Dream Factory search for 11th Cultural Engineer

We are really happy to say our founder has been selected by Honda as a potential Cultural Engineer. Yeah! With the winning amount of votes Lauren could be joining great minds such as Simon Berry, Dr Kevin Fong and David Hieatt.

“I really do believe dreams can come true. I see the mind as a factory where you can make your thoughts happen. I dreamt of working with the Eden Project and we now have a permanent installation there; I dreamt of meeting Wangari Maathai and I interviewed her for Wise Women; I dreamt of helping supermarkets change and we created an ethical bouquet range for Thorntons Budgen’s. I dream of a world where there is equity throughout the global cut flower supply chain, but for this change to happen, everyone must share  the dream… “

Lauren Craig

Please Vote for Thinking Flowers? here – http://tiny.cc/ityj0

“Pigment and Painting” – Day 2

Well all I can say is Day 2 went faster than Day 1, but what a fantastic one it was. I am still very much learning the basics and getting a feel for the print but what a feeling it is. Before I forget, here is the 1st paper print I couldn’t show you last week.

1st Paper Print 3 cups

I was a little bit late this morning as I couldn’t find my camera charger. I rushed through the colourful streets of Brixton and there are people like ants working on Windrush Square.

I wondered into the Printworks and a few of the other ladies were already there making coffee and hanging ready books. I glimpse Dawn the tutor and we are ready start. We look at some of the examples of print techniques using binders such as opaque, pearl, puff and metallic which I will show you later. She introduced us to an artist called Norma Starszakowna

Diasporas, Norma Starszakowna, 2005, white silk organza, screen-printed pigments and heat reactives

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/diasporas-hanging-textiles/ – Her current work has changed but still carries some of the accents such as metallic and Japanese feel. We also looked at Patrick Caulfield and his use of screen printing and colour.

Pottery 1969 - Patrick Caulfield

http://tiny.cc/eyxgg

I imagine these pots full of flowers. The remind me of the flower adorned vases the Bahian ladies wear on their heads during Candomeble ceremonies. These women walk, dance and sing in celebration with these flowers for miles and miles in the hot blazing sun. I sense this celebration in the aray of diversity in Caulfields collection vessels.

Festa do Bonfin 2011

There is not much to share today in the way practical print as using the binders is a pretty much the same ad the process you use to print on paper. Except with the binders they have different affects, and in order to get the colour you mix them with pigment.

Binder and Pigment

Transparent Pigment

Super White

Pearl Pigment

Opaque Pigment

Metallic Pigment

The only binder I did not use was the Puff. This gives a has a raising agent that is activated by the heat. It is kind of like the 1980′s kids illuminous T-shirts with the bumpy print. The texture feels great.  I will let you know how I have used the others as we go along.

Grey Puff Pigment - Diagonal Lines

What was strange was that after rushing over to the fabric shop in Alantic Road. I felt the urge to paint. I have never painted on fabric in my life. I went looking for a brush and grabbed the first colours that spoke to me and mixed the pigment… I painted straight on to the fabric just like in primary school.

Primary

After this you pop the fabric into dryer at about 140 degrees. As I had loaded up my brush thick with pigment it didn’t dry very well, so I put it through a few more times. Still not dry…hmmm this is probably why we use a screen Lauren I also realised the pigment cracks when you put it on heavy as you can see with the Yellow opaque binder and similarly with the Super White binder. However, the translucent binder did not and this was a bonus.

Next I waned to create a background that had dense colour and free space together. This time I used a screen

Can you spot the magic squidgy

Long Orbs Screen

Long Orbs

I was satisfied with this as the space in between the colour feels how I wanted it too. Although a little bit back to front I was ready to print on to fabric the stencils I made last week.

United Vibrations

Vibrant Cups

I had lots of fun printing those and love the way the colours ran together on the screen. There was a magic in the simple blends and the chemistry of colour expressing the delights they hold singly and foremost together. The little sees pods of Vibrant Cups, tickle me as they look like my freckly lips, a calabash and a leaf cupped up to the light and rain all at the same time. I especially like the greeny yellow one.  Going back to the way the colours run on the screen this started something else.

Layers

I started to see the screen as the first layer of a process. I quickly added some flicks, drips and licks it. The black added real dreamy depth. The sun must have come out from behind a cloud or something but the change in light made me look at the window. I wanted to see what if the screen could project. It actually did although I was not skillful enough to capture it without shadow.

Wire Flowers

I can here all the artists out there saying, ‘so, it’s just a screen’ but to me it is like stain glass for city dwellers, tape and chicken wire in all. Here is what it produced. I really like the horizontal lines and the blue drips.

