The beautiful and traditional items from Heaven in Earth are the passion of Jocelyn and Justin Van Hoven, both green-fingered gardeners who value high quality, natural products for everyday use. They started Heaven in Earth to cater for discerning gardeners and others who seek old fashioned products made with care and skill using natural, eco-friendly materials.
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Jocelyn Van Hoven

How would you describe Heaven in Earth?
At Heaven in Earth we pride ourselves on sourcing, designing and making beautiful quality, traditional items for daily use. We're a source for discerning gardeners and those who value traditional skills and natural materials in their homes.

What's your background, and what led you to start your business?
I am educated in zoology and horticulture and my husband is an arborist. We both had businesses in Sydney, mine being a garden design and maintenance business. On the birth of our first son Scott, we moved to the south coast of NSW to start afresh. After the builders left we were left with a desert landscape, so I started planting out our new garden.

I had always loved the items I saw in Gardens Illustrated but could never get here, so I started off by learning woodturning as well as how to find and produce slate products (in between Scott's naps!). Later we starting finding products overseas and bringing them to Australia, while continuing to design and produce our own range. As well as Heaven in Earth, we set up Ornamenta a year ago to showcase some of the other unique items we source from around the world, including the Sydney Hale Co candles, Couto body products, Italian glue and more.

Where do you source your products? What are your guiding principles when looking for new products?
Finding or creating new products involves research, research and more research! It can be a mere mention of an idea that sends us backtracking through books, magazines and the Internet - it can take quite a long time to find the perfect version of what we want. We have to personally love all our new items, and we also lean towards products that are handmade with an ecological bent and original design. I do love modern design too, but we really focus on traditional style.

Can you tell us any more about the brushes in today's featuret?
It took me such a long time to track down the manufacturer of these brushes –The Imaginary Factory, in Germany. After I saw the horsehair brushes I was hooked; I just love them. The Imaginary Factory is a socially aware company and all the brushes are made using traditional methods by people who are disabled or visually impaired. They have designers come in house to do fun designs but their main line is the stunning goat and horsehair brushes. People's faces just light up when they touch one of these!