British Home Chic

I am very excited to announce that I now have a designer profile on the British Home Chic website! The website shows off the talents and portfolios of many designers as well as selling lovely homewares and gifts- everything from ceramics and wall art to jewellery and textiles. The lovely people approached me and offered to show my designs, which I jumped at the chance to do. For more info go the the site or follow them on Twitter @britshomechic Here's a little sneak preview of my page!

Trentham Gardens

I recently visited the beautiful Trentham Gardens in Stoke on Trent, a place I have visited several times living in the area. this was the first time I had managed to visit at the height of summer, and I was blown away by the gorgeously designed gardens, spectacular views and most of all the range of flowers and plants. Florals are something I only really discovered my love for a few years ago and now I can't get enough! Here are a few snap shots from my visit, I'm hoping to use them to inspire some doodling soon!

New Designers

I'm very excited to announce that I will be exhibiting at New Designers this year at the Business Design Centre in London! Alongside some of my other course mates from Staffordshire University I will be exhibiting my latest fabric designs as well as an exciting portfolio of work from Wednesday 26th- Saturday 29th June on stand T57.

to find out more about the exhibition you can visit the website, and to view my Artsthread Portfolio which shows all my projects and more about me please go to http://www.artsthread.com/p/lauraelder/

Digital Repeats

Alongside the fabrics I created for the final pieces for my project Ornate Obscurity, I also created a collection of digital repeats to work alongside the main designs as simpler all over patterns, using some of the drawings used in the fabric design and a similar colour palette to tie it all together. Here are a few snaps of the digital prints in my portfolio.

I'm very excited to take all my recent designs along with the rest of my portfolio down to New Designers next week, more on that soon!

Laser etch

To compliment my main collection of fabrics as well as the digital collection, I wanted to use the leather I bought and really showcase what can be done with it on the laser etch. I used a section of my repeat design I created digitally and etched it into a large piece of flat leather to create this piece.

I'm really pleased how well the etch shows of my drawings, and would make a lovely framed piece of artwork. It also got me thinking about how this could be applied to products... bags, shoes, notebooks, leather cases for phones, laptops and tablets... the possibilities are endless!

Cre8 Radio Appearance

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to go on Cre8 radio and talk about who I am and what I do as a designer, with the lovely Paul Oldfield on arts and entertainment show The Nite Klub. I have never done radio before so it was a great new experience which I really enjoyed, despite being rather nervous!

With presenters Paul and Chris

Spreading the word about Surface Pattern!

With my degree show exhibition

If you would like to know more about Cre8 radio you can visit their website, or checkout out the Facebook page, which also features pictures of me and my work!

Degree Show

I can't believe it's all finished, but I'm so happy to announce that the degree show is now open! I'm exhibiting as part of Show & Tell 2013, Staffordshire University's degree show exhibition on the College Road campus in Stoke-On-Trent. The show is running every day until Saturday 15th June, with the opportunity to see final year work from disciplines including Surface Pattern & Textile Surfaces, Illustration and Graphic Design, Crafts, Ceramics and Jewellery, Animation, Photography, Film Production and Fine Art. There's so much to see and some real talent to witness, so come down and have a look, and if you enjoy the show don't forget to tweet about it with the hashtag #StaffsShow!

A preview of my space in the surface pattern studio just before my assessment!