All Things Considered

Loop
Posted by Angie Lewin

These days it might be unusual to find yourself in a shop packed with enthusiastic customers but that’s how it was when I called in to Loop, the (admittedly tiny) shop in Islington packed with everything you’d need for knitting and crochet plus work by makers including Julie Arkell and Donna Wilson.

After seeing my friend Hannah’s first attempts at crochet I had to have a go myself and came away with beautiful yarns, hooks, great advice and best of all a pom pom kit. So far there’s a certain 70s influence to my wobbly squares and circles - hopefully I’ll be able to go on one of their courses soon to improve my technique.

Posted by Angie Lewin on February 27th, 2009

Barney Bubbles
Posted by Simon Lewin

I remember Dad having a couple of the variations of this Ian Dury album - printed on a series of different wallpapers.

"Reasons To Be Cheerful" by Paul Gorman celebrates the work of graphic designer Barney Bubbles.

Here's an extract of a review by Alice Rawsthorn from the New York Times:

"After years of scraping by on a pittance from designing record covers for indie labels, Barney Bubbles had turned 40 and needed to make some money. He did the rounds of the big London record companies, only to be told by several executives that they had met with younger designers who were passing off his work as their own.

Shameful though that was, it was not entirely surprising. Shy, introspective and fragile, Barney Bubbles shunned publicity and seldom signed his designs. On the rare occasions that he did, it was mostly under an alias. He credited himself on one record sleeve by drawing a dog, and cited his tax code on another. When the magazine The Face asked him for a portrait to illustrate the only interview he ever did, in 1981, he gave them fragments of different photographs."

 

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 24th, 2009

Jake Tilson
Posted by Simon Lewin

An evening spent with Tilson's "A Tale of 12 Kitchens" reminded me about his "3 Found Fonts" project, an inspiring record of a journey combining photography, travel, collected ephemera and fonts. You can get a flavour of his work in this Independence Lunch PDF download.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 23rd, 2009

What a Feeling…
Posted by Kate Sullivan

If, like me, you’re a fan of Mitchell and Webb, The Peep Show and watching celebrities dance (I know there are lots of you out there), you too are bound to have a chuckle at this clip of the shameless and talented mover that is Robert Webb.

Here he is performing ‘What a Feeling’ from the 1983 hit film Flashdance aired on the BBC 1 show ‘Let's Dance for Comic Relief' on Saturday.

Posted by Kate Sullivan on February 23rd, 2009

Kind of Blue
Posted by Simon Lewin

Picked up a copy of the 50th Anniversary release of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue at Rough Trade the other day. Two CD set plus DVD documentary and live set. Recommended.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 22nd, 2009

Doves
Posted by Simon Lewin

New Doves album out very soon and UK tour dates announced. See you at Norwich.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 20th, 2009

Birches, Ballindalloch
Posted by Angie Lewin

It’s been great living the urban life again while our ‘St Jude’s in the City’ exhibition has been on at the Bankside Gallery.

Last week I spent 3 days working with printer Matthew Rich on a screenprint for the Jealous Gallery who - as well as having a gallery space in Crouch End focusing on limited edition prints - run a print studio where they publish screenprints by a range of artists. You can see a working proof of my new print ‘Birches, Ballindalloch’ here - with all this wintery weather here in London, it had to be a Speyside-inspired print.

The print will be editioned over the next week or so but the working proof and drawing that inspired the print will be included in ‘Sketchshow’ which opens at Jealous on February 19th and includes 3 other new silkscreen editions commissioned by Jealous for this exhibition. For full details visit www.jealousgallery.com

Posted by Angie Lewin on February 16th, 2009

Norman Wisdom
Posted by Simon Lewin

A Valentine's Day treat for you...

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 14th, 2009

Barron & Larcher
Posted by Kate Sullivan

Whilst talking to a textile enthusiast on the phone yesterday, she introduced me to the names Barron & Larcher, two designers who produced stunning hand block printed fabrics in the 1920s and 30s.

Phyllis Barron (1890 – 1964) and Dorothy Larcher (1882 – 1952) both studied at different London art colleges before going off to independently discover textile printing.

Barron went to France and Larcher to India where she saw block-printers at work.

When Dorothy Larcher returned from India in 1923, she and Phyllis Barron started working together in Hampstead, dying their fabrics through natural methods and printing subtle designs for both furnishings and dress materials.

In the decade that followed, they moved to Painswick in Gloucestershire working in a converted outbuilding at their home producing more designs inspired by both natural forms and geometric shapes.

In the 1930s they also started using synthetic dyes and employing assistants to help and learn from them. Sadly printing ceased in the 1940s during the war when sourcing materials was too difficult to continue.

A collection of Barron & Larcher textiles can we viewed at the Craft Study Centre in Farnham Surrey.

Posted by Kate Sullivan on February 13th, 2009

Aberdeen
Posted by Simon Lewin

I'm a fan of Aberdeen. So is Telly Savalas.

Find out more about the work of producer & director Harold Baim and these 'quota quickies' - which had to be shown in cinemas before the main feature due to a law, first introduced in 1927, which required them to show a British made film along side every US feature.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 12th, 2009