Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

A Dash to Dior

Rachel was staring at her computer screen. She said, "The Dior exhibition in Paris finishes this weekend and we didn't get to see it".

Somehow ten minutes later flights and hotel were booked and our husbands were persuaded to get us to the airport for an unpleasantly early flight time. The advanced tickets had sold out so we had to take a chance. We queued for 7 and a quarter hours and were amongst the last people to be admitted into the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. 

The queuing was not as bad as it may sound, we took it in turns to go for meals and general exploring. The Musee had extended the opening hours for the last few days otherwise we would not have had a chance of seeing it. Was it worth it? Yes, it was. Of course, it was crowded and much of the light was low so my pictures are not as good or as plentiful as I had hoped but they will give a flavour of the event and will remind me of the fantastic craftsmanship, art, imagination and beauty created by the House of Dior.

 One of my favourite designers for Dior was John Galliano (above and below). There was a diverse selection of his creations, I could not find my absolute favourites but these two were glorious.

There were rooms filled from floor to ceiling with glorious gowns from all eras of the house of Dior. I was swapping between my reading glasses and long distance specs throughout the show.

Look at the beading and embroidery on this dress.

The one below is beaded and embroidered too, this time the designer was Gianfranco Ferre.

Seeing as I am stencilling a lot of Chinoiserie projects at the moment these dresses by Maria Grazia Chiuri grabbed my attention.

Not everything was fancy or evening wear. Coats and dresses that you could wear 'to town' featured amongst the exhibits.

Well, maybe not this one...but turquoise is my colour and I like the extended bit at the front to accommodate large lunches.

Many of the familiar images of Dior's work appeared throughout the show. In this tableau, Richard Avedon's iconic photo of Dovima with Elephants faded from a screen and the original dress appeared in its place.  It took Rachel and me two and a half hours to get around it, we needed longer but were thankful that we had got into there in the first place. The exhibition has now finished.

I was going to finish this piece with a photo of the queue but by the time I took my picture we had been there for more than four hours and it was no longer impressive. So, I'll sign off with an image that I took in Paris the next day. It was an optician's window in The Marais. It made me think of all of us in that very long line of people inching towards the Musee dreaming of clothes by Dior.

Helen.

 

How to create the hardest working garment in your wardrobe.

Or, 'How I stencilled an outfit for all seasons and most reasons'.

I enjoy trawling the designer outlets for garments with well-constructed shape and fabric. Then, I decorate them so that they match most of my shoes, bags and scarves.  By adding small touches of a variety of colours I will have a piece of clothing that I can reach for time and time again. It will become one of the hardest working items in my wardrobe. This is my technique for stencilling readymade garments.
This is a very stretchy dress made from a clingy, jersey type fabric. I wore and washed it a couple of times before stencilling it. This gives me an idea of how the dress moves and laundering will remove any conditioning finish that might have been applied to it. Read on to see my stencilling technique for stencilling clothes:

Cut a length of wallpaper or lining paper to fit inside the garment. Spray this paper lightly with an even mist of spray repositioning adhesive. I use Spraymount by 3m but similar products are available. Mark the intended height of the decoration or any focal point that you wish to highlight by sticking tape onto the fabric or marking with a clothes-peg as did.

Insert the slightly tacky paper inside the dress so that the paper grips the fabric and stops it from sliding. Smooth the fabric over the paper. I wished to feature one of the larger parts of the stencil pattern in the centre of the dress so I measured the halfway point and aligned the stencil to it. This is a little more flattering to my shape than taking the pattern right to the edges. Also, it makes it easier to align the stencilling on both front and back of the dress. 

A very light misting of the same spray repositioning adhesive was applied to the back of the stencil to hold it in place. Any parts of the design that I did not wish to reproduce I covered with low tack painters tape, tape to prevent paint from reaching them.

Choose the colours that you wish to use and have a clean dry stencil brush for each of them.

I chose colours to complement my copper hair, several hats and pairs of shoes. I have a fondness for turquoise earrings and orange jackets. Both colours featured in my selection The result is that this dress is easy to pair with so many accessories and has become one of the most worn items in my wardrobe.

Take a small amount of paint onto the tips of your stencil brush and work the brush in vigorous circles onto a paper towel. This will distribute the paint evenly across the top of that flat brush and rid it of excess paint. Apply the paint through the holes in the stencil using the same circling method but do this gently, as if stirring a cup of tea. The spray adhesive should be exerting a gentle grip on both stencil and garment. Build colour in light layers and work it well into the fibre of the fabric. Use a different brush for each colour. I used Lumiere metallic paint from The Stencil Library for all colours except the Azo Orange shade, that was by Liquitex. Try not to lift the stencil unless really necessary, in case the fabric stretches and the stencil becomes difficult to reposition.

When the skirt area was complete I removed the stencil and repositioned part of it around the neckline of the dress. This was to give colour near my face, a few touches of the aforementioned turquoise paint was added.The stencilled decoration has replaced the need for either necklace or scarf to brighten it.

I then turned the dress over and repositioned the paper so that the back of the dress was now fixed to it. Using the clothes peg as my guide I set about repositioning and re-masking parts of the stencil to recreate a similar pattern. I knew that I would often pair this dress with a jersey ballet wrap so I considered the wrap when positioning the stencil. When I finished decorating the dress I stencilled the ties of the wrap and added a little motif at the top of the back.

I got the positioning slightly askew which would have been a problem if I had been making this for someone else.

Note that paint on fabric can rarely be wiped off, make the best of any mistake you may make. Lumiere paint should be heat set with an iron before it gets washed. Follow the instruction on the tub. Basically, you press on the reverse side of the stencilled fabric using a heat setting appropriate for the cloth. Linen will take a hot iron, the synthetic jersey fabric on my dress will not. 

Helen.

Spot on! Our new polka dot stencil for Crown Paint

Crown Paint published a short and sweet 'How To' video featuring their copper paint and a large, polka dot stencil based on one of our existing dot stencils.  When viewers contacted us to help them achieve the same effect on their walls we simplified the stencil to make it even faster and easier to work with.  The new Regal Dots (A nod to Crown) is being offered as a 'Special' for DesignInspiration readers and followers of The Stencil Library's social media pages. The stencil is just £18.00 and as the British Pound is weak against other currencies at the moment this should make it an attractive buy for overseas customers too. Our postal charge to European Union countries is £5.00 per order at the moment and the rest of the world needs to add £7.00 postage to their order. I would recommend that you use an extra large sized stencil brush or a foam roller to apply the paint through the stencil.

The 'How To Stencil' project on the Crown website shows the use of the paint roller and it shows how to mask the stencil, with the new Regal Dots design there is no masking we have repositioned the dots so that you just stencil the entire lot.

The dimensions of the Regal Dots stencil are as follows: The circles are 5" (128mm) in diameter. The horizontal space between the rows of circles is 30" (762mm) and the vertical distance between them is 20" (508mm). There are five circles on each stencil and one overlaps two of the dots in any direction to further the pattern repeats. Remember to use just the scantest amount of paint, it must be damp not wet when you apply it through the stencil so that the imprint is dry within seconds. You should build up the intensity of paint with a couple of light layers. It is as easy and effective as that...the rest is up to your imagination. Now, treat yourself and create a surface that you too can be dotty about.

Photo credit.1st image by Crown Paint. Send a message marked private, email or phone us to buy Regal Dots. Our contact details can be found in the "About Us' header on this page.

Helen.

