Entrepreneur Country magazine recently caught up with Hatty Fawcett, Founder of Seek & Adore, to discover why investors should consider an investment in Seek & Adore. Read the interview here
Watch Seek & Adore’s business pitch
Invest in Seek & Adore via CrowdCube
To read an online edition of Entrepreneur Magazine click here
Ever fancied yourself as a dragon in the den? Well now you can be (virtually) and you don’t need a sizeable personal fortune to do so… intrigued?
Thanks to crowdfunding sites like Crowdcube, rather than a business seeking £250,000 from one wealthy dragon, it can raise the same amount from a number of different people. Crowdcube lets ordinary people with a bit of spare cash (“the crowd”) support the businesses they want to see grow and thrive though investment.
Seek & Adore is on a mission to raise £250,000 to support British designer-makers. The money raised will be used to raise the profile of designer-makers and to help them sell more of their wonderful work online.
The company has been live on Crowdcube for less than a week and has already raised £58,000 of its £250,000 target. Fifty thousand pounds of the amount raised so far has been pledged by an entrepreneur and former eBay Senior Manager, who brings valuable experience to the company as well as his cash.
Seek & Adore will use the investment it raises to create further awareness of their website by introducing online advertising, catalogue marketing, direct mail and door drops, thus helping British designer-makers raise their profile and sell more of their work.
Hatty Fawcett, Founder of Seek & Adore said, “We are really excited to be live on Crowdcube and to have already had investment from such an experienced director and investor so early in the process. We are looking forward to gaining further funding from a community of investors that really believes in giving British designer-makers a voice.”
Watch Seek & Adore’s investment pitch and please spread the word amongst your friends by clicking LIKE and SHARE.
Invest via Seek & Adore’s Crowdcube page
Amanda Simmons Dark Skies Bright City range
On Friday this week Collect – the International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects run by the Craft Council – opens. Perhaps surprisingly in the current economic climate, many people are still looking to buy art and collect original art.
There are, of course, lots of different reasons for collecting art and contemporary crafts. Some buy artwork as an investment – with a view to making money over the long (or not so long) term. Expert knowledge is pretty important here if you are going to realise that investment. Others buy art to fill a space on the wall, or a nook on the mantelpiece. Here beauty is important – and, as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For still others, the desire to collect art becomes a life time passion – some might even say an obsession. Here it is the joy of following a particular maker, or discovering new and unique ways of working in a particular medium, such as pottery, ceramic or glassware, that comes to the fore.
Walking round Collect you see all these motives at play – and you spot the odd student,artist or craftsman gaining inspiration for their next work of art. It is a joy to behold – people revelling in beauty. Of course,you don’t have to go to Collect to experience that joy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a surprising number of people wonder through the virtual galleries on Seek & Adore every day, getting their daily “fix” of beauty. Admiring new products, checking out new makers and exploring just what can be achieved with pottery, ceramic and glass. And, like the visitors to Collect, they are not disappointed.
Amanda Simmons stunning glass vessels will be gracing the galleries of Collect this year but can also be viewed online at Seek & Adore. The colours displayed in her Dark Skies, Bright City range are a feast for the eyes – but personally I am intrigued by the name of the range. I know Amanda was very struck by the stars at night when she moved from London up to Dumfries – no light pollution there!
Kate Schuricht Raku pottery
Ceramic artwork always pulls a crowd and you could do far worse than browse the work of Kate Schuricht whose mastery of raku takes my breath away.
And then you have more quirky collectables such as Janice Parker. As Janice herself puts it “I am attracted to the kitsch and quirky – things that make me smile”. She works in porcelain and copper to create characters, scenes – even an entire world – all based around a story “The Thieves of time, The Magpies and The Time Machine.” Now it’s possible that Janice’s work won’t be at Collect this year but her collectable, quirky figures show that buying art is open to all. Everyone has the thing they fall in love with, their price point and – I hope – their “pride of place” for displaying art. Whilst Collect may be at the upper price end for most people, Seek & Adore believe that everyone should buy art and beauty should be in all our homes.