LONG TASSEL LIGHT FROM CURIOUSA AND CURIOUSA

We here at Jessica Light Trims and Tassels love working with other designers. One such collaboration has been with Esther Patterson of Curiousa and Curiousa fame. The result is a tassel light which has a hand blown glass shade sitting above a hand-woven 1m long dip-dyed tassel. This striking sculptural statement piece would add a touch of decadent drama to any interior.

Available from Curiousa and Curiousa

£395.00.

Jessica met Esther at TentLondon last September where they were both exhibiting and where both companies will be again this year.

Jessica Light Trims and Tassels will be launching two new collections [keep an eye out for sneak previews and updates on this blog], and from the smoke signals coming from Tents HQ it's shaping up to be the biggest and best TentLondon yet. So put these dates,22-25 September 2011,into your diaries and make sure you don't miss THE show of the London Design Festival.

PASSEMENTERIE WORKSHOP AT CREATE BOUTIQUE

Create Boutique offer a number of exciting fashion-centric workshops from jewellery to fascinators. You can either come to one of their locations or if you're having a party and want to provide something a little different they can come to you

Jessica Light has teamed up with Create Boutique to teach a passementerie workshop. So come and learn a new skill in a social,fun and relaxed atmosphere and come away with your own unique bit of tasseledge.

Learn how to make the above pieces

Dates to be announced so keep checking Create Boutique for info

THE ROYAL WEDDING

Jessica Light Trims and Tassels haven't been invited to the Royal Wedding [I know- can't take us anywhere], but we like to feel we'll be there in kind due to the fringe that adorns the Buckingham Palace balcony that was woven by Jessica.

Jessica wove this fringe while working for Wendy Cushing at the factory in Leyton. It's a 21cm wool bullion with tags the size of sausage fingers and was so heavy that a couple of the boys from the ropewalk had to come and help lift it.

The fringe it replaced was 98 years old and we hope that when it needs to be re-woven there will still be someone left in the U.K who knows how to do it.

There was a large trimmings industry in Britain and even when Jessica started there were still 3 factories left in London. There are now none and Jessica is one a few people she knows that if they woke up in Tudor England has the skills to actually go out and get a job. 

It is vital that we keep our traditional industries alive because once they're gone that's it, and we will have lost yet another part of our cultural heritage. So when someone orders a product from us they are getting so much more than just a trim, they are helping to preserve techniques that go back centuries and yes we are using the Royal We.

ART DECO ON THE TUBE

As the days are getting lighter and brighter I decided to wake the Sunday Excursion up from hibernation.

The first day out was inspired by a delightful little exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum called Underground Journeys. This exhibition charted though plans,drawings and photographs,  the modernisation of the London Underground by architect Charles Holden during the 1930's.

Some of his stations from this period can still be seen along the outer reaches of the Piccadilly Line. From Bounds Green to Cockfosters in the North [be sure not to miss the circular spaceship that is Southgate]and from Acton Town going West [Park Royal is the one to see, and opposite Rayners Lane is another wonderful Deco building with a parade of shops and a beautiful 30's cinema].

As someone who only uses the Tube when I need to get from A to B quickly [I prefer to meander on a bus] it was quite novel to see it's network as something to look at in it's own right.

I've long been aware of some of the great design that London Transport has commissioned, especially the moquette seating fabrics. My favorites are those designed by Enid Marx and Marion Dorn again from the 30's.

Moquettes by left,Enid Marx, and,right,Marion Dorn.You can see more examples of these textiles at the London Transport Museum and shop

 Enid Marx and Marion Dorn were just two of those visionary female designers of the 20th century. Enid went from the Royal College of Art to work for print designers Barron and Larcher in 1925. Two years later she had set up her own studio, a converted cow shed in Hampstead, where she produced her own designs that were sold though The Little Gallery. She continued to work freelance,and during the 2nd World War was appointed as one of the main designers for the Utility Design Panel.Her output also included book covers, posters, and two books written with Margaret Lambert on English folk and popular art.

Two designs by Enid Marx. The bottom one was for the 

Utility Design Panel.

Marion Dorn, a beautiful, rather racy American,started designing when she left Stanford University in 1916. Her journey to Britain took in New York and Paris where she fell in love with the artist Edward McKnight Kauffer who left his wife and child to be with her.
Once in London Marion used her great talent, charm and Kauffers connections, which included T.S.Eliot, to establish herself as a prominent designer. Her client list included Warner & Sons, Fortnum and Mason, The Edinburgh Weavers, and Wilton Royal.
In 1940 the couple sailed back to America due to the war. They both found it hard to recapture the acclaim and success they had gained in London. Kauffer  suffered a breakdown and died in  1954, a hapless alcoholic.Marion continued to freelance, designing for Jofa and Katzenbach & Warren. She retired to Morocco in 1962, and died in 1964
 Her output included designs for printed and woven textiles,and wallpaper, but it is her modernist, abstract deco rugs and carpets that she designed for Wilton Royal that really stand out.Two good examples can be seen at Eltham Palace and The Midland Hotel, Morecambe.

Rugs for Claridges Hotel, London, 1935.

The amazing Marion Dorn.

RECOMMENDED READING;

The Architect Of Floors [modernism,art and Marion Dorn designs]

Chhristine Boydell,

Schoeser 1996.

A Woman's Touch [women in design from 1860 to the present day]

Isabelle Anscombe,

Virago 1984.