Daisy Meadow in moonrise

This is Daisy Meadow wallpaper in 'moonrise'. Imagine a big, full moon rising against a dusky blue sky. The white motifs brightly pop out from the dark background.

I'm rather loving this colour. My Dad sees it as grey, I see it as blue. 

Grey/blue then...but moonrise sounds better don't you think.

I'm looking forward to seeing it in a large expanse on a wall 

but for now even having the rolls hanging around is making me happy :)

You can order a sample on my website here.

Daisy Meadow wallpaper in sage

This is my new Daisy Meadow wallpaper in sage.  

I wanted to take some close up shots so that you could see all the details. When I visited Norway last year I was so inspired by the wild flowers that covered the fields, hedgerows and gardens...any bit of wild land really. 

I made lots of drawings and took lots of photos

and it's nice for me to look back on them now that the things I captured have found their way to a wallpaper.

I loved the harebells. They are just so delicate.

I have often been asked if I do any of my papers in green so I thought I'd give this one a go. 

It's a soft, greyish green...couldn't be called anything other than sage really!

You can order a sample here on my website. 

Daisy meadow wallpaper in dusk

I'm excited about my new wallpapers. I took some pictures yesterday so I could get them up on the website. This design was inspired by the abundance of wild flower meadows that I saw when I visited Norway last year. It features daisies, stitchwort, pignuts, shepherds purse, harebells, vetch, hairgrass, quaking grass,  and all sorts of other grasses that I don't know the names of.

I never thought I'd have a pink product. Pink is not my usual colour but my student intern Oly suggested we give it a try at the factory so we did. I liked it but still I never thought I'd take it to print. 

But as the weeks went by it grew on me and it got good feedback from visitors to my studio. My friend Kate Lycett said that it was the perfect compromise for decorating a little girls room when the girl LOVES pink and the Mum is not so keen. She said something like 'It's not ice cream pink....and it's not knicker pink, it's the perfect tasteful in-between pink that we can both agree on'!

We did joke about calling it 'not knicker pink' but we opted for 'dusk' instead. I love the warmth of it. I love how it is the same soft tone as newly plastered walls. 

Here it is on the website and you can order an A4 sample of it here to see the colour for yourself.

I hope you like it as much as me.

Little wren and butterfly...

It's such a dark time of year here so we need to make our homes and cosy as we possibly can to see us through until Spring (I can feel it coming, can you?). Candles always do it for me.

These two little candle cover designs, Wren and Butterfly have been around a while but have never quite made it onto my website. Yesterday I fixed that and now you can find them here and here :)

Daisy meadow print day

After much deliberation I decided on my three colours and last week we were away to the factory to get them printed.

 They like you to go there in person so you can sign off the colours but I don't mind going at all because a day at the factory is always exciting.

I love seeing the incredible machines doing their thing. This one is keeping track of the alignment as  250 metres of paper spins up and down and around printing my design.

Here is my gravure cylinder dipping into the trough of ink to lay the design down.

It's sucking it up from these big vats.

At the last minute the edges get trimmed and it all winds up on this huge roll.

It was hard to decide on my colours. I never thought I'd print a pink. I'm not really a pink person but the warmth of this dusky pink really grew on me while it's been hanging up in my studio these past weeks and I ended up loving it. We've called it 'Dusk'.

It sits so well next to the 'Sage' green and the 'Moonrise' blue too.

I'm very pleased with them. My collection is growing slowly but surely.

You can order colour samples on my website here. 

The Boxing Day Flood

It wasn't the Christmas we were expecting. We were away at my Mum and Dads having a lovely family time. The relentless rain outside kind of added to the cosiness. That was until Euan text me telling me the flood sirens had gone off at home. Our lovely Hebden Bridge was flooding again.

It was boxing day morning. A day where you chill out and read your new christmas book or eat more of your Mums trifle or go for a nice stroll to walk off the Christmas indulgence. There would be none of that. We tried to get home but even the roads in Burley in Wharfedale were like rivers. We had to stay put and helplessly watch from afar as friends and neighbours posted pictures of their houses and business filling up with the muddy brown river waters.

 Radiance was very lucky to survive the floods of 2012. We have steps up to the shop and although it lapped at the very top one it didn't get in. But this time the river kept on rising way beyond the flood gates on peoples doors, way beyond the windowsills and right up to eye level in some places. There was no way Radiance had got away with it this time.

Our friend sent this picture so we knew we'd been hit. My landlady rang and said 'It's not good news I'm afraid...but I did save your upholstered chair'. Bless her.

We traveled home the next day to a scene of devastation across the whole town. 

There were only a handful of business that didn't get flooded. So many homes were hit too.

It was a dismal sight. The roads were covered in silt and mud and everyone's ruined belongings were being piled up outside the shops. 

But although it was overwhelming we HAD to stay positive. There was so much work to be done. And we had to do step by step. One wet, muddy thing at a time. So I vowed to try and see the silver lining. To look for the light instead of the dark.

We only had a couple of feet of water in so were were luckier than most. 

We lost a lot of stock but we saved a lot too...lots of it was nicely hanging from the ceiling.

And as it became apparent that we had to remove every cupboard, counter, shelf and drawer in sight we decided to view it as a complete fresh start. A new beginning. A re-design. I'm lucky that I AM insured. I didn't flood last time you see. I may not be insured if it ever happens again.

And we had SO much help. You wouldn't believe the Hebden Bridge spirit. I had so many people coming through the door to offer their help. So many that I had to turn them away as we had too much help sometimes.

You saw the spirit of the place when you walked down the road. So many people came down from all sides of the valley with their brooms, their shovels and their smiles. They shifted the silt from the roads back into the river. They bailed out the cinema in the dark with their head torches on. They rescued children's violins from the infant school. They just did whatever they could. EVERYONE wanted to help. I'm speaking in past tense but it is still going on out there. Everyone is in this together and we are all help each other. It will take time to rise again, even more time than last flood but we absolutely will. I am blessed to be part of such a marvelous community.

We took all our good stock to the studio and today I rented the room next door to keep it in. So our web shop is very much OPEN for business. We need your support more than ever to keep us afloat. Our shop is being gutted and dried out and will have a complete re-fit in the coming weeks. Maybe we'll be open again by March? Let's hope for the best.

So many homes and businesses have been affected, many NOT insured at all. If you feel moved to make a donation to the flood relief and help get our very special little town back on it's feet you can do so here.

Thankyou for all your wishes and your warmth. It has been much appreciated and has kept our spirits up :)