Amelia’s Magazine | 10 eco designers to watch out for in SS10: Part Two

Bear

© Becky Barnicoat

Becky Barnicoat works as the commissioning editor on the Guardian Weekend magazine, more about but is also a cartoonist and currently works on a new comic about a musical bear – you can see a couple of sketches from it on her blog.

She’s always drawn, approved and when she was at school I did a whole English project (the title was ‘My future career’) in comic book form. She got a D- and a detention for it. One could say that was kind of the theme of things – most authority figures think cartoons are for babies. “I wish I could have shown them Maus so they could see how wrong they were, link but I didn’t know it existed back then” Becky says.

Everyone is here zine

© Becky Barnicoat

She started the blog Come in, Everyone is here already a couple of years ago and since then has started drawing for various people – including Le Cool magazine, Harry Hill and Five Dials. She was on the panel at the Salem Brownstone event at Comica this year, and last year drew the ‘Bowie and Bowie’ comic strip for Comica PoCom – which was on the wall in the ICA.

She is an enterprising gal as she also sporadically self-publishes a zine called Everyone Is Here Already.

Valerie Pezeron: What is the inspiration behind your work? Did you use visual references doing your faces?

CIMG1395Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

Becky Barnicoat: Actually, that particular page all came from my head. It’s probably what I have always done from when I was a kid sitting in lessons, just drawing faces and caricatures of my teachers, that was quite a big thing. One of them was quite a nice woman, but she had an odd-looking face and I drew an awful caricature of her. She found my notebook and she looked really hurt, that was awful!

CIMG1392Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

VP: Was it the lady who sent you to detention?
BB: She wasn’t one of the bad teachers but one of the good ones. It’s just that she looked a little bit like a guinea pig. But I won’t say anymore because she might read this! So this what I have always done; I just did “Faces” from my head, I find it really fun. I love the possibility of how ugly something could be but I don’t find that disgusting: I love weird faces so much and sometimes I see people on the street and their faces are just bizarre. The odder the shape the better it is.

VP: I agree with you there are so many different characters out there, especially where you live, in Stoke Newington.
BB: Oh yes! I cycle to work and I see many faces I want to draw! The other day I was cycling through Newington green and I saw this woman crossing the road and she had so much of something on her face that her skin was almost reddy-orange. And I was thinking “My, she’s put a bit too much foundation on, it looks extraordinary” and I thought maybe the poor woman has some terrible skin condition. And she would be a wonderful drawing but not in a way that would be mocking her. I love it when people look unusual.

Profile© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So would it be fair to say it is people that draw you to being creative? It’s not about the blandness of objects…

BB: That’s probably true; I’m not very good with objects. Landscapes? Not so much. It’s never been my thing, which is actually now a problem. I can get my pen going on a person or an animal but I have to put them somewhere and perspective is tricky.

VP: Don’t downplay your abilities!BB: (Laughter) So this is one side of what I am interested in. These were people who were on the Internet, and I drew them in on style…

VP: Glad you bring that up. I have noticed you don’t have one particular style.

BB: No, Definitely not!

VP: Is it on purpose or did you try to develop one or you don’t care that much?

BB: Good question as I think about it a lot. I definitely don’t try not to have one style. I just can’t imagine myself committing to just one style; I’d really miss too much the other style.

VP: So do you apply one style to one specific subject?

BB: Yeah, I suppose that is it, but it’s not that conscious. It just happens. I think of an idea and it’s immediately obvious to me what style should be for that.

VP: I see, very interestingly, you use all kinds of medium, inks, pen and washes, watercolour…

BB: It’s not premeditated when I use, and I love to use pen and ink. And I use this medium mostly.

monster© Becky Barnicoat

VP: Tell us about the fanzine. When did you start it?

BB: That was a project a comic book artist friend of mine called Tom and I started. Just like me, he has a full-time job. We both want to be comic book artists and we decided we should do a comic book. A friend of mine who used to work in a bookshop called Persephone proposed we do a comic book evening; it will be in two months, you both work on the comic book and then we can sell it in the shop with drinks and music and we invite people along. They were ALL of our friends, there weren’t any strangers there at all!

VP: How many people?

BB: It was quite full actually…all of my family, friends of friends! I had about 50 copies of my magazine and they all sold! But another project came up at the same time and I had to really rush it!

VP: So this is issue 1 and issue 2 is planned for later? When did you do this one?

BB: That was earlier this year, sort of June / July.

VP: How often would you see yourself doing this fanzine?

BB: I’d like to do them much more often than I do but with my full time job, it’s not really that straightforward. Wake up every morning at 6.30 am, draw for an hour and then go work full-time at the office. I’d like to do it much more often. What Tom and me are going to do in the next couple of weeks is a 12-hour comic and whatever comes out of that will probably be issue 2. It will be much messier, scruffier and perhaps not make much sense!

Invite© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So I’m really interested to know about your journey? Did you go to university and study journalism?

BB: I didn’t, no, not for journalism. I went to an all-girls school in Barnes and then to Wimbledon Art College for foundation. It’s not that exciting, I was shocked at how crap it is. Everyone said “this is one of the best art schools” but it was awful! I stayed and I just about scraped a pass. Some of the people who I thought were the best there got fails because they just didn’t care. They were vicious about your actual work: “This is fine”, looking at someone’s beautiful drawings “but where is your reflective notebook and diary…sorry but that is part of your course requirements. If you don’t have those then we can’t pass you. Some of the students were part of that course in the 1st place because they are dyslexics, they didn’t want to write, and that’s why they are artists! It’s just insane. Wimbledon wanted everyone to be totally institutionalised, do their 9 to 5… The people whose work was the least inspiring but came in every day got the best grades. They were the stars of the year- the work was not great but they got lads of it!

VP: Woody Allen said a big part of success is showing up. It’s one of my favorite quotes and I think about it often.

BB: It’s so true! There were these brilliant dysfunctional characters with amazing imaginations and absolutely raw talent…you should allow them to thrive and allowing people work in the way that they naturally do because that is going to produce the best work. I hated doing the foundation. I really liked the idea of going to art school and part of me regrets it now; I don’t regret the choice I made because I had a brilliant time going to Leeds reading English Literature. Before that, I had a lot of pressure from everybody; I went to an all-girls private school all through my secondary school and all they were interested in was academia. They didn’t care about you wanting to be an artist; they just thought that was pathetic, they hated me. I’d say I want to be a cartoonist when I am older, and they’d go “Come again?” I always wanted to be a cartoonist since I was about 5. And then I ended up doing English, what was I thinking!

VP: I think it actually ties in, as it’s very close. I call what I do visual journalism or… cartoonist?

BB: Oh, but you’re not allowed to say cartoonist! We are visual communicators or sequential artists.

Camera© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So you knew that young! I remember doing my 1st graphic novel at 7.

BB: But in France, they have a much stronger culture of comics.

VP: That is true if you come from the right background. My family did not have a clue and I had to come here to explore all that was possible…

BB: I feel exactly the same. I did not even know people did comic books until I was maybe in my 2nd and 3rd year at university. I was in Cornwall on a holiday with my family and I was getting the train back to London. We went into Waterstones as I wanted to buy a book for the train. I noticed this really colorful cartoon and I picked up this book and it was Daniel Clowes20th Century Eight Ball”. I thought grown-ups didn’t do cartoons, I had nor idea! Some of his pictures are so grotesque and disgusting; then I realised some of them were just about people chatting over coffee and having existential conversations.

VP: It’s very close to what you do, isn’t it? It’s definitely inspired you?

BB: Oh yeah, oh god, completely! I picked up this thing and it was a revelation! I recall thinking I can’t believe this thing is real; I can’t wait to read it. I was laughing so much while reading it on my way back on the train. Then I read this comic strip called “Art School Confidential”. You have to read it if you did not have a good time at art college. It’s so fun, it’s just the best, it’s perfect, and it’s exactly my experience of Art College! And then I realised other people were like me, they wanted to be a cartoonist and everyone at art school told them they were fools. You have to read it, it’s very good, it’s a collection of a lot his fanzines. It’s a satirical expose of his time at art school with a lot of people who are very pretentious. It seems amazing now that I didn’t know that he existed. I always associated comics with either superheroes, for boys or the dirty and sexy stuff like Vizz. Part of me wishes I could really love Vizz but I am put off every time I read it. “Yeah, right, woman with massive boobs naked in some joke…” it’s really basic toilet humour!

VP: We need more women graphic novelists!

BB: I agree. From those books, I discovered a whole world of cartoonists in America. It’s massive over there!

Cook© Becky Barnicoat

VP: What do you think of the UK comic book industry?

BB: I don’t think it even exists. There is not even a publisher that has an interest in it, really. Jonathan Cape do a few but they mainly bring American ones over. They just publish so very few British people. I don’t feel there is anyone really looking for it. So everyone over here is getting obsessed with Daniel Clowes, Charles Burnes and Chris Ware. They’re just about discovering people that, if you don’t know who they are, you must be living in Britain.

VP: Have you had a look at what’s going on in Europe?

BB: I did take a look. I went over to Portugal, in Lisbon to write a feature on the arts scene there for the Guardian. I met up with a load of comic book artists and illustrators such as Andre LemosJoao-Maio Pinto, Filipe Abranches.  It was fantastic! They had that wonderful European attitude: “We grew up with comic books, it’s part of our culture”. I said I only discovered “Strip Burger” when I was 21. They said “Strip Burger, we knew about that when we were only 2!”

CIMG1387Becky’s office at home © Becky Barnicoat

VP: That’s true with French people too. When you went to Comica festival, did you feel that something was about to take off? I know Paul Gravett feels very religiously that it is happening!

BB: Ah, Paul! Paul is incredible and without him, it would be…he is basically the comic book scene now. It all kind of stems from him, it is fantastic to have him there like this uncle who advises all those artists who didn’t’ think they could do this. He is the catalyst. Since I have discovered that, I’ve realised there is this world of people who want to do this, who love it, who know about all these artists. And they’re really frustrated in this country because it’s not really understood. People are quite illiterate, I think, regarding comics. But I have met loads of people now through Comica and other things. I just discovered this guy called Dash Shaw; his first book is about a thousand pages, called “Bottomless Belly Button”, Fantagraphics. He did this living in a tiny bedroom; he said he was so poor. I asked him how he made it as a comic book artist, how he paid his rent. He said, “ When I left college, I went and rented a tiny, tiny room for $200 a month and I worked part-time as a life model and I drew every second of every day. And he said it took him years, he must have drawn over a thousand pages of comics until anything happened. And he presented a manuscript to a big editor at a comics’ fair; they took him on and published it immediately. It’s a fairytale.

VP: Well, it is. You have to have some kind of break otherwise…

BB: Otherwise you are plugging away in the bedroom!

Tune-in next week for Part 2 of the interview!
Bear

© Becky Barnicoat

Becky Barnicoat works as the commissioning editor on the Guardian Weekend magazine, sildenafil but is also a cartoonist and currently works on a new comic about a musical bear – you can see a couple of sketches from it on her blog.

She’s always drawn, unhealthy and when she was at school I did a whole English project (the title was ‘My future career’) in comic book form. She got a D- and a detention for it. One could say that was kind of the theme of things – most authority figures think cartoons are for babies. “I wish I could have shown them Maus so they could see how wrong they were, but I didn’t know it existed back then” Becky says.

Everyone is here zine

© Becky Barnicoat

She started the blog Come in, Everyone is here already a couple of years ago and since then has started drawing for various people – including Le Cool magazine, Harry Hill and Five Dials. She was on the panel at the Salem Brownstone event at Comica this year, and last year drew the ‘Bowie and Bowie’ comic strip for Comica PoCom – which was on the wall in the ICA.

She is an enterprising gal as she also sporadically self-publishes a zine called Everyone Is Here Already.

Valerie Pezeron: What is the inspiration behind your work? Did you use visual references doing your faces?

CIMG1395Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

Becky Barnicoat: Actually, that particular page all came from my head. It’s probably what I have always done from when I was a kid sitting in lessons, just drawing faces and caricatures of my teachers, that was quite a big thing. One of them was quite a nice woman, but she had an odd-looking face and I drew an awful caricature of her. She found my notebook and she looked really hurt, that was awful!

CIMG1392Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

VP: Was it the lady who sent you to detention?
BB: She wasn’t one of the bad teachers but one of the good ones. It’s just that she looked a little bit like a guinea pig. But I won’t say anymore because she might read this! So this what I have always done; I just did “Faces” from my head, I find it really fun. I love the possibility of how ugly something could be but I don’t find that disgusting: I love weird faces so much and sometimes I see people on the street and their faces are just bizarre. The odder the shape the better it is.

