Billie Achilleos is a young British artist who was recently commissioned by the French luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton, for their 100th anniversary celebration of small leather goods. Keeping alive the skills of a forgotten craft, Billie created a miniature zoo of fantasy animals made exclusively from LV’s wallets, purses, belts, and accessories titled Maroquinaris Zoologicae…

My love for embroidery is nothing new, but Claire Coles’ extraordinary hand embroidered wallpapers are certainly new to me. Claire graduated from Middlesex University in 2003 with first class honors in Applied Arts. Amongst her first commissions were a wallpaper display for Liberty of London and a book cover design for Penguin Publishing. Oh man, how is that for a career start? Epic!

Claire works from her West London showroom, where she designs and produces bespoke embroidered wallpapers for both private clients and commercial projects…

Plantable is a handmade table by London-based JAILmake Studio (Liam Healy and Jamie Elliott) which will be on show at Designersblock during the upcoming London Design Week.

Designed to interact with nature, this table offers a place to plant flowers and/ or herbs at the base of each leg allowing the growing plants to climb and intertwine between the leg structure. Imagine planting some herbs, tomatoes and sweet peas, and only having to bend down slightly to pick them before preparing a meal…

I have a little confession. There was a time when I considered embroidery to be just too traditional, old and boring (insert rolling eyes, pimply face and mouth wide open while chewing bubble gum). You get the picture, right? I was in my early teens, surrounded with the most magnificent embroidery my mum, grandmother, most of my aunties and lady neighbours used to do back in the “old country”. They would often share their latest pieces over many cups of strong black coffee, frequently oohing and aahing at each others creations, exchanging tips for best quality silk thread, how to achieve that smooth transition resembling watercolour painting… And there I was. Bored out of my brain, thinking the whole thing was such a waste of time. What an idiot…