Dream for life competition

If you are a reader of my blog you will know that I share my studio with photographer Sarah Mason and you'll have seen all the lovely shots she has taken of my lamps and my studio. Sarah is running a competition at the moment to launch her 'Dream For Life' photo shoots.

Children can choose their dream and Sarah will make it come true with a styled photo shoot. Perhaps they want to be a pirate, have a teddy bears picnic of make perfume in the woods.

Jump over to her blog to find out how you can win a Dream for Life shoot for your child. Hurry though, there's only a few days left to enter.

Featured in Made in Paper

Today my studio is featured in a brand new lovely magazine called Made in Paper. It's a sister magazine of the beautiful Simple Things magazine so when they emailed me to ask if they could do a feature I was excited because I just KNEW it would be beautiful!

On a very very sunny day in January me and Sarah had some fun doing a studio photoshoot knowing that on March the 21st we'd see the pictures in a pretty magazine.

There's a Q&A too so you can find out more about me and my studio.

They have excelled themselves again. 

The pages are full of beautifully put together, colourful, papery projects and ideas

and interviews with paper artists from around the world.

I spotted Cecilia Levy (i love her work) and the lovely Jennifer Collier too. 

Made in Paper is for sale in the UK, the U.S and Australia so look out for it or you can order it from Future Publications.

Personalised lamp giveaway

I need to make some new personalised lamps to take as samples to the British Craft Trade Fair. 

I don't want to use fictional names and dates because I'd like them to have homes to go to after the show. 

Who would you like one for? I have four to give away. One will be a Tree of Life like this picture with a name and a date, one will have Moons and Stars, one will have Dandelion Clocks and one will be  a Wedding Lamp with the couples names on and a wedding/anniversary date.

Please leave a comment below with the name and a date and which design you fancy. I'll choose my favourites next week and make them in time to take to the show.

After the show I'll send them to you.

Sound good?

Closing date Monday 25th March.

Connections

I've just had a visit in the shop from a lady called who drove all the way down from Northumberland to Radiance see me. She was inspired by my last 'Art of Asking' blogpost and thought she would 'ask' if she could pay me a visit. We sat and drank tea and had an inspiring chat about life and creativity which was very pleasant on this wet and dreary Friday.

Jan Baxandall is in her final year of Textile Surface Design at Newcastle Uni and wondering where to go next with her work. She is pursuing her creative career later in life, after working in education for many years and raising her now grown up children.  It's time to 'just do it' she says. This is her being brave and taking some work out into the wide world. 

I took a quick snap and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it. It's lovely work. Needs to be seen don't you think?!

I love it when blogging brings people together. When we can help each other along with nudges of encouragement.

Gratitude and the 'Art of Asking'

These last few days have been pure perfection. They have been everything I hoped for when I dreamed of having a new studio. Everything I have long desired. I have been absorbed in designing. Inspired. Calm. There has been space around things.  Peace. Time to plan, dream, draw and design. I am grateful that this time that I have carved out (and it has taken some doing) I have been able to step into and get on with being what I want to be. 

There's so much going on. I'm drawing fritillaries, ferns and feathers, making teeny lamps out of Japanese Kouzo paper, playing with patterns, dreaming up wallpaper and planning for the British Craft Trade Fair which is 4 weeks away. I have been designing a new brochure for the show and I thought it would be really lovely to include some quotes from owners of my work. Do they sit at home of an evening thinking nice thoughts about their lamp? I'd love to know those thoughts.

The night before Robert had showed me this wonderful TED talk. It's only a few days old but apparently taking the internet by storm. 

I LOVE this. And she inspired me to ask. In the spirit of connecting to the people who buy my work I sent a request for help to my mailing list.

I got so much back from doing this.

Heartfelt thanks. 

More than I could have hoped for. I mean someone wrote a haiku! I had so many beautiful quotes. I will use them all somewhere.

I am so glad I asked. x

Finding Illuminate in the best bookshop ever

Browsing  the design bookshop at Salts Mill with the smell of lilies in the air and the Hockneys gracing the walls is a very pleasant way of spending a morning. 

Seeing my very own book nestled in amongst the design and pattern books really topped off the experience.

It's the first time I've seen it in a bookshop so you can imagine how exciting it was!

I realised I'd not had a day out of Hebden Bridge since December...goodness me so busy! About time for some re-filling. We bought some nice books and magazines and read them over a lunch in the diner. Perfect.

Fritillary

I LOVE this photo that Sarah took last week when we were doing a studio photo-shoot (for a new magazine...more of that to come). The studio is sooooo sunny which is great for playing with silhouettes. The windows are like a giant light box which proves really useful in my line of work.

 It has been useful while I've been playing with my new Fritillary design.

This is one of my favourite flowers. I couldn't believe the chequered petals were real the first time I saw them. I drew some in my sketchbook last year and wondered how I could possibly describe this intricate pattern in light and shadow. It puzzled me so much that I left the drawing in my sketchbook to come back to later. 

Last month Helen who owns the Willow Garden, which is my favourite florist in Hebden Bridge asked me if I could do a Fritillary design so I rose to the challenge and got the sketchbook out again.

After much drawing and cutting and re-cutting (very fiddly) I decided that if I did the chequered pattern behind the flower head silhouette it softened the effect which I liked. 

I let some bright white light out from the inside petals like the light was coming from inside the flower head

and lastly added the spindly fly-away leaves.

There. The first new lamp design from the new studio. I hope it's the first of many more.

Atelier Stella

 I'm loving my bright new studio and so are the plants. I bought this little smiley guy from Atelier Stella after I saw Jurianne Matter write a blog post about her work. 

It's just fab. I just had to have one. He's my new studio friend.

What stile!

So many stiles to climb on our walk today.

Old wood, weathered and worn,

warmed by the sun

and smoothed by the touch of many hands.

Some had their own miniature garden.

They guided us on our merry way from Jack Bridge to Jumble Hole

on this beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.

Everyone loves a Snowdrop

(photo by Sarah Mason)

Every now and again I do a giveaway exclusive to my mailing list (click here I'd love you to join too) and last month I offered one of the Snowdrop candle covers that I made for The Simple Things feature. All people had to do was tell me how it would light up their life. Wow! Snowdrops really do bring out the poet in everyone. I had so many lovely entries. Here are a few.

'It would light up my life by bringing joy, both in the beauty of the handmade, and the optimism that the snowdrop represents, synonymous as it is, with the first sign of spring!'

'I am always awaiting expectantly this time of year to see the first of the snowdrops appear, pushing their way valiantly through the soil. In time and with exact temperatures, the stems extend and those most wonderful of flowers unveil and drop their exquisite shapes which I feel convey purity, clarity and hope.'

'Snowdrops are my favourite Spring flower, as their

perfectly formed little nodding heads seem to say 'Spring is round the corner'. Shining like a light at the end of a long dark tunnel. '

And we all need that light at the end of the tunnel at this time of year don't we. I was looking out of my studio window today at all the bleak bare branches against the sky and willing it to be all green and luscious again. I cannot wait. I'm craving it now. 

Anyway, it was ridiculously hard to choose a favourite but I do love the image this one conjures up.

 'On the 'still very dark ' Scottish mornings here in Inverness, at 7am when I have to push myself out of bed I can light the candle while I eat my porridge, prepare for the day and remember to check on the snowdrops in the garden that are pushing up through the ground ready to blossom in new life - and I must do the same.'

So, one Snowdrop candle cover will be winging it's way up to Sarah in Inverness to light up to the 'still very dark' mornings.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered. Your emails brought me as much joy as the first signs of Spring. x