on reuse, like we do. Plastic is a fossil fuel, using it prolongs our dependence on fossil fuels (making it inherently unsustainable). Even if you can recycle it doesn't mean it won't shed microplastics in this life or in its next iteration so really, if there are any new polymers involved then it is a no. A purely recycled polymer piece is still a no from me. I would only go for rescued. And then we get to the mixed fibres. Ask the material manufacturer, can this be recycled, and if so by who? You need hard proof that they have planned for the death of the novel material they have created... The natural materials may not be entirely sustainable either, they may use too much land or water or pesticides in their production so ideally we all need to learn to ask about what it means to be regenerative. If you want our take on that you can find it here.
Essentially you need to ask, you need to interrogate. You need to find out if you can see their production facility, meet the makers, see all of the processes involved. And I know that this takes time but that is great too! It slows everything down and another truly unsustainable thing about fashion is the pace and volume.... the churn. Slow down, ask questions, invest in rescue!
In this post we hope to answer all your questions about leather care and cleaning. We want the leather we rescue to live a long and healthy second life and that means taking a few simple steps to ensure longevity.
How to protect leather?
If you want to get ahead of potential issues then leather protection is a great idea, particularly if you plan on being out-and-about in a shower or two. We recommend using this product, it is organic and widely used. Collonil Organic Protect and Care, or Cover protect against dirt, dust and moisture.
How to clean leather?
Well, there are several techniques and we definitely recommend reading through them all to work out which is best for you, or your item. The wonderful website Wikihow documents them all in detail at this link. They have handy diagrams, dull explanations and video links too. All of these are ways to clean leather naturally, so no toxic chemicals are involved. The methodologies are also similar, remove dirt with a dry cloth, then gently dab and buff and always start by testing an out of the way test spot if you can.
Anything with an oil could darken your leather, so my first choice is always the diluted vinegar, just make sure that you don't use flavoured or coloured vinegars like malt or balsamic! Try to find plain white vinegar, also known as spirit vinegar.
Any questions? Just get in touch with us: support@elvisandkresse.com
When life gives you lemons.... make lemonade!
I suppose you could say that this phrase could be used to describe a lot of what we do here at Elvis & Kresse. Life gave us fire-hoses and leather off-cuts, so we made luxury accessories. Life gave us a failed septic system, so we built the wetland system to transform that 'problem' into a biodiverse wetland.
We have incorporated this same thinking into almost everything we do which is why a big box of fish heads, bones, tails and flesh scraps caught our eye at our local farm shop.
So, what do you do with fish waste? It has a lot of nutrition, useful for our establishing vines, but not just strewn about... as much as that might please the birds, rats and foxes!
We added water and sugar and have been brewing up a liquor - called fish hydrolysate - which is nitrogen rich, and an incredible food for both plants and the world of microbes we are encouraging to thrive in our soil.
Some of the best photos we have are the ones that you have taken!
Not us, not professionals on photo shoots, but you, who have been wearing or carrying our pieces each and every day.
Teleki Marie, Fairrbourne, Gwynedd
Over the past 19 years we have seen Elvis & Kresse pieces travel the world, start university, commute to new jobs, feature in wedding parties and engagements, and celebrate birthdays among other milestones.
Alice Evans, Borneo
We can't thank you enough for sharing these amazing images with us. We love the characters, the composition and most of all the wonderful stories that they tell.
Ellen Clayton, Hobbiton, New Zealand
So this summer we are going to do something a little bit different, we are going to run a competition and the prize is huge. Over the next few months, all we ask is the following:
And the prize? The prize is one of our amazing Travel Bags.
Rakkojae Seoul Bukchon Hanok Village
On the 7th of June, at 6:00am, Stuart Harris from the Nature Friendly Farming Network came to do a breeding bird survey.
We definitely think that the dawn chorus is louder around 4:30, so we will have to be even earlier next time round. The results were great, and importantly we are home to 4 species of Birds of Conservation Concern in the UK. We have three from the amber list: woodpigeon, kestrel and wren. But it is our greenfinch which is a red-listed species, pictured below.
Here is what we counted, the one or two letter prefix is the British Trust for Ornithology Species Code, followed by the common bird name and the number we could identify.
CH Chaffinch: 2, B. Blackbird: 2, BC Blackcap: 2, R. Robin: 2, WP Woodpigeon: 10, CC Chiffchaff: 2, WR Wren: 2, BT Blue Tit: 2, GT Great Tit: 2, JD Jackdaw: 4,
GO Goldfinch: 4, K. Kestrel: 1, GS Great Spotted Woodpecker: 1, LW Lesser Whitehroat: 1, LT Long tailed Tit: 5, GR Greenfinch: 1.
We also have kites, merlins, crows, starlings, a European green woodpecker and a beautiful creamy Barn Owl that we see nearly every day on our morning walks or in the evenings, hunting down the vine rows for mice. At dusk the bats come out over the ponds to feed on insects. With our lovely neighbours, Andrew and Mary, we have a plan to improve our farm habitats for Turtle Doves so keep your fingers crossed!
Stuart is keen to come back next Spring and is expecting to find more species and greater numbers. "In light of the excellent land management being implemented on the farm, I believe both bird diversity and abundance will increase."
