All Things Considered

Ballerina Ballroom in Nairn

We spend a good part of the year not too far from Nairn, on the Moray coast in North East Scotland.

Sod's law, we're going to be back south when the first Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams is taking place between August 15-23rd 2008.

From this weekend's Scotland on Sunday...

"Cannes it may not be, but Tilda Swinton is hoping to place her quiet Scottish hometown on the world stage.

The award-winning actress is behind a film festival which will be launched in the Moray community of Nairn this summer.

The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams event is the brainchild of the Chronicles Of Narnia actress along with Mark Cousins, a former director of the Edinburgh Film Festival, and the Oscar-winning writer/director Joel Coen."

Read the full article online

Harrington & Squires

I spent another couple of inspirational days in Tufnell Park last week at Harrington & Squires - the small private press run by graphic designers Vicky Fullick and Chrissie Charlton.

Named after Bob Harrington and Horace Squires - two tutors at Hornsey College of Art in the 1960s - the workshop measures just  288 picas (1.2m wide), and it’s amazing the use that’s been made of the aptly named Corridor.

Splitting their time between commissioned work, regular workshops and their own publishing projects, the work hanging from every vertical surface is inspirational.

I’d visited before and had spent the last few months putting together a basic printing set up, built around an 8” x 5” Adana. Having dabbled with this over the last couple of months there were some ‘holes’ in my knowledge which needed filling. On this visit I managed to produce a new fabric care card for our mail order purchases, and spent a blissful couple of hours printing away - almost in some sort of letterpress induced trance - overlooking a busy Fortress Road.

If you want to find out more about Harrington & Squires it’s worth tracking down a copy of April 2008’s World of Interiors magazines.

Eric Ravilious and the Towner Art Gallery

Our friend Emma Mason is busy helping to raise funds for the Eastbourne's new Towner Art Gallery which is due to open this year.

Having studied and taught at Eastbourne School of Art, Eric Ravilious' work is a key element of the Collection. The Towner holds the broadest collection of paintings, illustrations and commercial designs in the world by this important, modern British artist of the early 20th century.

The New Towner Trust has launched the special limited edition sale of the rarely seen Lombardy Poplars, a watercolour by Eric Ravilious. The Ravilious Family and the Private Owner have given special permission for  this painting to be reproduced to help raise funds for the New Towner Trust.  The giclee print is available unfamed for £295 including delivery in the UK and framed for £395 including delivery within the UK.

For further details on purchasing this print, please e-mail Emma Mason.

Barbican Conservatory

London’s Barbican Centre is a unique urban space and whilst it would be easy to dismiss it as a collection of fairly brutal concrete buildings there are plenty of green spaces to be found.

Established gardens & playgrounds for the residents and their offspring. Two lakes with reed and fountains. But its hidden oasis is the conservatory.

It might not have the amazing expanses of glass or the elaborate ironwork balconies of the glasshouse at Kew but on Sunday afternoon you can wander amongst the dense exotic planting, watch the koi carp in their little pond and seek out the terrapins in their lofty home.

The design is in keeping with the rest of Barbican - unadorned metal frameworks support climbing plants, pathways and raised beds are made of purple-grey engineering brick creating a certain 70s feel to the place - especially with the silhouette of a giant glossy Swiss cheese plant seen against the high glass windows.

Back home in snowy Norfolk I’m in the studio looking at my sketches - a contrast to the bleak snowy landscape here.

Devon Guild of Craftsmen

The Devon Guild of Craftsmen looks like an interesting place to visit. The South West educational arts charity, based at the edge of Dartmoor, acquired the Riverside Mill in 1986 and in 2004 the refurbished Mill was completed. The renovated Mill includes a exhibition space, cafe and shop.

Anna Trussler from the Devon Guild of Craftsmen sent an email last week informing me of an exhibition titled 'Reclaiming Beauty' which using Anna's words, is about 're making and mutating found objects.

The show will include artists and craftsmen who work with materials such as textiles, fashion accessories, furniture and metal. For those of you who enjoy the beauty of Lucy Casson and Julie Arkell work, they will be able to enjoy their take on reclaiming beauty. The exhibition runs from 3rd May to 15th June.

