Spring has Sprung

Here are the 405 Line, Quail's Egg, Northerly and Easterly blankets and cushions in a lovely spring shoot by Living Etc. 

Things which caught my eye in Stockholm

We are just back from visiting the Stockholm Furniture fair. It was great to see the show and to get a bit more sense of the Scandinavian market. Stockholm is full of beautiful shops - and I was so pleased to see our work in a couple of the most lovely - Malmstenbutiken and Nordiska Galleriet

Pattern Spotting

Mind Your P's & Q's

Next week we launch our new trio of designs at Maison et Objet in Paris. The three new fabrics are woven up in our new lighter wight lambswool yarn and will be available as blankets and cushions.

We put a lot of thought into the names for our fabrics and they often go through a number of different working titles before we finalize the names. This time we seem to be on a gastronomic theme.

The four-dot pattern above is called Peppercorn. The scale of the pattern is small and delicate but the strong contrast in the tone of the front and back packs a punch. I also like the linguistic associations of Peppercorn payments - although I am afraid that this blanket is just the same price as all the other new ones.

We have called this design Quince for the deep golden colour in the diagonal pattern. There is something both exotic and familiar about them. Quinces feature in so many still life paintings - there is a particularly beautiful one in the sixteenth century bodegon (larder) painting with 'Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber' by Juan Sánchez Cotán.

The charcoal grey and white design below is called Pontefract for the famous stamped liquorice sweets. Flavoured with the locally grown root, these 'cakes' have been made in the Yorkshire town for over four hundred years.

Fallen Angel

Spied this extraordinary figure on my way to the station this morning.

Living in East London with such an abundance of creative (and not so creative) graffiti it is easy to get quite blasé...but this really stopped me in my tracks.

I love the fact that it is painted so delicately on the old London stock. Magical.

Stationary Junkies

I am a self-confessed stationary junkie. Of course like any shopaholic I post-rationalize all my acquisitions - think how much less of a chore paperwork will be using pieces like these.

There seems to be something particularly apt about having new stationary for the new year - I guess it harks back to the 'beginning of term' feel - pencil case at the ready - pens filled and pencils sharpened.

These are two of my newest additions. The single hole punch at the bottom was a completely inspired Christmas present from Holly here in the studio - she knows me so well! The stapler above is from one of my favourite stationary shops - Choosing Keeping on Columbia Road just round the corner from where we live. 

I love the way they are so animated - beautiful aquatic creatures in their sea-coloured hammerite.

I also really like the packaging - the hole punch still has its original box with its lovely clean graphics. The stapler is a design from 1948 and the packaging looks little changed since then.

And on the subject of stationary here is our studio diary. The cover and binding were so pleasing that we happily opted for a German diary this year. We'll be fluent in our days of the week soon. Certainly glad it's Freitag.

Michael Ruh

This year, for our joint studio Christmas jamboree with Pritchard Themis, we made a studio visit to Michael Ruh Glass in Tulse Hill. It was an absolutely enchanting evening with Michael and his partner Natascha.

I have seen glass being blown on video clips but never 'in the flesh' before. There is a real sense of alchemy and magic about the process - the molted liquid glass is completely mesmerizing. Witnessing this 'magic' performed by a maker in such total control of their medium and discipline felt like watching a piece of dance.

I have always loved the specificness of different studio tools - and they way that they carry such an intimate sense of the maker's hand. The funnel shape above is a 'sofietta' (from the Italian for breath) which Michael used to inflate the 'shoulders' of the vessel he was making.

This is the furnace in where the glass is melted and heated as it is worked. And below are the wooden 'moulds' which are used as part of the shaping and forming process.

These are the various shears used for cutting the glass. I especially like the diamond ones on the right. And here are a few of Michael's beautiful vessels in the studio - you can just see some of the blow pipes stacked up behind them.

The evening included a fascinating introduction and demonstration of the techniques Michael uses and then a chance to all 'have a go' at blowing a bauble. We each chose our colours and patterns and then, with a very firm guiding hand turned the blow pipe. It was a real privilege to feel that we had had a tiny taste of the process ourselves.

What a wonderful end to the year!