One To Watch: Selina Rose
I am very happy to feature textile designer Selina Rose today on the blog. I have been following her for quite sometime now and loved seeing her products at last years 100% Design. Her innovative and vast range of felt surfaces are just so much fun, I Iove her use of bright colours and gorgeous textures. What’s even more admiring is that all products are made from 100% wool felt and coloured using environmentally friendly dyes. Selina designs and makes all of her products in the UK, the felt is renewable and biodegradable.
Here Selina takes time out in her busy schedule (who is also a new mummy), to answer a few questions
When did you realise you had a passion for design?
When I was 16 I travelled up from my family home in Cornwall to visit 100% Design. I was just about to go to art college and trying to decide what I wanted to do career-wise, after sessions with the school careers advisor usually ended up at the conclusion of “I just want to make things!”. As I walked around the show and visited designer’s stands I knew that I wanted to be a designer-maker. I was always making and drawing as a child and after hours of messing around in my mum’s sewing room with her vintage sewing machine and fabric remnants, I knew that textiles was my thing.
Where do you inspirations come from?
Vintage Scandinavian textile and ceramic prints, modern architecture, macro photography, nature and the great outdoors and the talented people around me.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
I recently completed my largest commission to date for global design and engineering firm Arup. I created over 120 felt acoustic wall panels and screens in my Cut and Fold designs for their new London Fitzrovia headquarters. The year long project spanned 13 rooms, across 2 buildings and involved over 200 metres of felt.
What do you hope to achieve in 5 years time?
I hope to have a London showroom….so watch this space! My work is so tactile I think it’s important for customers/clients to come and touch and feel the felt and see the wonderful array of colours and surface finishes we have to offer.
What famous artists/designers do you admire or inspires you the most?
There are so many, Lucienne Day, Tracy Kendall, Susan Bradley but at the moment I am loving furniture designer Russell Pinch’s work. I really admire his attention to detail, use of natural materials and pure craftsmanship.
What five words best describe you?
Passionate, determined, independent, impatient, perfectionist.
(I’m probably quite high maintenance!! You’ll have to ask friends and family)
What five things couldn’t you live with out?
Iphone, chocolate, friends, family and of course….felt!
Thanks Selina for featuring on my ‘One to Watch’ series! Enjoy motherhood and do keep us informed about that new showroom of yours 🙂
Will @ Bright.Bazaar
9th March 2011 at 6:00 pmFab post, Ari! Love this series!
Sophie Paterson
9th March 2011 at 7:28 pmwhat a lovely lady! I love the close up photo of the grey felt peeled back to show the green underneath- reminds me of advent calenders. Another fantastic post Arianna..
Andrew Aloisio
9th March 2011 at 11:20 pmI agree Sophie, that felt wall has a soft, but tech, appeal to it… A nice way to pair up with internal concrete walls.