Christmas Market Fundraiser

Even after the success of the textile organised Jingle Ball last Wednesday, there's no rest for the wicked. This Sunday 2nd, a collection of items made and designed by Level 3 Textile students, will be sold at the Truro Christmas Market to help continue raising money for our Final Year Exhibition and catalogue. The products are all beautifully hand-made and range from tote and wash bags, to cushion covers, to bunting. Me and Chloe volunteered to design and print 18 festive t-shirts. Chloe designed the sheep (pardon the pun) and mine is the eskimo.

Show your support and get your bottoms to Truro Christmas Market and invest! For full details click HERE.

Special thanks to Ella, Charlotte and anyone else who's been sewing/printing/painting and generally beavering away for the last few weeks!

 

Croatia

Me and the boy had a little 2 week adventure around Croatia this summer. We didn't book any thing in advance and basically cruised around Split, the island of Brac, Split again, Sibenik and Krk National Park. The cherry on top was finishing our time out there with Soundwave Festival in Tisno. We ate too much gelato, drank too much caramel rum, got a little burnt and went on a boat party with a live jazz band! My Pentax came along with me.

 

My Visit To...

As mentioned in the previous blog post I was in the Big Smoke this weekend. It was by fluke that the day before I was due to leave, one of the tutors mentioned that a 2012 graduate student from the University College Falmouth had given Textile Design some free tickets to the Selvedge Winter Fair on Saturday! What are the chances!? The tickets had been given to us by Imogen Catling, who is currently working for Selvedge Magazine as the Brand and Product manager.

It was held in the Chelsea Old Town Hall and had a real hustle bustle feel to it; your typical Winter Fair, only the handmade products on sale were of an uber high quality! With our Anthropology goody-bag in tow, we had a wonder around all the lovely bits and bobs for sale. In particular it was really exciting for mixed media and weave based designers, some real gems on show. Here's a little collection of my favourite stalls...

MADE IN HASTINGS

www.madeinhastings.co.uk

Made In Hastings had some amazing hand-painted tambourines, handmade books and some really sweet  prints. Opening as a shop in 2004, they wished to promote artists and makers within the Hastings area. There was something for everyone at this stall, but mainly it had some precious things for children. The hand-painted tambourines by Clair Fletcher in particular are a really unique and special way of decorating a child's space.  

ABIGAIL BROWN

www.abigail-brown.co.uk

These clever and lovely miniatures of birds were the handiwork of Abigail Brown. Most of Abigail's work centers around animals, and she seems to have hit the nail on head with these feathered friends! Each one is handmade from machine and hand embroidering new and reused materials to imitate the colourings and markings of each creature. You can really see the love and attention that goes in to every detail of her work!

BEST IN SHOW

www.muirandosborne.co.uk

Best In Show is a collection, created by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne, of an assortment of 25 knitted dogs, ranging from an Afghan Hound to a little Jack Russell. You could buy them in kits at their stall and knit them yourselves. With the "Make Do And Mend" revival we're currently living in at the moment, there are a lot more people taking up the creative past-time of knitting! I think this is a really engaging and charming idea of getting people stuck in to make one of these little fellows.

UOLDBAG

www.uoldbag.com

Available to buy via Etsy, Bouf and Culture Label, these decoupaged suitcases by Lisa Tilley are right up my street! These pieces of 'functional art' were getting a lot of attention at the Fair and I can see why! The simple idea of taking vintage and found items and giving them a twist by adding the illustrative details bought them back to the 21st Century! 

JESSICA HAYES GILL

jessicahayesgill.com

After having a little chat with the lovely Jessica, I discovered she actually graduated from Leeds Met with a degree in Graphics and has now set herself up in Nottingham as a freelance illustrator and textile designer. Offering a bespoke service, her simple, quirky illustrations are all handprinted and would add the perfect touch to the home. Her products are steered more towards the dining room and kitchen area, with table runners, napkins, aprons, tea-towels and placemats for sale.