VP: I agree with you there are so many different characters out there, especially where you live, in Stoke Newington.
BB: Oh yes! I cycle to work and I see many faces I want to draw! The other day I was cycling through Newington green and I saw this woman crossing the road and she had so much of something on her face that her skin was almost reddy-orange. And I was thinking “My, she’s put a bit too much foundation on, it looks extraordinary” and I thought maybe the poor woman has some terrible skin condition. And she would be a wonderful drawing but not in a way that would be mocking her. I love it when people look unusual.

Profile© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So would it be fair to say it is people that draw you to being creative? It’s not about the blandness of objects…

BB: That’s probably true; I’m not very good with objects. Landscapes? Not so much. It’s never been my thing, which is actually now a problem. I can get my pen going on a person or an animal but I have to put them somewhere and perspective is tricky.

VP: Don’t downplay your abilities!BB: (Laughter) So this is one side of what I am interested in. These were people who were on the Internet, and I drew them in on style…

VP: Glad you bring that up. I have noticed you don’t have one particular style.

BB: No, Definitely not!

VP: Is it on purpose or did you try to develop one or you don’t care that much?

BB: Good question as I think about it a lot. I definitely don’t try not to have one style. I just can’t imagine myself committing to just one style; I’d really miss too much the other style.

VP: So do you apply one style to one specific subject?

BB: Yeah, I suppose that is it, but it’s not that conscious. It just happens. I think of an idea and it’s immediately obvious to me what style should be for that.

VP: I see, very interestingly, you use all kinds of medium, inks, pen and washes, watercolour…

BB: It’s not premeditated when I use, and I love to use pen and ink. And I use this medium mostly.

monster© Becky Barnicoat

VP: Tell us about the fanzine. When did you start it?

BB: That was a project a comic book artist friend of mine called Tom and I started. Just like me, he has a full-time job. We both want to be comic book artists and we decided we should do a comic book. A friend of mine who used to work in a bookshop called Persephone proposed we do a comic book evening; it will be in two months, you both work on the comic book and then we can sell it in the shop with drinks and music and we invite people along. They were ALL of our friends, there weren’t any strangers there at all!

VP: How many people?

BB: It was quite full actually…all of my family, friends of friends! I had about 50 copies of my magazine and they all sold! But another project came up at the same time and I had to really rush it!

VP: So this is issue 1 and issue 2 is planned for later? When did you do this one?

BB: That was earlier this year, sort of June / July.

VP: How often would you see yourself doing this fanzine?

BB: I’d like to do them much more often than I do but with my full time job, it’s not really that straightforward. Wake up every morning at 6.30 am, draw for an hour and then go work full-time at the office. I’d like to do it much more often. What Tom and me are going to do in the next couple of weeks is a 12-hour comic and whatever comes out of that will probably be issue 2. It will be much messier, scruffier and perhaps not make much sense!

Invite© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So I’m really interested to know about your journey? Did you go to university and study journalism?

BB: I didn’t, no, not for journalism. I went to an all-girls school in Barnes and then to Wimbledon Art College for foundation. It’s not that exciting, I was shocked at how crap it is. Everyone said “this is one of the best art schools” but it was awful! I stayed and I just about scraped a pass. Some of the people who I thought were the best there got fails because they just didn’t care. They were vicious about your actual work: “This is fine”, looking at someone’s beautiful drawings “but where is your reflective notebook and diary…sorry but that is part of your course requirements. If you don’t have those then we can’t pass you. Some of the students were part of that course in the 1st place because they are dyslexics, they didn’t want to write, and that’s why they are artists! It’s just insane. Wimbledon wanted everyone to be totally institutionalised, do their 9 to 5… The people whose work was the least inspiring but came in every day got the best grades. They were the stars of the year- the work was not great but they got lads of it!

VP: Woody Allen said a big part of success is showing up. It’s one of my favorite quotes and I think about it often.

BB: It’s so true! There were these brilliant dysfunctional characters with amazing imaginations and absolutely raw talent…you should allow them to thrive and allowing people work in the way that they naturally do because that is going to produce the best work. I hated doing the foundation. I really liked the idea of going to art school and part of me regrets it now; I don’t regret the choice I made because I had a brilliant time going to Leeds reading English Literature. Before that, I had a lot of pressure from everybody; I went to an all-girls private school all through my secondary school and all they were interested in was academia. They didn’t care about you wanting to be an artist; they just thought that was pathetic, they hated me. I’d say I want to be a cartoonist when I am older, and they’d go “Come again?” I always wanted to be a cartoonist since I was about 5. And then I ended up doing English, what was I thinking!

VP: I think it actually ties in, as it’s very close. I call what I do visual journalism or… cartoonist?

BB: Oh, but you’re not allowed to say cartoonist! We are visual communicators or sequential artists.

Camera© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So you knew that young! I remember doing my 1st graphic novel at 7.

BB: But in France, they have a much stronger culture of comics.

VP: That is true if you come from the right background. My family did not have a clue and I had to come here to explore all that was possible…

BB: I feel exactly the same. I did not even know people did comic books until I was maybe in my 2nd and 3rd year at university. I was in Cornwall on a holiday with my family and I was getting the train back to London. We went into Waterstones as I wanted to buy a book for the train. I noticed this really colorful cartoon and I picked up this book and it was Daniel Clowes20th Century Eight Ball”. I thought grown-ups didn’t do cartoons, I had nor idea! Some of his pictures are so grotesque and disgusting; then I realised some of them were just about people chatting over coffee and having existential conversations.

VP: It’s very close to what you do, isn’t it? It’s definitely inspired you?

BB: Oh yeah, oh god, completely! I picked up this thing and it was a revelation! I recall thinking I can’t believe this thing is real; I can’t wait to read it. I was laughing so much while reading it on my way back on the train. Then I read this comic strip called “Art School Confidential”. You have to read it if you did not have a good time at art college. It’s so fun, it’s just the best, it’s perfect, and it’s exactly my experience of Art College! And then I realised other people were like me, they wanted to be a cartoonist and everyone at art school told them they were fools. You have to read it, it’s very good, it’s a collection of a lot his fanzines. It’s a satirical expose of his time at art school with a lot of people who are very pretentious. It seems amazing now that I didn’t know that he existed. I always associated comics with either superheroes, for boys or the dirty and sexy stuff like Vizz. Part of me wishes I could really love Vizz but I am put off every time I read it. “Yeah, right, woman with massive boobs naked in some joke…” it’s really basic toilet humour!

VP: We need more women graphic novelists!

BB: I agree. From those books, I discovered a whole world of cartoonists in America. It’s massive over there!

Cook© Becky Barnicoat

VP: What do you think of the UK comic book industry?

BB: I don’t think it even exists. There is not even a publisher that has an interest in it, really. Jonathan Cape do a few but they mainly bring American ones over. They just publish so very few British people. I don’t feel there is anyone really looking for it. So everyone over here is getting obsessed with Daniel Clowes, Charles Burnes and Chris Ware. They’re just about discovering people that, if you don’t know who they are, you must be living in Britain.

VP: Have you had a look at what’s going on in Europe?

BB: I did take a look. I went over to Portugal, in Lisbon to write a feature on the arts scene there for the Guardian. I met up with a load of comic book artists and illustrators such as Andre LemosJoao-Maio Pinto, Filipe Abranches.  It was fantastic! They had that wonderful European attitude: “We grew up with comic books, it’s part of our culture”. I said I only discovered “Strip Burger” when I was 21. They said “Strip Burger, we knew about that when we were only 2!”

CIMG1387Becky’s office at home © Becky Barnicoat

VP: That’s true with French people too. When you went to Comica festival, did you feel that something was about to take off? I know Paul Gravett feels very religiously that it is happening!

BB: Ah, Paul! Paul is incredible and without him, it would be…he is basically the comic book scene now. It all kind of stems from him, it is fantastic to have him there like this uncle who advises all those artists who didn’t’ think they could do this. He is the catalyst. Since I have discovered that, I’ve realised there is this world of people who want to do this, who love it, who know about all these artists. And they’re really frustrated in this country because it’s not really understood. People are quite illiterate, I think, regarding comics. But I have met loads of people now through Comica and other things. I just discovered this guy called Dash Shaw; his first book is about a thousand pages, called “Bottomless Belly Button”, Fantagraphics. He did this living in a tiny bedroom; he said he was so poor. I asked him how he made it as a comic book artist, how he paid his rent. He said, “ When I left college, I went and rented a tiny, tiny room for $200 a month and I worked part-time as a life model and I drew every second of every day. And he said it took him years, he must have drawn over a thousand pages of comics until anything happened. And he presented a manuscript to a big editor at a comics’ fair; they took him on and published it immediately. It’s a fairytale.

VP: Well, it is. You have to have some kind of break otherwise…

BB: Otherwise you are plugging away in the bedroom!

Tune-in next week for Part 2 of the interview!

Bear

© Becky Barnicoat

Becky Barnicoat works as the commissioning editor on the Guardian Weekend magazine, case but is also a cartoonist and currently works on a new comic about a musical bear – you can see a couple of sketches from it on her blog.

She’s always drawn, viagra sale and when she was at school I did a whole English project (the title was ‘My future career’) in comic book form. She got a D- and a detention for it. One could say that was kind of the theme of things – most authority figures think cartoons are for babies. “I wish I could have shown them Maus so they could see how wrong they were, medical but I didn’t know it existed back then” Becky says.

Everyone is here zine

© Becky Barnicoat

She started the blog Come in, Everyone is here already a couple of years ago and since then has started drawing for various people – including Le Cool magazine, Harry Hill and Five Dials. She was on the panel at the Salem Brownstone event at Comica this year, and last year drew the ‘Bowie and Bowie’ comic strip for Comica PoCom – which was on the wall in the ICA.

She is an enterprising gal as she also sporadically self-publishes a zine called Everyone Is Here Already.

Valerie Pezeron: What is the inspiration behind your work? Did you use visual references doing your faces?

CIMG1395Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

Becky Barnicoat: Actually, that particular page all came from my head. It’s probably what I have always done from when I was a kid sitting in lessons, just drawing faces and caricatures of my teachers, that was quite a big thing. One of them was quite a nice woman, but she had an odd-looking face and I drew an awful caricature of her. She found my notebook and she looked really hurt, that was awful!

CIMG1392Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

VP: Was it the lady who sent you to detention?
BB: She wasn’t one of the bad teachers but one of the good ones. It’s just that she looked a little bit like a guinea pig. But I won’t say anymore because she might read this! So this what I have always done; I just did “Faces” from my head, I find it really fun. I love the possibility of how ugly something could be but I don’t find that disgusting: I love weird faces so much and sometimes I see people on the street and their faces are just bizarre. The odder the shape the better it is.

VP: I agree with you there are so many different characters out there, especially where you live, in Stoke Newington.
BB: Oh yes! I cycle to work and I see many faces I want to draw! The other day I was cycling through Newington green and I saw this woman crossing the road and she had so much of something on her face that her skin was almost reddy-orange. And I was thinking “My, she’s put a bit too much foundation on, it looks extraordinary” and I thought maybe the poor woman has some terrible skin condition. And she would be a wonderful drawing but not in a way that would be mocking her. I love it when people look unusual.

Profile© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So would it be fair to say it is people that draw you to being creative? It’s not about the blandness of objects…

BB: That’s probably true; I’m not very good with objects. Landscapes? Not so much. It’s never been my thing, which is actually now a problem. I can get my pen going on a person or an animal but I have to put them somewhere and perspective is tricky.

VP: Don’t downplay your abilities!BB: (Laughter) So this is one side of what I am interested in. These were people who were on the Internet, and I drew them in on style…

VP: Glad you bring that up. I have noticed you don’t have one particular style.

BB: No, Definitely not!

VP: Is it on purpose or did you try to develop one or you don’t care that much?

BB: Good question as I think about it a lot. I definitely don’t try not to have one style. I just can’t imagine myself committing to just one style; I’d really miss too much the other style.

VP: So do you apply one style to one specific subject?

BB: Yeah, I suppose that is it, but it’s not that conscious. It just happens. I think of an idea and it’s immediately obvious to me what style should be for that.

VP: I see, very interestingly, you use all kinds of medium, inks, pen and washes, watercolour…

BB: It’s not premeditated when I use, and I love to use pen and ink. And I use this medium mostly.

monster© Becky Barnicoat

VP: Tell us about the fanzine. When did you start it?

