It is very important to me to supply other quality Welsh products and I am always on the lookout for something new. There is a great company in Pwllheli called The Celtic Herbal Company, they have a great range of baby toiletries. After extensive testing on baby Isabelle and receiving rave reviews I decided to add them to the Dragon Babies range.

 Message from Sharmy
“This massage oil is amazing, when Izzy was a couple of weeks old she became quite hard to settle at night. I found using the oil for 10 minutes before bedtime really helped relax her….and me!”

My 1st customer via the  Dragon Babies website was Marie, she purchased a mwddrwg t shirt for her daughter Ceri. I asked very nicely if she would take a picture of her in it, and here it is!

The big day eventually arrived when the 1st box of Dragon Babies samples was ready, I couldn’t wait for them to be delivered so drove through the mountains to Peris and Corr to pick them up.
I had invited many of the people that 1st helped with market research to come round for a cuppa and got some invaluable feedback.
One of the biggest surprises was how popular the ecru clothes were. I had wrongly assumed that white would be favourite. Tywysoges Gymraeg wasn’t quite what I wanted yet and Cymro Bach in the traditional Welsh colours was considered a bit twee. All in all I was thrilled with everyone response and even more thrilled with those 1st sales..

It was about now that I found out I qualified to apply for a grant to help start the business.  I arranged to meet a lovely lady called Lois at the Big Rock Cafe in Porthmadog (the best place in the world, think “Friends” with amazing food) and she talked me through the process. A million forms, quotes, headaches and emails later I found out I had been successful and now had the finances to move ahead!
 Read more about the grant here

Inside the studio

I knew when I first met Dyf and Jen that they were the people I wanted to work with. With histories in fine arts they have started their eco friendly business in a converted barn in Snowdonia.

Taking my initial ideas they added their artistic skill and created designs that are crisp and eyecatching. All drawn by hand, some designs were easier to perfect than others. Mwddrwg caused us the most problems, taking 5 attempts to get perfect!

I fell in love with Cariad the 1st time I saw it, inspired by Celtic art it needed no alterations.

Building their reputation on quality designs and screen printing by hand, they use water based inks that don’t craze (or melt if ironed accidentally!)

I had a clear idea of the designs I wanted, modern, crisp and stylish. What I hadn’t bargained for was the difference in language between the north of the country and the south. Determined that Dragon Babies Clothing would be relevant throughout Wales I decided to do some market research.

Armed with a list of 15 words and phrases, my daughters and I took to the streets of Porthmadog and asked as many locals as we could what they thought. Combining these findings with results from an identical exercise a friend undertook for me in south Wales I narrowed the field of 15 down to 7 designs that appealed to young and old, north and south.

My next job, and possibly the most important of all was to find the right person to turn my ideas into reality.