Bow down to Charlene Mullen
by homeshoppingspy • Wednesday, September 30, 2009 • Craft, Decorating and interiors, Lovely websites, News, Stylish shopping • 0 Comments
Making her debut at 100%Design last week, Charlotte Mullen is a textile designer who’s going places. Her unusual hand and machine embroidery cushions and accessories are inspired by…deep breath…Elizabethan blackwork embroidery, English lace, Eastern European textiles and urban landscapes…in Charlene’s own words: “from Victorian Christening gowns to prison tattoos – nothing is taboo.”
Her eclectic range of influences means that she achieves her goal to create modern designs within a historical context – and many of her pieces have an intricacy that can only be achieved by the human hand, making them extra lovely.
I like the fact that Charlene doesn’t take herself too seriously – from the little UFO flying above St Paul’s to her quirky ‘Boy with a Coif’ cushion, there are touches of humour everywhere – her designs are tactile, elegant, but human. Her website features some of her lovely work, and I think it’s a great example of how a website can work when it’s designed well – it’s really beautiful.
Charlene’s little red and white name tapes were sewn to her press releases at 100%Design and looked so cute. Bethan in the office has just found a fabulous website – GB Name Tapes – where you can buy 144 name tapes for £5.85 – so I’ve ordered some “with love from ellie x“ ones to prettify presents, jars of home-made jam and generally anything that sits still long enough for me to slap a pretty name tape on it. As Bethan said, just think of the Crafting Potential (CP) – the possibilities are endless! Tragically, I’m almost as excited about these name tapes as I was when we discovered the amazing free butterfly and insects online image library – ah, happy days. – Ellie
There’s something so pleasing about this mixture of mercury glass accessories, glass bell jars and white tongue and groove panelling. By the way, tip of the day: for inexpensive tongue and groove panels, shop at 
Pink peonies in pretty china teacups, zinc garden planters, white folding bistro chairs, linen cushions – this is text book English vintage style. Nothing new, but very lovely all the same.
The image below isn’t helping to cure my current obsession with old leather armchairs – if anything, it’s making it worse! Aren’t they lovely? And one day, they will be mine, mwah ha haaa. But for now, it’s time to wipe the drool off my keyboard and stop fantasising about chairs – it can’t be healthy. By the way, is anybody else watching Design For Life on BBC2 with Philippe Starck? Isn’t it HILARIOUS? I love the fact that every week he sets the students a vague, ‘invent something new and amazing that will change the world as we know it’ brief, most of which is lost in translation, and then they all go away and spend a week ‘brainstorming’ and panicking, then produce…well, very little…apart from some vague ‘ideas’ and a bit of tinkering with magnetic cutlery while Starck clings to his stunning girlfriend or bangs eeez ed against ze wall in despair. Top notch TV. – Ellie.
It’s £9.95, and clearly needs to be framed not used (