Craft Fair

So two craft fairs under my belt and its been an experience! Sales were good, much better at the second Fair in North London where the surrounding were beautiful and the farmers market was in full swing.
I feel like there arent enough hours in the day to print, design new patterns, carve lino or source inks and blocks - plus Im itching to paint our recently sourced vintage kitchen chairs (from an old church, wooden old school style with a gorgeous little shelf at the back of each one designed to hold the bible)
Yet I feel a sense of achievement, minor as it may be.

Soooooooooo weary.....

What can I say, exhaustion is gently filtering in and my printing overdrive session is beginning to take its toll. Im gearing up for the craft fairs and creating as many new patterns as possible, plus Ive started to make my own tea towels as I wanted to offer a larger more deluxe size which could encompass my patterns that bit better and give me greater scope.
Ive decided to also offer a linen range of tea towels for Christmas and create some linen cushions featuring my more popular patterns.
But Im soooooo tired.........!

Autumn draws in.....

It feels like the weather has suddenly switched and now the blustery wet months kick in..... no point in being despondent - Im printing flat out at the moment, two craft fairs in the pipeline so stock to amass!
Ive decided to extend the colours of my dyed tea towels to include red, yellow and deep petrol blue to the grey and green I already do. The darker the colour the better the white ink comes out, especially with block printing as I apply pressure by hand rather than machinery I need the impressions to be crisp and bold. So here are some recent patterns, both ornate and bold, destined for the craft fairs ..

The handmade ribbon part 2

So creative juices were flowing and I finally stopped printing fabric and painting ceilings(!) to make some ribbon to go round my hand printed wrapping tissue.
So I bought a roll of high quality cotton herringbone tape - the stuff normally used for apron ties etc. Then I pre-washed it to remove sizing, cut it to size required and ironed each piece nice and flat. Next I chose the three sets of patterns I was going to use - a gorgeous kawaii pony brown rubber stamp set, a maneki neko goodluck cat and a wooden indian butterfly floral set.
I inked them up using versacraft black (tried red but it wast as impactive) and got stamping.
The last step will be to iron them, so once heat set they can we safely washed ad re-used if the recipient wants to keep them.....some will be binned no doubt with the rest of the packaging but either way I want to make it special. So which pattern do you like?










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Making wrapping tape

I love packaging....I try and make every aspect of my packaging appealing and hand crafted - my wrapping tissue is hand printed with a large orchid and I used to tie a simple hessian string around that. Now though I want something more sophisticated than hessian string -and more reflective of my style, so Im going to use one of my lino patterns as a template for a print block - something Ive been wanting to do for years - create my own wooden print blocks - Im used to carving lino and making patterns from that but now ive found a fantatstic company in india which will emply artisans to carve your own pattern in wood.
The next step will be to use my print block to print on cotton ribbon instead of the hessian as part of the packaging - Im going to make three or four ribbon patterns - some kawaii, some ornate blooms, some geometric - which will reflect the types of patterns I print, so for example a kawaii pattern tea towel will be beautifully presented and wrapped in kawaii themed packaging, all hand made.
But first look at this massive vintage wallpaper printing block, almost a foot in length and a beast of a wooden slab, with thousands of tiny pins embedded in the wood to create the most beautiful and ornate architectural repeat pattern. This is an example of some of the finest workmanship in Maccelsfield, where they made wallpaper and fabric printing blocks that were envied the world over. Im thinking of creating a repeat on a larger piece of linen - such an intricate pattern needs a longer run than my normal tea towel size, possibly in greens and russets to suit the season.
I print with these huge blocks in a rather uncoventional way as I dont have any press or equipment (yes the studio is still work in progress and a mini building site) so I
Hand press the old fashioned way. Each massive block is inked with a small sponge and then once placed on the fabric is weighed down with weights (I often stand on the block and walk around it to distribute the ink evenly)and hey presto! carefully lift the block and the pattern has transferred beautifully. I should download some footage of me doing this but its pure comedy in reality - jumping up and down on a massive slab of wood whilst my children watch round eyed and slightly suspect of their mothers sanity.....

