It has been a bit over a year since I left bustling London for the sun and slower pace of life in Brisbane, Australia. Little did I know then that the tempo for my textile design & teaching business would be no less hectic…

Being a member and working with the Muswell Hill Creatives, teaching modern quilting at the Sutton College, and working with many of London’s best fabric shops gave me an incredible foundation on which to re-launch my company as Martina Latimer in a new country.

I found the London experience highly valued here and my expertise fills a real gap in the local market for contemporary design. Many of my new customers and students are current or former expats craving the forward thinking creative approach in which London excels. The pleasant surprise has been that the slower pace of life in Brisbane means people have more time to take sewing classes, which have been supported by local craft shops, art collectives and even the Brisbane Institute of Art.

I recently launched slow stitching workshops for children called ‘Stitching Kids’ with a positive reception from the community. My youngest student Laura is 5 years old and takes private lessons in my studio. She is a very talented girl who knows what she wants, is eager to learn and try out things on her own.
I was bowled over when I heard her tell her mother that she 'wants to do what I do when she is big'. My heart officially melted.

I’ve continued to push my design and am determined to be true to myself with every piece I make - I see this as a process that, let’s face it, probably never ends. I have started working with legends like RJR Fabrics and Art Gallery Fabrics, who collaborate with me on my newest quilt designs by contributing their wonderful fabrics. I am also super proud to be in collaboration with the London based designers
Jenny Heyners from Papper Sax Sten and Helen Snell (another member of the MHC alumni) from 20th Century Cloth.

I have recently launched an instructional YouTube Channel to bring my designs and teaching together in a platform that can help sewing enthusiasts around the world. That project is definitely a challenge as I am still a ‘one woman’ show, which makes filming quite a challenge. But hey, what’s life without challenges?!

Aside from designing patterns, setting up workshops and teaching I am working on my first art textiles for gallery exhibition. I am a member of ‘Hands on Art’ in Brisbane and hope to be able to exhibit there for the first time later this year.

To find out more about my journey please visit my Instagram account @martinalatimer or my website www.martinalatimer.com where all my patterns are available for download.

I am grateful for social media allowing me to have sneak peeks at what the Muswell Hill Creatives are doing and I am glad that the collective is stronger than ever.

London, I hope to see you soon again, because as the Aussies say, I miss you heaps!

Day 1
​
Rob and Bryan visited the Kioi Gallery Edo Ise-Katagami Stencil museum in Chiyoda-ku to check out the stunning persimmon dyed stencils from the Edo through to the Showa period.  As the World’s only Ise-Katagami collection, the museum boasts a collection of over 5,000 stencils.

​The museum shop sold a number of small hand cut modern stencils which Rob has brought back to the UK for his students to use in his new Katazome (indigo dyed) stencilling class.

Rob stayed at Bryan’s charming farmhouse in Fujino, one of Japan’s 100 most scenic villages.

Day 2

On a beautiful blue sky day Bryan took Rob over to see Yazaki, a qualified master kimono maker. Yazaki will be coming to West Dean College in West Sussex to teach in 2019 and is trying to perfect her English before then.

Bryan has been in the process of making two indigo dyed fireman’s jackets lined with persimmon dyed vintage cotton and was attaching the sleeves of the child’s version. In Japan the creation of a kimono is very precise and was decided a thousand years ago. It’s actually a very architectural process where every measurement and seam allowance is prescribed and very precisely measured.

​Kimono makers use a very neat mini iron called a kote; the top of which leaves semi-permanent creases meaning you don’t need to use chalk or marker pens.

Day 3

Bryan gave Rob a list of places to visit in the Omote Sando, Tokyo’s Designer district.  Rob ventured off the main drag to find independent designers and antiques stores around every corner.  His first stop was Gallery Kawano, a veritable treasure trove of kimono silk and cotton offcuts including haori jackets, obi belts and full kimonos.  He rummaged through huge piles of silk rolls in search of the good stuff and was eventually rewarded with three good pieces, including two lovely bits of genuine shibori (a lot of later pieces are prints of shibori patterns). 

