Past & Presence...

The lovely thing about meeting everyone & talking about their individual collections, also means we chat about their friends & peers too. So during our meeting with Charlotte Beer last week, she mentioned a fellow graduate that she has been working with & collaborating with too.

Caroline Trigg is a ceramic artist, from University of Creative Arts Maidstone, & she has produced these beautiful vessels combining traditional ceramic methods with unexpected items such as string, gravel & lace, as an experimentation to evoke the feeling of something lost, while leaving a visible mark. With reference to fragility, deterioration & absence, her work has it's own history, presence, & strength, just stunning...

Along the same lines...

As part of our up-coming on-line launch we have been having meetings with a few of the graduates we've featured...but don't worry if you haven't been contacted as yet, this is going to be a 'soft-launch' with the intention to fully launch with an even wider range of products in the new year, so extending to furniture & fine art too.

During these last few weeks, it has been such a pleasure to meet some truly talented designers, & have been tweeting about it, and re-introducing designers work from previous posts.

In addition to this, we have seen a few pieces that will be brand new additions, & today is the turn of textile designer Lizete Druku. We featured her work a couple of months ago in the post, Mathemagical, & after meeting with Lizete again last week, we have a few more of her pieces to showcase today, which you can expect to see on-line very very soon!

Similarly to the Mathemagical textile development, Lizete has taken this patternation to the next level & produced these beautiful scarves, which we saw last week. The designs are printed onto a gorgeous lightweight wool, and give a soft, tonal interpretation of her previous explorations. Expect to see five different designs available, we've never wanted Autumn to hurry up & arrive so much, so we can wear them too...oh hang on, I think it is here!

The bold & the beautiful...

Now it might be a typical British Summer day out there, cold, grey & the heaviest rain, but to brighten the spirits we have to introduce you to Annie Rickard Straus. She was brought to our attention by a friend, & we were lucky enough to have a very quick chat with her whilst she was busy working on-site last week on a commission.

As I'm sure you are well aware, anything with either a bit of colour or sparkle tends to catch our eye, & Annie ticks the colour box in this instance. We like her confidence & boldness when it comes to her large-scale murals, as well as the smaller illustrative pieces adding an intimate approach.

Annie told us about her work being on display at Look Mum No Hands this Friday where an exhibition entitled, 'Art Crank' a poster party for bike people is taking place. We are hoping to pop by ourselves, without the bikes I have to add...

Salvaged Beauty...

Now you may remember we featured work by the collaborating graduates Nicola Reed & Sara Nevay back in June in It takes two... Well after sending out emails to graduates on creating collections for our soon to be launched on-line shop, Nicola got in touch to talk to us about her own pieces of jewellery.

We were of course more than happy to showcase some of the pieces she is looking at launching with us. Very excited, very flattered, & naturally we wanted you all to see for yourselves a small taster of what you can expect from Nicola Reed in the next couple of months.

These beautiful, beautiful pieces are from a collection entitled, Salvaged Bijous, & Nicola explained her inspiration came from broken & salvaged vintage jewellery. You can see she has a real sensibility when it comes to creating her pieces, & we simply cannot wait to showcase more in the coming months...

Anything but twee...

We posted a mini shout-out for our friends over at Rubyshoes a few weeks ago, and this is the result of an amazing day...

Sunday the 31st July saw the 1st annual 'GREAT BRITISH BUNT OFF' bunting competition, held at Look Mum No Hands! Cafe on Old Street, EC1. This brilliant event was created & hosted by RUBYSHOES ROCKS, an up-and-coming & distinctly unique purveyor of extremely fine BUNTING!

Yes, Rubyshoes is hell bent on changing our perception of bunting from something 'twee' into something quite literally 'totally cool'.....

"Bunting is the new rock 'n' roll" says Rubyshoes...."Move over you pastel gingham triangles!" (Rubyshoes'bunting is rectangular & straight edged, made from amazing fabrics with attitude instead of chintz). 

So the BUNT OFF demanded a bespoke 4m length of best-ever bunting from all who dared enter the competition, & from the photos you can see how wonderfully varied the submissions were! 

Aside from the good 'ol general public, there were submissions from the brilliant Urban Outfitters, also a mega-talented top designer at Whistles, & a fabulous team from French Connection. The public voted & chose the winners,...and there were great prizes..... but more importantly, the BUNT OFF is planning to go on tour!

Yes! The idea is, the BUNT (as it's now known) will tour different venues for the rest of the year: a pub, a summer fete & a wedding are already booked in, and will spread some pleasure throughout (afterall, Rubyshoes is on a mission to bunt the world into a better place!). 

Then Rubyshoes plans an auction to sell it off, with all proceeds going to the Teenage Cancer Trust...Share the joy & check them out...RUBYSHOES ROCKS!

Pop Art...

 

It seems everything technological is conspiring against us today...but after much huffing & puffing, I have managed to get today's post up on the blog...

Today's work comes courtesy of recent graduate Kamaldeep Chana from the University of Wolverhampton, who's work is primarily to do with graphic communication. Kamaldeep has a wide range of work & we particularly like the graphic & stylised pieces, with experimentation through form, colour, typography, through to the interpretation of pop icon Blondie. Could this be the next generation of teenage poster art...

A Personal Journey...

Something sparkly makes our Friday top spot this week from graduate Roisin Connolly. Here is a quick snap-shot of pieces from her collection titled, 'Africa', where a visit to Kenya was the basis for her inspiration. We love a fresh & inventive approach to any craft, & these pieces make modern-day keepsakes, literally embossed with a hundred & one memories...

Irreplaceable Structure...

We've been excited to feature the work of graduate Amanda Hughes for a few weeks now, & thankfully after a couple of emails, Amanda has provided us with her beautiful collection of photographs called 'Remember Me'.

This collection was about keeping the memory of a past life alive, before this building is lost for ever. There is sadness & fragility, but absolute beauty at its core, the layers of a previous life, is just clinging on in ever peeling piece of paint & rotting door frame. They have a softness & strength, which is why we were so excited to showcase her stunning work...

Just Super Cool...

We are busy in the midst of pencilling meetings in with a selection of our showcased graduates, & we've had such an amazing response, we can't wait to share our 'soft launch' with you all... 

But our work must go on, & today's recent graduate Ben Phe's work was actually introduced to us through a friend, who is collaborating on a project with him at the moment. Well of course, we had to check out his site, & absolutely love his illustration style and approach, (Ben works on glass).

Again feeding into our love of colour & a touch of humour, these pieces had to take pride of place on the blog this week, enjoy...