Celebrating Women's Day 2014 at Wow Festival Southbank

I'm enjoying a delicious cup of Assam tea bought from Tea People at the Women of the World Festival  this afternoon.  I had a chat with Dilip, the stall holder, and realise I know more about his company than I first thought, namely through the multi-talented designer entreprenuer, Gillian Gamble, who is behind so much of the creative work of this exciting young social enterprise.  I'm looking forward to seeing their new film about tea workers and their families - coming out soon. They're also in the April edition of Vogue.

I had called over to look around the WoW Festival, having run stalls there for the past two years - selling my own jewellery and the products made by my SEN students from Mulberry. I am glad that the business has been carried on this year by an enthusiastic member of staff and that we had the students colourful products being sold there once again. The Mulberry stall looked fantastic as always - we're very proud of the girls!! I hope they make a good profit after all the hard work.  Other Mulberry students will return on Sunday to sell more products - bath salts and other gifts.

Tutti Frutti, Rare Beauty

We're open at Number Ninety-Four Gallery - call in if you're on Columbia Road any weekend this October!

Cloud Leopard

I finally saw the stunning Cloud Leopard by Nahoko Kojima in Craft Central's new gallery this week.

I loved seeing the whole piece, suspended from the ceiling, having only seen glimpses of it in pictures on the net. It is so intricately cut out, delicate and is simply a breath-taking work of art. 

It reminds me of the work of the paper cut-out artists I met in Kunming, though I haven't seen any on this scale before, and so beautifully presented.

Nahoko Kojima's new work, The Polar Bear, will be unveiled at the Jerwood Makers Open 2013. It is entitled, Byaku, a Japanese word meaning White in English. It is hand cut using only one white sheet of Japanese Washi Paper. 

If you are interested in knowing more about this traditional Japanese method of paper making, I can recommend Nancy Broadbent Casserly's book on Washi. She spoke about its history at the Daiwa Institute a couple of months ago and it was an interesting introduction to Washi. 

Two stalls at Southbank

Spark Productions

Claire Hart Design

Here they are at the Women of the World Festival, my silver jewellery on the stall I shared with Flux  jeweller Alex Yule, and the glorious technicolour products my students made for the Mulberry stall!

Huge thanks to all the colleagues who helped set up the students' stall and brought them on the trip to Southbank. Thanks also to Tim Scott and Gillian Arnold for printing the mugs - they sold really well!

The students can't wait to count their earnings tomorrow........they'll discover that they did fantastically well:)

Ming Crown at the British Museum

I had a morning (booked four months ago as yesterday was the first Wednesday I had free!) to study this late Ming Dynasty crown at the British Museum. Such a luxury to spend a morning in a quiet library, drawing an antique. It had to be set on crumpled tissue paper to raise the level so that the down-turned beaks of the birds in the front were not touching the table. 

I am fascinated by  the incredible detail of the whole crown - phoenixes, flaming pearls, flower heads, dragons - but it was the leaves that caught my attention, plus a few tiny clouds which I discovered hidden amongst all the gilt silver openwork:)

Flowing movement in the leaves

I first saw Chinese crowns in Dali, Yunnan, in 2008  but at last I have seen an original close-up. It is an amazing decorative object. I've made lots of drawings and will probably need to book a return visit the next time I have a Wednesday free - hopefully less than four months away!