At the second-hand clothes store, Chicago, Rob discovered a whole section of silk and cotton kimonos at very reasonable prices. Rob was delighted to find a shibori kimono (perfect for a customer he’d been asked to source one for) and a stunning jacket with a distorted traditional hemp leaf pattern that Rob is going to keep for inspiration!
 
His third destination was the Ishii collection. Mr Ishii was charming and patient as Rob sorted through his entire (extensive!) Katagami stencil collection. Rob bought so many that Mr Ishii gave him a hardback folio to take them all home in. Next, Rob visited Morita Antiques where the owner and his wife stock a huge range of boro, woven cotton and indigo, kimono silk, art objects and a lovely art textiles book they wrote themselves.

Day 4

Rob started the day visiting the three Kapital shops in Shibuya.  Kapital is perhaps the world’s coolest and chicest denim brand, combining innovative cuts with the best Japanese indigo dyed denim and old and newly made boro textiles to make beautiful contemporary and desirable items.
 
The rest of the day was spent visiting Nippori, Tokyo’s fabric district, and getting stencilling and indigo supplies from Seiwa. Nippori is a dangerous place to visit for the textiles fan! Full of small and large outlets selling anything from bolts of vintage and modern cotton through to obi belts, whole kimono and everything in between. Rob succumbed and bought a number of items including two nice haori jackets, obi belts, vintage silk, fine cotton and soft cotton fabric.  
 
He picked up high quality Japanese indigo and chems and more stencilling kits for his new class, including persimmon paper to cut, tenterhooks, paper cones for freehand work, rice paste (made up and component parts), pre-reduced indigo, paint brushes for applying sumi ink, fine mesh and creosote to attach to the back of cut stencils and a couple of great books - Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs and The Complete Japanese Tie-Dyeing, which is actually a fantastic reference book for shibori techniques with step by step pictures. 

Day 5

Rob headed off early to Ise in the South West of Japan, home to Katagami stencilling and sumi ink production and Japan’s most famous Shinto shrine. It took two local trains to get to the Shinkansen bullet train in Tokyo which made short work of the 280 mile trip getting him there in an hour and 40 minutes! 
 
The Ise Katagami stencil museum and the Ise paper museum both had some stunning stencils.  The stencil museum has a Dogubori (tool cut stencil) master who teaches there and some of his work is on display, including examples on silk and cotton shown next to the stencils themselves. Rob was very fortunate to be allowed to briefly sit in on the Dogoburi master’s class. He’d trained for 40 years to become a master but the students had only been doing it for a few years, 10 is typical to be considered any good! There are a number of different specialisms within Katagami stencilling and Dogubori is the one focused on using special tools to cut little shapes such as hearts, triangles, etc. Students have to make their own tools out of thin steel sheet so there’s a lot more to it than just cutting the stencils. 

Rob made his way over to the paper museum which was much larger and had used the stencils in creative ways, such as for lampshades and even in front of panes of glass in windows. Having seen an old lady being given her own stencil to cut, Rob asked if he could do one too and cut a small one of a bamboo leaf.  Rob also managed to stock up on persimmon paper and bought a few more stencils for his classes.

Day 6

Rob spent some of the day sightseeing and visited Kotaijingu Naiku - the largest and most venerated Shinto shrine in Japan, dedicated to Amaterasu-Omikai, the ancestral kami (Shinto deity) of the imperial family.  

Arriving back in Tokyo and finding himself close to Tennozu Isle, Rob decided to follow another of Bryan’s recommendations and travel on the Tokyo monorail to get to Pigment, a stunning art shop with every colour pigment/lake you could want. The space is fantastic and the range of colours kaleidoscopic. Rob bought some rose madder (bright red) to add to the rice paste for stencilling (it shows up better in the paste) and some pine charcoal in a rich black (used in sumi painting and as a base for indigo dyeing).