 

 

Barack Obama, Chuck Close and beautiful stencil work at Ushaw, Durham

Ushaw, the North East's newest heritage site has gorgeous stencil work! I visited it with a friend and fellow decorative painter. We had gone to see the exhibition of large and life-like tapestries by Chuck Close. I am always impressed by his work.

This one is a self-portrait. The exhibition has been extended until the end of October and is well worth seeing. The tapestries are impressive and I want to return and take another look because I got distracted...hugely, by the room in which they were displayed.

In fact, most of the building distracted me,

the stencilling,

the tile work,

the gilding and wood carving,

the stained glass,

I could go on and on so I will show you a few snaps from my brief time there and link you to their site so that you can plan your visit, there is a book called Treasures of Ushaw  Whilst there, I witnessed people tucking into an 'afternoon tea'  in the refectory, my friend and I were too late to do the same but that is another reason to return, along with a walk around their gardens. The refectory has many portraits, windows and stencilled banners.

Sometimes I toy with the idea of hosting a week of stencilling and decorative painting classes interspersed with excursions to beautiful places in Northumberland and Durham...this one would be definitely on the list. The Stencil Library sells many stencils similar to the ones at Ushaw, mostly in their Gothic range but there are some in Arts & Crafts too.

I hope you enjoy seeing a little more of it.

So much lovely stencilling,

There were highly decorative ceilings

and some that were stunning because of the structure.

I felt that I was in a Vermeer painting whilst walking these corridors. There are many corridors, all of them different.

and all are lovely.

If you want to see Obama and the other subjects of the Chuck Close tapestries you will need to be there by the end of October when the exhibition closes. Entry is free, donations are welcome. Open Wednesday to Saturday. See more at Ushaw.org 

Helen.

Stencilled Pattern onto Stencilled Pattern, the UnderCoat Collection.

No one at The Stencil Library is pattern-shy or scared of colour, stencilling pattern over more stencilled pattern is quite normal for us. 

We thought that the combination of our VN60-Tiffany and VN24-Inferno stencils, both from our Vintage style range looked rather ravishing as did the combination of our Art Deco repeat stencil with the Klimt inspired VN3-Klimtomania and so a new collection was born. 

We selected some of our stencils, paired them off and reworked the scale so that the patterns were harmonious. Then we made a mini collection of these design duos and called them 'UnderCoats'. They are all stencils from our existing ranges, they are still there and singly they make a stylish decoration for all sorts of surfaces. However...

...as a couple, they add an extra dimension to stencilled decoration.  We found that the combinations look very effective when the first layer is stencilled with matt paints, normal household paint is perfect for this. Then we stencilled the coordinating pattern with metallic paint so that the difference between the two layers is striking. Metallic paint shines or fades with the light, sometimes in low light, the contrast is strong and then as the day brightens the secondary pattern looks less apparent. Texture paste may work well on the second layer but we have not experimented with that yet. Maybe you can try that and report back to us!

There are 16 of these duos in the 'UnderCoat' range, these are a few of them. I will bring you more photos and information very soon.

This picture shows re-sized versions of our JA45-Mokko stencil from our Japanese Style collection and the VN108-Gingham stencil from our Vintage Style range

In small areas, they are not too labour intensive and the results are unique. What do you think?

Helen

A stencil collection inspired by Lanvin's blue bedroom

There is a beautiful blue Art Deco bedroom in Paris and this is the photo...

that provided the inspiration, that created the stencil ...

and this is how it looks on a wall.

In 2008 The Stencil Library was commissioned to make a set of stencils for a magazine that wanted to create a blue and white bedroom just like the one that Interior designer Armand Albert Rateau designed with couturier Jeanne Lanvin in the early part of the last century. The feature was to publicise the newly recreated Lanvin rooms at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Unfortunately, soon after the stencils were designed the magazine ceased publication and the stencils did not get their chance to shine. We are now hoping to give them a better fate and they form part of our range of ‘Stencils inspired by France’. You will find them at The Stencil Library website, look for the French section.
We are treating you along with our Instagram and Facebook followers to a sneak peek.  There are 12 different stencils in the collection and their prices range between £9.00 and £130.00. Read on for a bit of history, more pictures. different colour-ways and further details of the stencils.

LAN1 is the stencil that looks like the main embroidery pattern and LAN2 mimics the shape of the plaster moulding that goes over it.

We went a little freestyle with elements of the design from Lanvin's bed covers and made a basket of flowers stencil, some border stencils and some motifs that help to create the decoration for furnishings and accessories.
The floral decoration on the original walls and fabric were embroidered onto cornflower blue silk with ivory stitching with accents of copper and orange. Fancy plasterwork and some rather fabulous Art Deco furniture completed the look. A stencil is a less expensive way to achieve the style.

If blue and white are not to your taste you might consider using metallic paint, this effect is stunning on both dark and light backgrounds.

Our paint is by Lumiere and offers a subtle shimmer on walls and fabrics.

I now have a black dress stencilled with this design but will save it and show you at another time.

These blue-grey walls feature the same LAN1 stencil in gold paint on both sides of a long corridor.

The area ended with a cream coloured bathroom and the stencilling continued on the bathroom wall to complete the vista. We made the stencil a little taller to accommodate the sloping ceiling on the corridor. Are you starting to realise the versatility of this stencil and its companions?
If you would like some Art Deco style, French chic, remember that we are offering our readers and social media followers a chance to buy these stencils before anyone else. Not all the stencils in the new collection appear in this post.

You can visit a re-creation of the original room in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. My photo of it was snapped from the pages of my copy of Decoration et Haute Couture by Helen Guene.

Helen

 

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Make a wall planner with paint and a stencil

This is a simple idea for home or office that uses painted stripes of magnetic paint and a stencil of numbers. It is a great way to display engagements and could be the ideal way to show off that collection of souvenir magnets! Our stencil project and came from the 'Stencil It' book by Helen Morris. The book is available in most countries but is sold out in the UK (We Brits have to buy from the USA and have it sent)

To make your planner mark straight lines onto the wall with water soluble pencil.  Use the lines as guide for the stripes. Lay one length of low tack tape along the edge of the line, press it into place then lay another length of tape on either side of the original one. Make sure that all three align perfectly then press the two outer tapes firmly into place so that no paint will leak under them. Remove the central piece of tape to reveal a long stripe which you will stencil with magnetic paint

My picture shows a very narrow stripe but tape wider tape can be bought.

Do not throw away the tape it can be reused for the next stripe; just place it along the pencil lines of another row.

Use a clean, dry, stencil brush to apply the lines. Put a little paint onto a saucer or palette to prevent dipping the brush into deep paint; you just need to cover the tips of the bristles. Work the paint onto paper towel do this with a circular motion as if stirring tea as it will distrubute the paint across the bristles. The intention is to apply damp paint through the stencil. Apply the paint along the stripe stencil by using a gentle version of the stirring tea stroke. Build up depth of colour and magnetic power by applying several light layers of paint. It should be dry within a couple of seconds so it is easy to re coat. It is speedier to apply a few light layers than to clean up drips and smudges from using too much paint.

I reproduced the following snippet of information from Kidicraft's website page on their Magnet Paint. 'It paints on just like a normal emulsion or primer. We recommend that you use a minimum of three coats. Once dry you can paint over it with any emulsion colour of your choice' See their contact details for UK stockists.

