Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Butterflies, flight update.

Exactly a year ago I introduced you to our butterfly circlet stencil called Moths around a Flame.

I have just completed a ceiling using a larger version of it.

Surrounding the large circle of butterflies and moths are new, individual stencils. I am finding all sorts of uses for them, they are very handy. The metallic paints are suitable for fabric too.

The smaller size circlet has two new stencil designs that match it and both create a dense repeating pattern.

The butterfly images are the same on both stencils but one of them has many more than the other. Whilst the design students were working with me their first job was to test the new butterfly stencils to make sure that all fit together properly....they do.

The repeating stencils and the set of individual motifs provide a wonderful background shape to overlay a stencilled pattern onto.  I have demonstrated this technique on other posts. It is becoming a bit of a trade mark.

These are gift boxes, the designs are a good size for cards too.

I spent a few hours filling images of our queen's head with colour, pattern and pretty things. Butterflies was a good place to start and I stencilled them onto bags and cushions for our shop. The Blue Queen with Butterflies bag sold to the first customer that saw it. I'll be making more.

There's a more colourful version too.

Arianna Interiors feaured a butterfly hot trend alert on her blog and I enjoyed the post and the pictures so much that I sent her a message to tell her. I had a lovely reply and she added my Butterfly Queen cushion to her feature. All the new stencils can be ordered from Designinspiration, just email me for details. I can accept PayPal if ordering from my blog. There are many other (different) butterfly stencils to choose from at Stencil-library use the site search to find them all.

Helen.

 

Inspired by David Hockney and Barbara Chandler

'David Hockney has put trees on the map — and the design world has them on everything else' wrote Barbara Chandler for the London Evening Standard.   

Barbara suggested that readers could Hockney-fy their walls using spray paint and our largest bare trees stencil.   I reckoned that this was a brilliant idea and worthy of experiment, I told my husband that I'd be late home (again) as I wanted to stencil a wall of vivid coloured trees in our shop.  This reusable, plastic stencil stands at 97 inches (almost 2.5 metres) high, so it is not a five minute job to paint a wall full of them. He suggested that I spend an evening at home instead and he would mock up some walls of trees on the Mac. 

So he did!

A stencil is a tool to apply pattern and colour. The scale of pattern, the colours and method of application are the choice of the user. Bare trees is a negative stencil, this means that the surface becomes the tree colour and one applies another colour to surround the tree shapes.  

This is our version of how to Hockney-fy a wall with our tree stencil. Start by randomly spraying or painting the wall in a similar fashion to this.

Much of the background will be covered when the trees stencil is applied.

The stencil is positioned over the painted background, I use a light misting of repositioning adhesive to hold stencils like this in place and it is important to have the stencil flush to the wall when spraying paint through it. Tonal variety can be added to the stencilling as well as the background.   Pictures 1-3 show this effect. Careful use of a foam paint roller is an alternative way to stencil large areas of single colour.  The following illustration demonstrates the effect of stencilling with flat, peach coloured paint over the painted background.  

Voila, an homage to Hockney's Bigger Trees using paint, stencil and courage. 

Prefer something more subtle? How about beige paint stencilled over a white surface? Or use a silver paint that can reflect the colours surrounding it.

A word about the duo that inspired the experiment. I have featured Barbara Chandler on previous posts, She is a very interesting lady, a best selling photographer, a well respected writer, a champion of contemporary design, a well known Londonphile and her Love London work is enjoying much praise at the moment. See it on murals, fabrics, furniture, cards, books and more.

David Hockney is so much the man of the moment what could I add? His website tells much about current and previous work.  See Hockney's Bigger Picture at The Royal Academy London until April 2012. My husband is a fan of his and says that Hockney has inspired him to take a closer look the landscapes round him and see them not as ordinary but as something to be celebrated.

Bare Trees border and wall stencils are available in various sizes from The Stencil Library.

Helen.

Fauxology wants the heart of your home.

Fauxology, that font of designerly, decorative inspiration are requesting pictures of your kitchen to show off in Kitchen Week. The deadline is March 2nd and details are here. 

Cabinets with a rubbed finish of black over Chinese blue, lined in gold. Featured in Architectural Digest.Via Fauxology

Fauxology is looking for the kitchens that have something extraordinary. Something unique. Something completely artistic.

The results will be fun, inspiring and you may even win a prize. I like the picture of the black over blue kitchen that they feature.  Black dragged or rubbed over blue gives a lovely, deep colour. See it on these examples around my home.

