Interiors London & May Design Series 2013 – Moregeous Review & Images

Endlessly surfing the web and gazing at flat screened images has got nothing on seeing things up close and personal, with trade shows being a great way of seeing lots of products and companies under one roof. This week’s May Design Series at Excel was an amalgamation of different events – KBB (kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms), Arc (lighting), and Interiors London – which had a definite aimed-at-professionals feel, rather than just being a colourful Instagram-fest. For me there were a few stand out pieces which started my creative juices flowing and also some very practical innovations which appealed to my ladybuilder side. My favourite three stands are below:

• Out Of The Dark, Jay & Jade’s charitable social enterprise part of which teaches and draws out creative skills from disadvantaged young people by helping them to re-love, recycle, re-paint and redesign salvaged furniture. I love the support the industry has shown this great business, wouldn’t it be brilliant if branches sprang up in every city and town?
• Materia, full of exciting and innovative new materials which you’ll see starting to filter through to products and projects soon.
• Second Sitters, a collection of different artists textile and chair work featuring many different types of creative approaches and styles. I particularly like Hannah Stanton‘s Brass Backs chair, very talented, a definite One To Watch.

There are always amazing newly developed and launched materials if you are a creative or designer and below are just some of the images I took of the Materia stand. It was really interesting to see at least one of the Materia featured products actually in use on one of the kitchen stands, a sliver thin slate used on a kitchen door. Apparently Team Moregeous were the only ones to spot the connection #vproud. I love a bit of slate and now my mind is working overtime on where I can use it….

New and innovative products on the Materia stand

Warm metallics are still rocking the interior world as you can see below, used in everything from stunning gilded chairs ( I first saw this book chair by Nobody&co at Tent London but it was in plain white last year – looks amazing in gold for 2013) to kitchen handles, laser cut lattice work, table legs and display bowls:

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Clockwise from top: Nobody&co, Yask, the Copper trade body stand, Zauetto, Grace & Webb, and Armac Martin

A stunning twist on the Rough Luxe trend was this timber wall cladding which has a lustrous, decadent golden sheen and was quite beautifully smooth to the touch whilst retaining an unfinished look. Very clever. Betcha we’ll see this in an über cool bar or some footballer’s pad soon. I shall be attempting it with 240gsm sandpaper and some gold acrylic paint

Golden wall cladding by Artwood

There was lots of colour but no one particular theme or trend (which I liked). The colour choice for the stand in the top left image below was a break from the norm and quite unusual, and the delicate ombre effect of the Badgers of Bohemia wallpaper and fabrics top right was very pretty. Delighted to see the Prestigious Textiles amazingly colourful peacock paper I used on Channel 5′s Half Built House featuring bottom right and another stunning show display by Timorous Beasties bottom left – how incredible is that fabric?!

Some very fancy kitchens in the KBB section, glamorous, sleek and very very moody this year:

New innovations coming your way include LED lit and ever mood changing cooker hoods, rimless loos – yes, you heard it here first – kitchen cabinets with no screws, dowls or fittings and a rather futuristic looking oven from Caple which raises and lowers itself at the touch of a button from your cooker island. 

Garden Inspiration for Summer 2013 at the Heatons Open garden day

The combination of being able to nosey round Other People’s Houses, take in some inspiration from real garden spaces, get advice from enthusiastic home gardeners and eat cake at virtually every stop was fairly hard to resist so Mr M found himself dragged along to the Heaton’s Open Garden day yesterday, though I think he secretly enjoyed it He likes a big one, Mr M, and as the gardens ranged from the back of suburban terraces to the enormous wow-we-never-expected-that surprising, neither of us were disappointed.

You rarely get to see behind those front facades so, for me as a keen gardener, it was a real treat to find out what other people are growing, plus see what works and what doesn’t. I was SO jealous of other people’s tulips, what is in the water in Heaton Moor?! Mine are piddly this year and most haven’t even flowered – the ones in the Heatons were MASSIVE!!

