JESSICA LIGHT FOR VIOLET AND GEORGE

It's not often than that we here at Jessica Light Trims and Tassels get to see the fruits of our labour so it was lovely to visit Violet And George's new shop recently and see what magic they had conjured up using our bespoke trims.

Above,

Cushions trimmed in bespoke ruche.

Above,

Lampshades using bespoke trims as decorative features.

Interior tailors Violet and George are renown for their original and creative interiors. Set up in 2009 by Nicky Mudie, the Violets soon established themselves as the by-word in delicious soft furnishings using Nicky's keen eye for sourcing sumptuous textiles. Their design flair has been carried through to a range of unique products and the opening, in September, of their beautiful shop.

All products available from;

www.violetandgeorge.com

or

Violet and George,

57 St Helens Gardens,

London W10 6LN

All images copyright Violet and George.

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2012 REVIEW

GONE TO EARTH

The London Design Festival is always a thriving hive of over 250 exhibitions and events, big and small, celebrating the creative diversity and talent this country has in abundance.

This year for the first time Jessica Light went off-piste, teaming up with interior designers Precious McBane to host Gone To Earth, an instillation in an old machinists shop in Clerkenwell.
Visitors were greeted by 'The Tassily', a reinterpretation by McBanes Sophia Wimpenny and Jessica Light of the classic 'Wassily' chair by Marcel Breuer. Their take was inspired by how to showcase Light's new Potsdam collection and the furniture of Carlo Bugatti. A case of not up-cycling but luxe-cycling.

Below left, the Gone To Earth window. Below right, The Tassily.

Below, detail of The Tassily showing Jessica's horsehair trims.

The visitors journey then encountered more of the Potsdam collection in the form of  a majestic tieback holding a swathe of Olicana linen which led to a cabinet of curiosities.

The Popova Tieback

Cushions made from Chinese burnished indigo highlighting more trims from the Potsdam collection.

The cabinet display, designed by Sophia Wimpenny, was a feast of bizarre nature under bell jars or sitting regally on miniature cushions. Trims were contorted to resemble undiscovered exotic flora, fauna, and marine life. A magical tableau to represent the themes behind Jessica's 2nd new collection, Frome

All images above, examples from the cabinet.

Finally more luxe-cycling in the form of two Bertoria chairs trimmed with delicate shredded fringes from the Frome collection.

Below, the Bertoria chairs

BIG THANK YOU TO;

Everyone who came to see us,

Precious McBane,

House and Garden, Elle Decoration, and HeartHome for their support,

my intern Ffion.

What's hatching for next year?

You'll have to wait and see.

TENT LONDON 2012

Like a salmon going back to it's river to spawn I had to visit Tent London. It was strange going there as audience rather than performer but it confirmed what I've always thought about this show- that it's like the Red Arrows flying overhead- loud, exciting, and breaking the sound barrier.

If last year was about textiles, this year was about process, materials and sustainability, which determined many designers product outcome. Three good examples of these themes were Morie Nishimura's exquisite hand-cut metal mirrors- hinged circles of highly polished brass were settled on his stand walls like golden butterflies basking in the sun- Afid Design's traditionally crafted oiled oak furniture that felt cool and silky and Mini Moderns new re-cycled paint range.

Chairs by Afid Design.

How on earth do you recycle paint? I thought, conjuring up an image of it being laboriously scraped off walls, to then be boiled down in large vats in a lab similar to the one in 'Carry On Screaming' manned by Kenneth Williams and Fenella Fielding. Actually it's much more major than that as Keith from the Moderns explained. We throw out tons of unused paint every year that is just dumped into landfill and it is this which gets recycled into their new  range. A lively fresh colour palette, with names like Tangerine Dream, is coordinated with Mini Moderns other products, but all the shades stand up well on their own.

Mini Moderns new paint range.

Of course there was still the off the wall idiosyncratic element that Tent is known for like the colourful woven bamboo [more eco-friendly materials]chairs from W&Q seen below [I'll also have one of their clutch bags please]

I didn't show at Tent this year, but like a red wine stain, you just can't get rid of me and I snuck onto Curiousa and Curiousa's stand in the guise of the 2.5m depth dip-dyed fringe we wove for Esther and the tassels she used to adorn her hand-blown glass shades.

