Daffodils and Sun!

Some interesting weather action of late. Lovely daffodils so massive and almost tropical looking, think we almost take them for granted, picked a big bunch of them for my mum for mothers day and couldnt stop saying how beautiful I thought they looked, they lasted really well too!
Then my beautiful blue eyed lurcher.

Have had quite a few stresses and trials of late. Hopefully things will be a little calmer now but I'm not sure wether that ever happens, my life always seems to have something hectic going on in it. Anyway, been working and earning some money which will go straight towards the legalities of my business so I can start it properly. Have this weekend off so going to do some more drawings and practice my designs with calico to see how they look - have settled on my fabric now to use in my real final designs which will be for sale so just want to wait a little while till maybe I get some more funds so I can spend it on the silks!

Scarlet Elfcup

Hello and welcome to a new week. On Sunday I discovered this sweet little mushroom whalst walking the dog in the woods, hard to miss because of its scarlet hue nestled in the usual browns and ochres of the leaves on the forest floor. Discovered it has an equally sweet name as how it looks, Scarlet Elfcup, aka Sarcoscypha Austriaca, meaning 'from Austria'. May do a post soon just on mushrooms as I live right next to a wood and love looking for things. Also did a small repeat with inks in my scrapbook shown above based on the Scarlet Elfcup which would make a lovely cushion. Made a useful friend after work today who has his own upholstery business and a huge collection of designer fabrics. I hope to work for him soon..

Antiques and Second Hand Auction

Picnic boxes

Cardboard boxes full of dollhouse furniture

Ceramic hot water bottles and flagons

A Whole collection of saucers with hand painted tropical birds 

Tiles - I love the mushrooms and brambles!

                                         
                                     Metal - Lovely Art Nouveau Daffodil Bowl and Handles, all
                                               except one was Missing!, such a shame.

These are all taken from a massive collection of furniture, ornaments, antiques and others all found at a Friday auction at the Cattle market near my house, I've recently been looking for a desk there but cant really afford it so will have to wait till I can, I go every week to see the proper Wiltshire Folk and the amazing collection of things up for auction. I think second hand items have so much more to them than mass produced stuff. Lovely sunny weekend! Took the dog for a long walk yesterday and he loved it, made lots of new friends and got so thirsty running around he was annoyed he couldn't fit his head in all the hollows of the trees to drink from them. Took him to a pond in the end.

Hellebore

I was wondering around the garden the other day on a sunny afternoon seeing what was about and beginning to be alive and came across these lovely Hellebore flowers photographed above. Its lovely to see such a rich colour at a time of year when lots of things seem bright or pale. I thought the particular flower above was particularly interesting as the bottom petal seemed to be part green leaf, I showed my mum and she said all those purple petals are leaves and the tiny curly green bits in the middle are actually the petals. I think its a great flower, very English and romantic, perfect for a spring wedding.

Hannah Madden is a block printer based in Hereford, England. I knew she was a find as soon as I read her Etsy page explaining the strong hand made process her work goes through during its creation and the fact she carves her own printing blocks. All of which is very rare these days. She is also equally strongly inspired by nature and this reflects in her wonderful products seen below and her entire brand - in her use of sustainable kind to environment materials and beautiful forms like our friends the Hellebore and Bluebell. Enjoy!

A Foggy Walk

A collection of pictures from a foggy walk the other day. Very unusual to see it as foggy as that morning, very mysterious, reminds me of Wuthering Heights without the wind.. A picture of my mums chickens gone wild in the woods. Was surprised to see how bright red the fresh Yew tree bark was, very inspirational, would make a lovely subtle print, perhaps for upholstery? Found a load of Jay feathers in the woods too, think it had been attacked by a bird of prey, but the feathers are very special, planning on making them maybe into some sort of dreamcatcher soon so I'm sure you'll see them then!

These are some wonderful silk embroideries by textile designer and artist Diane Rogers, truly inspired by nature, Dianes work is colourful, delicate and dramatic all at once. You can see some more of her work here.

Spider Silk

Video above is all about a fantastically interesting display on at the V&A at the moment until 5th of June. I became obsessed with this stuff during my degree and hope to go and visit it at some point. It has taken over 1.2 million Golden orb web spiders to create this cape as shown above and a shawl that goes with it, all in this naturally glowing gold colour, absolutely beautiful and astonishing. I think biomimicry is one of the most interesting parts of textiles, spider silk was also used to develop Kevlar, a synthetic fibre 5 times stronger than steel, used for armour. Apparently someone somewhere has recently developed silk worms that produce silk as strong as spider silk, I haven't looked into this yet though. Above are some silky drawings I did a few weeks ago.

Bath Time

Some beautiful architecture found in the city of Bath. I wouldn't mind living there one day. This weekend - time to focus and look at some technology in textiles. I hope you have a nice one.

Snowdrops

Welcome to my first blog post. Here are some snowdrop pictures, spring is definitely here. Another year to look forward to and make the best of. Lots of plans. My blog will be a collection of pictures, textiles, and lots more I expect. I hope you find it interesting too..

Below -  beautiful designs from the collection Art Deco Snowdrops, by Emma Stroude of Wednesdays Girl. As expected the designs have an art deco style to them you don't see often these days but is timelessly attractive. The rest of Wednesdays Girl fabric is equally pleasing, combining rich and understated hues with unusual shapes(including garden vegetables and lobsters!) successfully, showing she is a truly versatile designer. Take a look at some of her other work here!

        

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