All Things Considered

Lunar Cycles

I'll soon be taking delivery of a new bicycle - very similar to the one pictured here (though painted in two shades of warm grey).

A chance link from Underworld's excellent site led me to Lunar Cycles, who build beautiful single-speed bicycles, based on vintage steel frames which are stripped of unnecessary lugs, shot-blasted and then painted to order.

A short test ride along some quiet roads close to Hyde Park Corner and I was smitten. There's something incredibly elegant and immediate about a single speed bike - cycling at its simplest.

Lunar Cycles may already have a bike to suit you, or you might opt for a custom build. Find out more at www.lunar-cycles.com

West Dean

I often feel like I need a creative push. I love the idea of going on a short course where I can get inspired by actually doing something with my own hands as a opposed to just looking at the works of talented people online. Blogs are great, but for me, they are also source of envy and frustration.

I was chatting to Simon about my creative angst when he told me about West Dean College, a charitable trust set in the Sussex countryside. This beautiful estate is managed by The Edward James Foundation and consists of a community of conservators, artists, craftspeople and restorers who work alongside builders, gardeners, farmers and foresters.

Here you can study a number of short courses for students of all abilities as well a study diplomas and MAs in conservation and visual arts.

Harrington & Squires

I spent another couple of inspirational days in Tufnell Park last week at Harrington & Squires - the small private press run by graphic designers Vicky Fullick and Chrissie Charlton.

Named after Bob Harrington and Horace Squires - two tutors at Hornsey College of Art in the 1960s - the workshop measures just  288 picas (1.2m wide), and it’s amazing the use that’s been made of the aptly named Corridor.

Splitting their time between commissioned work, regular workshops and their own publishing projects, the work hanging from every vertical surface is inspirational.

I’d visited before and had spent the last few months putting together a basic printing set up, built around an 8” x 5” Adana. Having dabbled with this over the last couple of months there were some ‘holes’ in my knowledge which needed filling. On this visit I managed to produce a new fabric care card for our mail order purchases, and spent a blissful couple of hours printing away - almost in some sort of letterpress induced trance - overlooking a busy Fortress Road.

If you want to find out more about Harrington & Squires it’s worth tracking down a copy of April 2008’s World of Interiors magazines.

Rob Ryan

Rob popped along to the opening of our latest exhibition on Saturday to have a chat about his show with us in November.

We're real fans of Rob Ryan's work - and it's great to have a chance to work with him. We'll have a range of Rob's prints on show - along with some of his tiles and examples of his design work. And - fingers crossed - we'll have a 2008 St. Jude's charity Christmas card designed by Rob.

If you'd like to receive an invitation to the opening of the exhibition, please sign up for our gallery newsletter.

There was a great article about Rob's work in a recent copy of the Independent by Clare Dwyer Hogg:

"The narrow back streets of east London make an ideal wind tunnel on a cold spring morning. There is little to this landscape other than old buildings, a deserted park, and a corner shop or two. But this façade belies the mills of creativity that are churning away behind closed doors. This is studio land, where artists have set up residence, toiling away behind crumbling walls and rickety doors."

Read the full article online

Modern British Posters

Last week I finally made it to this excellent exhibition of British posters from the middle part of the 20th century.

The exhibition features work by Edward Wadsworth, Paul Nash, Edward Bawden, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Abram Games and Tom Eckersley amongst others - all from the private collection of Paul and Karen Rennie.

Paul had previously introduced me to many of the artists and designers whose work is exhibited - and the show acts as the perfect introduction to the genre, as Paul Rennie explains:

"The evolution of British graphic design, from 1920, onwards has usually been presented as a footnote to developments in Europe. These posters show a graphic language of range and sophistication emerging in Britain and able to communicate beyond the established rhetoric of advertising and sales."

The exhibition runs until the 17th of May at the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, Southampton Row, WC1. You can also view this slideshow of the work being exhibited. Highly recommended.