There are many number stencils around. To see our selection at The Stencil Library type 'numbers' into our web site search. The numeral stencil that we used was SIB10-B  there is a laminated paper version of the stencil in the Stencil It book; use the same stencilling method to apply paint through the stencil. Now all you need is magnets, invitations and appointments to display!

Helen Morris.

 

Why we decorate

A very useful list of colour combinations that work well together by Abigail Ahern, one of Britain's top interior decorators.  You can even change the tone if the darker version isn't to your taste, and they still work.  Instead of charcoal and magenta, pale grey and pink is a lovely colour combination (as done in Christian Dior's swoon worthy new flagship fashion and interiors storeon New Bond Street in London).

After weeks of dry (which does not always equal nice) weather, the heavens opened yesterday and the temperature dropped as we had a day of low cloud and rain.  Much needed for the garden but it was dank and chilly.  At the end of the working day, I rushed home, walked into my house, kicked off my Hunter rubber lace-up brogues (for the wet, but still cool looking) and took off my waxed parka (also for the wet) - we British are well versed in fashion for the wet, put a few gentle lights on, switched on the heating (yes, in England one occasionally has to pop the heating on for an hour or so to take the chill off even in the summer), and made my husband and I cheese on toast with a big mug of tea for dinner (pretend there is an arty pic here of melted cheese on perfectly done toast and a steaming mug of tea).  Some days you just need comfort food.  It never tasted better and I was as happy as could be watching the rain fall outside and feeling warm and secure inside.  As I had walked into my partially finished house this particular evening, I was reminded of something I read written by interior designer, author and style guru Abigail Ahern in her book "Colour" that really stuck with me.  She wrote,

"The ability of colour to transform surroundings, to excite, inspire, tantalise and calm, is second to none.  It has changed my life.  I know this sounds super dramatic, but it's true.  Colour has given me a home that I never want to leave.  It has made me happier.  When I put my key in the door at the end of a long day I get this squishy feeling of contentment that envelopes me, and it is all because of colour.  I can assure you, a white hallway just wouldn't have the same effect!"

 

Painted in Canton by Little Greene with black eggshell wood trim and an art deco door from ebay.  My non-white "enveloping" hallway which is STILL not finished after 3 years, but still gives me joy as I walk in the door.  Or is that because the well stocked cocktail cabinet is right there.....

She has a point about having a home that "envelopes" and makes one feel happy, secure and....at home.  That is exactly how I felt when I walked in my door.  And the truth is, I feel the same whether the weather is bad or not.  This, in a nutshell, is why we put time and money into our houses: decorating, furnishing, accessorising and have done ever since we started to build homes.  Ms Ahern has three rules: 1) Make it personal 2) Take risks (I translate that to "ditch the rules") and 3) Be curious.  This is interesting.  Sometimes people worry about decorating and are not sure what to do.  Somewhere along the road, there were whispered rules about how one should decorate and this has had the effect in many cases of inhibiting people and stop them from creating something truly personal, taking them away from creating a home.  As Ms Ahern says, "The more you ditch the rules, the more intriguing a room becomes".  And more personal of course.  If you look through her book you will see that Ms Ahern is totally at peace with using dark colours for decorating. 

My dark living room, walls painted in Farrow & Ball's Blue Black and my gorgeously comfortable sofa (Rupert range) from Habitat in emerald green velvet.  The room is even more cocooning at present as the curtain rail is broken and the curtains have to remain closed.  My husband and I totally unwind here binge watching box sets (currently "Game of Thrones" - are we late to that party or what?) cutting ourselves off completely from the outside world for short, precious, spells, recharging the batteries.

This would send many running to the hills, but, to digress slightly, in fact she is right about them.  They are underrated and seriously gorgeous to use.  We wear dark colours because they are flattering.  Well, the same applies for walls.  But I am not about to tell you to use dark colours.  Colour is your choice and I couldn't agree more with Ms Ahern: just make it personal.

Ultimately, we all gravitate to making a nest and there is no better feeling than walking through our front doors, breathing a sigh of contentment and feeling a shiver of pleasure at being home. 

That, in a nutshell, is why we decorate.

PS.  Ms Ahern does have another recommendation and since we at The Stencil Library are all about pattern, I feel I should pass it on :)  As she says, "Pattern is a fundamental part of design"

Rachel Egglestone.

 

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Unapologetic Interiors

Is the brilliant subtitle of a new book called “Would You Like To See The House?” by Lorraine Kirke, interior designer and style guru.  Lorraine has a particular style, it is not for everyone, but she has to be one of the best at it.  Her interiors full of colour, verve and wit, are created from nothing but antique and vintage finds and treasures. 

Her talent lies in how to combine these finds and make them work together in a way that looks casual and easy.  Her many fans all say they would love to trawl flea markets with her and I can understand why.  To live this style, you have to have “the eye”: the ability to see beauty in something old and most likely battered (this is how my husband claims I found him and I think he may be right).  Seriously, if you like antiques and vintage then you can totally appreciate Lorraine’s interiors. Q:  why do we like old things?  A: they are totally personal. 

When you are looking at antiques and vintage, there will only ever be one.  We antique hunters can still list in detail the finds we left behind and still regret.  When you buy it, it is for no other reason than you love it.  It might be stylish, but probably not in style.  It might even have financial value and could even be considered an investment, but true vintage lovers think of all their things as priceless simply because they love them and see beauty in them. 

Vintage lovers see themselves as custodians of things that are fast disappearing but have unknown stories attached to them and therefore an air of mystery and personality.  In most cases, and I can totally testify to this, vintage lovers are always on the lookout and always collecting.  Their houses are always evolving.  They might enjoy something for a while and then pass it on to the next vintage lover.  As decorators, they are quite fearless and yes, unapologetic.  Colours and patterns clash yet work.  Mix and match is what it is all about.  They might have a strong understanding of historical styles and dates but will think nothing of mixing stuff from different eras. 

Lorraine has a vast collection of art.  Some of it may be valuable but a lot of it is not and the valuable and not so are parked right next to one another simply because they work.  Her art is there because she likes it.  She gets creative in ways we rarely imagine.  She didn’t like the doors as doors, but they were panelled and beautiful.  So the doors came off, were chopped up and used as wall panelling.  Nothing fit an awkward corner, so an old sofa was sawn in half.  A chandelier that didn’t quite work as is got sprayed with black paint, crystals and all.   Non-vintage people who see vintage-lovers’ houses would not live the same way at all and yet can still enjoy looking at all the wondrous finds and creativity like being in the middle of something that is part living museum, part circus and all home. 

And these interiors, whilst they might be a cleaner’s nightmare (how to dust!), there is nothing precious about them, they are meant to be lived in and used.  Some people might scoff and think that everything was just randomly thrown into place, but I can assure you not.  Everything is thought out and has its place.  The only rule, and this is the rule for all houses, is that the décor is a true reflection of the personality and taste of the people who live there.  That is all that matters in decorating.  Lorraine’s book is proof of that.  It is all pictures (200+) and very little text, which I like.  The photos do the talking.  And she cannot “teach” you how to do this.  If you like the style, you know how to do it.  It is a yummy book to jump into, page after page of wonderful nooks and crannies throughout the homes she has decorated.  It is fun to see her unique finds and think, “I wish I had come across that”.  One of the contributors describes her style as: “layered, deep, colourful, rich, storied, interesting, dark, rock’n’roll, eclectic” and I love it all.  And just as she does not apologise for her style, neither do I. 

All photos Patti Stoecker from "Would You Like To See The House?" by Lorraine Kirke, published by Rizzoli.

