ooohh embroidery!

I studied multi media textiles nine years ago and concentrated on embroidery. I have a real passion for it and occasionally dabble but still love the art of stitch.

Karen Nicol is an embroidery and mixed media textile designer working in fashion and interiors. Specialising in Irish, Cornelly, Multihead, beading and hand embroidery, her London based design and production studio has been established for more than twenty years. She has collaborated with some of the worlds most famous fashion designers including Marc Jacobs, Matthew Williamson and this dress here was with Clements Ribeiro.

The colours here are just juicy.....

This lovely little yellow chrysanthmum delights me on this gingham...

and more subtle and sophisticated here...

and there's more....

Just a few more designers I am loving right now

Hannah Louise Lamb

Vicky Ambery Smith I love penguins

Elizabeth Abbey

Shaun Leane

I went to see the creature show at Manchester craft centre.The show looks at modern day soft toys and textile works with quirky but endearing personalities. The show includes work by eight makers whose hand-made designs are changing the face of soft toys and contemporary Crafts. Sketch books and design plans are on show alongside the creatures themselves, explaining more about how these quirky characters were created. The show features work by Donna Wilson, Sam Leonard, Lucy Griffiths, Claire Montgomerie, Judy Dwyer, Pure Chemistry and Sparrow Kids.

Sam Leonards skinni bears caught my eye at New designers this year.

Cyril the squirrel

....and the ever wonderful Donna Wilsons characters

She has a fabulous website, you should check it out.

Razzle Dazzle

So Simple .....but stunning!

I'm back! I have been too busy to think let alone write the last few days. I have 14 paintings to complete for Christmas shows by next Thursday. I think last week I may have said I liked working under pressure, I changed my mind, I don't!!! It has been late late nights and will be for the next week but I am determined to keep this blog up.

I took a much needed day off on Sunday which was a really wonderful day from start to finish. Myself and my friend Amy went over to Manchester to see the Dazzle exhibition that Abigail Percy is exhibiting in at the moment. What a treat. It was the private view this weekend with wine, music and oh some really wonderful pieces within Manchester town hall. I have been to this exhibition for the last few years but normally go sometime in December when the German Christmas market is also on in the Town Hall square with lots of stalls of arts and crafts and food and mmmmmmmmulled wine! For those of you in the UK I can thoroughly recommend it. I spent over a year working in a small, contemporary jewellers in Chester so have a very keen interest in Jewellery and love to see up and coming and new designers.

I must say Abigails work looked truly stunning. In the flesh these pieces scream elegance. The carving is just exquisite I don't know how she does it. I thought they needed a case of their own they were so special. There was one piece there I am dreaming of. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos to show you but it was a beautiful long string of freshwater pearls with her geranium leaves and the most beautiful lemon citrine stones. Wowee! I can't possibly do it justice by describing it myself.

I am definitely adding a piece of hers to my Christmas wish list so will be chatting with her about that. As I am getting married next year depending on the style of dress I do eventually go for then maybe those pearls just could be mine!!

To see a full list of the designers who are showing at Dazzle, visit here , but here are some of my other favourites.

Maike Barteldres gorgeously smooth pebbles

Julie allison Wonderful little buildings

Becky Crow Quirky and illustrative inspired by people in everyday situations

I think I will continue with more jewellers tomorrow as I have loads more I love and want to share. I saw some more shows in Manchester, but more on that later in the week, but now I have to go back to painting.

Lastly, Well done Abigail, Thank you for the invite, fabulous darling!!!!

My love for Tord

"Visitors to winter wonderland step through an ornamental gate thickly entwined with flowers, vines and fantastic birds, into a fairytale world redolent with the innocence and delight of childhood"

How beautiful is this?!

I long to go to Austria to see this in the flesh! It is there for three years so you never know!

I am starting this post with a declaration of love for Tord Boontje. I first saw his work about 4 years ago when I saw a chandelier he made for Swarovski. Whilst working at Habitat he designed the Garland light for them. I have never known such a popular product the whole time I worked in retail, there were waiting lists for them for months. It surprised me but they seemed to come out at just the right time when decorative pieces and pattern really started to become popular with the masses.

I have a few pieces by him myself, the Until Dawn curtain in my bathroom...

...a garland light in my bedroom and a few plates he designed for authentics ( the blue and white one next to the coffee pot). Oh this is the dresser in my kitchen by the way.

...and he has just designed a range for Target which is really affordable

There is a great little article and interview about him here, and lastly I love love love this illustration by him.

Folk art rocks! Goodnight all!

next!

Another started this morning.

Halloween seemed to pass me by this year and while everyone has been making lovely things and carving pumpkins I just haven't had the time to do and make lovely things so I seem to have started a painting with Halloween in mind. My colours are getting more muted as the seasons change. I like it. I feel colourful inside but everything around me has a grey/blue tone.

I loved this morning, it really did feel like a new month, there was frost on the car and I got to wear my new scarf for the first time which arrived from Papa Stour last week. Ooooh I just love it!

and on its way to me is this skirt that i have had my eyes on for a while now

I shall be back tomorrow when I shall show you a few corners of my house but now we are off to the movies!

from start to.........

Started at 9am....

About an hour ago

This is one of eight for an exhibition at Sarah Wiseman gallery. They need one image by the morning for their Christmas exhibition invite. I have a bit more to do on it but while I was waiting for it to completely dry I thought I would use the opportunity to write this. I get this far with the paint then sketch over the top and add details like roof tiles etc which you can't often see in the photos.

Thats it I'm off to try and finish it before the end of the day!

Happy halloween to all!

p.s I really hope we don't have any trick or treaters because all i have to offer is a ryvita or a weight watchers yoghurt, don't think they would be too impressed!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Back to work today after the most lovely weekend visiting friends.

