Raw Edges Design Studio

Interior - Raw Edges Design Studio:

'via Blog this'

Working in the flooring industry means you become obsessed with what's out there and how designers push the boundaries. I found Raw Edges through the Elle Decoration awards and was keen to have a closer look at their work.

Raw Edges are Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay and have treated block flooring as if it were pixels on a screen. Each oak block is dyed a specific colour and then laid to make a design that has been carefully planned and mapped out.

I love it, I love the way that at first glance it looks like a random laying of coloured blocks, but when you take a closer look a pattern emerges. Bold and clever, subtle and contemporary fabulous!

For more images of these floors and more of Raw Edges work follow the link above.

Rediscovering an old love.....

A trip to Cragside last month has revived a passion for Chinoiserie and Japonisme. In 1st year at CCAD, we did a project based on these themes and I fell in love with it. I loved the woodblock prints especially and the patterns on kimonos. The inlaid work on tiny boxes and the porcelain were also inspiring. I've also been given two books by work with beautiful woodblock prints in with their soft tones and lovely detail. I could look at those for hours.

The wallpaper in the buttery at Cragside is beautiful and reminded me of the vases and tiles I'd researched at the V & A and also at the Oriental museum in Durham. The combination of white and soft cream soften this otherwise busy pattern. If you look carefully there is some lovely detail in this two colour print.

 I must get my pictures out from these trips and find that book I should have bought ages ago and buy it! Then try out some new chinoiserie patterns out.

Walking along the rock garden I spotted these beauties, I love the lollipop type flower and sadly I don't know what its called, but it has a Japanese feel to it as does the flower below it with its glorious purple/maroon tones.

So once I've got the house straight after decorating the sitting room, I'll be getting the pictures out and ordering that book and immerse myself in all things oriental.........lovely :-)

Spacecraft but not as you know it....

I've been gathering new and interesting websites, blogs and images over the last week, always looking for new and exciting things to inspire me. I came across the website of Spacecraft a design and printing studio in Melbourne. Their gorgeous designs vary from the bold geometrics to the more photographic, using old photos of architecture and people. The fabrics produced are used for interior accessories and wall panels, from the images on the site it looks like a very busy studio.

Whilst doing all their fantastic printing they discovered that as the print went through to the backing cloth over time it built up a new and fascinating design all of it's own. Now they preserve these beautiful yet accidental prints, finish them and use them in making cushions and other interior accessories or create lovely wall panels. I think they are beautiful and every time you look at one you see something different, the use of photographs and the bold patterns makes for interesting layering and textures. I'm completely inspired!!

Do you remember the backing cloths at college that we all enjoyed trying to spot different peoples work on? Well maybe we should have got the college to preserve them and then we could make fantastic things and sell them!

This is what the studio calls a Friday cushion, each Friday a member of the team chooses a selection of fabrics and makes a unique cushion. I love this jolly yellow one and the beautiful patterns that have been incorporated into it. If you do fancy a look at the website you will also see cushions and other items with the backing cloth fabric being incorporated into them.

Now I'm completely inspired I'm off to create!!

Images: spacecraftaustralia.com

Prefab 77

As I've made my way around Newcastle I've come across some interesting urban artwork. It is often on a massive scale and something that sticks in your head. Like the eyes that look out from the balaclava, they have that spooky, haunted look that follow you everywhere. Until now I've not known who's produced these thought provoking works. Then while searching for inspiration on the web I found Prefab77, a collective of North East artists who produce cutting edge artwork often with a political feel, but as they say "always beautiful".

Their work if often on the sides of buildings often on ones around the Byker farm area where aged walls lend added texture and depth to the detailed work of Prefab77. I love the scale and the detail in these images and that they often bring life to blank space. Their take on the Queens portrait is for the Jubilee, I've not seen this yet, maybe I should take a trip round Byker and Newcastle and see if I spot her and her cheeky wink!

Images: Balaclava, thedirtfloor.com, Queen, facebook.com

Fun with blue.

 Over the last couple of days I've been making the most of the sunlight! A while back I bought the chemicals to make blue prints, until now I haven't really had the chance to do them. After all the rain we've had I wanted to do something that really took advantage of the sun and this seemed the perfect project :-)

 After a bit of faffing mixing the chemicals and trying to keep the curtains closed to make a dark room. I was amazed at how quick the rest of it went, the reaction is instantaneous and almost like magic blink and you miss it. I was thrilled with the detail too, some things you could almost be mistaken for the real thing.

 My hoards of bits and bobs came in handy, see it was worth hanging on to them! I even tried a couple of koda trace designs to see how they would work.

So now I have 6 lovely prints that I will work into with stitch and maybe add some conventional printing. I'm going to have plenty to keep me going and I'm looking forward to having an experiment with them. I'm also thinking of other ways I could transfer images and what sort of things I'd like to print this way.

Flame on the Tyne

 Last night was a great night out on the Newcastle quayside. Although there was always the threat of a heavy rain storm, it didn't deter the hundreds if not thousands of people who came down to see the Olympic torch. We got a great spot on the junction of Side and the Quayside and it was fantastic to get a picture of the torch and it's bearer.

 After travelling across the Swing bridge the torch made its way to the Tyne bridge and Bear Grylls took it down the special zip wire to the Baltic square. If you look really carefully you can just make out the torch before Bear leapt and whizzed down. It was a fantastic event and everyone had a great time and the atmosphere was amazing. Well worth braving the wet and cold to see it.

On our way home we spotted this mural on the side of the Ship Inn in Byker, I thought it was great and loved the funny people and the style, I particularly like the dog with it's huge feet. Have a look out for it if you're ever down that way.

Jubilee, folk music and headstones.

 For the Jubilee weekend we went to visit the in-laws across in the Lakes and went to the Ireby folk festival. Our time there was very refreshing and a fantastic break away, although the weather could have been better. The folk festival was great and we thoroughly enjoyed "Time gentlemen please featuring the Demon barber road show", full of street and Irish dancing, it got the feet tapping. Another highlight for me was "Rob Heron and the tea pad orchestra" whose performance kept you dancing and singing with an eclectic mix of 30's swing, blues and gypsy jazz, I'll be putting "She don't like fish" on my ipod!

On the best day weather wise we went for a gorgeous walk up St John's in the vale, a walk that had a bit of everything a gently flowing river, a wood, a climb up to a fantastic view and an old church at the end. I spotted this lovely fern still all curled up tight and thought it had beautiful form almost heart shaped, with a little crown snuggled inside.

At the end of the walk we got to a lovely old church with a higgledy piggledy grave yard, I know it sounds a bit strange but I quite like looking at the inscriptions on headstones and marvelling at the care that has been taken to carve the names of loved ones. Some of the fonts are beautiful, I liked this one in particular in St John's in the vale. The coat of arms was intricate and gave the sense that this was an important member of the community at one time. There was a beautiful lace hydrangea growing round the church door too that I took a snap of before the camera battery ran out!

So lots of things to inform and inspire and I have realised I have an ever growing fascination with old handwriting and fonts and I'm introducing them into my work more and more.