Monterey Cone journey's around the world with Åry

It has been a very exciting Autumn for my Monterey Cone, which has headed off in various re- designed forms, from its home here on the edge of Exmoor in North Devon, on a journey, not only to regions of the British Isles, but to the far corners of the world as well. Who knows it may well eventually find its way to Monterey!

Firstly this year I was asked by the Swedish company Åry to design a new tray collection. They liked my Monterey Cone cushion, but wanted me to design something exclusively for them. I scaled down the cone, added some pine needles, then introduced a change of scale by including some branches and cones of the Larch. Thinking that a few rare Heath Fritillary butterflies may well have visited my cone in the Heddon valley, I added these in as well.

It's not possible to print metallics onto these beautiful birch wood trays, so I decided to recreate a metallic feel to the design, keeping the look of the copper/bronze tones of the printed cushion. Getting the exact colour balance was painstakingly slow, printing many sample colours in order to achieve exactly the right tones.

When you're working on a project like this, it can seem a long time before you see the product, or even share any images. The final trays and table mats were launched this Autumn by Åry at Formex in Stockholm, then Maison et Objet in Paris and are even better that I'd hoped. I was so pleased and delighted to see them when Åry sent me a photo from their stand a few weeks ago. Now that I have some samples of my own, I thought I'd write about them...

Table mats and coasters...

Moorland co-ordinates (!) with my new hand printed Beech napkins...

I'm reminded of the fact that I drew the Monterey cone after I found it on the ground after a storm in the Heddon Valley on Exmoor, and it has brought so much inspiration to me as well as others.

...and if that wasn't enough, the Monterey Cone cushion is exclusively part of the National Trust's Artisan and Craft Autumn collection, in some of the larger shops and available online here!

I'm exhibiting at Handmade at Kew, in the world famous Royal Botanical Gardens, from 6th - 9th October. I have a few Private View invites left for the evening of the 5th October, if you would like to come, please email me with your postal address and I'll be happy to send one to you (while still available)!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Cornwall Design Fair - 14th - 16th August, 2015!

I find it easy to berate myself for not doing absolutely everything! In this instance it's drawing (and my colour notebook) that's slipped. I remind myself that Professor John Miles, (a brilliant print tutor on my M.A.), told me that you cannot draw all the time, but that you have to stop, in order to allow the inspiration that comes through drawing, become the design, or product or painting etc. In my experience this is certainly the case.

In the meantime then, here's a preview of the work in the making that I've been screen-printing for Cornwall Design Fair next weekend, do come along if you are anywhere near Penzance next weekend - it's going to be great!!

On the print table today, a Great Spotted Woodpecker scarf, remember him?

Not yet for sale in my online shop because happily, each has sold as soon as I've printed it. Every scarf is unique, made from 100% woven Cashmere they are as light and soft as a feather!


http://www.cornwalldesignfair.co.uk/

Summer Beech panel, here I'm about to print the second black outline screen...

Very rare Heath Fritillary...

and a spectacular, prize winning, (white) Spider Chrysanth..!

Colour from the season - Blackthorn grey (plus Exhibition News)

Aware that I haven't put pen to paper for quite some time, yesterday on my regular morning tramp with Luna, I peered out from my waterproofs into the horizontal hail and biting wind to see if there was anything, a single branch, a leaf, a dull or colourful something, anything, that I felt enthused to draw (it is February after all!). Look what I noticed, isn't it amazing!? I thought so, a natural barbed wire (ouch!).

Actually grey, just in case you hadn't already heard, is 2015's new black. It's not just clothes, but hair, walls, and there's a seasonal abundance of it here in Devon. Combined here (as it was on the branch) with Scarred Blackthorn red, (think Pantone colour of the year Marsala??) it's right on trend. Top tip... If you paint Farrow and Ball's 'Dove Tale' with a slash of 'Brinjal', you'd have a room not far off the fabulous warm colours of a Blackthorn branch...