The Japanese Acers on display were absolutely beautiful, in all shapes, sizes and colours:

Apple trees and blossoms were everywhere and due to late blossoming this year we saw them at their prettiest. I loved the idea of tying the branches to grow the trees together as a blossom fence, definitely going to do that in my garden to separate the drive from the garden:

Lots of people were growing their own in a variety of different ways, I found myself getting very envious of lettuce!

*Somebody* fancied koi for lunch….

Lots of different way to display flowers and planting, you don’t have to just stick to pots you know! Wait til you see my upcycled drawers done for Crafty magazine in a couple of weeks – they’re LUSH!

In lots of different gardens there were chives which had been allowed to flower (left hand image) as both young and old enjoyed the open gardens

Looked like purple was a hit for 2013, lilac and aubergine hues absolutely everywhere!

I bought a jar of honey and ate cake at the most amazing garden on Princes Road where Heaton Honey is made:

But my award for the most imaginative and eclectic garden goes to the one below which, YES, is all one garden, can you believe? Absolutely stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair visited Sunday 19 May 2013

Brittany Delany ceramics and Kate Bufton Book Transformations

Have thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday today – why can’t ALL Sundays be like this? First I had a lie in, then chocolate tiffin for breakfast, then we popped over to the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Cheadle Hulme, one of the @GNCCF satellite events prior to the biggie in Autumn. My passion for the immense skill and creative talent the UK produces is reinforced every time I go to an event like this, selling stunningly crafted and hand-produced items which knock spots of the tat found in shopping ‘malls’ up and down the country.

It’s no good going along and not buying either, you’ve to stick your hand in your pocket and put your money where your mouth is. Craftsmen and women don’t survive by people just passing by, smiling and saying “Ah, isn’t it lovely” but not BUYING it! I bought a gorgeous Brittany Delany tea-light holder and a beautiful glass fired bowl by Emma Wells – delighted with both of them

How amazing is this French knitted silver chain jewellery below, such skill involved:

Clockwise from top: Suzanne Claire Jewellery, then Goldfinch Jewellery by Lucy Ramsbottom

Loved the laser cut acrylic lighting by Kirsty Shaw and have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of this type of work in the future:

Clockwise from top: Kirsty Shaw Acrylic lighting, then screen printed and fired glass by Emma Wells

Neon anyone? Totally on trend contemporary craft:

Clockwise from top: Wonderhaus Jewellery, then Print Garage, then Kirsty Shaw acrylic

And of course, anyone who knows me knows why I picked this image for the blog #want

Holly Levell Textile Artist

Try and get over to one of the other satellite events in the next few months and help support British craft.

P.S. Don’t forget to sign the petition which is endeavouring to help keep Craft defined as Creative – sounds obvious doesn’t it? Take a look x

Ever wanted to pressure wash the banking system…..

Back before the big crash, I transferred some property mortgages to the Heritable Bank Plc, a 132 year old Scottish incorporated Bank which had “a long tradition of providing specialist finance solutions to companies and individuals in the UK” and which had been bought by Icelandic bank Landsbanki in 2000. You used to go with who you trusted in banking, to secure the long term success and stability of your business and Heritable seemed like a good business to trust, long history and all that. Yes, yes, we all know better now. In October 2008, Heritable went into administration, due to the massive over extension of the Icelandic banking system and collapse of parent company Landsbanki. DOH.

There’s been an in limbo period of almost five years where I’ve been paying monthly ‘as per usual’ to administrators but nothing else has happened. I’ve written to them to try and redeem the loan by funding with another lender but was ignored. Then today I get a letter telling me that there has been “a change in your mortgage account” and that the mortgage has been “assigned to Mars Capital Finance Ltd”. So I go on line to look for them and the web-site doesn’t work. So I call the Heritable Bank (in administration) number for information and Mars Capital Finance Ltd answer, but moreorless refuse to give me any information about themselves, e.g. who they are, are they a British company, how long they’ve been trading, etc.

