In this post we will be linking to places on the web that belong to our friends, family, customers, in fact anyone we would like to BIG UP! Just click on their names to go their own sites.

The Febland Family:

Diana Zwibach, Artist:

Mrs Febland

"There is so much to say about Diana’s work. Her paintings and drawings are rich in poetic allusions using a wide range of expression that reward contemplation. Her paintings can be lived with for many years and always relied upon each time to reveal new insights, sometimes emotional, sometimes literary, like excerpts from great romantic novels." Robert McDowell.

Tali Febland, Artist, musician and singer/songwriter:

Tali Febland

Tali and friends are getting a band together called Moonthief and gigs will commence early 2009. To hear Tali's latest work click Here!

Harriet Febland

Hariet Febland

"Sensing a vigor and vitality in geometry, Harriet FeBland made it her subject. It is a universal imagery understood by everyone, she states. But hers is not the cool reasoned geometry of Mondrian, the result of analytical thinking. It is a creative woman's intuitive vision of it's vital essence .... the color of her prints is exalted; her sculptures hint at a hidden meaning akin to the mystery divulged by the prehistoric taboos of submerged, magic civilizations. Harriet FeBland humanized geometry and revealed its mystery and its beauty. She is the poet of geometry."

Paul Mocsanyi Former Director, New School Art Center
New School for Social Research, New York, N.Y.

David Febland, Fine Artist:

David Febland

David FeBland's recent paintings of urban subjects are now at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. This is the gallery's fifth solo exhibit of the New York-based painter whose impressive international exhibition record is matched by an equally impressive sales record. As some local art bloggers are commenting, FeBland is clearly doing something right.

THE WASHINGTON GAZETTE, “FeBland Paints the Ironies of Life in the City”, Claudia Rousseau, October, 2006

Jonathan Febland

Jonathan Febland

Source wikki: Jonathan FeBland (born October 19, 1960) trained at the Royal Academy of Music, London from 1978 to 1982 and has written music in a wide range of different compositional styles, although there is usually some underlying tonality to his work. He has written contemporary serious music, light/educational music, and jazz in a number of different genres. He has also contributed to the genres of New Age and even Pop/Rock.

Baronesse Léni FeBland of Santa Barbara.

Leni pictured here with Mr Febland

Philanthropist Woman of the Year 2007. Léni set up a foundation to assist talented young musicians to further their studies and fund their careers owes her longevity and agility to being self dependant, swimming and golf.

Rikky Wingate DJ

DJ Rikky Rock

In further post in this category we will be BIGGIN UP some our friends. Watch this space.

Regards

Dexter

I was asked recently how many years has the company been established and for once I declined to give the facile reply "too bloody long!" and actually gave away the date of our first ventures being 1952. I was only a school kid then and aspiring to go to Oxbridge with my classmates Malcolm Mitchinson, Frank Roberts, Malcolm Phillips and John Clegg. We all made it but the most successful of our group was Jimmy Armfield who took up a career in Soccer,
although Arnold was a Rugby Union strength under the formidable Wilbur Howarth, the geography supremo. I am actually listening now to Jimmy OBE as he summarises the Arsenal - Man U match which will determine the result of the premiership this year 2008/9.

Photos By Daily Mail

He's pushing 73 now and I'm glad to say all the aforementioned old boys are still going strong having got through the dangerous years between 55 and 65 which has claimed so many good men.

I reflect, that a company has to be like a chameleon and change its aspect on a regular basis. We had tremendous success with importing Italian pottery and porcelain in the early years. The customers had never seen such attractive lines and each successive Blackpool Gift Fair saw the company expanding by virtue of our quest for the best range in the country, but as a plant gives out green shoots, flourishes and eventually decays so does every range of goods. You have to be one step ahead.

And this is why we went into Italian furniture and added a manufacturing arm to our facilities. We were able, in the seventies, to convert baroque Italian frames into fine finished furniture which appeared to be made in Florence and Verona but actually came from Blackpool. In those days the choice of cover was simple. You got red, green, beige or gold draylon. I wish it were as simple now - we have to handle hundreds of fabrics, texture, shades and styles. Just recently we completed a job for Hell's Kitchen, the ITV show and each chair of the 76 ordered was different in its specification. Amazingly the order came out well and we continue to derive spin off orders for our Georgian spoon backs.

As the sales of Italian reproduction furniture reached a peak we were looking to the far east for sources of Glass and Metal and luckily we found a rich vein of suppliers in the Guandong area where Chinese partners had sucked in investing entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. These partnerships gave rise to a super growth of manufacturing capacity. I was amazed at the price structures being used compared to frequent price increases from the European suppliers, in China the prices go DOWN instead of up. They pass on economies of scale and at the beginning the Chinese Government gave away bonuses on export orders. China was amassing dollars and despite the crowds of Chinese gamblers tripping to Las Vegas they could not spend all the dollars they were earning from the West.

Now however, it's all change again. Sales are slowing up because people are worried about their jobs and whether they have too much month left at the end of the money. We are ready now with a surprise infusion of new lines, if I said they were 'Cuddly' and 'Green' you might have a clue. Watch this space.

Every two years Milan hosts the wonderful Euroluce Fair in the new show grounds at Rho on the west side of Milan. The Lighting show occupies 8 halls of the vast 24 hall complex and the rest of the 48,000 square meter exibition is devoted to Furniture and accessories. Having just come back from a marathon tour of the fair I feel I am qualified to pontificate about the new designs, new materials, new shades and styles which Milan has exposed to the world. And as ever the world will adopt and adapt them over the coming months all over our planet.

Once again the crowds were thick and came in tidal waves on the underground link from the city, metropolitano. As you arrive and get channelled into eager queues up to the moving walkway belts you are a sitting target for pedlars of literature, leaflets and pictures all along the 500 metre approach to the fair.

Photo credit: http://pwoodthorpe.files.wordpress.com

Your resolve to keep a minimum of bulky literature in your wheelie bag has already gone out of the window, long prior to your purchase of the £35 catalogue which weighs 2 kilos and is essential for any serious lover of Italian style and flair. Of course there are thousands of bodies pressing up against turn styles feeding in entrance tickets that set you back either £25 for one day or £40 for 4 days. This formula must have been worked out by a mathematical genius because nearly everyone visiting needs two days. So you get caught with a ticket which you don't need for 2 out of the 4 days or you have to compress your visit down to one day in which you probably can see only 2 per cent of what's there. I made a bee-line for the lighting halls and wasn't disappointed.

Photo credit: www.next.de

The invention and ambition that has gone into individualising each lighting stand was prodigious. Never have I seen such vast constructs, such unlikely materials, such strange illusions which the Italian producers were displaying. I was rash enough to inquire a couple of prices and although the staff were beautifully suited and groomed it seemed impossible to obtain a price without revealing who you were, where you came from, what activity you were engaged in, and the colour of your underpants. Finally when a price was educed it turned out to be a theoretical retail price at a level that would require the UK to be populated by rich idiots. Nevertheless I pardon all these excesses because what has been exhibited is a masterpiece of design, innovation, colour and excitement.

I would not be able to buy and sell it but sure as eggs are eggs somebody will.