I love this fine porcelain vase, perfect for such a Blackthorn branch, by Gilda Westermann...

Some early dates for 2015 fairs and events where I'll be exhibiting my textiles:

Selvedge Spring Fair - The American Museum Bath, March 28th.

Art Trek Open Studios - North Devon, May 23rd/24th and 29th/30th.

The Contemporary Craft Fair - Bovey Tracey, 5th - 7th June.

MADE Design and Craft Fair, West Dean - 18th - 21st June.

More to follow later in the year…

…from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

The little things - favourite things...

The little things in life that make the difference...

...At an exhibition the people opposite your stand are your "view" for the entire show, so it was great to have such talented creatives opposite me at Cornwall Design Fair last weekend and thought I'd share the vista..!

Amy Cooper www.amycooperceramics.co.uk who makes these absolutely magical porcelain lights inspired by the ocean...

Shere Design www.sheredesign.co.uk - I had to cross the aisle to see the fine detail of the whimsical animals and birds in Helen's wonderful illustrative jewellery but it was worth it..!

100 Metres www.100-metres.co.uk  Luxurious as well as sculptural, these fabulous ladder scarves are handmade in Cornwall...

and admittedly a little further down the aisle...

Samme Charlesworth www.samcharlesworth.com Atelier ceramics which are a perfect combination of ceramic and textile!! Hardly surprising then that these plates in deepest Indigo were my 'best in show'..!

I fell in love with this plate embossed with a Chanel printing block, so it came home with me!
The Heart Rabbit, Fawn and Recipe linen napkins (and many more of my product range) come in packs of two and are for sale in my online shop here...

Lastly - my work in the beautiful drawing room at Trereife House. Huge thanks to the Le Grice family for selecting me to exhibit here again!

(Printed as a limited edition of only four !! Three of these cushions have now sold, there is just one left (in a black/white colourway) now in my online shop here).

Cornwall Design Fair 2014

Last minute printing for Cornwall Design Fair, breathed a huge sigh of relief about an hour ago when this Ivy block repeat I'd screen-printed today with a copper finish came off my heat press successfully. So many things could go wrong with this print - but thankfully they didn't, it was one of those spectacular moments!!

Trereife House near Penzance is the wonderful setting for Cornwall Design Fair. This will be the third year I've exhibited and I love the relaxed atmosphere of this fair. There's live music playing in the entrance of the exhibitors marquee, it isn't too big or overwhelming, exhibitors and visitors have a great time rain or shine and the Le Grice family generously open Trereife House to the public and allow work to be exhibited inside. I'm delighted to be showing my work again in their Queen Anne style drawing room, definitely worth a visit if you can make it!

"Don't push the river, it will flow by itself" (Chinese proverb)

A few months ago I stopped drawing (which felt very strange) and took time to reflect on the past three and a half years of documenting colours in plants, birds, shells etc. and writing about them on my blog.

As far as possible I ignored the pre-conceptions that I'd had about what should be the outcome, and also what I thought others might think about it, I just did whatever I felt most enthusiastic about and let it develop. When I worried that I should have chosen brighter or more varied plants and colours, I accepted that I've always been attracted by simple forms and more muted tones, that this journey has never been about fashion or trends anyway (quite the opposite in fact), that it may or may not be the most creative conclusions I'd ever come to but it would be whatever it would be!

I'm very happy with the outcome :)

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, so an opportunity to take some studio shots of the finished screen prints, The sun came in and out of the clouds but I did get a few images if a bit dark, here they are...

And then there were three...

Spider Chrysanth and Bamboo (72" x 32") - a plant in your room which you don't have to water!

Screen-printed onto natural linen, Bamboo and Ivy...

My favourite - a deep purple Ivy screen printed block repeat!

Emptied a pot from the garden to take this photo - made me smile!

In reality the colours of these prints are subtle and beautiful...

