Behold! The work of Stewart Helm

Stewart Helm is a most extraordinarily prolific artist. He draws quite obsessively and his works are so numerous that in one exhibition his watercolour drawings were stacked up in piles in a glass case, each stack being a couple of feet high. Each of these drawings was a work of perfection in itself.
Stewart's work is exquisite in its intricacy and is like a journey through the body including the mind - both cheerful and sinister at the same time.
This genius happens to be one of our dearest friends. You have to look very carefully to drink in the detail of these tiny naked men, lying about like a tray of oven chips.

Pivotal persons 2 : Ken and Ron (Adtec)

This Lush Designs lamp shade depicts Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show and features Bill himself with legendary sharp-shooter Annie Oakley, and Chief Sitting Bull, all watched by Queen Victoria (they're round the other side)
Our lamp shades are screen printed by these two marvellous brothers, Ken and Ron Servant. They work on an industrial scale in this railway arch in Deptford, very near our studio - but don't seem to mind working with small-fry like us. They print our lampshade-panels and all our birch ply-wood products.

What did we do before we found them?! We wore ourselves to an inky frazzle and made a big mess in the studio, thats what.

If you ever need anything screen-printed onto wood, canvas, paper, card, metal, plastic call Ken and Ron at Adtec. Tel. 020 8691 4778 or email sales@adtecgraphics.co.uk

Stick em up

Another Jefferson Smith photograph. This time its the Monkey lampshade in front of a pale grey wall decorated with the Stalky Pods vinyl we have recently introduced to our range of products. You can but these in our Lush Designs shop in Greenwich or email us at info@lushlampshades.co.uk. They'll soon be available from our website along with the other wall graphics.

Birds

Below is a picture of one of our Lampshades - its the mermaid design which depicts the evolution of the mermaid in the primordial swamp. The dangling birds are one of Lush Designs' most successful products - with their elegant laser-cut (by the pivotal Les Grayson) wings. Cheerfully coloured yet inscrutably expressionless, made of screen printed birch ply. A fantastic gift for someone you don't want to spent TOO much money on. I you want to get one to dangle decoratively at Christmas you can order from www.lushlampshades.co.uk.

If you think this is a rather gorgeous photograph then its because it was taken by the brilliant Jefferson Smith www.jeffersonsmith.co.uk. he's so talented. Sigh.

Pivotal Persons: Les Grayson

The debonair man-with-a-clock in our shop above is Les Grayson - known to us as Laser Les - thats because he laser cuts the wings for our birds using only one of his multifarious skills.

He is also the horological talent behind our clocks - yes he can even cut wood IN CIRCLES.

He himself is a clock-maker and engraver, but he seems to be able to make anything with his many wonderful machines.

What would Lush Designs be without Les? NOWT, thats what.

He's based in SE London and you can contact him at lesgrayson@ukonline.co.uk

Becky Oldfield, Lost and Found

Believe it or not there are other people who make beautiful things for the home. The marvellous Becky Oldfield is one of them, like us at Lush Designs she has a studio at Cockpit Arts in Deptford.

She creates amazingly beautiful things with her own hands. Up all night, her fingers raw with a thousand needle-pricks, she takes old flags, buttons, military insignia and her own screen-printed textiles and as dawn's milky light leaks through the dusty windows of her tiny, gubbins-stuffed studio it reveals magical and mysterious objects such as these.

You can see more of her work at www.lostandfounddesign.co.uk.

Mandy Prowse

Here is some of the mysterious and beautiful work of Mandy Prowse. These works of hers are quietly visceral. More about her can be found on her own blog feltbug.blogspot.com .

In her own words...

"I studied painting and printmaking at Maidstone College of Art in the 80's. Since then I have worked with photography, papier-mache, wire and textiles. The themes I explore in my work are related to birth, mortality and metamorphosis. I am interested in forms found within the human body and also in nature and the interconnectedness of all things. The line of a drawing becomes a stitched line in a textile. Finding ways of combining domestic craft with a fine-art training. Work becomes playful, rediscovering knitting skills taught me by my grandmother and then subverting this craft to elicit some kind of deeper meaning. The material informs the structure of the work. My life dictates the content."

In the shop today

We've recently added our own wall graphics to the range of products we sell in the shop. These will soon be available from www.lushlampshades.co.uk too. Here's a picture of them on the wall of the shop, as well as the usual tasteful and restrained display of lampshades, tea towels, bags etc.