Jilltydrawings stocked in Roses and String on the revamped Queens Parade Willesden Green

Address: Unit 3, Queen's Parde, Walm Lane, Willesden Green, London

I was delighted to be invited to stock some of my homewares at one of the eight shops opening along the newly revamped Queen's Parade in Willesden Green. Roses & String was one of the successful new traders to have secured a temporary lease of a formerly vacant eight unit property as part of the New Windows on Willesden Green project. Funded by the Mayor's Outer London fund, the aim was to bring back life to the Willesden High Road shopping experience where the businesses were able to trade rent-free, while residents and other visitors to the area get the opportunity to support fledgling local businesses.

The launch party was a huge success and I was so impressed by Laura and Heather of Roses & String for arranging such an inviting curiosity shop of homemade gifts and treats.

Screenprinting Workshop at the Pilot Shop in Willesden Green

Studio Weave Architects invited me to join them in running a free stencil screenprinting workshop at the Pilot Shop in Willesden Green as part of the New Windows in Willesden Green project. Despite the teething problems of a bumpy work surface and minimal clean up space for screenprinting, we managed to eventually produce some sharp stencils prints of some of the components used in our kebab window designs. The kids we were teaching seemed happy with their printed horses, lemons and chilli peppers!

Real Charcoal window illustrations

In December I had the pleasure of working with Studio Weave Architects to collaborate on designs for illustrations for two of the big windows at Real Charcoal Kebab shop along with the projecting light box sign. I worked closely with the Studio Weave team where I was asked to fit drawings into their doner kebab spit design - one depicting the history of the kebab and one showing ingredients and steps on how to make the perfect kebab. We also decided to occupy the vacant light box sign with a persian soldier carving a kebab which turned out to be a super bonus when the illustration lit up at night!

The commission was part of the New Windows on Willesden Green project where the shop fronts on Willesden Green had makeovers to breathe life into the high street. An Outer London Fund project, NWoWG was delivered for Brent Council and Design for London by The Architecture Foundation in collaboration with Meanwhile Space and Blue Consulting. The Architecture Foundation paired each design team with a local shop owner to work together to create a new window display that both attracts new customers and forms part of a giant advent calendar in the run up to Christmas (each shop has its own ‘big reveal’ date in December).

See some of the other windows here.