Another BCTF Favourite - Once Upon a Time in The North

We spotted 'Once Upon a Time in The North's' fun, crafty designs at the British Craft and Trade Fair and absolutely loved the hand-crafted cushions, purse's and scented bags (they smell good too!)

 Their designs are cute and cheerful and really put us in a great mood! We love the 'little dipper applique scented cushion,' which we spotted on the website HERE . We think the eclectic selection of fabrics, patterns and the bright choices of colours are great.

We are always on the look out for new styles and trends and we have found this fun applique style is popping up all over the high street.

You can see more from 'Once Upon a Time in The North' on the website and follow her on twitter.

Colour Of The Week

We are absolutely loving 'Indigo Blue' this week.

Originally a natural dye extracted from plants Indigo was used for textile dyeing and printing. Indigo Blue is now manufactured as a synthetic dye.

Traditionally the colour has been used in ceramics and porcelain and we think this is a refreshing trend for SS14.

We have pulled together some inspiration for you all ... Enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

Snowdon Design & Craft

Snowdon Design & Craft

We first came across Snowdon Design & Craft's eco-friendly cards, bags and prints on pinterest so we were delighted when we spotted them at the British Craft and Trade Fair in Harrogate this month. We decided to drop Alex an email to find out more about her lovely design work and a bit more about the artist herself.

'It's been a hoot' Red

'Birthday Elephant' Blue

'Love' in mid red

'Bow Wow' in dark brown 

How did you discover your passion for design?

I've always been a bit arty, when I was little I was always drawing little things in notebooks like people, flowers and words, I became quite obsessed with it! Also, my grandfather was a commercial artist and he really encouraged me, I learned a lot from him, I used to spend lots of time in my school holidays watching him hand lettering in his garden studio.

What is your main source of inspiration?

I'm inspired by lots of things, I love Pinterest and reading design blogs. I suppose the things that inspire me most are vintage typography and folk art from around the world, I absolutely love travelling and always come back from a trip full of new ideas.

What is your biggest achievement in your career so far?

I think getting a first in my degree at Manchester Met University has to be my biggest achievement in that area. I did it quite late on, when I was in my late thirties, and had to fit it in around my full time job. Those three years were among the best and hardest years of my life!

Which designer/artist do you admire most?

That's a tough one, as I don't think there is one particular designer or artist, more like a combination of them, for different reasons. The people that stand out most for me are Mary Kate McDevitt and Jon Contino for their hand lettering skills.

Describe yourself in 3 words.

Tenacious, indecisive, adventurous

Name 3 things you can’t live without.

Travel, being outdoors and my long suffering husband Charlie

You can see more fab designs from Sue on her website , or follow her on twitter and facebook

British Craft Trade Fair Part 2

Following on from our previous post, here are more fabulous designers who stood out for us at the show.

Sue Bulmer

Sue creates stunning illustrations inspired by landscapes and her love of nature.
Sue says,

"I would describe my work as 'down to earth' and unpretentious, I simply draw the things I like, things I love and things that move me."

The simple yet effective nature of Sue's designs, which are often created with simple colour palettes, really makes her work unique. I particularly love Sue's cherished collection which was on show at the fair, below are a few of my favourites.

You can see more fab designs from Sue on here website, or follow her on twitter and Facebook

Blueberry Park

Blueberry park create products from handmade screen printed fabric including cushions, wash bags, notebooks, pocket mirrors and cards. There is an extensive online shop where you can buy lots of lovely unique products.

My favourite product from Blueberry park has to be the 'triangle cushion' at £25. With a great fresh colour palette and the geometric design being bang on trend, I think I might have to treat myself to one of these in the near future!

Triangle Cushion £25

Creen Printed Fabric. Available on Etsy

Spring time fabric bundle. Available on Etsy

Lavender bag. Available on Etsy

Make sure you find time to visit Blueberry Parks website, and you can take a look at their blog here. Enjoy!