Day 7
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Rob and Bryan visited the Sashiko museum in Hinohara. Part of it was originally a 200-year old horse breeders’ house in Nii gata - northern Japan which was moved to Hinohara in the mid 80s. It is full of Sashiko and other art objects, including a large collection of Kokeshi (Japanese wooden dildos!).  They sell some beautiful hand-dyed natural dyed Sashiko threads which Rob bought and a piece of beautiful light blue indigo dyed cotton. From there we visited the house of Yuko Morita, who Bryan met not long after he moved to Japan. Yuko is a master of fermented indigo dyeing, a particularly tricky form, requiring constant vigilance in the preparation and maintenance of the 4 vats she uses throughout the year. The vats are huge and have to be filled slowly with a combination of ash water (which she makes herself), rice bran (which is what ferments) and fermented Japanese indigo. The 100 litre vats take around 10 days to fill and ferment with more ingredients being added each day until they are ready. Apparently an unspecified amount of saki rice wine is also added at the beginning with a prayer to the gods for a good vat. Yuko dyes fabric for others as well as her own work, including thread, shibori and Katagami stencilled pieces.

Day 8

Rob and Bryan spent the morning picking indigo seeds from the field near the house and then Bryan showed Rob how to fix the silk to the back of his stencils with a sort of lacquer and netting. It’s messy, sticky work but will mean his stencils will last a lot longer.

​Rob also made some with just netting which he can put over older stencils to protect them and use for leaf stencils. 

Back in the UK

​​Rob is now creating textiles using Katagami stencilling techniques.  He is making his own stencils as well as using those he picked up in Japan.

If you would like to try your hand at Japanese Shibori and Katagami techniques, check out Rob's workshops by clicking on the link below.

We are delighted to welcome two new members to our Muswell Hill Creatives collective.  We were hoping to find people fulfilling creative disciplines not already represented in the group and were thrilled when a weaver and furniture designer maker got in touch.  We are very much looking forward to working with them and showcasing their fantastic work as part of the collective.   Look out for them at our next market on Saturday 12th May in St James's Square, Muswell Hill.

Cecilia Child of By Cecil creates woven textiles that are low impact, sustainable and made to last. All products are made in Britain, designed in Cecilia's Crouch End studio and produced using traditional weaving practices. Inspired by the landscapes of Shropshire, the rugged British coastline, and the modern architecture surrounding her home in London.  Each collection is designed with colour and textures found in everyday life.

By Cecil was established in order to create modern textiles in a traditional way. Cecilia aims to provide an alternative to today’s mass produced and environmentally damaging textiles, and exist to demonstrate the best of British industry. She oversees every stage of the production process, from designing the collection on the hand loom in her studio through to developing the products with a micro mill in Bristol.

bycecil.com

To thank you for all your brilliant support for our collective this year, the following MHC members are offering a 20% discount from 0001 on Thursday 14th December to midnight on Monday 18th December 2017. 

​Use the code MHCTHANKS at checkout:

​Rob Jones, Romor Designs www.romordesigns1.etsy.com  (does not apply to gift vouchers)
​Elvira Van Vredenburgh Designs - www.elviravvadesigns.com
​Caroline Stansfield, The Little Cloth Shop - www.thelittlclothshop.co.uk
Isabella Lepri Ceramics - www.isabellalepri.etsy.com
​Shelley Zetuni, Goldust Millinery - www.goldustmillinery.com
Jo Angell - www.joangell.com
​Rachel Orme - www.rachelorme.com (on clutches, purses, make up bags, belts and cross body bags only.)

​Look out for the 20% discount from Tracey Lord of Lord and Taft in January on social media.

A perfect gift for those not so easy to choose for or for when the decision takes a little longer:
​
​- Wyckoff Smith Jewellery including a free ring sizer for gift vouchers over £50.

2017 has been quite a year for Muswell Hill Creatives.  We welcomed new members - Caroline Stansfield, Tracey Lord, Jo Angell and Caroline Elliott* who were a wonderful addition to the collective with their brilliant creative skills, experience and great work. 

