Happy New Year from Hector and Bone!
A new year is always the best time for a new start. I’ve only very recently come on board at Hector and Bone to help John and Rob out with their exciting new creative enterprise and it’s heartwarming to have been invited to join the team.
John’s the creative genius behind all of the designs and Rob oversees the technical aspects of the website which keeps them both very busy. I’ve been asked to contribute by writing a monthly newsletter and creating a blog to help create a narrative around the products in our on-line shop and help promote new creatures and characters as they are added. It’s enormous fun and very rewarding to get to know them a little better!
A New Year-New Designs
A new year is also a great opportunity to introduce some new designs. We’d love to start 2021 on an optimistic note by welcoming two brand new cute creatures to our range of T-shirts and ceramic tea and coffee mugs. We’re sure you’ll grow to love them as much as we already do. In fact, we think they’re both going to become firm favourites!
Save a turtle like Myrtle - a sea turtle with a tale
Myrtle the sea turtle lives in the Indian Ocean. She spends the vast majority of her life swimming, only coming to shore periodically to bask on the sandy beach or to lay eggs. Myrtle is one of an ancient species of green sea turtle which has existed happily for millions of years in the world’s tropical and subtropical oceans.
Sadly, in recent times it has become critically endangered. Myrtle faces specific challenges from being caught up accidentally in fishing nets to the on-going destruction of her natural habitat caused by climate change. The temperature of her sandy nesting sites is being altered which affects the sex of her hatchlings. If all of this wasn’t enough she runs the risk of being slaughtered for her eggs, skin, meat and shell.
So, the life of a green sea turtle like Myrtle doesn’t always go that swimmingly. Hector and Bone will donate 10% of sales to the World Wildlife Fund in recognition of their plight and you can be happy when wearing your Myrtle the Sea Turtle cotton T-shirt or drinking from your Myrtle the Sea Turtle coffee mug that you’re doing your little bit to help both her and the conservation of her species.
Sly the Snail - not just a garden pest
Sly the Snail is our other latest recruit to the Hector and Bone range. Admittedly, he doesn’t face quite the same threat of extinction as green sea turtles but certainly faces monumental daily challenges in just staying alive! Unfortunately, to many of us he’s regarded as a bit of a garden pest and he’s liable to be picked off in all sorts of different ways. There’s pesticides or being hurled over the garden fence to start with-and if we don’t get him the birds will certainly have a go. Then there’s the habitual risk of being trodden on accidentally. We’ve all done it and felt immediately guilty afterwards!
Poor Sly. With a bit of luck he might avoid all of these hazards and live anything between two and five years! Maybe we could learn to appreciate some of his little snail ways. He hates the sun, for example, and curls up in his shell somewhere really sheltered to avoid exposure. On the other hand he really needs moisture for survival and can be active for periods of up to 30 hours if weather conditions are favourable, especially at night. When Sly was first hatched he had a tiny, soft shell already attached to his body which grew bigger and stronger along with him. He has a very developed sense of smell and can detect food metres away which is no mean feat when you’re that small. He’s very strong and can lift up to 10 times his own body weight! He has 14,000 teeth-more than any other animal! OK, so he might chomp through a few garden plants but he gets rid of an awful lot of decaying plant matter too.
That’s just a few snail facts about Sly which might help us to be a bit more understanding towards him-and more careful when walking along wet pavements! You can now keep him close to your heart with a Hector and Bone Sly the Snail Vegan Cotton T-shirt or a quality Hector and Bone Sly the Snail Ceramic Coffee Mug.
Win a Hector and Bone T-Shirt!
There’s still time for you to Enter our great competition to win a cool T shirt to celebrate the fact that Hector and Bone has gone Worldwide.
What are you waiting for?