linen envy

Working in the Linens section at a department store, being a lover of textiles & surface print, and mad for colour, it's becoming hard not to spend my pay cheque on our own products.

This Australian company Kas have some really punchy designs and they're youthful unlike some of the fussier florals we stock from the longer standing brands. The strip of machine embroidery running off centre caught my eye, that and the pintuck detailing used to balance it out. Gonna get me some fuchsia pink indian cotton to make a quilted bed runner from - I like it loud.

good reading

My previous post was kicked off by a birthday present, a fantastically colourful interior design book, Bazaar Style by Selina Lake, written by Joanna Simmons and photography by Debi Treloar

Selvedge magazine filled the remainder of a lazy Sundays reading, with a feature on Toni Meneguzzo research project following a trip to India into Hindu 'Holy Cows'.

'...they proudly wear the embelishments of Hindu's seemingly kitsch spirituality, with its grand and garish objects, baroque frames and old honking motorcycles, fetishes and plastic flowers, part Bollywood, part Taj Mahal.' (pg. 76, issue 38, Selvedge, Jan/Feb 2011)

An aspect that really excited me when visiting the Hindu Temple in Neasden. Western views on vivid colours or conotations relating the use of certain materials in relation to religious memorbilia lay in stark contrast to my childhood at a Christian Church school.

Figurine from the Neasden Hindu temple

gifts and precious hand-me-downs

Growing up in a creative household I've always collected and cluttered, sometimes things get pretty busy because of it. It's taken a focused few years to learn to be a bit more selective in what I choose to hang on to.

99p shop - Brighton - this place matt used to be tucked inside my room if ever i left it out

in communal areas of my old student house, it's kitsch-ness offended people

Peacock candle a friend bought back from a trip to India on a antique Coalport saucer bought in Lyme Regis

Underglaze pencil doodles two slipcast cups with yellow stain

I'm not the kind of girl to swoon over flowers, but when a friend had dug up this plastic daffodil and pearlescent vase to pot it in for me I was over the moon, here it sits with a Mac Donald's Happy Meal Barbie, and an old test tile of cocktail swords

I get rather sentimental over certain material possessions. I'd like to say it's because of the people or places I acquired them from, and that does become part of their story, but really it comes down to an impulsive towards their colour or texture that satisfies me. Old and worn, shiny and new, mass produced 99p shop finds are as dear as a one-off handmade present.

If it's not distinct enough to display in its own right, it'll be sorted by colour, boxed up, and kept safe for later.