Wednesday 12 December 2012

Christmas at the Orangery



































This weekend, the 15th of December, I will take part in the brilliant 'Christmas at the Orangery' event in Bristol. There will be lot's of stalls packed with lovely products so it is a perfect opportunity to find Christmas presents for family and friends.

The address is:

Bradbury Hall
117 Waterford Road

Henleaze
Bristol BS9 4BT

10-5pm

Hope to see you there!


Thursday 6 December 2012

December Offers!



















We started to feel the Christmas spirit here in the studio and decided to get into the spirit of giving and offer some special December offers so for the month of December we are taking £10 off the price of our small place mats that measure 19.5cm x 23.5cm and come in a set of 6, now for the price of £32. 
We are phasing out this size for 2013 - so make sure you get your favourite design whilst stocks last! 

For the month of December you will also get a free Jeannie umbrella with every sale over £100 online or by mail order.

Bye for now!

Monday 26 November 2012

Christmas!









Christmas is around the corner and this year I am taking part in
two Christmas sales that I wanted to tell you about;

1 December;

Ella Doran & Dandy Star Christmas Exclusive Sale

11-6PM

Upstairs at The Cat and Mutton
76 Broadway Market
Hackney E8 4QJ 

15 December;

Christmas as the Orangery

10AM-5PM

Bradbury Hall, Henleaze
117 Waterford Road
Bristol BS9 4BT


I hope to see you there!


Wednesday 7 November 2012

New Products: Sevens Place mats and coasters!


I just wanted to tell you about one of my new products, the new Sevens place mats and coasters. The design is available in two colours, taupe and red, are sold in a set of six and are all made in the UK. 

Tuesday 6 November 2012

ALT/SHIFT 13 December







My friend Derek Yates (Course Leader- FdA Graphic Design and FdA Illustration, Camberwell College of Arts) is the brain child behind this very interesting website and a conference Alt/Shift being held next month on Brick lane, see the details below. I think it is of interest to any small business or designer wanting to work with new graduates and employ the talent that does emerge every year. I am going are you? 
















Alt/Shift – examining the future form of education for the creative industries.

How can we connect with and inform emerging creative methodology? Do we need to be more accountable to the industries we serve? Do we have a wider social responsibility? How do we build better relationships with the tertiary & secondary sectors?

What are the priorities that will drive our pedagogy into the 21st Century?
Artifact or experience? Picture making or problem solving? Craft or communication? Individual or group? authorship or co-creation? maverick or collaborator? Inspiration or evidence? Niche or impact? Practitioner or facilitator?

Altshiftual.com is now live.

Join the discussion via Twitter: #altshiftual, or through the website

Or

Take part in the one day conference on Thursday 13th December at the LBi Event Space on Brick Lane, London.

Tickets are: £40 before 15th November on their website. I have got mine :-)maybe see you there......

Sunday 28 October 2012

Tokyo Plates 2001


I have been looking through some archive images recently and came across these lovely porcelain plates that I designed and produced back in 2001. They feature images from the amazing Tokyo fish market - of which 'tourists' are no longer allowed to wonder around and photograph at their leisure..... a very sad reality.

anyway I also wanted to high light a link to a recent interview with New Designers - as I regularly am asked about my background and design history, for those that want to read more, click here! 

bye for now!

Thank you Katie!


It has been a very busy 3 months here in the studio and Katie our recent intern is on the move to pastures new! Thank you Katie for all your hard work, and stay in touch!  




Katie Allerston graduated from Plymouth with a BA degree in Interior Textiles and Surface Design. She is inspired by nature and her photographs which she manipulates into 3D artworks. These pieces below are the ones that caught my eye at New Designers this summer











To see more of Katie's work visit her website.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

New Lampshade Collection



"Featuring a range of nine modern and nostalgic patterns including Isabel Garden, Bugs and Butterflies and Artist's Tools, her designs are a great way of instantly freshing a room scheme, and would work well in anything from children's bedrooms to retro living rooms" 

Quote from Red Online who just wrote a very nice article about the collection that you can read here.


Stacks and Stripes lampshade above and Fretwork below


Here are a few more shots from my lovely shoot with Asa - we will have them on our website in a few days time. The lampshades are all made in the UK and are available in 8 different designs; Fretwork, Geo, Isabel Garden, Artists Tools, Gridlock, Sevens Red, Bugs and Butterflies and Plimsoles. They are made of parchment paper and are available in two different sizes at the moment, 14" and 20" inch. But we are always happy to quote for larger or smaller sizes, I'll let you know when they go live. But contact us at the studio if you want more info on bespoke ones! 


Above, Gridlock Lampshade and Geo lampshade below



Bye for now!


Wednesday 3 October 2012

The Project Group, Oswestry


I am in the midst of working with the lovely folk at The Project Group up in Oswestry Shropshire. You can read all about the fantastic creative work they undertake with their members here. They are an arts based community organization working on commissions for the public and private sector.
The collaboration has been instigated by Design Nation and the Eureka Project - set up by the late Peta Levi. And my role is to help facilitate creating some products using their surface patterns from their archive and the workshops that I will be running. I was the proud winner of the Eureka award back in 2006, so it is an honour to work with this group both in the memory of Peta and to help continue to promote British Design and manufacture.

So here are a few pictures from our first session.. i asked them all to create designs to represent the ELEMENTS in some way - Earth, Fire, Water and Air and members then chose to work in a particular medium i.e. screen printing, string art, wax resist, sewing etc. and here are a few pictures to illustrate....

these lovely prints are based on pebbles - to represent EARTH


here is one stencil waiting to be screened 


and here is a similar one once printed


this image was a very inspired idea for AIR - a tornado with the eye of the storm driving into the black hole... this was all made out of hand dyed string


and then they chose to depict the same image out of pebbles.....

here are some of the lovely designs using wax resist and ink, designed to represent the EARTH, everything from road markings to tractor marks, when positioned all together like this my mind wonders off to flying over beautiful patchwork fields on a clear day.
               

..... here are a few examples of their wonderful string art - these birds are part of one of their commissions which I will tell you more about after my next visit.  



If you want to see more do watch their inspiring video here I shall update you further as we progress with the workshops.
Bye for now.

Thursday 20 September 2012

Joy of Living




Maggie’s Cancer Charity 'Joy Of Living' opened last night at the designjunction - with a live auction with a Christie's auctioneer, so far they have raised over £7k.... but we really hope to get more, so please take a look at what there is left or better still go there yourself. The Old Post office building will be open until the 23rd September.


The project is named after Maggie’s saying “Above all what matters is to not lose the joy of living in the fear of dying.” 

My auntie has just died from cancer, and I chose to make it in memory of her - she spent her last days surrounded by flowers with her 6 children and all their partners and offspring, and my Mum, sisters and I by her side. She had a sheepskin behind her head, which inspired me to search out for a pad filled with wool - I found a company who sell them here in the UK, and the wonderful lady by the name of Catherine Nelson, who I spoke to at  WoolSoft, very kindly donated the pad for the pillow. I then asked my lovely friend Bev Alvarez who is an absolute pro with all things knitted, sewn, or embroidered, to hand-embroider the back of the pillow ’with love’ .... now lets see what it fetches for the wonderful charity ....

I hope you can make it down as it is so worth a look at the space and the wonderful design brands on all 3 floors...

here are a few pics from last night:


Max Fraser on the mic opening the show...


Michael Marriott's Cheese stool ... 



Amos Marchant got involved and is pictured here bringing the Giles Miller screen forward to get the auction warmed up! Well done Amos..... you made a difference!


absolutely LOVE this Rainbow knit chair by Sam Johnson.