The Story of

HOTCHI WITCHI

Hotchi Witchi is a small Design Studio, set in the beautiful, rugged landscape of South Wales. The local area is steeped in Celtic myths which inform some of our work.

Debbie Lear set up Hotchi Witchi from her home studio during the pandemic lockdown of 2020:

I'd been working as an Innovations Designer for a large Group since March 2015, spending a lot of time travelling and I guess I'd fallen out of love with my home. I was hardly there, possibly spending more nights a week in Hiltons than in my own bed. When lockdown was imposed I looked at the house with fresh eyes - every room had been neglected since I took the job in 2015. I felt sad as I'd always found joy at making the house somewhere that felt comfortable for both myself and friends and family, somehow it had lost it's soul. I too was feeling a little lost and desperate to create work that had meaning for me. I started by having a massive declutter and although I was still working the day job, I had an extra 4 hours commuting time available that I used to declutter and make plans. I'd work my day job from 8.30 - 5 and then continue to chip away at deconstructing my home ready for its transformation.

The first room that got a little love was my loft studio. On the first weekend of lockdown I emptied it, gave it a couple of coats of fresh white paint, repainted the floor and stairs and rerranged and upcycled existing furniture - mainly as it was now my daily place of work for the lockdown period.

Whilst going through plan chests, I found, in total 158 projects that I'd worked on over the years which had become sidelined due to work demands. Most of them I'd forgotten about and looking at them with fresh eyes I began to see a multitude of possibilities. I revisited them in the evenings and on weekends, reworking concepts into designs that would eventually come to be part of the Hotchi Witchi catalogue.

I'm so excited to be able to keep creating new designs for you and I sincerely thank you for your continued support.