Foliage

I love plants. They are such an endless source of pleasure. They're never dreary or drab, but always vivacious and enlivening. Even when they've died and are all crispy and spidery, the shapes they make and the stories that they tell are endless. For a lot of interior styling, it's very fashionable to show very clean, minimalistic rooms with no plants in them. I don't trust them... a living space void of greenery.. there must be something going on...

image: The Family Love Tree

Image: Future and Found (vessel by Isaac Nichols)

Whether it's a real plant or an illustration of one, your house feels so much alive with foliage in it.
I love interior styling that is practical and homely, but fun and interesting. I am driven to make textiles that are engaging, that people want to grab, and smoosh, and  it just seems to pair so well with the animation and life of a beautiful plant.

image: Covet Interiors

I love an awful lot of Australian interiors. The playful colours, the warmth and patterns are very appealing. Looking at these a lot has I supposed influenced my tastes and because of the climate, there's always a lot of plants around. Companies like Arro Home, The Family Love Tree and Pop and Scott create the most beautiful products and particularly with the former, they are So. Much. Fun!

image: Arro Home 

That doesn't mean however, that because we live somewhere cold, that plants can't evoke the same kinds of feelings as in (much) warmer climbs. India Hobson manages to capture plants in the soggiest of climbs, and makes them look so powerful and evocative, and beautiful! Her latest venture, Haarkon with Magnus Edmondson, will encourage even the biggest plant murderers to be able to have some greenery in their home, beautifully photographed prints of plants.

image: Haarkon

I guess it's about bringing the outside in - the feeling of warmer climbs. Interacting with outdoors (without actually having to go out there!)

Illustrator Caroline Dowsett is creating a series of beautiful illustrations called "Botanical Everyday" where she depicts her planty findings on a (you guessed it) daily basis.

image: Caroline Dowsett

Alongside this post is a Pinterest board, full of beautiful, leafy inspiration. With a diverse range of plant based treats from homewares to artwork, it's worth a look. Visit here.


We will soon be releasing new products. Our first big collection since our launch in November 2014, and a lot of leafy motifs are involved -(I think I've been dreaming of warmer climbs). A sneak peak of things to come can be seen here with this cushion and embroidery. Expect warm colours, pops of texture and a newly designed website. If you'd like to know when the new products are in click here to subscribe to our website.

A little sneak peek of a few new things:

MR

MR is a collaboration between Mariel (Osborn) and Rivca (Burns) spanning different mediums and formats. For Covet MR focuses on Modern Recycling, where the pair specialise in reclaiming materials or furniture and fixing them up in a beautiful way, or making something totally new from them.

Their first pieces for Covet have been the sofa seats and pallet shelves, which are custom made, to order, so you can have a bespoke up-cycled piece of furniture that fits perfectly into your house.
 

Looking forward to renovating some chest of drawers, and also some cane furniture (swoon!) the pair wanted to show us how easy it can be to make new and useful things for your home.

Here we are featuring their new project - a coat rack, and you can make one too!

To make this coat rack you will need:
2x pieces of fairly wide, flat wood. (We are using old bed slats!)
4x screws
doorknobs with screws (we have used 11)
4x rawlplugs
paint
a paintbrush
a drill
a screwdriver
a saw

 

1. Paint your pieces of wood whatever colour you want your coat rack to be. We just used some leftover white paint that was in the cupboard. You may need to do a few coats, and if you do, you'll need to let the paint dry in-between layers. We did 3 coats.

 2. Lay the pieces out how you want the coat rack to look.

3. Draw along both of the edges of the top piece, to mark on to the bottom piece.

4. When you take the top piece off, the bottom piece will look something like this. These marks are where you need to saw this piece of wood.

5. Once you have sawed that plank, you can glue your pieces together to make a flat cross. When we made ours, we added a short coloured piece on top afterwards as a decorative feature.

6. Now you need to mark out where you'd like your "hooks" to go.

7. You need to drill holes in these points...

8. Then poke the back screw bit in...

9. Then you can screw the fronts on...

10. Drill holes in the wall where you want the rack to go, and pop the rawlplugs in. Then screw the coat rack into place!

Now you can have a go at this yourself! We didn't measure anything out on ours as we didn't want it to be too symmetrical or perfect. We loved the idea of just whipping this together too, and it is a very fast project to do.

Though if you don't want to make this yourself, get in touch via email, and we can make a custom order for you. (Email us at hello.covetinteriors [@] gmail.com)

DO-IT-YOURSELF!

Soon on the blog we are going to start doing some D-I-Y posts, to give you some ideas of small things that you can do yourself to add small (or big!) personal touches to your bedroom, your studio, your whole house!

We will also be announcing some workshops too, including dying pattern techniques, pompom making and paper decoration making.

If you'd like to receive emails with details about these workshops before anyone else, then please sign up to our mailing list here.

Lulu Hankin - StudioUp

Our next maker that we want to tell you about is Lulu Hankin, designer and maker creating work under the name StudioUp. Lulu's work combines beautiful traditional textile manipulation, alongside more unconventional components such as copper piping. We wanted to know what is behind her contrasting use of materials.

  
What is the overriding theme or drive behind your work?
To combine these three aspects:
Geometric

Minimal
Texture

What draws you to work with interiors and furniture?
Being able to physically create something that when placed in a space can completely alter it.

