91 Magazine Home Tour

Last month my home was featured on the 91 Magazine blog. There has been lots going on this last few weeks and I haven't had an opportunity to blog about it but the whole process was lovely so I do want to write about it.

 It all came about because of our friend Nicolette from Archie and the Rug who is a blogger and writer and all round creative and she pitched to the magazine to write a story about my house. 

I don't want to share ALL the photos because I'd love you to go and look at them on the 91 magazine blog but there are a few nice ones that didn't make the feature so I thought I'd share a mixture here.

I had such a lovely time with photographer Kathryn Taylor who was commissioned to do the shoot. As you can see it was a gorgeous sunny day and we were both in a bright mood and enjoying getting the job done whilst getting to know each other.

 She managed to catch the light and bright feel of the flat beautifully.

Then I had another gorgeous morning sitting in my window chairs eating breakfast with Nicolette  (which she brought with her) while she interviewed me and she wrote such a lovely piece about my home and my work.

   

We visited the studio and Kathryn took some lovely photos there too.

Please go and visit the gorgeous 91 Magazine blog and see the feature and read Nicolette's piece. Kathryn has a really lovely Instagram feed too which I have been enjoying ever since.

Thanks to 91 Magazine for the feature and to Kathryn and Nicolette. What a great team!

Featured in Elle Deco

 I have been drooling over the pages of Elle Decoration magazine for years so you can imagine my excitement when I heard I was going to be in it!

It's all thanks to Abigail Edwards and her new Quiet Pattern book which I wrote about a couple of posts back. 

Elle Deco have featured all the British designers which are in the book so you can read about Abigail and the inspiration behind the book, Mineheart (I met them at the book launch and they are SO lovely)

and Daniel Heath who screen prints his wallpapers so skilfully.

The beautiful photographs are by Alun Callender.

It's in the June issue on the shelves now.

Tiny Treasures book

I've been bursting to share my new Tiny Treasures book with you but arrived from the printers the day before my holiday so I had to wait. So I'm here in my studio on a bank holiday Monday with a lot of excitement. 

I made this book to accompany my Tiny Treasures wallpaper and window film. You see the design includes thirty-seven species altogether and as I was telling my friend Suzi some of the stories of when and where I found some of its motifs she suggested I made a book so people could identify what is on their wallpaper!

I didn't wait. I was so excited about the possibility of this little book that I got on it straight away and here it is.

  I loved writing all of the little stories and sharing my memories of finding these seeds, pods, leaves and feathers over the years.

I've always been drawn to these treasures from nature.

I always come back with something from the woods (you should see my coat pockets after my Scotland trip last week) and they have lived in my studio and home waiting to be turned into something.

 So now they are immortalised in wallpaper, window film and a BOOK!  

I'm giving away the book for free with the first twenty-five orders of Tiny treasures wallpaper.

Or you can order a copy here and I would be delighted to send you one.

 The other exciting thing is that one pound from every copy I sell will go to the Tinderwood Trust, a local forest school doing great work with children and young people to educate, inspire and build confidence in a woodland setting. It was founded by my friend Emily and she gets as excited as I do about these small and beautiful things that you find in the woods. As she said this morning 'one pound will buy a whole bag of marshmallows for the children to toast on the fire!' That sounds like a good enough reason to me.

(Please feel free to share the photos online. It will help me spread the word).

Thanks to Sarah Mason Photography for the great photoshoot.

Quiet Pattern

I'm really excited to share that I have been featured in a beautiful new book called Quiet Pattern.

The book is written by this lovely lady Abigail Edwards (seen hear with Claude the dog) who is a wallpaper/fabric designer and a stylist. Back in 2013 when I launched my first wallpaper designs I exhibited them at the ICFF in New York. I had an absolute blast at that show but it is the only show that I have ever been to where I didn't do any business! BUT I did meet Abigail and we have followed each others work ever since.

I was delighted when she contacted me last summer and told me that she was writing a book and that she would like to feature my work. What an honour!

Abigail worked with her friend, photographer Alun Calendar. He did my Country Living feature shoot a few years back so it was nice to have worked with him before. 

They came to my studio and my flat last August to do a photoshoot which was a lot of fun and ever since I have been excitedly waiting for the release. 

 It's an absolutely beautiful book. It features the work of eleven designers from around the world including Abigail and she also writes about the history of 'quiet pattern' design. 

I love the photos that Alun took of my studio. I'm glad they have been captured in a book!

   It was good to see the stylist and the photographer at work in my home too. 

 I went down to London for the book launch last week and it was lovely to meet some of the other designers and celebrate with Abigail. She has done such a wonderful job.

If you are lover of pattern, interiors and design history I think you will love this book. It's published by Clearview books.

Opening the Wild Meadow flower press

  I just opened the flower press from our trip to Wild Meadow last midsummer. 

 What joy. 

 A little bit of summer preserved so perfectly. 

 These were the grasses that I was trying to learn the names of.  Can I remember now? I love this picture. Doesn't it look like an embroidery.

 I drew this Barren Brome at the time. I'm glad because it has all fallen apart in the flower press but it has kept it's colour beautifully.

 I wrote a blog post about our week there and there are pictures of these flowers going in the press. It's nice to see then and now. And good to look back at summer so full and green and lovely. 

It won't be long before it's green and lovely again. Maybe this will be the year that the names of those grasses finally sink in! 

Tiny Treasures print day!

I was a very happy bunny yesterday as the day finally came to print Tiny Treasures. This design has been a long time coming. I have been collecting these motifs for a couple of years and dreaming of this finished design so it was really great for me to see the rolls for the first time.

 There are three colourways. Old gold, dove and skye. Two of them have shimmery, silvery highlights which adds to their preciousness!

 I'm excited to launch this officially. We should have some rolls for samples by the end of the week so I have just added them to the website for pre-order. And in the next week or so the rolls should arrive.

I'll keep you updated. x

Tiny Treasures colour day

 One of my favourite things about colour day at the wallpaper factory is getting to see the printing cylinders for the first time. My designs are printed using a gravure cylinder which is a finely etched metal cylinder. My designs are tonal, which means I can usually produce them with just the one cylinder and get alot of tonal variety with just one colour.

My latest design 'Tiny Treasures' has two cylinders though which is a first for me. I wanted to create the opportunity to print a second pop of colour or add a little magic with a soft mica (kind of like a very soft metallic) ink. You can see the second colour in the back of the first picture. In the photo is just has one lonely honesty seed.

It worked well and I love how the mica catches the light. It really is like having some tiny twinkly treasure!

It was a tricky colour day. The extra roller meant each print took slightly longer and it was more challenging to find the balance between the two colours as well as attempting to have the design fit with the rest of my wallpaper collection.

I still have a bit of work to do on the colours but I look forward to showing you which ones we will print.