Above, 2.5m long fringe on Curiousa and Curiousa

Every year I always come away inspired and impressed from The London Design Festival, but there is usually one thing that always sticks out for me. Last year it was Front's beautiful carpets and their stands at SuperBrands and Decorex again wowed me speechless. This year though it was a print that caught my eye, Garbo's Eye in fact, by The Cecil Beaton Fabric Collection printed by Beaudesart. Taken from a drawing of Greta Garbo's eyes in Cecil Beaton's sketch book the resulting print is a surreal mass of wide eyes following your every move and reflects Beaton's obsession with Garbo [there are even suggestions that the two had a very unlikely affair]

Garbo's Eye

GONE TO EARTH

For London Design Festival 2012 Jessica Light Trims and Tassels will be launching two new collections. They will be shown in an interior instillation devised by interior design company Precious Mcbane in their studio, an old Clerckenwell machinists shop. 
Our two new collections are Frome- inspired by the illustrations of Jan Pienowski, thread bare linens and fantastical insects in magical shades of ecru, eau-de-nil, raspberry/cherry, jet and yellow- and Potsdam- Russian Contructivism meets Aladdin Sane in a masculine, luxe-glam, graphic range incorporating leather, linen, metal and horsehair in muddy khaki, earth, rust, sand, and cardboard grey with flashes of violet, gold and silver.
We will also be featuring fabric from Olicana Textiles, John Boyd and Chinese burnished indigo from Slow Loris.

Samples from the Frome Collection

Gone To Earth is the hunters cry when the pursued fox has fled underground out of danger. It is also a 1917 novel by Mary Webb, who takes this title as an allegory for the ruthlessness of mans

aptitude for destruction and a lone characters personal response to her circumstances and events.It also sums up the Precious Mcbane and Jessica Light collaboration- a step back to realign and re-present our collective creative outlook. 
Having shown for the last four years at the nurturing homestead of Tent London, Jessica felt it was time to leave the campsite and pitch her Winnebago in uncharted terrain. A move she's simaltainiously excited and  apprehensive at doing.
Pairing up with design company Precious Mcbane seemed an ideal choice as both parties share an idiosyncratic and independent aesthetic view. So expect specific areas to reflect the genre of each collection, a classic piece of furniture made trimtastic, and specimen jars filled with passementerie.

GONE TO EARTH

15-23 SEPTEMBER 2012

2A HELMET ROW

LONDON EC1V 3QJ

11-6, FRI 11-9

THE COTTAGE PROJECT

The Cottage Project is the exciting brainchild of product designer Osian Batyka-Williams and weaver Holly Berry, who have self-converted a derelict building in New Cross Gate into a micro-department store. The premiss is to support and celebrate British artisans though retail, exhibitions, lectures, events and workshops, as well as promoting interaction in the local and wider communities to the processes of across the board making.

Images copyright The Cottage Project

Their first event is a pop-up makers space [which yours truly will be weaving live at] at sportswear brand New Balance's Olympic hospitality suite in London.

New Balance are a unique brand in that they still manufacture their trainers in this country at a factory in Flimby, Cumbria. They are also actively promoting global makers from all walks- musicians, artists, sports-people, designers etc- with their Excellent Makers programme.

One of my pet subjects is British manufacturing and it warms the cockles of my heart to see a major brand supporting and promoting the quality and craftsmanship of products made in this country.

We can't compete with the cheap prices of the Far East and we will never manufacture on the same scale we once did. Our traditional heavy industries such as coal, steel, and textiles are now just a vague and misty memory, as are, very sadly, the communities and culture that surrounded them; but it's factories such as Flimby which should be our blueprint for the future. Compact, involved, skilled and passionate about doing what we do best in the U.K- British Craftsmanship- this is our way forward.

The Cottage Project launches Autumn 2012.

If any press would like a taste of what's to come please visit their showroom by emailing

mail@thecottagelondon.com

Random change of subject and for all you wildlife boffins out there. While in Suffolk recently we came across two giant moths which we believe to be Privet Hawk Moths. I've never seen a moth so big in this country before so had to share it, probably to a chorus of - Oh I see them all the time. They're really common-