L'Atelier exhibition

I had a fabulous time at the opening of the Design Factory exhibition in Paris. 

I was honored to be selected as one of the thirteen top designer/makers from the East Midlands which headed over to Paris this summer to take part in ‘Le Design à l’heure anglaise’, Design Factory’s first international gallery show. The exhibition runs from 10th June to 28th July  at l’Atelier, a prestigious gallery located at Viaduc des Arts, close to the Bastille area of central Paris.

It was wonderful to see the familiar faces of knit designer Debbie Bryan and Design Factories Hayley Banks and Claire Edwards as well as finally meeting some of my favourite designers such as Stuart Akroyd and Phiona Richards. I also discovered new designers such as Gill Wilson who's fabulous paper sculptures are fantastic.

L'Atelier Gallery Paris

Linear Fold Cushion in the gallery window

The lovely ladies from Design Factory and The Hub who made the whole exhibition possible

Me next to my large Teal Pompom flower.

Beautiful glass pieces by Stuart

Ruffle cushion and Clare Gage ceramics

 Design Factory is the East Midlands’ leading creative development agency and exists to support and champion the thriving craft and design sector in the region. The invitation to exhibit at l’Atelier is the result of an ongoing partnership with Ateliers d’Art de France, the federation of craft professionals who co-own the Maison&Objet trade fair and four Paris galleries, including l’Atelier. As part of a developing exchange programme, Design Factory will invite a group of French designer/makers to exhibit in the UK in 2013, at The National Centre for Craft & Design.

Design Factory

With 8 days to go I thought I would bring the wonderful work of design factory members to your attention, check out there gift guide below!


With February 14th just around the corner - here is a fantastic opportunity to buy directly from Design Factory members to give your loved one something unique and special which can't be found on the high street...

	Katie Almond Ceramic 'Heart' Brooch Price: £12 each
	Katie AlmondCeramic 'Love Birds'  Brooch Price: £12 each
	Anne Menary'I give you my heart' Embroidered Panel Size: 21 x 16cm Price: £30
	Lorna SysonFramed Heart Available in Red or Cream Price: £55
	Lorna SysonHeart Wall Art Made to order from 25cm upwards. Starting from £180

To purchase any of these beautiful gifts, simply click on the designers name and contact them through their profile page.

Highlights of Luster at the Lakeside Arts Centre

Lakeside arts centre

Luster

Today I went to visit the widely talked about and well respected Luster at the Lakeside Arts Centre. The standard if work on show was extremely high and I recognised many of the exhibitors from showing at BCTF, Top Drawer and 100% Design and fellow design factory members.

One of my favourites was the jewellery made by Kate Gilliland, I fell in love with her own quirky take on taxidermy pieces from her 'The weird and wonderful' collection, especially the sleeping mouse necklace in it's own leather pouch and the harnessed bird necklace.

Sleeping Mouse

Harnessed Bird

Staying on the Jewellery theme I also loved the cuffs made by Syann Van Niftrik, the necklaces made by Serra Malta and quirky pieces by Rachel Leardley.

I also loved the ceramic wall pieces by Porcellana and Duomo, I think I love it so much because I can see some of my own work within the large wall panels but instead of textiles, the pieces are made from ceramics. I loved how delicate the porcelain is folded and manipulated to create such brilliant abstract effects.

As well as the new designers i saw I have my firm favourites which I have seen at different trade shows and events, these include Catherine Hammerton. I think her ceramic pieces are beautiful and brilliant value! I also spotted Gillian Lee Smith's quirky dolls and did some christmas shopping and brought some of Amanda Ross's notelets.... as always I was drawn straight to her stand!

Catherine Hammerton Mug

Catherine Hammerton Plate

Gillian Lee Smith's Linnet doll

Amanda Ross Original Artwork

I really enjoyed the show and would love to get involved next year... I will definitely be applying!

Fresh exhibition opens!

Last night I went to the opening of 'Fresh' exhibition at the Beetroot Tree in Derbyshire. It is a beautiful exhibition, with work from a selected group of associate designer makers from Design Factory. There is a wide variety of work from beautiful tackle textiles, gorgeous ceramics, stylish jewelry and fashion accessories and framed prints to suit all tastes. I was lovely seeing a fellow designer maker, Penny Voller. Penny and I studied art foundation together at Loughborough University and both went on to a degree in textiles at Loughborough. Penny's portfolio reflects her love of mark making and pattern, drawing inspiration from nature. She makes amazing printed stand-alone multi facetted cubes which can be changed, folded and manipulated into different shaped seating. 

The exhibition is on until the 12th of September and the gallery has a great shop and cafe area down stairs which serves great cakes and fair-trade coffees and teas.

I am showing one of my most favourate pieces, 'Moroccan Wall, 2009' which was originally made for my degree show. This huge piece measuring 3m x 1.4m was shown to its best on the back wall of the gallery.