That Pavillion never fails to impress me. I lived in Brighton for a few years back when i commuted to London each day and one of my flats was pretty much opposite it and at night lit up it is simply stunning.We stayed in Brighton for one night in a swanky hotel and had breakfast in bed, that came in a bento box....different but yummy!

Then we skipped off to Hastings. What a lovely surprise, it was soooo inspirational, I have never been there before but I thoroughly recommend it. The antique and junk shops were amazing and cheap! The small fishermans huts that have been there for hundreds of years and are still used today just blew me away. Can't wait to start painting them. I have decided I would love a boat like the one peeping from behind these huts just to put in my garden and have a little table and chairs up on deck for al fresco dining. I dream. There was a great shop there too called Made in Hastings which is run and sells amazing work by local craftspeople. Some really wonderful work.

So it was back to lots of emails and comments. Thanks to everyone that has left nice comments. It makes it so worth it to keep writing to know people are actually reading and I am discovering lots of new blogs through it. I also had a long awaited piece of artwork from someone special which I will show you tomorrow.

It has suddenly dawned on me that I don't have long at all to get 2 collections together for Christmas exhibitions at Wills art warehouse in London and Sarah Wiseman gallery in Oxford.

They both need images for their brochures by Wednesday morning. I have started one today and am off to work late into the night to finish it. Once they are done I literally have 3 weeks for both collections, aarrrggghhhh!!! It will get them done though, I have no fear of that. I actually love working to tight deadlines. Crazy I know! So off I go indeed, see you all tomorrow.

I'll try again

My studio wall

These photos were what i was trying to add earlier. I feel so dumb, me and computers aren't really great friends at the moment. But I'm working on our friendship.

A Small original. I'm working on lots of these, postcard size at the moment.

Off to the seaside to see my friend who makes these,

see you all on monday !

Aaarrrgggghhhhh!

I am having so many problems with this today. I am really struggling with uploading photos. It doesn't like me centralising them all and when I do upload it it seems to jump to the top of the page even though the cursor is at the bottom, anyone know why, So this is why it will look higgledy piggledy today. Oh its all going horribly wrong, ther must be a simpler way to do this. Any tips anyone?

Today has been a busy one, tidying, moving organising my studio. I finished a collection of work a few days ago and started a new one yesterday but just not been able to get into it as my studio is such a mess.

The image above by the way is Lauren Child one of my favourite illustrators. Whoo look at me adding links!!!!

So here is part of my studio. Not completely tidy though, that is going to take more than a few hours.

This is my wall of inspiration. It is so important for me to have lots around me to look at and inspire me. Here I have images from other artists, cut outs, telephone numbers, sketches etc etc. More to come.

I tried to put close ups in here but not having fun with it!

So I am going to leave you today until Monday when I have properly cracked it. We are off to Brighton (the South Coast of England) tomorrow. I used to live down there and we are off to stay with friends. I am also taking some prints down with me to show a few galleries. Brighton is a shoppers paradise too so i am sure I will be back with some delights.

I am going to spend the rest of this evening adding links to the side of this page of inspiration.
One last try at a photo and then i am hitting the publish button. Tell me this gets easier!

Back Monday........................I promise!

As you can see I wasn't put off by yesterdays events. I need to firstly thank(feel like the start of an oscars speech!) Abigail for the link on her post today, you big star you! , lots of you lovelies have now found me and thank you all for your welcoming comments. I am going to start this week talking about my work, if you can bear that! Then next week I will start to talk about my inspirations. I will also share with you my news that today I had tea with a vicar and have booked a date for my wedding next year, whoop whoop whoopeee!!! So if you can stand it i might share snippets of that with you too occasionally. Today I started a new collection of work for a new gallery in Devon called Baxters. It is a fresh,contemporary gallery full of beautiful pieces so I am very honoured to be asked to do some pieces for them. I am about halfway through a painting and its not going too well today. My head is up my **** thinking of marquees, flowers etc, but straight back to the easel first thing tomorrow. My day normally starts at about 10 after checking emails etc and I paint pretty solidly for about 8 hours. It's not something I can pick up and leave I have to put my whole soul into it and really become part of the painting. Mainly I am dreaming of living in one of those little houses or beach huts. Blogger has been doing maintenance for the last hour and I had allsorts planned but I will have to save it more tomorrow as it is getting late. Check back tomorrow for a tour of my studio. that will be fun
Bye for now!

Hello World

This may be just a big mess because I have spent the last hour trying to work this out. I remember now why I didn't start this blog six months ago. I will not let this beat me! I am not a computer whizz, oh no siree, not at all. However my boyfriend who is beside me is a fantastic website designer. But I can do this on my own. Only because he does not have time to help me. So, yes I wanted to start this 6 months ago when I discovered the whole blogging community. I am now an avid reader of about 20 posts by lots of lovely crafty ladies around the world and every day I am amazed and inspired by the talent that is out there. I am an artist myself, I paint, every day from my studio at home and today I have relaunched my website!!! More of that to come. I studied multi media textiles 9 years ago and still do a bit but its getting messy with paint that I do for a living. Textiles is still my true love but I am afraid that if I veer that way I will not be able to make a living from it, instead I keep it as a sideline and a retreat. But each day I am inspired more to get back to my sewing machine and draw with that needle again. Anyway I hope to give a little back and give you some little tales from the life of an artist. Anyway I think that is enough for today as it will probably take me an age to get it up and running. But I need to say thank you to Abigail/Camilla/Amy and Camilla who encouraged me to just do it. More soon when I figure this thing out. i think i just managed to add a photo, who knows???!!! I did, I am now editing this and hours later I am beginning to figure it out. Thanks Abigail again!!!!

What a sense of achievement.

Over and out

x