Wool - it's officially eco-friendly, Prince Charles says so!

Hats off to Prince Charles who is championing a comeback for woollen goods as opposed to cheap synthetic throwaway garments destined for landfill sites.  Apart from being gorgeous, wool helps keep farmers in business, keeps sheep on the hills and preserves the landscape.  Wool is fully bio-degradable, it lasts longer than synthetic material, it's warmer, doesn't use fossil fuels and looks great.  We, at Not Mass Produced do not need to be convinced - we already are!  Look at our beautiful selection.

Hand knitted wollen flower brooches by Rebeccamaryjane are £8.50.  The moss stitch bag is by Woolcake and is made of 100% wool from their own farm in Somerset.  The bag is handknitted at £40. The stripey hat is by Susan Bolton and is 65% merino wool and costs £38. 

And check out these delicate and beautiful accessories handmade by Fleur de Boheme.  The brooch is just £10 and the wrap £57

Made in Britain

I have been a little encouraged to read recent reports that manufacturing is returning to the UK.  We have the weakening of the pound, poor quality of workmanship, increasing freight costs and time delays from ordering abroad to thank for that.  It will however, take a lot to get back to the situation 25 years ago when manufacturing trade was in surplus.  Last year it was in deficit by £61 billion. Manufacturing has risen by a mere 2.8% in ten years and has lost more than a million jobs.  In the past decade it's share of GDP has gone from 22% to 11%.  Not to worry though, at the same time that manufacturing was in decline financial services were in boom and more than made up for the shortfall! Hooray!  Except the naughty people otherwise known as 'bankers' made a lot of money (mostly for themselves) by gambling on high risk 'investments' and then made huge losses which taxpayers had the privilege of paying for.  Grrr.  We paid a staggering £63 billion to save Lloyds and RBS.  Yet they continue to charge extortionate rates and receive bonuses. Is it not time to dump the 'bankers' and start making things again?

We have lots of lovely things made from lots of lovely talented people here but we need more people making things and more people buying them (rather than so many of the imports.)  Here a couple of things with the Union Jack on that, I hope you're sitting down, were actually made in the UK!  Don't you just hate it when you see the Union Jack all over bags and cushions etc when they were infact made in China. You might as well have the Chinese flag on them in my view.

Did you see the worlds tallest building unveiled in Dubai the other day?  The one we are all supposed to be so impressed with?  What height was it again?  Oh yes, the height of nonsense, that was it!  Doesn't it just epitomise the greed, the inflated egos, the extravagence without substance of the past decade?  In the end it had to be bailed out by Abu Dhabi.  I wonder who has bailed Britain out to the tune of £178 billion? (It wasn't me!)