Extreme localness

One of the reasons we called ourselves Starch Green is that it reflects our passion for making the most of our neighbourhood. We live in Starch Green and we are Starch Green. And since we adopted it, it's a name that has started to be more recognised in the area as more people dig around in local history and begin to find more interest in local heritage. We're also passionate believers in 'the more you put in the more you get out' adage. Certainly when it comes to community engagement.

When we heard that, following the success of the Edible High Road last year, there were plans afoot to run an Edible Askew Road, our very local 'high street', we felt we had to be part of it. Cathy Maund, Director of the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, took up the role as official leader, in charge of all the grown-up stuff and everything horticultural. A band of us (latterly known as the three musketeers) took on the challenge of designing the publicity materials and devising a treasure trail.

The Edible Askew Road is working. Launched on Saturday 18th May as part of the Chelsea Fringe festival, it is a feel-good community project to put fruit trees along the Askew Road, promoting the idea of fresh, locally grown food, support our native bees and butterflies and generally beautify our patch. Early on Saturday morning the lovely little fruit trees were delivered to all the shops taking part.

We sponsored ours to go at Long Live Vintage in exchange for a 3 week 'residency' in the shop. By 11.00am we were set up on Starch Green (yes, our local green is called Starch Green) with our Treasure Trail table ready to go.

Lots of maps printed, prizes of Divine Chocolate Bees, the Hungry Caterpillar and 'Grow your own fairy garden' for the first few to complete the hunt - packets of wildflower seed to transform the city into an urban meadow for everyone. Caroline MacMillan had researched what all the shops were a hundred years ago - and each tree contained a clue for the treasure hunters to discover the answers. The hunt was enjoyed by children and adults alike.

The atmosphere was really enhanced by the lovely and lively Albert & Friends Instant Circus troupe, who performed on the Green and went up and down Askew Road on stilts and unicycles to spread the word. The library was running activities all day and the Askew Road Church had a plant sale.

Feedback on Twitter read like a dream: 'The Askew Road was buzzing', 'I went into two shops I've never been in before,' 'I've never seen Askew Road so busy.' The Eagle, opposite the Green, had a barbecue out the front and many wandered over there for a drink, lunch or ice-cream.

Well, it carries on until 9th June with the trees outside the shops. People can still do the Treasure Trail and hand their maps into Finlay Brewer or the Askew Road Library. And we're even doing a special trail for some of the local schools to keep them busy over half-term. Many thanks to all who have donated 'treasure': Rococo Chocolates, Seed Pantry, Seedball, Divine Chocolate, W6 Garden Centre and Hammersmith Community Gardens Association. And of course, thank you to all the shops, cafes, restaurants and businesses that have sponsored a tree. You'll have to walk up Askew Road, W12, to see who they all are - and what they were 100 years ago...

The benefits of being intensely local are all about a sense of well-being, community and belonging. I love that sense of going up the road and nodding and calling out 'Good morning' as I walk to the shops, pick up my daughter from school or take the dog for a stroll.

Photos by the third musketeer, Annie Pennington, whose trees for Digitalplot and Askew Business Network are outside Askewine.

The rich tapestry of life

There are moments when you just feel that being in London is the best place in the world. And it doesn't have to be all perfect - it's the richness of the experiences that add colour and edge to life.

Friday evening was a delight. Jonathan and I went to an evening at the V and A entitled, "David Bowie changed my life," a conversation between Robert Elms, Gary Kemp and David Baddiel guided by the gentle questioning of Krissi Murison, ex-Editor of the NME and now at the Sunday Times. The four of them sat in front of a huge projection of Bowie in his mesmerising 1973 Rites of Spring costume by Kansai Yamamoto; sometimes the red background of the image catching the heads of the speakers, casting shadows like tiny nibbles out of the bottom edge of the photograph. Elms and Kemp were on familiar ground, rolling out well-honed anecdotes entertainingly, and with a memory for who was where when perhaps embroidered over time - but who am I to contradict? Baddiel was less of an obvious fan-boy, a tad younger, so with a slightly different perspective but also a genuinely funny person. He added a sharpness of wit and also reminded the panel, after a long rift on clothes and haircuts, that what really makes Bowie stand out is the quality of the music over a long period of time. Too right. Baddiel felt he also shared a slight feeling of alienation with Bowie, or perhaps Ziggy. Elms's quip of, "But your eyes are identical" received the cutting reply from Baddiel, "Yes, but you should see my balls!"

