Beauty in the new and the old.

Blossom it's everywhere!

It maybe old but it's beautiful.

Spring is definitely here, all the beautiful blossom trees where I live are out in all their glory. The huge cherry tree that I can see out of my studio window was a bit of a late starter, but has finally put her glad rags on! The birds love it and can be seen happily hopping around in it singing their little hearts outs. I love the variety of the colours of blossom and the deep pink almost magenta coloured is rapidly becoming my favourite. It all just makes me feel so happy and raring to get creative.

The old wallpaper revealed after an old box on the wall had been moved is equally as beautiful as the fresh blossom. I love the faded tones and the worn off bits. It is inspiring thoughts on a theme I've dabbled with over the last few months, but may pursue with more vigour now that I have a bit more time to explore new ideas. I've been exploring new techniques too and experimenting with my drawings for work more, so maybe I can bring some of that into some new designs for Ballistic Owl. Will let you know how I get on.

Beautiful, Kayla Coo

Image Kayla Coo

Whilst at the NEC last month amongst lots of creative people in a buzzing atmosphere, sat opposite me quietly sewing on her machine was Michala Gyetvai of Kayla Coo. On the first day she was working on a small piece that by the next seemed to have grown huge! I worked out as the day went on that it was a different piece. I grabbed a few minutes towards the end of one day and went and had a closer look at this fabulous piece of work.

Michala was lovely and very happy to talk about her work. It all starts from her paintings, which she then translates with felt, hand and machine stitch, she says she is really painting with stitches. She works on small tiny pieces such as the ones pictured above, to huge wall pieces like the one she was working on that first day. With all the stitching and felting the fabric takes on a life of it's own and warps to add further dimension and texture.

When I got home I looked up Kayla Coo's blog and wow what a treat, you can't fail to be inspired by this beautiful work. Her love of painting, nature and trees really comes through in lovely intricate stitching and thoughtful colour palettes. So if you feel like a pick me up and want to see something really beautiful pop over and have a look at Kayla Coo!

Bespoke rugs @ Ballistic Owl!

Open Seed from the Originate Collection.

Oak from the Structure Collection.

After a busy show at the NEC in March and receiving lots of lovely compliments on the Fern rug, I've been tweaking the website. It has been a work in progress for a while, but now I've bitten the bullet and added new collections and there are easy steps to follow to order your bespoke rug from Ballistic Owl.

Open Seed is from the Originate Collection and was taken from my final year project and given a bit of a scale and colour makeover. To see this rug design and others from the same collection follow this link: Originate.

Oak is from the Structure Collection and was inspired by a gnarled old tree spotted on a walk. To see this and other rugs in this developing collection follow this link: Structure.

All rugs are made order and are hand tufted here in the UK, I'm also happy to work to commission.

For those new to Ballistic Owl, I'm an awarding winning surface designer and specialise in interior fabrics and rugs. I got into rug designing through winning the 1st prize in the Goodweave 2011 annual rug design competition, judged by Celia Birtwell. I thoroughly enjoyed designing the Clematis rug and seeing it on display at Decorex International 2011, it is now available from Jacaranda. (JCD2011).

So if you have space in your home for a beautiful bespoke, hand-crafted rug pop along to ballisticowl.co.uk.