Completely bizarre and not just a little disconcerting. What a strange world we live in where people’s lives and livelihoods get transferred willy nilly across companies and you end up dealing with a business about whom you know and are apparently allowed to know absolutely nothing. But it’s ok, because, as the boy from Mars Capital Finance Ltd said, it’s “all in the terms and conditions”……. I honestly don’t think he could comprehend why I would want to know who it was I was now going to be doing a considerable amount of business with, or more precisely paying a considerable amount of money to.

If I had my way they’d all be hosed down with a high pressure jet wash to wash the bullsh*t away and then we’d all start over again doing banking the proper, old fashioned way. Well, a girl can daydream, can’t she……

Interior Design Trend 2013: Using lace pattern in design and interiors

Bottom left light tea light by Timea Sido, bottom right ceramics by Annett Bugansky

As in fashion, so to the home – again! This time all things lacy for 2013 and a trend which has been on stylists’ radars for some time now had definitely found it’s way into the gift and homeware world as I saw on Monday at Pulse London 2013: on cards, lighting, cushions, jewellery and sometimes simply dressing stands.

Top left pendant by Timea Sido; Drum shades by Lucentia

Clockwise: Top left Gary Birks mugs; Patterns Apart print; Ginta Siceva laser cut leather jewellery

Clockwise from top: Abby Monroe fabrics & homeware, bottom left Patterns Apart

Seeing this trend ‘in the flesh’ reminded my of a very ethereal collage of images I’d seen on Patternbank back in March:

So, you see, lace doesn’t always have to tweely remind you of your Great Auntie Nellie!

Here are some super cool uses of lace in interior design:

Clockwise: Top left: Unknown concrete lace divider design; EijffingerContempo wallpaper; Mr Perswall wall covering; Schumacher Lace wallpaper

The concrete tiles with embossed lace facing below were designed by Jethro Macey (now at Decode) in 2006, which does go to show that either 1) some ‘trends’ take longer to catch on or 2) some ‘trends’ aren’t actually trends, but rather are timeless designs which come around every so often as ‘fashionable’. I prefer the latter theory myself.

Jethro Macey concrete embossed tiles

On that note and stepping away from the whole obsession with trends, it’s really just about development in design and technique isn’t it? Advances in technology have allowed such intricate laser cutting to all sorts of materials – concrete, metal, timber – that this love of lace and it’s effect was almost inevitable. You only have to look at the image below of iron lace work in New Orleans to see a hands-on, labour intensive and ‘dirty’ but beautiful skill which is now, sadly, widely lost but is becoming in the design world superseded by ‘clean’ laser cutting.

Clockwise: Top left: Iron lace work in New Orleans; Unknown fence panel; metal pendant at Rockett St George; Iron staircase by Gestion René Desjardins

You can’t get really much cleaner than a digitally printed metal lace effect, definitely no mucky metal work involved here:

Young & Battaglia trope l’oeil wallpaper

There is, of course, absolutely no reason to stick to monochrome… why not try a little neon lace in your life

Annie Little neon lace homeware

Liking the lace look, or loathing it?

Sunday Style Summary: Gates, CraftISCreative & a wallpapered floor

This last week has been completely manic in so many random and unexpected ways that looking back on it I’m unsure how it’s actually all been fitted in!