Rachel

The Blue and White Dining Room at Stocksfield Hall, The Stencilled Home

The stencilled decoration in our dining room was inspired by eighteenth-century blue and white china, this part of the house dated from the 1700's so we tried to recreate the feel of Georgian simplicity but with a twist. A deliberately plain, glass topped table revealed the patterned floor below.  Stencils of plates, pots and teacups graced the walls in linear rows.

This is where my students ate lunch on our stencil courses and all family dinners were held.  It looked simple and homely by day and with the help of dimmer switches and dozens of candle lanterns, it was glamorous by night. I am writing in the past tense because this room no longer exists but I have snap shots and the stencils are still available. Some of the following text was adapted from my book The Stencilled Home.

Stencils with overlays were used in this room which give an appearance of hand painting.

Using multi-layers or overlays on stencils is similar to printing; you use a different stencil for each colour that you apply. The images become more elaborate as each layer of stencilled shapes are applied. A great deal of stencilled pattern in historic buildings is built up in this way. It is common to see this technique used on the walls and ceilings of churches.

The stencilled images of plates, cups, teapots and coffee pots have between two and five layers and are arranged formally on the walls within panels defined by a narrow band of mushroom-coloured paint. The stripe was made by positioning masking tape and painting along measured lines. A stencilled pattern was overlaid onto the stripe and it featured a simple oriental style border in copper paint. There are twelve different blue and white images and each is separated from its neighbour by a little honeysuckle motif, also used in the decoration of kitchen next door. A trellis and leaf effect border sits at the top of the walls on a dark blue background; the blue provides a perfect complement to the metallic copper and aqua paint. The designs were mainly based on eighteenth-century English porcelain patterns.

The sanded wooden floor was painted in the same dark-blue emulsion paint which is also found on the kitchen work tops in the room adjoining it. A square stencilled ‘carpet’ formed a centrepiece, flanked on all sides by the trellis which again was stencilled with copper and aqua then bordered each side by a narrow stripe of putty-coloured paint. A dinner plate design bearing pheasants and peonies appears in each corner.  A huge circle made up of four quadrants of ribboned flowers was applied around the centre of the floor and frames a larger pheasant plate 125cm (50in) in diameter. Everything was stencilled with large stencil brushes using emulsion and acrylic paint. We added generous amounts of a copper colour to give warmth.

The room is not overly cold or overlooked so curtains were never considered. A large fireplace with an oversized mantle dominates one wall – its tiles which were once brown have been given a facelift with tile primer, blue paint and then satin varnish.

I am hoping to redecorate this room again soon, at present it is stencilled in the arts and crafts style; the lights blew just before we hosted one of our tours around the house,  the ceiling may need surgery then repairing. However it is a perfect shape and height for decoration so a stencilled ceiling may feature in the next decorative phase of this room.

It just occured to me as I finish this post that all the pictures that show someone working feature my husband, all pictures that show someone loafing feature me...funny that. Photos from The Stencilled Home and OK Magazine(blue shirt) are by Colin Poole, photo from Ideal Home (green dress) is by Marianne Majerus

 

 

How to stencil; a film clip from our publisher

This five minute video may help you to stencil walls and fabric with even greater success than you achieve already.  It is a film clip via Vimeo and shows me stencilling a repeating pattern with metallic paint onto silk I then demonstrate how to stencil a free form pattern of geese in flight; they fly from the curtains onto the walls. It shows a simple method of creating perspective in the mural. It was filmed by the publishers of my book Stencil It by Helen Morris. It also appears on YouTube

The book is no longer available in the UK but there are several foreign editions including an American version. Amazon.com will post to the UK; All the books have different covers and different spelling but the content and free stencils are the same in all the publications.

Most of the stencils featured in the Stencil It book are available for sale at The Stencil Library including the ones that we designed for the pages and did not make the final edit. I hope that the film clip and will help you get fabulous results when stencilling with paint and stencil brush, the book features stencilling onto other surfaces and contains tips on using stencil crayons, texture paste and spray paint along with the use of rollers and sponges. If you happen to be a UK stockist of Stencil It with some copies for sale by mail order let me know and I will put your shop details in the comment section.... I have no copies left.

Helen Morris

At home with Carl and Karin Larsson.

In 1998 an editor of a popular British home decorating magazine gave my husband and I a book. She had written in the frontispiece ''To England's Carl and Karin Larsson'
The editor was featuring our home in her magazine and she and the photographer had spent a couple of days with us. At the time I did not know about the Larssons but her dedication was a compliment and whether true or not it is one that I enjoyed; even more so now that I have visited Lilla Hyttnas the home that Carl and Karin Larsson created by a lakeside in Sweden more than a century ago.

The editor compared Chips and I to the Larssons because most of the decoration of our home had been made by ourselves or our group of friends. We decorated our walls, ceilings, fabric, floor, rugs, and some of the furniture with designs from our stencil company and other designs for carpentry, lighting, iron work and soft furnishings were completed by our friends. They were a talented bunch of the 'You draw it and we will make it variety' and I doubt that we would have created our home without them. The Larsson dwelling was furnished and decorated for the most part with their own design and skills, they too called upon friends and artisans to help them realise their vision. Like my home theirs was personal, colourful and unusual... unlike mine theirs became a model for Swedish domestic design and spread the international success of the 'Swedish style'.  Without knowing about the Larssons I had been influenced by them. 

The cabin bed that I'd had made for a guest room was very similar to one Carl built for Karin in 1909 and the colours and decoration of our own bedroom owed more than a nod to the duo.

When my husband and I moved to our present home the landlord's agent remarked that there was no where to put a bed in the room we had elected to sleep in. "It will go in the centre" We said and I think the agent thought we were crazy. Whilst visiting the Larsson's house I noted that Carl's bed is in the centre of the room too.

His was positioned so that he could talk with Karin who slept with the babies in the adjoining room; ours was postioned for a view from both windows. Carl Larsson published sets of watercolours and illustrated books featuring his home and family. These paintings and books were the viral hit of the day and it was because of their popularity that the artistic couple's home became so familiar and emulated.

Carl was a highly skilled artist commissioned for monumental work as well as portraiture, watercolour and illustration. They were a pioneering team, at the time their style was unusual especially Karin's contribution; she was ahead of her era.

When the editor visited us a book about the decoration of our home had just been published.

The Stencilled Home was written by me and featured the rooms in our house, it explained how we achieved some of the decorative effects in them. The publication is still available in hardback form for the USA and paperback from the UK.

A few times a year we host tours of the stencilled rooms at our home; Lilla Hyttnas is still owned by the family of Carl and Karin Larsson and I went on one of their tours.

Visitors were not allowed to take photographs in the house and I expected that there would be loads of postcards of the interior decoration for sale in the gift shop that I could buy and show you...there wasn't. So, I shall have to leave it to you to research further images and a little more about them. The Larsson House is in Sundborn near Talun it is 3 to 4 hours drive from Stockholm. I visited it with a great friend who had helped us to stencil our home around the time of the editor's visit and my discovery of Carl and Karin Larsson; another nice little link in the chain.

Helen Morris.

 

Swedish Style Chinoiserie

There are many decorative buildings that I would like to see, one of them is Drottningholm Palace in Sweden. I should be in Stockholm next month and am rather excited that there just may be a chance to visit the palace.

 When I moved to my present home in the mid 1990 I knew that I wanted a room based on 18th cenury Swedish Interiors...I got two.

