All that glitters


Eden’s Christmas baubles represent the combination of two very different traditions. Invented in the small glassmaking town of Lauscha in Germany in the 1840s, glass baubles took a while to supplant the more traditional nuts and baked items that usually adorned Christmas trees. The first contained lead or mercury to give them a festive (if poisonous) gleam. You can still buy glass baubles from Lauscha – and the firm that pioneered them is still in existence – but the baubles you’ll find in the Eden shop come from Kashmir and are made from an entirely different material: papier mâché.


Papier mâché has been a traditional handicraft in Kashmir for over 600 years, used to make anything from pen stands (the Iranian name for papier mâche means pen stand) to ornamental animals. It requires considerable skill to prepare and paint; it’s thought that there are fewer than 40 artisans who practise it correctly, and it was becoming something of a dying art. Fortunately, it is now part of the school and college curriculum in Kashmir. Our patterns are designed in-house. This year’s are by Sarah Wilson and Kathryn Nichols. The designs are then sent to Kashmir to be hand painted.


Photo: Dean Forrest.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32