This video reminded me of an interesting project that was given to me to work on. A time when I moved from South Carolina to California back in 2003/2004 to start a new job. Young and filled with possibilities took a leap of faith and joined a high end designer in California to design his textile collection. He had an array of rich textiles from all over the world. It had been about 2 years since my graduation from Savannah College of Art and Design, very eager and excited to learn my way through the shades of textiles.
He had a screen printing facility in house. And back in time hand screen printing, making your own screens, huge printing tables were a big thing. Still maybe alive but not as much as it used to be back in the days. And my first assignment was to create 2 complete set of Pantone swatches with the screen printing pigment dyes on fabric. Kinda creating a fabric Pantone book/ binder for his library. Ha! Yup it was quite a task on hand. There were 2000 colors I had to create and print on a fabric and note the values of how I got that color. All I could think to myself is “what”? You want me to create these 2000 colors? My monkey mind got real busy with all kinds of stupid negative thoughts. But I was excited to be there and learn so I did not let my monkey mind override the truth. And the truth was I loved the opportunity given to me and if this is how it starts then so be it. Pulled myself together and got back on mixing colors. And it was a beautiful project. Easy, effortless and fun. In the beginning it was slow but as I started to understand the medium and the craft of making colors the task became fun, play and meditative.
Everyday from morning to evening for quite many months all I did was mix colors, until I reached a point to perfect the art of knowing colors and when and how much to add or subtract to get the desired shade or tint.
This practice, knowledge gave me insight into color and color making. The reason I share this as it has taught me a very valuable lesson. Lesson of being persistent and consistent, not to loose hope or to give up just because of what you think you should be doing or not doing in your mind. No job is small or big. No matter at that moment and time you don’t realize the value it is bringing you but hang on and walk through that project. You will be grateful for this task you were given to do. Every job/ task has a meaning, purpose. And it is given to you because only you could do it. And there is no one like you. Even though at first it looked like a huge task but if it wasn’t for this exercise I would have missed learning the importance of colors and it’s journey.
By the time I was done I did of course truly enjoyed the joy of colors. It was meditative, fun, soothing and healing for me. Every color has its own magickal presence, Vibration, vitality, strength and personality.
Matter of fact every task, job that I was given no matter how hard or easy the boss was or the task was it led me to connecting me to my trueself. My artist within. It is an opportunity for you to grow and know yourself within.
Dark green and handsome, these three home interiors each take a tall stand on style. The first two of our dreamy dark green interiors have an offbeat sort of edge. Hot pink accents burst onto the scene via outrageous wall art and unique art sculptures. Quirky personality particularly shines in the second of these, as a more colourful and patterned eclectic vibe builds. We finish up with a home more dedicated to the dark green scheme, with less distraction. Instead, we find luxe interludes of glossy white marble, and complete aesthetic cohesivity.
A pale grey cushiony sofa is given a pop of colour with an ochre accent cushion, which stands out brightly inside the shadowy room palette.The neon pink accent is repeated in other art pieces in the home, like this one in the green kitchen. The hot hue makes an electrifying addition to the dark green decor scheme.Differently shaped pendant shades make a glassy display above the dining island in the kitchen.Concrete siding wraps the central island. The concrete builds a short splash screen around the kitchen sink, which protects the diners seated low on the opposite side of it.A half-circle mirror opens up the end of the dark hallway. Chevron flooring points in the direction of the living room.The green bedroom is dominated by a black 4 poster bed with a simple draped canopy. Monochrome art and bedclothes deepen the scheme.
Sustainable fashion label Archivist is turning discarded luxury hotel bed linen and turning them into timeless shirts. The project, from Dutch designers Eugenie Haitsma and Johannes Offerhaus, started life when the pair acquired 200 kilos of Egyptian cotton bed linen from a luxury hotel in London’s Mayfair. The designers said: “We asked ourselves the question […]
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Morag Myerscough is hugely passionate about what she does. Full of energy and full pelt into conversation as soon as I arrive at her London studio – though she admits a couple of coffees were involved – this is mostly her decompressing from presenting to a client that morning. She is passionate about what she does – but what is that? The labels graphic designer, designer and artist have variously been applied, but Myerscough doesn’t care to be labelled. Her website has no bio, and she has no business cards – much to the shock, she says, of a cohort of students she met recently. If you look at her work for clues, one of her best-known projects is a much-photographed wall in London’s new Design Museum, but others include the Temple of Agape on London’s Southbank, a ‘Belonging Bandstand’ that moved around Sussex, bedrooms for the Sheffield children’s hospital, and the 2015 Stirling Prize-winning project of Burntwood School that she collaborated on with architects AHMM.