Natty Maid - printmaking, illustration, design

I was immediately drawn to the beautiful prints at Natty Maids stand. I was introduced to collagraph printing at college but never thought such beautiful designs could be made using this technique. Silly me, can't wait to give collagraph printing another go! You can view Natty Maids collagraph gallery here.

These lovely designs are all printed by hand using not only collagraph printing, but also lino print and screen print. 

Print by Natty Maid

Print by Natty Maid

Print by Natty Maid

Print by Natty Maid

Tote bag

Tote bag

 You can see more of Natty Maids gorgeous prints at her website and follow her on twitter.

British Craft Trade Fair Part 1

We went to visit the British Craft Trade Fair today in Harrogate and saw lots of inspiring work from this years exhibitors. Read on to find out who really caught our eye, and be sure to check out their websites for more information!

Sue Foster - Norfolk Heritage Collection

Sue Foster is a textile designer originally a weaver, who collaborated with the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology service to create her heritage collection. I was drawn to her stand because of the bright colours and striking, unusual patterns used across her work. The designs used on her work were pulled out of museum archives relating to traditional Norfolk textile patterns and lovingly restored and re-produced by Sue. Who knew there were such beautiful textiles hiding away in archives all over the country, and maybe even the world!

Pink Barcode £35

Yellow 'lace' cushion £35

Red Multi Pattern £35

You can visit Sue's website HERE

Jill Govier - Touchy Feely Textiles

Next up is Jill Govier of Touchy Feely Textiles. I loved here crafty, patchwork cushions and products. Jill told me how she completed her degree in fine art and was forever being told to move away from stitch, but she just couldn't keep away and ended up stitching together slate for her final projects. It all worked out in the end with these lovely products, which combine pretty fabrics, buttons and quirky typography.

"The gift you buy but don't want to give away"

Cushion

Purse

Purse

Cushion

Cushion

You can visit the Touchy Feely Textiles website HERE or follow Jill on TWITTER 

Gracie Ink Designs

I also met Grace from GracieInk designs who screen prints all of her work by hand from her studio in the Scottish borders. I loved Gracies' expressive pot doll cushions and the illustrative birdcage designs. I love how Gracie takes inspiration from her travels around the world, creating unique and interesting textiles, see pictures of her work below.

Birdcage cushion

Tote Bag

Purses

Russian Doll cushion

Russian Dolls

Visit Gracies website HERE or check out her Facebook page 

Caroline Pratt

Surface Pattern Designer Caroline Pratt really caught my attention with her bright, funky retro inspired patterns. I loved her stand and her work, in particular the parrot design; very detailed, stunning work!
Having been featured in Good Homes magazine, the Print and Pattern Book and the Tiger print blog, Caroline is definitely one to watch with her lovely design work. Very inspirational indeed.

Pattern by Caroline Pratt

Pattern by Caroline Pratt

Pattern by Caroline Pratt

Print by Caroline Pratt, buy them HERE

Illustration by Caroline Pratt

You can visit Carolines website HERE visit her on Twitter, Facebook or read her Blog

Artistic Britain and the team go to the Spring Fair.

What a busy week we all had last week! 

The Artistic Britain team have been working hard over the last few months to put together our stand for the NEC Spring Fair. Our design department were heavily involved in all aspects of the process from the start; generating initial ideas regarding the layout of the stand as well as designing flyers, calendars and putting together graphics to be sent to the big printers. The largest graphic feature was the 3 metre high wall displaying a range of artwork designed by our family of talented British artists and designers and this drew a lot of attention from the passing crowds. 

We got the chance to produce an in-house range of art work. This was a great opportunity to be involved in such a fantastic project! 

Attending the show was a great way to see visitors reactions to the stand and gain face to face feedback about how much they loved the stand, the concept and the story behind Artistic Britain. Everyone was commenting on how great the stand looked, they particularly loved the unique way in which we had displayed our talented artists work.

Our amazing stand!

