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.

A fantastic time.

My stand at the Fashion, embroidery and stitch show NEC.

My favourite dress from the Downton Abbey collection.

Keeping my hands busy during the show.

Wow what a week it's been! This time last week (9:15 am) I was on the road to Birmingham with a boot full of exciting stuff for my stand at the NEC and feeling a bit nervous. After 4 1/2 hours I reached the enormous site that is the NEC, I've never been before and was was quite taken aback at how big it was! The hall was a hive of activity with other stand holders putting up their displays and arranging stock and the fashion show people testing the sound system and putting out chairs, the atmosphere was great.

I had an idea of how to display my work, but until I was there it was not a really firm idea. The top image shows part of my stand and the rug I had made especially for the show. I was thrilled with it and it made a real impact on the display. It was based on my design and hand tufted by the lovely people at Turnberry Carpets based in Scotland. It was held in place with velcro, nails and crossed fingers! Fortunately nothing had fallen off overnight, although Stacie and I did get to the show early on Thursday just in case it had.

The show opened to the public on Thursday 22nd and it was a very busy day. The embroidery I did for my fashion project caught peoples eye and drew them to the stand and then they noticed my other work. I received lots of lovely compliments and comments from "your work is lovely" to " you've really inspired me and I love the colours you've used". I may even have an order for a rug which will be fantastic! A few embroidery guilds have asked me to speak at a some of their meetings and I take that as a great compliment as they've all been embroidering for a lot longer than me.

All in all the show was a great experience and may even be tempted to do another. Madeira were very generous in giving me the opportunity and I'm really grateful for it.

Printing!

All lined up ready for ironing and fixing! I've had a fab day printing and only really stopped for the odd cuppa and lunch. Feels great to be printing and getting all inky, although I'm not sure my bath really appreciates it!

Sunny weekend and feeling springy

It's all hands to the pump this week as I prepare for the show that starts next Thursday! Last week I finally got some time to prep my screens and started printing some items. The first few prints were a bit ropey and I started to get a bit anxious about the whole thing, but after some thinking and problem solving and a weekend in the Yorkshire sun, I've got the printing sussed yay!!

I now have several pieces printed waiting to be pressed and finished. Today I will work on some more, happy day. I finished the button packs off and I'm pleased with them, they look quite cute in their sets of 6. My digital lengths have arrived and I'm chuffed to bits with those, I'll take a picture of them and post it up later.

So the plan for the rest of the week................... is to do more printing, packaging, labels, display layout and lots lots more!!

While on the Yorkshire coast at the weekend enjoying the lovely spring sun on the beach, I spotted this ladybird basking in the sun too. Wonder if she had her polka dot bikini on?? I found some tiny fossils as well and they will go in my box for drawing inspiration. Now with having that good dose of sun I'm ready to tackle this busy week ahead and pull things together for the show.

2 and a bit weeks to go!

There are only 2 and bit weeks left until Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC. I'm trying not to panic too much and be realistic in what I can and can't do between now and then. I still hope to do some prints and make up some items with them. Yesterday I played around with button making see above. I'm really pleased with the first few and plan to make more, then the next step is to think about how to package them so they look even more special.

I've also been working on an embroidery that I'm reasonably pleased with, just need to finish it off and tie up the loose ends. In between that I've been working on some digital designs, which is a new venture for me and quite a challenge. The designs are based on the theme of seeds and cells and I'm looking forward to seeing them printed out. There's also something really exciting happening, but you'll have to wait and see what that is!

So it's all go here in my little studio what with my new job which is fun, exciting and scary all at the same time and preparing for the show. Today I had an interview with CCAD press and had a photograph taken with all my work, so look out for that on the CCAD website.

Inspirational designers- Jacqueline Groag

Along with posts on what is going on in my studio, I mentioned posting about inspirational designers, well Jacqueline Groag is my first designer. I love her work and the bold use of colour and form, some of which has a lovely sense of naivety inspired by her childhood.

I was introduced to Groag's work whilst at the John Lewis design archive, whilst researching my dissertation. In the late twenties and early thirties she designed textiles for Wiener Werkstatte and produced many hand printed lengths for leading Paris fashion houses. However during the war Groag and her husband had to flee Vienna and returned to their home town of Prague then and eventually came to England. Groag found a warm welcome here in the UK and was influential at the time of the 1951 Festival of Britain and is associated with other female designers of that time, Lucienne Day, Mary White and Marian Mahler, all of which I have come across at the archive and fallen in love with their work and become an avid fan of the pre and post war period of design.

Images: top paper dolls: rubyassata.wordpress.org, bottom Pebbles: ftmlondon.org

A few changes

I love having my blog, but have noticed that since I've graduated I've not put as many posts up. This is partly down to the fact I've been quite busy with other things such as moving house. So I've decided I perhaps need to breathe more life into the old blog. I'm going to try out things such as "On my drawing table" so you get a little peek at what I'm up to, perhaps do a post on an artist or designer that I've found interesting or inspiring or both. I've also thought of posting an image that has particularly inspired me that week, plus any other exciting things I get up to or find on the way. Hopefully then I will be back to posting more often and it will look more exciting.

Today I've got an image of what is "on my drawing table" at the moment, which is a koda trace ready for a print that I'm going to embroider into for the show in March. I've got a fascination with numbers and letters at the moment and have enjoyed putting them into my work. From now on pictures of "on my drawing table" will be in a box along the right hand side of the blog.