The planned solo show at Nadia Waterfield’s Bruton Gallery finally went ahead for two weeks in December and was due to continue through into January, if it had not been for a further Lockdown, however, the work can be seen on her website and some of the paintings will show in her Spring mixed Show in her main Hampshire Gallery https://nadiawaterfieldfineart.com/
As part of Norfolk and Norwich Festival, I will be opening my house in St. Giles Street, Norwich on Saturday 01, Sunday 02, Saturday 08, Sunday 09 June between 10am and 4.30pm
I’m happy to announce that Birdcage is now finally available in all it’s variants! Starting life as a background to be used for the Budgie fabric, the drawings of birdcages that I’d produced seemed strong enough to stand on their own. While looking through 18th and 19th Century chinoiserie, I was inspired to make a more dense, one colour wallpaper that functioned more traditionally than my usual multi-colour, illustrative fare.
Fabric came first, and after it’s reception I resolved to make wallpaper too! It is flexographically printed, http://xanaxonlinebuy.com like our other papers to date, and the design was tweaked and a few other birdcages added here and there to suit! When colouring up, I chose some colours from elsewhere in the range, and a new Navy colour, referencing the colours found in 18th Century papers and blue and white ceramics – we will be introducing more special colour-ways in the future to elaborate on this more traditional feel; I think there’s a nice contrast between that tradition and the sketchy quality of the painting. I’m very pleased with the results, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too!
I’m very excited because my new fabric is here! It took a while, but now we have the first batch printed and up for sale on the site. Part of the delay was getting the fabric just right – we started off experimenting with Linen Union with a little nylon in it for strength, but we quickly moved over to one an all natural linen made especially for us by a factory in Scotland.
Peter Greig & Co. Ltd. are a traditional textile mill in Kirkcaldy, and they have been weaving fabric in the same building since 1825. The factory itself is fantastic, a real mix between old and modern – you can see some lovely pictures of it here and watch a video made by Make Works (a great website for any designers http://onhealthy.net amongst you by the way!). They helped us in getting just the right fabric that was not only strong, but drapes well and feels great. Most importantly it is prepared for print much more rigorously than others we have used; it is perfectly pre-shrunk so that we have no problems when applying the inks to it. We have also developed a new binder which gives the printed areas a much better handling quality.
To start with we have a selection of my old designs adapted and redrawn especially for the fabrics, and a new design – Birdcage. I’m especially pleased with that one! We plan to introduce adaptations of my wallpaper designs Daisy and Sheep in the next few months, and soon after that a new design, Lilypond, should be making an appearance.
Stay tuned!
This year’s Burnham Market Craft Fair will be held on Saturday 17 August, where I will be exhibiting paintings, ceramics, fabrics, cards and prints. I very much enjoy this event and am delighted to be invited to participate again.
As part of Norfolk and Norwich Festival, I am opening up my studio in Little Barningham in Norfolk to visitors! The studio is where I do the majority of my paintings, which sometimes then later become designs for fabrics and papers. If you like you can pop in for a cup of coffee and have a look around.
My studio is an old chapel, formerly of the United Methodist Free Church, just next to the Village Hall. Little Barningham is well worth a look around (the medieval church down the road is especially pretty) and is near Mannington Hall, the lovely cheap diazepam online village of Itteringham, and the fabulous Blickling Hall a little further along – all worth a look should you be planning a day out. The pub in Itteringham does a good lunch too!
Click on this link to see the studio on the map; it’s The Old Chapel, The Street, Little Barningham, NR11 7AG. I’ll be there ready for anyone who wants to visit between 10am and 4.30pm on the following days:
I look forward to seeing you!
Last week we took advantage of a beautiful day and took photographs at my studio for our current Lampshade promotion, and for press for some upcoming events where I’ll be showcasing my paintings and prints.
On the Bank Holiday Weekend next month (the 30th of April to the 2nd of May) I will be exhibiting and selling my prints at Art for Cure, a great event run by Belinda Gray and Sally Ball at Glemham Hall in Suffolk. It is an art fair involving 80 artists, all in aid of breast cancer research. There are refreshments and the hall itself is amazing, so if you are in the area come along!
Meanwhile, the studio is looking lovely and springlike!
Recently we were very happy to be part of an exhibition called W is for Wallpaper at Ruthin Craft Centre, a fantastic centre for the applied arts in Wales. The exhibition showcased contemporary wallpaper from around the UK; featuring people as diverse as Timorous Beasties, beautiful hand block printed papers by Marthe http://modafinil200mg.net Armitage, and our friends Mini Moderns. The exhibition install looked fantastic, with the papers innovatively displayed, and the catalogue for the exhibition looks lovely. We can’t wait to get our hands on one!
Thanks to the curators Jane Audas and Gregory Parsons for the photographs and the wonderful show.
Welcome to our new look website which features our current wallpaper collection and first hand silk screen printed fabric which is available by the metre and made up into cushions and lampshades!
As a designer it is a goose-pimply moment when a design is being printed for the first time. Thirty five metres of base cloth laid out along the table, prepared for print is exciting. The first design I selected to be printed was the Budgie, which has 6 colours, each colour requiring its own silk screen. The first screen down printed an all over pattern of birdcages to cover the cloth and give the design some depth. This is hand screen printed down the length of the table using water based pigment inks, and then once dried, the next colour is printed over the top and again until all five consecutive colours are printed.
This is a labour intensive production method to say the least! It requires a skilled printer to achieve a high quality result. After the fabric is printed it is baked to ‘set’ the inks and then finally inspected, rolled and stored carefully.
The second colour-way will be available in July. Keep your eyes peeled!
