About Me

Who Am I?

I am Teresa, the founder of Laurel Grove Studio, designing and making lampshades is my passion.

I come from a family of Italian and English heritage, and my Italian family hails from Montecatini Terme in Tuscany.

We are a family of textile artists, with a history of successful design businesses in various fields, including lampshades, wedding dresses, outerwear, tailoring, and shoes.

I am vegan. My personal beliefs and standards apply to everything I do within my business.

  • The fabrics, fringes and braid are of the highest quality and sourced in the U.K
  • I will never use products that have been tested on animals, neither will I use products derived from animals.
  • As a sustainable business, I use Eco-board for my contemporary lampshades and repurposed lamps which is treated with fire retardant, as are all the fabrics I use for both modern and traditional shades.
  • My packaging is sustainable, recycled and recyclable.
  • 10% of the profit from each sale is donated to animal rescue charities close to my heart.

 

My Story

As a child, every year we would visit family in Montecatini, I cherished it, surrounded by love, delicious food, sunshine, more ice cream flavours than I could have ever dreamt of and of course fabric, plenty of it!

My English mother made clothes too, had an eye for detail and was an exceptional window dresser in both the UK and Montecatini, an opulent spa town where the shop windows are pieces of art themselves which were a great inspiration to me.

As a child I was fascinated by light, always with camera in hand, a growing and deep connection with animals and nature, which has continued throughout my life.

At school I favoured creative study, art, textiles, dance, and gymnastics, where I could express myself freely. I loved all sports and being outdoors.

At college I studied photography and photographic history, again fascinated by light and shadow. I was drawn to the phenomenal photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, her pioneering techniques, and her beautiful ethereal images.

My pictorial exam piece was based on the juxtaposition between nature and life.

My professional career naturally led me to gymnastics and photography, I taught gymnastics for several years, before becoming a mum.

When I returned to work, I resumed my love of photography and was a professional photographer for over ten years, where I formed genuine and trusting relationships with clients.

I maintained my love for the arts not only by taking photographs professionally, but also making lampshades and bottle-lamps for friends and family, matching fabrics and bottles to personality traits and pastimes, incorporating nature whenever possible.

My heart always sang when I made lampshades, the love of colour and light, choosing fabrics, braids, and trims.

I realised that this is what I should be doing, pardon the pun but my ‘lightbulb’ moment!!!

My niece suggested that I should open an Esty shop, and that is where my journey began.

Why Laurel Grove Studio?

After an extensive search for the right house in Tankerton, we relocated to Kent.

Moved in and settled, the beautifully handwritten original 1930’s deeds arrived.

To our surprise the house had originally been named ‘Loreto’

Loreto is the name of a pilgrimage town in northern Italy, not far from my family's hometown, and the English translation of Loreto is ‘laurel grove’, on which the house was built in the 1930’s.

So when my studio was built ‘Laurel Grove Studio’ was born.

I hope my love of nature, animals, colour and light shines through my work, and that your heart sings too when you light up your home with my handmade lampshades.