The Boudica Within

Last year I read an article called ‘Treasured Chests’ in an issue of The Sunday Times Magazine. The article was promoting a book called ‘The Boudica Within’ which featured the most beautiful, bare and honest photographs of women who had fought breast cancer, faced treatment and who had then gone through reconstruction surgery.

The idea for the book was conceived by Elaine Sassoon, a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, with photographs taken by Andrea Hare, a former patient of Sassoon's. Elaine wanted to show women naked, post re-construction surgery looking beautiful and non-airbrushed. Her aim, to encourage and help other women considering breast reconstruction surgery.

The book can be purchased online from the website The Boudica Within, where all proceeds will go to cancer charities.

This Saturday I will be running the Race for Life here in Norwich, to raise money for Cancer Research. If you would like to sponsor me, that would be fabulous. Simply click here and follow the instructions. In advance - thank you.

Sarah Ball

This weekend sees the opening of our latest exhibition at St. Jude's, featuring paintings by Sarah Ball and Lucy Edward's handbuilt pots.

Sarah Ball grew up in South Yorkshire and having studied illustration at Newport Art College she was then based in London, working as an illustrator for a range of high profile clients.

Since 1995 Sarah has been living in South Wales and concentrating on her painting, currently producing small scale works inspired by the landscapes of Cornwall and Wales.

"The Coast series takes the colours, light and coastline of North Cornwall as their inspiration. Cornwall has been a tangible, physical presence in my life since childhood - Yellow gorse, green sea, wet moor land pasture, rooftop lichen, can all be found within these coast paintings, which also draw influence from painters such as Ben Nicholson and William Scott. "

If you're in Norfolk on Saturday 3rd May, join us for a glass of wine between 11am and 4pm.

View examples of the work we'll be exhibiting online.

Detour: Moleskine Exhibitions

I wish my selection of battered and half used Moleskine books were just a tiny bit as exciting at the ones featured at Detour, an exhibition of thirty three personal Moleskine notebooks of artists, writers, designers and illustrators of international acclaim. Sadly mine are just filled with shopping lists and to-do's that slowly get done.

Over the past two years, Detour has been held in London and New York, and this years exhibition is taking place, right now in Paris at Printemps Design Boutique at the Centre Pompidou, until 19th May. The exhibition will move on next to Berlin and in 2009 it will be in Venice, Istanbul, etc...

There is also MyDetour, where notebook submissions are open to anyone . The chosen books are displayed on-line and off-line in Paris. You can view pages from notebooks on Flickr, or you can look at videos of Detour artists notebooks via YouTube. It's quite addictive - and very inspiring.

If you feel motivated to get illustrating, we sell a variety of Moleskine's at St. Jude's Gallery.

The Fragmented Orchestra

As usual, I was laying in bed this morning, slowly coming round to the day listening to Radio 4's 'Today' programme.

What a pleasant surprise to hear the voice of an old friend and fellow ex-band member, Nick Ryan, being interviewed.

Along with Jane Carter and John Mathias, Nick is part of The Fragmented Orchestra, a music project that has just been named as the winner of the New Music Award.

The Fragmented Orchestra's idea uses recording units set up at 24 sites across the UK to capture their sounds - these sounds will then be transmitted back to the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool for visitors to hear.

The New Music Award judging panel said: "This extraordinary work mirrors the fundamental human activity of the brain."

Pop-Up-Brilliance

Over the past four years, I've got quite use to pop-up books, but sadly most of the ones we own are now destructed-pop-up-less books. 

There is one pop-up book which I am very keen to buy but not keen for my girls to re-create in there own hands-on origami style, and this is the brilliantly constructed ABC3D book by French illustrator and designer Marion Bataille. 

This engaging hard back book shows each letter of the alphabet in pop-up form, with some letters changing into others as you turn the page or tip the book. Typographic fans, designers and children will love this book. See the clip below to get the full demo.

ABC3d is available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk, due for release in October.

I'm not one for great organisational skills, but wouldn't this book solve Christmas presents for everyone?