​We had five excellent films made by Muswell Hill filmmaker Amanda Stockley, which beautifully captured the making process for Jess, Michele, Rob, Shelley and Isabella.  We held our first ever exhibition at the Ply Gallery at the iconic Hornsey Town Hall which was a huge success.

Our curated designer maker markets in St James Square were expanded to include some fantastic guest stallholders and we introduced a new market date in September.  Given their popularity among the good people of Muswell Hill, we are looking to expand them further in 2018.

​We have been delighted with the appreciation and support for independent designer makers and this was highlighted in having exceeded 1,000 followers on Twitter in 2017!  

​Behind the scenes, working as a collective continues to be productive, informative, supportive and great fun for Muswell Hill Creatives.  As a way of working, we would thoroughly recommend it.

​Here's some of the members'  highlights: 

Rob: "MHC has helped me immeasurably with developing my product and website since I started and helped me to focus on the important parts of presenting my business professionally."

Tracey: ".....joining such a lovely group and being able to move the business on with all their support; getting to 200 sales on Etsy, when I’d been aiming for 100 - and going back to designing and making full-time after having a really good season."

Isabella: ".....moving to a new shared studio with a great community & lots of energy and adding Majolica flower designs to my range." 

​Michele: ​"Converting my website to a commerce site has been a great highlight for me."

​Shelley: "HRH Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie both wearing a Goldust Millinery hats this year and the launch of my fedora range."

Jo: "I was delighted when the hire company Granger Hertzog selected eight of my graphic prints. I'm looking forward to spotting them on the sets of film, television, fashion, interiors and events! Also exhibiting and selling a collection of my abstract paintings, a direction I want to pursue next year, at the MHC Curve Exhibition at the PLY Gallery."

Elvira: "Setting up my own website, becoming a Not on the High Street partner and building my collection, all helped by the wonderful support from my fellow MHC members."

​Sam: "Getting planning permission and glassblowing studio built has been a major undertaking this year. I'm really excited about getting up and running with workshops in 2018!"

​Rachel: "Our markets are always fantastic for me as I get to see new and longstanding customers.  It's great to be part of a thriving local creative community and this is invaluable to the continued success of my business."

​Jess: "I loved having the opportunity to create larger pieces of work for the Curve Exhibition and have been delighted to hear that my art is becoming well recognised in Muswell Hill and around."

Two of our members – Michele Wyckoff Smith of Wyckoff Smith Jewellery and Shelley Zetuni of Goldust Millinery - have been working from studios in the Hornsey Town Hall (HTH) Arts Centre since the beginning of 2015.  They are two of 70 creative businesses and 125 people working in the building.
Haringey Council has sold the HTH to a developer who has submitted plans for an ApartHotel, flats and a business space for community use.  This is hot desks.  This is not maker space in the form of studios.  It is looking very likely that Michele and Shelley will be served a months’ notice on their studios soon.

The deadline to object to the plans submitted is 27th September. This is our last chance to ensure that the plans are reconsidered to include preservation of studio space much needed by small businesses in the local community.  

With the cost of studio space in London being at a premium, there have been countless stories in the press about creatives being pushed out of London boroughs.  We are urging Haringey Council to demonstrate that they value the economic and community importance of keeping these creative businesses in the borough.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. Submit your objections to the plans via the Haringey Council planning portal here.
 
​    You can include that the development will impact:

• ​70 creative businesses and 125 people working in the building
  
• Transportation overload on the W7 and traffic congestion
• Parking in Crouch End
• GP practice waiting lists and school places
• There is a planning request for a seven story flat complex, rather than the five story originally outlined.
• ​​NO​ affordable housing included

​2. Write to Catherine West MP with your objections as above.  catherine.west.mp@parliament.uk. Also write to the leader of Haringey Council – claire.kober@haringey.gov.uk  and local Crouch End councillors Jason.arthur@haringey.gov.uk, natan.doran@haringey.gov.uk and                               sarah.elliott@haringey.gov.uk

3. Share this blog to your friends and family in the local area – Stroud Green, Finsbury Park,                 Muswell Hill and around

​4. Attend the protest march on Saturday 23rd September at 3pm meeting at the Earl Haig Hall and     ending at the HTH.  Details on FB here

​5. If you know of any space suitable for a jewellery and millinery studio in the meantime, please do get in touch by emailing Rachael Booth-Clibborn at info@muswellhillcreatives.com.