The kitchen features our FS4 Tree of Life stencil on the walls. The design is based on Chinoiserie style walls in a dressing room at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre.

The colours were earthy which is in keeping with the original; however Chinoiserie painted walls were often brightly coloured as this version of the same stencil design shows.

The other room in our home that was inspired by the Gustavian era was a bedroom and I used floral stencils from our range called Garden Room Stencils. I painted it in 1997. 

This room still exists at the moment and can be seen on our tours of Stocksfield Hall and on our stencil day class. The repeating stencil pattern on the floor and the fireplace is BW25. The flowers are from The Garden Room collection and the border stencil that frames them is ER16 a Laurel Border.

The first picture in this post is a collage that I made from images of the walls in a dressing room at Drottningholm Palace Theatre I found the pictures on Pinterest but I think a couple of them originated in World Of Interiors magazine.

My forthcoming visit to Sweden will be very short but if you have a recommendation that is a 'must see' please share it, I hope to enjoy a longer visit in the future

Helen.

The Biba Look

(Biba poster, photo by James Wedge)

No, not clothes, interiors!  I have just finished devouring two books on the 60’s/70’s iconic shop Biba.  It was a bit before my time, but such was its popularity that somehow I was still aware of it well before I started reading up on it.  It is a fascinating story.

In a nutshell, Biba was the clothing boutique started by Barbara Hulanicki and her husband Fitz.  Barbara had her finger on exactly what young people wanted at the time (because she felt it really didn't exist), and even better, provided it to them at a price they could afford (and for a spell, by mail order).  Someone said to me recently that teens in the 60's quite often had to dress as mini versions of their mothers because that was all there was available, especially if you lived outside of London.  This may seem strange now, but to get super cool clothing at the time cost money and was out of reach of your average girl even if you did live in London.  Within a short space of time, Biba grew and grew.  Such was its popularity that they realised they could sell just about anything with the Biba name and it would fly off the shelf.  And so the first lifestyle store was born.

The Biba style: Barbara Hulanicki was a master at reinterpreting the past.  Whilst a lot of clothing at the time was pale and pastel, she loved the deep sludgy colours like plum, brown and russet.  At first, her fabrics were very reminiscent of the dark Victorian look with an art nouveau twist.  Her now famous logo was actually an adapted celtic knot design paired with an art nouveau style font.  We do a stencil of the original (DE228 in the Art Nouveau section).  Aubrey Beardsley was a huge influence on the dark swirling design of both the printed fabrics and the shop.  And the shop….it broke every retail rule in the book and customers loved it.  The walls were painted deep colours or covered with dark patterned wallpaper.  The fittings were usually old wood Victorian counters and shelves that noone wanted. 

(photo Barbara Hulanicki from "The Biba Years: 1963-1974")

Clothes hung from bentwood coat racks that people were chucking out considering them old fashioned.  Palms in art nouveau jardinières were in abundance.  Lighting was low, keeping the shop deliberately dark.   Photos of Barbara’s house at the time showed that the shop was an extension of her home style. It is full of art nouveau and art deco furniture, fabrics and homewares piled up and mixed together in an effortless overblown Victorian/Edwardian style.  It looks so unique and personal. 

(photo James Mortimer for Vogue magazine)

This was the antithesis of the 60’s light and bright modernism that was favoured by many.  She was a maverick (although I am not sure she set out to be – she just knew what she liked and stuck to it).  She lived what she sold. The style of the clothing was also a reinterpretation of the past with the 1920s and 1930s being huge influences on the cut and shapes of ranges all throughout Biba’s existence.  Eventually Biba was so huge – they would get 100,000 customers a week - they were able to take over the 1930s Art Deco building that was the Derry & Toms department store on Kensington High Street.   Big Biba was created.

Over the course of 18 months they designed interiors like no others.  By now, art deco had become a strong influence, but still using the dark smoky colours as before. 

(from kasiacharko.wordpress.com - Kasia Charko worked on most of the illustrations and graphics for Big Biba and has a fascinating blog about Biba and working for it)

Bespoke shop fittings were made for every department.  Masses of mirror were put up everywhere. There were ostrich feathers in abundance.  

(photo Tim White)

Bespoke deco style carpets covered the floors.  Furniture was made and upholstered totally in keeping with the concept. 

Everything was bespoke (all designed by Whitmore-Thomas).  This is the tights display unit.

(Photo Tim White)

It was like stepping into a massive boudoir: black and gold with peach mirror, leopard spot and deco fabrics.  They restored the Rainbow Room on the top floor which was the venue for lunch, drinks, or just hanging out.  It had a stepped ceiling with different coloured recessed lighting in rainbow colours and a pink marble floor.

(Photo from the book "70's Style & Design", photo by Tim Street-Porter)

The building was (and still is) famous for its huge rooftop garden (the largest in Europe until 2012).  They revived it and added real flamingos. Of course, they sold the look so you could recreate it at home.

(illustration by Malcolm Bird - advertisement for Biba)

Note the pattern everywhere: Beardsley style swirls, victorian lace, deco zebra and leopard spots.  The furniture is mirrored, ostrich feathers and fringed lampshades are in abundance. 

They wanted it not just to be a shop but an Experience.  It must have been something else and I wish I could have seen it. 

Strangely it is only recently that I studied Biba in any great depth.  Yet when I look at the interiors of Barbara Hulanicki’s houses and shops, there are very strong similarities to my personal style.  In fact, my current bedroom could almost have been decorated using homewares from the Biba store but are in fact mostly original to the 20’s and 30’s.   My walls are a deep dark grey – I favour low light for atmosphere.  Satin cushions in peach and aqua take over the bed.  There are fringed and ruched vintage lampshades.  Antique piano shawls are scattered about.

(photo Stephen Egglestone)

The feel is definitely deco-decadence which is a term used to describe Biba.

Sera Hersham (Sera of London)

(photo Gisela Torres for the book Seductive Interiors)

and Pearl Lowe (who has just launched a website selling homewares and fab circus themed clothing for children) are two designers who “get” the look as well.  In fact, Pearl has the infamous Biba advertising poster hanging in her living room in this shot.

(photo by Debi Treloar from the book Pearl Lowe's Vintage Craft)

And House of Hackney is the only company today I can think of who are bucking the trend and building a large range of fabrics, wallpapers, furniture, other homewares and clothing with that eclectic antique feel that can be mixed and matched and layered for the total look. 

This is on a smaller scale, but touches upon the same "live it, wear it" aesthetic that Biba took to such heady heights.  I love this company for their use of colour and pattern. 

It can be used in small doses or you could go the whole HOH hog and put the same pattern on your walls, fabrics and furniture. 

I covet their fringed lampshades and velvet cushions.

(the last 4 photos from House of Hackney)

I do recommend you read about Biba.  I read “Biba: The Biba Experience” and “The Biba Years: 1963-1974”.  It was quite extraordinary as a shop that had a huge lasting influence on fashion today.  Totally inspiring.

