My name is Jill Scott-Bisset and I have spent my lifetime since the age of seven totally in love with Whippets. This love progressed into showing and selective breeding under the prefix Squirrelwood and then to judging both in Great Britain and Internationally.
My Passion for Rosettes started when I was seven years old and won my first Best Child Handler Class and a lovely red rosette. I still have that rosette and almost every one I have won since, both with dogs and horses. Two Rosettes that are very special to me are, one given by The American Whippet Club for Best Puppy in 1984 at The Whippet Club Championship Show and one in 1987 won at The SYWC Championship Show, again for Best Puppy and donated by the AustralianWhippet Club, both extremely impressive voluminous silk tiers and tails almost a metre long. Those that are extremely important to me personally are the CC from Crufts and two lovely rosettes in red, white and blue velvet, when in one spectacular day my puppy dog won the Puppy Dog Stakes (107 in the class) and his sister won the Puppy Bitch Stakes (210 in the class) at Windsor.
As a child I made tiny rosettes for my plastic horses that I pretended to show jump against each other. I always wanted to make show rosettes, but had so much else to do in life, I never got time to really pursue the idea. Now we have decided to produce them in France where there is a new marketing opportunity.
Traditionally in France you win cups, some are very nice, but others rust fairly quickly and then there is the problem of displaying them somewhere in the house. When every cupboard top is full, you have to start throwing some out or recycling to the coursing club, whereas we all have loads of wall space and staircases to display rosettes.
My partner Frederic Cirasa is a successful artist under the name Merville (and porter of all the things, long suffering partners must carry to dog shows, for the pleasure of their spouses) and he has also thrown himself into the design and production of the rosettes. This partnership makes us an effective team as we get different ideas on colour combinations and compositions, which have so far delighted all those that have seen them.