...and today, drying on my print table - a special edition of the Twine table runner in two of the amazing colours of Stauntonia Hexaphylla (leaf green coupled with flower pink)..!

On Tuesday, I'll be delivering this work to the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey, as part of 'Land, Sea, Sky' exhibition! It does feel like an end as well as a new beginning somehow. (though I hope to still post occasional colours and plants which inspire me!).

I hope you can make it to the exhibition, but if you can't, you might like to know that I'll also be showing these at Cornwall Design Fair (August 15th - 17th).

I should add that they are of course all for sale! please email me if you'd like information and prices.

(Many of my early notebook sketches were drawn spending time with my dad before he died just over two years ago and looking through them has been coloured with memories. I'd been on the edge of starting print workshops in my studio, just before he died and now with the invaluable support of Womens Development Unlimited , I'm very excited that from October, I hope to at last be starting these, and teaching people who'd like to learn to design, print and dye textiles - in fact all the things I love doing myself...watch this space!).

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Selvedge Spring Fair

I'm delighted to be exhibiting in a few weeks at Selvedge magazine's Spring Fair in Chelsea Town Hall, London on 4th and 5th of April !!!

I'll be showing a Spring Fair edition of the Spider Chrysanth wall panel!

not to mention a few familiar faces...

Hope to see you there!! 

For more information go to Selvedge Magazine.

!!STOP PRESS!! 

I have a few free tickets to give away - so if you're interested in visiting, please email me at sam@sampickard.co.uk ASAP!

Colour sampling - Chrysanthemum print

From experience I know the only way to develop new work is to make a start, get the ideas out of my head and onto paper, fabric, or wherever, accept that much of this early work may not be be brilliant and keep going.

At last, after colour sampling trials this week (huge sigh of relief!), I'm finally getting somewhere.

First samples: I printed the colours I'd sampled from the real Chrysanthemum flower back into the printed flower - as in my original notebook page, with interesting results...

Then I printed colour squares behind the flower as on my notebook pages. The white seriously mis-printed but you get the idea. To give an idea of scale the squares are 25cms...

Now a change of line colour. Here the flower outline is leaf green, the infill is dusky petal orange. Subtle, and reminiscent of Art Nouveau?

I decided to simplify. Do I have to fit every colour in just because nature manages to!
Here I've printed only one colour in the petals and the leaf green. I also introduced a shadow. Inspired (as I often am) by the work of Patrick Caulfield, I thought a hard edge shadow would be achievable and dramatic.

I nearly always use unbleached linen (partly as a positive environmental choice and partly because I really love it) therefore in all the above samples I'd adjusted the colours to take into account this underlying base colour and keep as near as possible to the colours in the plant. However I did (lastly) trial print this sample onto bleached linen in Chrysanthemum bud dusky pink.

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Screen Printing in the studio - Chrysanthemum flower

After a difficult start to the year, I've come out the other side feeling pretty positive again! This has been helped along no end by putting new work onto screen and sample printing in the studio this week. Also driven by the forthcoming exhibitions and applications this year which won't hang around and wait for me.

Here's what I've been doing. It's just the start!

I'd already (digitally) printed out a giant Spider Chrysanthemum onto drafting paper to get an idea of how it might look scaled up. I had to scale it down a little from that to fit on my screens but as you can see here (I'm 5' 7") it's still quite big.

I decided to do a test print onto fabric in black and white. Just lifting the screen on and off the print table can be challenging.

Printing white. Lucky that I remembered to check the size of my biggest squeegee when I scaled the flower. Only just fits!

Lifting the screen is always a wow moment!

Now printing the second screen - the black...

and finally - well - just a peek!

...and to think that I grew this Chrysanthemum from a little plug planted in my greenhouse!

