All Things Considered

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 Hornsea 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.

Salt

Since moving to Norfolk we’ve spent lots of time walking the dogs at Morston. For me, the views over the saltmarshes, across the ‘pit’ with the many moored boats, to the shingle of Blakeney Point and its bright blue tea room are the essence of this beautiful coastline. Here land, sea and sky merge - and there’s a lot of sky.

This landscape has been the strongest influence on my own work for the last 10 years and is the setting for "Salt", the first novel by Jeremy Page. Page grew up in Norfolk and he captures perfectly the haunting quality of this beautifully bleak landscape and influence on the character of the inhabitants of this part of the country.

So when Nathan at Penguin emailed me to ask if I’d like to produce a print for the cover artwork, it was the perfect commission.

"Stunningly good. Captures the landscape with a truly deft watercolourist’s touch" Rose Tremain.

“Salt" is published by Penguin. £7.99

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.

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.

You Only Live Twice...

Perhaps you need to be a Bond obsessive to have the real desire to stay the night afloat Dutch waters in a bright orange capsule decked out with sheepskin, sleeping bags, disco ball, champagne, DVD player and movies and a chemical loo.

The converted lifeboat, the Capsule Hotel is currently docked in The Hague, a short walk from the city centre.

There may not be a helipad or parking for an Aston Martin, but a bicycle with luggage stand and lock on is available on application.

Le cool

Le cool is cool.

If you live in one of these busy, energy bursting, cosmopolitan cities, or are perhaps planning on visiting Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, Istanbul, Milan, and Roma in the future, then I highly suggest you click here now. 

Once you have signed up, you will receive a weekly, graphical email informing you of some select exhibitions, gigs, clubs, films, restaurants and bars that are going on in your chosen city.

If you would like to see what the Le cool team have sourced for this weeks cultural activities in London, click here.

Also available to buy, is a linen covered red book devoted to each of the above cities.

Flotsam

We took a walk from just outside Stiffkey to Wells Next The Sea and back yesterday. It was a perfect January day - a clear blue sky and a lazy winter sun just taking a edge off the chill.

I guess that in common with lots of people who have fallen in love with a part of a world and then relocated, as work life etc. takes over it's easy to forget exactly why you made the move in the first place.

Yesterday was a perfect reminder. Although we live closer to Norwich now, I'll always have a soft spot for Wells where I spent lots of time as a child.

Along Well's East Quay we found this stack of brightly coloured boxes discarded from fishing boats in the North Sea. I'm assuming they're flotsam (items that haven't purposely been thrown into the sea) as opposed to jetsam (which have).