BB: That was a project a comic book artist friend of mine called Tom and I started. Just like me, he has a full-time job. We both want to be comic book artists and we decided we should do a comic book. A friend of mine who used to work in a bookshop called Persephone proposed we do a comic book evening; it will be in two months, you both work on the comic book and then we can sell it in the shop with drinks and music and we invite people along. They were ALL of our friends, there weren’t any strangers there at all!

VP: How many people?

BB: It was quite full actually…all of my family, friends of friends! I had about 50 copies of my magazine and they all sold! But another project came up at the same time and I had to really rush it!

VP: So this is issue 1 and issue 2 is planned for later? When did you do this one?

BB: That was earlier this year, sort of June / July.

VP: How often would you see yourself doing this fanzine?

BB: I’d like to do them much more often than I do but with my full time job, it’s not really that straightforward. Wake up every morning at 6.30 am, draw for an hour and then go work full-time at the office. I’d like to do it much more often. What Tom and me are going to do in the next couple of weeks is a 12-hour comic and whatever comes out of that will probably be issue 2. It will be much messier, scruffier and perhaps not make much sense!

Invite© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So I’m really interested to know about your journey? Did you go to university and study journalism?

BB: I didn’t, no, not for journalism. I went to an all-girls school in Barnes and then to Wimbledon Art College for foundation. It’s not that exciting, I was shocked at how crap it is. Everyone said “this is one of the best art schools” but it was awful! I stayed and I just about scraped a pass. Some of the people who I thought were the best there got fails because they just didn’t care. They were vicious about your actual work: “This is fine”, looking at someone’s beautiful drawings “but where is your reflective notebook and diary…sorry but that is part of your course requirements. If you don’t have those then we can’t pass you. Some of the students were part of that course in the 1st place because they are dyslexics, they didn’t want to write, and that’s why they are artists! It’s just insane. Wimbledon wanted everyone to be totally institutionalised, do their 9 to 5… The people whose work was the least inspiring but came in every day got the best grades. They were the stars of the year- the work was not great but they got lads of it!

VP: Woody Allen said a big part of success is showing up. It’s one of my favorite quotes and I think about it often.

BB: It’s so true! There were these brilliant dysfunctional characters with amazing imaginations and absolutely raw talent…you should allow them to thrive and allowing people work in the way that they naturally do because that is going to produce the best work. I hated doing the foundation. I really liked the idea of going to art school and part of me regrets it now; I don’t regret the choice I made because I had a brilliant time going to Leeds reading English Literature. Before that, I had a lot of pressure from everybody; I went to an all-girls private school all through my secondary school and all they were interested in was academia. They didn’t care about you wanting to be an artist; they just thought that was pathetic, they hated me. I’d say I want to be a cartoonist when I am older, and they’d go “Come again?” I always wanted to be a cartoonist since I was about 5. And then I ended up doing English, what was I thinking!

VP: I think it actually ties in, as it’s very close. I call what I do visual journalism or… cartoonist?

BB: Oh, but you’re not allowed to say cartoonist! We are visual communicators or sequential artists.

Camera© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So you knew that young! I remember doing my 1st graphic novel at 7.

BB: But in France, they have a much stronger culture of comics.

VP: That is true if you come from the right background. My family did not have a clue and I had to come here to explore all that was possible…

BB: I feel exactly the same. I did not even know people did comic books until I was maybe in my 2nd and 3rd year at university. I was in Cornwall on a holiday with my family and I was getting the train back to London. We went into Waterstones as I wanted to buy a book for the train. I noticed this really colorful cartoon and I picked up this book and it was Daniel Clowes20th Century Eight Ball”. I thought grown-ups didn’t do cartoons, I had nor idea! Some of his pictures are so grotesque and disgusting; then I realised some of them were just about people chatting over coffee and having existential conversations.

VP: It’s very close to what you do, isn’t it? It’s definitely inspired you?

BB: Oh yeah, oh god, completely! I picked up this thing and it was a revelation! I recall thinking I can’t believe this thing is real; I can’t wait to read it. I was laughing so much while reading it on my way back on the train. Then I read this comic strip called “Art School Confidential”. You have to read it if you did not have a good time at art college. It’s so fun, it’s just the best, it’s perfect, and it’s exactly my experience of Art College! And then I realised other people were like me, they wanted to be a cartoonist and everyone at art school told them they were fools. You have to read it, it’s very good, it’s a collection of a lot his fanzines. It’s a satirical expose of his time at art school with a lot of people who are very pretentious. It seems amazing now that I didn’t know that he existed. I always associated comics with either superheroes, for boys or the dirty and sexy stuff like Vizz. Part of me wishes I could really love Vizz but I am put off every time I read it. “Yeah, right, woman with massive boobs naked in some joke…” it’s really basic toilet humour!

VP: We need more women graphic novelists!

BB: I agree. From those books, I discovered a whole world of cartoonists in America. It’s massive over there!

Cook© Becky Barnicoat

VP: What do you think of the UK comic book industry?

BB: I don’t think it even exists. There is not even a publisher that has an interest in it, really. Jonathan Cape do a few but they mainly bring American ones over. They just publish so very few British people. I don’t feel there is anyone really looking for it. So everyone over here is getting obsessed with Daniel Clowes, Charles Burnes and Chris Ware. They’re just about discovering people that, if you don’t know who they are, you must be living in Britain.

VP: Have you had a look at what’s going on in Europe?

BB: I did take a look. I went over to Portugal, in Lisbon to write a feature on the arts scene there for the Guardian. I met up with a load of comic book artists and illustrators such as Andre LemosJoao-Maio Pinto, Filipe Abranches.  It was fantastic! They had that wonderful European attitude: “We grew up with comic books, it’s part of our culture”. I said I only discovered “Strip Burger” when I was 21. They said “Strip Burger, we knew about that when we were only 2!”

CIMG1387Becky’s office at home © Becky Barnicoat

VP: That’s true with French people too. When you went to Comica festival, did you feel that something was about to take off? I know Paul Gravett feels very religiously that it is happening!

BB: Ah, Paul! Paul is incredible and without him, it would be…he is basically the comic book scene now. It all kind of stems from him, it is fantastic to have him there like this uncle who advises all those artists who didn’t’ think they could do this. He is the catalyst. Since I have discovered that, I’ve realised there is this world of people who want to do this, who love it, who know about all these artists. And they’re really frustrated in this country because it’s not really understood. People are quite illiterate, I think, regarding comics. But I have met loads of people now through Comica and other things. I just discovered this guy called Dash Shaw; his first book is about a thousand pages, called “Bottomless Belly Button”, Fantagraphics. He did this living in a tiny bedroom; he said he was so poor. I asked him how he made it as a comic book artist, how he paid his rent. He said, “ When I left college, I went and rented a tiny, tiny room for $200 a month and I worked part-time as a life model and I drew every second of every day. And he said it took him years, he must have drawn over a thousand pages of comics until anything happened. And he presented a manuscript to a big editor at a comics’ fair; they took him on and published it immediately. It’s a fairytale.

VP: Well, it is. You have to have some kind of break otherwise…

BB: Otherwise you are plugging away in the bedroom!

Tune-in next week for Part 2 of the interview!

Bear

© Becky Barnicoat

Becky Barnicoat works as the commissioning editor on the Guardian Weekend magazine, cheapest but is also a cartoonist and currently works on a new comic about a musical bear – you can see a couple of sketches from it on her blog.

She’s always drawn, pill and when she was at school I did a whole English project (the title was ‘My future career’) in comic book form. She got a D- and a detention for it. One could say that was kind of the theme of things – most authority figures think cartoons are for babies. “I wish I could have shown them Maus so they could see how wrong they were, but I didn’t know it existed back then” Becky says.

Everyone is here zine© Becky Barnicoat

She started the blog Come in, Everyone is here already a couple of years ago and since then has started drawing for various people – including Le Cool magazine, Harry Hill and Five Dials. She was on the panel at the Salem Brownstone event at Comica this year, and last year drew the ‘Bowie and Bowie’ comic strip for Comica PoCom – which was on the wall in the ICA.

She is an enterprising gal as she also sporadically self-publishes a zine called Everyone Is Here Already.

Valerie Pezeron: What is the inspiration behind your work? Did you use visual references doing your faces?

CIMG1395Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

Becky Barnicoat: Actually, that particular page all came from my head. It’s probably what I have always done from when I was a kid sitting in lessons, just drawing faces and caricatures of my teachers, that was quite a big thing. One of them was quite a nice woman, but she had an odd-looking face and I drew an awful caricature of her. She found my notebook and she looked really hurt, that was awful!

CIMG1392Photograph Becky Barnicoat© Valerie Pezeron

VP: Was it the lady who sent you to detention?
BB: She wasn’t one of the bad teachers but one of the good ones. It’s just that she looked a little bit like a guinea pig. But I won’t say anymore because she might read this! So this what I have always done; I just did “Faces” from my head, I find it really fun. I love the possibility of how ugly something could be but I don’t find that disgusting: I love weird faces so much and sometimes I see people on the street and their faces are just bizarre. The odder the shape the better it is.

VP: I agree with you there are so many different characters out there, especially where you live, in Stoke Newington.
BB: Oh yes! I cycle to work and I see many faces I want to draw! The other day I was cycling through Newington green and I saw this woman crossing the road and she had so much of something on her face that her skin was almost reddy-orange. And I was thinking “My, she’s put a bit too much foundation on, it looks extraordinary” and I thought maybe the poor woman has some terrible skin condition. And she would be a wonderful drawing but not in a way that would be mocking her. I love it when people look unusual.

Profile© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So would it be fair to say it is people that draw you to being creative? It’s not about the blandness of objects…

BB: That’s probably true; I’m not very good with objects. Landscapes? Not so much. It’s never been my thing, which is actually now a problem. I can get my pen going on a person or an animal but I have to put them somewhere and perspective is tricky.

VP: Don’t downplay your abilities!BB: (Laughter) So this is one side of what I am interested in. These were people who were on the Internet, and I drew them in on style…

VP: Glad you bring that up. I have noticed you don’t have one particular style.

BB: No, Definitely not!

VP: Is it on purpose or did you try to develop one or you don’t care that much?

BB: Good question as I think about it a lot. I definitely don’t try not to have one style. I just can’t imagine myself committing to just one style; I’d really miss too much the other style.

VP: So do you apply one style to one specific subject?

BB: Yeah, I suppose that is it, but it’s not that conscious. It just happens. I think of an idea and it’s immediately obvious to me what style should be for that.

VP: I see, very interestingly, you use all kinds of medium, inks, pen and washes, watercolour…

BB: It’s not premeditated when I use, and I love to use pen and ink. And I use this medium mostly.

monster© Becky Barnicoat

VP: Tell us about the fanzine. When did you start it?

BB: That was a project a comic book artist friend of mine called Tom and I started. Just like me, he has a full-time job. We both want to be comic book artists and we decided we should do a comic book. A friend of mine who used to work in a bookshop called Persephone proposed we do a comic book evening; it will be in two months, you both work on the comic book and then we can sell it in the shop with drinks and music and we invite people along. They were ALL of our friends, there weren’t any strangers there at all!

VP: How many people?

BB: It was quite full actually…all of my family, friends of friends! I had about 50 copies of my magazine and they all sold! But another project came up at the same time and I had to really rush it!

VP: So this is issue 1 and issue 2 is planned for later? When did you do this one?

BB: That was earlier this year, sort of June / July.

VP: How often would you see yourself doing this fanzine?

BB: I’d like to do them much more often than I do but with my full time job, it’s not really that straightforward. Wake up every morning at 6.30 am, draw for an hour and then go work full-time at the office. I’d like to do it much more often. What Tom and me are going to do in the next couple of weeks is a 12-hour comic and whatever comes out of that will probably be issue 2. It will be much messier, scruffier and perhaps not make much sense!

Invite© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So I’m really interested to know about your journey? Did you go to university and study journalism?

BB: I didn’t, no, not for journalism. I went to an all-girls school in Barnes and then to Wimbledon Art College for foundation. It’s not that exciting, I was shocked at how crap it is. Everyone said “this is one of the best art schools” but it was awful! I stayed and I just about scraped a pass. Some of the people who I thought were the best there got fails because they just didn’t care. They were vicious about your actual work: “This is fine”, looking at someone’s beautiful drawings “but where is your reflective notebook and diary…sorry but that is part of your course requirements. If you don’t have those then we can’t pass you. Some of the students were part of that course in the 1st place because they are dyslexics, they didn’t want to write, and that’s why they are artists! It’s just insane. Wimbledon wanted everyone to be totally institutionalised, do their 9 to 5… The people whose work was the least inspiring but came in every day got the best grades. They were the stars of the year- the work was not great but they got lads of it!

