Talking to Cecilie Telle
new job brain, playing store, and harvesting wool like grapes
I started a new job this week, therefore I have new job brain. The thing where your weekly screen time jumps off a 28% cliff (tbh good), friends and family don’t really know how your first days are going, or your thumbs cramp noticeably less as they haven’t been scrolling because all available brain cells are usurped with trying to learn how to do the thing you were hired for and do it well while granting yourself grace and permission to ask every dumb question. I haven’t forgotten about this place. If anything it’s a wonderful comfort to write and I did reserve a few neurons to ensure I can decompress on my own time while I defuse the swirls of new jargon and remembering people’s names.
First days of work are an amalgamation of first dates, first day of school, first night sleeping in your same bed but in a new home. They leave you feeling like you over prepared for something you know will only be a first once, even though you spent most of the time preparing the best route, the closest coffee shop, the outfit to make a memorable but not trying too hard first impression.
This would not be a first day for anything on my person. My outfit is the one thing for certain that I can trust to get the job done. So what do I employ on a day when I need to feel most myself? Items that I reliably would invest in if I had a store. I wore a vintage Charvet striped shirt, chunky black v-neck, a pair of extremely baggy, perfect Lemaire jeans from a few years ago they never made again (I’m 95% sure the team used the same pattern to make these cotton trousers this spring), and my Cecilie Telle wool, heirloom tomato red bag.
My buyer brain is something I cannot turn off. It leads me into most retail environments and starts tabulating assortments as soon as I see something I would like to take home, and most acutely when a buzzy feeling of discovery takes over. When I was in London for a work trip a few years ago, we went to Egg and I found Cecilie’s woolen confections. Saturated and thick felted orbs that are the closest thing to the idea of holding a color. I started thinking about what assortment I would place on a purchase order for my mental shop—dollops of hues hanging from hooks and curled on shelves. I’d probably hang them alongside piles of Extreme Cashmere sweaters and Brooke Callahan pants—two brands that also celebrate and prioritize chromatic density.
All Cecilie Telle bags are handmade in England and hand felted into an assortment of ten styles ranging in various basket bowl like bases and straps to become a seamless and complete form. Cecilie not only felts bags, but scarves and and ponchos, so you too can be enveloped in a tonal wrapper.
I waited until last year to place a personal order (not opening a store anytime soon, one day though). Much like the process of writing an order for a retailer and then gathering product knowledge to share with the store team, I wanted to glean everything I could to sing the praises and process of Cecilie. I also wanted to learn about what it takes to run a business like hers and what challenges she faces in an ever changing market. She quickly replied to my email and I’m so grateful for her time, honesty, and thorough replies. See here—
What was the first bag you made? What was the journey like—creatively and functionally—from bag #1 to what you produce now?
I crocheted a small pouch for my best friend when I was around 9-10. It was small, made of embroidery cotton, with lots of coloured stripes. She made one for me too, which I still have!
In terms of shape, it is quite similar to the bags I make today. I have always been drawn to circular shapes, and started collecting baskets from the age of 8.
The journey was all about play, and later about making myself bags I wanted that were functional and had longevity.
How does the material you work inspire or limit the design choices you make? Have you experimented working with materials outside of wool?
I love wool, and it is a material I will never tire of. It may limit my design in some ways, but I think that is also it’s asset. It is all about knowing your material as well as you possibly can and see what you can do with it. It has endless possibilities.
Wool comes from a living being, and it is affected by the land it lives on, and its weather. It changes from year to year, a bit like a grape harvest. It is a magical material, to some extent waterproof because of its lanolin content. Warm cosy, immersed in history form every part of the world. I have always been interested in many different types of natural materials, but for now it’s all about wool.
Talk to me about your relationship to color, what informs or inspires your choices?
I love working with colour. It excites me to discover a new colour. I work very intuitively with colour, and happen to be very attracted to some colours more than others. I am not sure why. Maybe I was influenced a bit by the colours from the 60’s…but not sure really.
I love that you have a teaching practice, how has this informed your work and what would you say you're a student of?
I am a Rudolf Steiner Teacher, specialising in Handwork, and love the philosophy behind the teaching! I am not teaching at the moment. I have too much of my own making to do these days...
I do love teaching as it forces you to be in the present moment, and makes you feel alive. Teaching handwork for me was always about teaching life skills. Our hands are amazing tools, and with them we can do anything at all! how amazing is that! I don’t know what kind of student I am, a student of life perhaps, like everyone else.... at the moment I want to be a student of foraging wild food and herbs.
I discovered you in Egg a few years ago, a truly one-of-a-kind retailer, how do you audit which stores carry your work? How has wholesale helped or hurt your business?
Egg is an amazing little place, and I will always be grateful to Moreen for having my things in her shop. It has been ideal for my work. I have always tried to find shops where I feel my work would fit in well. I also like to have personal relationships with the people I sell to. It is so important where you sell your work as it can be a show case for your work, and a way for people to find you.
It is difficult when shops are in a country far away, because you don’t really know the people or the shop, so you have to take a leap of faith. Wholesale has been a great way to get my label out there and also a lot of hard work. I can’t say wholesale has hurt my business at all.
When did you decide you wanted to sell what you designed?
When I had my first daughter I decided I wanted to be at home with her, and make a living at the same time. So I did what came naturally to me and that was to knit, and make things for us, and then I started to sell those things….
What has been the most challenging part of running your business? What mistakes have you learned the most from? What is the most rewarding?
Most challenging for me has always been the business side, something I am not skilled at and actually have very little interest in. I am a maker, not a business woman at heart.
I think realising what I am good at and what I am not so good at has taught me a lot. Running a business is not easy. You have to find the support you need, and finding the right people to support you in the areas you need help in has been great, and challenging too, also having trust and letting go!
The most rewarding thing has been to make a living from the things I make […] and when people like my work! It has taken many many years to get here, and a lot of hard work, but the journey has been so interesting and amazing on so many levels.
Seeing my work through other peoples eyes has also been so inspiring. Mistakes are always good, they teach us so much, and can be a turning point and lead you in a direction you otherwise would never have discovered. My fist test runs of washing wool, with so many mistakes led me to felting!
Where do you look for inspiration to build the Cecile Telle world? What places, clothing, food, art, creative practices inform it?
From everywhere. I work very organically, so inspiration is not on tap, it comes when it comes.
I like to go to exhibitions, and my favorite museum is the Pit Rivers Museum in Oxford. They have the most amazing basket collection from all over the world there.
I think I am most inspired by the wisdom of the past, and hand made utilitarian objects. Things that people have discovered and made through a genuine desire and need, where you can almost see the hands that have created that beautiful thing.
What advice would you give someone who is looking to bring their creative practice into a professional practice?
Get some good business advice! Never undervalue your things by selling them too cheap. It is not just detrimental to your own practice, but also to the millions of other makers out there.
Sell things at the value you need to, in order to make a living, otherwise it is just short term. You will have to work hard, long hours, but it’s such a privilege to be your own boss.
Be kind to your self, and take time off!!
until next time, xoxo Ketchup World.