Out & About: Dulwich Open House

Last weekend was a whirlwind of art in south London – and this weekend, much of it continues, as the Artists Open House event revs up for its final weekend.

I couldn't afford much (but it's nice to look), and saw a fraction of the things I wanted to see – it's quite a tiring thing to do, especially in last week's driving rain – but nevertheless here are a couple of highlights.

Above: the Cavaliero Finn open house in Croxted Road, SE21, which is open this weekend too.

If you're anywhere near southeast London tomorrow or Sunday, do check it out. Details at the end. And if you're not, all the listings have website details – do some online window shopping or discover some new inspiring bookmarks.

Some paintings by Trevor Burgess, whose work I've enthused about before – he has a great talent for capturing very ordinary scenes and, by painting them, giving them a beauty you might overlook passing them by in real life.

The canvases look great in situ, as part of the Cavaliero Finn Open House, which was on at two venues: Croxted Road (pictured here) and the incredible Belair House, near chichi Dulwich Village (pictured lower down this post). Trevor Burgess is around for a Meet the Artist event at the house tomorrow, Saturday 17th (sadly Belair House was only open for the first weekend, but you can see some pictures below).

Above: Some more of the interesting artworks and homewares in the Cavaliero Finn show including (second shelf up) ceramics by Vanja Bazdulj, whose work I've featured here before.

An interesting take on the Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle, famous for being massive and being demolished, it also features in multiple British urban-set films or TV series where a sprawling estate appears, including Attack the Block, The Bill, Top Boy and even Madonna's Hung Up video, below in case you're interested.

Another highlight was the house of Jess Walton, also in SE24. She runs Fabulous Vintage Finds and the house was stuffed with affordable gems.

Below: The aforementioned Belair House was a treat. Just look at the space...

...and that's just one room.

Loved the surrealist takes on classical sculpture, above, by Kathy Dalwood.

And isn't this, by Alexena Cayless, an interesting idea? (You'll see why below).

Rowena Brown's tiny houses also appealed.

And I loved Judith Tucker's deserted concrete diving boards.

I've written about Custhom's technical wizardry here before, and it was interesting to see their digitally embroidered fabric up close. Beautiful. There's also a film that shows how it's done you can watch at the event too.  

But this was probably the overall highlight for me: I was mesmerised by Gill Rocca's paintings. Way out of my price league (I think the painting above was £10,000) but my god it is gorgeous, isn't it? 

What you don't get in the photo above – but which you can see enlarged in the one below – are the tiny little lights she's painted on the horizon of the river; three little boats glowing in the gloomy light. I think I could look at a painting like this every day for the rest of my life and still get lost in it.

And by the time we got to the beautiful house of quilt-maker and designer, Cassandra Ellis (below), late on the Sunday afternoon, she'd practically sold out of all her beautiful things. I enjoyed her freshly sanded floorboards though and had a lovely chat with her other half about their floorboards technique.

If you've never been to an open house event before, it's basically a group of exhibitions in the homes of the people who've made or collected the things on show. The things are for sale and you get to have a mini nose into their houses – and who can resist that?

Above: cups and saucers by Ali Miller

A word of warning, though, it can be a rather unrelaxing experience if you pick, as we did several times, a house empty of other visitors and full of art you're not very keen on (naturally, none of the highlights here fall into that category). One stern-looking lady followed us around her silent ground floor, hands clasped as her eyes bore into the backs of our heads, while we tried to look like we liked her paintings more than we did. Leaving quickly is painful. The houses where you could see people milling about through the windows were good bets, as were those with doors permanently open to welcome people in.

Be aware that not all the events or venues are open both weekends. Check and download the guide here

Cavalierofinn.com; cassandraellis.co.uk; Fabulousvintagefinds.co.uk

New term inspiration

However long you’ve been out of university or school, that new term feeling can still kick in around now. 

And even if there is no actual new term in your life, the general vibe of fresh starts can still be channelled to spark enthusiasm for learning something new or simply getting inspired to re-do things differently. Here are some suggestions to help your home to benefit…

This autumn and winter, West Dean college in Chichester has some great furniture-based classes. They've just run a beginners' make-your-own-and-take-it-home modern Windsor chair course (above), which should be on again in coming months. Later on there are furniture recycling sessions, simple furniture-making for novices and basic woodworking. It is a beautiful part of the country, too – make it into a mini-break. See westdean.org.uk and search for short courses.