Tinsmiths

Friday night saw the opening of a new exhibition in Ledbury. Hosted by our friends at Tinsmiths, it was a bit of a first for us - combining the printed work of Angie and Mark Hearld with the fabrics they've designed.

Phoebe and everyone at Tinsmiths had done a fantastic job of hanging the work in what is an almost domestic setting - all housed in a thoroughly modern showroom designed and built by Alex Clive.

We've always had an instinctive sense of exactly what St. Jude's is all about and why we set it up in the first place - but it was great to walk in another space and seeing how our work has been interpreted. Inspirational.

The exhibition runs until 12th April 2008 and you can view the work online. In addition, any personal callers to Tinsmiths can enjoy a 10% discount on our St. Jude's printed fabrics when purchased by the metre.

Aylsham, Banksy and Tesco

Not  necessarily three words you'd expect to see together in the title of a blog. But bear with me.

Secretive grafitti artist Banksy has just struck again - with this work on the side of a pharmacy in London's Essex Road (which, coincidentally, I used to walk past every day).

We assume that the image of two small children pledging allegiance to Tesco is tongue in cheek!

Tesco have recently started building their new store on the edge of Aylsham and only time will tell how much of an impact this has on the town.

But there are some positive campaigns going on in the town - the ongoing promotion of Aylsham's Cittaslow status and the recently launched project to make Aylsham Norfolk's first plastic bag free town as of 3rd May 2008.

We've always used paper bags at the gallery, but we're still pleased to be supporting the scheme - which for us is as much about the general principle of recycling.

Find out more about the project.

Knockando Woolmill - The Movie

It's been great working with Hugh Jones at the Knockando Woolmill who produces our woollen throws.

The Mill is mainland Scotland's last surviving small district spinning and weaving mill and was a finalist in the BBC's Restoration series in 2004.

It's an exciting time for Knockando Woolmill Trust as they are hoping to secure funding for a £3 million restoration project. Find our more about the Trust

This short film gives a great overview of the Mill as it stands and the plans for the future.

If you're not seeing a movie above, you can view direct at YouTube.

Maggie's Centre Portraits

Earlier this month, a campaign was launched at Downing Street to raise £15m for five new Maggie's Centres across England and Wales. These centres will join the five others already up and running in Scotland, where cancer patients and carers and their families drop in for support.

Sam Taylor-Wood, a patron of Maggie's Centres (along with the prime minister's wife, Sarah Brown), was diagnosed with cancer ten years ago, just as her career as an artist was taking off. This year, Sam was invited to photograph some of the patients at the Maggie's Centre in Fife, Scotland, designed by award winning architect, Zaha Hadid.

The portraits of the cancer patients taken by Taylor-Wood in the light flooded, space-ship like building are being exhibited at Downing Street until early January 2008. The portraits will then go on tour around the UK, to help raise money and awareness for the amazing and needed support that is provided by Maggie's Centres.

Contain Yourselves

Spending a week in a static caravan has made me think that having a sea container for a holiday home would actually be quite possible. Back in April when it was hot and sunny, I remember driving around the the narrow Norfolk roads gazing at the beautiful countryside and having a vision of owning a re-vamped shipping container tucked in some idyllic meadow ready for weekend getaways. There would be no electricity, but there would be gas fired lights and fridge, clever storage and open views.

On holiday, I got thinking of the parallels between the static caravan we stayed in and sea shipping containers that have been converted for habitation I'd seen in an article a while back. These containers come in varying sizes up to 12m x 2.4m, stack like Lego and with clever use of internal space and window positioning can feel remarkable spacious. There's people out there already doing it - stacking these rudimentary metal structures next to and on top of each other and living in them. I came across a website, Fabprefab which really intrigued me. It shows examples of architect designed shipping container homes from all over the world - some in outstanding locations. Being solid, functional objects, sea containers are also relatively cheap to obtain - making them a fairly affordable choice. They could be the answer to key worker affordability or shipped to areas in need of emergency shelter or even, as in Africa, turned into shops and hair salons.

Urban Space Management have built several housing projects using sea containers, one of them being the much published Container City II in Trinity Wharf, East London. Brightly coloured containers are stacked at jaunty angles, some with balcony's and most with porthole windows.