What are you favourite materials to work with and why?
I’ve become really fond of copper pipe recently, the way it changes colour the more you handle it, aging quickly in front of you. The simplicity of only having a few types of fittings to work with which the dictate the shapes you can produce and design.

What materials or processes are you interested in exploring next?
I really want to start expanding into weaving & macramé so I can utilize more textures in my pieces. 

What is the best part of being immersed in a community of artists and makers?
Pushing me forward.

Who are some of your favourite artists and makers?
François Morellet is always at the top of my list, after seeing his reinstallations exhibit at the Centre Pompidou in 2011, I completely fell in love with his light instillations, geometric forms, the simplistic patterns and grids he creates and mainly the use of constraints & rules that he sets himself. Morellet’s work is probably the main influence for my own designs and work structure.
Also my pals over at London Cloth Company are a constant inspiration, they seem to be relentlessly creating & expanding, having spent some time with them last year I realized the magnitude of what they are doing & how important it is. They are basically rescuing & protecting textile history. Try and beat that!



You can see more of Lulu's work on our website.
StudioUp is based at Islington Mill in Salford.

Callum Higgins - Constructions by CSH and Manchester Custom Framing

As you may have noticed, Covet currently has 5 main additional contributors, whose work has been carefully curated and selected to go alongside our home brand of pieces. These contributors are highly skilled makers and doers and we want to tell you a bit about them!

First up is Callum Higgins, who actually features on the Covet site as two different enterprises - Constructions by CSH and also Manchester Custom Framing.

Callum's use of materials borders on the industrial, but his carefully revised use of mediums such as concrete and OSB means that his pieces are elegant and beautifully textured, and add a really interesting element to your home.

We asked Callum some questions and wanted to have a little look into his studio at Islington Mill in Salford...

When did you start working with concrete and what draws you to it as a material?
During my final year at uni I started exploring concrete as a new material within my artistic practice. During this process I experimented a lot with different forms, shapes and functions of the material, out of which developed the concrete tea light holders and hanging lights.

What inspires you to make work?
Without giving too much away the concrete hanging lights are made using a certain everyday object as the mould. These objects are all around us and whenever I see one in an interesting shape I start to picture the potential for a new light design.

What materials or processes are you interested in exploring next?

For the past year I have been working as a joiner which has improved my wood working skills a lot. I'm interested in exploring wood work further and putting these new skills to use. Plywood and OSB interest me much in the same way concrete has, the use of a material intended for raw construction and making something  more interesting out of it. I have a few designs for plywood and OSB large furniture pieces in working on at the moment. The use of these materials has bled through into the framing as well, inspiring me to make more interesting frames as well as the more traditional approach.

What is the best part of being immersed in a community of artists and makers?
There is a lot of support being based in a community of makers like Islington mill, lots of people to bounce your ideas of off and an already existing group of people that are likely to be interested in the thing you are producing.



To see Callum's pieces for Covet, visit our website. 
Keep your eyes peeled for info on our other designers and makers.

Introductions...

Hi!

So I thought that it was time to give a little bit of background and context to Covet, to explain a bit more about what it is and why it is...

At the moment, Covet is just me... Mariel, although there are select pieces on the website that are made by other artists and designers, the site and brand is run by me.

Inspired by the wealth of creativity and productivity of the independent artists and makers around me, I wanted to create a place where people can look at and buy pieces for every aspect of their home - for comfort, beauty and unique styling. Being based at Islington Mill in Salford means that I am surrounded by people whose work I genuinely want to fill my home with, and more specifically, the way that their aesthetics all work together is very important to me. I asked illustrators Aliyah Hussain and John Powell-Jones, textile printer and upholsterer StudioUp, framer Manchester Framing Company, and concrete fixtures maker Constructions by CSH, if they would be involved from the launch, and luckily they all loved the idea! I felt like my home ware pieces and their art work and furniture would go so perfectly well together to style a home, that Covet seemed to come together quite organically.

As for me, I have a background in 3D textiles, prop making, still life styling and costume, and the need for hand made processes in my work is incredibly strong. Recently I have been drawn to a lot of Melbourne based makers and designers, and it has unleashed a use of colour within my practice that I thought had died long ago. Creating unique textiles for the home feels like a really great place to explore texture and colour together, as it gives personality and warmth to the space in your life that is the most personal to you.

For the first Covet collection, I have started from scratch with just white fabric, dying and hand painting all of my fabric, and hand making all of the trims. I really love very textural and intriguing pieces, and I also place a high importance in the skills of craft and the hand made. Because of this, it is my intention that Covet will always have this tactility and care within the pieces and the designers that are chosen for the site too.

So. Our manifesto.
The most important things about Covet, that make it what it is.

• Curating textile products, interior design and artwork together - Covet helps you style your home, not just furnish it.
• Concentrating on sumptuous texture and intriguing designs.
• Focusing on the value and importance of craft and the hand made.
• Supporting and promoting the work of inventive independent makers and designers. 

So now, go and visit our website, where you will find illustrations, hand made frames, bespoke cushions, figurines, hand knitted throws, concrete light fittings and copper framed seating all sitting alongside one another, complementing each other.

You can also follow us on instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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We are currently looking for stockists, so if you would like to stock our products, please get in touch!