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Rachel Chamberlain and Narelle Huggins share an aesthetic – and a crafting business.
When two Waikato women first visited each other’s homes, they knew straightaway they were kindred souls.
Narelle Huggins and Rachel Chamberlain, from Cambridge, eventually turned their shared aesthetic and love of contemporary craft, colour and retro design into a crafting business.
Huggins says the pair are similar “in our tastes and our fondness for plants, retro, heaps of colour”.
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The pair behind Good Home Project love to use bright splashes of colour.
“We’re definitely not into neutral interiors. ’More is more’ is our philosophy.”
Good Home Project began in 2016 when they each volunteered to help children at their school design, market and sell a product. When that project failed to get off the ground at school, they realised they themselves were still enthusiastic about it.
“We got so excited about the idea of doing it that we said ‘we’ll have to go ahead and do it ourselves’,” Chamberlain says.
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They now make and sell make a range of homewares that includes cushions, fabric plant bags, poufs they call ‘bot spots’, contemporary rag dolls, snake door stoppers and handprinted tea towels.
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Christmas trees are not just for putting presents around.
Both had crafting skills – sewing, knitting and crochet – but have learnt from each other along the way. They’ve also taught themselves embroidery and screen printing.
“Part of the reason for calling ourselves the ‘project’ part of Good Home Project is that it’s not been a defined business from the start,” Huggins says. “It’s organic. We wanted to learn together.”
At this time of year, their Christmas range – which includes knitted and crocheted Santas, trees and wreaths – comes to the fore.
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Advent calendars don’t have to be mass-produced, nor filled with throw-away gifts.
Huggins says their 24-pocket fabric advent calendars are popular. They are not necessarily about children receiving throw-away gifts every day. Instead, they are modelled on “the way we’ve done Christmas with our kids in the past”.
“In our family we’ve put a piece of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke in each pocket, along with chocolate. You have to have chocolate.”
Chamberlain says her children each get eight pieces of paper to put into a pocket from December 1, with suggestions of a festive thing the family could do that day. Examples include “going for a drive to see the Christmas lights, playing Frank Sinatra’s Christmas album from 4pm to midnight, and making Christmas mince pies”.
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Many of the Good Home Project products use a mix of knitting, sewing and crochet skills.
Sustainability is an important consideration. “It’s a really strong motivation to us to create things that last,” Chamberlain says.
”We recycle a lot of materials. And we don’t want to make one-hit wonders that get used for Christmas and get turfed. That’s abhorrent.”
They sell their products mainly through the website, but also at markets and wholesale through Tirau gallery and design store Deciduus and Santie.
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The Nicholas doll is one of the seasonal characters from the Edie dolls range.
The business is a side hustle for each of them: Huggins is a mother of three children (aged, 7, 14 and 17) and is also an artist, painting mainly still life and landscapes.
Chamberlain also has three children (aged 14, 17 and 19) and is working towards making her household self-sustaining in terms of food. She has chickens and a vegetable garden, currently 140sqm, that she says is “gradually eating up the lawn”.
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Edie dolls come in a variety of hair and skin colours, and with their own unique outfits.
Chamberlain’s favourite product is the Edie dolls – particularly doing custom-made options.
“We get a photo of somebody and recreate it with their hair, clothing – try to get the look right.” Memorable ones include a “masculine, strong Maori guy with tattoos” for which she enjoyed embroidering a prominent shoulder tattoo, and “another one the total opposite with a little blonde, freckly girl”.
Huggins says her favourite is an “adult toy” – the blue jeans whale – because every one is different, and making them calls for using the pair’s newly acquired skills of screen printing and embroidery.
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