Design Wales films - Melin Tregwynt

Just arrived home from the Design Wales 'Design Futures' event in Newport. Great evening of inspiring speakers.... and this film about Melin Tregwynt was premiered (and features me!) Hope you enjoy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY1lwZaUwSQ

I have just returned from a wonderful day in North London installing a triptych commission for a delightful couple who discovered me at Origin last year.

Below you can see some pictures of the commissioned 'Loose Threads' wall panels which were designed to compliment the colours of their interior. They are made from cotton and silk threads encapsulated in acrylic, and each panel measures 40x40cm.

website launched and other news....

First things first: the website has been finalised and I am delighted with the results. Please do visit http://www.laurathomas.co.uk/ and let me know what you think!

I have now properly moved into my studio and after a tense couple of hours getting the loom working after the move, it's behaving itself. I'm now onto the second warp: a black cotton leno which is giving me some interesting results. Hope to post some picture up here soon.

Am also in the midst of planning my forthcoming exhibitions. Firstly I will be showing at the British Crafts Trade Fair at Harrogate, which is open from 6-8th April to trade buyers only. I will be on stand number 310. For further information please visit http://www.bctf.co.uk/

The following week I will be helping install a Makers Guild in Wales group show at the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay. This will be open to the public from the 16th April through until the 16th June.

Hope to see you at one of the shows!

new stationery!

I am so excited about my new stationery! I picked it up yesterday afternoon from my graphic designers, Kutchibok Design and I think they have done a wonderful job. Can't wait to actually start using it!

The headed paper and business card both have a solid dark aubergine/charcoal/cocoa colour (it's a tricky colour to define!) on the reverse with fine diagonal lines reminiscent of the twill weave structure. I opted for a folding business card so recipients could jot notes on the inside as to where they met me or remind them what we spoke about. A single diagonal line in orange is carried onto the 'right' side of the paper, above which is my address and contact details. Unfortunately my digital camera isn't the sharpest so its difficult to show it at its best in these pictures but hopefully it gives you a good idea!

grid weave

Thought I would share a picture of one of the newer 'Resonate' artworks. This is entitled 'Grid Weave: chocolate' (16x16x8cm) and is composed of cotton, silk and lurex encapsulated in acrylic. The fabric is just trapped in the centre of the block, but you get fantastic illusions being created by the highly reflective nature of the acrylic - at certain angles it looks like the fabric is on the outside surfaces too, which is what I've tried to capture in this photograph.

If you're interested in buying this or commissioning something similar, please do get in touch!

three words...

Well, I'm pleased to say that today has been a GOOD day. My computer is (touch wood) behaving itself, so I've actually been able to get on with my work. Have finished some upholstery colourways for Melin Tregwnt further to some research and development work I did for them last year. Excitingly, these fabrics should find their way to the Milan Furniture Fair this coming April... will keep you posted.

Had a great email today from Ann Sutton regarding her new website FlukeLuck - please do check it out. I'm sure all you creatives out there have had times where you feel a little brain dead and in need of some inspiration to get the ideas flowing again. This game aims to help you over that stumbling block and spark new ideas from three randomly generated words. Well, they're not completely random - they are carefully selected depending on whether you state that you're an artist, designer, architect, musician, writer, or cook. You can then share the work generated from these three words on the website.

Tomorrow I'm going to be back at the loom pondering:
red
cacophony
orderly

fancy new logo!

Have had a little re-jig of my blog.... now its complete with my lovely new logo courtesy of the boys at Kutchibok Design. They are just finishing off my website redesign and hopefully you'll be able to view that by the weekend..... very exciting.

Have had a particularly rubbish few days - I appear to be jinxed. My computer slowed to a near standstill by the weekend, so my long suffering boyfriend had to clear everything off the hard drive and reinstall all my software which inevitably has meant there's been lots of glitches getting working again. Unrelated to that, my monitor has died, and my printer is behaving like a diva - only working when it feels like it, without rhyme or reason.

And then thanks to all this lovely rain, I've discovered a leak in my home office window which has soaked all the bits'n'bobs I'd stacked there. Bob the builder (yes, he really is called Bob!) is coming tomorrow to hopefully solve the problem....

Hopefully in my next post I can tell that I've actually started doing some long over-due weaving, rather than just regaling you with my tales of woe!

Right.... now I have got to try and keep this blog up to date!

Have had a manic week out and about, but am now looking forward to a good few days in the studio actually doing some weaving!

On Friday I started winding on a white 2/16 cotton warp to trial some warp painting ideas I've had lurking at the back of my mind for a while. I'm going to be trying to achieve some very optical effects, where vivid stripes of colour will almost make your eyes vibrate! The fabrics will then be encapsulated in acrylic - a new series of 'Resonate' artworks to compliment the existing 'Loose Threads' examples of which are in the photo below:

Am also in the midst of planning my forthcoming International Business Wales research trip to Dublin - am flying from Cardiff next Sunday 20th Jan, and will be staying for 5 days. The trip is to coincide with Showcase Ireland, so I'll be spending the Monday there and then the rest of the time will be researching galleries and hopefully visiting seom interior designers etc. If you have any suggestions as to any places I should visit or make contact with, I'd be very grateful!

Anyway, am teaching tomorrow.... so its high time I go to bed!

subscribe by email.....

After some tinkering with FeedBurner, I appear to have managed to add the facility for you to subscribe to my blog. So put your email address in the 'subscribe by email' box..... and fingers crossed you'll receive an email every time I add a new blog entry!

To quote Homer..... Woo-hoo!

I've arrived! (Well, in the blogging world at least.....)

So I've finally got myself a blog! It's only been on the 'list of things to do' for about a year..... but here I am at the beginning of 2008, with my New Year Resolutions still in tact! Hmmmm, give it a week.......

Anyway, I'm hoping to use this blog facility to keep those of you with an interest in my woven textile art and design work up to date. It's obviously a much more informal way of communicating than my business website (http://www.laurathomas.co.uk/) and I can also share thoughts and other stuff of interest with you.

I'm now going to hopefully figure out all the facilities and features of the blog so I can regularly post pictures and who knows what else!

Oh, and please don't forget, comments and emails will be very welcome!

Thank you for looking.....

Laura