Block printing repeat patterns

So its been a creative time, so not enough hours in the day to squeeze in much of what I want to - hence few posts here. I have been block printing, and sourcing new vintage printing blocks to piece together new patterns - this is one of them, made from three different print blocks, some wood, some copper - my daughter seems to like it!

Giggling geisha and stern madames!

I decided to print some of my kokeshi doll geishas in a bold colour run. Then as they came out I realised they would be perfect teamed with my stern geisha Madame.... the perfect contrast to the young giggling girls - a figure of admonishment and authority.

And of course my favourite kawaii creation after my maneki cats... Kawaii Soo, he just makes me smile without fail!

A saturday at the market

A trip to Greenwich market meant a refreshing boost of creative energy all around me, (and the rain held off for a while) so I traipsed home and decided to do that kawaii print run I had been meaning to for ages...

Carving lino and rubber stamps

So I love to carve lino (and shoddy eye sight as a consequential price to pay for spending hours squinting over a lino sheet meticulously carving fine detail whilst muttering about the pains of being an artist..) Hence my burning need to create finer detail and more elaborate ornate pattern on it - so Ive started to carve my paisley, which looking at the scale of detail will take a good couple of weeks to finish - Im such an impatient Ive even started carving the tail detail before Ive finished drawing the head - but I often work like this - the buring need to carve often outstrips the patient requirement of finalising the drawing.

Then I realised I could also carve rubber stamps - Ive seen such pretty ones on etsy Im dying to try it - I bought a piece of rubber from a etsy seller in singapore and was in raptures as I opened the package..she had wrapped it exquisitely ( a simple blank rubber stamp purchase) and enclosed a beautiful little hand written note on the most adorable kawaii memo pad sheet featuring the gorgeous San-X Boots Kutusita Nyanko and included a couple of pattern sheets etc to start me off. I was smitten, in love... I promptly bought a similar San-X boots memo pad to scribble on that evening.
The rubber sheet proved to be a soft version of lino - Im hooked! I started off by trying a basic little totoro pattern I already created for use on printing my tea towels alongside some of my other kawaii characters. Its turned out fine. Im going to mould a polymer clay handle for it so I can grip it easily whilst stamping or printing with it...Im a hand printer so I know all the little things you need for ease of use in a tool.
Then I really got inspired.. I had bought this rubber sheet to create some of my own rubber stamps of kawaii creatures.
 Im going to create a range of larger sized kawaii stamps ranging from the simple shape like my tester totoro to far more detailed pieces like my maneki neko delivery kitty... I LOVE this (my creativity has bubbled all of a sudden and my mind is racing as to the potential patterns I can create). Though goodness knows how Im going to fit this into my already packed shedule, I have tons of fabric to print, custom orders to get out and some orders for my textured plaster panel work...all done whilst the baby and 6 year old sleep at night ( or not as it turns out...who has the formula for children to sleep through the night without getting up at least 4 times...6 years on and I havent seen an unbroken nights sleep..ho hum)

envy....

Dont some people simply make you sick with envy, sheer talent pouring and oozing out of every pore.....I adore the work of this etsy seller http://www.etsy.com/shop/melinamartin. The most beautiful original drawings translated onto tea towels.....beautiful......oh so beautiful, isnt this picture just exquisite? pure talent, she`s one to watch..

A rather bleary eyed morning following a rare night out in blackheath with my best friend Val....I must be showing my age, pimms and lemonade with a cheeky glass of merlot halfway through. Thankfully blackheath is still much calmer than central london hence our choice for a get together and proper chin wag. This morning its a brief trip into tow for a spot of retail therapy and then this evening it will be some more work on a new lino pattern Im drawing - what will eventally be a very intricate and exotic paisley with floral accents throughout....but first a glass of water and panadol..