For further background information about opposition to the developer's plans on the Hornsey Town Hall Appreciation's blog here.  There is further information about the Hornsey Town Hall Creative Trust here.

And for a final show of support, please do come to our Curve Exhibition at the Ply Gallery in this wonderful building from 5th-10th October.  The private view is 6.30pm-9pm on Thursday 5th October.  All welcome.

​Thank you.

We love a wedding here at Muswell Hill Creatives.  We think having something that has been lovingly handmade by a local designer or maker will make your day even more special and it will make the gift you give that bit more precious too.  In this blog, we're romancing you with some handmade pieces to inspire you this wedding season.

Bridal range by Goldust Millinery

​​Shelley Zetuni makes beautiful Goldust Millinery headpieces from her studio in the Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre.  Shelley was trained by milliner to the late Queen Mother, Rose Cory.  One of her hats was worn recently at an Easter church service by Princess Eugenie.  Shelley marries traditional millinery techniques with contemporary styling and materials to create individual, vibrant hats and headpieces. 
​Shelley's bridal range works for a bride looking for something a bit different and for those very important mothers of the bride!

​The Little Cloth Shop's heirloom childrenswear

​​Caroline of The Little Cloth  Shop designs and makes vintage inspired childrenswear in her Crouch End home  using traditional tailoring techniques.  She has grown up with a passion for sewing and creating.  Her mother was a tailor and her grandmother a skilled seamstress.

Wedding and bridal range from Wyckoff Smith Jewellery

Michele of Wyckoff Smith Jewellery, designs and makes bold and simple contemporary silver and gold jewellery inspired by time hewn natural forms and textures using traditional goldsmith techniques.  Most options in the range are completely unisex and appeal equally to all. Each ring has a lovely slightly irregular feel to it, as if it was dug up in an archaeological find. The shape makes them feel really comfortable, as well as having a presence and appeal. ​

Gifts you will love....

​​From cards and gift wrap by Elvira van Vredenburgh to cut crystal bottles by Samantha Sweet Glass, we have a host of locally hand designed & made wedding gifts to inspire you. Have a browse of the Creatives pages on our website for inspiration. 

Muswell Hill Creatives returned to St James's Square, Muswell Hill on 6th May for our Spring Market.  The members of the collective Isabella Lepri Ceramics, Romor Designs, Wyckoff Smith Jewellery, The Little Cloth Shop, Elvira van Vredenburgh Designs, artist Caroline Elliott, Tracey Lord Knits, Jo Angell Design, Jess Albert Prints and Rachel Orme Bags.  We were also joined by guest creatives Nordic Nic Nac and Becca Cadbury Design.

Leading design writer Barbara Chandler, featured the market in the Homes & Property section on the Evening Standard's website in which she said that "London has intriguing hotspots for design, art and craft, often nurtured locally. For example, Muswell Hill Creatives, a small collective, has been going since 2014."  Read the article here.  This was a great boost to our local designer makers.  We were also thrilled to have the support of Catherine West MP (pictured below) on the day who was extremely positive about all the local creativity on show.

It certainly felt like our busiest market yet and we were inspired by the local community's tremendous enthusiasm for locally designed and made crafts and goods. It was a day not only for people to buy, but to chat and learn more about what we all do. 

To keep in touch with us about our events, you can subscribe to our mailing list for monthly news.  Email: info@muswellhillcreatives.com. 

We will be back in the Square on Saturday 25th November....if not before!

Father's Day is on Sunday 19th June 2016.    We have a range of gifts lovingly made by members of Muswell Hill Creatives to inspire you.