Trials and Tribulations

Ruth and I have not worked together for a couple of weeks as she has been away in Switzerland and Wales, followed by a 5 day mini holiday away in Stockholm. This is an annual event for her with her sister and a close friend.  Every year together, they choose a new destination to visit and explore – a girly few days away. Apparently Stockholm was the most beautiful city but lacking in those special design interior outlets which were something they were all seeking, on this front it was a disappointment – Copenhagan offers so much in relation to interior design.  Swimming in the lake in Switzerland and hot summer days with family and friends was a welcome break and Ruth also firmed up that Oliver, her brother in law remains enthused re having one of his vintage cars reupholsered in our designs  – how exciting and quite something else.

Stockholm in the winter

The light fading in Stockholm

Outdoor swimming in Switzerland

You know, sometimes the day just goes with a swing and on others up pop obstacle after obstacle – it’s just part of our lives and technology can often play a big part in those frustrations.  Last week was one of the days where whatever we attempted to accomplish was fraught with challenges and hiccups.  However, we are made of stoic stuff and perseverance paid off in the end although we didn’t achieve all we set out to accomplish, there were some positive outcomes.  Words do not always come easy and we struggled over the text on our ‘about page’, it happens, the words do not flow, however we are nearly there.  Images for this page on our website have been reviewed and we are now going along the route of ‘nostalgia’ revisiting our childhood photos picturing us in the landscape.  Ruth has a wealth of great images taken in Switzerland where she grew up.  I have very few of me as a child, but have managed to find a couple that may be suitable.   It was great fun and really lovely looking at the old snapshots of Ruth and her sisters as children pictured with her parents and grandparents in various glorious landscape settings.  Absolutely charming.  Progress has been made and we have now have made a final selection.  We decided that using old photographs of ourselves as children provided a far more personal and significant link to how and why we create work the way we do, rather than a staged photograph with our products in a modern day setting. Ruth continues to tidy up designs and put some into repeat which can be time consuming and challenging but something she enjoys – I am afraid I am can’t contribute to this process as my Photoshop skills are much more limited.

We have received an invitation to showcase some of our products from one of Ruth’s friends in Frome who is holding a pre-Christmas open studio event with various artists and designers over the weekend Saturday 25th to 27th November 2 – 7 pm. Thank you Marjorie for thinking of us and we look forward to a successful show.

Ruth and I spent time selecting items for this event and have now prepared items.  All are now labelled and ready to be delivered on Thursday to Marjorie’s wonderful home in Frome.

Christmas card images have now been proofed.  They still need a bit of tweaking but we are now well on the way.  Good news in that a request has come from Ruth’s brother-in-law who is based in Switzerland to use one of the designs for his business – we area expanding into a European market!

The past couple of weeks has been pretty hectic for me with a visit with fellow Arborealists to Lady Park Wood in Gloucestershire where an invite had been extended by George Peterken who is part of a team of people who are scientifically overseeing and studying the wood.  The weekend was a great opportunity to walk, experience and sketch this unmanaged ancient woodland, ultimately to be culminating in an exhibition of work generated by members of the Arborealists.  There is also a film currently being developed which highlights The Arborealists and their work in connection with the wood which lies just above the Wye valley.

     

Above are a couple of my sketches, so much graffiti in the imagery. It was very interesting to have a guided walk and very informative talk by George and then to spend the remainder of the day sketching in the wood.

Another beautiful winter day on Friday with clear blue skies, sunshine and a very cold atmosphere provided a wonderful setting for a visit to Tisbury.  Met an inspirational lady who runs the shop who was very interested in our business model which has similarities in relation to social/community enterprise connections. Another bit of networking!

http://www.countrycalling.co.uk/item/montes-clark-and-the-long-room-tisbury-2

Check out their lovely website, colour, colour and more colour plus a few inspirational designer interior accessories that would compliment any home.http://montesandclark.co.uk/

