Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Design Inspiration and Designers Block

Gosh, I have been here there and everywhere this week.  I apologise that I've not posted a free stencil so far, but I'm on to it.  Last weekend Di Overton of uber blog designers block asked me to participate in a rural craft fair in the Northumberland village of Tarset. It was just down the road from her but somehow  I missed it . Tarset is tiny, I ended up in Scotland.  I wanted to stop during my hasty return and take loads of photos, it was one of those wild, steel sky and rainbow mornings...but no time.  So I just got this

and this.

because I like that curvy road.

Di and were positioned opposite each other, handy for catching up on one another's news... but no chance, the fair was too crowded. Where did they all come from?  Anyway it was a pleasant, warm and friendly way to spend a Sunday.

I took this picture of some of Di's Ghost furniture before the doors opened.

These are her business cards, aren't they lovely?  She got them from moo.com   I shall investigate, they could be a good vehicle for displaying the versatility of stencils.

Di and I were partnered again yesterday when we were both mentioned on IPC's  Room Envy blog    They showed her kitchen, it features a real tree and some lovely stencilling using plaster through our LTL leaves design. I was on that site for hours, another reason for being late with the posts.  Next I'll tell you about the London visit....nearly finished that one. 

H

The Yorkshire Coast

Another of the many reasons to visit Northumberland is that Yorkshire is next to it.

This time last year my mother and I realised that we knew little of our neighbouring county so we packed the Stencil Library van with duvets, pillows and bags of fresh fruit and set off to explore the Yorkshire coast.

For much of our three days it poured with rain and the van roof leaked, in between the showers we took walks and photographs and these are some of the places that we saw.

The cliffs at Bempton, home to thousands of gannets,

Bridlington before it opened for business.

Ponies,

and donkeys.

  The walled garden at Helmsley.

Narrow twisty streets in Robin Hood's Bay

and Whitby.

It was a brilliant couple of days.  Just our cup of tea...or cocoa.

"We must to this again" I offered.  We did... last month  This time Mum treated me and we stayed at a spa. Once again we had a brilliant couple of days in Yorkshire, it still rained but this time our roof did not leak.
Helen. 

Festival Day in Stocksfield

After nine months of planning our first village festival was born last Saturday.  We could not have asked for a better day.  After dawn, a hot air balloon hovered over my garden and drifted to the festival field.

I was trying to throw on mascara, eat breakfast and take photos at the same time.  Failing at all tasks.
We had been erecting tents, flags and bunting the night before and it took around twenty of us four hours to transform the village sports field on Saturday morning.  I had spent nights stencilling banners and backdrops with lettering from our In Your Own Words range of stencils.

I was grateful when volunteers stopped by to help.  Especially with the very long 'entertainments' banner on the marquee above.

We made a stencil of the festival logo for our uniforms and to decorate signage.

The idea of the festival was to unite the village.  We do not have a pub in centre of Stocksfield and we don't even have a centre.  The sports fields and the local school became our village green for the day.

We had craft stalls and farm produce...

...face painters...

 

....and Margaret Frayne, who sang songs on request.  She told me that one can buy a 'diva' kit which has velcro to keep your hand held to your head.

I should have had one when I was on announcing duty.  I knew it would be hard to shut me up with a microphone in hand.

I did not sing though.  The Stencil Library had a little booth to advertise our classes and house tours.  Sabina Rose stepped in to run it for me.  Her son Dan was performing at the festival with The Fantastic Car.

They were brilliant.  Notice the stencilled banner?  We used stencilled flameproofed sheeting as a backdrop for our entertainers.  All our entertainers were wonderful.  One of my highlights was hearing Georgia Overton sing.

Georgia is the granddaughter of Di Overton of the fab DesignersBlock.  No doubt Di will post something that you can hear.

We had story tellers...

...rock 'n' rollers...

...and raffles.

   

Our young poetry prize winner, Rosie Cochrane, was VIP for the day.  Along with Lady Allendale, she opened the show and drew the prizes.

