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Very Lucky end to 2010

The week before christmas was very exciting for me thanks to some wonderful people in the design world. First up I was delighted to have won the Christmas compition run by www.modenus.com in conjunction with Anglepoise. The light arrived a couple of days before Christmas and I am itching to put it all together and set it up but it's still packed up in the box waiting to go down to the studio in London. I won a blue version of the light below. Turns out we have an original style anglepoise from the 60's at dads house, I will have to search for that at home!

I also want to say a massive thank you to the people at Selvedge magazine. I received a lovely Christmas tea towel made from organic and fair trade cotton by the company Gossypium called the 12 days of Christmas. Again this is heading down to the studio with me as I love filling my creative space with beautiful items.

And finally my third Christmas treat came from 100% Design. I received this great Christmas gift wrap was some of the iconic images and products from 100% Design this year. You can even seen the Anglepoise Light!

Snow Joke, Christmas is here!

This weekend was the last before heading home for christmas and it has definitely been a fun and jam packed weekend.

We had a light dusting on Friday afternoon which seemed to make the the roads slippery, I slowly slid my way across London to meet up with my old housemates and university friends, recently married Jemma (Ayres) who wore my flowers in her hair for m wedding and the fantastic and very talented textile designer Helen from Pondage Design, I was delighted to receive my Birthday/Christmas present of a hand-made custom designed and screen printed suede note book, made even more special by the the note inside saying:

"Our tomorrows start with dreams of today...."

The next day we had a snow storm over London, it made everything very pretty and me very happy I packed my Wellington's so our trip over to Spitalfields market to purouse the vintage shops with relatively slip free. I picked myself up some sheep skin vintage mittens which I have been searching for for about a month, kept my hands very toasty all weekend.

We also came across numerous snow men in our travels, this one was by far to best just outside Beyond Retro

As always I spend my weekend going around looking at markets, and seeing what other designers are up to and some to me really stood out. I loved the illustrations by Laura Jordon under the name of Delicate Mayhem, especially her London drawings. I love the way her pen seems to have drawn across the page with a whimsically perfection and play on scale. It is the type of image you can constantly look and and find something different each time.

Another designer using similar inspiration is ink cities. This style of drawing has been catching my eye for a while in the form of prints but also on ceramics such as People Will Always Need Plates

I also came across one of my favorite Jewelry designers Maria Zureta. I brought a necklace from Maria about a year and a half ago and it has become a firm favourite ever since. I included an image below of a group of us after graduating which includes Helen from Pondedge design and Sarah from SJGuest Designs and me wearing my the necklace

Finally after falling in love with too many designers I fell head over heals for the delights of Kooky Bakes cupcakes. I'm not even exaggerating, it is by far the best cupcake I have ever had and I feel like after living in New York and sampling many of the brands based in Chelsea Market and the infamous Magnolia bakery from the Sex in the City show, i know what I am on about. I had the white chocolate and raspberry cupcake, strongly recommend heading over and samplings one. I am looking forward to having another one very soon!

As we walked back we came across this called tweets of snow. As the sign said, whenever anyone mentions the word snow on twitter the comment is printed off and it falls over the cardboard street the artists have made. I have already started my own twitter campaign to get this seen more as it was only on the 6th time walking past this window we noticed it. I think its a great idea so check out the hash tag #tweetofsnow see if anyone else has joined in...... or it maybe just me!

Christmas Time

Thank you to the fabulous press team at 100% Design for featuring the eco-friendly wool and stinging nettle ruffle cushion in their christmas gift guide this year.

Also a big thank you to International Life magazine which has featured my work in their business section on the website, the newsletter and also their New Year addition of the magazine!

Flower commissions

I have been working on a number of private commissions recently which have been really exciting to do! I love creating something which I know of to someone's home to make a statement and be loved.
I'm in the middle of an exciting blue/ grey 60 x 60cm flower at the moment.

Corsage gets approval from 150 year old legend!

Check out this image of 150 year old James the tortoise, long time resident of Fregate Island in the Seychelles. He definitely has his eye on the cream Lorna Syson Textiles corsage which was purchased from the Craft House Concept in Edinburgh

The best of East London Design Show

Last weekend was the East London Design Show at Shordich town hall. After battling with trains for the midlands down to London and my usual 1-2 hour journey taking 5 hours, I managed to make it on the last day in the last hour!

The first stand I saw was one of my favorites. People Will Always Need Plates. I have been a huge fan of their British sourced and made ceramics ever since I came to know of them via the collaboration with Margo Selby. I then heard Robin talk at the Hidden Art Forum and was on a stand next to them at Top Drawer September 2010 in the Design Gap section. Because of this I made my first purchase in less than 2 minuets of entering the show, and I don't think i was the only one as they were running extremely low on stock.

I am now the proud owner of the limited edition Sir Johns Sloane's Museum London Mug to have my tea from in the studio an i am already perusing the website to see my next purchase... I'm thinking the 30 St Mary Axe or a B of the Bang Mug.... decisions, decisions.

Another stand which caught my eye was Latorre Cruz Design I was drawn to his light but soon saw his Jet Set shelves. They are plastic shelves in the form of a traditional paper airplane. Wonderful Idea and a great contemporary and useful take on the traditional english ducks when displayed in a three on the wall. The only problem I see with them is that you wouldn't want to use them as shelves because it would ruin their beauty.

Latorre Cruz Design

Latorre Cruz Design

I also was stopped in my tracks by Mini Moderns new wallpaper collection. I first saw their Sitting Comfortably wall paper at Tent 2009 and thought there simple style was exquisite. They are launching their new collection to celebrate the enduring influence of the 1951 Festival of Britain.

Mini Moderns Family Album Collection

Festival Wall Paper, Mini Moderns

Finally I came across one of the main reasons for me to head over to show, to see Designer and friend of mine Laura Felicity. Laura and I met at a Hidden Art event about how to promote our work. She creates bespoke wall papers and has recently branched out into cushions. I have added my favourate wall paper below but keep your eyes peeled for a whole post dedicated to her work!

Laura on her stand

Geometric flower, steel, Laura Felicity

Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition 2010

Monday was my Birthday so I treated myself to a day away from the freezing cold studio and went  over the National History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition. Below I have attached my five favourate images. The Top image was taken by Bence Mate, a Hungarian photographer who was named Wildlife photographer of the year 2010 for a different image. I brought a postcard of this at the exhibition and it is now on my inspirational wall in the studio!

Open Studio's cockpit arts and Clerkenwell

Last week I took my Friday afternoon off and headed over to the Hoborn Cockpit arts and Clerkenwell open studios with Craft Central.

I must admit, cockpits arts blew me away, the quality of work for all of the artist was amazing. I bought some Christmas presents from Thornback and Peel, gorgeous birthday cards from Claire Coles. I also loved the papercut by Nahoko Kojima and ceramic goldfinches by Shan Annabelle Valla.

I bumped into Lauren Moriarty, whose work was recently in crafts magazine. Lauren has been a massive help to me throught my final year at Loughborough University and since setting up on my own. She creates so great lights which have moving butterflies and has recently moved into using more traditional materials and techniques which she exhibited at 100% Design this year.

Shan Annabelle Valla's goldfinches

Shoe Tree by Claire Coles

Lauren's Studio

I headed over to Made In Clerkenwell, the studio and saw jewellery designer Laura Gravestock, I last met Laura at a contemporary design far in Islington. I love angles in her promise collection.

Laura Gravestock, Promise Collection