Eating and blind-making

There's nothing like visiting a few old New House customers in beautiful parts of England to work up an appetite.

On Wednesday I was at Beaver Blinds in Torpoint and ABC Blinds in Dorset. Both have used our fabrics for years and they are careful and impressive blind makers. Ones I'd whole-heartedly recommend.

Sitting in Beaver Blinds' office next to the water, it's not unusual to see some warship sail past. While just up the river, there's the famous Brunel Tamar bridge (sadly this is not my photo)...

ABC is in the lovely town of Bridport, and on the way home I happily stopped at River Cottage's famous Canteen & Deli in Axminster. 

 

I know it's a cliché, but I couldn't stop myself taking a pic of one of the most beautiful plates of salad & humus I've ever seen...

Decorated with colourful petals and nasturtiums it was a joy to look at and wonderful to smell. I felt BAD like a destroyer-of-art, gobbling this plate down so quickly.

Today at New House's design meeting, we discussed our September Top Drawer stand and chatted freely about our many other up-and-coming projects. We also had a superb lunch of fresh flower salad, cookies and all the other good things I'd picked up from the River Cottage Deli that helped our discussion flow and sparkle... there's nothing like a plate of good food to get everyone talking!

 

 

SS Great Britain - a masterpeice of engineering

One of my godsons, James visited last week and on a rainy day we went to the historic city of Bristol to see the SS Great Britain.

New House is a design and engineering company, and the ship & museum turned out a million times more interesting than I imagined.

The Great Britain was the world's first iron ship and another of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's genius designs. He's up there with Leonardo, Newton, Edison or Darwin as one of the worlds most original thinkers. Brunel calculated that even though iron was heavier than wood, it was much stronger, so a ship could be built that weighed less, could be bigger, carry more cargo or passengers and be more durable than any wooden ship.

It's a testimony to the British manufacturers of his day that they welcomed his new ideas, backed him, and built this amazing ship. In one huge technological leap SS Great Britain superseded all other ships.

To construct the vessel, Brunel built a new dry dock in Bristol. He originally designed his ship as a paddle-steamer, but saw a famous tug-of-war between a new propeller screwed vessel SS.Archimedes and HMS Rattler (of equal horse power, but a paddle-steamer). Seeing the screwed vessel pulling the other along at 2.5 knots, Brunel re-designed the Great Brittan so his single screw design let him place the engine at the lowest part of the hull and increase the deck space, that the paddle mechanisms would have taken up. 

After her launch in 1843 everywhere the Great Britain went she was a wonder, as she was by far the largest vessel afloat.

Eventually the Great Brittan was beached in the Falklands and used as a warehouse. Made from wrought iron (a heavy but slow-rusting iron) she survived. A huge donation by Sir Paul Getty allowed for the ship to be towed across the Atlantic to the Bristol dry dock where she was first constructed, 127 years later.

She's wonderful to see today and I recommend anyone to visit :

The engine room :

First class accommodation :

The old Mr. Brunel :

The NEW Mr. Brunel (my godson James) :

     

Hot day for a cycle ride

New House is surrounded by wonderful Herefordshire countryside, and as it was hot, I thought a cycle ride round the lanes might be a good idea.

The view from Perrystone Hill and our church :

The Herefordshire countryside is always beautiful, but as a lazy cyclist who only really enjoys cycling downhill (or the flat at best), I get off the bike frequently to push it up hills that real cyclists would just laugh at. So sometimes, I wish the county was a little less undulating, but the roads and back-lanes have no traffic, so it's a joy to cycle (when going downhill).

It was the hottest day of the year, so even the horses were sheltering under an ancient oak :

I stopped at peaceful Kempley to admire their 1903 craft-movement church. It contains some great renaissance statuary, and I loved the lattice window with it's beautifully-engineered opening panes and painted wooden beams :

On the way home I passed the 'old forge', decorated with the cogs and iron the craftsman used to bash-out or repair in the place :



Am I glad New House is located deep in Herefordshire ....despite every good downhill having an uphill!



 

Made in Manchester - a bridge in Uppsala, Sweden

Just found these pics on my phone of an iron bridge I saw in Uppsala, Sweden last month. The bridge is probably one of those objects that I bet people at the time thought a hideous iron monstrosity and much too too industrial for their charming town, but it looks lovely today.

From memory, the designer was Swedish, but the iron certainly came from Manchester!

 

 

 

  

New Designers 2013, and One Year On

I haven't been to New Designers at the Islington Business Centre for a few years, and it was great to go again on Friday. I'm always amazed at the vibrant new talent coming out of the colleges, and it's a real pleasure meeting and chatting to these clever and very charming graduates.

 

I was there because Laura Fletcher (New House's amazing weave designer) was displaying her latest work at One year On. Her stand was full of her trademark sophisticated weaves, colourful cushions, throws, stripes and cards. All made in England.

 

Laura's work is so beautiful and original that at New House, we always have a queue of projects for her to work on. She has an amazing colour sense, is a cool watercolourist too! 

 

Walking round the rest of the show, I loved the textile work of the girls from Cardiff - Alexandria Roberts, Hannah Duncombe and Sarah Harley. Their gorgeous prints or laser-cut work will surely be something for the future.

 

Next to Laura was Harriet Riddell. I've never heard of anyone doing portraits on a sewing machine before, and her skill was astonishing :

Everywhere Harriet goes, her sewing machine does to. I'm sure she will be very well-known soon, as she's so good!

 

I normally hate having my picture taken, but was so curious to see what Harriet did, I couldn't resist......

 

Me in stitches :

 

One Swedish Summer house

I've often gone to Sweden for work (as many of New House's high-quality fabrics and homewares are manufactured to high environmental standards there), but this was my first real Swedish holiday and I got to see a lot of the countryside.

Sweden is twice the size of the UK but with only 9 million people, it's so uncrowded and you drive for miles seeing nothing but trees and lakes with only a few red-painted houses or little farms in between. It's very beautiful.

I drove to Höga kusten (or the High Coast) which is a delightful area full of high hills with steep valleys that have either lakes, or deep Baltic sea-water inlets at the bottom. I was happy, as a good chum Annika, had invited me to stay, and had also just opened a new design gallery in Omne.

The bridge to Höga kusten :

My friends summer house :

I loved her little hut (and it's view) :

It'd not been decorated in years and had some great 60's or 70's wallpaper :

 I also loved the original kitchen in the main house :

For those who believe in location, location, location, I took these pics within 500yds of my chums house. From what I saw of Sweden, much of the countryside looks like this.....

The back garden :

The nearby Baltic :

The local lake :

Annika's new design gallery :

Teija Bruhn - who has 95 outlets in Japan and is one of Scandinavia's great designers opened the show :