oooo interesting!

I recently came across an article in Saga magazine. (Feb. 2012).

Titled: Designs of the times.

The article focuses on 4 UK designers...Orla Kiely...Carissa Hulse...Emma Bridgewater...Cath Kidston.

It's a 4 page article so i will pick out facts that interested me, sorry if you have already read the article.

A quote from Laura Ashley makes perfect sense to us crafters but if we're honest it's not something we all follow: "It's suicide to design for yourself; we design only for the customer"

We all carry noteboooks (if not and you need one feel free to check out my work!) but Carissa Hulse carries around a sheet of white background paper so she's ready to photograph wildflower finds.

Cath Kidston is the cousin of Kirstie Allsopp! Cath began with £15,000 when she opened her first shop in 1993. It sold vintage fabrics and chairs from old counry auctions. NOW she has 41 shops in UK, 2 in Ireland, 15 in Japan and 4 in Korea.

Another quote which rings true is from Orla Kiely regarding pattern "(it) is not a trend for me, to be taken up one minute and abandoned the next. Pattern is in me. It is my life."

The person who stood out the most for me is Emma Bridgewater, her creations started in 1985 because she "wanted to buy my Mother a mug for her birthday, something to add to her collection, but there was nothing which was right. It was one of those Kerching moments."

(Hope for me yet as that was how my journals started i wanted one that was different!)

Having no knowledge of pottery she set out designing a mug, bowl, jug and dish then set out to Stoke on Trent to have it made form the local cream earthenware and decorated using a forgotten spongeware technique.

Today Emma is the sixth largest employer of potters in Staffs with over 200 employees and more than 20,000 visitors each year. her signature piece: polka dot mug, of which 600 leave the factory each week, goes through 54 different hand applied processes before it's ready.

Each piece of spongeware is initialled by the decorator and backstamped Emma Bridgewater, the stamp changes every year. 

The wording and facts have been taken from the Saga article.

I love it when people pass magazines on to me especially interesting ones like Saga :oDD