Messums at Tisbury was next to do that day.  Extraordinary, big work in the Tithe Barn by Judy Pfaff.  Lots to digest here, mixed emotions re installations and use of materials. Tree roots were spectacular unlike the awful manmade foam that formed part of some of the installations – mixed messages here, but apparently not what was intended by the artist whose work focuses on materiality and not ecology and pollution.

http://www.judypfaffstudio.com/?p=2510

Joyful renditions in the Long Barn using old Indian papers, painted over.  Rather likened to a the results from an ethnic themed workshop/experimental student studies! A riot of colour with a few more sombre monochrome images plus some very imaginative 3d installations hung on the wall made for an experiential day.  This all provided lots of comments and debate with the two friends I visited with.   Great to see two works by Buckmaster and French who are members of the Arborealists alongside and Ivon Hitchens hung in the foyer of the Long Barn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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All in a days work

Yes, lots of research into website design has paid off and Ben our chosen website builder completely understood our brief and has come up with the first draft of our new site. It needs considerable tweaking but we are definitely all reading from the same page. Thanks Ben,  we are on the way.  Although we have a lot of information, both in text and imagery already prepared there still remains much to do.  We are currently arranging a photo session with a professional photographer based in Bath to produce a suitable image of Ruth and I in an appropriate setting, either sitting on a piece of our upcycled furniture, perhaps in The Woodworks workshop /Woodworks shop or alternatively in the landscape.  We will have to glam ourselves up for that one! Below is a friend of Ruth’s posed with her wonderful crow patrol textile designs.

http://www.luxandbloom.com/ourstory

https://www.donnawilson.com/our-story

Our aim is to present a simple and very clear and exciting visual website which is easy to navigate both for researching products and for purchasing products.  Revisiting our logo we have decided to make it stronger with more contrast in the colours as it appears a little faded We aim to have direct links to social media such as Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook, but meanwhile the  second collection designs need tidying up and putting into repeat.

At present we have two pieces at the workshop currently being upholstered – an Ercol chair which is a  companion piece to the WOW Ercol day bed and a very sweet Edwardian low seated balloon back chair both wearing designs from the Floating Landscapes collection.

There are several pieces of furniture waiting in the background to be brought to life with fabrics from the new collection Landscape Graffiti once it is ready for print.

Currently looking at print cost both for digitally printing on fabrics and for art prints.  Fabrics will be available by the metre, as cushions with art prints available in three sizes, A3, A2 and A1, printed to size so as to go into ready-made frames, thus giving the purchaser the option of bespoke or ready made framing.  In addition we are looking to  produce large scarves/sarongs and will have a couple of samples made up and photographed on a model showing imaginative ways of wearing them, as per the examples below with designs by Charlotte Linton.  Sadly, Charlotte’s products are no longer available.

     

Oh what fun.  Christmas card designs.  Having worked together on concepts for the website we had a break away with Ruth on holiday in Switzerland and then Wales.  We both had some ‘homework’, one item of which, was ideas for a Christmas card. Last Friday was the first working day together after Ruth’s return and there was plenty to share.  Ruth expertise on bringing original designs into repeat were looked at and assessed – always so much work to do at this stage, what with tidying up and creating an overall workable and pleasing pattern – we are getting there.

Christmas cards.  Well, therein lies a story.  I suppose it was not too much of a surprise that we came at the challenge from completely different perspectives and starting points.  As individuals we have such different ideas.  I realise that I can be a bit too ‘edgy and experimental’ design wise, a bit too wacky sometimes, which, of course, is great in the right place and totally acceptable for my own personal Christmas cards.  I think Ruth felt the same and her designs reflected her personality.  It was decided that we start afresh, working together to produce a cohesive, professional design that represented our Mc Bean and Budd collections, a Christmas theme that incorporated our inspiration and current designs.  This can then be sent out to previous customers, prospective interested parties and all those who have been involved in the business. It proved to be the best way forward and we worked a whole day on several designs.  Two very strong images evolved which we were both happy with taking forward.  We acknowledge that there will always have to be compromises, but that is sometimes the price one pays when working collaboratively.