It was a great pleasure to make her bouquet.  I briefly trained as a florist, but have not made a bouquet since my own wedding.  Rosie's Mum, Rachel Cochrane, is an author, play-write and new blogger.  I have recently acted in one her radio dramas called 'Oranges and Lemons'.  It will soon be available as a download on her new site.

Rachel Morris (this blog's co author, on the left)and Sabina stopped by to keep me plied with locally made ice cream. It was a long, long day for the festival organisers.  We did not clear the site until Sunday, because there were more festival partying to be had at the village hall.  I'm not much of a dancer so I offered to be photographer for the night.

 

If you want to see more of our village festival, visit Stocksfield's own web site or the Hexham Courant.  No, I don't know who the people are either, but it did not stop me enjoying the pictures.

Thank you to Dave Porter for some of his photographs.

Helen

Print Rooms revisited

 I taught a class on Print Rooms for the 21st Century recently.

 

It was during the Decorative Artisans convention in Memphis TN.  Next year it's in Portland OR.

What the heck are print rooms??  Well. they are an early and rather grand 'form of scrap booking' where well to do home owners would paste prints of their travels over walls and screens to amuse, entertain (and brag a little) about their travels. This is an example.

and so is this.

We are talking about travel years 1750 to 1820 well before budget airlines.  I was thrilled to find a teacher and practitioner of the old style print rooms in America.  She is Cynthia Bogart of printrooms.com  Rhode Island.   I am not in America but many of my artistic friends are and I think print rooms whether the traditional kind or my version are a good weapon in the arsenal of a decorative artist and she travels to teach classes.  Cynthia worked with Nicola Wingate Saul the doyenne of the print room revival in Britain.  A few original examples exist in England and Ireland but none survived in America. One of my treasured books featuring Print rooms ancient and fairly modern....(not modern enough to feature Stencil Library print rooms though) is Paper Magic by Jane Gordon Clark.

These images of Print Rooms are from her book.

Here is one of her modern versions

and here are some of The Stencil Library's.

and here is another, an old style with a new technique.

All our frames are stencilled onto the wall (screen, floor, ceiling, whatever). The entire collection of Print Room stencils can be viewed here and you can see more pictures if you click on 'Print Room Gallery' on the side bar of this blog. I am teaching the Print Room class at my studio in Stocksfield, Northumberland on the afternoon of Sunday 27th September.  During the class we will learn decoupage skills

and stencil with plaster,

transfer leaf and paint.

The aim is to generally have a nice time whilst learning new skills. It is suitable for beginners as well as experienced stencillers. Want to join us? Contact me for more details.

Helen

Stocksfield Festival

I live in Stocksfield, Northumberland and we are having our first village festival on September 12th.   As this is my 'year of volunteering', I joined the festival commitee.

Here are some of the festival team stencilling jackets for the marshals to wear on the day. 

The Stencil Library have been making signage stencils for the occasion so that visitors can find the toilets, refreshments and all the other all important ingredients of a village festival.  Rachel has threatened to make a tea cosy and baked goods for the traditional part of the show.  My small team are spearheading the entertainments, so we have been sourcing dancers, story tellers and musicians that will give up their time to entertain us.  I am jointly given charge of the megaphone on the day and will be announcing prizewinners, lost children and starting times for the many scheduled sporting activities.  Ooooh me and a megaphone... someone made a bad decision there!  We have a bit of a scarecrow theme going on for the festival and some of the comittee assembled for a photocall at Wheelbirks. Wheelbirks is a local dairy farm that makes truly scrummy ice cream from it's Jersey cattle herd.

We had to dress as scarecows and pose with number 9, one of the many Jersey cows.

Number 9 was a tad boisterous and as none of us could see through our masks, no one was willing to take the lead rope, so the farmer had to stay with us.

  That's me wearing the blue mask and the ballet tutu.  Recognise me?  I hope not.