Open

I got totally carried away with this and wen too far. I forgot about the space and totally submerged myself in colour, I’m not to sure about it. Brace yourself!

Psychadelic

I totally OD’ed man! I need the soothing calm of pastels colors, pearl and metallic binder, so I mixed them up .

Pigment & Dye

I for some reason could not stop thinking about the Thinking Flowers? and Angel Bug illustrations from last week. I had a block.

I need to figure out how to do it. I filed the thought and pushed on.

Allsorts3

Here is what the different binders look like.

White is 3 parts Translucent and 1 part SuperWhite.

Yellow is Opaque.

Blue 2 parts Opaque, 1 part SuperWhite

Pastel Blue – Pearl Binder

Pink – 3 parts Translucent and 1 part SuperWhite

Here are the last prints..

Over

Over - CU

I fell in love with this and let the screen dry just a little before applying another round..

Allsorts

I can’t wait to find out more ways to create texture..

Over Again

Over Again CU

So it was 5 o’clock and time to leave already! I didn’t even have lunch. I had a quick look round at the other ladies work and there are some real stunners! I have really enjoyed my amateur activities but will be leaving things to the experts.

Reclaiming the Screen – Day 1

It is funny as when asked by people (that dreaded question) So what do you do?

I say, ‘ethical floral design’

‘what like print for curtains’ they say.

I’m used to it now and that includes the puzzled face after I do explain what it is, I actually do.

But, deep down I have always wanted to do something like surface design.

I am even guilty of trying to force my sisters down that line of inquiry.

They are both older than me, one a painter and jewellery designer the other studied Fashion and loves ceramics. They must be so tired of me saying, ‘go on sis it would be great! We could have the whole thing in house and I will do all the admin.’

Little did I know I would be on a course doing the printing myself. I was really nervous as I was a little bit ill prepared and had not read the intro email. So I arrive and smell the Peonies on the front desk. Faye asked me to sign in and help my self to tea and biscuits. My kind of place. I meet the other 7 ladies who are all from London and vary in age and ethnicity. We meet our tutor Dawn Dupree who is bright, chirpy and shows us some of her line drawing and illustrations. They are of everyday objects tooth brushes, shopping trolleys and bikes: their line full of character and humor.

We do the dreaded intro’s, inspiring ladies an architect, architect student, fashion stylist, fashion and beauty PR, lecturer and the rest students at CSM, Goldsmiths and UCL. I say something what turns into something else and quickly handed over to the next lady. We move to the course structure and by this time I am really excited about the possibilities.

We are let looses with tracing paper, pens, ink, opaque paint, pastels, brushes, photocopiers and computers ready to go with adobe suites loaded. I start with paper and fine line drawings. I stick with my usual doodles swirls, flowers, leaves and stems until it is time to reclaim the screen.

The screens have the ghost images of the person who printed on it before you. I found this very beautiful thing. Like being given a gift. When you look at them lined up, you have an exhibition of all the delight you could dream of. Some texts base pieces, geometric, illustration, collage and of course floral. But the aim of this part of the process is to remove the image. So after removing the brown tape that is used as a boarder, you are into the washing room, where you apply a remover and use a high power spray jet to remove images. It is pretty loud machine so you have to wear safety goggles and ear muffs. When it is clean you pop it in the dryer for a few minuets.

The next stage is to coat the screen with photosensitive emulsion that is the thickest glupy green.

At this point I marvel at the vast knowledge we have been able to acquire around the use of light.

Then it is back in the dryer again.

We were back at our desk to draw and come up with some ideas. I was totally absorbed and could not have been happier just drawing and thinking about simple ways to express big things. Print started to become a way to tell stories and the repeat the important bits. I decided I would use the, ‘Leaf Cup’ image at this stage. So I photocopied it on to tracing paper.

Everyone else chose their images and did a test exposure. The images are put into the vacuum pump, where air is sucked out from in between the screen and image, light is exposed to the photosensitive emulsion and burns around the image. The image has become a stencil and is nearly ready for printing.

So back to the wash room to ease the emulsion away from the screen with a hose and some elbow grease and pop it back in the dryer again.

I realised it is the predominantly black images that where making a statement and the more graphic, bold and brave you were the better.  You have to think of how things will translate in print. The positive and negative, light and dark and how things can be inverted.

There were many ideas …

Thinking Flowers?

