I am delighted to be commissioned by The Woodlands Trust Scotland to help draw attention to an oak tree in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park to help it win European Tree of the Year. Continue reading
Vote for the Oak
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Tag Archives: hand printed
Sneak Peek into Dundee Creatives Studios
Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th October 2013, from 12 noon – 5pm
I would like to invite you to the Dundee Meadow Mill Wasps Artists Open Studios on Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th October from 12noon – 5pm.
My studio will be open with a range of Bargain Boxes with scarves, cards and prints and you can see some of the new things I’ve been working on! I’m on the 4th floor, in studio 404! (there is a lift!!!). I have the lovely Sooz Gordon sharing my studio who styles funky eclectic interiors, makes Dundee inspired cushions and offers Style Surgeries for others to learn about interior design.
Lots artists will be taking part all under the one roof from a wide range of creative practices – painting, ceramics, illustration, textiles, jewellery, installation, interiors, photography and much more. It’s a chance to have a look inside the creative spaces.
As well as the usual amazing array of artists and makers welcoming you into their place of work, this year we have a programme of FREE events in the Gallery Space on Saturday and Sunday (see below). There will be a cafe and a group show of tenants work in the cafe area and Project 2 on the 4th floor. This year we will have a shop curated by Lovely Things with some of their product alongside work from artists and makers. I will have a selection of things in there too, it’s on the 3rd floor, in studio 316.
Saturday 19th
12-1pm Creative Writing with author Zoe Venditozzi (maximum of 8 people)
1:30-2pm The Museum and the Whaleback City – Poetry Reading by Andy Jackson.
Fife-based poet Andy Jackson reads from his poetry collection The Assassination Museum and also from Whaleback City, the new anthology featuring six centuries of Dundee poetry, of which he is co-editor. Expect quirky, accessible poetry on themes as diverse as Daleks, dancing and conspiracy theories.
3:30-5pm Best Bits of Pecha Kucha Dundee (screening).
Sunday 20th
12:30-1:30pm – Meet the Inkers – Vanilla Inkers new intake.
2-5pm TRiGGER : Connectivity @ WASPS 2013 – TRiGGER is holding a participatory drop in afternoon on Sunday 20th October at WASPS Meadowmills Gallery space from 2-5pm. We will be inviting visitors and studio artists to contribute to an informal reflective visual response to WASPS Open Studios weekend. The afternoon is a relaxed and interactive experience with participation welcome from all visitors.
(These events will take place in Project 1 on the 4th floor.)
Ms Battenberg’s Travelling Tea Room will provide a veritable cornucopia of delectable treats. Sit back and relax with some homemade treats and a cuppa. Available throughout the weekend.
Come and try on my scarves and enjoy my colourful patterned studio! Come and see the creative talent Dundee has to offer! For a map please link here.
Please spread the word to others you think may be interested!
Lets go on a journey together…
I was lucky to be selected to take part in the coaching with Cultural Enterprise Office with Lynn O’Neill. I really enjoyed the bespoke personal service and allowing myself the time to develop. I was encourage to think BIG, so I wanted to showcase my patterned artworks on a product that would dispel the myth that my artwork was only for scarves. So I started an self initiated project, for my all time favourite car the Land Rover Defender.
I think the brand really matched the essence of what I’m about and my love of the great outdoors. I wanted to use my patterned artwork and signature style of delicious colours, patterns, and expressive mark making with a rhythmic flow capturing the essence wilderness of the landscape to create sophisticated, natural and beautiful designs suitable for Land Rover Defender.
So I set about creating some hand painted paper designs using imagery of the landscape, fields of pattern and animals. My visualisation was that I see the Land Rover Defenders as something that can go anywhere with no obstacle and I wanted to capture this in my artworks by merging and blending a variety of terrains into one another to give the feeling that Land Rovers can go anywhere, with spontaneous marks the emphasise the thrill, and adventure of the Land Rover Experience through the rugged British countryside.
I could imagine my patterned artworks on – exterior bodywork, spare wheel covers, interior upholstery, promotional leaflets, collectable toys, and water bottles to hoods.
From there I needed to visualise the artwork on a product, so without getting my hands on the real thing I tried putting my designs on simple line drawings. Here are some of my samples.
I searched for the biggest model I could afford and got this lovely toy and set about applying my design idea on the product. I also made a hand printed silk wheel cover too! I loved the little model so took it to the park to do a wee photo shoot. Here are some of the photos from that day.
I hope you like my creation; do you imagine driving about with my design on it?
I’d love to go on an adventure with Land Rover where I bring the creativity and they bring the wheels!
for your tootsies, hoofs, trotters, paws or feet
I’ve moved to the countryside allowing me to be surrounded by my inspiration of Scottish wilderness and thousand of pheasants! After days out exploring the area I would come home with muddy welllies or walking boots, so I decided to make myself a doormat to keep my house nice and clean! Here’s some examples of my hand painted doormats.
Hand Printed Doormat
Indoor use only
Helping to keep your home clean
Each one unique
Material – Coir Mat, PVC backed.
