Clerkenwell Design Week 2013

Last week I had the pleasure of being a visitor to the Clerkenwell Design Week - (and not an exhibitor) I was joined by Paul Vowles from WovenGround, as we had both been judges at The Good Weave Rug competition that morning in the City. (I shall blog about that next week sometime, once the winner has been announced !!) so below I have added a few of my favourite things from my visit......

above and below are some close ups of Lubna Chowdhary's beautiful ceramic table tops, which were created after a conversation with Domus Tiles the manufacturers of the tops.

We then headed to the Farmiloe building where my favourite pieces were the lights .....

in glass and ceramics......

these lights were by Hand & Eye Studio .... lovely!

I dont know the name of these glass pendants, the colours were exquisite, so if anyone knows the designer and maker please let me know?

and the wonderful office rooms in the Farmiloe building, where I felt my wallet itch a bit!!! I found these beautiful earn like vessels that have been designed by Gone Rural for Shake The Dust. Combining waste fabrics from local textiles & sweet wrappers with the artisans’ native lutindzi grass & sisal fibre. I without doubt want 2 or 3 of them!

We then headed towards the House of Detention 

and these chairs designed by Assemble  were decorating the streets - the chairs are triangular and tessellating (and comfortable)- they can be stacked and reconfigured to make wonderful seating arrangements, for play, performance and of course....rest!

'sitting close' - triangles from triangles 

I think this little 'pop up' garden centre was created by some local school kids....

happy growing.... 

These cork based tetra sheds'  were in the garden's at St James's church... I particularly loved the one with the rug in, a nice small space for reading, yoga or photography as the natural light was excellent with the white walls and skylight top. 

this beautiful hand embroidered rug (by Arraiolo - made in Portugal) was in one of the Tetra sheds- beautiful colours, and of course all things geo grab my eye :-)

Vital Arts Printathon and Peepshow for the Royal London Hospital 2013!

Rainbow Flowers a series of 5 prints.

A sneak peak before they go off to the charity Vital Arts

 

These images were taken about 10 years ago now for a project that my glass designer friend Amy Cushing and I were working on at the time.
 
I have donated them to the charity Vital Arts for their printathon 2013 - to help uplift and brighten some hospital waiting and treatment rooms....

In their words:


Selected prints will be featured in an exhibition at the Royal London Hospital Vital Arts Gallery in Whitechapel and will then be installed for permanent display in consulting and treatment rooms for children attending appointments at the hospital. Artwork makes an enormous difference to children facing the stressful and frightening experience of attending hospital and it's a great chance for a huge audience to directly benefit from your work.

Vital Arts are doing great work in commissioning many artists and designers to enhance and lend their creative imagination to the Royal London Hospital in all areas, from the wards, to the halls and waiting areas, it's a treasure trove to behold!
 
happy bank holiday everyone ;-)
 

The Barbican Art Gallery Shop

 

A little reminder to those of you who live in, or are traveling to London in the next month, you might want to visit the current Duchamp exhibition which I talked about a bit in my BIKES post last month.

They also have a lovely selection of some of our products beautifully merchandised around their very cool shop.

 

The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Raushenberg and Johns.

runs until June 13

worth a visit ;-)
 
Art Gallery 

Barbican Centre 

Silk Street London 

EC2Y 8DS

x

SPRING SAMPLE SALE

SPRING SAMPLE SALE 

We are having a spring sample sale now in May, with samples of established and new designs, wallpapers, cushions, trays, mats and coasters, mug, tins and stationary and more!

10-11 MAY

Fri 10am-7pm
Sat 11am-5pm

Ella Doran Design Ltd.
57a Lawford Road
Hackney
London N1 5BJ

Hope to see you there!

And the Winner is.........

Thank you everyone who took part in our Ella Doran competition, we put all your names in the pot

and...

the winner is ... Anja!

Congratulations!

Please email sales@elladoran.co.uk with your address so we can send you your Ella Doran Pinky umbrella!

Thank you everyone who took part and well done Emma for knowing so much about my first exhibition.

And best wishes to you all for a lovely week ... Spring has sprung!

Bargain, bargain!

Hello!

We have a bargain for you...

This lovely blind that measures 139cm wide (finished) by 145cm drop was used for a recent photo shoot for the May issue of Country Homes & Interiors (see above)and we are now offering it to the first customer for a bargain £195 (RRP £284.00) 

It's a standard roller - with the side wind chain on the right hand side, all fittings included.

Call us on 0207 254 4744 or e-mail sales@elladoran.co.uk

Competition!

It is time for a new competition, and as I have been going through my career history, preparing for my workshop at the Country Living Spring Fair, I thought that I could share some of the very early days with you and this competition asks you to answer a question from when i first started out... read on to find out!

 

I was always making things as a child, which eventually took me to art college to carry on creating ....

I travelled alone to India for Christmas during my second year of college, I learnt so much from the people I met and stayed with; their kindness and hospitality and the colours they wore inspired my degree collection at college....

whilst travelling to kenya after my degree show, i started to document images to inspire my textile patterns - the varying palm trees were unique designs in themselves!

and the salt plains were just one of the many inspiring places I visited - the expanse of sky against the rugged salt mined earth had to be witnessed to be understood, this photograph did not do it any justice!

it was on returning from Africa that I realised I had images I could use 'as' my designs, not just 'for' my designs...

 

If you would like the chance to win a Pinky umbrella the first thing you have to do is answer this question:

What did I make and sell to kick start my career as a designer at Top Drawer?

Please write your answer down and post it to us here in our our comment space (below) and we will collect all the names with the correct answer and pick a winner out of a hat and then announce it on the blog on the 15th of April.

PS. make sure to come back and check when the winner has been announced so that we can get in contact and we can send you your prize!

Good Luck!