• I got myself involved with the quite ridiculous suggestion by the Government that Craft and all it encompasses, both traditional and contemporary, no longer be part of the Creative Industries. You can read all about it here and I’d be delighted if you’d sign the petition on that page.
• I fell a little in lust with the interior at Manchester venue Gorilla (the old Green Room) with it’s amazing arched reclaimed timber ceiling, fabulous tiles and metallic ceiling tiles. The truffle chips weren’t bad either
• A 2013 passion for purple continued with some gorgeous almost black Violas for the garden and an order for some funky Cable And Cotton lights to use in the summer, yes, yes, #fingerscrossed we get one!
• Mr M conjured up a spectacular gate for Didsbury Life to replace one that had definitely had its day, painted up in posh F&B paint. For a  giggle I bought him a web-site name for under a tenner, joking it could be a new career, however the joke was on me when they all howled with laughter : http://www.mastergate.com. Think about it……
• Another of this week’s interior inspirations was the last, very pretty image and although that sort of Cath Kidsonesque style isn’t necessarily me, I think it’s a FAB idea. They’re actually floorboards, wallpapered then sanded and lacquered. How cool? Might have to have a go at that myself! Thanks to Graham & Brown for posting

The UK Govt think Craft isn’t Creative. Are they having a laugh?

I’d say that the images above, chosen entirely at random from craft based web-sites, show some fairly creative work, wouldn’t you say? Beautiful things which have been, um, created. That makes them…. creative. Whether contemporary or traditional craft floats your boat, most people would agree that there is more than a little creativity going on.

Well, not according to the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport who are currently proposing that craft no longer be considered part of the creative industries, as part of the 30 April proposed changes set out in Classifying and Measuring the Creative Industries consultation paper.

Hmmm. So IT Business Analysts, Sales Directors and Town Planning Technicians (to name but a few) are creative, but people who work with wood, clay, fabric, ceramics, glass, precious metals, people who make and sell beautifully crafted objects, artwork and furniture, people who employ skills born of centuries of tradition aren’t creative. Are they insane?

The consultation document states that: craft occupations are largely “concerned with the manufacturing process, rather than the creative process.” Words fail me. Clearly words written by pen pushers who have never created anything in their LIVES. Apart from daft documents of course.

So what does it mean? Actually mean? No-one really knows but here’s what it could mean:

• Crafts people will become ‘invisible’ in assessing data and let’s face it, what isn’t seen often isn’t counted and isn’t viewed as important.
• To create funding and education you need figures. There’s a fear that lumping in craft with manufacturing means essential data and figures are uncountable. In already tough times, this could mean future funding doesn’t get allocated.
• The fear that the subsequent lack of the title ‘creative’ could mean less importance to craft teaching in schools and colleges. We’ve already lost so much hands on teaching in the UK and this reclassification could lead to more.
• Many small businesses – the Crafts Council report, Craft in an Age of Change (2012) found that of 23,000 contemporary craft businesses in the UK, 88% are sole-traders, many of whom fall below the VAT threshold – will no longer have their views, needs and contributions assessed and measured as the Government thinks it’s just too difficult,. Notwithstanding the fact that the same report also shows a sector that has an estimated income of £457m (larger than music downloads and only slightly smaller than West End theatres) with a GVA of £220m.
• It’s simply nonsensical and ridiculous to say that craftsmen and women are not creatives, the whole declassification doesn’t make any actual sense, save making the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s job easier. Instead of supporting and showcasing the immense talent within the UK and it’s creative craft industry, it’s effectively giving them a slap in the face. To many people it appears that this declassification is a very personal attack on what they value most, their creativity.

With the phenomenal revival of heritage and contemporary craft going on all around us, how can the Government be so out of touch. Oh yes, that’s right I forgot, they’re the Government.

Well, you can’t just do*nothing* can you, especially if you’re a proper busybody….. so please sign the on-line e-petition now live on the HMGovt site and get involved, get retweeting, get Facebooking and support the craft industry defend it’s corner against this preposterous attack on the very definition of creativity: E-PETITION HERE

Further reading:

I first read about the issue last week in an excellent and now updated Dezeen article: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/01/disbelief-over-plans-to-remove-crafts-from-uk-creative-industries/

Here is the Craft Council’s statement on the subject: http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/about-us/press-room/view/2013/dcms-classification-review?from=/about-us/press-room/

And another excellent piece in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/may/07/crafts-creative-industries-dcms