VP: Woody Allen said a big part of success is showing up. It’s one of my favorite quotes and I think about it often.

BB: It’s so true! There were these brilliant dysfunctional characters with amazing imaginations and absolutely raw talent…you should allow them to thrive and allowing people work in the way that they naturally do because that is going to produce the best work. I hated doing the foundation. I really liked the idea of going to art school and part of me regrets it now; I don’t regret the choice I made because I had a brilliant time going to Leeds reading English Literature. Before that, I had a lot of pressure from everybody; I went to an all-girls private school all through my secondary school and all they were interested in was academia. They didn’t care about you wanting to be an artist; they just thought that was pathetic, they hated me. I’d say I want to be a cartoonist when I am older, and they’d go “Come again?” I always wanted to be a cartoonist since I was about 5. And then I ended up doing English, what was I thinking!

VP: I think it actually ties in, as it’s very close. I call what I do visual journalism or… cartoonist?

BB: Oh, but you’re not allowed to say cartoonist! We are visual communicators or sequential artists.

Camera© Becky Barnicoat

VP: So you knew that young! I remember doing my 1st graphic novel at 7.

BB: But in France, they have a much stronger culture of comics.

VP: That is true if you come from the right background. My family did not have a clue and I had to come here to explore all that was possible…

BB: I feel exactly the same. I did not even know people did comic books until I was maybe in my 2nd and 3rd year at university. I was in Cornwall on a holiday with my family and I was getting the train back to London. We went into Waterstones as I wanted to buy a book for the train. I noticed this really colorful cartoon and I picked up this book and it was Daniel Clowes20th Century Eight Ball”. I thought grown-ups didn’t do cartoons, I had nor idea! Some of his pictures are so grotesque and disgusting; then I realised some of them were just about people chatting over coffee and having existential conversations.

VP: It’s very close to what you do, isn’t it? It’s definitely inspired you?

BB: Oh yeah, oh god, completely! I picked up this thing and it was a revelation! I recall thinking I can’t believe this thing is real; I can’t wait to read it. I was laughing so much while reading it on my way back on the train. Then I read this comic strip called “Art School Confidential”. You have to read it if you did not have a good time at art college. It’s so fun, it’s just the best, it’s perfect, and it’s exactly my experience of Art College! And then I realised other people were like me, they wanted to be a cartoonist and everyone at art school told them they were fools. You have to read it, it’s very good, it’s a collection of a lot his fanzines. It’s a satirical expose of his time at art school with a lot of people who are very pretentious. It seems amazing now that I didn’t know that he existed. I always associated comics with either superheroes, for boys or the dirty and sexy stuff like Vizz. Part of me wishes I could really love Vizz but I am put off every time I read it. “Yeah, right, woman with massive boobs naked in some joke…” it’s really basic toilet humour!

VP: We need more women graphic novelists!

BB: I agree. From those books, I discovered a whole world of cartoonists in America. It’s massive over there!

Cook© Becky Barnicoat

VP: What do you think of the UK comic book industry?

BB: I don’t think it even exists. There is not even a publisher that has an interest in it, really. Jonathan Cape do a few but they mainly bring American ones over. They just publish so very few British people. I don’t feel there is anyone really looking for it. So everyone over here is getting obsessed with Daniel Clowes, Charles Burnes and Chris Ware. They’re just about discovering people that, if you don’t know who they are, you must be living in Britain.

VP: Have you had a look at what’s going on in Europe?

BB: I did take a look. I went over to Portugal, in Lisbon to write a feature on the arts scene there for the Guardian. I met up with a load of comic book artists and illustrators such as Andre LemosJoao-Maio Pinto, Filipe Abranches.  It was fantastic! They had that wonderful European attitude: “We grew up with comic books, it’s part of our culture”. I said I only discovered “Strip Burger” when I was 21. They said “Strip Burger, we knew about that when we were only 2!”

CIMG1387Becky’s office at home © Becky Barnicoat

VP: That’s true with French people too. When you went to Comica festival, did you feel that something was about to take off? I know Paul Gravett feels very religiously that it is happening!

BB: Ah, Paul! Paul is incredible and without him, it would be…he is basically the comic book scene now. It all kind of stems from him, it is fantastic to have him there like this uncle who advises all those artists who didn’t’ think they could do this. He is the catalyst. Since I have discovered that, I’ve realised there is this world of people who want to do this, who love it, who know about all these artists. And they’re really frustrated in this country because it’s not really understood. People are quite illiterate, I think, regarding comics. But I have met loads of people now through Comica and other things. I just discovered this guy called Dash Shaw; his first book is about a thousand pages, called “Bottomless Belly Button”, Fantagraphics. He did this living in a tiny bedroom; he said he was so poor. I asked him how he made it as a comic book artist, how he paid his rent. He said, “ When I left college, I went and rented a tiny, tiny room for $200 a month and I worked part-time as a life model and I drew every second of every day. And he said it took him years, he must have drawn over a thousand pages of comics until anything happened. And he presented a manuscript to a big editor at a comics’ fair; they took him on and published it immediately. It’s a fairytale.

VP: Well, it is. You have to have some kind of break otherwise…

BB: Otherwise you are plugging away in the bedroom!

Tune-in next week for Part 2 of the interview!
Amelia’s magazine did the rounds at the SS10 press days and whilst we were enthralled by so many beautiful brands we’ve thought long and hard about criteria for our summary and there was really only one thing for it– a comprehensive round up of the best environmentally friendly and fair-trade brands we’re predicting great things for in 2010… Brace yourselves guys, illness you’ve got exactly 21 days until we expect the magic to begin!

01Image courtesy of Fin

Fin
An exciting brand that is completely new to Amelia’s magazine is that of Fin, help a Scandinavian company based in Norway. Renowned for their use of organic fabrics such as wild silk, bamboo, cotton and baby alpaca, for SS10 Fin are introducing another sustainable material into their collection; milk. Yes I kid you not, milk as in the white liquid more commonly found accompanying your cornflakes at breakfast time! As the environmentally aware chaps they are Fin use a unique and I’m guessing somewhat secret method to produce super light and soft fabrics from surplus milk.

19Image courtesy of Fin

Taking inspiration for their SS10 collection from the flowing movement of parachutes, this is reflected through the spontaneous use of draping and pleating techniques creating a voluminous silhouette. Interestingly their colour palette is based on the contents of a woman’s make-up bag, and references skin tone powders, pale blusher, smoky eyeshadows and coral lipstick.

38Image courtesy of Fin

Towing the line with typical Scandinavian minimalism, Fin have given this a modern twist for their new collection resulting in a look which is both effortless and edgy, which every woman will know is a hard combination to pull off.

PB121963Image courtesy of Rachael Oku

Beyond Skin
A brand who have consistently been growing from strength to strength is that of vegan shoe label Beyond Skin. Founded way back in 2001 all shoes are handmade in Spain using the most expensive and quality eco-friendly faux leathers and textiles sourced from Europe. Featuring the trademark silhouettes that we’ve all come to know and love, SS10 sees the injection of satins, quirky floral prints and chic faux patents bringing all the favourites bang up to date.

PB121967Image courtesy of Rachael Oku

A brand new capsule range, Beyond Skin Sole is a collection of trans-seasonal pumps which are handmade in India in a very-soon-to-be IFAT certified factory. Made from fairly traded natural latex soles and lining they’re covered with organic cotton. With a whole host of styles and colourways to choose from we’re expecting these to be the new ‘it ballet pumps’ of 2010.

PB121964Image courtesy of Rachael Oku

Now stocked in the Anthropologie flagship store in London’s Regent Street, vegan footwear has never been so easily accessible.

Ciel_LittleStarPrint5501Image courtesy of Ciel

Ciel
For all those unfamiliar with Ciel (you won’t be any more), it’s the new label from Sarah Ratty the designer who brought us Conscious Earthwear. Both an ethical and environmentally friendly brand, all garments are created using 100% Azo free dyes, re-cycled fabrics and fabrics certified by ‘Oekotex’ and ‘Confidence in Textiles’.

CielBooth3Image courtesy of Ciel

Of her brand Sarah says: “I design clothes for hip, stylish and fashionable people who don’t want to sacrifice style for content”. With this in mind the SS10 collection features lots of organic linen, eco jersey and hand knitted garments, and even sees Ciel sampling Liberty prints to great effect.

BhodiLeafTee_EJF_CielSS2010Image courtesy of Ciel depicting their collaborative T-shirt for the Ethical Justice Foundation

Most recently Ciel have teamed up with Sketch to design uniforms for the staff within their funky new pop-up café at the Royal Academy, which coincides with the new show Earth: Art of a Changing World. For the duration of the exhibition (3 Dec–31 Jan) waitresses will be wearing Sarah Ratty’s signature chunky fringed ski sweater dresses.

PB061601Image courtesy of Bryce Aime

Bryce Aime
Having launched his self named label back in 2006 Bryce Aime’s main inspiration is taken from the arts, architecture and philosophy, with his signature designs reflecting an intriguing mix of form, function and finish, providing an ongoing foundation for each collection.

PB061608Image courtesy of Bryce Aime

Bucking the main floral trend seen on the catwalks for SS10 Bryce has instead channelled 50’s Parisian chic by combining classic tailoring with futuristic body con structure. With all fabrics sourced from Italy and France production is carried out locally in London helping to reduce shipping distances and keep the brands carbon footprint as low as possible.

PB061603Image courtesy of Bryce Aime

To top off the successful year, Bryce Aime has recently opened his first London boutique on Walton Street in upmarket Chelsea, designed by David Bentheim.

jumpsuit 2Image courtesy of Elena Garcia

Elena Garcia
Last but by no means least, another great designer that we discovered at the press days was Elena Garcia, whose SS10 collection is her fourth to date. Inspired by blockbuster films The English Patient and Lawrence of Arabia, Elena has developed a theme of multi-functionality, playing with semicircular shapes and ribbon ties to maximum effect. Of her collection Elena says: “I love the romantic feel of these films and the earth tones in the landscape.”

Nick_Fallon_2037Image courtesy of Elena Garcia

What really stands out about Elena’s collection is its accessibility as each garments is only available in one standard size and can be adjusted to the wearer’s measurements by using the ribbons and shell buttons sewn to each item.
As ever Elena’s range is 100% produced and developed within the UK and London specifically, where she works with local textile and manufacturing units.

Nick_Fallon_2204Image courtesy of Elena Garcia

Most garments within this luxurious collection feature Elena’s trademark felting, which is painstakingly done by hand. Other features include satin cutwork and stitch resist, a technique in which the fabric is stitched, pleated and then dyed. “This time I had fun with gathers, exploring different ways of defining the silhouette without constricting the body.”

Categories ,Anthropologie, ,Beyond Skin, ,Beyond Skin Sole, ,Bryce Aime, ,ciel, ,Confidence in Textiles, ,David Bentheim, ,Elena Garcia, ,Ethical Justice Foundation, ,Fin, ,IFAT, ,Lawrence of Arabia, ,liberty, ,Oekotex, ,Royal Academy, ,Sarah Ratty, ,Sketch, ,The English Patient

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Very Best Scented Christmas Candles

Willow candle by daria hlazatova
Willow Organic Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova.

I don’t know what it is about candles that gets me so excited. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I love beautiful smells. My house may be a mess but I quite often spritz my office with a sweetly scented room spray or light a candle to imbue a relaxing mood. I think that this is the nub of what is so brilliant about candles, viagra especially the really high quality ones that contain high quantities of essential oils – they are the simplest way to create a delightfully relaxing and cosy feeling within a space.

willow organics candle

And of course Christmas is all about candles. Since I lived in Sweden as a little girl my family has had a tradition of lighting advent candles during the month of December – and whilst I don’t spend much time at my parent’s home anymore, rx I always look forward to candlelit dinners when I return for Christmas. Candles impart a certain cosiness which the Danish call “hygge” – and during these bitterly cold dark winter months is most sorely appreciated.

Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova
Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle by Daria Hlazatova.

This year my favourite discovery is the Willow Organic Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle. It comes beautifully presented in a beribboned fold out box and utilises the naturally healing and calming effects of precious oils that have been synonymous with Christmas since biblical times.

