New Talent:: Part Two

(Rosie Campbell)

Evening!!! I know it is very late, but having sat around at New Designers for most of the day, followed by a hectic and hot taking down of the stand and repacking it into the van, then an even more hectic and slightly scary solo journey on various London tubes to get to Victoria coach station, topped off with a 2 and a half hour coach journey...I can't get to sleep! I am so tired I have accidentally gone past the Land of Nod, so thought that working on the second half of my New Designers, designer round-up, might help.

This time I am looking at Design Crafts- so mostly glass and ceramics, with maybe a bit of metal and wood thrown in for good measure! I love the rabbits in the top image, the creations of Rosie Campbell. I think they are fab, and her illustrations are just as bizarrely endearing. Check out her website for more details.

My next offering comes in the form of Parian clay- lovingly moulded and shaped by Vivienne Saunders! They are such cute little bowls, perfect for any mantle piece or side table. Should you be interested, check out her website!

I don't think this photo shows the complete completed bulldog, but at least it gives you an idea of the characters that are created by William Rolls. His bulldogs certainly stood out from the rest of the show for me, and you can see all of his works via his website, or Facebook page!

And now for something completely different. You know me, keeping things fresh! Er, anyway...these beautiful butterflies are the creation of Lynne Robinson. I love the photoshoot she did to display her work, and the actual items were just as stunning. Now she is very online savvy, with a website, a Facebook page, and a blog!

These are definitely made by one of my favourite designers- Katie Weyman. The patterns are so delicate and really compliment the media used. I thoroughly recommend that you visit her website, and she writes a blog as well!! Happy days!

And this I loved because of the interesting technique. Would you believe me when I said that the shapes in the photo above were made of glass? But not glass as we know it!! This is a kind of glass paste that she presses through a screen to create a pattern- so basically she screen prints using glass instead of ink. I just thought that was really nice and had a slightly conceptual flair if you read about her project beginnings. Which you can do if you click on the link to her website!

So there we have it!! I think there should be a few more business cards and postcards floating around in my suitcase, so if I ever find them I will write another post about some more of the amazing designers that were taking part in New Designers 2014 Part One!! It is all over now of course, although I would recommend that you visit the second half which promises to be just as beautiful, talented and creative as the first (except that I won't be there! Hah!). Tickets can still be bought from the New Designers website. I do apologise if any of my wordings and sentences don't quite make sense- a sort of sleepy delirium is setting in so I think it is time for lights out. Good night chaps!! x

New Talent!

(Ange Sewell)

Evening All!! I hope you have had a fabulous day today!! I finally plucked up the courage to properly walk around ND and collect the cards and information for my favourites. I thought you might be interested to see them too! As there are so many I have split them up so the following designers will all be textile related and then the next post will be Design Crafts, Glass and Ceramics. None of the photos I put up on this post are mine, they all belong to the designers so do pop over to their pages or get in contact with them if you see something you love. 

First up, the top image is for Ange Sewell, a very talented 'weaver, spinner and fibre experimenter.' She has a website called Weft Blown, which includes a blog, portfolio, contact details etc- everything you need to fall in love with her work! 

Another weaver is Lauren Hart. I just love her use of colour! She is a graduate of Loughborough University, who have a page about her you can visit for more information, and she has sent me a link for her website which has fantastic photos of her work. Find it here.

Moving on to some print people, I loved the prints of Sara Sault. Her plates are so sweet! She has a fab blog you can follow too called Sault Studio.

I LOVE this girl's work!! Lauren Thomas has a very painterly approach, and to top it all off, embroiders on top of her prints! Check her out via her Facebook page.

Lottie Small has beautiful felted work. I loved her (touchable!) felted book. She has a Facebook page and a Pinterest page for you to follow!

I found this designer's work really interesting. I really want to know how she did her stitched circles! I'm guessing she programmed an embroidery machine, but didn't pluck up the courage to ask. She has a fab website with all of her details on, so go and check out Katy Taylor.