As Biba was such an advocate for pattern, it is only fitting that I finish with a selection of stencils inspired by Biba either to get the look (start with dark coloured walls) or just because they feel so Biba (just click on any of the titles to take you to our website for more information on that stencil:

DE334 Art Deco Alphabet - Big Biba signage

DE333 Art Nouveau Alphabet - Biba signage

DE263 Art Nouveau Peacock Feather Motif - feathers showed up everywhere in the Biba world

DE232 Delicious Art Nouveau All Over Repeat Pattern - a nod to the patterned wallpapers used and sold

DE82 Victorian Floral All Over Repeat Pattern - again, in reference to the dark abundant pattern used on fabrics and paper

DE158 Aubrey Beardsley Peacock Ladies Panel - just amazing

DE224 Art Nouveau Swirl Pattern Tile

DE335 Art Deco Lady with Sun

VN57 Art Nouveau All Over Repeat Pattern

VN165 Palm All Over Palm Repeat Pattern - in reference the the palms that were in every shop

VN77 Fabulous Art Deco All Over Repeat Pattern

VN214 Fan Dancers (with Ostrich Feather Fans) I like to think that BH would have liked this in the Mistress (lingerie) dept.

349 Leopard Spot Repeat - such a wonderful neutral pattern.  It does with everything.

VN146 Flamingoes - because they had flamingoes in the roof garden!

VN139 Feathers All Over Repeat - ostrich feathers everywhere

VN142 Feathers All Over Repeat - a more art nouveau interpretation

VN300 Swallows - BH makes reference to using a swallow pattern on one of the fabrics.  It was a favourite and sold incredibly well.

Rachel

I have tried to credit all photos to the best of my ability.  If there are any ommissions or corrections please let us know. Any oversight is unintentional.

 

8 Projects to try using our stencil of dogs

This simple stencil of dogs is an enlarged version one of the free stencils given in the book Stencil It by Helen Morris. 'Stencil It' has sold out in the UK but is available in overseas editions. The free stencils were made of card rather than the polyester that we use for stencils that we sell. There were fifteen different ones in the book.

Stencils from the book Stencil It by Helen Morris

Stencil a brolly for when its raining cats and dogs! The same dog design stencil is offered in many sizes and configurations on our website. Here are a few projects that I have stencilled using the dog pattern.

A large stencil of a poodle was stencilled with white paint; whilst the stencil was still in place a black pattern was stencilled over it. A couple of coats of varnish make the pet mat wipeable.

Applying the stencil brush work to the outer edges of the shape allows the gingham fabric to show through the stencilled imprint on this pet cushion.

The SIB14-s Dog stencil is so easy to use, it is one that I employ when teaching children to use a stencil. The repeats are easy to follow and one can add extra interest by laying another stencil pattern over it.

or applying texture through it. I used Polyfilla or something similar.

Stencilled pin boards make a quick and easy craft project. My boards came from IKEA and were painted with matt household paint before stencilling.

Pins can hold notes,

keys, or necklaces. Want to know what other canine stencils we sell?  Typing the word dogs into the search on our site it will make finding them easier.

The last photo is a still taken from the television programme 60 Minute Makeover starring Linda Barker. She used our dog stencil to decorate the walls of this home.  I stencilled them onto a grey wallpaper that looked like linen and they pasted it onto the room.

'Stencil It' is available in many countries and in several languages. It can be ordered from Amazon.

Helen

Quote of the day from Karl Lagerfeld

From the cover of the Karl Lagerfeld 2016 diary published by Thames & Hudson.

Anyone else agree with him?....apart from me?

Helen.

Singing the blues. Blue and white decorating projects. Part 1.

I had intended to post a few pictures showing stencilled projects that shared a combination of the colours blue and white but did not realise that I had SO many. I will feature a few partnerships of pale blue and white stencil work and publish darker blues on the next post. My first picture shows stencils AD2 Robert Adam border and AD7 Adam Cartouche  

The stag antlers were designed by Bronwen Marshall and made by The Stencil Library for Crown Paint, picture from Crown Paint.

Photo credit. BBC Good Homes magazine. The tumble of cherry blossom was acheived by stencilling JA47 in a custom size, omitting the branches and stencilling the flowers only. The branches are present in the next photo of JA47 from Australia's Inside+Out magazine.

Inside+Out magazine also featured GR65 Pampas Grass stencil from our Garden Room collection. Photo William Meppem.

The Chinese style pattern CH28 was stencilled in white onto the walls of our old shop, the stencil was reused in my kitchen.

  

This white onto blue stencilled decoration features stencil number DE232 from our range of Art Deco stencils...

and this simple but pretty idea came from garden Life magazine and showed a double sized Forget-me-not stencil from our Garden Room range; we make lettering stencils too.

I was not quite sure whether this photo was blue or lavender but I shall claim it for this feature, the stencil is GMT54 and it appeared on the cover of BBC Good Homes magazine.

Blue and white decoration appears on the floor, wall and furniture in this picture by David Montgomery and Katrin Cargill for Country Living Magazine. The stencils are: Floor stencil pattern is OTT34 a tile stencil from our Ottoman Collection. The design on the table is OTT46 and stencil on walls is CS38 Fern stencil solo. 

Ben Kendrick for Country Living magazine used stencil BW25, I used this design on a floor and fireplace in my home.

CH45 Rococo Chinoiserie repeat stencil. I use this design a lot, I have it in black on some cabinets and in taupe on some window shutters

Photo James Merrill via House to Home; featuring our Eslington border stencil and squares from our Big & Bold range of decorating masks. 

JA114 bird and blossom stencil at custom size on furniture VN121 lace stencil on wall. Stencilled by Andrea Maflin for Homestyle magazine.

Stephanie Jones of Me & Mrs Jones painted the blue and white willow pattern on theses shelves. I see that she has a new book published too.

Finally, a guest room in the attic of my home, three shades of blue were blended through oversized elements of our Willow Pattern Stencils.

Hope you liked some of them. More next week!

Helen.

 

 

China: Through the Looking Glass

Whilst it would be nice to jet off to New York City to see the latest exhibition “China Through the Looking Glass” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, unless Mr E wins the lottery, it is not going to happen.  So I ordered the book instead.  It just arrived.  What utter gorgeousness!   Possibly one of the

most drool worthy books ever.  I admit, I am biased.  I love Chinese style, especially the Shanghai look of the 20’s and 30’s that was influenced by the Westerners that flocked to the city to experience its heady delights.  Combine art deco and Chinese imagery and I am in heaven.  This is exactly the sort of

combination I intend to use in my dining room when I can get around to decorating it.  Finding references in books or film is an ongoing passion of mine.  There is nothing worse than a disappointing book and nothing better than something that exceeds expectations.  This beauty falls into the latter

category thankfully.  The exhibition explores the influence and reaches of Chinese style in fashion, art and film.  It is so easy to see why it is so influential: the colours!  The patterns!  What was once terribly exotic is now at once familiar and thank goodness for that.  Had we not had the gall to explore

the limits of the globe all those centuries ago, we would have lost a wealth of outstanding decoration for fashion and interiors and more.  The book has an extensive bibliography and filmography.  I can see my Amazon wish list getting bigger.  I collect piano shawls, robes, vintage Chinese tunics, cheongsams and

more.  My house is full of vintage Chinese items – mostly chinoiserie, the European interpretation of Chinese style.  One of the most coveted wallcoverings has been, for centuries, Chinese handpainted wallpaper.  So much so, we designed an extensive range of stencils to create the look yourself.  I

intend to give these panels my own interpretation in my Chinese deco dining room.  It is a scheme that has been stuck in my head for the best part of two years and the only reason I haven’t launched into it is because the dining room needs a bit of building work first, but it is the room I am most excited about

decorating. This book has me all fired up again (but unfortunately it won’t make the building work happen any quicker).  If you are in NYC any time until mid-August, visit the exhibition (and tell us what it was like).  I am sure it is a feast for the eyes and mind.  If not, order the book, it is entirely yummy too.

