Widget and Friends

hand-made sock bunnies, hand-painted wooden decorations and stencil kits

The idea behind Anna Hull’s business came out of a desire to find children’s gifts that were out of the ordinary. ‘With three young boys, I have loads of gifts to buy and I was very bored with everything in the shops,’ says Anna. ‘I decided to start designing wooden things to paint. The sock bunnies started with one I made for my eldest son. His two brothers wanted one too as soon as they saw Widget (as we named him). Then their friends all wanted one and those bunnies wanted bunny friends... and so Widget and Friends was born! Now I struggle to make enough of them and send them all over the world - 33 to one home in Alaska!' Anna produces her unique range of hand-painted wooden decorations, hand-made bunnies (and hand-painted wooden beds for them) as well as children’s stencil kits from a workroom at her home in West Sussex. ‘I’m a little chaotic, surrounded by paint, wood and children,’ she says. ‘But I feel really proud of what I am trying to achieve. I offer great gift ideas for children in an age when plastic rules.’ All Anna’s products are created in the UK, hand-made, hand-painted and totally unique.