CHARLOTTE TAYLOR: PORT ELIOT LOVELINESS

So - a couple of weeks ago (sorry I'm a bit behind) we made tracks down to one of my favourite parts of the country - The land of the Pasty, Clotted Cream and of course Pirates....Cornwall.

Set in the grounds of one of the most exquisite stately homes around, Port Eliot Estate lies amongst rolling hills, lush woodland and sits grandly on the banks of the River Lynher as she gracefully meanders through an awe inspiring Aqueduct, virtually at the bottom of their garden - not a bad spot for a festival then....

A small, creative and primarily literary event, this is not your average festival.

Authors, musicians, artists, fashion designers and creatives, all at the top of their games set up unimposing workshop tents to share and demonstrate their skills in a family orientated gathering. Stephen Jones made elaborate head pieces from flora and fauna, Louise Grey prepped your face for the whackiest of nights out and Stornaway provided the sweet Irish soundtrack to our aimless wandering, people watching and what d'ya know, some chilling in the "Sun"....

Our purpose at the festival was a further collaboration with the wonderful Anthropologie.

The idea was born last year when Alice Sykes, The UK PR director fell in love with the festival when she visited with her family. Alice's vision was to bring Anthropologie to the event for a fusion of creative minds and souls, and so it began....

The CT team was subsequently approached to run a workshop at the festival alongside wonderful potter Jackie Roche and genius up cycler Lou Rota. We decided unsurprisingly that we would focus on print and so began our experiments in the studio on how to create the most interesting and professional results from a tent in Cornwall...

We came up with Marbling... Inspired by my Trip to India, it seemed the obvious choose and after hours of experimenting we came up with a plan.

The only difficulty we had was finding water troughs the rights size for our 40cm x 135cm silk scarves.... 10 home made mdf boxes and a lot of time later we got there.

Over the weekend we ran 3 x 2hr sessions. One each day and boy were they a success.. The mixture between the human love for a freebie and the delight at the individual, colourful and always successful marbling technique that was used was frankly uplifting.

Alice's vision was in full force and we were very proud to be part of it.

I think thats what stands festivals and brands like Anthropologie apart from the norm. Each person who came into the festival and our tent had an individual and interactive experience that they will never forget.