Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Final Runner Up in the Crown Jewels 2009 competition: Antlers

This year, we have been producing the stencil designs of winners of the Crown Jewels competition - a collaboration between Crown Paint and the Royal College of Art students.  The winner was "Image Furniture" by Kyu Seon Lee and the other two runners up were "Cinderella Goes Shopping" by Maureen Hung and "Baroque Cats" by Alex Mattsson.  

 
Here is the work of the final runner up, Bronwen Marshall, called "Antlers".

'Antlers'  are three different antler stencils, available individually or as a set.  They are perfect for re-creating an on-trend gothic look. 

 
As Bronwen says, "I chose antlers because they are really relevant to the mood of fashion at the moment.  Designers and artists are feeling inspired by the dark romanticism of taxidermy and skulls, from Damien Hurst to Alexander McQueen.   My stencil designs are an inexpensive way for people to modernise their homes without having any real antlers on their walls!"

Next year we will be featuring the winners and runners-up from the 2010 Crown Jewels competition so keep in touch with our blog to see more exciting stencil designs.

Rachel

(photos courtesy of Crown Paint)

Stencil Gallery Australia

I am just parcelling up last week's free stencil to go to it's new owner in Australia.  This prompted me to check in with the site of our Australian partners Nic and Helen Orr at The Stencil Gallery.

They take orders for Stencil Library stencils and we make and ship to them or their customers. Visiting their site is always a pleasure because I see photographs displaying their style of creativity using our stencils.

This is one of their interpretations of the DR2 cherry blossom that I featured recently.

and here is another.

They also design and make a collection of their own.  I particularly liked this one of theirs called kumquat.

It is available as either stencil or decal, yes they make both.  Stencil Gallery host workshops at their studio in Glebe Point Road which is only a short bus ride (number 431 if I remember correctly) from Sydney city centre.

Talking of buses, they make stencils for destination banners, I rather like these.

I would feel compelled to add some imaginary names amongst the destinations....Helen's Palace maybe?  It looks like our SS3 Elephant stencil from the Budget range on the side of the planter.

Nic has stencilled many lovely interiors for homes and business around the area.  In this picture he is stencilling MD77and MD79 from our Modern Design collection

The Stencil Gallery is open by appointment. If you are going to Sydney NSW and are a stencil (or decal) enthusiast I recommend contacting them ....again if my memory has not let me down there were some great delicatessens, coffee shops and bookstores around there. Not going to Sydney? Take a look at their site.

Helen. 

In Celebration of DR Cherry Blossom

It just occurred to me as I was skimming through our photo library how many different ways stencil DR2 Designer Cherry Blossom has been portrayed.  It is so versatile and I thought I would share a few of my favourite reincarnations of this design.  I stencilled the version above for Homes & Gardens magazine.  The mood board was researched by Maggie Stevenson.

The page from Creative Home USA magazine shows that DR2 is made from components of assorted branches, leaves and blossom.  How to fit them together is purely down to the imagination of the stencil user.  (I apologise for the scan quality, it was the best I could get).

The following photo shows one of the earliest room sets that we ever created at The Stencil Library.

The first picture displayed the pattern of the branches and the second showed how the leaves and blossom were applied to complete the cherry tree.  Our interpretation was literal and the photo was taken twenty years ago.

The same design was given a quite different look when Elle Deco magazine gave it a contemporary twist for their cover. Rachel and I were thrilled with it's new, sparse look and it is so quick and easy to stencil in this fashion.

Alice Whateley chose it for the cover of her lovely book. In Bloom.

DR2 appears in magazines all over the world.

Another look for the cherry blossom stencil was adopted by Rachel Morris for her dressing room at Stocksfield Hall.

She has recently painted over the room, I am excited to show you the results of the new look once I have sifted and edited the hundreds of photos.

I took the same design and added stencilled oval picture frames from our Print Room Collection.  Photocopies of friends and family can be pasted into the frames which in turn appear to be hung from the branches.

To see more images from the magazines visit our 'As seen in pages'  You may find inspiration in bundles.

Is there room for a designer cherry blossom in your home?

Closet art

I can not imagine my closets ever being clear enough to do justice to the idea of lining them with a giant photograph of a country lane.

It would be a lovely idea for my guest rooms, but those wardrobes are crammed with 'stuff' too.  This picture by Tim Walker has been on my desktop for ages.  It makes me smile.  It makes me think of clearing spaces.  But only think about.

  I have often decorated the reverse of wardrobe and cabinet doors for customers.  It is an unnecessary detail really only witnessed by the door opener, but gives a many, recurring moments of pleasure.

This picture from Easy Living Magazine (photographer Mel Yates) illustrates just what I mean.  They have used our JA45 Mokko stencil inside the closet.  It would be a shame to put the 'stuff' back.

Helen.

Emma Hack revisited

Last year, I found a newspaper in a bin in Paris. It bore a photo of living wallpaper from artist Emma Hack.

 This is the colour version of the picture that I retrieved from the bin, ironed and scanned for you....  And here's some more via the site Wallpaper Weekly.

You may have to look hard for the model that Emma has painted to blend with the wall.

I found these at Lunatica Desnuda blog 

Emma Hack is a body artist, photographer, sculptor and so much more. Visit her site to see more of the story.

