A great Trend resource.

Here is a really useful Trend resource:

http://www.design-seeds.com/

Scroll through this site and you will find lots of inspiring trend predictions for fashion and textiles, amongst other things.  By the way, did you know that Turquoise is the colour for 2010 according to Pantone!  Scroll down the site and you will see Design Seeds twist on palettes for turquoise.

DESIGNER TO EXHIBIT AT INTERNATIONAL SHOW IN PARIS

Award-winning textile designer Alison Yule will be starting the New Year in style when she exhibits at a prestigious event in Paris.

She will be showcasing some of her key work, which brings fabric to life, to a truly international audience at the Maison & Objet Show in January.

It is a huge accolade to be selected to exhibit at the trade show, which targets professionals from the field of home fashion and design and attracts top buyers and suppliers worldwide.

Derbyshire-based Alison is delighted to have the opportunity to show some of the most influential people in the business her unique hand woven products that fuse contemporary design with traditional fibres.

She has been selected to attend the show along with 5 members of Design Factory, the premier organisation supporting Designer Makers in the East Midlands. They have been selected to exhibit by Alelier d’Art de France, their equivalent of the Crafts Council.

Alison, whose business is Alison Yule Textiles and who has been weaving, spinning and dyeing for over 30 years, creates richly textured fabrics with simple, effective designs.

Hallmarks of her work, which include wall panels, rugs, cushions and window hangings, are unusual colour combinations and original textiles that are inspired by her surroundings.

Alison is hoping her work will catch the eye of key international buyers and influencers at the Maison & Objet Show in January. She will be exhibiting in L’Espace, Hall 4, Stand E56

She said: “Exhibiting at such a high-profile event and to leaders of the international home fashion and design world is a great achievement.

“I’m very much looking forward to going to Paris and it is a great honour to have been selected to exhibit at such a prestigious event.”

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors:

For more information please visit www.alisonyuletextiles.co.uk or telephone Alison Yule on 01283 701809.

Colour Inspiration

If you’re looking for colour inspiration then take a look at this blog: Kris’s Color Stripes

Not only lovely colour stripes inspired by the bloggers surroundings, but beautiful images of Hungarian and Russian textiles, too!  There’s so much in this simple blog to inspire, so it’s well worth scrolling down the page.

Beautiful…

Banks Mill Open Studio’s Week-end

Come and see a very talented group of designers this week-end, at Banks Mill Open Studios.

As I’m an associate member I will be studio sitting for Mazha Hussain, on the top floor, who can’t be there.  I’ll have my work on display, and for sale, and will be available to discuss ideas you may have for commissions.

This year is Banks Mill’s 10th anniversary, so should be a great week-end.

A New Presentation!

I’ve made a presentation in Google for Alison Yule Textiles which can be viewed here:

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dgkvqvdd_27hp4dpbg2

Please let me know what you think.

Maison & Objet

I’ve just had the great news that I’ve been selected to exhibit at Maison & Objet, next January, in L’Espace!

This is a huge honour for me and five other members of Design Factory,  as we are being sponsored by Ateliers d’Art de France, the French equivalent of the Crafts Council and UKTI.

Maison & Objet takes place at Parc des Espositions, Paris-Nord, from 22 – 26 January 2010.

Press Review

My work has been reviewed by Design Week on their new Interiors Talk website. You can find the review here: http://www.interiorstalk.com/news/als/als100.html

Back from 100% Design 2009

What a fantastic show, more cutting edge design, less corporate stands, some great new designers!  There was a real buzz about the place, so I feel really privileged to have been there.

I was really pleased with my stand and had some great comments about it, which made all the drama and hard work of putting the collection together well worth the effort.

Here are just a few images of my stand.

Are Designers Influenced by Art?

There was a post on the Textile Designers Group of LinkedIn recently asking whether designers are influenced by art and artist which got me thinking.

I love art and, in particular, brightly coloured pieces!  I met an artist at Banks Mill Studio’s last year, Deborah Allitt, who’s work is really beautiful, big, bright, bold and colourful.  She uses texture in her work, too, which was also a big draw for me and she’s allowed me to use one of her pieces as inspiration for a new collection, which I’ll be working on after 100% Design.

So, in the LinkedIn post, apparently, some design studio’s don’t allow their designers out into the Art Galleries to be inspired by art during their working week, even for an afternoon during an “Art Week”, for example.  But, to me, that isn’t necessary, you can be influenced by art in all manner of ways, for example, on my iGoogle page I have several “Art of the Day” widgets which I find very inspiring, today’s Van Gogh piece was “A Young Scheveningen Women Knitting” which I’ve never seen and is really beautiful, soft greys and blues, sensitively painted.  It would be great to use as a collection, as one of the current trends for A/W 2011 is dark inky blues!

More useful information for sole traders!

Hi,
for various reasons I couldn’t work yesterday, so find myself at my desk and loom today! Not a hardship for me, but I came across this link to some very useful advice:
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/08/14/things-to-do-on-friday-to-make-monday-manageable/

Although I try do my accounts and other admin. jobs as I go along I often find that a Friday is when is when this work gets done!

The advise the blog give is so useful, particularly the last point, keeping your clients informed.

When working to a deadline it is so easy to get absorbed in the work, whether weaving, graphics, web design or any other, that a little time out to let your client know that all is in hand and at what stage you are at can be forgotten,.  This isn’t to say that your client isn’t important, just that you’ve got so deeply embedded in the work that that’s all that you are focusing on.

Not only is it a professional curtesy to keep your client informed at all stages, but it is so reassuring to them.