Willow candle box
willow candle box open

From the wonderful scents to the gold leaf that floats glittering in the top of the wax, it doesn’t get more christmassy than this. The Willow Organic shop in Kings Road, Chelsea is open until the 23rd December, so there’s still time to grab a fabulous Christmas candle before the big day.

Cire_Trudon_by_Megan_Piontkowski
Cire Trudon by Megan Piontkowski.

Earlier this year I discovered the French Cire Trudon brand, which has been in operation in various guises since 1643. Alongside very high quality candles presented in beautiful glass pots with heraldic shields, they also produce stunning room sprays in statement bottles and a boxed set containing a room spray, candle and illustrated fairy tale – the idea being to encourage children to enjoy evocative scents from a very young age. Not for the hard up these boxed sets don’t come cheap, but I love the idea and the illustrated booklets are a delight.

Sinbad the Sailor - Fairy Tale Box - Cire Trudon

Recently discovered: the Albam independent menswear clothing store in Spitalfields stocks three yummy varieties of candle, my favourite being the figgy one. When I went in they were also testing out a new scent called Library, which was suitably masculine. Unfortunately I don’t think you can buy these online but it’s definitely worth taking a trip down to this great little store. I have since discovered that these candles are made by ecological candle makers True Grace. You can find a whole host of flavours online for a very reasonable price here.

Spitalfields Candle Co by ellie sutton
Spitalfields Candle Co and Tocca candles by Ellie Sutton.

There is also the Spitalfields Candle Co. which uses sustainably sourced soya wax in all candles. It was hard to choose my favourite from such a yummy range only briefly sniffed in the Inspitalfields gift store, but I think it has to be Lemon Verbena – I just love that clean bright scent.

Diptyque Candle - The Cloud Commission
Diptyque Candle by The Cloud Commission.

Tocca are a high end scent company that stock in Liberty – I particularly like the sound of the Bianca candle which contains Green Tea and Lemon. Each year the Parisian brand Diptyque creates a special Christmas range, in beautifully decorated coloured glass jars. The Orange Epicee sounds yummy, as does the Canelle.

Jo Malone by Gareth A Hopkins
Jo Malone by Gareth A Hopkins.

Lastly but no means least Jo Malone offers incredibly classy scents, all tastefully presented in cream boxes with crisp branding. The limited edition Pine & Eucalyptus Collection sounds glorious, and how about a giant candle with not one but four wicks to make a major statement?

Right, I’m off to get on with my present wrapping by the scent of my Willow Organic candle. Have a glorious Christmas everyone.

Categories ,Advent, ,Albam, ,Beauty, ,candle, ,Christmas, ,Cire Trudon, ,Danish, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,Diptyque, ,Ellie Sutton, ,Essential Oils, ,Fig, ,Gareth A Hopkins, ,gifts, ,Gold Frankincense and Myrrh candle, ,hygge, ,Jo Malone, ,Kings Road, ,liberty, ,Megan Piontkowski, ,organic, ,Pine & Eucalyptus Collection, ,spitalfields, ,Spitalfields Candle Co., ,sweden, ,The Cloud Commission, ,Tocca, ,True Grace, ,Village Classic Candle, ,Willow Organic

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Amelia’s Magazine | Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits: a perfect idea for Mothering Sunday

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits
Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Okay, order so I know it’s Pancake Day, and International Women’s Day. But I want to talk about BISCUITS. And why not? Mothering Sunday is coming up this weekend and what better excuse to get baking. In fact, there are plenty of good reasons to make biscuits at any time of the year, as you will discover if you get your paws on the fabulous Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. I promise you’ll be drooling before you’ve even opened the delicious front cover.

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

I discovered Biscuiteers a bit late for Valentines Day, but they kindly sent me a copy of their book, written by Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore. Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits is the most divinely designed and photographed bible of biscuit goodness. And what I like is that it is very clearly a collaborative effort, with thanks to Victoria Sawdon – who not only art directed the book but illustrates all the Biscuiteers tins – mentioned alongside thanks to all the biscuit icers: Rina Wanti, Ceridwen Olofson and Belinda Chen. I want their skills!

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

Biscuiteers was started with the aim of making biscuits that look as beautiful as they taste. They are launched in seasonal collections to match specific events, and are aimed at adults in high end stores such as Harrods, Liberty and Fortnum & Mason. The Biscuiteers are proud to have built a business on old fashioned non-industrialised techniques and all the biscuits are still hand made and therefore individual. However, with the help of the Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits the common biscuit baker can give it a go ourselves.

Biscuiteers Book of Iced BiscuitsBiscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits is an extraordinarily beautiful book that features all the information you need to know to create the perfect dough and that all important icing, both royal and flooded. As well as easy to follow guides the book offers recommendations for how to package and post your biscuity creations. As you would expect it includes chapters on biscuits for a huge variety of occasions, from the biggies such as Christmas, Halloween, Mother’s Day (this weekend) and Easter, down to individual ideas such as New Baby biscuits – pastel bears and ducks – and garden themed biscuits. There are even some jokey cupcake biscuits, which says something about the enduring popularity of the cupcake, though I’d be happy to wager a bet on the biscuit take over.

Biscuiteers Book of Iced BiscuitsBiscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

I made some dodgy Valentines Day biscuits using an online recipe, but with the help of this book I hope very soon to be somewhat more skilled, and I bet your mum would love nothing more than a batch of beautiful home made biscuits for Mothering Sunday – even if they don’t turn out quite as perfectly as the ones in Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. Hey, it’s good to have something to aspire to!

Valentines biscuits
My feeble efforts…

You can buy the book on the Biscuiteers website. The book won Best Desserts Book UK and this month it goes into the international final for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, held in Paris. Well done! And well deserved.

Categories ,Belinda Chen, ,Best Desserts Book UK, ,Biscuiteers, ,Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits, ,Ceridwen Olofson, ,Christmas, ,Easter, ,Flooded Icing, ,Fortnum & Mason, ,Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, ,Hallowe’en, ,Harriet Hastings, ,Harrods, ,International Women’s Day, ,liberty, ,Mother’s Day, ,Mothering Sunday, ,New Baby, ,Pancake Day, ,Rina Wanti, ,Royal Icing, ,Sarah Moore, ,Valentine’s Day, ,Victoria Sawdon

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Amelia’s Magazine | Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits: a perfect idea for Mothering Sunday

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits
Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Okay, order so I know it’s Pancake Day, and International Women’s Day. But I want to talk about BISCUITS. And why not? Mothering Sunday is coming up this weekend and what better excuse to get baking. In fact, there are plenty of good reasons to make biscuits at any time of the year, as you will discover if you get your paws on the fabulous Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. I promise you’ll be drooling before you’ve even opened the delicious front cover.

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

I discovered Biscuiteers a bit late for Valentines Day, but they kindly sent me a copy of their book, written by Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore. Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits is the most divinely designed and photographed bible of biscuit goodness. And what I like is that it is very clearly a collaborative effort, with thanks to Victoria Sawdon – who not only art directed the book but illustrates all the Biscuiteers tins – mentioned alongside thanks to all the biscuit icers: Rina Wanti, Ceridwen Olofson and Belinda Chen. I want their skills!

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

Biscuiteers was started with the aim of making biscuits that look as beautiful as they taste. They are launched in seasonal collections to match specific events, and are aimed at adults in high end stores such as Harrods, Liberty and Fortnum & Mason. The Biscuiteers are proud to have built a business on old fashioned non-industrialised techniques and all the biscuits are still hand made and therefore individual. However, with the help of the Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits the common biscuit baker can give it a go ourselves.

Biscuiteers Book of Iced BiscuitsBiscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits is an extraordinarily beautiful book that features all the information you need to know to create the perfect dough and that all important icing, both royal and flooded. As well as easy to follow guides the book offers recommendations for how to package and post your biscuity creations. As you would expect it includes chapters on biscuits for a huge variety of occasions, from the biggies such as Christmas, Halloween, Mother’s Day (this weekend) and Easter, down to individual ideas such as New Baby biscuits – pastel bears and ducks – and garden themed biscuits. There are even some jokey cupcake biscuits, which says something about the enduring popularity of the cupcake, though I’d be happy to wager a bet on the biscuit take over.

Biscuiteers Book of Iced BiscuitsBiscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

I made some dodgy Valentines Day biscuits using an online recipe, but with the help of this book I hope very soon to be somewhat more skilled, and I bet your mum would love nothing more than a batch of beautiful home made biscuits for Mothering Sunday – even if they don’t turn out quite as perfectly as the ones in Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. Hey, it’s good to have something to aspire to!

Valentines biscuits
My feeble efforts…

You can buy the book on the Biscuiteers website. The book won Best Desserts Book UK and this month it goes into the international final for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, held in Paris. Well done! And well deserved.

Categories ,Belinda Chen, ,Best Desserts Book UK, ,Biscuiteers, ,Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits, ,Ceridwen Olofson, ,Christmas, ,Easter, ,Flooded Icing, ,Fortnum & Mason, ,Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, ,Hallowe’en, ,Harriet Hastings, ,Harrods, ,International Women’s Day, ,liberty, ,Mother’s Day, ,Mothering Sunday, ,New Baby, ,Pancake Day, ,Rina Wanti, ,Royal Icing, ,Sarah Moore, ,Valentine’s Day, ,Victoria Sawdon

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Amelia’s Magazine | Contemporary Patchwork and Quilting at Papered Parlour with Cassandra Ellis

Papered Parlour-Quilting class
Papered Parlour fabric blooms at the Quilting class. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Since I went to the fantastic V&A quilting exhibition last year I have become somewhat fixated on learning to quilt myself – god knows when I will find the time to actually create said quilts, buy but I’m a major hoarder so I have bags and bags of scrap fabrics lurking in my cupboards just yearning to be given a creative use… the result of encouragement from my mother to make my own clothes during my teenage years. She too has bags and bags of fabric stashed in her loft. Thus it was with some excitement that I enrolled on one of the Papered Parlour quilting workshops, which have been selling out super fast in these thrifty times.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class
Papered Parlour-Quilting class
Papered Parlour-Quilting class

The Papered Parlour HQ is located on a characterful side road just off Clapham High Street, far from the trendy hustle and bustle of east London. It’s a haven of creative inspiration with vast skylights flooding the premises with sunlight. The Papered Parlour Contemporary Patchwork and Quilting courses are run by Cassandra Ellis, a former interiors stylist from New Zealand, long settled in the UK, and currently making a living from her quilting obession. She sells in Liberty and Anthropologie and is available for personal commissions.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class
Papered Parlour-Quilting class
Louise serving tea when we arrived.

Cassandra doesn’t adhere to the modern school of quilting, which demands high prices for complicated patterns and carefully pre-selected rolls of brand spanking new fabrics. She instead encourages the time honoured approach of upcycling fabrics that can be found lurking somewhere in most homes, so all participants were asked to bring along our own fabric scraps. I had a good old rummage and brought along a nice selection of brightly patterned fabrics, the remains of mine and my mother’s dressmaking during the late 80s. I can still remember each dress, so they bear a lot of significance for me, and well reflect my tastes, which as you might be able to predict veer somewhat towards the colourful and highly patterned.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis
Cassandra Ellis

On arrival at Papered Parlour we were all treated to a lovely cup of tea in a pretty vintage teacup, then Cassandra sat us around the large table and introduced us to the basic quilting equipment: a cutting mat, ruler and the all important rotary cutter. Moving around the room we all told stories about the fabrics we had brought with us.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis

One lady had brought a remnant from her wedding dress and the shorts she had been wearing when she gave birth to her first child: the combination of cream embroidered silk and denim sweatshirt material making for an interesting patchwork effect. Another had ambitions to finish off a quilt that her nan had been making and one had brought a shirt that she had bought with her husband on honeymoon, which she laughed that he had since grown out of. Apparently a woman at Cassandra’s class once incorporated a bra into her quilt, and she has also been asked to make a quilt from the clothes of a deceased child, which must have been an emotional project to work on. Another lady with a terminal illness attended her class intending to make a quilt as a last gift for those she loved.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis
Rotary cutter and cutting mat.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis

Cassandra laughed that most people plan to make their first quilt for a friend but often end up keeping it… although they all have to be passed on one day. She also pointed out that even when the same fabrics are used it’s scary how indicative of ones personality a quilt is. Without even realising it my quilt reflected similar colours to the clothes I was wearing on the course, a phenomena that often happened when I was creating print designs at college.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis
Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis

Cassandra’s aim is to reclaim the art of quilt making as intuitive and non frightening… so we were all presented with easy to follow block patterns (the smaller more manageable parts that make up a whole quilt) to start playing with. Soon enough everyone was knee deep in fabric samples, some of which were provided by Papered Parlour, purchased from a local store called Fabrics Galore that sells Liberty ends of roll. Cassandra helpfully advised those nervous about their colour choices, but naturally I got stuck straight in and was soon buzzing out multiple blocks on my sewing machine.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis

Halfway through the afternoon we stopped to enjoy a delicious old fashioned sponge cake encrusted with lots of fresh berries from Cakesisters of Clapham Common: perfect sustenance for the busy creative bee.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis
Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis
Choosing my fabrics and putting them together. I could tell you a story about almost every one… that blue one at the bottom with the ditzy pattern is an off-cut of a dress I made when I was 17 to attend my aunt’s wedding. Or now I come to think of it… did my mum make it for me?