Inky wind

Angel Bugs

20 Landscapes

3 leaves

9 winds

So with that many ideas I was slow to print, I got lost in books about Japanese Motifs and Pattern, repetition and yes you knew it the cushions. So we can test the print on paper next week. Looking forward!

Reclaiming the Print… London Printworks Trust

Thinking Flowers? are delighted to be working on a series of cultural products for the London Printworks Trust (LPT). The art work varies from growing installations to celebrate their 20th year Anniversary, wonderful window boxes and pop up floral banners, there may even be a few others, but more on that later.

We knew this was the right place and time to work with this greatly changing organisation and have dedicated our time with them to creating visual conversations about the growth, wealth and dedication, as we feel that reflects their contribution locally and world wide.

We wanted to understand the LPT offer so we sent our founder on a 5 day Introduction to Printed Textiles. She will be updating you as she spends her Saturdays exploring floral inspiration in print. We can just see it now, she will be thinking wallpaper and cushions by the end of it. In fact we are sure she already is.

In the meanwhile be sure to check http://londonprintworkstrust.wordpress.com/ – and check back in a few weeks for their new website.

Under the Princes Spotlight

It was great to see that we had been chosen to celebrate the launch of the Princes new Mayday Network.

We feel very proud. http://tiny.cc/n8oo5

Elderflower Cordial is early this year…

Although we are a little bit ahead of time with our very warm April why not make some cordial to last you the summer.

We went on a course with Sarah Raven and this is her recipe for Elderflower Cordial.

For 2 x 750ml Bottles
1.35kg Granulated Sugar
Flowers from 15-20 heads – we like it strong so use 20.
2 Oranges, thinly sliced
2 lemon, thinly sliced
2 lime, thinly sliced
30g tartaric (or citric acid)

Put 1.15 litres water and the sugar in a saucepan, and dissolve the sugar completely before bringing to the oil.

Add the flowers and return the water to the boil. Remove from the heat immediately.

Put the thinly sliced fruit into a large bowl or jug. Add the tartaric acid and pour over the hot syrup and flowers.

Stir well and cover loosely.

Leave for 24 hours.

Strain into warm sterilised bottles and seal. This keeps for a couple of months in the fridge. If you make plenty, pour some into plastic bottles and freeze. It will last for years.

If you do not want to use all of the citrus fruits you can just use 1 untreated lemon. This does taste much sweeter. You can of course use a wild honey as an alternative.

20 bunches of elderflowers
1 tbsp citric acid
1 kilo sugar
Juice and rind of 1 lemon (untreated)
1 liter boiling water
Mix all the first 5 ingredients, pour boiling water over.
Let stand in a cold place 4 days, strain, and bottle. Keep cold.
Dilute to taste.

We found this great and inclusive (for thoes that are deaf) video for making Elderflower Essence – http://tiny.cc/qiktx

Just one thing we would recommend watering the plants with the water used to rinse the flowers.

In terms of its medicinal qualities Sambucus Nigra.  The berries have been used to fight viral infections and is currently being researched for their activity against HIV. The berries of the elder plant can be used to make syrup. You can pick them and dry them if you do not have time to make it straight away.

We found a video to show you how to make it using dried Elderberries with honey.

http://tiny.cc/n8oo5

Mother Earth

The ‘Mother Earth’ range of beautiful hand tied bouquets and consist of plants, flowers and seeds. They are wrapped in unique hand illustrated recycled paper and are available for a limited time only at Budgens, Belsize Park and Crouch End.

The installations were designed by the Paul Jones RCA using upcycling vegetable crates and furniture. These point of sale units ensured beauty even when the bouquets has sold out.

The Brixton Women’s Institute and Lambeth Women’s Project will be sharing their skills in ribbon tying and flower arranging for these gorgeous gifts.

Thinking Flowers? presents a minimal, meaningful and modern way of embracing flowers in our lives, grounded in the belief that they are meant to be with us forever, not as a disposable product but as an essential part of our life cycle.

“A flower is when a plant is dancing, at the height of its life, when their colour is at its most vibrant when it is in full bloom, it’s a reminder of just how precious life is. The spiritual element of having flowers is that they bring joy to our hearts” Lauren Craig, Director,

Flowers: Rose, Memory Lane,

Alstromeria, Lavender and Laurel leaves.

A little bit about our Thinking Flowers? founder Lauren Craig

I am inspired by the simple nature of the business of being part of humanity.

I like to question, to share thoughts and be part of positive change.

I would not live in a world without colour, love or the scent of flowers.

My life has been inspired, saved and supported by nature.

I am comforted by the fact that all that fruits flowers.

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