Aspire to the principle, behave with virtue, abide by benevolence, and immerse yourself in the arts.  -Chinese proverb

Rachel.

Photography in the book by Platon. Photographs of the book by Stephen Egglestone,

Colouring books for adults and 'colouring in' your walls

When you were a child did you enjoy receiving a new colouring in book and felt tip pens?

Rachel and I prized them and 'colouring in' was a much loved pastime; the more intricate the better. Last year I noticed some fab, colouring books for adults and toyed with the idea of buying them for friends. I declined, thinking that they would not be appreciated but I think I was wrong, very wrong because the best sellers on Amazon at the moment are colouring in books for adults, probably the very ones that picked up then reluctantly put down again.

Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford is topping the charts both here and across the water with her colouring books.

Basford’s titles Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest are in second and eighth place and other colouring titles take the 4th, 7th and 9th positions; that’s half of Amazon.co.uk’s top 10 taken up by colouring books for adults. “I think it is really relaxing, to do something analogue, to unplug,” said Basford. “And it’s creative."  I think the same about stencilling, to me it is colouring in on a much grander scale.

Stencils JA133.JA134 and JA45 Mokko.

My paints have replaced the felt pens but the outcome is similar, the design has been provided and the interpretation of the design is determined by the user. If I am working on my own projects rather than one for a client I find the act of decorating with stencils to be meditative and enjoyable because I can take my time and let my mind wander.

Stencils CH1 to CH4 Chinoiserie panels.

I may enjoy a radio play or my favourite music, a few hours later I have 'coloured in' a wall, floor or maybe a piece of furniture or fabric.

Stencil JA59 Asters.

'The Mindfulness Colouring Book' suggests that you “take a few minutes out of your day, wherever you are, and colour your way to peace and calm"

I could agree with that.....where's my stencil brush....

Helen

Top 2 images from Johanna Basford all others are my own.

 

 

Stencil It.

Last week I received my first royalty cheque for writing the book Stencil It.

Yaaaaay! I thought this an opportune moment to introduce new readers to the book. Stencil It contains fifteen cut and ready to use laminated stencils so experimentation can be practised as soon as the instruction chapter is read.

In addition there are a further, five stencil patterns included in the book and instruction for cutting the five designs is given in detail. This rose stencil is one of them.

Each of the twenty stencils has a step by step project asscociated with it and there are many inspirational ideas within the pages. Athough the stencils in Stencil It are constrained by page size they can be ordered in larger sizes from our web site. The book can be ordered through The Stencil Library, from Amazon and from other booksellers world wide...both real and virtual. Stencil It is adapted and translated from the UK version and published in several different countries including USA, Canada, Finland,  Slovenia, Germany and Croatia.

Wholesale orders for UK shops can be placed with The Stencil Library or from Aurum Press and via MacMillan in the USA. The Stencil It book is suitable for gift shops as well as those that sell paint and lifestyle products.

Helen

Ps. Contact your local Annie Sloan Chalk Paint stockist, many of them carry this book.

Glorious giveaway

Today I can feel Spring in the air and to celebrate I am giving away my set of Agapanthus stencils.

They were used to decorate this room set for my book Stencil It.

They have been used lightly and offer great potential for one of DesignInspiration's readers to create something fabulous from them. I used just one colour to decorate the wall but you can add as many colours as you like through the stencil.  This set might look wonderful stencilled onto fabric as well as walls. The design includes an extendable stem section to offer varying heights of Agapanthus blooms. There are four different sizes which can allow perspective when used together or they can be used seperately to fit different sizes of surface.  

If you would like your name to be in the draw please leave a comment on this page mentioning Agapanthus (click on comments at the foot of this post) or comment at our FaceBook page. We will draw a name at random on Tuesday 11th March, 10.00 GMT. Post and pack charges to mail the four stencils are as follows; UK £5.00 GBP,  EU countries £7.00 GBP, rest of world £10.00 GBP.  If you enjoy our Facebook page then please tell us by clicking the 'like' button.

The real stuff...Agapanthus near our home in Northumberland.

Helen.

 

Judging a book by it's cover

Now THIS is a magazine cover!

Cover Photo by Alexi Lubomirski

Anyone who knows me knows I love my magazines.  My "Vogue" collection is infamous (and taking up vast amounts of precious storage space in our garage, much to my hubbie's chagrin).  But I find magazines interesting and inspirational and many worth keeping.  I have always lamented the loss of the artistic cover though.  In fact, I am sure I have mentioned it on this blog before.  The beautiful covers of yesteryear, a wealth of creative photography, colour and composition with minimal text have been replaced with generic celebrity portraits on white backgrounds with masses of text.  They rarely inspire me to pick up the issue.  I recently decided to subscribe to the UK edition of "Harper's Bazaar" and was delighted when the April edition landed on my doormat yesterday.  This is more like it!  If only all magazines would have beautiful covers like this.  This is a subscriber's edition cover so not available off the shelf, but at least it is a start.  Rachel

Meet Megan Morton and the things she loves

I met author and stylist Megan Morton some while ago at a cafe of her choosing in an artsy suburb of Sydney. I was in Australia to meet our distributors, to do radio and Tv interviews and to talk stencil with the press.  There were some lovely magazines and the media were very welcoming to me and my stencils and that is why I was meeting Ms Morton.

I waited for ages in the cafe, the only other customer was a young woman with very shiny hair. When I got up to leave I asked her whether she knew Megan. She was Megan.

"Oh I am so sorry." She said "I did not think that you could be Helen Morris.  I didn't expect you to be funky!" I had never been described as funky before, or since and it still makes me smile. 

Megan continued "You don't look at all how you sound on the phone, I love your outfit"   She was looking for a mature Helen with a tory perm, sensible shoes and a twin set.  Actually, I love a twin set but they have never suited me and on this day I was sporting stockings as bright as my hair and wore a lavishly embroidered, tweed mini skirt.  Megan and stayed in touch for a couple of years and whenever someone tells me that I do not look as I sound I am again reminded of our meeting.

Rachel brought Megans book Things I Love into our office.I borrowed it to enjoy whilst my roots were being rebrightened at the hair salon...no Tory perm yet. Things I Love  is a personal, unusual book and a jolly good read. Pictures of the homes of her friends and collaborators share page space with designer tidbits and useful advice.

Megan shows you how to fold a fitted sheet with skill and precision. She reasons 'When I get home wanting to cry, I head straight to the linen cupboard, open it, inspect the loveliness and sigh to myself 'It's all going to be okay.'  The demo is on her Facebook page. The fitted sheet folding is a party trick of our Rachels too, it was taught to her by another one of our stencil team... maybe we need to get out more.

 

Basically, Things I Love is a book written by Megan Morton about the things she loves and I might just add it to the list of things that I am rather fond of too. 

I found a fun interview between Ms Morton and Lucy at The Design Files. 

Our Australian distributors are Stencil Gallery, Glebe, NSW.

Helen.

 

Physalis, a flower that keeps giving

My friend Jeanne picked this bunch of physalis from her garden for me. 

The plants are part of the nightshade family and are pretty nondescript until autumn when their orange lantern-like bracts fill our Northern English flower beds with colour. I used to have a border of them but over zealous weeding finished them off. I could really do with some more.

I place the heads in bowls around the house.

Some people string them with cotton. They fade to a pale biscuit colour then the skeletons of the bracts become exposed and resemble fragile filigree.

We have some pretty stencils of leaf skeletons in our Vintage Collection at The Stencil Library.