Ellie Young is really interesting with her use of colour and embellishment. She also has a website with all of her details on that I recommend a visit to!

Something slightly different now in that these aren't really what I would call textile pieces. But they are amazing! The photoshoot of Romina Barile's embellishment pieces are really beautiful and you should definitely go over and have a look at her website.

The quality of this image isn't great (that's what you get for borrowing off the Internet) but hopefully it is enough to encourage you to visit Angela Kohn's website!

Again, not a great image (not my fault this time) but should hopefully encourage you over to Helen Bailey's website page to see more of her amazing weaves.

I can't get any images for this designer but her webpage is totally amazing- Lydia Hannah Reed!

I thought this was a very interesting entrant to ND- very different from all of the other works. And the designer behind it is Laura Manley!

A few other interesting designers that I would like to mention but don't have images for are:

Laura Douglas- Womanswear Print
Hannah Watson- Constructed Textiles
Elizabeth Abrahamsen- Printed Textiles
Mary Grace Locke- Surface Textiles designer
Nicola Balakian- Knitted Textiles
Sanya Julianna
Soma Doyle- Surface Pattern & Mixed Media Textiles
Navneet Kharod- Embroidered Textiles
Beth Reed- Textile & Surface Design
Alexandra James- Woven Textiles
Lisa Elizabeth- Surface Pattern Designer

Ker-nackered!

I know I am getting repetitive and not showing you anything new, but I hope you will bear with me for a little longer. Today was the first open day of the New Designers show- although not open for the general public. Today was for judges, press and special people invited to the private preview evening. Sadly De Montfort didn't win any awards although there was a lot of interest, but some of the girls have already been selling pieces of their work to some fantastic companies! (All a bit hush hush at the moment.) The stand looked much better this morning after being hoovered and all the bits tidied away.

If you haven't been to New Designers before, let me tell you now, it is HUGE!!! The photo below only shows one room on one level, there is a level below this and lots of rooms around the edge and to the side, and another level somewhere above those (it is a bit of a maze to be honest). Can you spot my work in the photo?

There it is! Tucked away in the corner.

I did mention that this place is HUGE, didn't I?

We arrived this morning at about 8.30am and didn't leave until 9.00pm!! It was a loooooong day of standing around waiting for people to talk to you or finding the right person to pounce on and talk to them! Tomorrow, Friday and Saturday will pretty much be more of the same, except that it is open to the public and you lot can come and see me!! Do come, it will be fabulous!!

The Evolution Of Display

Do you like my tumbling tables? I think they are rather cute!! This is the blank canvas I was faced with this morning when I arrived at the Business Design Centre, and I have spent the rest of the day playing around with the placement of my bits and bobs.

It changes every time a tutor walks past really, they all have different ideas and cushions are moved to different levels, samples draped a different way and lampshades stacked and held aloft, then put back where they were originally.

At one point everything had to come off again as it was decided that the top table was at the wrong angle so had to be moved.

But eventually the tweaking was finished (by me) and this is how I left it this afternoon!! Tomorrow is the judging and the private view so it is going to be a looooooong day!

Our London Residence

This post is mainly for The Mother so I do apologise if it is kind of boring. Today has mostly been spent travelling and dragging around a heavy suitcase on the London underground. It's so muggy in the smog city!! A weird kind of wet muggy-ness as well, very different to Leicester. Myself and the other New Designer girls have all had to find our own accommodation, and 12 of us have rented two six bed apartments- they are surprisingly swish!!

It's self catered and we have all sorts of modcons hiding behind the cupboard doors- a dishwasher, washing machine, fridge, freezer.... Ah, living the high life!

The view isn't that pretty I have to admit, although I do quite like the blue glass in the building opposite and there is an allotment around the corner...

Elvis has been settling in. Making himself at home, drinking coffee, lounging in the posh chair, checking out the bedrooms...