The Temple of Agape. Image credit: Gareth Gardner
A project she has just presented was Mayfield in Manchester for developer U+I. Mayfield is a formerly derelict site in the process of being regenerated into a mixed-use development and public park. Myerscough’s large installation there displays the common traits in her work: it is a temporary, community-minded intervention in a public space, to be completed in a short deadline. Sceptics might see the combination of developer and artist as an exercise in ‘artwashing’, but there is a history of collaboration between her and Martyn Evans of U+I since a London community project, the Movement Cafe, completed in 2012. Myerscough is confident that what U+I is doing is positive, as ‘they do have a conscience’, and she is careful about who she works with, especially as she becomes better known and people approach her more and more. With developers, she says: ‘There’s always a level of moneymaking … but if you’re not displacing anyone or anything then I think it’s really important that places like Manchester get money put in them by different developers … because, obviously, if the European money gets taken away…’
There is a history of collaboration with U+I since a community project called the Movement Cafe. Image credit: Gareth Gardner
Just as she has to trust the client, they have to trust her. If they do, she ‘will go beyond – far and beyond’. With this trust – and with age too, says Myerscough – comes a sense of freedom and confidence. She no longer feels like a designer fulfilling a brief for a brand, as she explains: ‘Now I’m doing Mayfield, I’m not really responding to it being the brand or whatever; I’m responding to the social environment and all the people.’ It’s a more personal response, ‘a different space where it comes more from me’.
Despite having plenty of experience, Myerscough always looks critically at what she does. She believes it is very important for more established designers to relate to younger generations. With personal growth it can too easily be forgotten that the world is changing too: she talks about the ‘old-school’ and ‘male’ situations still being created by certain, older architecture and design figures, while outside of the industry she laments former prime minister Theresa May being ‘so old-fashioned [as a woman], so wrong in every way’.
One of the best-known projects is a much-photographed wall in London’s new Design Museum. Image credit: Gareth Gardner
Although she frequently collaborates with artist Luke Morgan, Myerscough is a one-woman studio, which she set up in 1993. How she defines herself and her work is important, and she remembers the confidence and ease with which her male peers would start out on their own (Thomas Heatherwick launched his eponymous studio around the same time). Their ease, and her discomfort, was due to rather entrenched attitudes in the industry about gender. She regrets the name slightly – choosing Studio Myerscough rather than Morag Myerscough in order to appear bigger and more established – because she still meets people who are either unable or unwilling to make the connection between her achievements and the studio’s. However, Myerscough prefers remaining on her own even as the projects grow: being the whole of Studio Myerscough gives her freedom with her ideas, time and ambitions, and fewer financial considerations as she hasn’t employees to pay.
Studio Myerscough. Image credit: Luke Morgan
Looking back at Myerscough’s career, you see where the various labels came from. Prior to the studio she studied graphic design, although she has never felt this reflected her work. Professionally, she has been employed as a designer – for Lamb & Shirley post-graduation and then as head of the graphics team for Memphis Group member Michele de Lucci in Milan – before coming back to begin Studio Myerscough. Its first project was a competition for a giant hoarding, which she entered and won with AHMM, and although she never wanted to be an architect the two have worked together on other jobs to much acclaim beside Burntwood School, such as the 2008 Stirling Prize-shortlisted Westminster Academy at the Naim Dangoor Centre, and a new installation in London’s Broadgate development. She was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry, but if she were to describe herself it would be as an artist.
The Belonging Bandstand in Brighton. Image credit: Morag Myerscough
What do you see in Myerscough’s work? For the unfamiliar it is eye-catching: colourful, often large in scale and in the public realm. You can sense her artistic background: her mother was a textile artist, her father a musician, and her family has roots in the circus. She says her penchant for temporary installations is due to the memory of the childhood thrill she felt when the circus came to town – bright colours and gaudy excitement where there was nothing before.
People can be scared of her neons and loud hues, but she uses her experience with colour to challenge those fears. For Sheffield’s children’s hospital the staff initially balked at her multicoloured designs, preferring ‘calming blue and green’. But once ‘they realised we weren’t trying to kill the children’ the mocked-up bedroom designs went down very well with the patients, parents and staff – and, as it turns out, teenagers particularly love orange.