One man at a previous quilting class was so excited that he whacked out multiple quilt blocks before being hit by a truck cycling home. Luckily my own hasty output did not predicate the same outcome, though said fella was by all accounts pleased to be kept off work, enabling him to finish his quilting project. Myself? I hope to make my four colourful blocks into a big square pillow… but who knows when I will find the time…

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis
My final four blocks.

Cassandra Ellis was an excellent and inspiring tutor and the Papered Parlour the perfect place to kickstart what I hope will one day become a proper quilting hobby. If you too would like to make the most of your fabric scraps then make sure you enrol for the next batch of Papered Parlour classes, which are sure to book up just as fast as the current ones. Follow the Papered Parlour on Twitter for updates. Check out Cassandra Ellis on her Haven Workroom blog.

Papered Parlour-Quilting class Cassandra Ellis

Categories ,Anthropologie, ,Block Patterns, ,Cakesisters, ,Cassandra Ellis, ,Clapham, ,craft, ,Cutting Mat, ,Fabrics Galore, ,Haven Workroom, ,Hobby, ,liberty, ,New Zealand, ,Papered Parlour, ,Patchwork, ,Quilting, ,Quilting Class, ,Quilts, ,Rotary Cutter, ,Upcycling, ,va, ,Wedding

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Amelia’s Magazine | The ACOFI Book Tour visits Castor and Pollux in Brighton

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 -000

Art and design shop Castor and Pollux is situated in three airy arches on Brighton seafront, ampoule a location that was formerly public loos and then a yoga studio.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011
The view outside the shop. How gorgeous is this?

The arches now house a beautifully curated collection of well designed goodies: there’s a kids’ section, for sale a book section, a gallery space and lots of cards, note books, homewares and hand made jewellery. It’s all highly desirable, so I’m super happy that my Roger La Borde cards now have a home in Castor and Pollux alongside Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration. You really must visit the shop if you are in Brighton!

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011
ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011
ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011

Unfortunately I arrived last night for my ACOFI Book Tour with very little time to spare. (Thankyou traffic, in the four years since my beloved Cinquecento departed for the great car graveyard in the sky London streets have started to resemble the chaos of cities like Delhi, what with all the large trucks a-honkin’ and a-hootin’ at each other). Luckily April was on hand to help me shift piles of books down onto the seafront – aided by Suki and Alice Pattullo, who studied illustration at Brighton.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 postcards
ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 ALICE Pattullo and April
Alice Pattullo and April of Castor and Pollux.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Suki, Alice with a guest
Suki and Alice with a guest.

I should have known that if I went to Brighton I was bound to bump into some people who studied on the same course as me at University of Brighton (Ba Hons Fashion Textiles with Business Studies since you ask). Turns out the fabulous illustrator Sarah Arnett, who I first discovered at Pick Me Up (and who has since started contributing to Amelia’s Magazine) was in fact a few years ahead of me.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Sarah Arnett
Lovely Sarah Arnett.

Sarah has taken an interesting route to illustration – she specialised in weave at college (we had a choice of print, knit or weave) and then went into the textiles swatch trade, before setting up a small studio making clothes that ended up becoming a shop. She only discovered the joy of illustration when a friend bartered some Illustrator lessons in exchange for a dress. Now, not only does she produce gorgeous illustrations, but she has also recently launched the most BEAUTIFUL collection of clothes featuring her inimitable flower designs. The label is called Modern Love and you can find it in Liberty.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Lou Taylor, Jo Vintage Brighton, Kate Jenkins, April
Lou Taylor, Jo of Vintage Brighton, Kate Jenkins and April.

When Kate Jenkins turned up I recognised her instantly, and not because we have run multiple blogs featuring her unique knitted artworks. She looked familiar because she too was the year above me at Brighton. How wonderful to discover that Brighton fashion textiles graduates are doing such diverse and interesting things that have fed into the world of Amelia’s Magazine.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Juiceology
ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Angel Food Bakery
ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Angel Food Bakery.

Before my talk started guests had a chance to once again try out the lovely Juiceology juices, which I have decided are a bit like a juice equivalent of Refreshers sweeties – they have such a wonderful tang to them, quite unlike any other juice I’ve tasted. April had also managed to source some outstanding cupcakes from the Angel Food Bakery – who, quite without my knowledge, had baked the most beautiful buttery creations featuring a transfer design of the Amelia’s Magazine logo.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Lahloo tea

This time round I also had a moment to drink a few cups of Lahloo Tea, and can confirm that both the Peppermint and Darjeeling were absolutely delicious, served very prettily in tea cosy covered china teapots. There were also of course samples of Dr.Hauschka aplenty to take away, much appreciated by those in attendance.

There were plenty of other interesting people at Castor and Pollux, and here’s a selection of those that I managed to talk to:

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Paul from Chichester
Paul had come all the way from Chichester on behalf of his girlfriend… and he’d sneaked out a copy of her issue 2 for me to sign for her birthday (hope she’s not reading this) which I thought was incredibly sweet. Fortunately he didn’t seem at all daunted by the heavy female quotient: sadly one boy ran away before my talk began. Boys, please come and meet me, my talk is just as much for you! I’d also really like to encourage as many people as possible to come and talk to me at the remaining talks… I want to hear what you are up to so that I can give your creative projects as much exposure as possible.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Sarah Meredith and Matilda
ACOFI book tour rock cakes pumpkin ring
Sarah Meredith of Rock Cakes could only stay for a little while because her little girl Matilda needed to get home for bed, but she too had brought along some back copies for me to sign. She was sporting some fantastic rings from her dainty jewellery collection – I particularly love the enamelled pumpkin and the cute birds which sit together as if talking. You can find more of her designs on the Rock Cakes website and on Etsy.

ACOFI book tour angel food bakery cupcakes
ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Angel Food Bakery
Me chomping on a cupcake from the Angel Food Bakery.

Also present was Lou Taylor, who has also recently started contributing to Amelia’s Magazine. She has been using paper art to create the most amazing props for many years, but illustration is a new thing. I think her paper cut techniques work marvellously well as illustration – see her CocknBullKid illustration for example – and am glad she has found a place to showcase this new work.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Jessie Ford
I also met illustrator Jessie Ford, whose website you can check out here.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Racheal Brooks, Racheal Stott, Verity Brown, Judith Wilding
Racheal Brooks, Racheal Stott, Verity Brown, Judith Wilding

Judith Wilding of Delicious Industries is a graphic designer, who keeps a great blog about old school design.

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Verity Brown
Verity Brown shows me her portfolio.

A few recent graduates of my course turned up just as I was finishing my talk and one had been savvy enough to bring her portfolio of lovely fashion illustrations to show me. They missed most of the part where I talk about how you absolutely have to be online and engaged with social media to promote yourself as an up and coming creative, but I hope they will listen to my advice as, unbelievably, none of them had any web presence at all! I wish my old course would ask me back to teach the students a bit more about self promotion and marketing for creatives…

ACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Verity BrownACOFI book tour Castor Pollux Art 2011 Verity Brown
Illustrations by Verity Brown.

Jo of Vintage Brighton has very speedily blogged about my talk last night, so you can find out more about it by hopping over here. Thankyou Jo!

As I upload this blog I am sitting in the Pegasus Theatre cafe in Oxford and in a few minutes I have to get along to the next date on my #ACOFI Book Tour. Tonight I will be talking at Comma Shop at about 7.30pm tonight: please do join me from 6pm to network, eat Good Biscuits, taste a new G&D ice-cream flavour and learn how to make button rosettes with Custon Made UK. Then tomorrow I will be rolling on up to Bristol to speak at the Soma Gallery. It’s all very exciting because I love meeting so many different creative communities, so do come and join me at one of these venues soon and tell me what you’re up to. I am back at Tatty Devine in Brick Lane on Tuesday 7th June. Over and out.

Categories ,ACOFI, ,Alice Pattullo, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Angel Food Bakery, ,brighton, ,Castor and Pollux, ,Cinquecento, ,CocknBullKid, ,Comma Shop, ,cupcakes, ,Custon Made UK, ,Delicious Industries, ,Dr.Hauschka, ,G&D Cafe, ,G&D ice-cream, ,Good Biscuits, ,Ice Cream, ,Jessie Ford, ,Judith Wilding, ,Juiceology, ,Kate Jenkins, ,Lahloo Tea, ,liberty, ,Lou Taylor, ,Modern Love, ,Oxford, ,Pegasus Theatre, ,Racheal Brooks, ,Racheal Stott, ,Rock Cakes, ,Roger La Borde, ,Sarah Arnett, ,Sarah Meredith, ,Soma Gallery, ,Tatty Devine, ,University of Brighton, ,Verity Brown, ,Vintage Brighton

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Best of Bust Magazine Christmas Craftacular, London 2010

Bust Craftacular
All photography by Amelia Gregory.

My ability to get out and about has been seriously curtailed over the past few weeks by the need to get my new book finished, ambulance but last weekend (but one) I was pretty determined to make it along to the Bust Craftacular at Bethnal Green’s York Hall, page if only for a mad dash around the stalls.

Bust Craftacular-Bethnal Green

Inside the old Victorian hall it was absolutely heaving with craft enthusiasts – mainly women (many with small children in tow) but also a small peppering of arty looking boys. It was like entering a multi coloured kaleidoscopic alternative universe where crafting & handmade reigns supreme – bright things everywhere vying for my attention amidst a frantic din enhanced by a backdrop of very loud music.

So, buy I whipped around the regimented rows of stalls as quick as I could, taking notes of the best stuff I found so that if you didn’t manage to make it along you’ll be able to sniff out the best stuff online. Keep in mind those last minute Christmas gifts you might need to buy as you take a gander through this little lot:

Vic Lee

Vic Lee makes printed scenes of well known hipster (can I say that in the UK?) London districts such as Broadway Market and Kingsland Road. Perfect for the East End man in your life – because let’s face it, most of them feature East London. The limited edition prints are produced on cotton paper and screen printed with environmentally friendly water based acrylic inks. They look really stunning up close, and also caught the eye of Jessica Furseth when she visited the East London Design Show.

Bust Craftacular-Xiang Zeng

Xiang Zeng is a textile designer who has produced a range of lovely printed cushions and make your own soft toy bear kits. Really cute, they look pretty easy to make so would also be perfect for and a crafty friend or even a handy older kid.

Bust Craftacular-seaside sisters owls
Bust Craftacular-fabric nation

I picked up a business card for Seaside Sisters at the Fabric Nation stall… so I am not entirely sure who to credit these wonderful owls and cushions to. Their stall was a brilliantly over the top feast for the eyes in an already overwhelming place. Loved the stuff they make from old vintage fabrics.

Bust Craftacular-andrea garland

Andrea Garland fills old tins with natural skincare goodies: what an amazing idea but no doubt a huge amount of hard work to find all those fab tins. She’s a trained aromatherapist who makes all her products from scratch in Hackney with as many organic and fairtrade ingredients as possible and I am very pleased to learn that none are tested on animals – but I guess that scenario is far less likely when using these kind of ingredients anyway – just one more reason to buy natural beauty brands. She sells at Liberty, Urban Outfitters and at Tatty Devine, and Viola Levy also gives her a mention in her run down of top natural beauty brands earlier this week. What a find – it goes without saying that her stall was very busy.

Bust Craftacular-shop jill

Looking for a nice little purse, or perhaps a unique oyster card holder? Jill makes the perfect thing: I was utterly transfixed by her beautifully laid out stall, featuring an array of charming goodies with graphic printed animal designs that would suit a man too. She also did a nice line in limited edition screen prints.

Bust Craftacular-Dot your Teas and Cross your Eyes

Dot your Teas and Cross your Eyes is a fashion and accessories designer by the name of Chloe. Her bold spotted print designs embellished fabulous silky dresses and she also makes some fabulous recycled fabric pom pom fascinators.

