About Us

From as far back as I can remember as a little girl, I always wanted to live in Cornwall and sell my makes for a living.

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mills&loon started in around 2013 when myself and 'Mr Mills', the other half of this partnership, realised we had a bit of a problem with beach combing while pooch walking. We were forever coming home with planks of driftwood, old fishing netting, sea-shells, sea glass and sea pottery. We realised we had to somehow put this to use, and the making commenced. Hearing about a pop-up craft shop starting up in our village we decided to see if any of our bits would sell. On the first day we were almost wiped out and so from there on, we realised we may have something.

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We continued with local pop-up shops and then got ourselves into a lovely little gallery which used to be part of the 'Cosy Nook Cafe' in Crantock (sadly no more). Sales continued to grow and products developed. In 2015 I fell pregnant and around the same time I was due to go off on maternity leave, a space came up in a shop in Wadebridge 'Winifred & Mabel'. I took a few items to show the owners and they told me they would love to stock our makes. We moved into the shop on 1st December 2015 and I gave birth to my second daughter who wasn't due until the 23rd, on the 5th (over 2 weeks early), so by the time we were home from hospital, sales were ramping up for Christmas and that was it, the rest of my maternity leave was spent desperately trying to keep up with sales while looking after a brand new baby. Needless to say, I don't think we have ever caught up!

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With support from Mr 'Millsy' Mills, at the end of maternity leave, I decided not to go back to my previous job coaching hockey and other activities, and took the leap to go forward with my making, alongside other local part time work. Since then we have added to our stockists. A recent big gamechanger has been Heather Jane & Co who have themselves achieved amazing success as a fairly new business over the last few years. At present we are in 4 of their outlets around Cornwall and Devon, along with Winifred & Mabel, back where things all properly began. 

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The flexibility of working for myself has been amazing with children in tow, and slowly I have been able to build the little business to what it has become today. Still very tiny, still pretty much just 'little old me' working away to fill gaps on shelves, with some help from Millsy who works full time himself as a fencer, but still absolutely LOVING what I do! My most recent project has been a large A3 linocut based on a poem I wrote about my love for everything 'Cornwall', which is something which must resonate with many as sales of this have been fantastic.

 

That little girl absolutely is pretty much on her way to fulfilling her dreams ....... and much as I am not a millionaire 'just yet', I am doing a job I love in a place I adore, with a beautiful family around me. I pinch myself regularly to check this is really my life!