Vintage tableware...melamine designs....help!

Fancy a Cuppa

 

I'm having a bit of a dilemma with what to do with my Vintage Tableware melamine plate designs..... The three designs currently in the range are Fancy a Cuppa, Tea Party and High Tea (as seen above and below). Fancy a Cuppa and Tea Party are definitely the most popular designs, with High Tea not selling quite as well.

Tea Party

 

High Tea

So, I'm wondering whether to delete High Tea from the range and replace it with another design using the vintage cups and saucers.  I've mocked-up a new design below featuring the yellow rose cups with a saucer and a teaspoon, with a working name of Time for Tea

I like the simplicity of the singular teacups design which contrasts the busier teacup patterns in the other plates, but it still works as a mix-and-match coordinate to the other two designs.

New design (mock-up only) Time for Tea above, and shown with the other teacup designs below

Anyway, I'd love to get a bit of feedback if anyone out there in blog-land cares to share an opinion! So, let me know - should I keep the original teapot design, or replace with the new teacup design....

 

Lark - mother's day gift guide

Lark's mother's day gift guide

 

With mother's day fast approaching, the fabulous team at Lark have organised an on-line mother's day gift guide!

I'm super-chuffed to have my three vintage tableware melamine plates included in the mother's day collection - Fancy A Cuppa, Tea Party & High Tea.

As a first time mum I think all mums deserve to be spoilt rotten on mother's day (hint, hint Mr B!) so head on over to Lark to see what fab gifts they have for your mum.

Home Beautiful

 

I was really thrilled to see two of my melamine plates featured in the latest Home Beautiful magazine! 

High Tea & Tea Party were included in the 'We Love' section as favourite finds by stylist Sami Simper.  The theme for the favourite finds was 'graceful and delicately-hued designs with a handcrafted feel' so I was really pleased my vintage melamine plates were included.

 
Also in this latest November issue of Home Beautiful was fellow textile designer and illustrator Natalie Ryan. Natalie has a lovely blog featuring her own illustrations and textile designs - and her blog was mentioned in the 'love at first site' column. Natalie used to design for Linen House where she created some beautiful children's bed linen ranges, and like myself she loves to create hand-painted illustrations.  You can check out Natalie's blog here!

'Pretty Plates' - H&G magazine!

I was very excited to open the pages of the latest House & Garden magazine and see one of my melamine plates included in a 'Pretty Plates' feature!

The plate featured is 'Audrey' which is one of my hand painted floral designs.  A big "Thank You" to House & Garden magazine!

Melamine Plates - Australian Gift Guide

A big 'thank you' to The Australian Gift Guide for writing about my newly launched melamine plate range!   It's always exciting when people want to write about my designs and products, and lovely to get such positve feedback about the new design collection.

You can see the story here:

Lucy King Design on Print & Pattern blog!

I am hugely excited to be featured on the very fabulous Print & Pattern blog!

Print & Pattern has been offering visual stimulation and inspiration for a number of years - and is a much loved blog for designers.  Daily posts of various new products, upcoming designers, high street store images and generally anything print and pattern related - phew!

So I'm delighted to have my new range of melamine plates included on such a fantastic blog.

A big 'Thank You' to Print & Pattern - you put a big smile on my face :)

(P.S Print & Pattern also has a fab book with the same name.  I have the book and it's a great image resource and source of inspiration.  It features a range of different designers and illustrators - including local talent Lara Cameron and Lark.  You can buy the book here)

Lucy King Design melamine plate collection & online shop!

Watercolour floral plates (clockwise from top left) Audrey, Alice, Grace & polka-dot design Suzie in cherry colourway

Suzie detail

 Vintage tableware designs (clockwise from top left) High Tea, Tea Party & Fancy a Cuppa

Retro graphic florals Mabel in spearmint colourway (left) Mabel in candy colourway (right) and polka-dot design Suzie in mint colourway

Mabel in candy colourway with Suzie in mint colourway, detail

I'm very excited to be able to officially launch my first collection of melamine plate designs, and to finally have my new online shop up and running! 

I've launched the collection with 10 different designs - created to mix and match with each other and to encourage a 'this-goes-with-that' approach.  The range consists of three hand-painted watercolour floral designs (Audrey, Grace and Alice), three vintage ceramic designs (High Tea, Fancy a Cuppa and Tea Party), two retro graphic florals (Mabel in candy colourway or spearmint colourway) and two 1950s-esque polka-dot designs which coordinate with the whole collection.    

The plates are proudly Made in England in small quantities, and are designed to be used and enjoyed for sharing sweet or savoury treats with friends!  Perfect for picnics, bbq's, camping and garden parties etc...... a shame the weather here in Melbourne isn't quite geared up for any of those activities yet!!

You can visit the online shop here: Lucy King Design shop.    

A brighter start to the week

I'm feeling a little brighter and more positive about the start of this week.  I've finally received some very overdue payments, and I'm making progress with the faulty melamine plate design which should be being re-made this week.  I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed it can be re-made without the fault, and I'll have it in my hot little hands soon!

In light of this good news I set up a photo-shoot session last week to photograph the plates in preperation for organising a website and on-line shop.  Here is a sneak preview of the hand-painted floral plates.  Best of all I get to eat the left-over props :-)

Exciting new melamine designs!

I'm very excited about some melamine designs I've been working on arrived in the post this week!  I'd started developing a range of designs last year for Lucy King Design, and of course everything got delayed with the sampling due to christmas - but they have all arrived now!

As usual I couldn't decide on one particular range of designs - and so I sampled all of them!  It's the worst thing being a designer is having so many ideas - too many ideas most of the time.  And having no brief to answer means endless options for design themes and styles......graphic, retro, hand painted, pretty, bold etc etc. 

I'd love to be able to create and develop my own range, but apart from having to work out all the manufacturing costs, packaging, retail margins, how to sell the products and if it's actually viable to do (and make a profit myself!) I first need to narrow down the designs to proceed with - and that's the tricky part!!

So, I'm hoping I can ask for some help and feedback from whoever might see this blog post and is kind enough to cast their vote from the designs below.  I've divided the designs into themes - so you can either nominate a theme you like, or a specific design, or your top 3 designs! 
The design references are all under the pictures.

FLORAL - HAND PAINTED ARTWORK (by me!)

Floral 1

Floral 2

Floral 3

Floral 4

VINTAGE MAPS - PAGES FROM AN OLD ATLASS

Map 1 (Australia East Coast)

Map 2 (Australia)

Map 3 (United Kingdom)

RETRO DESIGNS - WALLPAPERS & FABRICS ETC

Retro 1 (wallpaper)

Retro 2 (fabric)

Retro 3 (wallpaper)

RETRO STYLE FLORAL DESIGNS (by me!)

Retro Floral 1

Retro Floral 2

Retro Floral 3
VINTAGE TABLEWARE ILLUSTRATIONS (by me!)

Vintage 1

Vintage 2

Vintage 3

Vintage 4

Vintage 5

Vintage 6

Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated - thank you!  You can vote anonomously too if you'd rather not leave your name or link to a website / blog.