Despite being a "friend" of the V and A for years,  I had never enjoyed the delights of a 'Friday Late'. After the talk we strolled down the Ceramic Stairs and had supper of salmon fishcakes in the wonderfully over-decorated café accompanied by a charming pianist (unfortunately not playing Bowie's back catalogue). Then strolling through the garden we could have been in Venice looking at a Doge's palace - what a gem.

Meanwhile our youngest was across the road at the Natural History Museum enjoying the delights of 'Dinosnores'. She was lucky enough to have been invited with a group of her best friends to a birthday party staying overnight under a diplodocus - how cool is that? They had a great time, decorating t-shirts, learning about deep-sea monsters and even fitted in a session on mini-beasts after breakfast on Saturday morning.

Then, in a head swivelling change of culture, on Saturday evening we went to see Dexy's at the Duke of York's in St Martins Lane. Having seen them on Jools Holland's Later I was impressed with Rowland's new image and loved the almost operatic nature of the performance. I booked tickets on a whim when I saw the ad in the Metro. As we sat in the stalls awaiting the start we began to feel a slight murmuring of, shall I say, discomfiture? Our last visit to the Duke of York's had been to see Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall in the exquisite Constellations - we pondered on a Venn diagram of 'people who were at Constellations' and 'people at this Dexy's gig' and cogitated on the fact that we might be the lone couple in that intersection. It hadn't occurred to me that there were Dexy's fans (sorry Dexy's, sorry fans) and that most of those fans would be men in their forties (?) who were not unfamiliar with a Carlsberg, and whose bladders had forgotten how to last a set. Unfortunate details perhaps.

Anyway Kevin Rowland's voice is extraordinary and marvellous, and sometimes beautiful. The first half of the concert with the new material was exciting and gripping, full of energy and I loved Madeleine Hyland's brilliant performance, Big Jim's (as we soon learned to call him from our enthusiastic neighbours) trombone and the repartee of 'our Pete'. We were also very keen on their sartorial style. We were lost a bit in the second half when they played more Dexy's standards as we were unable to sing along with every word (thanks again seats O5, 6, 7,8 and 9 and a few in row P), and although they did a reasonable rendition of 'Geno' there was no 'Wilson' or 'Eileen'.

A more appropriate supper back home of a shared bag of chips bought on the Goldhawk Road and a fried egg - with tomato ketchup, and there was still Sunday to look forward to...

Toffee enjoys the sunshine in Ravenscourt Park on Sunday

Look at our Look Book

 We've had great fun putting together a Look Book for Starch Green. We wanted to create something that has more of an atmosphere than a portfolio, but that captures the range of work we enjoy and a sense what we love doing.

The book has chapters themed by colour and a 'directory' in the back that gives a reasonably comprehensive range of products and examples of our design and illustration.

Rather than just a catalogue of what we do we have included some things we like and some of our photos capturing colours and places that inspire us.

We hope the book appeals to commissioners of design and illustration in many walks of life, whether for packaging, publishing, advertising, heritage ranges, fabric, fashion, interiors, furnishing or ceramics. And no doubt lots of things we haven't even thought of. Jonathan's wood engraving has been used in lots of imaginative ways from a map engraved into a huge glass panel in the foyer of a bank to a tiny silver goldfish on a lapel pin.

The type throughout is set (electronically) in Caslon and Gill as an homage to the fact that they are the only two fonts we have as metal setting. And who needs anything else?