If you’d rather teach yourself at home, check out the shop section of studiomama.com – run by the excellent product designer, Nina Tolstrup. Here you can download illustrated instructions for making your own chair, lamp or stool – from pallets, like the one above. The PDFs cost £10 each, and the stool one is free.

I have been a big fan of the quilt designer, Cassandra Ellis, since I did one of her interiors classes last year. She is so inspiring – and never more than when talking about her biggest love, quilts. She has a book out in October called Quilt Love (Jacqui Small) and it really gets across the wonderfully slow process of stitching together feelings and stories to make something from treasured bits of fabric – whether to give as a present (for a wedding, perhaps, or to celebrate the life of a loved one) – and the instructions are clear, simple and the results, beautiful (she even provides details of somewhere you can send off your great idea and fabrics, and get someone else to do the hard bit). 

The back pages of Ellis’s book also include a great section on where to go to gather ideas for designing your own quilt. But could trigger ideas for all sorts of interiors revamps too: inspiring away days (or weekends) include the Rothko room at the Tate Modern (though possibly not right now, with today's sad news about the graffiti there), Kelmscott Manor,Gloucester (William Morris’s “most evocative house”, see top image above) the Vita Sackville-West designed gardens at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent, and the Barbara Hepworth museum and sculpture garden in St Ives (above, bottom – Hepworth's studio, and one of her beautifully tactile sculptures). Scour websites like Mocoloco.com and English-heritage.org.uk and devise your own hit-list.

As the nights cosy up, and the sofa gets a grip on you – make it a creative event and get in DVDs of films full of exciting interiors. A great way to fuel inspiration if you’re planning a new-season re-vamp. The Apartment Therapy blog has a fantastic list of their favourites to get you started (see their 'A Single Man' montage, above). My own recent ‘I want to live there’ movies include Moonrise Kingdom (amazing colours!) and Take This Waltz (quirky, well-ordered clutter). 

The Papered Parlour's handmade studio & classes

The Papered Parlour, in Clapham, south London, is a beautiful space that hosts all sorts of cool, creative workshops – and I've been meaning to post up these pictures since I did an inspiring interiors class there, a while back. It's so nice I'd quite like to live in it... don't you think?

I really like the wallpaper. Claire and Louise, the girls who run the place, printed it themselves – and screen-printing, onto lining paper just like this – is just one of the courses they run.

I also love the counter, made of old front doors, left their original colours. Everything in the studio, pretty much, was salvaged, secondhand or upcycled from something else. It's a big part of the PP ethos. More of which you can see in action, below, with vintage tea-cup pin-cushions, using leftover scraps of fabric, utensil jars in the form of old treacle tins (a classic design when you think about it), and wine crates as storage boxes.

The way the light from the 1920s chandlier, below left, scatters across the walls either side looks stunning, don't you think? It's a wallpaper in its own right...

Scour eBay for similar chandeliers (there's a beauty currently going for £7, but you've only got a couple of days left...). Or if you're not an eBayer, Laura Ashley has quite a variety in what they offer: the Misha Ball Pendant, £75 (top, above), is a very contemporary take on the idea but would create equally interesting wall patterns, while the grand multi-tiered Yasmin (top, below), £275 in the sale, takes things to another level (seven, if you count...). 

Above are some snaps from the brilliant class I went to, taught by Cassandra Ellis – quilt- and home-maker extraordinaire. The workshop was called 'Make Your Home a Haven' (did what it said on the tin – and in a a fun, creative and friendly way). It isn't on the upcoming menu at Papered Parlour, but Ellis does run classes from her southeast London home and other venues though, so do check out her website.

As for more on-site Papered Parlour classes, the upcoming screenprinting one is already fully booked, but a special wallpaper one by CUSTHOM, who I posted about a couple of on account of their mind-bendingly brilliant "digitally embroidered" designs. Or if you can't be arsed to craft, the stunning studio is also available to hire for parties...

Read more about craft courses in the UK.