Stocksfield has no obvious centre or meeting point.  On a recent survey to discover residents needs and wishes for their environment, a village show was requested.  It was to be a party for the inhabitants of the area to meet and get involved in something that hopefully would provide an annual focus for the village. There will be events ran by local hostelries on the evenings of the previous week.  Keep your fingers crossed for us that the weather will be kind.

Helen

Staycation Day Four: Chesters Walled Garden

I've been showing you a lot of stencil projects recently, so today I'm taking you to see a lovely garden in Northumberland, a short drive away from our shop.

The walled garden used to be the kitchen garden for Chesters, a large house near to Hexham.  Susie White rented the space and created the garden.  She also writes books, magazine columns and a blog.  Susie started this garden around the same time that I started The Stencil Library.  In the early days, her business was called Hexham Herbs and many of the plants in my own garden came from here.   Isn't this cherry bark fab?

When Chips and I lived in the city, we would visit her garden often.

 
It was usually quiet in those days and we could think of it as our own for an hour or so.  It's quite a wild garden much like the one that we have now.

Photo of Chesters.  Simon Fraser.

A long wooden green house contains a grape vine, tender seedlings and these old iron grills.

Since my recent visit I was horrified to read that Susie will lose the garden next year.

Her landlords need it back.  Susie has put out a plea in the newspapers looking for alternative premises in Northumberland.  There has been quite a media frenzy.  I rent my garden too or else she would be welcome to share with me.

So if you live in Northumberland or are visiting, make haste to experience Chesters Walled Garden whilst we still have it.  Susie's book of Northumberland Gardens is available from her web site and from Amazon.  Best of luck Susie, you have my sympathy.

Helen

Staycation day two: Belsay Hall and Gardens

  Fabulous art installations appear at Belsay every few years.  Today and for the rest of this year Lucky Spot, the beautiful crystal horse designed by Stella McCartney, is the star attraction.

Chips and I have visited the horse on other occasions, but the lack of crowds today meant that we could take photographs without anyone but each other being in the frame.

From this angle, it looks to me like the British flag.  Lucky Spot really needs to live in our home.  I have a place in mind for him.  His present home is the main tower in Belsay Castle.

It's on the second floor.  The wall between the castle grounds and the pasture is known as an ha-ha.  Is that not a fab word?  When viewed from the castle the pasture and ornamental grounds appear to be level, but the deep ditch on one side of the ha-ha means that the livestock can not reach the building.

 We reached the castle through this laburnham arch

leading to Belsay's famous quarry garden.

Belsay Hall stands empty when not housing artwork, I like to wander around it's rooms, touching the  pillars

and admiring the carvings and friezes.  This one is similar to stencils found in our Empire Collection.

Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens are cared for by English Heritage.  I bought an annual membership from them in the hope of many more days out this year.

Does anyone know how or why ha-has got their name?

Helen.

Staycation

We are having a break from stencil related stuff today and I am taking you on stay-cation with me.

I forcefully suggested to my husband that we take a week long break from the studio.  "Let's go on holiday", I said.  " Now!"  

He protested that he did not want to go anywhere. "We don't need to", I explained.   "We will stay-cation.  We will get up when we want, tend the garden, read on the lawn and just wander around the local countryside with no agenda other than just being and enjoying."

So with that intention, we kicked off the duvet and went into the sunshine.

The first day we headed for Barter Books in Alnwick.

It's a tradition that we visit at least once a year.  Barter is housed in the old railway station.

It is one of Europe's largest second hand bookstores and it is the birthplace of the hugely popular "Keep Calm and Carry On" merchandise.

Rachel wrote about it here.  Today there were new posters bearing the words 'Freedom is in Peril.  Defend it with all your might' and 'Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory'.

 A model train whirs around the miniature rail track above our heads.

 See the mural above it.

 There are comfy sofas and log fires and coffee to tempt the customer.

Do you see the green book?  On closer inspection I saw a description above it bestowing the dubious honour of 'weird book of the month'.  I bought it.  It's called 'The Botanical Footwear of Dennis Kyte'.

And here is a page from it.

