A shop in Bath dazzles and delights customers with its passion for breathing new life into old objects
Recycling and reusing items can produce something which is vibrant, unique and stylish, as one shop in Bath’s artisan quarter has proved.
Kiss the Frog Again in Broad Street, has joined with like-minded makers and artists who share their passion for using recycled materials in innovative ways.
The shop, run by Jenny Carruthers and Caroline Vincent, is home to an eclectic mix of fascinating creations – from lamps made from old soda siphons to vintage furniture re-imagined in tweed and paisley prints.
Even the interior of the shop is fashioned from objects which once had a former life, like the stairs remodelled into shelves or the gates which have been converted into banisters.
The walls are hung with quirky 3D artwork made from old maps, comics and story books, while beautiful soft furnishings are fashioned from unusual sources like denim, hand dyed local sheep’s wool or seatbelts!
Adorning one wall is a handmade rug in varying shades of turquoise, each square taken from vintage Turkish rugs, hand dyed by roller then hand-stitched to create the result.
Then by way of contrast, there’s the inventive line of luggage bags made from discarded lorry tarpaulins, all displayed on a stand made from a lorry exhaust and wheel rim.
Turn around and you will find a former white line marker which has been remade into an outside bar or a barbecue made from old vehicle parts – it’s a seemingly endless list of ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Kiss the Frog Again works with about 30 local makers who operate within an hour’s radius from Bath, including blacksmiths, artists and Jenny’s second in command for soft furnishings, the upholsterer Kate Blake.
“Keeping those crafts going is important and working as a co-operative for local art is nice,” says Jenny, whose own home has featured in a Kirstie Allsopp TV programme.
“For me it’s finding a way to use something that would not be used otherwise or changing its use. I have a lot of input into the designs. There are probably six makers that I work with very regularly and the others have their own ranges. Most of the makers who have very small companies only sell through us and we do try to make sure that people with larger companies don’t sell anywhere else in the city. So to a large degree we are unique in Bath.”
