The Australian food stylist Jane Collings spent years collecting unusual, beautiful kitchen props from around the world for the magazine photo shoots she worked on, gathering vintage pieces and speciality items from small, obscure stockists to amass an impressive stash of stunning kitchenware.
After curious shoppers who had admired her photos began contacting her, keen to find out where she bought her props, Jane recognised a gap in the market and set up her online shop, Emerald and Ella, to share her finds.
This is the place to look for vintage-style white enamel jugs, glass milk bottles and retro storage tins. The real finds, however, are the accessories that only a stylist could source: bakers' twine in pastel shades, cute labels for homemade jams and striped 1950s-style paper drinking straws that are completely unnecessary yet thoroughly irresistible. The choice is baffling at times - in a good way. For example, there are 40 different patterned paper cupcake cases, all arranged according to colour in typical stylist style.
This is also a wedding planner's heaven; dainty doilies, paper cones, vintage-style coasters and cotton cutlery rolls - everything you would need for pretty table settings is here. There's a great vintage section, too, where you'll find glass dessert bowls, mismatched china plates and elegant teacups.
Even if you're not a food stylist, take a look at the Emerald and Ella Prop Hire pages before you log off. It's a real trove of kitchenware delights: hundreds of vintage bowls, platters, jelly moulds and napkins. None of them are for sale, sadly, but they're nice to ogle all the same.
For shipping costs to the UAE, call 00 61 293 277 259 or visit www.emeraldandella.com.au
