Our Story

Sweet Lemon creations are lovingly handmade by Siobhan. Based in New Zealand, she creates magical decorations for the home and events.

‘The inspiration for Sweet Lemon started in a little village in Andalusia, Spain where my husband and I got married in 2018. Our beautiful wedding was made that bit more magical with the hundreds of flower pendants that I made hung from the branches of the olive trees in the garden, with the seating plan an ‘orange tree’ made with paintings of oranges that were cut out and placed in the tree. My love affair with garlands continued, because when we welcomed our daughter into the world (well actually it was when she was a year old that I managed to finally finish her nursery), I hung hand painted leaves, flowers, stars and the moon from her ceiling to create a little wonderland. I just love the effect garlands, mobiles and pendants have on a room, a garden, a celebration.

Now Sweet Lemon is a real business, making beautiful things for other people.

Our People

Siobhan, Founder and Artist

Siobhan lives in Auckland with her husband Ayrton and daughter Vega. Spending most of her life between the UK and NZ, New Zealand is currently home. Always a lover of art and creating things, Sweet Lemon is a dream come true for her.

Siobhan draws inspiration from nature, children’s stories, her wonderful daughter and her travels (in particular the colours and patterns seen in Mexican and South American art and textiles).

When not painting garlands, she is probably painting something else just for fun, moving things around the house (a never ending project), enjoying the beach, baking, getting books out of the library, but mostly spending time being mama to Vega.

Our Ethos

Creating something beautiful is very important, but that isn’t the only thing that matters to Sweet Lemon. A few key values have shaped Sweet Lemon.

Quality

We really believe in high quality materials, methods and customer service. Our garlands and pendants are delicate, but they are made of high quality materials and are designed to last a long time with care. Not just for parties and special events, garlands are a beautiful way to decorate - particularly in children’s spaces such as nurseries, bedrooms and playrooms.

Our garlands and pendants are special - unique and handmade with an incredible attention to detail, from the initial sketches to the final piece. Creating each paper garland or paper pendant is a multi stage process. This starts with several initial sketches, before finalising the design, selecting colours and hand painting each garland or pendant piece individually. These are then cut out one by one, hand finished (either with bordering or painting of the second side for pendants) and then threaded with a needle and thread. We hope you see Sweet Lemon creations as the work of art that they are. We use the highest quality paints, luxuriously thick acid free card, durable cotton threading, and package each order lovingly in acid free tissue paper so that it can be safely stored without fading between uses. We like to think of our pendants and garlands as heirloom pieces that can be passed down from one generation to the next, hung in nurseries now and in the future, or brought out year after year for special celebrations.

Sustainability

Having as little impact on the planet as possible is very important to us, and our choices of materials and business model reflect this. We know there are always ways to do better, so we are always looking to do this, and are open to suggestions and feedback.

Everything is made to order, so there is no waste. The exception being those prepared for markets (see which markets you can find us at here). We have tried to select materials with as low an impact as possible, with the majority natural, recyclable or compostable. Some examples are:

  • our card is FSC certified, meaning it has been harvested and produced in a responsible manner.

  • our acid free tissue paper used for storing garlands and pendants is recycled.

  • our cotton thread can be composted at the end of its life, and our ribbon can be repurposed for other projects.

  • we save and compost all our paper scraps (making sure that only compostable paints are used on any paper that might be scrapped).

  • the majority of our paints are compostable, low impact (but very high quality) and made locally.

  • the original artwork is scanned and reprinted locally.

  • we cut, hand finish and package all our items in house.

  • we use recycled and home compostable / recyclable packaging.

  • if it is possible to repair it, we will.

  • we plant bee friendly flowers for every order made to celebrate!