Antiques for Everyone Fair

I’ve been very preoccupied recently with helping my mum purchase a retirement flat and feel that I have been wading through mud as far as creating anything new artistically. I seem to spend more and more time sitting at my computer, trying to get to grips with some new programme or other, at the moment I am doing battle with Indesign. It is always so much more difficult to learn from a book but feel reluctant to enroll on anymore evening classes so I suppose I will just have to carry on regardless. I have been thinking for some time now about getting some of my children’s books back into print through one of the POD companies, one of the reasons why I need Indesign.

Light relief has been found in bookbinding, making origami structures from folded Elephanthide. In case you are wondering, I have not skinned an endangered species; Elephanthide is a very tough paper, which lends itself to paper folding! You can see the finished result here-


I also had some illustrations exhibited at The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham where I met up with Mike and Hilary Emeny from Books Illustrated Ltd. (see above) at the Antiques for Everyone Fair.The day I went they were very excited to have sold an original Arthur Rackham. Other works on their stand included Ernest Shepard, Edmund Dulac and Annie French.

Strawberries.

“Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did. ” William Butler

No doubt, like me, you will have been feasting on fresh, ripe strawberries, maybe even eating them at Wimbledon? Nowadays strawberries are available all year round, or so it seems, but there is something rather special about eating a homegrown strawberry in July. Is it my imagination or do they simply taste better when they have had the chance to mature naturally?

Strawberries have inspired artists and designers over the centuries, there is something rather irresistible and satisfying about that plump, red, heart shaped berry with the tiny, decorative seeds dotted around its middle.



This “Strawberry Thief” design by William Morris will always be linked in my mind with this time of year. Maybe because it was one of the first textile designs that I studied as a schoolgirl and needed to apply that knowledge to summer exams!

Morris was said to have been inspired by the sight of thrushes stealing fruit from his garden at Kelmscott Manor. It presented him with many problems during printing, which he finally overcame, although it took many attempts and several years to produce the desired effect, which used a red alizarin dye, and a yellow weld combined with indigo blue.
I think I love it the most of all of his designs and my heart still skips a beat every time I see it.

"Watercolour" Tate Britain.

Today I would like to share with you some amazingly beautiful images courtesy of an extraordinarily gifted artist called Rachel Pedder-Smith.

I first came across her work in London recently during a visit to Tate Britain’s “Watercolour” exhibition. The exhibition features so many and varied artists whose work spans 800 years. There are medieval manuscripts, maps and botanical illustrations alongside works by Turner, Ravilious and Samuel Palmer to name but a few

I was immediately drawn to one painting in particular and that is how I discovered Rachel’s work. Her bean painting has everything I most admire in a work of art; it is inspired by nature, shows incredible artistry and attention to detail and has an overall marvelous sense of design. I am sure you will be smitten too! In the bean painting you are presented with something familiar, maybe even humble and everyday and yet you see it through the eyes of the artist who transforms each legume into a visual miracle. In the world of modern art we often hear the overworked saying about “challenging our preconceptions” as if that in itself were enough. I would say that this piece by Rachel does just that, it presents us with a selection of natural objects and through her skill and observation of the artist takes us to a new level. She makes us not only look but actually see.

As William Blake would say
“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

You can see more of Rachel's paintings here on her website which also has a shop selling cards and prints.

You can learn more about the exhibition here, and now I will leave you with this beautiful image, Samuel Palmer's 'A Hilly Scene' (c.1826 - 1828). Tate. The exhibition runs until the 24th August, see it if you can, you will be enthralled.

The Cult of Beauty

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is hosting an exhibition called “The Cult of Beauty”. It features the work of many artists and designers of the Aesthetic Movement, amongst them Walter Crane who has been a personal favourite of mine since my student days. Peacock feathers, lilies and sunflowers abound, not to mention the very many retail opportunities so when I saw this clothbound facsimile copy of “A Flower Wedding” I had to have it, you understand don’t you?

