Welcome



Set up by British designer Jacinta Walton, Whinberry & Antler design and produce unique fabrics and homewares by hand in rural England. Incorporating a passion for traditional skills by using hand printing methods, and taking inspiration from British wildlife and countryside, Whinberry & Antler hope to bring a beautiful token of the countryside into your home.

Please have a look around the blog and follow us to see how Whinberry & Antler products are made, with step by step photographs demonstrating the traditional skills used on the 'Behind the Scenes' page, as well as other information and updates about the company.

For more information please see the company website www.WhinberryAntler.com or email info@WhinberryAntler.com




Wednesday 8 May 2013

Spring meadow flowers, a badger badger badger chair and more...

Hello,

I thought it was about time that I wrote another blog post. I've been busy doing various things for Whinberry & Antler...

Firstly, a little while ago after realising that i hadn't done any drawing for months, I decided to set some time aside each week in order to get some drawing done. So now Thursdays are known as 'Drawing Thrursday'. It was quite hard initially to get back into being creative, but I find that it is one of those things, that once you start getting the creative juices flowing it becomes much easier and thats when things start to get exciting! Being able to draw and design was the reason why I set up Whinberry & Antler and is my true passion, so I felt like my interest was flagging slightly by not making sure that I make the time for this incredibly important aspect of the business.

Once I started drawing I thought it would be good to buy a small screen and experiment with making stencils by hand using a scalpel. If you have had chance to look over the 'Behind The Scenes' page, you will see that my images have previously been put onto screens using a UV Light sensitive emulsion. Whilst this is fantastic for getting beautifully detailed images onto a screen, if you do not have the equipment to do this, it is not very flexible in terms of experimenting with new artwork.

It has been on my mind now that I have wanted to create a whole new range for W&A... So I have turned my drawing to the subject of meadow flowers and grasses. I love how delicate some of our meadow plant life is and it has been really lovely to draw this subject matter with my ultra fine pen! Here's a sneak preview of what I have in mind...


These images will also be put onto a screen soon using UV emulsion, but before that I have been creating some basic silhouettes using a scalpel and Mylar (a trademarked polyester film)... this can be a fiddley process but I have been pretty happy with the results so far. I'm going to have a go at printing some of these designs onto lampshades tomorrow.


Hand cut stencil featuring delicate meadow flowers



This stencil design works well running the length of the rectangle cushion in muted natural colours



In other news, a friend of mine, Polly Waite of Polliander, who I met on my upholstery course in Wales a couple of years ago, bought some of the badger fabric from me to upholster a chair. She sent me the photos the other day and they are fantastic! It's so nice to see the fabric being used by someone to create something so stunning. The chair is for sale so be sure to check out the website!

This classic chair upholstered by Polliander in our Badger Badger Badger fabric 

If you look at the Whinberry & Antler website you will also see that lampshades are now available to buy online. Currently only the hedgehog and hare designs are on there, but the badger will follow shortly, as well as some more botanically inspired designs too hopefully!

Medium Hare lampshade 
Medium Hedgehog Lampshade

 I have also bought some transfer paper to get designs onto ceramics so I am going to be testing those out over the next couple of weeks too; I need to check that they are completely dishwasher proof... fingers crossed! I am also considering buying a small kiln at the moment. But having only learnt a bit about ceramics when I was at school, this may prove to be a bit of a learning curve! I've got a couple of books though and managed to get some advice from a few sources, so perhaps learning to fire my own ceramics could be a summer project. 

So all in all I have quite a few ideas swimming around in my head right now so hopefully by the time we reach the start of the christmas season there will be lots more Whinberry & Antler designs to get excited about! 

Thank you for taking the time to read all about the latest progress... I shall be sure to keep you updated on how all this product development goes!!!


W&A