For Sheffield’s children’s hospital the staff initially balked at the multicoloured designs. Image credit: Jill Tate
Sometimes you need to be shown things to understand: Myerscough talks about only realising some of her references for the Temple of Agape project upon walking through the erected structure (such as a temple she visited in India, where light entered beautifully through small openings in the walls).
Myerscough is interested in the difference between looking and seeing – one being passive, the other being active. This affects her approach to working with communities on public projects – considerable impact is made by how volunteers engage with the painting of the piece, able to see it after and say ‘I think I painted that bit’. On that same theme, a festival in Aberdeen called Look Again encouraged locals to reconsider a location in the city called Mercat Cross, which at that time was only frequented by drunks. The project had personal significance for Myerscough because Aberdeen was where her parents met and fell ‘in Love at First Sight’ – the name of the piece she produced for the festival. In among the brilliant team of women running the event, she felt her heritage more keenly than ever, seeing herself as she knew her mum – as a strong Scottish woman.
Myerscough may not like labels, but words are an important part of her work, often appearing large and readable from a distance. These words do not define but hope to provoke conversation. She often likes working with poets, and on Love at First Sight Jo Gilbert contributed with poetry in the local Doric dialect. Myerscough understands that people want to be recognised and appreciated for their unique knowledge and experience, but this can be a challenge for her original vision of a project. In Aberdeen the poem’s 300 words that needed painting were daunting, but Myerscough believes the point of collaboration isn’t to compromise.
Nor is it easy to work with large groups of volunteers rather than a dedicated, trained team, but the rewards are far more valuable, as volunteers treasure the experience. With every project Myerscough learns too – she tells me about how moved she was after a workshop with a blind school, as she never dreamed her work could reach beyond the visual in the way that it did, with the children making ‘incredible’ patterns with stickers and a grid.
At times during the interview I wish she would acknowledge the recognition that different groups want to give her – she inspires architects, designers, artists, nurses, patients, students and more, as their positive feedback testifies. Official accolades are rolling in too: a professorship at UCA Epsom, an honorary fellow at CSM, and a doctorate at Gloucester University, following one she received from Bournemouth, and on top of all this the appointment as a Royal Designer for Industry.
Open and enthusiastic, Myerscough’s heart is on her sleeve, but it is also on the painted surfaces of her work. She could be defined by her many labels and her many awards, but she is most confident in being defined by her work and the responses to it: colourful structures that light up spaces and the faces of those who visit them.
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SPIRITUAL FIRST AID KIT- A lifestyle kit. What you can do at home to raise the psi vibration of your home and continuously cleanse your space from negativity. Even though you are not meeting anyone or seeing anyone your inner negative and energy of everyone, social media can still affect you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and psychically does not matter if you have people in your space or not. Keeping your home clean of this energy is a must.
Clear, protect, shield: if you don’t know how to do this message me and we can work out a minimal cost and customize your clearing, shielding, protecting for you, your home, work, kids, business, everything and everyone.
Meditate: if you don’t have a practice or want some guidance message me and we can work something out and teach you some simple ways to get you started or what you need to focus and how to feel your energy and up your game to get you, your body to a calm relaxed space.
Stretch, Quigong, Yoga, Tai Chi: There are online YouTube videos where you can do your yoga, tai chi whatever you do it’s all available online.
Mantras : listen and put on ‘Om Mani Padme Om”- you will find it on YouTube for 10 hours. Put it on continuously. It will clean all negative energies in your space.
Incense: Always have and continuously burn Sage, Dragons Blood, myrrh, patchouli, sandalwood, camphor in your home at all times.
Crystals: Have crystals in your home to protect and raise the psi vibration of your space.
Herbs, Essential Oils, Candles: Your herbs you use to make your food have magickal properties. Message me how to work with them magickally.
Color Therapy: Wear colors that lift your energy. Drink colored water. To know more message me.
Read, watch stories that are comic, light hearted. Excersice your imagination, visualize, affirm, think, speak good positivity words and thoughts from your heart. Practice being real, honest with yourself and others, speak your truth without fear.
Whatever you do do it from your heart always❤️or don’t do it.
Hintercabin, a Scandinavian-inspired lakefront cabin in Quebec, is enabling guests to connect with nature and minimalism while also helping to save the planet, given that for every booking made at the sustainable cabin, the company plant 10 trees.
The cabin, which is located in La Conception, was created with simplicity or “hygge” in mind, encouraging living simply and minimally. A modular design, with bare wooden floors and a neutral colour scheme, it is sparsely furnished but simultaneously offers everything needed for a comfortable stay.