JOHN ARBON TEXTILES

www.jarbon.com

For anyone who knows me, I love SOCKS! If my feet are happy, I'm happy. At Christmas I am genuinely pleased when I am given a comfy pair of bed-socks. With that said, I was absolutely delighted to come across the Arbon sock stall. There was a variety of different designs made in North Devon, from either alpaca, wool or cotton! How could I not invest in a pair!? 

CONCLUSION

So, that's the sum up of my morning spent at the Selvedge Winter Fair! I'm really glad I went, not only because I'm now the proud owner of an AMAZING pair of socks, but because it was really refreshing and inspiring to see the assortment of textile based talent out there! I've already told Mama Weedon I'm dragging her to the next one...

Ohh Deer - Oh YES!

I have been in London the last few days, seeing Bon Iver at Wembley Arena (no biggy), dissertation research at the V&A, a trip to the Selvedge Winter Fair and generally catching up with friends! Been seriously out of the loop and definitely swept up in the whole London bubble.

Briefly got time to check my emails this morning and I was VERY surprised to have received an email from ohhdeer.com last thursday to inform me I had WON their Pillow Fight Competition!!! My Swedish Meadow design is 1 of 14 chosen and will now be sold in Ohh Deer's stocklists, which includes the Saatchi Gallery, Tate Modern and the Millennium Gallery shop, as well as their online store. Chuffed much!?

For anyone who does want a platform in which their designs/illustrations can be seen by an audience who appreciates original work and sold by a company who does acknowledge you as an artist, then I would highly recommend entering any future Ohh Deer competitions!

Take a butchers at the whole list of winners -----> Ohh Deer Competition Results

Project Update

ISLAMIC GEOMETRICS

Sorry it's been a while! I have been thrown back in to my final year with a tonne of work! Pesky dissertation is already creeping up on me! Just so you don't think I have gone in to hibernation for Winter, I thought I would give you a little snippet of what I have been working on since I have been back at Uni.

The project I am currently designing for is a 12 week project, finishing in January, with an open brief. I have decided to focus on geometrics, the journey beginning with Islamic ceramic patterns. In the next few weeks I will hopefully be playing around with less symmetrical ideas and more engineered pieces for fashion. I intend on working with the process of devore and also translating some of designs through the jacquard machine! Watch this space...

Last Chance

Only one more week of these bad boys being up on Ohh Deer! Get them while you can and invest in a Hannah Weedon pillow...

SWEDISH MEADOW

 DANDELION

http://

Belated Summer

Just a few snaps taken on the Pentax P30 when I broke up for the Summer in June. Enjoy. 

 

Pillow Fight

I decided to enter a competition on Ohhdeer.com. As I had already created some cushion specific designs for Mama Weedon's birthday, I figured why not!?

Short Films

I spent a few days down in Somerset hanging out with my boyfriend and his friends whilst shooting short films. We took a day trip to Landacre Bridge in the Emoor National Park, Devon, for the 'Riverside' video. I even had my acting debut and helped edit it in post production. I really enjoyed the editing process of it though... Maybe a change in career path!? The boys filmed another short called 'No Goodbyes'... Although this time I only helped out by making bacon sarnies!

RIVERSIDE http://vimeo.com/49416528

NO GOODBYES http://vimeo.com/49460937

Art @ The Vine

As mentioned before, I was involved in an event last night that was organised by the lovely Tenaya Steed. I managed to get a few paintings together in the last couple of days, despite the creative block in the last post! 

I did attempt at documenting the night and the other artists work, but a few too many free glasses of wine and I'm afraid half of them were not blog worthy. I didn't manage to get a decent photo of Sam Higley's lovely illustrations, but if you're curious here is his blog - http://silversleeves.tumblr.com/

I had lots of fun setting it up and enjoyed having something to work towards. Thank you to everyone that turned up and made it a great evening. All the work will be up for a few more days, so if anything tickles your fancy, pop on down!

My Work (and me)...

Rose Vellacott's beautiful portraits... http://www.rosevellacott.co.uk/home

Ollie Guilbert's landscapes (excuse Seb's attempt at photo bombing) and one of many of Tenaya Steed's  lovely bird paintings...