During the show we had the privilege of meeting some of our artists. It was fulfilling to finally meet them and put a 'face to the name' after looking at their wonderful artwork since the beginning of the Artistic Britain project. This enabled us to fully appreciate each of the artists personality traits which make each of their pieces individual and unique.

Barry and the wonderfully talented Louise Tiler with her AB products.
See more from Louise here http://www.louisetiler.com/ 

Observational artist Bree Merryn working hard on her painting. We loved watching this painting come to life as did many of the admiring visitors. See more of Brees' work here. http://www.breemerryn.co.uk/

Kris Hardy could also be seen on the stand working on his impressive cityscape oil painting. You can see more of Kris's work here. http://www.krishardy.com/index.htm  

When additonal team support arrived we were given the chance to sneak off the stand and explore some of the other stands. We didn't have to wonder far for inspiration though, as only next door was the amazing Voyage Maison. We loved their country inspired fabrics, checks and imagery and in particular the thistle cushions they had in pride of place on the stand.

Voyage Maison http://www.voyagemaison.co.uk/index.php

The show was very successful and we really enjoyed our time there, it was fantastic to finally see everyone's hard work had paid off and we are very proud of our achievement. We will be blogging with more exciting finds from our wander around the show soon.   

Don't forget to have a look at the Artistic Britain website to learn more about us and the super talented artists that we represent. http://www.artisticbritain.co.uk/

Top Drawer & Home London!

Well better late than never here is our Top Drawer London and Home London round-up!

It was such a fun and inspiring day and a brilliant chance to see fresh talent and some familiar faces. We thought we would share with you some of our highlights from the shows!

The beautiful layered botanical prints from Amanda Ross particularly caught our eye at top drawer. Amanda produces images of an extraordinary lifelike quality in a complimentary colour palette.

Rachael Taylor never fails to brighten our day with her fun quirky designs. It was lovely to catch up with Rachael at Home and to see her newly developed cushion collection. The reversible cushions are of a stunning quality and Rachael has developed some fresh florals to add to her ever growing portfolio.

It was fantastic to finally meet the lovely Libby McMullin at Top Drawer. Her stand was beautifully bright with an array of wall art prints and greetings cards. We absolutely love her whimsical and beautifully detailed designs and can't wait to see more!

Ruth Jackson's fun summer prints really stood out at Top Drawer. We love her helter-skelter and ice lolly prints as well as her playful ice cream truck illustrations. Ruth's distinctive seaside theme and splashes of summer colours really got us looking forward to the long awaited summer.

Painterly watercolour florals were in a bundance at  Home and Top Drawer however Fiona Douglas (of Bluebellgray designs) stunning cushion were definitely our favourites. We had already spotted Bluebellgray's exquisite textiles in various magazines last month so we were excited to see more from Fiona at the show. The collection didn't disappoint with it beautiful spring colour palette and stunning detail. We will definitely keep our eyes peeled for more.

Fermliving at 95percent shop was one of our favourite brands at Home! We absolutely love the distinctively cool colour palette with rose pink and shades of mint and teal. The fresh geometric patterns are sophisticated, stylish and perfectly on trend.

Claire Gaudion's new collection of digitally printed geometric silk scarves were a hit at Top Drawer. Claire's tonal colour palette Inspired by Guernsey's coastline really stood out and we really look forward to seeing more from this up and coming designer.

After following Minor Moderns religiously on twitter we were excited to see their stand at Home. Their UK based brand is going from strength to strength with their fantastic fun and completely original style. Their new triangular design really reminded us of a backgammon board! We love the totally contemporary colour palette and will definitely continue to follow their success.

We had an absolutely fantastic day and came back to the office inspired by all of the talent we saw.

We hope to be in touch with all of the lovely exhibitors we spoke to in the near future and are counting down the days to exhibiting at Spring fair at the NEC in Feb!!

We hope everyone had a fabulous show we believe it was a hug success and can't wait for next year!