Wild flower planting, fantastic structures, good spirit, great weather and a bit of sporting competition – having spent two fantastic days at the Olympic Park of London 2012 here are some images I’ve put together.
– an alternative Olympic gold, silver and bronze… structures, site and occasion
– the diagonal trend…
– a few chances too many…?
A short break in Norfolk allows me to breathe the fresh air of the countryside and to refuel. Being Norfolk born and bred the landscape has certainly left its mark in my own visual language, and its always fantastic to collect in my memory the horizontal lines of Norfolk and of course the big skies.
The last month has been a good one in terms of getting some exposure for the Plot to Plate range and in particular the notebooks. As previously mentioned Elle Deco have included the books in their shopping pages, and WGSN Homebuildlife.com included them on their blog. Having had them also included on the beautiful Design Hunter blog(http://www.designhunter.co.uk) now I can add to that list Global Colour’s Mix magazine including the notebooks in their Micro Trends spread – thanks to all!
Today we visited Dudley Zoo. Until today I had no idea that we had such a prized set of buildings of international importance only two trains and one bus away from our house! The great man of London Zoo’s penguin pool, Berthold Lubetkin designed this Modernist set of reinforced concrete buildings – Tectons, which were granted World Monuments Fund status two years ago. I include some photos but I recommend a visit to fully appreciate them. The Kiosk reminded me of Arne Jacobsen’s petrol station just outside Copenhagen, also from 1937, and of concrete – but that’s another story!
Lots of care and attention are still needed to get the Tectons back to their 1937 former glory, but they still represent an ideal and aesthetic relevant for today. I have only hinted at what to see there – I wouldn’t want to ruin your search, but the entrance is rather fantastic too. (I thought I ought to include some shots of animals seeing as it was a zoo trip! The penguins are another nod to Lubetkin.)
WGSN Homebuildlife.com include my Plot to Plate notebooks on their blog – many thanks!
http://wgsn-hbl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/plot-to-plate-allotment-inspired-pattern.html
It’s been a long wait, but today our first Dahlia of the season has opened its petals and shown itself. This is a huge success given the battle of the slugs that I have been fighting – organically mind. We have more to come but today we celebrate – by morning it may well have been felled by slugs or rain.
I’ve been rather keen on dahlias for years and have admired the huge borders that the National Trust are able to show off at this time of year. I hope they are sharing in our success. The long border at Baddesley Clinton is usually well worth seeing and I think Packwood House may also have some. The second and third photos are from last summer – note sunshine! I also include an image of ‘pompom’, an editioned lino print I made a while ago, having been inspired by the dahlia season. Long may they bloom!…
The Plot to Plate screen printed and hand-stitched notebooks have attracted the attention of Elle Decoration in the August issue.
Having gained valuable ‘head space’ at the allotment today here are some photos of the outcomes. A rather later than usual first harvest due to lousy weather but it all tastes fantastic. Certainly worth the effort, and from plot to plate in under two hours.
Today we enjoyed exploring the site and old ruins of the castle in Berkhamstead and found a lovely patch of meadow grass to study. In between the showers I gathered some lines and stripes…
My ‘Plot to Plate’ show is up at Birmingham’s Mailbox as part of Idea Birmingham’s Design Expo running from 15th – 22nd June 2012. It has been a really good experience in light of new and exciting ventures happening in the next few months. The exhibition features wallpaper and hand-printed textile lampshades in order to compliment the textile and paper products in the collection.
Kate Farley - drawn to design 