Helen

Crown and shoes for a princess

Crown Paint Releases Third Royal College of  Art Stencil by One to Watch, Maureen Hung…

 

This year, Crown Paint and the Royal College of Art embarked on an exciting and unique collaboration to design the Crown Jewels – modern, stylish and inspired wall stencils for the home, to be painted directly onto walls using Crown paint.  After the successes of the first two designs, ‘Image Furniture’ by Kyu Seon Lee, and ‘Baroque Cats’, by Alex Mattsson, Crown present the next exciting instalment in the series, ‘Cinderella Goes Shopping’, by Maureen Hung.

Having recently completed her MA in Womenswear at the RCA, Maureen is generating a strong buzz within the fashion world with her impressive graduate collection. Her previous experiences assisting design powerhouses such as Dior Couture and Hussein Chalayan have set her in good stead for an illustrious career in fashion.

Manufactured for Crown by the Stencil Library, ‘Cinderella Goes Shopping’ comprises three elegant shoe designs that will add a stylish insouciance to any living space.  Inspired by the idea of the fairytale princess developing a shoe fetish in the years of her happily ever after,the stencils are a perfectly playful way for all fashionistas to ensure their walls are as well dressed as they are!

Pattern on Pattern revisited

Regular readers of ours will know that I have written about pattern on pattern a few times before.  You can read them here, here and here.  I was reminded of the idea when I heard about a collaboration between Hermes and Liberty of London.  Hermes have screen printed one of their famous designs onto one of Liberty's equally iconic fabrics to create a range of limited edition (and budget conscious) scarves.

 
  
I have always loved the idea of pattern on pattern as it is fun and a bit irreverent.

Helen saw these and was reminded of a cushion I made from stencilling our retro chanteuse design onto a piece of 1930's printed flour sack fabric. 

I liked the way the fabric pattern can still be seen through the paint on her dress adding another dimension to the finished project.  This is probably not quite as classy or iconic as the Hermes scarf, but I like that we are thinking along the same lines.

Rachel.

One and Other participant: Adrianne F

One and Other is an art project concieved by sculptor Antony Gormley, probably most famous for creating the Angel of the North which stands only about 10 miles away from us.  He asked people of the UK to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London for 100 days, 24 hours a day.  Each person was allowed 1 hour so 2400 participants were selected from over 34,000 applicants.  They will become an image of themselves and a representation of the whole of humanity.  The project has run from July 6th and finishes on October 14th.  You can go to the website and watch the live feed now.

Adrianne F was lucky enough to be selected as one of the participants.  Adrianne decided to speak about all the people in her life - those who had influenced her, good or bad, and ultimately contributed to the person she is now.  She used her hour to thank them as she realised that all too often, we never take the opportunity to tell the people in our lives how important they are.

As part of her "piece", she wanted to stencil some text onto a large piece of fabric she could drape over the plinth like a large tablecloth.  She came to us for the stencils and we created the phrases she wanted to the size required using our "In Your Own Words" range.  Here she is stencilling the fabric:

We are delighted that Adrianne used our services to help create her vision.  We are also excited that we were a very tiny piece of a huge work of art.  You can click here to see Adrianne's contribution.

Rachel.

Featured Decorative Artist: Kimberly Manning Aker

We are always delighted when customers send us photos of projects done using our stencils and we like to share them with our readers so they can see different ideas and perspectives.  Today, we are featuring the work of Kimberly Manning Aker of KMACreate.  Kimberly designs for 1890's-1950's interiors.  She sent us work from two projects done recently. 

 

Kimberly was working on an Art Deco interior for a 1920's house in San Francisco.  She found some wonderful deco pieces, but when it came to drapes, she couldn't fond something authentically deco that didn't look 1980's, so she decided to create her own using our Art Deco stencils.  Stencils are not just for walls!

She used DE290 Border from our Art Deco range.  She mixed a touch of textile paint medium with a product called Modge Podge and her favourite metallic paints from Modern Masters.  She stencilled the pattern in an old muted gold and platinum along a piece of gorgeous silk taffeta.  The the taffeta was handed over to her drapery maker who sewed the full drapes up.  She was thrilled with the results as she likes adding one of a kind, custom touches to her schemes.

Based on the success of that project, she did something similar for her next project.  This time she used DE277, also from our Art Deco range.  This is one of my favourite deco stencils because it is so perfectly Art Deco to me. 

 

Just this bit of detail on the drapes adds an extra element of design to the overall scheme.  Using the right paint, stencils can be used on just about any surface and stencilling fabric is wonderful to do.  Neither design overwhelms the rooms they are in.  They just compliment all the other pieces Kimberly has pulled together.

If you would like to know more about what Kimberly does, please check out her website by clicking here.  We look forward to seeing more of Kimberly's work in the future.

Rachel. 

A quote from a house collector

Skimming the New York Times, I learn about a couple in Texas. He raises cattle and she collects old houses then re-sites and re-builds them on their ranch.
This quote from the feature written by Sarah Maslin and photographed by Scott Dalton struck a chord with me. 

'The house was tucked under a dense thatch of trees and creepers amid acres of grass. Inside, skunks and snakes turned out to be the least of her worries. Shoes, rusted wire, a pile of sun-bleached dresses that looked to be from the 1940s, old liquor bottles and bales of hay covered the floor.

Mrs. Elick seemed only to notice the delicate stencils ringing the moldings, the brush strokes in the painted doors hanging off their hinges, and the quality of the house’s wood planks — longleaf pine, which is difficult to find.'

I would probably have found beauty in the sun bleached dresses too. Would you be the same?  Would you have noticed skunks or brush strokes? 

Helen.