Getting Ready For ND

I have been a bit preoccupied of late, writing mental lists of everything I have to do to get ready for New Designers (the tutors kind of gloss over all the hard work that you have to do when encouraging you to pitch to go!). However, as of this morning, I can cross off another job to do- making my promotional packs!! These packs are for important people (possibly those offering jobs or work experience) and include my CV, personal profile, postcard, business cards, a page of images of my work and a compliment slip. I'm not entirely sure how many we have to make, so I might have gone a little overboard in my attempt to not be caught out- not that I'm expecting many business/industry type people to want me- so have made 20.

The envelopes are called pouchettes, and have been adapted from a design I found on the internet, then hand cut, scored and folded by me. The text on the front was printed last night using my little letter stamps that The Mother gave me, and all of the contents were hand cut or hand folded, with the final flourish being a sticker on the back and tied like a present with different weights and widths of ribbon. So really hand made!! (I think subconsciously I am trying to portray that I have the patience to sit and make 20 of these little parcels, and also to show how I like to do as much as I can by hand.

They are actually quite heavy so it should be fun getting them to London on Monday. The plan of action is to transport everyone's work and the display items on the Monday, set everything up on the Tuesday, Wednesday is for the judges and the private view and then Thursday to Saturday it is open to the public. Would you like to come? It is cheaper to pre-book online although you will have to get your skates on for that! The website is here, and it would be fantastic to see you!!

Loving Random

I hope you don't mind but this post is very much a mish- mash of random things. Starting with the two pairs of shoes that I found lined up on the wall outside my house this morning. They are still there now, goodness knows where they came from. Very odd.

I am looking forwards to settling down with my new magazines this afternoon. Mug of coffee in one hand, munching on chocolate chip hobnobs and ready about all sorts of crafty creative things- fab!!
I discovered a few new blogs recently that I absolutely love!! Tales From A Happy House, written by Gillian is beautifully colourful and simple. She made me laugh the other day as she put some great cloud photos on and said that 'Interesting clouds, like sunsets, must be photographed. It's the blogging law'. Which is very much how I feel and you poor people have to listen to me rambling on about the sky and the sun and the colours of the sunsets. It's good to find someone else who rambles on about that sort of thing as well, so in honour of that- here are some cloud photos!!

I have also come across Lil Fish Studios, written by Lisa (from across the pond in the USA). She makes the most amazing felted and stitched pebbles which I have the biggest wanties for- and her blog is currently inundated with cuteness in the form of three little yellow ducklings!!

I am loving my new Gladioli!!! Such a beautiful, sunny, happy colour. I've never had a bright yellow one before I don't think (looks back through the Gladioli archives.....no I haven't.) and it positively gLoWs when the sun shines on it. Only three stems, but the reflection in the window makes it look like there are a few more there which is lovely.

Home Grown

Ahh, another cracking start to the day. Nothing better than going out into the (sort of) sunshine and freshly picking your breakfast from the bush! I actually discovered a whole new area of raspberries as well this morning so that is even better! Washed and teamed with some (shop bought) grapes- fabulous!

I also realised that the bush the raspberries were leaning on was a Hydrangea!! Possibly two Hyrdrangeas as there is a pink on and a white one. I will have to take some cuttings before I leave- you know what I'm like with these plants, my current plant obsession. There were lots of ladybugs on them too for some reason.

The Sister's blanket is steadily growing- a hefty chunk of it was done yesterday afternoon as my housemate is addicted to the World Cup Series (football- I just don't understand it) and we are having to watch all of the matches.

And randomly, I was pootling around Facebook this morning and came across some photos that were taken at the Degree show of the designers and their work by the official DMU photographer. Do you remember Claire Smith? She has specialised in Printed Textiles now and just makes the most beautiful patterns.

And we also have Amber Gargan who is with me in Mixed Media Textiles. Isn't that piece on the right gorgeous? Ribbon stitched flowers with the most amazing sparkly buttons in the middle.

And me!!! (In my trainers!)

I think the funniest bit is how we are all wearing clothes that fit in with the colour palette of our projects. Strange how the subconscious works like that.