Friday Morning Walk

We are loving our Friday morning walks and they are now embedded nicely into the shape of the week. We went up Mytholm Steeps and up the Cat Steps (phew, that got the heat up) and from the top you get an unusual view of Hebden Bridge. You can barely make it out in the fog but I thought I'd show you anyway.

It was all quite wintry until we found this clump of snowdrops which showed the promise of Spring. I found the perfect specimen of an umbellifer skeleton (don't know which type, do tell).

It felt like my magic wand so we made wishes all the way home!

Fritillary

I just had a spent a lovely fifteen minutes on Twitter and have just 'met' an illustrator called Victoria Archer (@bella_lovebird if your on Twitter) and I skipped over to her blog and discovered her beautiful paintings and illustrations. We agreed we both have an obsession for flowers. Amongst them was this fritillary picture...

and she reminded how much I love these flowers. I tried to do a fritillary design once but the beautiful chequered leaves, which really do sum up their 'fritillaryness' 'proved too tricky to cut by hand. I am now inspired to revisit this flower now I have the super duper laser technology. Thought I'd check out the brilliant BioLib for illustrations and found there to be a particularly lovely one. All inspired again...

Harebells, Wood Anemones and VAT!

Today I have added the new designs to the website. Harebells and Wood Anemones. I am still working on new ideas...well I am in theory but with the London trip and writing up all the interviews I haven't had much time (I've been listening to the dictaphone recordings...everyone is great but I am SO sick of the sound of my own voice I tell you). I'll be back on to new designs next week. I'm looking forward to my limited edition botanical range.

Another thing I had to do today which was not at all fun was increase all the prices on my website because as of today I am VAT registered. OUCH! It hurt to have to put the prices up, especially when I have to give it all to Mr Taxman but it can't be avoided. I mean in one way it's good news...the business is doing well and everything but on the other hand I don't like passing the extra cost on to my lovely customers. Such is the way of things!

Whistle Stop Studio Tour of London & Brighton!

I have just returned from the most inspiring research trip to London and Brighton. Altogether I took 21 trains (including tubes), 4 taxi's, 1 car ride and lots of shoe leather and it has filled me with so much inspiration. I went to interview some amazing designer/makers for the book and spent a lot of hours in workshops and studios learning about peoples work and hearing their fascinating stories. Of course I want to tell you everything and show you all my pictures and publish all the interviews right here right now but that would be giving it all away wouldn't it. Eventually it will all be in the book!

The Big Interview

Beth from Do What You Love (remember I told you about the retreat I was going on) has posted a interview with me on her blog. We talk about the first lamp I ever made, where I go to find inspiration, the story of Radiance and invaluable advice that people have given me along the way. I invite you to have a read...

having a very seedy time

I got some samples back from the lasercutters today. Lots and lots and lots of seeds. Now I'm just playing with them to see what they can do! They do make great shadows but I never really like lamps where you can see the bulb. We strung them up and hung them in the window and they look really lovely. It was just a bit dark by then to take a good picture so I'll try and take some tomorrow. There's lots of potential anyway!

Seeds

I've been having fun with seeds! They are such great shapes. I will make them into mobiles and what I'd love to make is a big chandelier out of lots and lots of falling seeds....

In the creative flow...

I've been poorly this week with a nasty chesty cough but staying in the warmth of my house and in my newly decorated living room seems to have done me the world of good creatively. Maybe it's having space to think with no other distractions (lots of laying on the sofa in a blanket with cats and a sketchbook) or maybe it just happened to be the time when lots of ideas that have been floating around have culminated into something new! Whatever it is, I have very much been enjoying being in the creative flow and have had lots of ideas to keep me going for a long time!

First up, Harebells. I stated looking at bluebells with Spring being on the way but then remembered how much I love Harebells and when you really start looking at them you notice how many interesting shapes and features they have. I love the flowers, I love the buds and I love the silhouette the stem makes. The finished laser cut and engraved prototype arrived yesterday and already I have had an order for a wall lamp because someone in the shop spotted it on my desk. That's a good sign! I like the way it looks like the light is shining out of the flowers themselves.

The other day I blogged about my botanical study idea and showed you the Wood Anemone. Well yesterday my lasercut 'wood anemone middle' arrived and it is SO fine. Just like the real thing! So delicate and beautiful. I love it.

I have decided that I am going to make a series of limited edition lamps for my botanical series. Maybe just ten of each design to keep me in the creative flow that I love and keep coming up with new studies. I will number and sign each one. Can't wait to do more.....

back when it was all but a dream...

I found an old sketchbook back from when Radiance was just a dream. So nice to see this now that this dream has come true. You can see more over at my Radiance blog...

Fairy Lights are back on!

I have very good news. Whilst having a NewYear spring clean and sorting through my plan chest drawers that were piled high with paper we found quite a lot of my old fairy light paper - yes the one that had been discontinued and has prevented me from making fairy lights for the last few months. I feel a bit silly really that there has been all this fuss and actually there has been a supply of it hiding away in the back of the drawer all the time!

I have Matthew to thank for this. Matt has just started working at Radiance and the HN studio. He is very organised and tidy and has set to re-organising my workshop for me and doing lots of jobs that I have been meaning to to for ages. Another one of these jobs being taking photos of all the individual patterns for the fairy lights so that we can add them to the website and make ordering them a whole lot easier. Hopefully I'll be doing that later on today when I can get some technical help from my dear Robert. In the meantime here is a picture of the extras...

(later in the day) Here they are on the website. Hooray!