'At work with Ella Doran' Thank you Homemaker magazine!

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!

Happy New Year! make a wish for 2013....

'Wishing Tree' - make a wish! for 2013.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !

I love a new year to get my organization skills in order,

and I love writing my 'to do list' for the year....

So here's wishing that all your dreams and aspirations are massaged into reality in 2013.

with love

Ella

x

The British Design Awards, Elle Decoration

We are very pleased and excited to have been featured in the September issue of Elle Decoration as part of The British Design Awards. Our Geo wallpaper has been shortlisted and appears on pg 146. For more information on the awards and to vote for us click here.

Great Little Shop Awards 2010

We are very happy to let you know that we have been short listed for The London Magazine's Great Little Shop Awards - we are very flattered!

Friday Featured - Friday Fave!

Sorry for the delay in getting the Friday Featured to you this week (or last week), we are blaming the excellent (in the most sarcastic term of the word) internet connection and its superior ability of disappearing when you need it most.
Anyway we wanted to let you know that our friends at mydeco have posted a lovely article about our Grand Designs win on their blog, click here for the full story.

Not one but TWO!

Today we have been grinning like Cheshire cats (how apt!) as last night at the Grand Designs Awards we won not one but two awards! We had been nominated for the Best Wallpaper category for our 'Geo' wallpaper, we were so happy to win this category and then to our amazement we won the Evening Standard Product of the Year Award. And so today's Friday Featured is our brand new, shiny and very heavy award trophies. We would like to thank the judges, especially Barbara Chandler who said such wonderful things in her presentation speech. We are very proud! Have a fun weekend!