Hinter, who designed the sustainable cabin, said the minimalist cabin is their “take on what a hotel ‘room’ should be. The floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the house invite nature in as much as it serves as an “open window” for guests to connect with nature.
A 15-minute drive from the well-known ski resort of Mont-Tremblant, Hintercabin’s remote location is close to many nature parks and trails. The cabin, which sleeps up to four people, also features a private dock and access to the lake, as well as a canoe available mid-spring to mid-fall.
Hinter, who describe their purpose as the creation of “spaces where design, architecture, and nature become one”, also sell minimalist-style interior and furniture products via their website, all created with simplicity and sustainability in mind using sustainable wood. As with every booking made at Hintercabin, Hinter also plant 10 trees for every interior product it sells via its website.
Hinter say: “While your wellness is a high priority, we recognise that our planet needs help. Neutrality is not enough. We want to set a new norm on sustainability by giving more than what we take. Companies should be giving more than they take. That in mind, we plant 10 trees for every booking, for every object sold and we work only with companies that have the environment as their number one priority. We seek like-minded companies that share our beliefs so we can run eco-friendly spaces with sustainably-made products.”
In addition to Hintercabin, Hinter’s roster of spaces also includes Hinterhouse. Inspired by cabins in the Norwegian mountains and using Japanese design cues and minimalism philosophy, Hinterhouse is made of 60% glass to ensure that whether guests are outside in the woods or taking comfort inside, they remain close to nature.
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
As an artist, textile designer, women business owner it is my responsibility to create and service that serves the greater good leading by example and shifting my own life. And it is important to be aware how my life choices impacts the environment by my energy, thought, belief system, choices and actions. What I create, how I use the energy and intention behind that creation, service will tell me if my focus is on physical or serving the greater good. If I create art, design, sell the products that I am selling with the intention of money, pride, popularity, then no I am not serving the greater good. Because here my focus is about physical things. But if I create my art, design service products because I love what I do, love what I provide to my customers regardless of the outcome for that design, art piece, fabric then yes I am serving the greater good. That is my security. That pure joy in creating, servicing and not focusing on physical and what it will bring me is the spiritual living taking care of me.
Living spiritually is where our security is. When I shifted my focus from physical things and people to complete spiritual living, I had and have complete security for life now. My purpose becomes my security. My life every moment, energy, thought, belief system, choices and actions are spiritually guided that which serves the greater good. Each of us born here are here as a guest, temporary not permanent. As a guest it is my responsibility to treat Mother Earth and all of her resources with respect and kindness. That means my life belongs to Mother Earth in everything I do. It is my responsibility to respect the land that has given me a life to experience Mother Earth. Your focus on Physical and financial things, body do not give you security. Security is your inner being, soul and higher mind not your conscious, money mind. Approaching life as a physical and material security can and will be taken away from you at any given moment in split second. You think you have but no you have no control on anything physical. If you say your job is a security? Hmm it can come to bankrupt or close down at any given time, money? Hmm that also can be taken away from you at any point, car, health, home, career, business, acquiring physical things, falling in love with a body than the inner being can be taken away from you at any given moment, if you think having a physical body to love, marry, kids is security then really look deeply they all can be taken away from you in split seconds coz you are focus on the physical not who they are inside. Physical things including physical bodies are not security. This so called magickal life you say by doing things, going to places, traveling, clothes, restaurants, brands you buy all have a physical focus. A magickal life is living spiritually that magickally takes care of you. And what gives you magickally will also be sustained magickally. You truly have no control on your physical life. But if you stay spiritually connected then yes it will secure you. Living spiritually is your security. Your focus is the key. Believe and you will see. Shift your focus. Just by shifting your focus you can bring change not only to your life but to Mother Earth. That is what is required to shift and bring change so mother earth can do what she has to do to bring things to balance.
Looking at your life what would you say is your foundation based on? What does security mean to you?
Garry is a high-quality HSPU faux leather with a textile look. It conveys visual cosiness and comfort and at the same time offers the functional advantages of faux leather. The article can be used in many ways. Garry is the right choice, especially in heavily used areas. In senior citizens’ homes faux leather is often used for the seating surfaces of the chairs, as it is hard-wearing and resistant to disinfectants and urine.
In hotels and restaurants faux leather is often used for bedheads and bed edges as well as for seating. The colour range offers natural shades such as granite, chocolate brown, marron, almond, desert sand and is complemented by 5 strong colours such as scarlet red, burned olive and steel blue. A total of 18 colours is available.
For information Email us at nisha@nishadesigns.com or Call Nisha Desai at 702.622.8321