Fresh Exhibition

I will be dropping my work of at the Beetroot Gallery in Derby tomorrow in time for the new Design Factory associate exhibition.

This exhibition shows new and emerging designer maker talent. I will be showing my interior and fashion accessory collection along with other associate designer makers in what is set to be a very exciting exhibition.

If your in the area make sure you go and check it out, and if not its still worth a visit. Draycot in Derbyshire and the area around it is beautiful.

I will be exhibiting some new pieces, which shows the inspiration behind the wall flowers as well as one of my very large pieces, all made by hand using a variety of different techniques including fabric manipulation, laser cutting and hand stitching.

The large piece named Morrocan Wall is directly influenced by my trip to Morocco and looks at pattern on pattern, it’s an amalgamation of natural organic forms layered with manmade geometric shapes. The main inspiration came from a trip to Morocco where I looked at schools and mosques in the old city. One school in particular had an area covered with beautiful and colourful geometric mosaics but had been left and plants had started to grow over the wall. This is my interpretation of this wall.

The pieces used the geometric structured forms and juxtaposed these next to the organic floral patterns. The work I have created, echo’s the on going battle between the organic, uncontrolled, wildness of nature compared to the measured rigidness of manmade geometric patterns which represents that no matter how beautiful the man made pattern is, nature and will always take back the space. 

Lorna Syson featured on Card&Gift blog...

A big thank you to Charlotte from Card & Gift blog for featuring me today! She saw my work at BCTF in Harrogate. Check out her blog she showcases the most in demand publishers, the hottest selling products and the best new trends in the world of cards and gifts. I am a fan of Clare Gage's ceramics (also a memeber of Design Factory) and Catherine Hammerton's cushions who are also featured on the blog!

Design Factory News

I am a member of Design factory. Here is the latest news story

Lorna Syson's gone international!
Categories: Design Factory Member News , Exhibitions

After her successful exhibitions at the Ideal Home Show in London and then the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate, Design Factory associate member Lorna Syson still has no time to rest - now she's preparing for her trip to New York!

Lorna is exhibiting at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair: Saturday 15th - Tuesday 18th May 2010 at Jacob K Jarvits Convention Centre, New York City.
You can read all about it on her blog here. Lorna will also be helping to style the stand at the Fabric Fantasia exhibition, which is on while Lorna is in New York.

For more information about the show, visit http://www.icff.com/page/home.asp

Lorna has also been given the opportunity to be part of the contemporary British design debut at the Japanese Interior Lifestyle Show in Tokyo from Wednesday 2nd - Friday 4th June 2010. Lorna is sending over a collection of her wall flowers to be used to dress the British stand, where she will also provide a piece for an extra exhibition within the show called 'Visions of a  Modern Heritage'.

Lorna will also be taking part in 100% Futures at 100% Design: Thursday 23rd - Sunday 26th September 2010 at Earls Court, London.
For more details about the show, visithttp://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/page.cfm/link=381

Thank you Ellen

Would like to say a massive thank you to Ellen Adele for giving up her Saturday to help me and the Design Factory out at the Ideal home show!
She was an absolute star and made people feel at ease when talking to them about the artists work.

Check out her website http://www.ellenadele.com/  she does the most amazing process which she spend years researching and perfecting. She will also be showing at Grand Designs Live

Ideal Home, Thursday 25th March 2010

I arrived early for my first 11 hour day manning the Design Factory stand we have at the Ideal home show! It was a long day and when i arrived I saw they had put this awful purple carpet down when we were meant to have white! Things were clashing and just not great!

I met some really lovely people who appreciate designer makers work and had plenty of comments about how we were the best stand there which was amazing!! Plenty of people signed up to the news letter and were genuinely interested in what we do!

I also had to compete with the usual, thats too expensive, why does that cost so much... it can be hurtful because they are basically saying that even though we have had a university education, years of training and have made one-off hand-made bespoke pieces our time is worth maybe £1 an hour if that..... I'm certain other trained professionals don't work for this amount so why must we?

But on a high note I'm off to do my second day, this one isn't as long only 8 hours and Neil is coming to join me from 1pm so i can have a break today!

Ideal Home exhibition

I've had great news today! 

I've have a great opportunity to show my work in the ideal shopping hall thanks to the design factory! I am showing on stand 2N3 along with three other design factory members including Debbie Bryan, award winning craft designer who produces the most beautiful knitted items, Lucianna Gallucci, a brilliant ceramic designer and Esther Patterson a talented textile designer!

The ideal home show has been revamped this year, the company Media Ten who are the brans behind Grand Designs magazine, Grand Designs Live event and Icon magazine has brought the show and is investing a lot to be it a great place to visit!

So if you find yourself in London between the 20th March and the 5th of April would be great to see you!

http://www.idealhomeshow.co.uk/