Design

Jul 5 2008 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

Hannah Davies speaks to two women who have designs on you.

JESS Gunning is a colourful character in more ways than one, from her bubble-gum pink striped hair to her turquoise striped eyes and bright clothes, it is clear here is a woman who loves her colour.

And this passion for all things bright and beautiful, gained at a tender age, has dominated her life and career so far.

Jess, 23, of Ebchester, County Durham, says she has loved colour for as long as she can remember.

“I did cross stitch as a child, I’d always been interested in all manner of arts and crafts. I’ve made clothes and bags since I was a little girl and I gravitated towards that at school. It’s all been a natural progression really.”

Jess went on to study Fine Art at Sunderland College and after a year decided firmly that textile design was the way forward for her.

She went on to Cleveland College of Art and Design, focusing on designing for materials.

Her creative eye was immediately apparent and straight after college she found herself in demand as a freelance textile designer.

Many people would be delighted at being so in demand straight out of college, but Jess found herself sidetracked down the wrong route.

“I didn’t like not having full control over what I was designing,” she says, “it was very much a factory-style of production where I was expected to produce five designs each week

“It’s hard to stay inspired and work under that pressure.”

Jess decided instead to take her own direction and to give the rainbow of her creativity full scope.

“I’ve always wanted my own business and I knew how much I wanted to develop my own designs,” she smiles.

“Children’s clothes seem to be all very much the same and dominated by a few big shops, so I thought that would be a really good area to go into.

“Besides which it gives me great scope to develop really fun and colourful designs.”

Jess, in November last year, decided to start developing her own line of children’s clothes made with unique fabric printed with her own creations, called Sherbet Orange.

She linked up with a professional pattern cutter to create designs for T-shirts, little girls’ dresses and gorgeous tops and trousers.

With the garments in place, and each unique to Sherbet Orange, she set about creating the fabulous patterns for each fabric.

Her creative process always begins from life.

“I start from any original object,” Jess muses, “I get inspired by nature and I always begin by drawing from life. I like animals, fruit, flowers, plants. I love going to the farm and drawing the animals there.

“I then change them into drawings, making them smaller, and work them into repeats for textiles.”

In addition to the children’s clothes, Jess also began to create co-ordinating bags and adult clothes to go with the children’s outfits.

She smiles mischievously: “Well they all came about because I love the stuff I design and I want to wear it myself.

“So I’ve made myself dresses out of the fabric I got printed and I thought other people might like this as well.”

All of Jess’ clothes and accessories are created and manufactured in the North East.

“I really like the fact production is kept in the region,” she said, “it makes it feel more exclusive, getting away from that mass manufacturing.

“The North East isn’t great for children’s clothes at the moment. It is generally all high street stuff from the same places and every child is dressed in the same outfits.

“There’s a few little boutiques, but not much. I think people are getting more and more interested in original clothes for themselves and their children.”

Lynne Carverhill, 29, of Seaham, County Durham, is another person whose business is firmly rooted in the region and for whom creativity is paramount.

By day she is course leader for the Textiles course at Cleveland College of Art and Design, but for the past two years she has had an alter-ego, that of Stella May, producer of beautifully crafted and printed handbags and purses.

Her designs take inspiration from the everyday and turn it into something unique, and her most recent design inspiration has been taken from the perhaps unlikely area of pigeon racing.

Sunderland-born Lynne, 29, studied at St Aidan’s in the city before going on to do a foundation course at Newcastle College where she realised she wanted to move into textile design, and went on to study printed textiles at Heriot-Watt University at their Galashiels campus.

“What interested me about bags is what I do to the prints; I make them my own before I start the rest of the bag.

“I take my inspiration from the every day and I like changing that into something unusual or beautiful. I’ve always made bags, when I was younger if I was going out and I didn’t have a bag to go with my outfit, I would just make one.

“It got to the stage where people were asking me where I got my bags from, that’s where the idea for Stella May came from.”

Lynne designs, cuts, prints and stitches entire ranges by hand from her studio at home in Seaham, which she shares with partner Michael Wright, 28.

This means every item from her collection is a one-off.

Lynne perfected her printing technique at Northern Print in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle, where she has also held an exhibition of her work.

But Stella May has been dominating her time recently. “I have been building it over the past two years and I’m hoping to build on the success I’ve had so far.

“But I love teaching and can’t imagine not doing that. I love to do them both, I think it comes down to good time management.

“I’m passionate about each piece I create. I only make a small collection and I never do the same collection again, I want people to know they’ve got something special.

“I like keeping it small as well, I like going into Skirt where they sell it and speaking to the owner about what people have said about the pieces, to get an idea of what the customers want. There’s a lack of great small boutiques like Skirt in the North East, I’d love it if more opened, there’s too much of a homogenised shopping scene.”

Lynne’s current collection came about from her fascination with birds, and also the fact her partner’s grandad was a keen pigeon racer.

“One of his birds actually won the Up North Combine in 1956 – which was the main race of its time between Lille in France and the North East.

“An illustration of this is featured in the Champions range.”

Lynne has taken prints from racing pigeon programmes and details of meets which contrast with the navy, deep grey and yellow hues on her pieces.

Her shopper bags are stenciled with illustrations, reminiscent of those in bird watching books.

“Stella May will never become massively produced because it’d lose it’s specialness.

“I don’t want everyone to have the same thing, I want people to treasure what I produce as I love creating it.”

Stella May is stocked in Skirt boutique, High Bridge, Newcastle; Sherbet Orange is available at www.sherbetorange.com, email mail@ sherbetorange.com or call Jess on 07824 663 286.

I don’t want everyone to have the same thing, I want people to treasure what I produce