So there you go, that one sentence says it all. The work we are doing? It's working.
Several years ago the lovely Co Founder of Synchronicity Earth introduced me to Arizona Muse. At the time, Arizona was (and is) a renowned model who was layering in a future career in sustainability. I liked her practicality, passion and compelling way of dissecting complex issues... Fast forward a few years and she has founded DIRT Charity, a UK charity working globally to turn fashion into a climate solution starting with the soil.... Specifically DIRT supports farm projects and biodynamic farming education.
In 2020 we moved our HQ to a farm, specifically to launch a regenerative agriculture project. We know first hand what the transition to regenerative looks like, which is why we are so proud to support DIRT. We will donate £5.00 from the sale of every Festival Pouch to DIRT.
We are two organisations which agree that plastic (fossil fuel derived) fashion isn't sustainable, and that transforming our farming system is fundamental to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss... a match made in DIRT you might say!
We are supporting DIRT with a brand new piece, which we have called our Festival Pouch. We called it this because it perfectly fits a phone and some tissue or toilet paper... we know our festival essentials! It can also hold a phone and passport, so it is great for travel. Why did we choose this piece to support DIRT? Well, it is both practical and fun, which if you think about it are both important skills to have when you are approaching large complex problems (like climate) and know that giving up or burning-out just aren't options.
And just in case you want to stop and smell the flowers... here are a few recent pictures from our farm!
A lone poppy in a sea of daisies, just outside the Field House
Monty, admiring the sea of yellow rattle growing between the vines.
Six Inches of Soil at Elvis & Kresse!
On June 13th we will be screening Six Inches of Soil at our workshop together with our friends at COOK, who will be providing a simple supper.
This wonderful documentary has been taking the country by storm with sold out screenings across the UK. We are very excited to be hosting one in our workshop!
The film tells the inspiring story of young British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, our health and provide for local communities.
Details:
Why are we hosting?
This documentary features farmers who are all on the same Regenerative Agriculture journey that we are. And what is regenerative agriculture? This is a great graphic, to give you the details in a nutshell:
We armour the soil, we keep living roots in the soil, we do not disturb the soil, we have livestock and we are fostering biodiversity at every opportunity! We also don't use synthetic chemicals or fertilizer.... we just use compost (that we make from locally available waste) and compost tea! Come along and learn more.
In particular this film features three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey - Anna Jackson, a Lincolnshire 11th generation arable and sheep farmer; Adrienne Gordon, a Cambridgeshire small-scale vegetable farmer; and Ben Thomas, who rears pasture fed beef cattle in Cornwall. As the trio strive to adopt regenerative practices and create viable businesses, they meet seasoned mentors who help them on their journey. They’re joined by other experts providing wisdom and solutions from a growing movement of people who are dedicated to changing the trajectory for food, farming and the planet.
“We imagine a world where Nature is Muse, Nature is Teacher, Nature is Client, Nature is Rights Holder and Nature is Stakeholder…”
The Garden of Tomorrow is a 2 day event, hosted by The House of Hackney at their HQ, 74-76 Leonard Street London EC2A 4QS.
All of the contributors have unique connections to nature - whether they are growers, communicators, activists, NGOs, or fellow B Corps... they all understand that we are a part of Nature, not apart from it. We all believe in the power of creativity and collaboration to make a change.
This is an incredible initiative by the House of Hackney - a company who we admire so much for acting on nature, when they could so easily just be talking... They are genuine kindred spirits!
Do come along for the event which runs from the 13th-15th of June, I will be giving a short talk/Q&A on the 13th in the morning before rushing back to the farm for our screening of Six Inches of Soil!
Click here to book your tickets for The Garden of Tomorrow.
A bit of a preview on our discussion where we hope to host a lively Q&A!
We will focus on our regenerative journey and why we moved our HQ to a farm, so that we could literally live, work and be in nature.
Our journey to the farm has been both short and long...
The short version? We saw it in the summer of 2020, and after first losing it in sealed bids in August, it was re-available in late November and we bought it on the 4th of December... It was quick because we had been looking and planning for a lloooooonnnnng time.
The long version? Years ago, when we realised that sustainable was not enough (if we all go net zero, we will cruise past 2 degrees) we wondered what Elvis & Kresse would look like if we became a regenerative business.
What does regenerative mean? Well, there is no single definition, but for us it means doing more. In practical terms it means that you give more than you take, you sequester more carbon than you emit, you generate more (renewable) energy than you consume, you treat more water than you use, you foster more biodiversity than you corrupt and you create more than you destroy. You have to solve more problems than you cause too... and all of this 'more' it has to be substantially more. We aren't talking about jumping on a plane and then planting precisely the amount of trees to account for it. We are talking about redesigning your business so that it delivers for nature and remember, nature includes people. We are redesigning our business so that it regenerates...
We thought the best way to do this, to weave this through our work, was to take on a farm. And not just any farm, but the worst farm we could find. Why the worst? Two reasons really, terrible farms cost less but more importantly we felt that it would be a much greater achievement if we could bring a degraded landscape back into biodiverse abundance. The past 3.5 years have been absolutely incredible - so do come along to discover the rest of the story!