Introductory offer of £25, only available for collection from my studio, please email me if you would like one hello@louisekirby.com
I also had a little play with some other silhouettes and patterns I like!
Labour of Love – Anthropologie NYC
My first export order has gone over the pond and far away… all the way to New York! They have flown to 2 of Anthropologie’s stores in New York – the Chelsea Market store and 16th & 5th store.
These hand printed scarves are all handmade by me in Scotland; and each scarf is ever so slightly different. It’s intensive and very much a labour of love to design and craft my scarves to create the finished product.
Here’s a wee bit of info on the processes from start to finish: From the mixing of dyes to create delicious pots of colour, I do lots of testing to get the right shades. Hand screen printing each scarf individually using complicated blending techniques and stencils of pheasants. Mono printing the reverse side, gives a very unique hand made quality where each mark is scratched in. Washing the screens, hanging to dry, steaming of silk to fix the dyes, hand washing till any loose dyes are removed (and by this time my fingers have all gone wrinkly), ironing, sewing and adding in the care labels. Then attaching the official Anthropologie labels, felt good! Packaging up and to note the massive amount of paperwork from purchase orders to packaging list then Fed Ex-ing over the pond!
It’s been a real learning experience working on this project and I’d like to thanks to the whole Anthropologie team that helped me get through all the hoops for exporting. I felt like a very little fish swimming across the Atlantic Ocean or perhaps more apt, a wee Scottish birdie flying across the Atlantic Ocean!
My work sits so well with Anthropologie’s brand and values; with their ethos of quality, love of pattern, and how they really embrace working with artists and makers. I think this makes them them unique even though they are such a big company.
Their unique shopping experience means you just want to spend time in their stores. The beautiful displays are always a feast for your senses; and so many beautiful things mixed with very good styling and visual merchandising.
It’s great how having created the storefore front for their new Edinburgh store in May (see video), I’ve since designed a small collection for the Edinburgh store and now scarves for the New York stores. I really hope the ladies of NYC like my scarves, who knows who will be wearing them!
Scottish Parliament – what is child labour?
I was really privileged to be invited to the Scottish Parliament to celebrate the artworks created by Scottish pupils, where pupils looked at global citizenship through the visual arts ran by Learning Teaching Scotland.
Myself, both primary 7 teachers Mrs Martin and Mrs Jack, head teacher Mrs Davie and 3 pupils Yasmine, Rachel and Caitlyn took the trip through the rain through to Edinburgh to see the exhibition. It was lovely to be there see the textile cushions in the Parliament also the diverse range of interpretation by other schools and to see the interior of the building.
I was the lead artist that worked with Fintry Primary School, primary 7 classes to look at – What is child labour? Pupils discussed issues and translated these through a range of textile methods from hand printing using stamping and relief printing, applique, embelishment and blanket stitch to make cushion panels that explored issues of child labour. Sketch books were also on display showing the issues, templates, ideas in progress and test samples.
Pupils looked at Article 32 or the United Nations Convention on the rights of the Childs – ‘The government should protect children from work that is dangerous, or might harm their health and education’ – They explored the links between the textile industry and child labour and what is sold in shops in the UK. The children printed patterned on to the fabric – a metaphor for the comfort we in the West can take for granted as the expense of others’ living and working conditions. Learners gained an insight into the lives of working children and this provided them with opportunities to discuss the complexity of child labour.
For more information of the exhibition please follow this link LTS
It was a delight to also got see the wall hangings of textile artist and researcher Norma Starszakowna – amazing flow of colour, texture and marks!
Sneak preview
Here is a sneak preview of the scarves I did for Anthropologie Edinburgh. I’m looking forward to going to private opening tonight – cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, exhibition, auction and I can only imagine a fabulous range of products displayed in their boutique style. Looking forward to seeing my scarves within their store.
I was asked to do a collection of scarves for the opening after creating the giant temporary storefront artwork, a piece of this will be in-store too. The scarf design combines my dapple print with some flying or standing pheasants. Hand printed with a merging of colours to create the blended effect and overprints. These scarves are only available in-store.
Crafts Bursary
Being awarded the ‘crafts bursary’ has really got me thinking about the big picture. I’m very good at being busy all the time and not taking time to reflect, so this is a great opportunity for me and my practice. Another great thing is that I have a mentor, Josie Steed that I can bounce ideas off and get advice every few weeks. There’s such a great buzz at the art college and it’s an very inspiring place to work. I’ve a space within the textile department , that i’ve surrounded myself with mind maps, images and fabric samples.
Tunnock Teacakes
I love this bag I got as a present from a friend who knows me well! I love tunnocks teacakes! I love the stripey wrapper – it’s a design classic! The designer/maker of the bag is a girl called Gillian Kyle based in Glasgow, she screen printed bags and aprons. The one I got is foil printed. Other in the range include other nostalgic scottish things – spam, scottish plain bread, scottie dogs and highland coos, sporrans . Did you know tunnocks have a I dark chocolate version of the teacake, with a navy blue and gold wrapper. My one was bought in the DCA shop in Dundee. Check out her website www.gilliankyle.com
