Christmas Making Space: The Compartment Store

This week has been busy starting to get ourselves prepped for Christmas- installing our festive windows, giving the walls a bit of a paint refresh and generally getting the last bits finalised for the installation of our Christmas Making Space exhibition.

The second exhibitor are the lovely ladies of The Compartment Store, a stationery brand who aim to 'bring the thoughtfulness back into gift giving'. They seemed like the perfect match for a Christmas exhibition!

Cat and Vicky met at university and established the Compartment Store back in 2013. They both have their own businesses doing similar creative things; Cat works as Kitty Farrow, a professional book binder and box maker, and Vicky works as a visual merchandiser and stylist and also has a small gift-wrapping business, Gift Wrap HQ. They were inspired by old-fashioned department stores and wanted to create a brand with a similar feel; a wide range of interesting products but also great service. The Compartment Store in it's physical form is a vintage trunk, fitted out with boxes made by Cat, each housing a different collection. The trunk allows you to browse for a particular item or to discover an unexpected surprise- something that you can't help but send to a friend to make them smile.

(all images by The Compartment Store)

Their range consists of the best cards, tags and trinkets you'd ever need for snazzing up a gift. They created a special range for us last Autumn based around the idea of a time capsule- one was buried here at the Old Fire Station in 1894. The range consisted of various pieces to help you conserve and record- notebooks entitled 'Secrets' and 'Adventures', tiny commemoration tubes for holding precious mementos and lucky penny pouches.

(all images by The Compartment Store)

Above is a sneak peek of the festive range they'll be bringing to us for the exhibition. I'm sure you'll agree- there are some right crackers there! (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.) I personally can't wait to unpack the delivery and see what they've come up with!

Sadly Cat and Vicky won't be taking part in our Meet the Maker workshops, but we have opportunities to make gifts and decorations with Kina Gorska, Anabelle Lou and Miesje Chafer. Why not come along to a workshop and then buy some Compartment Store stationery to package up your make for a friend?