To mimick a display of plates try the Blue and White collection of stencils at The Stencil Library.

There is black and gold in my kitchen.  Panels of glass and plastic have been stencilled then gilded.

It works well with the room which is old and bumpy. Though I am admiring this sleek, gold kitchen seen via DesignersBlock.

Incidentally,  Di Overton the author of Designers Block blog has a fab kitchen... with a tree in it. Di, send a picture to Kitchen Week! 

So, if you have been creative or artistic with your kitchen and have some lovely photos to share. Regina at Fauxology wants to see them. Hurry.

Vintage Stencilling

Look what I found at our favourite shop RE in Corbridge recently:

Vintage stencilled souvenir handkerchiefs! Southport is a seaside town in England near Liverpool. Aren't they fab? Recently, I've found a few things with old (pre-1950's) stencilling on them and shall share the other finds later, but for now, I had to post about these (maybe because I am willing winter to be over!).  I reckon both are done with a two layer stencil and look as though the paint has been sprayed on.  They are both stencilled onto crepe fabric.  I nearly ruined one by spraying water on it to iron it.  Never, ever put water anywhere near old crepe fabric...it just shrinks and shrivels (I had forgotten).  Luckily I managed to save it, before too much damage was done, but the result is that the blue one is smaller by about an inch than the pink one.  Try as I might, I couldn't quite get the vintage folds out of the pink one and wasn't about to risk any steam or water.  I reckon these are from the 1930's and were never meant to be used as a handkerchief.  I love the pink one so much (how wonderful is that outfit and the hairstyle!), I intend to frame it.  We've done a bathing beauty stencil, VN203 On The Beach, as part of our Vintage range and I am dying to use it:

As well as a fab simple old style yacht stencil, VN225 Sailing Boats: 

Shortly I will share photos of a 1930's/40's stencilled satin bed cover and some deco patterned fabric I have.  In the meantime, if anybody has any photos of old stencilling, pre 1950's, they would like to share, please email us.

a BIG idea behind the Jubilee Big Lunch.

Creative help requested. I have the challenge of dressing the facade of this handsome house for The Jubilee Big Lunch this June.

It stands around forty five feet high.  The niches are 7' high and 18" deep. My instruction is make an impact with scale and colour but not budget, which is relying on donations in both cash and skills.  Ideas so far involve paint, fabric, chicken wire, a ballon pump and a field of paper swans.

The Big Lunch is all about community, sharing time, food and decorating skills with neighbours. Ok I made the last bit up in the hope of gaining constructive input from others.  I have had some interesting plans submitted by local artists....but I know that most of my on-line community are hugely artistic and have great ideas, so friends if you have some suggestions please comment below or Tweet me.

The decoration needs to stay safely anchored in the possible wind and rain of an English summer, apart from that there are few restrictions. So what would you do? Please tell.

Helen.

Stencilling Great Britain

Coming to a street party near you.

I have spent two very happy days stencilling bunting in preparation for the celebrations that our village is planning for The Queen's Diamond Jubilee this June.

The stencils that I used can be ordered from The Stencil Library.

There are bunting groups popping up all over our community and the intention is to make miles of the stuff so that we can make a colourful contribution to the Jubilee celebrations.  It will be re-used when the olympic torch procession travels along our main street a fortnight later.  Yes, we are on the nationwide route of the traveling flame! After that, the bunting is in reserve for future festivals and shindigs.

So, Stocksfield Village should be resplendant in a flutter of stencilled, red, white and blue. The bunting groups are huge fun and a good way to meet other creative people.  We are relying on donations of fabric from the residents so we have shirts, sheets curtains and tablecloths in our pile so far. 

 

Do you fancy doing the same in your community?  Start now, whilst the weather is chilly.  We bring flasks of hot drinks and share cakes, snacks and gossip plus we get to create something that will be enjoyed by many.

It is a lovely way to spend an evening. There are some very helpful 'how to's' on the web showing how to make bunting and this link will take you to a stencilling fabric photo tutorial and this one is video. 

If you want to make your own jubilee inspired decoration these two stencil designs MS49 Crown and SIB24 Crown are a good start. There are more crown stencils on Stencil Library just use the on-site search to find them.

I am setting up an on-line shop with my friend Sabina Rose.  We'll be making, stencilling and selling our jubilee inspired pieces, please follow our progress. We will value your input.

Helen.

How to make a stencilled door curtain.

Curtains aren’t just for windows.

