Designer Desire: Ron Hitchens

This week’s Designer Desire feature is of Londoner, Ron Hitchins (1926-2019). He lived a very diverse and colourful life; as well as producing magnificent, sculptural artworks, he’d been a tailor and British pioneer of Spanish dance. He initiated the Ron Hitchins Dance Bursary and was known in Flamenco dance circles as “El Chino”.

His work – when you come across it – is surprisingly affordable. You can get hold of one of his wall sculptures for less than £100 at auction.

He’s been the subject of a couple of photographers’ projects – here’s what one said about him:

Ron is such an interesting character. In the 1930s, shirts all used to be either cream, white or grey, but Ron used to make his own shirts, similar to ones he is wearing in the photographs. These shirts had very loud patterns and were hugely outrageous in amongst the fashion of the time. Later he explained that a lot of his patterns were stolen and mimicked and he was left behind in this world. However, he still maintained the nickname “The Flash” by his friends due to this love of bright colour and pattern. Later he focussed more on fine art. All the art in the background, including the doors and ceramics were created by him.

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Below is a fabulous interview with Hitchins where he doesn’t talk about his art, only his early working life and dancing. Nevertheless, it’s a really interesting watch & listen, and you get a few glimpses of his art on the walls of his home!

Ron Hitchins; Made in Hackney from OpenSchoolEast on Vimeo.

Additional image credits:

1st Dibs | Saunders Fine Art | Woolley and Wallis

Price Points: Terracotta planters

We’ve been doing lots of potting on in the garden in the past couple of weeks. With all the dividing and repotting of our hostas and astilbes and moving seedlings up a size, we’re running out of pots.

We have lots & lots of little pots – the ones that are perfect for planting seeds into. What we’re desperately in need of are a few large terracotta planters for the more mature plants. Ones that are about 2ft/65cm tall and wide.

We prefer our plant pots to be real terracotta – not terracotta-coloured plastic – and we like them with minimal decoration. The three different examples above are the best of what we found on the internet for our needs.

As you can see, there’s quite a range in price. Much as we love the shape and mellow colour of the Apollo (#3), we can’t really afford to splash out on a few of those! The cheapest, from Homebase, will have to suffice – and then let them age & weather naturally outside. They’re frost-resistant, which is a desirable quality – we’ve lost quite a few terracotta pots over the last few years due to the long cold snaps that can happen here in the Pennines.

Rolled rim antique terracotta plant pot (62cm): £60, Homebase
Ceramic terracotta plain planter (67 x 60cm): £163.99, Amazon
Apollo terracotta planter (65cm x 65cm): £295, Pots and Pithoi

Home Tones: Terracotta

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This week’s Home Tone is terracotta. We’re sticking with the natural material for our images – whether it be floor tiles, brickwork or pots. This is our favourite use of the colour, particularly when it’s aged or weathered. The baked clay of terracotta comes in various shades from light & chalky to dark orange, but they all tend to have a warm, natural feel. It works really well with creams and greens – and other natural materials such as sea grass and cane – and pale woods such as light oak or beech.

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G is for… Garden

Our small Pennine garden has woken up – well, started to at least! We’ve been out at the weekend sweeping, potting up seeds, planting strawberries and some colourful annuals.

We have lots of shady corners, so hostas and astilbes do really well.

Ferns like it here too – we’re really fond of these little ones which self-seed and sprout from the old stone walls.

This is another self-seeder. It can take over a bit if left unchecked, but if it’s restricted within pots and cracks between paving it looks wonderful – the bright green leaves and pretty white flowers really lift the shaded areas… and it’s always good to get plants for free!

We have a little project for the summer, renovating this little, old greenhouse which was about to be thrown on the tip. It’s a house in the loosest sense of the word – being only about 4 feet wide. We’ll try not to lose any of its shabby charm, but if it doesn’t get some TLC soon it will fall to pieces.