Design Festival Part II

Below are a few of my pics from this year's London Design Festival ....

... starting with my 'Geo Carved' rug on WovenGround's stand at The Design Junction 2013.

Detail of Fenella Elms's porcelain petaled wall panel @ Design Junction 2013



My Favorite Pop up shop at Design Junction was Falcon Store... I want a cardboard till like theirs!












In Shoreditch, Donna Wilson staged a very special installation,  'celebrating 10 years of happily making hand made products in the UK'. Everyone had the opportunity to be photographed with these life size foxes that Freddie Robins is having a cuddle with here.

some more Donna Wilson ...

Ally Capellino's Bums on Seats in her East End store on Calvert Avenue - Donald Christie made an animation about them that you can watch here.

Pics from the exhibition of WORKS, the collective of designer graduates from the RCA, in Clerkenwell ...

... bags ...

... one of Lola Lely's Pot Luck Stools ...

... vases ...

At Tent London I saw lots of beautiful things: I fell in love with all of these beautiful porcelain pieces of art by Tortus - their colour combinations are exquisite!

And Kosmos had this unusual wall rug on their stand, alongside a striking collection of metal masks (below).

This imaginative light, by lighting designer Jess Shaw held its own in Tent's Super Brands area.

On my wish list for Christmas, beautifully crafted wooden keyboards by Oree.

 
Jake Phipps' amazing statement mirror and table, taking inspiration from the natural attributes of amethyst geodes; a delight for my eyes.

Finally, Decorex was the last event I visited for the Festival and here is a close up of Charlotte Wildsmith's rug, winner of the Good Weave Student Competition that I blogged about in June (Rugs Competition).

Bye for now.

Ella.

Rugs Competition

I was invited to judge on this years Good Weave Student competition, with Katrina Burroughs known best for her 'How to Spend it' for the FT and Roger Oates, Paul Vowles from Woven Ground and Lucy and David from Jacaranda carpets. 

GoodWeave UK runs the annual Student Rug Design Competition to

encourage young designers to consider the importance of ethical

manufacture from the very start of their careers, highlighting GoodWeave’s work to end exploitative child labour in the rug industry. This year’s competition was co-sponsored by Jacaranda Carpets and WovenGround.

Paul and Roger deliberating.......

Working to a brief set by Roger Oates, students were asked to interpret fashion in order to design an elegant rug with a luxury feel. Charlotte took inspiration from the techniques used by Jonathan Saunders in his Ombré Collection and her research into colour blending, starling murmurations and reflections of sunlight on water led to her final design.

The  Competition has been won by Charlotte Wildsmith, a second year Textile Design student at De Montfort University, with her striking design below:

Charlotte’s design wooed us all!

I particularly was drawn to the colour range of Charlotte’s design as I found it striking, original and at the same time unusual. I can see it working in multiple settings with its eclectic colour and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how it translates into a rug!

Here are some other pieces which stood out for me from the student's work.....

I particularly loved this print below, which was in the student's back up material, and was not her final design. I loved this and would frame it and have it on my wall!  Sometimes it is about knowing when to stop with a design ... in this case less is more.

an example below of the type of boards and back up work that we received....

This was a strong contender - one can really imagine this as a completed  rug

Lucy and David checking the names of our shortlist.....

I loved this design which was again a lead up design to the final  piece, which in my view was stronger, I would love to see these subtle rainbow colours on grey, like oil on water....

Congratulations to all the entrants - and if you are a student reading this, be sure to check Good Weaves website for their next competition!

Home 2013

Here it is the final logo mounted on the back wall, after me 'happily' banging in the nails, and weaving with the cream wool to create the 3D effect.

a close up ....

And here is a sneak peak of some of my new collection 'Bikes of Hackney' that I launched at the Home Show - I have been working on the whole collection for some time, merrily taking photos with my camera, of bikes in Hackney on my regular walks around the manor!

The cushions form part of the new collection; the round Bike Wheel cushions are available in natural linen and black printed linen with or without a gusset, the 30x50cm Bike cushion and my 40x40cm Bike wheels repeat cushion, they are all made here in the UK and they were our best seller at the show.... the round wheel cushions will be available on my website from early February.... so keep a look out!

The rest of the 'Bikes' collection comprises of place mats, a Euro mat, a lovely cutting board and a journal and mug all of which will be in stock from mid feb if not already online. 

above to the right you can see Asa Wikman busy making notes next to my sample book of The Natural Collection, (also launched at the show, I will post about that separately soon...) - she works with me on design and styling, and our website, she is a very creative designer and thinker so check her out!

I am very proud after months of development to launch my first ever rug collection and here above is the brand new Geo carved rug in cream. i wanted to translate my Geo pattern with its depth of field and shadows into a rug and move away from only doing flat printed design. It's made using 100% NZ wool, using an 18th century tufting technique and then manually cut down to create the depth and shadows.

A close up to show you how beautifully carved the rug is. It takes 2 makers up to 10 days to hand tuft and then they carve back into the rug to create the design. It will be available in 2 other colour ways Blue and Dove Grey. Heals will be stocking the Geo carved in cream from early February, and we will have it to order on our website from next month. 

Thanks goes to my sister Joelle for taking most of these pictures during the show :-)