Deryn Relph

The chair

I don't know how I found her, but boy am I glad I did, my world can always take more colour in it.
I finally got to see her amazing creations at Top drawer and was not disappointed. And 2 months later our very own chair has made its way to the gallery. It has had so much love, and rightly so because once you sit in it I defy you to not want to snuggle up or swizzle round in it every single day. I was close to telling the delivery driver to just drive round the corner and deliver it straight to my house but alas, not everything can go home with me.  I just get to admire it every time I'm in the gallery instead.


Here is some more information about her.

Deryn Relph is a textile designer, with a love of colour, pattern and texture, who likes to think creatively about the use of textiles she designs and constructs.

“Although I specialised in knitted textiles for Interior use during my BA(Hons) Textile Design at Winchester School of Art, I merge this with previous upholstery and furnishing skills to create unique and contemporary solutions to an idea.

Versatility is something I believe to be important, and I am keen to think ‘outside the box’ and take on any challenges for which my textile background might hold the key!

Issues affecting the Environment, and Sustainable design underpin my design ethos, and consideration to ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ is made throughout the process, with use of colour and technical ability aiding the solutions.

Working from a studio at my South coast, Hampshire home, I often re-invent discarded furniture and lightshades, making them desirable in a contemporary home. Informed and considerate choices are made in selecting fibres and yarns which come predominantly from factory surplus stocks.”

“Inspiration for my work is often taken from aspects of nature, particularly structures, or scientific imagery.

Nostalgia and evoking an emotional response to engage the user with an object play a part – if something makes us happy, or we love it for the memories it brings I believe we will treasure it for longer rather than send it to landfill.
Retro influences are often evident in my designs, inspired by my own childhood memories and happy times.”

Each chair is a complete one off and I am so happy with ours. cushions are on their way too.


Do you like?
xxx

Clare mahoney

 We received a delivery of these pebbles just two weeks ago and they flew out the door. I loved them but you never know whether customers will appreciate the work gone into them.  But we sold 8 in the second day and now we are getting our next delivery tomorrow.  The powers of pinterest....as I found them whilst browsing Gennines pinterest board, all the way over in Mexico and turns out Clare is from good old blighty.

I'm excited to show you my new chair tomorrow, I'm bursting with love for it!

Happy Wednesday all.....Thanks for reading, your comments make my day x

new

New work in the gallery by Beth Morgan, a very good friend of mine whom I have known for very many years. She studied fashion design and when we first met she used to make her own clothes. We would be out in Manchester and people would be asking to buy her clothes off her back....literally. She has worked in interiors for many many years which was how we met, and has finally started to make again.  Using Missoni, Liberty and Amy Butler fabrics these pieces have been causing quite a stir since they arrived on Friday.  The colours are beautifully sophisticated and sit perfectly on our stone wall in the gallery.  I love them, hope others do too so she can get to make a living from her art finally.

father and son

fish, buttons, pancakes and the park, a perfect day......

a blast from the past

I have been transferring all my photos from old laptops onto this shiny new mac and in the process rediscovered paintings from as far back as 2004 that I had completely forgot about.  Like old friends. Talking of which, I had a great night out last night with friends at a new restaurant in the next town along, Menai Bridge. A fab new place has just opened called Dylans.  Some great photos on their Facebook page. It was a great night, and a bit bonkers because it was opening night and boy am I paying for it today. Mojitos seem like such a good idea at the time!

Anyway, I am just off to wrap presents for fathers day then an early night, looking forward to a day with my boys tomorrow.

Happy weekend to you all xxx

Pulse round up

A little round up of some of my favourites I saw at Pulse this year

The highlight of my day was most definitely finally meeting the very lovely Abigail, after reading each others blogs for many years and emailing, and purchasing it was a delight, she was as smily and lovely in person and it was wonderful to see their products in the flesh.  I have been coveting for a long time this set of tea towels. 

 There are a lot of designers producing tea towels, trays, mugs etc, myself included, but these by Kate Clarke stood out for me, very fresh.

 I adored the range of cushions scarves and hats by Seven gauge studios. They will definitely be making an appearance in the gallery this Autumn

More delightful cushions from My friend yarn

Loved these knobs by Chocolate creative

Oh what I would do for one of these satchels in yellow by Barbara Wiggins

 I loved so much of Natasha Lawless's work

I am very excited to work with wall envy on producing a range of these wall pieces together exclusively for the gallery, with pages from Welsh books and welsh poems.  

Thats just my first round up, I will add more at a later date.  A lot of the deigners I saw hadn't updated their websites with their brand new work for the show yet so I will reveal some of that in the coming weeks.

Sorry for my negative post yesterday, I have got myself a bit worked up about the subject recently but I had my rant and thats over.

Finally a massive thank you to all the fabulous comments regarding my new designs, it was perfect market research for me, I had a feeling the more colourful ones would come out on top so I might have to go down the digitally printed route rather than screen printing as the costs will rocket with so many colours. Watch this space with regards to new products.  I'm working on it.

Bye for now, and thanks for reading xx

Originality

Im feeling a bit sad about the design world at the moment. There seems to be an awful lot of copying going on these days. Whatever happened to original ideas. I visited Pulse trade fair on Monday and was dismayed to see some awful copying from big companies blatantly ripping off artists and designers who sometimes struggle to make a living creatively. As an owner of a gallery that has always championed handmade I see it on daily basis now. What saddens me most is I have had to stop selling certain people's work because they have been copied by large companies that supply other shops in our town. Sadly a large part of the general public can't tell the difference between a handmade tea cosy made in the uk from a mass produced copy made in china, they can only see the price!!!!! It makes me nervous about exposing new designs here before they are turned into more so I am considering deleting my last post. I am truly sorry for the designers and makers out there who have found themselves in these situations, and we should all consider getting ourselves fully protected by organisations like ACID anti copying in design. Back tomorrow with a more positive post and a round up of the FantAStic new ORIGINAL ideas I found in Pulse for the gallery x

new patterns

I have lots of designs ready to work with, just not sure which to pick and what to do with them.  I can see wrapping paper fabric, wallpaper, aprons, prints any feedback is very very welcome, which is your favourite?

in the garden

Here comes the sun again, lalalalalalalalalala

Having internet problems so back later in the week.....

figs mmmmmmm

My fig tree is doing really well, the wind blew some off on Saturday but today it looks great again, yummmmmmmmm

Tonight we are going to the castle grounds for a picnic, live bands and fireworks at 10.30, when the sun shines, bank holidays are great aren't they.

Thanks for the messages about my 200th post, I'm so enjoying being back in this space x

new work

Rhosneigr beach

Finally....some paintings to show you, that is my job after all.  This painting is hot off the easel... its a commission for a couple living in Australia but grew up here, so we had a family day at the beach in Rhosneigr on Sunday for research, ahem, its such hard work doing research for a painting! I got to spend quite a bit of time in the studio this week and ta da its pretty much finished. A few details to finish and then varnish. This painting is pretty big, 5ft wide, I do hope it makes it all that way safely, and next week I am about to start on the biggest painting I have ever done at 8ft wide.....I'm really looking forward to it. I'll keep you updated on its progress.

Well, It promises to be a busy busy weekend in the gallery what with jubilee celebrations, the Beaumaris arts festival on, and the craft fair, oh and the beaumaris wheel in town....and a bank holiday, whew what a weekend.  Hope everyone has fun, I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone got up to.

Have a GREAT weekend xxx