Close to Alnwick is Rothbury so we stopped there to visit Cragside House and Gardens.  Cragside was the first home in the world to be lit using hydro-electricity.

It also boasts one of the largest hand made rock gardens in Europe.  See the house reflected in the stream at the base of a steep ravine.

In May and June, the garden is famed for its rhododendrons and azaleas.  One can drive through miles of them on a circular scenic route around the Cragside estate.

There are some fantastic gizmos in the house.  There are many lovely rooms and a couple of fab painted ceilings.  I asked for permission to photograph them for you.  It was refused.

Tomorrow we will visit Belsay Hall and Gardens.  I prefer their rhododendrons and they let me take pictures.

Am I sulking? You bet!

Helen.

Keep Calm and Carry On

A few years ago, I bought a reproduction WWII poster.  It simply had the text "Keep Calm and Carry On" written in a modern, cream coloured typeface on a red background.  The classic simplicity of both the look and meaning appealed to me.  I wanted to put it at the top of the stairs leading into my flat.

We do regular house tours of our stencilled home, and I thought the poster's saying was appropriate when visitors are bombarded with so much pattern and colour in our house.  It has taken me this long to get the poster framed and in the meantime, it has grown in stature.  The current economic climate is so dire here that it has been likened to times during and just after WWII.  So, all of a sudden, morale building posters and sayings from the war have become popular and sadly, relevant again.  One can now purchase bags, t-shirts, mugs, mouse mats, teatowels and even a rug of this poster.

(photo: www.pedlars.co.uk)

However, I didn't realise until I read a piece in the local paper the other day that the whole phenomenon started right here in Northumberland.  One of my favourite places in our county is Barter Books. 

It is an enormous second-hand book emporium in what is the old train station at Alnwick just up the coast.  Alnwick is home to Alnwick Castle (home of the Duke & Duchess of Northumberland) where the famous Alnwick Garden is situated and parts of Harry Potter were filmed.  It is a nice (and regular) day out for us to drive up the coast and go to Barter Books for a good browse and then tea out somewhere nearby.

(photo: Simon Greener)

It is at Barter Books that I bought my copy of the poster.  They had an original framed and on the wall people were always asking to buy it so they had copies printed and would sell them.  According to the article in The Journal, the poster was found in a box of books.  There is only one other known original copy of the poster because it was never put into use at the time.  To date, Barter Books have sold over 40,000 copies to all sorts of places worldwide.  It may never have been used at the time, but it has certainly become iconic now and I just love the fact that its worldwide popularity started right here in our little corner of the world.

But, never mind keeping calm, I think I'd rather....

(photo courtesy of gruntzooki on www.flickr.com)

If you fancy making your own variation on the Keep Calm poster, then we could make a stencil for you of your desired text.  Our FNT05 Classic Modern typeface is the perfect copy needed to create the look.

What is your favourite morale boosting saying?

Rachel.

Reflections on Bamburgh Beach

Regular readers will know that The Stencil Library lies in the lovely county of Northumberland and occasionally I take you around the area via our 'Reasons To Visit Northumberland' category.  On Sunday I took you with me to Bamburgh Beach whilst my friend Jeanne and I walked her dogs.

The tide was advancing and creating mirror effects on the wet sand. Look at Bella cantering through the sky.
That is Bamburgh Castle rising above its shimmering refection, it is inhabited and is a short walk from the picture postcard village.

Taking the picture of these hoofprints took me back to day when I was nine and bunked off school to look for horses.  I followed hoofprints in the mud and walked for miles that day. However, this Sunday I was too late to witness the gallop on the beach. The Northumberland coast has many miles of white sandy beaches, mostly deserted.  We also have more than our fair share of picturesque coastal castles.  We can visit those on another day.  Keep checking in with me.

It is much less expensive to visit The British Isles now than it has been in many years. At the moment the US Dollar and Euro buys so much more in our country.  Grab the best hotel rooms before the Brits do.  We can not afford to go anywhere right now and it's only a small island!!  Helen