Feltbug

Lavender hearts and my favourite tea cup for the morning cuppa

Lavender hearts waiting to be stitched.

Early morning in the feltbug studio - getting ready for the Autumn Art and Design Fair, there has been a lot of planning with meetings, emails, research, leafleting and not much time for crafting. There is nothing like a deadline to get me working though. Our event was featured on the wonderful Make London blog yesterday :) If you are a London based crafts person with a website or a blog do get in touch with them as they are keen to feature events and designers. Have a look at some of the workshops on offer on The Make Lounge they are looking for people to run classes too.

Cheeky Leopard

Cheeky Leopard will be selling hand-made cards and gift tags and showcasing her new range of organic cotton bags at the Autumn Art and Design Fair on Saturday.

Gunilla Karlson

Memory protector by Gunilla Karlson

Gunilla Karlson won the metalwork and jewellery category of the Inspired by ... Competition held by the V&A Museum in London. Gunilla will be selling work at the Autumn Art and Design Fair.

London Mummy

London Mummy sources and makes gorgeous accessories for children. You can read more on the London Mummy blog and check out this adorable fabric house that she made, with a tutorial so that you can make your own. Rumour has it that she has exceptional taste in local cafes too :)

Maryam Mansouri

I am looking forward to seeing more of the work of Maryam Mansouri at the Autumn Art and Design Fair. I love this drawing.

Lynn Towers

Lynn Towers takes organic and natural forms to create paintings and drawings that are both beautiful and breath-taking. You can see more of her work on her flickr page.

Kate Bushnell

Girl in tree, mixed media on canvas

Kate Bushnell is a contemporary artist who uses a wide range of media to express her unique vision. Influenced by her family, her surroundings and experiences both past and present, she aims to explore the vibrancies of colour, form and material.

95% Danish

Danish contemporary home and lifestyle products from 95% Danish
Holmegaard - Unique glass crafted for modern everyday living.
Elvang - Exquisite Alpaca wool throws, cushions and scarves in Scandinavian colours
Ferm-Living - Wallpaper and unique Wallstickers for the modern home.
Unique Interieur - Collections from designers Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen and Sofie Refer.
Rikke Jakobsen - Elegant and subtle fine bone china tableware and decorative vases.

Mark Hill Cards

Mark Hill makes exquisite hand made cards and photo albums. They will be on sale at the Autumn Art and Design Fair at 50% of the retail price. Clients include the V&A museum, Designers Guild and Liberty. You can see more on his website.

Urban Knit

Handmade bags made from colourful batiks from Nigeria and hand knitted scrummy scarves by Urban Knit. Check out their Etsy Shop and the Urban knit blog.

Hurley Burley

Hurley Burley stall, originally uploaded by jason sputnik.

Hand-made jewellery using silver and semi precious stones by Hurley Burley.

Autumn Art and Design Fair

The Autumn Art and Design Fair is on Saturday 29th September from 10am-4pm and it is going to feature the work of 20 artists and craftists including myself. I will be featuring some of the artists to give you a taste of the delights in store. It is in the beautiful setting of Barnes Common next to the village pond at the Old Sorting Office Arts Centre, 19-21 Station Road, Barnes, London SW13 OLF. Thankyou to Jason at Sputnik for designing our advert.

Andrzej Jackowski

Sisters with Albums and Trains, 2007 oil on canvas 60x70cm (c) Andrzej Jackowski

I first saw the paintings of Andrzej Jackowski in 1989 at the Marlborough Gallery and I fell in love with his work. Since then he has shown regularly at Purdy Hicks Gallery where his latest show, A Space in the Dark, has just opened. It is on until 13th October. Purdy Hicks Gallery has some really good shows of contemporary art and they are right next door to the Tate Modern just past Marcus Campbell books (a great place for second-hand art books) at 65 Hopton Street, London SE1.

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday, originally uploaded by Feltbug.

Click on the picture to go to the flickr page with links to the featured artists.

Cockpit arts open studios

Lush Designs
Lush Designs

Lost and Found
Lost and Found

Marta Munoz

I visited Cockpit Arts open studios in Deptford today and saw some very inspiring work and met lots of lovely people. The studios are open Saturday and Sunday, 15th and 16th September 11am - 6pm and then they open again from Friday 30 November until Sunday 2 December.

There are 65 designers working at these studios. Here are some of the other artists whose work inspired me.

Beautiful hand-made artists books and cards by Ruth Martin.

Wonderful woven cloth by Eleanor Pritchard.

Printed linens and cards by thornback & peel.

Sumptous silver jewellery by Petra Bishai.

Light

My latest submission for lyingdown lookingup. Send in your pictures of what you see when you are lying down.

ShipHill Inc

Installation shots of The Grand Tour.

ShippHill Inc are multi-media artists Mark Hill and Kate Shipp. Their current show, The Grand Tour is at Pall Mall Deposit, 124-128 Barlby Road, London W10, until 21 September, opening times 8.30-6.00, Monday-Friday, nearest tube Ladbroke Grove, then 15 minute walk.

The Grand Tour was inspired by the donation of a cache of travel documents from the 50s and 60s which record a tour of Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. The installation which includes paintings, sculpture, ready-mades and photographs, seeks beauty in the commonplace, the imperfect, the modest and humble.

Mark Hill also makes beautiful hand-made cards, you can see more on his website. He will be selling his cards at the Autumn Art and Design Fair in Barnes, London on the 29 September. More about that soon ....

Wire tales

We have been looking after our neighbour's budgie - she is very sweet and loved to sing along to any music I put on - her favourite was Babybird ! I missed her when she went back but I felt sorry for her being in a cage.

1987

Self Portrait, charcoal on paper 1987. This is a photocopy of the original - which was my first proper sale - to someone I didn't know ! Me and my Granny, we were really good friends and I miss her a lot.

Natalija Lovett-Turner

Gouache and pencil on board, 8x10 inches. Baghdad 1957.

1957

Natalija in 1957 in Baghdad. My Grandfather worked for the British Council in the middle east. Granny painted.

1931

My Grandmother in her confirmation photograph - they knew how to take a picture back then. This was in Riga in Latvija.

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday, originally uploaded by Feltbug.

Click on the image to go to the flickr page with links to the featured artists.

I would like to thank ...

Cusp from L'Ombre de mon Ombre has nominated this blog for an award. It is lovely to be honoured in this way for doing something that I really enjoy. Thankyou very much Cusp :)

The Awards come via the Writers Review and according to the rules I must now nominate five other people for an award so here goes:

Kirsty Hall gets the inspirational blogger award for her blog up all night again ...

Marion Michell gets the courageous blogger award for My art grows around me

Cynthia at art for housewives gets the inspirational blogger award

Natasha Fialakov gets the courageous blogger award for being natasha fialakov

Shula gets the courageous blogger award for Poppalina

All of these lovely bloggers are creative, inspirational and thoughtful too. And a BIG THANKYOU to all those other blogs and flickrs that have given me so much inspiration over the last year too :)

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday, originally uploaded by Feltbug.

Click on the picture to go to the flickr page with links to the featured artists.