We seem to have been in a state of uncomfortable and powerless anticipation for so so long, beset by intimations of approaching catastrophe on every side. (The Budget! The US election!) It is a relief to be on the other side of all that. What’s done is done. What will be will be. After weeks of gloomy weather, grey days and flat light, the sky has cleared. Here in Cambridge it’s cold and sunny, and, incredibly, in other parts of the country it’s snowing. It’s surely the right moment to announce the arrival of our Mad Hats, plus some other bits and bobs.

Having failed to purchase some of our own crackers (limited supplies only) and in search of something to liven up the table, last Christmas we hurriedly made impromptu crowns out of our patterned paper and were interested to observe a correlation between the tallness of the hat and the length of time it was worn. The most majestic hats, far from being discarded as soon as lunch was over, continued to be worn on throughout the afternoon and into the night. Food for thought. In the spring we began to mess around with designs for crowns, and you can see some of the prototypes above. It was one of those projects that speedily outgrows the original idea and takes off into the zone of Wild and Extravagant. It was difficult to wrestle it down to a concrete, realisable and affordable proposal that would fit in a packet, but we have done that: “Six Crowns for Feasts, Parties, High Days and Holidays” are here. Each packet contains the wherewithal to make six completely different vibrantly coloured, utterly magnificent crowns. Be aware that some minimal cutting along dotted lines and sticking with glue (not included) is required: a good project for the holidays. The advantage is that the crown fits the head of the wearer.

We had to think about how to display them and have spent the past few weeks making papier maché heads, which has been almost as much fun as the initial project.  Very messy. We had some avant garde ideas about decorating them which turned out to be absolutely terrifying when executed. Executed being an appropriate word in fact. Then we went for something more naturalistic and that turned out to be scary in a different, uncanny valley sort of way. In the end they turned into these strange doll-like creatures. Anyway — to cut a long story short, we had an absolutely great time with these mad hats, and we hope that you will now too. We’ve already sold out once and reprinted, but the new batch arrived yesterday and they are in stock right now.

You can find the crowns in our Christmas Shop which, Guy Fawkes night being behind us, is now open. The rush seems to have started already and it’s taking us a couple of days longer than usual to get orders out of the door: please order soon, as they say, to avoid disappointment.

This year’s limited edition crackers have arrived. The colour scheme this year is a symphony of rich blues, pinks and purples. The box, which you will use forever, is covered in Animalcules Twilight paper. As always the crackers contain a Weird Words game created especially for us by a Cambridge boffin, a gold crown (of the otherwise ordinary tissue paper variety I’m afraid — the patterned crowns are much too big to fit inside), and a Genuinely Desirable Present. This year these include, as well as the usual mini origami sets, gift cards, and Christmas baubles with antique sari ties, a specially designed and never-before-seen Holly printing block and skeins of our rather sumptuous new velvet ribbon. As always, we made only 300 boxes, each containing six crackers. As of this writing we have about 100 left. And I need one, so that’s 99.

In addition to the new velvet ribbon, we have some new colours of the vintage-style floppy fabric ribbons that we have sold for many years and so love. There is something irresistible about the similar but fractionally different shades. Seen below: Blueberry joins the existing Indigo and Williamsburg (top); Sunny Side Up joins the existing Faded Gold (bottom left); and Very Pale Pink is now the newest and most delicate of the array of pinks and reds.

On the wall of the spellbinding Van Gogh exhibition currently at the National Gallery is this phrase, written in a letter from Vincent to his brother Theo: “the mysterious vibrations of adjacent tones”. We enjoyed looking at, arranging and rearranging the ribbon colours so much that we have created some gift boxes which might be an appropriate present for any colour or craft enthusiasts you happen to know. Seven skeins of mysteriously vibrating adjacent colours are contained within one of our patterned Postcard Boxes with hinged lid and grosgrain ribbon pull: a repository of infinite promise. There’s a green-blue version and a pinky-red version. We’ve got just 25 of each.

They’re called the Ribbons and Bibbons Gift Boxes because of the Quangle Wangle’s Hat:

For his hat was a hundred and two feet wide

With ribbons and bibbons on every side

And bells and buttons and loops and lace…

Mad hats on the brain.

Finally just a mention that we have some of our Letter Trays and Magazine Files in our rather lovely new sage green Small Ivy Stripe pattern. If you are thinking of buying these or any other desk furniture in the near future, we would like to encourage you to purchase now. The anxiously-awaited Budget of Fear and Trembling did indeed prove to be a hard one for small businesses. Over the past few years we have absorbed some of the increased costs arising from inflation instead of passing them on to our customers, but we can no longer hold the prices down. Therefore we will be putting up our prices for these hand-made, labour-intensive items substantially in January. But current prices will hold until Christmas, so please shop now. Delivery is free within the UK for any order over £75, and for any order over £260 if you are in Europe or the US.