Looking back to the days when families living in Bloomsbury slums were encouraged by Haddon Parks to grow geraniums in window boxes, to improve polluted air quality. He then showcased them in a festival that would inspire the visitors to make a positive change in their own lives, resulting in a glorious atmosphere.

I had the idea to recreate this in the shop window with specially designed Floral decoupage plates for the Bloomsbury Festival that happened a couple of weeks ago. Next year we plan to get the whole street involved. The results might be riotous on the eyes. 

And it is glass trays that I bring you. I have had a mild obsession looking for the perfect tray for ages, something useful but also decorative. It should be at home on the ottoman holding a votive candle, coasters, maybe a small vase of flowers and also look good loaded up with canapes or being put to use as a mini bar on a side table. I looked and looked until the little lightbulb went off above my head, the moment I realised I could make the tray if my dreams.

I don’t think there is ‘a’ tray I think there are many and I have only just begun…

For a bit of fun last year, we produced a tea towel to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Then suddenly everyone else got serious and they flew out the door and around the globe. The response was immense, as were the amount of stories and photographs people sent back to us letting us know how they were using them. One lovely lady in Australia contacted us to say she and her friends were all sitting around watching the wedding and waving them at the telly, and at the same time apologising for the poor dress sense of her Prime Minister, dearest Julia.

This year, we’ve designed another tea towel for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and back in January Ben and I also came up with the idea of a Jubilee decoupage plate, while waiting to catch the Eurostar back to London after a mad day buying at Maison & Objet in Paris. Ben’s been madly busy working on things other than plates, and I’ve been bugging him about it ever since. 

Finally all the bugging paid off, and last week he presented me with these four beautiful designs. I’ve spent the last few days practicing the dark art of decoupage on the images, to turn them into commemoration plates worthy of such a sparkling celebration and hey presto! May I present our very own set of Royal Souvenirs to collect and keep. Each plate is made in my studio and is backed with a highly lacquered C18th map of London. I do hope they please Ma’am as much as they do us.

My favourite has to be the one with the purple band and the pink inner. What’s yours?

 Buy one or collect them all. Available now at Ben Pentreath Ltd