July sale at Stephanie Cole DESIGN

That's right! Shop this link now and receive 25% off orders of £10 or over with code SUMMER17 

Happy shopping folks!

S x

Mural project at Port Sunlight

I spent a nice week over at Bridge Cottage, the new community hub run by Port Sunlight Trust on the Wirral, where I painting a mural looking at life then and now in the village. 

I wanted to make the piece about the people who lived here rather than the soap factory legacy (have a read here if you're interested, it's fascinating stuff) so the design features the finer, undocumented details, such as the black and white cat which hangs about the Lyceum, the weddings that go on here, the boules tournaments, dog shows and allotment prizes, the annual 10K race, the old fashioned prams which are paraded around, the couple of ducks which return each year and more of what residents get up to here...

The building has some beautiful original features and has also undergone some unsympathetic modern alterations over the years as a residence too, so the colours I chose hopefully work with the building's history and appeal to the young and the old which will now use the space. It'll now play host to all sorts including book clubs, coffee mornings, toddler groups, has a craft room upstairs and board room too, and with community spirit and volunteers behind it, should become a real success story and pride of the community. 

I'm going to be in Port Sunlight again on the 1st July at Landbaby's Handmade Fair there, come and say hello and have a look for yourself!

If you'd like to commission me, let's talk! See my website for details and more projects.

S x

Introducing Luna Hops

I spent last week painting one of Cotswold March Hare Festival's large hares, you'll know already if you keep up with my sporadic blog posting or social medias. My sponsors at New Brewery Arts, Cirencester kindly let me use the pop-up studio as I wasn't convinced the fibre glass creature would make the journey up to Wilmslow in one piece. It was cosy and peaceful and I had a wonderful stream of folk popping in to see what I was up to. Lovely week!

I went about designing the hare in flat profiles in the hope that the design would wrap around the hare nicely- of course my mural projects are generally on a flat surface so that's what felt most natural to me, and luckily worked ok.

Along with New Brewery Arts the project was also sponsored by Corinium Ales and Geoffrey Carr Garden Design, so between us had a dream brief drawn up with the theme of this year's trail as 'heritage'. I looked at the history of brewing in Cirencester and old images of New Brewery Arts with it's former large chimneys and the Barrel Store which I'd already worked on the branding of, it was a no-brainer. 

After pencilling on where everything would sit, I went about painting in acrylic wreaths of hops and barley for making the ale, pub relics, brewing equipment in the most amazing copper and a couple of Cirencester ties- the hare mosaic from Roman times and Sophie Ryder's beautiful grey hound sculptures which (used to) sit outside.

My wonderful sponsors, Geoffrey Carr Garden Design, Yours truly, Tracey from New Brewery Arts and Lucy of Corinium Ales. All excellent people.

You'll notice I've only really got images of the hare from one side, but with any luck I will have a time lapse video of the whole process I'll be able to show you soon, excited for that.

I'm feeling a bit love sick since I finished up if I'm honest! Over the course of the week 'it' became a 'she', and we all finally settled on a name, 'Luna hops'. Luna, Latin for moon- being a moon gazing type stance, again with the local Roman links and a nod to Lucy's fabulously named (delicious) beers, and Hops, used to make the beer and a play on hares-a-hopping! Clever, eh? She's off for a high shine varnish at the car garage so she'll be able to withstand whatever the British summer throws at us, and goes on show with the rest of the 80 hares throughout the Cotswolds from March 25th this year, before getting auctioned for charity in the Autumn. Hope you like her, I can't wait to see the rest of the 'Flick'.

S x

BBQ HQ spruce up

I spent some time at Weber painting my designs onto the walls on their new Hammersmith showroom. It was great to work with the BBQ gurus, we've had loads of fun get-togethers with their pizza oven bbq attachment with friends and family- recommended! 

This week I'm working away on a personal commission and have more big plans for mural works, I'm thankful everyday to be busy doing what I love!

S x

Project: The A-Z of Gloucestershire at Gloucester Services

I've been back at Westmorland's Gloucester Services on the M5 working on an illustrated A-Z of Gloucestershire for the restaurant area there. They interviewed me last week about the project over on their blog...

How did you begin the design process with the A-Z?

I worked with Westmorland on creating an A-Z of 'their Gloucestershire', including local landmarks, species and charities they work closely alongside. I wanted the designs to be simple but informative so they'd make a real impact from a distance in the services, and not too obvious- conversation starters! My designs start as hand-drawings, which I then place together and visualize on my laptop. The designs are finalized and I've now been busy on site painting them onto the walls of the cafe. Working on a project about home in Gloucestershire was a real pleasure, and cured a little pang of homesickness as I started the design work for it whilst I was still over in Finland!

There's no rest for the wicked, I'm onto the petrol station and butchers over there this week! You can see and hear about the rest of my mural work here. Will keep you posted...