Bust Craftacular-urban cross stitch

Now for the craft loving man in your life: Urban Cross Stitch create cross stitch Star Wars kits. A wonderful meeting of 80s pop culture and the noughties crafting craze: what better way to inspire a bloke to get into this most relaxing of traditional techniques.

Bust Craftacular-James Ward plates

Last but very much not least, just as I was rounding the corner to leave I chanced upon James Ward’s plates, featuring an assortment of friendly animal characters accompanied by immortal phrases such as ‘I eat my cake in my pants’. Perfect for the parents who have everything but would nevertheless quite like to add to their piles of amusing kitchen ware.

Bust Craftacular cakes
Gratuitous cake photo…. yum yum. Now what are you waiting for? Step away from the High Street and support these talented artists and makers this Christmas… they are only a click away.

Categories ,andrea garland, ,Beauty, ,Bethnal Green, ,Broadway Market, ,Bust Craftacular, ,craft, ,Dot your Teas and Cross your Eyes, ,East London Design Show, ,Fabric Nation, ,fairtrade, ,James Ward, ,Kingsland Road, ,liberty, ,organic, ,owls, ,Seaside Sisters, ,Shop Jill, ,Skincare, ,Star Wars, ,Tatty Devine, ,Urban Cross Stitch, ,Urban Outfitters, ,Vic Lee, ,vintage, ,Xiang Zeng, ,York Hall

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Best of Bust Magazine Christmas Craftacular, London 2010

Bust Craftacular
All photography by Amelia Gregory.

My ability to get out and about has been seriously curtailed over the past few weeks by the need to get my new book finished, ambulance but last weekend (but one) I was pretty determined to make it along to the Bust Craftacular at Bethnal Green’s York Hall, page if only for a mad dash around the stalls.

Bust Craftacular-Bethnal Green

Inside the old Victorian hall it was absolutely heaving with craft enthusiasts – mainly women (many with small children in tow) but also a small peppering of arty looking boys. It was like entering a multi coloured kaleidoscopic alternative universe where crafting & handmade reigns supreme – bright things everywhere vying for my attention amidst a frantic din enhanced by a backdrop of very loud music.

So, buy I whipped around the regimented rows of stalls as quick as I could, taking notes of the best stuff I found so that if you didn’t manage to make it along you’ll be able to sniff out the best stuff online. Keep in mind those last minute Christmas gifts you might need to buy as you take a gander through this little lot:

Vic Lee

Vic Lee makes printed scenes of well known hipster (can I say that in the UK?) London districts such as Broadway Market and Kingsland Road. Perfect for the East End man in your life – because let’s face it, most of them feature East London. The limited edition prints are produced on cotton paper and screen printed with environmentally friendly water based acrylic inks. They look really stunning up close, and also caught the eye of Jessica Furseth when she visited the East London Design Show.

Bust Craftacular-Xiang Zeng

Xiang Zeng is a textile designer who has produced a range of lovely printed cushions and make your own soft toy bear kits. Really cute, they look pretty easy to make so would also be perfect for and a crafty friend or even a handy older kid.

Bust Craftacular-seaside sisters owls
Bust Craftacular-fabric nation

I picked up a business card for Seaside Sisters at the Fabric Nation stall… so I am not entirely sure who to credit these wonderful owls and cushions to. Their stall was a brilliantly over the top feast for the eyes in an already overwhelming place. Loved the stuff they make from old vintage fabrics.

Bust Craftacular-andrea garland

Andrea Garland fills old tins with natural skincare goodies: what an amazing idea but no doubt a huge amount of hard work to find all those fab tins. She’s a trained aromatherapist who makes all her products from scratch in Hackney with as many organic and fairtrade ingredients as possible and I am very pleased to learn that none are tested on animals – but I guess that scenario is far less likely when using these kind of ingredients anyway – just one more reason to buy natural beauty brands. She sells at Liberty, Urban Outfitters and at Tatty Devine, and Viola Levy also gives her a mention in her run down of top natural beauty brands earlier this week. What a find – it goes without saying that her stall was very busy.

Bust Craftacular-shop jill

Looking for a nice little purse, or perhaps a unique oyster card holder? Jill makes the perfect thing: I was utterly transfixed by her beautifully laid out stall, featuring an array of charming goodies with graphic printed animal designs that would suit a man too. She also did a nice line in limited edition screen prints.

Bust Craftacular-Dot your Teas and Cross your Eyes

Dot your Teas and Cross your Eyes is a fashion and accessories designer by the name of Chloe. Her bold spotted print designs embellished fabulous silky dresses and she also makes some fabulous recycled fabric pom pom fascinators.

Bust Craftacular-urban cross stitch

Now for the craft loving man in your life: Urban Cross Stitch create cross stitch Star Wars kits. A wonderful meeting of 80s pop culture and the noughties crafting craze: what better way to inspire a bloke to get into this most relaxing of traditional techniques.

Bust Craftacular-James Ward plates

Last but very much not least, just as I was rounding the corner to leave I chanced upon James Ward’s plates, featuring an assortment of friendly animal characters accompanied by immortal phrases such as ‘I eat my cake in my pants’. Perfect for the parents who have everything but would nevertheless quite like to add to their piles of amusing kitchen ware.

Bust Craftacular cakes
Gratuitous cake photo…. yum yum. Now what are you waiting for? Step away from the High Street and support these talented artists and makers this Christmas… they are only a click away.

Categories ,andrea garland, ,Beauty, ,Bethnal Green, ,Broadway Market, ,Bust Craftacular, ,craft, ,Dot your Teas and Cross your Eyes, ,East London Design Show, ,Fabric Nation, ,fairtrade, ,James Ward, ,Kingsland Road, ,liberty, ,organic, ,owls, ,Seaside Sisters, ,Shop Jill, ,Skincare, ,Star Wars, ,Tatty Devine, ,Urban Cross Stitch, ,Urban Outfitters, ,Vic Lee, ,vintage, ,Xiang Zeng, ,York Hall

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Amelia’s Magazine | Tent London 2010: Sustainable Design Review

vuvuzela lamp tent
Tent 2010 Tomoni Sayuda photo by Amelia gregory
Tomoni Sayuda. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Tent London featured both curated rooms and areas where designers had paid for stands. In Tent Digital I loved this whimsical piece by Tomoni Sayuda even though I have no idea what it’s purpose was: ambient sounds were played when the glowing eggs were placed in different nesty holes.

Tent 2010  David Chipperfield

Kingston University had cleverly invited all their now famous alumni, medications including David Chipperfield and Ed Carpenter of the ubiquitous pigeon lamp, viagra dosage to display their designs in the Made in Kingston room – thus creating the biggest promotional tool ever known. Very very savvy. The only Kingston graduate show I had time to look at was the MA Illustration show; read my review here.

Tent 2010 Ed Carpenter

And then onto the stands…
The Modern Garden Company make exterior furniture, page and I was most taken with Rock, fun felt wool cushion seats that will even work in the great outdoors, allegedly.

Tent 2010 Modern Garden Company

Bespoke lamp stands from Alex Randall featured antlers and a swarm of stuffed rats from Susan Labarre dubbed the “most nightmarish lamp ever created…”

Tent 2010 alex randall

Beautiful abstract carpets from Danish textile designer Naja Utzon Popov are designed in her East End workshop and woven by skilled artisans in India.

Tent 2010 Naja Utzon Popov

Kitchen clocks that once graced the walls of 1970s German kitchens were lovingly sourced, repaired and displayed by London Timepiece. Confusing name though.

Tent 2010 London Timepiece

A vuvuzela lamp! Whatever next! Very amusing. From John Edwards.

The JJAM Curators Collective had put together a fun collection of designs made using the most banal everyday item – the yellow dishcloth. Stand outs included Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard, So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio, and A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes.

Tent 2010 So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio,
So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio

Tent 2010 JJAM Collective
Tent 2010 Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard
Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard

Tent 2010 A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes
A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes

Recycled fabric covered armchairs by Kelly Swallow reminded me of local shop Squint. But anyone who refashions old fabrics has got my seal of approval – there’s room for many of these bespoke designers up and down the country.

Tent 2010 Kelly Swallow

The Makaranda collection by Quirico featured vibrant brightly patterned and coloured foot stools and pouffes – although I somewhat balked when I discovered the price – a mere £425 each. Oh what it must be to have a huge disposable income.

Tent 2010 Makaranda collection by Quirico

There was some lovely delicate jewellery on display from Clerkenwell based shop Family Tree.

Tent 2010 Family Tree

Miller Goodman make wonderful wooden block games out of rubberwood for kids.

Tent 2010 Miller Goodman

Very clever plastic fold up Flux Chairs, but I wasn’t convinced of their comfort levels.

Tent 2010 Flux Chairs

And a big mention surely has to go to the huge blue rope Knitting Nancy interactive installation from Superblue that was prominently installed as everyone came in. Fabulous fun, and a serious nod to the impact of craft techniques on the entire design world.

Superblue knitting nancy

Tent 2010 Tomoni Sayuda photo by Amelia gregory
Tomoni Sayuda. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Tent London featured both curated rooms and areas where designers had paid for stands. In Tent Digital I loved this whimsical piece by Tomoni Sayuda even though I have no idea what it’s purpose was: ambient sounds were played when the glowing eggs were placed in different nesty holes.

Tent 2010  David Chipperfield

Kingston University had cleverly invited all their now famous alumni, about it including David Chipperfield and Ed Carpenter of the ubiquitous pigeon lamp, check to display their designs in the Made in Kingston room – thus creating the biggest promotional tool ever known. Very very savvy. The only Kingston graduate show I had time to look at was the MA Illustration show; read my review here.

Tent 2010 Ed Carpenter

And then onto the stands…
The Modern Garden Company make exterior furniture, and I was most taken with Rock, fun felt wool cushion seats that will even work in the great outdoors, allegedly.

Tent 2010 Modern Garden Company

Bespoke lamp stands from Alex Randall featured antlers and a swarm of stuffed rats from Susan Labarre dubbed the “most nightmarish lamp ever created…”

Tent 2010 alex randall

Beautiful abstract carpets from Danish textile designer Naja Utzon Popov are designed in her East End workshop and woven by skilled artisans in India.

Tent 2010 Naja Utzon Popov

Kitchen clocks that once graced the walls of 1970s German kitchens were lovingly sourced, repaired and displayed by London Timepiece. Confusing name though.

Tent 2010 London Timepiece

A vuvuzela lamp! Whatever next! Very amusing. From John Edwards.

vuvuzela lamp tent

The JJAM Curators Collective had put together a fun collection of designs made using the most banal everyday item – the yellow dishcloth. Stand outs included Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard, So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio, and A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes.

Tent 2010 So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio,
So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio

Tent 2010 JJAM Collective
Tent 2010 Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard
Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard

Tent 2010 A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes
A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes

Recycled fabric covered armchairs by Kelly Swallow reminded me of local shop Squint. But anyone who refashions old fabrics has got my seal of approval – there’s room for many of these bespoke designers up and down the country.

Tent 2010 Kelly Swallow

The Makaranda collection by Quirico featured vibrant brightly patterned and coloured foot stools and pouffes – although I somewhat balked when I discovered the price – a mere £425 each. Oh what it must be to have a huge disposable income.

Tent 2010 Makaranda collection by Quirico

There was some lovely delicate jewellery on display from Clerkenwell based shop Family Tree.

Tent 2010 Family Tree

Miller Goodman make wonderful wooden block games out of rubberwood for kids.

Tent 2010 Miller Goodman

Very clever plastic fold up Flux Chairs, but I wasn’t convinced of their comfort levels.

Tent 2010 Flux Chairs

And a big mention surely has to go to the huge blue rope Knitting Nancy interactive installation from Superblue that was prominently installed as everyone came in. Fabulous fun, and a serious nod to the impact of craft techniques on the entire design world.

Superblue knitting nancy

Tent 2010 Tomoni Sayuda photo by Amelia gregory
Tomoni Sayuda. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Tent London featured both curated rooms and areas where designers had paid for stands. In Tent Digital I loved this whimsical piece by Tomoni Sayuda even though I have no idea what it’s purpose was: ambient sounds were played when the glowing eggs were placed in different nesty holes.

Tent 2010  David Chipperfield

Kingston University had cleverly invited all their now famous alumni, viagra including David Chipperfield and Ed Carpenter of the ubiquitous pigeon lamp, to display their designs in the Made in Kingston room – thus creating the biggest promotional tool ever known. Very very savvy. The only Kingston graduate show I had time to look at was the MA Illustration show; read my review here.

