Monday 13 December 2010

MARY'S LIVING AND GIVING SHOP

Mary Portas will be opening her 3rd shop for Save The Children in London's chi-chi Primrose Hill. Once again Jessica Light Trims and Tassels have donated products along with other designers such as Nina Campbell. The doors open on Saturday 18th December at 11am for mince pies and designer bargains not to be missed.
Two one off lampshades we have donated.
MARYS LIVING AND GIVING SHOP FOR SAVE THE CHILDREN
109 Regents Park Road, Primrose Hill, London NW1 8UR.

Monday 8 November 2010

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Christmas is coming
The goose is getting fat
Please put a penny
In the passementier's hat
After all those bottles of sherry won't buy themselves

And deck the halls with our hand-made couture gewgaws.Availble to order from www.bouf.com or Jessica Light.
Left to right,
Turk's Head Tassel £6.50, Old Gold Tassel £5.50, Pleated Bauble £7.00

Friday 1 October 2010

TENT LONDON 2010

For 4 days in September The Truman Brewery in Brick Lane became the venue for the must see show of The London design Festival. TentLondon [only 4 years old]gathered together an exciting and eclectic mix of exhibitors. From lights made from scurrying rats [they were dead]to a giant Knitting Nancy, the range of textiles, furniture, ceramics, lighting and interior products was awe inspiring. With queues around the block to get in, Tent had more buzz than a beehive.
I kept expecting the soup dragon to appear from
Tomomi Sayuda's weird and wonderful light.
Ben Murdock's eccentric ceramics
  
Hand-blown glass jewels from Curiousa & Curiousa

Above  Zoe Murphy's  bright and playful stand.
Right, Miss Margate herself having a ponder.

Everyone could have a go. Set up by Superblue
The giant Knitting Nancy.




Original Little Bird's decorative
surreal prints
Part of Lizzie Mary Cullen's live
on site drawing

The rats might have pulled the crowds, but I liked
Alex Randall's leg light

Penelope Jordan in front of her 3D bespoke textiles

A witty take on identity necklaces by
Product Of Your Environment

Mini Modern's department store

You can have hours of fun playing with
Mimelight's  colour combinations 

Jessica Light Trims and Tassels had a fantastic show. Our new collections were received really well with half our stand all ready gone to press both here in the U.K and America. We also had a couple of the big guns in the interiors market wanting us  to design trimmings ranges for them.
The light reflective outsized trims

My stand
Big thank you to everyone who visited my stand.









                      

Friday 17 September 2010

WESTFIELD CAR BOOT SALE

To celebrate London Fashion Week Westfield is holding a car boot sale from 21-26 September 2010. About 20 Hyundai cars will each showcase a particular brand. One of the cars will be Mary's Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children
Set up by the Grande Damme of retail, Mary Portas, to raise funds to help children all over the world, The Fashion Lives Campaign has gained support from major brands such as The V&A and Vintage Channel. 
Jessica Light Trims and Tassels are delighted to add our support to this fanastic cause and have donated products which will be sold from Mary's car.
One of our donated products; a one-off bespoke tieback that was featured in July's Homes and Gardens.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

LITTLE HOLLAND HOUSE



It's been a bit of an Arts and Crafts summer with excursions to William Morris' Red House, the splendourous orientalism of Leighton House in Holland Park [my favorite bit is the seat built into the staircase- the perfect place for a midnight tryst], and the absolute gem that is Little Holland House.
Nestled quietly in the surburban peace that is Carshalton Beeches- Yes it is a place and not the name of a fey, lily-livered young man of dubious morals in a Dickens novel- and hidden behind a pebble dashed exterior [is it wrong to like pebble dash? I find myself really quite taken with it] lies the creation of an extrordinary man, Frank Reginald Dickinson.
The front door
Inspired by William Morris and John Ruskin, Dickinson, with a £300 loan and his fiancee Florence's savings, began building his dream home in October 1902. He and Florence moved in on their wedding night, 24 March 1904, and spent their honeymoon sanding, staining and making their vision of an "Ideal House" into a beautiful home.
Not only did the highly creative Frank build the house but he also made all the fixtures and fittings, the furniture, and even the art on the walls and carvings are his handy work. The Art Nouveau ceramics all came from Doulton where Frank had worked, and the curtains in the bedroom were embroidered by Florence.
The copper letter box
The first room you enter is the open plan dinning/sitting room. There are portraits of Franks family inserted into the wood panelling and on the table is the gift Frank gave to his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary. He didn't just pop out to the nearest garage and get a wilted bunch of powdery, pungent carnations, but learnt how to silversmith and made Florence a stunning teaset.
The silver teaset Frank made for his wife







In the corner of the dinning room is the staircase which has a small platform that was often used as a stage during the many gatherings, dances, discusion groups and musical evenings that were held at the house.

Frank and Florence's bedroom is decorated mainly in calming blues and greens, with a frieze running around the room and "O sleep it is a gentle thing" carved into the bed headrest. 



Compared to the exotic opulence of Leighton House, you really get a sense of Little Holland House being lived and loved in. It's almost as if Frank and Florence are still there welcoming you. You can sit in their chairs, read their books, probably have a nap in their bed if you were so inclined. You even have to ring the doorbell to get in as if you've come round for Sunday tea.
The Dickinsons not only embraced the Arts and Crafts asthetic but also it's ideas of humanity and equality as seen in the Humanist slogun carved into one of the beams on the ground floor.
"Serve Humanity, the Gods we know not"
Little Holland House, Beeches Avenue, Carshalton. Open 1st Sunday of the month. Free








Tuesday 17 August 2010

TENT LONDON 23-26 SEPTEMBER


This will be my 3rd year showing at Tent www.tentlondon.co.uk. Preparations are going according to timetable, apart from the odd hysterical hiccup [sobbing at my loom at 3 in the morning]. I will be launching two new collctions; one which is finished [look out for previews in October's issue of House And Garden magazine], the other which is under sampling as I write.
I will also be reshowing the acclaimed collection, Antibes [shown below]