 

Beat the chills with this creative and practical door curtain project.

What you will need:

• A large piece of fabric to stencil
• A large piece of lining fabric
• Sewing machine
• Pins
• Fabric scissors
• measuring tape

Start by measuring the size of your door to work out the size of the fabric you will need. Remember your curtain will need to have extra length or header tape and a deep hem. The total width for your curtain including the side panels should be the width of your doorway plus a half, for extra weight use twice the width. 

 

Now to stencil the fabric.

Firstly launder and iron your fabric, then apply a light coat of SprayMount or similar repositioning adhesive onto a flat surface to hold fabric in place while you’re stenciling. Choose your desired colours and stencils. We used ‘blossom’ one of 15 card stencils in the ‘Stencil it’ book. Alternatively this stencil is for sale in various sizes from The Stencil Library.   Apply a light mist of SprayMount  to the back of the stencil and press into position.

Use good quality stencil brushes and paint suitable for fabric. Work any excess paint from the brush onto paper towel, you only need a little amount of paint to stencil with.

Stencil in a circular motion to ensure a light, even coverage and build up the colour as you go,

We chose to stencil our design to look like the blossoms were falling in a descending pattern towards the floor.

How to make the curtain:

Take your now stenciled fabric together with your lining fabric, remember taking into account the seam allowance. Lay the lining fabric on top of the curtain: right side’s together. Pin the two pieces in place. Sew Along each side with the seam allowance. Hem the bottom of your curtain.

Now you want to turn your curtain right side up.   We sewed header tape to our door curtain which allowed us to gather the fabric then we attached metal hanging rings to it. and hung it from a portiere rod. If you’re working with a curtain pole you can attach rings or just fold over the top edge and make pocket for the pole to go through. Pin in place and sew.

This is what a portiere rod looks like.

A portiere rod raises the curtain as the door opens so that the movement is not impeded by fabric dragging on the floor.

and allows it to drop when the door is closed ensuring a snug fit to keep out draughts. A deep hem helps to further reduce draughts.

The heavy, cotton velvet came from Factory Fabrics in Prudhoe. The curtain was sown and stencilled by students Melanie, Laura and Ashley. The project was written by Ashley and I and photographed by me.

 

 

A slice of Palazzo Margherita Please

I have enjoyed two wonderful hits of colour this week from Francis Ford Coppola. One was revisiting one of my favourite movies One From The Heart

image via Bills Movie Emporium

I'm not wild about the central male character but I never tire of the colours, the mood and the soundtrack (Tom Waites and Crystal Gayle).  Loved it since 1982! The other Coppola treat appeared in The Wall Street Journal and features one of his hotels Palazzo Margherita in Southern Italy.

Photo James Merrell.

You can copy the floor tile idea by painting the floor then stencilling with our Big & Bold decorating mask in Chevron.  Pick the small size chevron stencil mask as our Big & Bold designs can be huge.  Stencil with turquoise paint over white for ease.  I use standard latex paint for all my painted floors and apply several coats of varnish to protect them. Choose from matt, satin or gloss finish. Create a decorated ceiling with stencils too. Designs similar to all these can be found in our Ottoman stencil collection. Ott14 is a good fringed border, the V shapes could be stencilled from OTT7 and there are several motifs to choose from.

Thank you to Bunbury Felters for sending me the Palazzo story. 

Valentine's Day ideas

I'm looking at a stencil of a love-heart tattoo and imagining decorative potential for Valentine's Day gifts.   It is big enough to embellish a cushion cover or tote bag. I could stencil tee shirts, napkins, tray cloth, cotton handkerchiefs or gift bags.  I could customise a gift box, files or a book cover...a photo album might be a good subject.  Or, I could just give the stencil and let the recipient have the choices.

Helen   

Early days of a new venture

This was the scene on my studio floor this morning.

I am starting an on line shop with long time friend, talented artist and all round good sport Sabina Rose and we want to make stencilled accessories for home and body. This was our first evening's work it was so much fun and if our customers get as much enjoyment from using them as we had painting them then we have success.  Pictured are stencilled bags and cushion covers inspired by the forthcoming diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth.

We will be creating different ones today and then photographing our work with the intention of finding a retail outlet other than this blog. So, creators and buyers of handmade products please advise us if there is an online shop that you prefer such as Etsy, Handmade or others? Who would you recommend? Please tell.

PS since writing this I chose Folksy.com and you can buy the bags from www.folksy.com/shops/forqueenandcorgi

Helen.