Tent 2010 Ed Carpenter

And then onto the stands…
The Modern Garden Company make exterior furniture, and I was most taken with Rock, fun felt wool cushion seats that will even work in the great outdoors, allegedly.

Tent 2010 Modern Garden Company

Bespoke lamp stands from Alex Randall featured antlers and a swarm of stuffed rats from Susan Labarre dubbed the “most nightmarish lamp ever created…”

Tent 2010 alex randall

Beautiful abstract carpets from Danish textile designer Naja Utzon Popov are designed in her East End workshop and woven by skilled artisans in India.

Tent 2010 Naja Utzon Popov

Kitchen clocks that once graced the walls of 1970s German kitchens were lovingly sourced, repaired and displayed by London Timepiece. Confusing name though.

Tent 2010 London Timepiece

A vuvuzela lamp! Whatever next! Very amusing. From John Edwards.

vuvuzela lamp tent

The JJAM Curators Collective had put together a fun collection of designs made using the most banal everyday item – the yellow dishcloth. Stand outs included Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard, So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio, and A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes.

Tent 2010 So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio,
So Much Time So Little To Do (I wish!!!) by Cure Studio

Tent 2010 JJAM Collective
Tent 2010 Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard
Polish it Off! by Dora & Fullard

Tent 2010 A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes
A Word about Fashion by Catherine Ann Haynes

Recycled fabric covered armchairs by Kelly Swallow reminded me of local shop Squint. But anyone who refashions old fabrics has got my seal of approval – there’s room for many of these bespoke designers up and down the country.

Tent 2010 Kelly Swallow

The Makaranda collection by Quirico featured vibrant brightly patterned and coloured foot stools and pouffes – although I somewhat balked when I discovered the price – a mere £425 each. Oh what it must be to have a huge disposable income.

Tent 2010 Makaranda collection by Quirico

There was some lovely delicate jewellery on display from Clerkenwell based shop Family Tree.

Tent 2010 Family Tree

Miller Goodman make wonderful wooden block games out of rubberwood for kids.

Tent 2010 Miller Goodman

Very clever plastic fold up Flux Chairs, but I wasn’t convinced of their comfort levels.

Tent 2010 Flux Chairs

And a big mention surely has to go to the huge blue rope Knitting Nancy interactive installation from Superblue that was prominently installed as everyone came in. Fabulous fun, and a serious nod to the impact of craft techniques on the entire design world. Read about the LAB CRAFT exhibition at Tent here.

Superblue knitting nancy

Tent 2010 Zoe Murphy
Painted tables by Zoe Murphy.

Now for the best of sustainable design at Tent London, ailment which was dispersed throughout the exhibition and included the exterior exhibit ShowHow, showcasing Danish design, in Dray Walk.

Furniture Magpies collect old furniture and put it together in unconventional ways – so for instance chair legs become a lamp stand, and an old drawer becomes a desk with a liftable lid. Their designs don’t always work – sometimes the results just look a bit too clunky – but I really liked the bravado of these designs, which often use brightly coloured fabric trimmings.

Tent 2010 Furniture Magpies
Tent 2010 Furniture Magpies

The Nogg chicken house is the latest in avian des-res. And you can’t beat it for a stylish bit of garden sculpture – it’s the most modern chicken coop you can lay your hands on, made of yummy smelling cedar wood as well. Great for rearing your own eggs.

Tent 2010 nogg chicken coop

Zoe Murphy is based down on the south coast in Margate, where she no doubt sources all her retro furniture for a pretty penny – but it’s her beautifully painted designs which make these pieces an absolute joy. Not something most people would be able to replicate at home. *You can see why she sold most of her designs to Liberty in the first half hour.*

Tent 2010 Zoe Murphy
Tent 2010 Zoe Murphy

era was founded only this year with the aim of challenging our preconceived notions of sustainable design. Chairs and tables are based on a honeycomb design which is cheap to make but has an extremely strong cellular structure. The structures are held solid by a stiffening tube of steel and they currently have a patent pending on this technology.

Tent 2010 era sustainable design

The Rod desk lamp is made from hazel rod and fibres, an excellent example of how very simple unprocessed materials can be used to make something very beautiful and useful. Sebastian Cox from the University of Lincoln makes all of his products from coppiced hazel, a strong, light and entirely renewable material that grows in abundance in the UK, and was once used to create many things. This is truly sustainable design.

Tent 2010 Rod desk lamp Sebastian Cox

What about a cardboard rocking horse, isn’t he pretty? The Eco Rocker from Shell Thomas is a flat pack cardboard horse made from 100& recycled paper board.

Tent 2010 eco rocker Shell Thomas

Now over to ShowHow… where I met the lady responsible for the project – curator Iben Hansen of the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen. She was very keen to explain her principles of sustainability, which for me really stretch a definition: apparently anything that is really good design and built to last is sustainable. I think that’s one aspect of sustainability, but there’s a whole lot more to being properly sustainable – such as making use of materials that are not harmful to the environment either in manufacture or disposal. And just not consuming vast quantities of new stuff all the time. Her attitude is very much of the ‘we must carry on enjoying the luxuries in life’ school that excuses consumerism – Green Capitalism in fact. I don’t entirely disagree, I think we will always crave new stuff, and people will always want to make lovely new stuff (eg. me) but this has also to be tempered with the careful use of resources that truly sustainable design should tackle.

Oficina Creativa acapulco chair
The Oficina Creativa Acapulco Chair

Amongst the Arne Jacobsen design classics on show at ShowHow there was an ethical beauty product range from Unique, and some samples for me to take home in teeny tiny wasteful plastic bottles. And I wasn’t impressed with some intelligent fabrics that require less water in washing from huge chemical company Novozymes, again accompanied by the most insane amount of gumph; a big box of huge promotional cards, destined to go straight in the bin.

justyna Piotrowicz_show how

I rather liked the gorgeous blown glass LED lights from Justyna Piotrowicz and the wonderful Acapulco chairs made by valued Mexican artisans out of brightly coloured plastic wires for Oficina Creativa. Oh so comfortable to sit in.

Oficina Creativa acapulco chair

I suspect there was a serious amount of big company sponsorship money infiltrating this exhibition: it was a shame that ShowHow didn’t find space for more of the truly grassroots sustainable designers that I am sure abound in Denmark.

Categories ,Acapulco Chair, ,Arne Jacobsen, ,Danish Design Centre, ,Denmark, ,design, ,Dray Walk, ,Eco Rocker, ,Elemental Textiles, ,era, ,Furniture Magpies, ,Glass, ,Green Capitalism, ,Hazel, ,Iben Hansen, ,Justyna Piotrowicz, ,liberty, ,Margate, ,Nogg, ,Novozymes, ,Oficina Creativa, ,Sebastian Cox, ,Shell Thomas, ,ShowHow, ,Silviculture, ,sustainability, ,Tent London, ,unique, ,Unique Products, ,University of Lincoln, ,Zoe Murphy

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Amelia’s Magazine | Louise Wilkinson Illustrations and Ceramics: an interview with the designer

Louise Wilkinson ceramics- Lemon Tree dinner plate lifestyle

I first encountered Louise Wilkinson’s inimitable ceramics designs at Tent London last September, and instantly fell in love. The likes of Liberty discovered her beautiful bone china early on, and she has more recently created bespoke illustrations for panelling in the shop at the V&A. I caught up with her to find out more about her career to date, where her inspiration comes from and how she set about putting her illustrations onto china.

Louise Wilkinson ceramics- jug lifestyle

I absolutely adore your debut Maple Collection, inspired by English gardens, Oriental china and a love of nature. How did you construct the designs and how long did the process take to apply them to so many different shapes?
I like to draw a few pencil sketches first on scraps of paper and then at a later stage I draw my artworks on the computer with a pen. I love to create intricate artworks with witty details, often with a narrative. The designs are then screen printed and hand decorated in Stoke on Trent. It took many months to consider the shapes and designs together and then to fit the artworks correctly.

How do you pick the colour ways for your designs?
For my Maple Collection, I chose to have navy blue as the main colour with bold, playful, pops of colours for highlights. I often kept to two colours per design, for instance I liked the combination of a citrus yellow accent with navy blue or a coral red with navy blue.

Louise Wilkinson ceramics-Trees plate

What was the best bit about growing up in Yorkshire?
I loved growing up in the counrtyside, being able to spend a lot of time outside. We lived opposite a large field with lots of trees, me and my sister would often play and run around! I have lived in London over 10 years now, so it is nice to have the balance of London life and also visiting my family up north!

Louise Wilkinson Logo peacocks

You have already led a varied design career, studying illustration before moving into print and textiles for fashion. It sounds like the ideal career I never had! What was the highlight of those first years out of college?
I had always wanted to study Illustration so I took an Illustration degree at University. It was great to learn about the different aspects of image making, and after graduating my first job was working as an illustrator designing the prints, patterns and characters for children’s clothes, drawing everything by hand. I moved to London and worked in the fashion industry as a print and textiles designer, whilst also working on freelance book and magazine illustrations. I learnt a lot about working in different styles, techniques and applications to fabrics. It was great to get to know more about the commercial world and seasonal trends. Kids clothing is a fun area to work in!

Louise Wilkinson ceramics-Apple Tree dinner plate lifestyle

Why did you decide to create your own range and how did you effect that move?
I have been an illustrator and print and pattern designer for over a decade but I had always wanted to create my own artworks – to have a little more creative freedom and work for myself, creating timeless, playful and beautiful pieces. I launched my first collection in Liberty after attending the Best of British open day and it went from there!

Like me you are an avid fan of the illustrations found in children’s books, an aesthetic which I think comes through in your designs. Any favourites that you keep returning to?
Yes I do love children’s book illustrations, I always admired the painted collage technique used in the classic tale of The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, which is a classic. I also love Alain Gree’s cute illustrations and Russian fairy tales. I’m influenced by the traditional decorative arts, nature, exotic dreamlike places and often by different exhibitions I may visit in London. I love art and illustration, including Japanese and Chinese paintings, Matisse, Henri Rousseau, George Lepape….

Louise Wilkinson ceramics-Trees jug

What are your favourite pieces of homeware to design and why, and what is the hardest thing to design?
I love designing all the pieces, especially the plates and the cups and saucers. I like the flat surface area on a plate, which is like a blank canvas for artwork… and I like the little details you can add to cups and saucers. I’d say teapots can be harder to design for, as they are slightly more spherical.

What could we expect to find if we visited your work studio, can you describe it for us?
I am based in South East London where I have a large wooden desk with a Mac monitor and a pen tablet – it’s nice to have lots of surface area. There are lots of things around such as notebooks and pencil sketches, china samples, boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, brochures, postcards! I have a lot of research in draws and on the walls. I also have lots of magazines and art books because I love looking in books for research rather than always using the internet. Oh and there is always a cup of tea on my desk, I drink too much!

Louise Wilkinson ceramics-Teacups

Why is it important for you to maintain strong relationships with UK suppliers?
I think its great to manufacture as much in the UK wherever possible to support the industry, and it is nice to meet the lovely team in Stoke on Trent who I work with.

When can we expect a new collection from you, and can you share any hints as to what that will be?
I will be selling my exclusive artworks which were created especially for my recent collaboration on the Christmas shop installation at the V&A. I’m also exhibiting at the Modern Show in Dulwich on March 16th 2014. I love this Mid Century design show, which it is local to where I live. I will also be exhibiting at Tent London again, during London Design Week in September.

Louise Wilkinson ceramics-Coral red plates

Do you have any plans to expand into other areas of design and if so what?
I love creating artworks and illustration and this can be applied to many different surface areas. So hopefully new things soon, I have lots of ideas.

Finally, do you have any exciting plans for 2014 – in either business or life – that you can share with us?
Hopefully a few nice trips away, perhaps to Copenhagen or Finland. I may also be getting married this year, which is exciting!

Categories ,Alain Gree, ,Best of British, ,Bone China, ,Ceramic design, ,ceramics, ,Chinese, ,Designer Maker, ,Dulwich, ,Eric Carle, ,George Lepape, ,Henri Rousseau, ,interview, ,japanese, ,liberty, ,London Design Week, ,Louise Wilkinson, ,Maple Collection, ,matisse, ,Mid Century, ,Modern Show, ,Russian, ,Stoke-on-Trent, ,Tent London, ,The Hungry Caterpillar, ,va

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