Living with The Ephemerist : Road signs

I've got interested in road signs recently because The Ephemerist has made it his mission to photograph every cast iron road sign he passes (since he can't take them home and put them in a shoebox). This one, in Lancaster, is a first for me!

Living with The Ephemerist : Spoons

As well as carving spoons, The Ephemerist collects them. Digging in the vegetable plot yields a fantastic array of ceramic fragments - a new crop every year. This spoon - with only half a handle - is one of my favourites.

Living with the Ephemerist 2 : book covers

Finding and reading secondhand Swedish literature is a favourite occupation of The Ephemerist. The covers of these two caught my eye - published in the 1960s

Cover illustration by Per Ahlin

Cover Illustration by Ulf Lofgren









Living with The Ephemerist 1 : Portuguese seed packets from the 1980s

And they also used to make lovely walking sticks from the tall cabbages as well as caldo verde from the leaves.

New Prints

Two new screenprints created in response to a day at Moorbank Botanical Gardens in Newcastle University in the very creative company of poets and visual artists.
We were all invited by writer in residence Linda France
Some of the work forms part of  'Through the Garden Gate' at the Robinson Gay Gallery, Hexham from the 14th April and Linda will be reading some of her work from her new collection 'Through the Garden Gate' as part of the Hexham Book Festival

Cabinet

Furniture maker Nick James has designed and made this lovely cabinet. He invited me to design for the screenprinted Formica door panels, which was such a treat. Drawings of an early jet engine at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle inspired my design, which fits perfectly with Nick's mid-20th century inspired pieces.
And if you peek inside the drawers there are matching drawer liners.

Hanbury Hall

These glass panels are in the sitooteries at Hanbury Hall in the West Midlands. The cast faceted clear glass is set in an iron fretwork. I've seen similar in Greece.

Serendipity

I was photographing my new commission at Jurys Inn on Gateshead Quays and spotted this view.
View the whole commission on my website

The Capable Gardener

Tucked away in a sheltered spot at Kirkharle Courtyard near Wallington in Northumberland is a lovely little nursery run by Philippa Hodkinson, a National Trust gardener who is responsible for Gertrude Jekyll's garden at Lindesfarne. She sells locally grown plants, and has a shed with a great range of proper gardening tools and accesories picked by a gardener for gardeners. Everything has been carefully sourced from the UK and the sturdy gardening aprons, in a range of fabrics, are designed and made exclusively for the Capable Cardener.
There are secondhand gardening books to browse and buy, planters inspired by sheep troughs and peat free conpost.

A pot of flowers show what your plant will grow into!

Garden Day Poem

And this was Cynthia Fuller's poem


Moorbank


Take refuge here. The garden is

a cup of breathing green

rimmed by the city’s noise –

the swell and drone of cars,

the lost dogs barking to go home.

It is a living habitat

for urban birds – a nest of song.

Roots are pushing deep below

concrete and tarmac.

Time could slow here to the pace

of ancient trees, or quicken

to keep step with the sudden poppy

whose orange tissue flares

and crumples in a day.

Garden Day

Linda France, poet and writer is currently Leverhulme Artist in Residence at Moorbank, Newcastle University’s Botanic Garden.
I spent an inspiring day there last week with several poets and visual artists invited to make work in response to the space.
It is always difficult to switch off and to find something to say on the spot, but after a few false starts, I found that each plant had its own calligraphy.

Healey Church glass

This tiny church in rural Northumberland has some really interesting glass. 'Contrary Rhythm' by the artist James Hugonin has hundreds of tiny shards of antique glass floating in a grid.

Anne Vibecke Mou's delicate point engraved window.

And Leonard Evetts windows with beautiful details.

Journal Culture Awards

I printed this year's Journal Culture Awards which were given to the 15 winners on Monday night at the Gala Theatre in Durham.
The screenprint was designed to be seen from the auditorium and has circular motifs drawn from the artforms represented, on a multicoloured ground.
The added bonus was that they co-ordinated beautifully with the coat of compere for the night, the comedian, writer and poet Kate Fox.

Misprints

Making the offcuts after printing an edition is the best bit sometimes. These are like found objects with qualities I could never have designed.

"Throne Up"

Northern Print are doing a roaring trade in limited edition royal wedding sick bags.
choose from royal blue, red gold or black.

Well worth a read.
And a look  http://anoptimiststourofthefuture.com/

Seed Grenades

These landed on my desk the other day from Mandy Pattullo. The labels were given to Mandy and are Alec Finlay's contribution to Love Me Live With Me. Food for thought - and discussion.

Love Me Live With Me



Visited the Love Me Live with Me - the Designed & Made wonder cart - a customised vintage handcart which has been travelling around London and the North East of England for Design Week. The miriad drawers and cupboards reveal a cornucopia of badges, glass, ceramics and a lot more including rats! The deal is if you receive a piece from the cart you have to live with it for a week and then pass it on.

My gift is a beautiful limited edition of 13 (mine is number 13) embroidery kit with a porecelain medal and a velvet cushion.

The postcards make good bookmarks - and possibly marraige invitation cards!

The vintage linen cover for the medal and cushion was printed with a bird so I have embroidered it with a strand of some of the threads inclided in the kit.

Teddy is wearing the medal to go with his Jacobite outfit made by Rachael Burns - the medal has the letters CS stamped into it - maybe for the Bonnie Prince.

The Wapping Project

The Wapping Project was the perfect place to find, on a damp moody day on a walk along the Thames riverfront.

Why I fell in love with glass

I fell in love with stained glass 25 years ago, and a visit to Canterbury Cathedral reminded me why