There were also lilies, sunflowers and peacock feathers to be seen in The Garden Museum, (next door to Lambeth Palace) in floral arrangements and growing in the church garden. The beautiful natural arrangement shown here was actually in the ladies loo. Art for Art’s sake, I am sure the Aesthetes would have approved.

And the winner is .....

We have a winner, the first name to be drawn out of the virtual hat, or random number generator if you prefer is ……. Rosie !

Thanks to all who entered in the giveaway and left such kind comments, I read each one with a happy heart and gratitude.

And now, back to work, I have a lovely newly stretched piece of paper on my drawing board but my mind is elsewhere. I left my inspiration somewhere in William Wordsworth country and forgot to pack it in my suitcase. I read this inspirational quote recently, which has been attributed to the poet “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart”, despite searching I cannot trace it to any of his writings, do you know?

The lovely kitchen photograph was taken at Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, I did think of attributing it to my own larder but you would not fall for that now would you?

Two hundredth blog post and a giveaway!

The time is flying by at an alarming rate, my garden is knee high in nettles and brambles, my laundry basket is groaning and my desk is piled high with work. One reason for this backlog is our trip to The Lake District where we attended a book repair workshop followed by a short holiday based in Ulverston.

I have of course taken a zillion photographs, which will have to wait for another day. Today I wanted to do something a little bit special, as it is my two hundredth blog post. I started this blog originally as a place to share inspiration and for me this normally comes in book form so today I am offering as a giveaway a hard back, cloth bound, (second hand, I pounced on it in a charity shop!) of one of the most exquisite books ever- “In and Out of the Garden” by Sara Midda. When I had my first child, some thirty years ago, my husband bought me a copy of this remarkable work of art, which sits here on my bookshelf and is a constant source of delight.

For those of you who do not know the book let me try to describe it; every page is hand painted or drawn including the text. It is a collection of garden lore, images and quotations, which have been exquisitely rendered in minute detail, the book was three years in the making and in my opinion is outstandingly beautiful. I am sure many of you will already own a copy but for those of you who don’t you can enter my giveaway by leaving a comment below and please indicate your wish to participate. Maybe you have a special, treasured title, which we should know about, please share your recommendations too. I will pick a winner at random on the first of June. Oh yes, and I should say that the edition that I am giving away is a second edition printed in 1982, Sidgwick and Jackson, London and is missing its dust jacket but everything else is good.

And now, back to the workshop. We learnt, over the space of three days, how to reback a Victorian cloth bound book. You know the sort, one that has torn endpapers, a tatty ripped spine and bumped corners; my shelves are full of them! We separated the text block from the bookcase; I needed to do some secondary sewing to secure the sections. We dyed new cloth and paper to match the original cover and endpapers. We then went on to reback and repair the book, taking time to make a new spine, repair the endpapers and consolidate the corners. You can see some of the stages below, click to enlarge.




the finished book! Just so we are all clear, the giveaway book is "In and Out of the Garden".

Messing about on the river.

Last week we went to Henley-on-Thames to visit Makower, home of Henley studio. I went to meet with the design team to discuss possible new fabric collections. We arrived in time to have a riverside picnic and walk, spotting wildlife along the way.Red kites circled overhead, coots and mallards on the river, chaffinches and yellow wagtails along the path and too many enviable gardens to mention.

Henley is quite a drive from our house so we try to combine it with an overnight stop in Oxford. As most of the students were still on holiday we were able to stay here in the most beautiful Elizabethan College and ate our breakfast in the ancient hall.

On our return journey we stopped at Stratford-on-Avon and took a ferry past the famous theatre and home of The Royal Shakespeare Company. As you can see from the photographs, (click to enlarge) the weather was amazing, sunny, bright and breezy. I should write more but I am now busy packing my bag for my next trip.

I hope to catch up with everyone when I get back,

See you later, alligator.