Colouful recycled art

Seeing as it's so sunny outside (if you're in the southeast of England, at least), I thought I'd share some sunshine-y new artwork today. Each piece is not only gloriously colourful and aesthetically uplifting, but also made entirely from found rubbish on the street, in recycling bins or on the beach...

I've featured the unusual work of artist, Ella Robinson, here before. She lives near the seaside and began making work like this by collecting brightly hued bits of plastic washed up on her local beach.

Now she's doing more of the same but also – as above – collecting bottle tops from other people's recycling. Accordingly, this one is called 'Ice and a Slice'.

'David'

'Blue'

'Lucky'

See more of Ella's work on her blog and on her website.

Ella Robinson's beautiful recycled art

I came across the colourful work of Ella Robinson at Origin, part of the London Design Festival earlier this year, and featured her in passing in a round-up post of the week-full of events. Striking, huh?

Earlier today I was just flicking through photos, vaguely thinking I ought to do some kind of computer filing, when Ella's bright, cheery art jumped out at me all over again, and I thought I'd re-visit and add a few more pictures and information about this young artist.

Ella's USP is that she aims to recycle found objects and turn them into something beautiful. This stunning piece, above, is a perfect example of what she does: it is made entirely of found plastic from her local beach. What a clever – and aesthetically effective – idea. I wish I'd bought this one. Similar pieces (as this one's gone) cost around £600, bought direct through Ella's site.

Love these simple driftwood wall plaques. They'd be great in a young child's room – being both tactile and cheery. Prices for her driftwood objects go from £32-£650. All are available through her website.

The pieces above – plastic lacing wound around wooden poles – were created as part of Art in the Garden at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire, a wonderful-sounding summer-long event (it runs annually from May to the end of October). I'd love some of these in my own very urban, paved garden to give it some much-needed colour. This sort of thing is much pricier, costing around £2,295 a-piece. But Ella's range of simple, driftwood embroidered with hearts starts at just £32; these are also available through Flow, a gallery in Notting Hill.

London Design Festival postscript – part I

It's been a full old weekend, following a jam-packed week, with the London Design Festival to get the most out of. And I've discovered so many exciting new designers, makers and cool companies – all of which will be appearing on these pages down the line. For now, I'll post up a few of my highlights throughout the week to give a bit of a flavour. 

Scanning through my snaps, colour seems to be a continuing theme – lots of it, while animals and nature also feature heavily, and there was plenty of delightfully surprising quirk (from spotted ceramic chihuahuas to mix-n-clash wallpapers and beautiful art made out of centimetre-high plastic people). So stay tuned. But for now...

Clockwise from top right: affordable vintage clocks by London Timepiece at Tent London; I loved the stunning and versatile textiles by name-to-watch, Chloe Scadding at Designer's Block – versatile, because each colour is a separate, laser-cut pattern, so any number of combinations of colour/graphic can be created; I don't know who made these gloriously hued discs that were suspended from the entrance hall ceiling at Designer's Block, but they're stunning, aren't they? There's an interesting idea for high-ceilinged homes; finally, the simple combination of driftwood and acid brights drew me in to Ella Robinson's stand at Origin, which continues in east London's Spitalfields until Wednesday.

I'll be featuring more lovely stuff from some of these people imminently, as well as a whole load of other talent that took my fancy.