The first one is VN292 Autumn Leaves stencil and the second stencil of a leaf is VN151. The stencils are large and look fabulous on a wall, I am hoping to stencil some fabric with them soon.

The fruit of some physalis is edible.

When I wrote Stencil It I gilded the fruit with edible gold powder as an extra decoration for my stencilled cake.

Helen. 

Wedding Post: A Special Mention to the Florist

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the main elements for my wedding decor was to be an abundance of fresh flowers.  I love flowers.  I usually have fresh flowers in the house somewhere.  It is my little indulgence.  In particular, I love traditional English flowers: roses,

peonies, sweet peas, foxgloves, lupins, carnations,

delphiniums, lilac, more roses, hydrangeas,

and the like.  And I love big, informal arrangements.  With excellent timing, I found a book called “Vintage Flowers” by Vic Brotherson,

who owns the florist Scarlet & Violet in London, just as I was starting to try and organise ideas in my head.  The word “vintage” caught my eye, but once I opened the book, I knew I had found the perfect inspiration for my wedding flowers. 

Vic does exactly the type of informal thing I love in flowers.  I found most of my suppliers by recommendation, but the florist I chose I knew of already: Marion at JA Stobo Florists, Main Road, Wylam.  She always has a great and varied selection of flowers unlike what you usually find in florists.  She is also local to me and I tried to use local suppliers for the wedding wherever possible.  When I needed some flowers for a photo shoot a couple of years ago, I went there and bought three massive hydrangea heads in the most wonderful shade of blue. 

I wouldn’t have found them anywhere else.  So in I went armed with my book, hoping Marion would “see” my vision.  She immediately got excited by the project.  The brief was to make it look as though I had gone out and denuded the garden in the morning.  Each arrangement was to be different, there was no colour preferences and arrangements were to look blousy and informal.  The only thing I did was collect vintage containers, in particular swan planters (swans mate for life so I thought it was a nice motif),

and give her a list of flowers I didn’t want (nothing too architectural, exotic or modern looking).  Then I just had to leave her to it on the day.  I saw the bridal party bouquets before the wedding ceremony, but I had to wait to see the table decorations until I walked into the marquee with everyone else.  I must admit, I was nervous.  When I get an idea, I have a very clear vision of what I want.  Usually I execute it myself, but this time I was going to have to relinquish control entirely and hope that Marion had interpreted my vision perfectly. And I am not very good at relinquishing control.

Stephen and I had such fun collecting vintage vases and planters leading up to the wedding.  All in all we were able to provide Marion with about 35 of them.

Our pride and joy was the giant swan planter we found on ebay at the last minute.  We had been looking and looking and looking, but everything was wrong being either too stylised or too modern.  With about a month to go, the perfect one came up, thankfully on a “Buy it Now” option because I don’t think my nerves could have taken an auction this close to the wedding.  We instructed Marion to really go to town with him.  He was to go on a table right inside the door so you'd see him first. 

We were the last to walk into the marquee.  We walked in as the DJ announced us and I scanned the room looking at all our fab friends and family who had come to our wedding, some of them from great distances.  And then I looked at the flowers.  I could have wept with joy.  Marion and her team had excelled themselves.  The large swan was resplendent.

Even Stephen was impressed.  Generally he thinks flowers are nice, but he's a bloke so doesn't give them much thought.  But the swan made an impression.

The tables looked amazing. 

So many guests commented on them.  Afterwards Marion said they had so much fun because they were able to use such a variety of flowers,

foliage

and grasses

and each one was different with no rules, so they really got to be creative. 

Because Stephen and I had bought a house 6 months ago, we had to use the honeymoon fund to cover solicitor’s fees and stamp duty (tax) so we stayed in Ryton for our post wedding break.  It meant that we had the luxury of really enjoying the flowers as I brought them all home. (You can just see the wellies poking out of the boot of my car.  I had them on standby to wear with my wedding dress should the weather have misbehaved on the day - one has to be prepared.  Thankfully, they stayed in the car as the weather was perfect). 

They looked great scattered throughout our little house.  They were everywhere because we had about 35 arrangements and not a great deal of space. 

We even put a few up the stairs because we ran out of places to put them.  They lasted for another week, with a few lasting nearly two weeks. 

The beautiful foxgloves from the giant swan lasted nearly a month.  They provided, as they should, a great deal of joy and for a short spell, I could immerse myself in floral heaven, our house looking as though I had been extremely extravagant with flowers. 

We haven’t done anything with our little garden this year because we needed to see what would come up.  We moved in in winter when the garden was bare.  My hope is to really plant up the garden over the next few years so that I shall have my own source of flowers to use.  Already there is an abundance of rose bushes (about 60, but some are not looking so good so may need attention or replacing), hydrangea, foxgloves and a few things I haven’t identified yet not being very up on flowers, much as I love them.  I have a lot to learn and a lot to do, but it will be fun.

Photographs by Stephen Egglestone, Helen Morris and Deborah Langford.

Russian Doll stencil.

Russian Doll was one of the stencils given away in the book 'Stencil It by Helen Morris'.  The stencil was cut from laminated cardstock and there were three sizes of Russian Doll for the reader to use.

The project from Stencil It showed how to decorate a cylindrical lamp base and lampshade.

Here are some other projects that I made with the stencil.

 

Card stencils have only a limited lifespan. I would reccommend buying the plastic version of the Russian Doll stencil for projects where repeated use is desired. It is available in many sizes, just type Russian Doll into The Stencil Library search box to see the variety.

My husband designed this stencil for the book 'Stencil It' originally he drew Twiggy's face onto the doll but the design had to be simplified and widened so that the printers could cut it. It bears little or no resemblance to Twiggy now but people still tell me that the face looks familiar.  Who do you think it looks like?

Helen

 

 

Stencil competition at Stencilwerks

I have just learnt that Carolyn Blahosky at Stencilwerks is running a feature and a competition based around stencils from my Stencil It book.  So if you are looking for a special offer or have photos of projects that you acheived with the stencils from the book do check in with the Stencilwerks blog.

Both my photos show sample boards that Carolyn created with some of the stencils from Stencil It. Hmmmm I wonder whether I have a chance of winning. I did a lot of projects with those stencils!

Helen.

Betty's Butterfly Pashmina

Betty Cooper has acheived fabulous results with the stencils that she adapted from the book Stencil It and I enjoy seeing them.

Betty wrote 'How do you like your butterfly stencil floating on a pashima? The lovely model is my office -mate, Ingrid  who has the stature and profile for showing off your designs at their best."

I think a stencilled pashmina is an inspired choice and one that I have not yet tried.

Betty continued 'This Friday night is a private reception   Very exciting and, of course, I needed a new outfit worthy of the occasion.  And the new outfit needed a little coverup in case it was chilly.

  Stencil It came to the rescue.  I printed out the butterflies in several sizes and cut them as stencils.  I used textile paint for the stenciling which dried soft and vibrant  I am very pleased with the finished scarf and am thrilled to be wearing it at such a momentous occasion.'

The butterfly stencil is one of 15 ready cut card stencils that appear in Stencil It and the book is available from me and other bookstores. The stencils can be bought from the Stencil It collection at The Stencil Library. I don't know which paint Betty used but if she reads this she may tell us.  The paints that I use with great success are from Jacquard and from Liquitex.  I have a bottle of Golden Fabric Medium and if I am using a paint that does not come from the afore mentioned sources  I mix it with the medium.

Thank you Betty and Ingrid.