Lino printing

Lino printing....botanical prints and Foo dogs

Another late night lino printing, children are in bed and I have an order to complete...this time to create a range of patterns for contribution in a crafts book. The Foo dog in deep prussian blue works well so I started a repeat pattern for a yard of fabric, only got to the third lion and I ran out of ink.....so moved onto the botanical print and tried it in turquoise which looked beautiful so that will be recreated as a repeat on a larger piece of fabric too.

Back to work

So a series of patterns on larger pieces of fabric, Ill start with some ornate floral patterns, then some architectural patterns and finally some kawaii - possibly the foo dog, maneki neko cats, kokeshi dolls and a new geisha and russian doll set - some of my favourite creations on lino - and I might even hand dye the linen first in ochres or greens. Anyway this is the koko sabu orchid pattern in mustard, orange and a dash of pink.

Inspiration

I collect too much, thats definately something I must attempt greater self control with - I adore kawaii fabrics, motifs and all permutations of kawaii. Yet I also love intricate ornate indian/chinese/indonesian floral patterns, the more exotic and large scale the better, I got shivers down my spine when I spotted a gorgeous print one day in vivid lime/olive/citrus/ochre colours on a blowsy tropical orchid print....inspiring!
I do love carved indian architecture too - one day I WILL obtain one of those beautiful 10ft tall double hand carved doors that clearly cost more than an arm and a leg! What I have managed to source are beautiful carved mirrors, once painted white and distressed lightly to accentuate the carved detail they look beautiful coupled with my life size (and incredibly heavy) solid bronze buddha.

and of course my courtyard project in the garden is beginning to come to fruition - the flagstone slabs are down, the grapevine is really kicking in and the pergola is nearly finished - the specimen grapevine is planted in a giant vietnamese pot and nestled against the gorgeous brick wall which is all that is left from a incredible world war II bunker we found in the garden - it really was a house that had been untouched since the thirties..

Its been a manic week - printing non stop and now to do some plasterwork for some relief imprinting on canvas - possibly my true passion! speaking of passions the gardens coming along.. more bamboo to soften hard fencing, tree ferns to lush it out and my cycads are opening up..at last!
With warm blowsy weather Im always inspired so I finally started to print some fabric I had in mind months ago - orchids and butterflies...

Block printing a lotus pattern

So I came across a white butterfly with red spots in the garden and it inspired a print run....

A red print run

So many things to cover, such little time, since moving to a wreck of a house (good location decent sized garden.... but house falling to bits, untouched since the thirties) and spending every penny and spare moment doing it up ourselves, from gutting it down to the foundations at up to the roof tiles, electrics, central heating, windows, doors, plastering.....the list goes on and on - and of course the garden......once a bare patch of lawn, lawn and more lawn, two years of double digging in good ole london clay soil, planting bamboos, cycads, tree ferns, palms, specimen grapevines, acers, wisteria, olive trees....I now have the start of what will ow be my final tropical garden, my previous homes ive had to sadly leave behind established gardens, so I kept lots of the specimen stuff in pots and now its time to put everything in the ground. My passion though must be the fernery....lush emerald green fronds unfurl shaded by magnificent dicksonia antarticas and thuggish gunnera, soon I`ll be walking underneath their huge canopy leaves...
And of course my love of buddhas...

spring is here...I think

So spring is in the air.... and my garden is coming to life....

Printing late again!

There are some days you know you shouldnt do much and this was one of them - started printing and it just didnt happen - smudges, badly placed arrangements on the fabric (I do it all by eye and work freehand) resulted in a batch of seconds - never mind, one print did work and its a good blowsy floral :)

New Blog

So this is my first post on my brand new blog....I figured it was time to join the crowds! Its Sunday and Ive been printing all week trying out new patterns and colours.... now I need to choose which ones work together as sets..