Why am I considering interior products? I feel I’ve got a handle on small items and wanted to push my practice into a new area. Creatively, it felt right to explore lace at a larger scale, and the business person in me said the pieces need to have a function, even if that function is ‘art’. I could also see that interiors is a more balanced market, gender-wise,and might open me up to more customers.
Creating larger scale pieces meant I had to imagine my work in venues other than a small scale, domestic setting. I explored hotel and bars, office receptions and large modern apartment type settings. I had to scale up the budget, which meant creating work of exceptionally high quality. For research I looked at magazines such as World of Interiors, Elle Decoration, I visited the interiors trade fair Decorex (see post) and researched Society for British and International Interior Design, Walpole (representing the creative sector in the luxury high end sector)
I spoke with an interior designer who advised me to link up with people in the industry, get onto LinkedIn with my work and show at trade shows.