If you'd like to have a browse though our Look Book do get in touch and we can bring it over.

Emery Walker: the Back Room Boy of the Arts & Crafts

Coming up on 12th February is the next Greenside Arts Lecture - the entertaining Dr Aileen Reid will be talking about Emery Walker. Walker is less well known than another significant Hammersmith resident, William Morris, but was very influential in both Morris's Kelmscott Press and the resurgence of private presses in the early twentieth century. 

He founded the Doves Press with TJ Cobden-Sanderson, where they created beautiful, simple books. Edward Johnston contributed calligraphy to their projects.

Emery Walker's house at 7 Hammersmith Terrace, where he lived from 1903 - 1933,  is the best example of an Arts & Crafts furnished house in Britain today and is open to the public from April to October. Aileen will be telling us more about the house and the circle of friends and artists that lived in the area and frequented the house.

The image at the top showing Walker's ex-libris gives his address as 3 Hammersmith Terrace - he lived there for 25 years before moving to number 7.

The lecture can be booked here, please come.

A family affair...

A photo essay of our lovely Open Studio on 1st December 2012 by Freddy Mercer - thanks to our terrific children and brilliant customers for making the day so full of warmth and kindness.

A Book for Christmas

Whilst the whole world is going digital the beauty, smell, texture and sheer bookiness of books still have a role - and a place close to my heart. Books about art and illustrators are particularly appropriate for remaining in a paper-based format.

I was delighted to receive a copy of Angie Lewin's Plants and Places, "a record of past travels, places and plant studies," from Angie's sketchbooks. The book shows brilliantly how Angie takes her inspiration, draws from nature and then works up ideas for prints and textiles. More recently Angie has started working more in watercolours, the completed painting being an end in itself rather than just 'notes' for a design.

I first came across Angie's work when I saw her "The 1937 Coronation Mug" print in a magazine (Country Living I think). I was unashamedly attracted to it because of the Ravilious mug. I ordered it for Jonathan's birthday from Bircham Gallery in Holt. From then on we found out more about Angie and St Judes. A friend of ours in Norwich had been long enthusing over the St Judes Gallery, then in Aylsham - but we'd never quite got organised enough to get there. Since then we have met Angie and Simon a few times, in Itteringham and London - and very lovely they are.

Angie's book is organised by places she finds inspiration like Coast, Woodland and Hedgerow, Meadow and Garden - very much the places that inspire me too. It's nice to see an explanation of the process from drawing to printmaking - and we, at Starch Green, feel a close connection. The beauty of a wood engraving block - admittedly something we are surrounded by - is always nice to see.

One of the parts I like the best is the Bibliography showing some of the mid-century illustrated books I love and sit happily on my bookshelves. The role of lithography in children's book illustration is included in the St Bride's Library Christmas event 'Ravilious and friends in the age of lithography'.

Overall a lovely book that gives a glimpse of the 'behind the scenes' life of an artist and a rich tapestry of visual delights.

Studio Sale

It's that time of year - brave the wind, strike through the swirling leaves, shiver past the clouds of breath from your mouth and come and warm yourself at our Open Studio. If all goes to plan there'll be mince pies and mulled wine and lots of beautiful things to buy. All unframed prints will be offered at 20% discount to ease your way to an artistically inspiring Christmas.

We're open from 11.00am until 4.00pm Sunday 2nd December. Looking forward to seeing you then.

Our Kindness Jug - a popular gift for Mums - but a lovely message for everyone - good on the table, great as a vase... £30

Our letterpress printed Everyday Stationery complete with 30 sheets of handprinted paper, 10 continuation sheets, a handmade sketchbook AND a Starch Green pencil - all in a corrugated box - £20

See our beautiful Bespoke Stationery Box - order a set for someone special (but not for this Christmas as lead times are about 6 weeks...)

Large screenprints available unframed - 20% off for one day only