THE ART OF BESPOKE

Everyday in the Clementine & Bloom studio is spent making, whether that's making a cake, making a blog post or our favourite making a bespoke lampshade.


We had recently been commissioned to make our Papilio lampshade in colours that would compliment a smoked glass lamp base. With this in mind we opted for the lovely olive green silk (used for our archive cushions) and kept the individually hand made butterflies in the aubergine and violet silk.

The best bit about working to order is that it forces us to think outside the box, look at new colour combinations that perhaps we hadn't considered and although these colours came directly from our Entomology collection we loved the final lampshade so much we are thinking of adding it to our range!


Even better still the shade was perfect for the base as you can see in these pictures sent in by our customer. If any of our readers wish to share their Clementine & Bloom products in their homes we would love to see them, why not email us at info@clementineandbloom.com

LIGHT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST

On Friday evening I travelled up to London with Collage Magazine and spent a few enjoyable hours at the V&A Museum to view the Light from the Middle East exhibition. I have never visited a museum or gallery at night and it felt childishly pleasing to roam the near empty corridors after dark ( a bit like being in your school when everyone else has gone home!)

This photographic exhibition brings together new images from various countries in the region and addresses the cultural and political perceptions which tend to go hand in hand with their society. In the early 1980's I lived in Cairo for six months and the sights, sounds and way of life there are very close to my heart. Photography is a powerful medium used to record events as they take place but many of the artists have manipulated their images requiring the viewer to consider what is reality and what is staged.

Among my favourites were the series of work by Shadi Gadirian and are based on traditional portraits from the Qajar period of 1700-1900's. The subjects are all women modestly clothed each with a trophy of modern day society - a Pepsi can, electrical equipment, a mountain bike - and addresses the challenges faced by women in that society today. Interestingly our guide pointed out that the original Qajar subjects were often dressed more freely with bare legs or arms than those of today.

image courtesy of the V&A
I also liked Watchtowers, West Bank/Palestine by Taysir Batniji which were inspired by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. The photographs were taken by a local photographer and not the artist as the area is out of jurisdiction to Gaza born Palestestinians. The shots were taken quickly and presumably surreptitiously which I think add to their quality - the watchers are also being watched.

image courtesy of V&A
The second part of the evening was spent at a seminar hosted by Avril Horsford called Rising Talent Pecha Kucha and Panel. Five young women creatives showcased their current work and the audience was invited to question them and suggest ways they could take their work forward. The words Pecha Kucha come from Japan and embody the concept of an exchange of ideas. There was a variety of work - film, photography, poetry and design and all the women were articulate and talented. Sadly the event was limited to one hour but I think we all would have liked to have been able to continue for longer.

The exhibition finishes on the 7th April and I definitely recommend you go and take a look.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Here at Clementine & Bloom it feels like we've have spent the past week making non-stop bird references. Currently Mum is 'finding her feathers' as she gets to grips with Twitter (sincere apologies in advance if anything random appears in our feed!) and as for me, I have 'flown the nest' so to speak.

This is not the first time I have lived away from home (various stints in London, Manchester and New York) but then my partner and I made the descision to batton down the hatches and save like crazy for our own slice of real estate. Fast forward a year and I am now the proud co-director of Clementine & Bloom, the only problem is running a small business is not 'mortgage friendly'. So a girl does what she has to and moves in to rented accomodation.


My new piece of rented real estate happens to be a beautiful top floor flat in a Georgian town house in Islington. As I write this I realise I may sound slightly smug (and believe me I am pleased as punch with our new home) but my intention is to give our readers a peek inside our new home 'cause lets face it everyone loves a nosey!


Starting with the "before's" today hopefully in a few weeks time I should have all my furniture sorted and of course a few well chosen accessories to bring the place to life. So stayed tuned because the best is yet to come...
 


MOTHERING SUNDAY


As Mother's Day was fast approaching, we thought last week would be the perfect opportunity to try out a tutorial we found that showed how to make your own sugar cubes.


These were super easy; sugar, egg and food colouring yet they look so effective. We are always oohing and aahing over the fancy sugar cubes you can buy in good food stores and now we know how to make are own. Of course in true Clementine & Bloom style we skipped the sugary pastel shades and leapt straight in to full on colour!


We used the smallest cookie cutter we had to hand, which luckily was a heart, to make these but maybe next time we would try and find an even smaller cutter as our sugar cubes are the equivalent of two teaspoons. And they have of course been tried and tested, but be warned your tea will turn an interesting colour! It's worth it though when you see how pretty they look on a plate and it's definitely something we will be making again when we want to impress our guests.


Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day

BCTF


What do the letters B C T F mean?

Bold Colourful Tactile and Fun, a wonderful description of our current Entomology collection or in fact British Craft Trade Fair.

Or maybe both because we are going to be attending the British Craft Trade Fair in the lovely town of Harrogate in Yorkshire from 7th to 9th April with all our cushions and lampshades in tow. We haven't attended this event before (or visited this part of Yorkshire) so we are very excited to be able to combine two 'firsts'.

The show is attended by trade buyers and gallery owners from around the globe and hopefully will prove to be a great opportunity to open up some new avenues for Clementine & Bloom. As an added bonus we will get to meet up with some of the other exhibitors who we have met along the way and as we are showing in the designGAP area I'm certain we will make lots of new friends.

Not that we can yet call ourselves seasoned professionals but behind the scenes in Clementine & Bloom's studio things appear to be quite calm. Our hotel is booked, our rental van is organised, all that's left to do is run up a few new samples and plan our display. If your exhibiting or coming to the event as a buyer why not say hello now, we very much look forward to meeting you all!

We would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions on places for us to visit...