CHRISTMAS 2016 www.giselagraham.co.uk
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Gisela Graham
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WELCOME F
rom small beginnings Gisela Graham has built up one of Europe’s leading giftware design companies. Having made her name crafting beautiful decorations for Christmas and Easter, she turned her creative flair to designing useful, pretty things for the home and garden. Gisela was born in Germany and educated at Goettingen and Berlin Universities. While her father wanted her to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, her ambition from earliest years was to own a shop. Gisela founded her business more than 30 years ago with a borrowed £27, starting her business at the kitchen table when her children were small. She recalls ferrying components and paint to outworkers around London, in a 2CV with a child in the back, with Terence Conran being among her first customers.
Gisela Graham, Managing Director, Gisela Graham London
Gisela Graham Limited 12 Colworth Grove Browning Street London SE17 1LR
Gisela is personally in charge of a talented in-house team of designers at the converted stable-yard that serves as her London office. She’s involved in the design and selection of every one of the 4500 products in her range and sells to shops worldwide.
T: 020 7708 4956 E: sales@giselagraham.co.uk
CONTENTS CHRISTMAS 2016
SCANDIC SNOWFLAKES 4
SNOWDROP FAIRIES 8
OLD TIME CHRISTMAS 5
LONDON CHRISTMAS 9
STATELY HOME CHRISTMAS 6
CHRISTMAS ROSE 7
NEW ENGLAND FOREST FOLK 10
HOLLY ANGEL 11
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SCANDIC SNOWFLAKES
Some Like It Cool! The Scandinavian style of Christmas is a classic: simple geometric patterns, in red and white with the merest touch of green. It never changes, and that’s part of its worldwide appeal. Here Gisela Graham follows in Nordic footsteps with motifs of idealised snowflakes – contrasting with the warm browns of gingerbread – another Nordic Christmas tradition that we Southerners have taken to our hearts.
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OLD TIME CHRISTMAS
Austrian illustrator Silke Leffler imagines Santa looking back through his scrap book at Christmas deliveries in bye-gone days: by balloon, Puffing Billy and even the monoplane. But it seems you can’t beat the good old reindeer for reliability. Silke’s quirky drawings are turned into decorations in 3D by Gisela Graham. They’re teamed up with authentic reproductions of Old Time Christmas tree decorations.
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STATELY HOME CHRISTMAS
For the Castle that is Every British Person’s Home, Gisela Graham intends to make Christmas a Stately Occasion. Think pheasants on the lawns, crimson damask on the walls, and Yule log in the drawing room grate. But why is the butler taking such ages to mull our wine?
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CHRISTMAS ROSE
Just when the nights are at their darkest and trees are drab and bare, the Christmas Rose appears to lift the woodland fairies’ spirits. The bright flowers entwined with holly berries make festive circlets for fairy brows.
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SNOWDROP FAIRIES
In The Bleak Mid-Winter these Fairies flit barefoot through the snow. They’re as hardy as the snowdrops they tend, with white dresses to match, brightened with a leaf green sash.
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LONDON CHRISTMAS
Fairies come in all manner of shapes and sizes. Gisela Graham has focussed on the fashionforward fairy, who knows that polka dots are in the bigger the better), hemlines are short (or long) and flowers are to be worn in the hair – especially at Christmas.
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NEW ENGLAND FOREST FOLK
Lacking handy shops on the empty prairie the early American settlers had to make their own – houses, furniture, clothes, toys, ornaments – and of course the decorations for their Christmas trees. The settlers developed a distinctive folk art style that’s still a living tradition, admired by designers everywhere – including Gisela Graham. In authentic American Folk Art style she presents for 2016 a heavenly gathering of winged animals, shepherded by Santa and attendant angels.
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HOLLY ANGELS
To celebrate Christmas Day in Heaven every angel gets a new dress: patterned with berries and seasonal holly leaves, picked out in golden threads.
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Gisela Graham Limited 12 Colworth Grove Browning Street London SE17 1LR T: +44 (0)20 7708 4956 E: sales@giselagraham.co.uk
www.giselagraham.co.uk