Next week I'm print sampling in colour - more to come on this...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Land, Sea, Sky

Yesterday I wrote a short statement and emailed it with photos for a group exhibition I've been invited to take part in called 'Land, Sea, Sky' (May/June 2014!). As my proposal for this exhibition relates entirely to my colour notebook/blog 'Planet Sam' I thought I'd share this, as well as work in progress as it develops.

I'd been asked for a statement of 250 words which had to answer specific questions (by Flora Pearson, exhibitions officer at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen), these were...

"I need a statement for each exhibitor of up to 250 words. Could I ask a few questions to give you pointers for the statement? They may not all be relevant to you but please can you answer as fully as possible or elaborate where you want to, thanks. If I already have a statement from you perhaps you could tweak it with these questions in mind please.

-          Can you define your relationship with the land, sea or sky (or all)?

-          In what ways do you draw on land sea or sky in your work? For example inspiration, materials, tools.

-          What processes in your work link you to your surroundings? For example sketching, harvesting, etc  (have you got any photos of these?)

-          What are you focussing on for this exhibition?

-          Have you got any ideas or plans to take this work further in the future?"

Here's my statement, which covers some of her questions (in 248 words!)...

Sam Pickard

Land, Sea, Sky

My studio is situated in a small market town close to Exmoor and the surrounding North Devon countryside or ‘Land’ is a rich source of inspiration for my fabric and textile design. For the past three years I have been collecting samples of flora and fauna specifically to document the colours I find in them. What began as a reaction against simply following global trend colour forecasts, and to look instead at “seasonal” or “local” colour, has become a rich source of reference material for my work.

In the winter months I sketch in the studio, but in Spring and Summer I often sketch outdoors using pencil and dip pen and ink. Using a dip-pen helps me to capture the vitality of the subject, the blots and smudges adding to the imperfections and scruffiness I find in nature. These sketches and colours are then translated digitally from Moleskine sketchbooks, scanned into the computer to create digital pages, bringing the colours and drawings together into pages of a blog ‘Planet Sam’, (which had 43,714 page views in 2013).

Some of this imagery has already filtered into my textile products, for example, a Pheasant is now immortalised onto cushions and trays, a Monterey Cone is super-sized and screen printed in bronze foil onto linen. 'Land, Sea, Sky' is an opportunity to develop these notebook drawings and documented CMYK colours from ‘Planet Sam’ and take them into screen-printed textiles using both the colour and drawing together for the first time.

(not entirely sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'm working on it!)

and the example images I sent (Corn Grass from July 2013)..

In the (French) landscape, (unusually) caught in action taking photos of the subject.

Photo of that subject...

Pencil sketch...

Pen and ink...

and lastly from the 'Planet'...

More to come on this...

...Hope this made sense but if I've failed to sound my usual fairly chipper self - it's because my studio was broken into and burgled last night - and I'm feeling upset and totally fed up - not a great start to the New Year! At least (looking on the bright side) - no-one was hurt, most of my design work is backed up, plus they didn't trash the place (so all sketchbooks/fabrics intact) but can't even begin to think about the things that are lost...

Selvedge Winter Fair 2013

For the last few weeks I've been sourcing linen, ordering more screens and screen printing new colour-ways of some of my most popular designs and I'm really looking forward to exhibiting these at the Selvedge Winter Fair at the end of November.

Mr. Rabbit is looking very festive in screen printed bronze and Blackberry black

I take the photos of my work, my studio has good North light and so providing the day is bright enough I can (usually) take decent product shots using a tripod, that are good enough for press and other publicity. Below, Budgie and Chrysanth runner and Adams Pearmain apples.

New natural linen and colour ways for my Twine table runners. Although available with an alternative plain edge these now have a beautiful hemstitched finish. 

They look even better in reality!

Positively gleaming in teal and bronze, Fawn cushion (12" x 24").

Selvedge Winter Fair takes place 29th - 30th November - organised by the fab design led textile magazine Selvedge. If you love textiles, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Find more information about the Winter Fair here.

I look forward to seeing you there!