Fly, Fly Away!

As much as we've loved having our Hargrave Cellular Kite in the studio window the last couple of months, it's time for us to say goodbye! It certainly cheers the place up and is always a talking point for visitors to our studio, but sadly we just don't have the room anymore.....

So...we're asking if you or anyone you know has a love for beautiful, brightly printed kites?! These kites are based on the early meteorological kites of the late 1800s and built to the exact dimensions that they would have been constructed to for kite experiments back in 1894! There are five Bowed Eddy Kites and one Hargrave Cellular Kite, all featuring a unique print inspired by the way we have recorded wind over the years.

The fabric was all lovingly printed by hand in our studio using paper stencils. All kites were on show at The Lighthouse as part of our show "When the wind is high" during October and November 2012.

We are only looking to cover the cost of their production, so if you want to own your own piece of a one-off Laura Spring, then this is your chance!

Due to the size and delicate nature of the Hargrave Cellular Kite, we cannot ship or post it anywhere. It will need to collected from the studio directly. The Bowed Eddy Kites can easily be posted though....

If you are interested or want to know more details, then please get in touch at: hello@lauraspring.co.uk

Five Bowed Eddy Kites & the Hargrave Cellular Kite (just seen on the right edge)

Arrow Bowed Eddy Kite

Compass Bowed Eddy Kite & Hargrave Cellular Kite

Hargrave Cellular Kite

Compass Bowed Eddy & Hargrave Cellular Kite

Thank you!

Laura Spring at The Lighthouse

So it's exactly two weeks until my show opens at The Lighthouse and things are coming together....

It's been a busy few weeks printing new designs and making the pieces, but it's getting there thanks to the help of my two lovely interns (Lynn and Cecelia) and the wood genius that is known as Kevin Pollock.

Inspired by the meteorological kites that I have researched, I am creating an exciting, new installation that will be shown alongside my existing collection. I don't want to give too much away, but here's a sneak peek on the right of  what's to come.

The show is on from the 25th October - 3rd December and we will be hosting our own pop-up shop in the space on Saturday 1st December. There will also be a talk by leading journalist and style writer Charlotte Abrahams on the 13th November as part of the exhibition program.

Hopefully we will see some of you there....

In the archives of the Science Museum...

One of the things I love about being a designer is the strange places and worlds your ideas can take you. Recently I was lucky enough to be able to access the Science Museum archives as I had been researching a particular idea for my upcoming exhibition at The Lighthouse.  It turns out that the Science Museum has a whole room dedicated to meteorological equipment dating back to at least the 1800s which was perfect for my line of enquiry....

I am quite a lover and collector of old things, as I know are many people. I love looking at objects from a previous decade or era and thinking about how they would have been used and the story behind each piece. So to be able to go into the archives at the Science Museum  and see beautiful objects from their collection was a bit of a dream come true. As soon as you step off the street in the west end of London and enter the beautiful old building that houses the majority of their smaller pieces, you feel like you've stepped back in time. The building itself used to be the Post Office Savings Bank and it has corridors and staircases that make you think you've walked onto a film set - in fact, the lovely staff member that assisted my visit said the place is often hired by film companies to shoot scenes (it turns out I missed a hollywood legend by a day!).

As we walked down beautiful corridors, turning on lights as we went, it felt like a real privilege to be somewhere so special. As we walked into the room I wanted to access, I was immediately hit by the smell of old stuff. Putting on latex gloves, I was then given free reign to touch and photograph the objects I had requested. The bonus of the trip was that I could also look amongst the shelves at all the other objects and pull out things I hadn't requested, but appealed to me, which was a welcome surprise.

Twelve months ago I had limited knowledge about weather related things, but now I feel like I am becoming a bit of a weather geek. This is one of the reasons I love what I do, the weird knowledge you accrue is sometimes bizarre but it's also funny to think about how excited you can get over a Vertical Gustiness Meter from 1882.

Vertical Gustiness Meter

Pulse 2012 and on to Cove Park...

So I got back to Glasgow nearly four weeks ago after exhibiting at Pulse for the first time! It was a great experience and lovely to meet up with some familiar faces and meet new ones. Thanks to everyone who came along and visited my stand during the three days, it was definitely lovely to meet everyone....buyers, bloggers, press, other exhibitors etc.  If I had to pick one highlight it would be getting to see the beautiful scarves and gloves of Hilary Grant Knitwear & Textiles in the flesh....her work is amazing and made me excited about the Winter!

The last few weeks have flown by with leads from Pulse and here I am now back in the lovely surroundings of Cove Park for two weeks to catch my breath. I was lucky enough to be here for six weeks last Summer on the Scottish Craft Residency where I began to develop my luggage adventure. It is a real treat to return and have the opportunity to a spell of time and space to develop new things for later on in the year. One of the things that's coming up that I'm really excited about is being asked to do an exhibition at The Lighthouse in October as part of their Show Studio series. Katy West, their  creative programmer, has asked a variety of designers to take part including Black Arches - the talented Mhari McMullan. Her show opens on the 4th August, if you get the chance I would definitely go and see it...

The Cove Park Cubes