Poppy Treffry: Craftworld Cartel
For those of you unfamiliar with freehand machine embroidery, then you are in for a treat, a delicious hit to the dizzying heights of embroidery ecstasy. As Kirsty Allsop (of her Homemade Home notoriety) infamously tweeted: “Machine embroidery is the crack cocaine of the craft world, and I am addicted.” Where Ms Allsop is the self-confessed junkie, Poppy Treffry IS the godfather (mother?) of this underworld stitching cartel.
Actually, Poppy’s creations are hugely wholesome, retro (without being overdone in the ‘not another bloody cupcake’ sort of a way …) and very, very cute. Picture perfect works of art stitched into very useful, although not always essential, girly must-haves. Any discerning Chelsea kitchen needs a little bit of ‘Cornish fishing boat’ about its tea cosy and as for the Easter chicken egg cosies, who could possibly resist?
Poppy started, as her website puts it so beautifully, with “just Poppy and one cranky Singer sewing machine” and is now ”seven people and 13 cranky Singer sewing machines.” Her Newlyn-based business, while still very much firm to its Cornish roots, is staggeringly well-known in all the right circles. Boutique yes, but also boasting Fortnum and Mason as their stockists, things have come a long way for Poppy and her crew since 2004, and deservedly so. There are many wannabes out there trying to emulate the artist, Poppy unreservedly is the queen of ‘kitsch-craft’ (and she’s holding firmly onto her crown jewels.)
So here I find myself, on a glorious sunny day in Newlyn, a bit lost behind the back of the fish market, looking ludicrously out of place in knee-high boots, Ray-bans and wielding a large coffee. But with a spring in my step and summer in the air (well its mid-April and I am a positive kinda thinker) I’m trying to find Poppy in her studio home. Climbing the steps to the green door (as instructed but it took me a while to locate to correct green door and a few fishy encounters en route) I squeeze through the smallest corridor into the Newlyn studio. In actual fact this is Poppy’s second studio, the first being round the corner and she’s on the move again … . As I arrive this morning, Poppy and her girls are in the middle of packing up and moving to bigger and better digs, but still in Newlyn.
For this stich-n-bitch aficionado, walking into Poppy’s place is like stepping straight onto a crafty cloud nine. Ram-packed with rolls of stripy ticking, juicy fruit flavoured stacks of materials, shelves piled high with assorted dolly mixtures of tea cosies, tea towels, make-up bags and buttons and the latest ceramics to arrive … heaven.
The sunlight pours in from the harbour-facing windows, rows of Singer sewing machines vintage covers behind us, original sail loft floor exposed, Poppy and I pull up a couple of mismatching-in-height chairs and start to chat. It’s nothing but easy. Poppy’s passion spills out all over the place, but taking care not to spill either the passion or my coffee on the goods, we carefully get down to discussing how Poppy’s business has taken shape.
A Cornish girl, born, bred and raised on Bodmin Moor, Poppy trained in textiles but was self-taught when it came to freehand embroidery, ‘vintage Singer style’. Her first attempts were (in her own words) “pretty shabby” however she still has a couple of early attempts in a box, somewhere … and like Damien Hirst is no doubt a tad critical of his first fishy formaldehyde piece, an original ‘Poppy’ is probably quite a collector’s item these days … .
Having returned after a few years of no notable stitching but a lot of VSO abroad in 2003, Poppy ‘the brand’ was born … . In 2004 Poppy was still working part time as an arts officer for Penwith, but by 2005 and four weeks into running the business full time, her first London trade show had the likes of Liberty, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges and The General Trading Company queuing up for a little bit of Poppy Treffry. If her business credential, creative brilliance and absorbing personality aren’t enough to keep her flying high, Poppy is also a working mum to a two-year-old little girl. “It’s a juggling act, and we work to a very tight timetable. Luckily we have a brilliant Granny to help out.” Ah, a girl after my own heart in so many ways.
Poppy’s pieces are available online (she tells me she built her first website herself and has it somewhere on a disc in a drawer) her current website is the epitome of ‘PT’ and a rather lovely shopping experience all on its own. Her new shop in St Ives does bustling trade in the silly seasons, and in quieter months Poppy tells me her plan to open up craft workshops; turning the shop into a “Makery” or a “Stitchery” for all those wannabe fans of the great girl herself. Sign me up Poppy, I’ll be front of the class please … . Move over Kirsty Allsop, this Singer’s taken..
