Adieu 2012

The year is finally coming to an end - and what a year it has been, thank you to all the amazing buyers and supporters of handmade in various guises.
I will finally be taking a well earned break over Christmas.

The  New year will bring a new direction for Papa Totoro.

It can only get more interesting.......

A slow Sunday

I have made some storage pods in my favourite pattern and colour combination - Raja in indigo blue ink against crisp white linen with exquisite duck egg blue linen for the lining.

 I only printed enough linen to make three and as I loved them so much I decided to keep one for myself :)

The morning after

A brilliant evening at the Tate where I and nine other very talented Etsy sellers had the opportunity to meet the public and sell our  handmade goods.
It was a very busy and  enjoyable evening, the surroundings were beautiful, the event was well organised with music, pop up bars and a fantastic atmosphere.
It was lovely meeting the people who came to the event - many who were already aware of my shop and some who discovered it for the first time.
It wound down at 9.30 pm, by which time myself and my fabulous helper (and best friend -thank you Val!) were exhausted yet elated at the response and turn out to this amazing event.
By the time we finally packed up and got home it had gone midnight and wearily we all crawled to bed......blissful!

Come along............

And meet myself and nine other Etsy sellers tommorrow evening in London - the Late at Tate 6-9.30pm.
Everthing in my shop will be available for sale - plus some limited edition specials created for the day- come snap up some bargains!

The run up

Its only a few days before the Tate event and Im in the final stages of packing my stock. Neat tubs of carefully labelled and folded items begin to emerge from the chaos of production.

Saying that, I still have a fair amount to do before I can breathe out....lots of itemising, labelling etc is very much in progress - and for my sins some last minute printing needs to be done.

So it might go quiet on my blog for a few days - but as Christmas is almost here I decided to get just a little festive and hang  up some of the clay birds I made...

Packaging and patterns

As the time draws near for the two craft events I have coming up I now put my efforts into packaging and craft display set-ups.
Today I block printed my paper bags that I will be putting the  larger item`s into when they`re sold.

Ive finished all the wrapping paper so I can now do these - its just a nice touch and useful to cart your goodies off in.
 Im also making loads of little  itemised pricing tags as well as paper sleeves for the  tea towels. One thing Ive learnt with events is the importance of presentation.
The last few details for my display will include a large tablecloth I want to block print with lots of cherry blossom for the stand as well as a couple of hanging racks. This week will be busy!

And finally a new special Christmas hamper intended for the Tate event which I actually love more than any of my other pattern. The gorgeous deep chocolate brown of the linen was perfect to print burnt orange and fuschia pink orchids on. This is the basic sewn hamper, tomorrow I will put in the grommets and  leather handles. Definately my favourite pattern and colour combination. So much so Ive made some scarves too!

Indigo bliss

 Today I surveyed the neatly washed and ironed indigo cotton I had cut cut from a huge bolt late last night.
As with any fabric I have to remove any sizing or finish that may hinder my ink from settling into the fibres properly so washing and ironing, tedious though it is remains a necessity.

By mid morning though the pile of fabric was ready and I started to print something that I had woken up in the small hours of the morning with an idea for earlier in the week.
Mini runners - more a feature in the middle of a table rather than a full length runner which I normally make.
I wanted to print a small batch of my lino patterns which I knew would work as strong visual pieces rather than more complicated tjap patterns.

So I chose two, the Madacascan pineapple and the botanical blossom, mixed a touch of ochre with my white ink so it wasnt too stark against the indigo and off I went...

The finished blossom runner-

I carried on with the pineapple...

done!

I also managed to print some placemats with both patterns in the same blue fabric. Now heat setting and hemming!

November 10th

Production is now at full pace and everywhere I look fabric is hanging up to dry, half finished bundles of heat set panels patiently waiting to be sewn and rolls of leather needing to be cut and hole punched.

With two very big events lined up apart from the usual Christmas busy period, mild waves of panic threaten.
Next year I promise myself I will look to get some help - there simply arent enough hours in the day.

I did however manage to make a tiny batch of hampers with the new wallpaper block pattern -Baron.
I only put the one listing in my etsy shop as the others are destined for the Tate, along with my other more ornate wood block patterns.

This week coming I will be printing a new batch of patterns on scarves and tea towels - some lush outsized florals and some peacocks and large birds.
I even have a very neat  work schedule I drew up for the week - which promptly got thrown out the window at the end of day one. Organised chaos is my style - did I mention the good dose of panic?

November 6th

I have recently  tweaked my logo and am now in the process of getting it produced on a rubber stamp for my tags and packaging. My giant orchid still features as the main image with Papa Totoro now going across the top - I still block print my wrapping paper with the full size orchid as it ties in beautifully with the rest of my new packaging.

Orchids and totoro`s......they even sit on my shelf chatting away to each other

Indigos and Pinks

I love a hot pop of colour in really vibrant tones, so I tend to combine certain colours alot - indigo blue and fuschia pink is one of my favourite combinations. I never mix a batch of ink up the same so sometimes the blue is darker or the pink is more blush than pop!

I havent printed my woodblock hunt scene in a long while - and as my work load increases I find some of my patterns slipping off the radar as its difficult to keep everything in stock and printed regularly.

So as I had a batch of blue and pink freshly mixed up today I printed some tea towels in two patterns - The Hunt and Geisha fans.

The runner

I finally printed my new runner pattern this morning - I decided on a rich mandarin red.

And now theyre done - some will be available in my shop and I will keep some for the craft events I have in December.  I have a number of other projects to complete before mid- November so Im glad this one is ready.

Inking up

Today I printed scarves in a surreal butterflies and skull pattern which is one of my favourites despite being quite abstract in form. I hope the flaming red linen will work.

Then I decided to ink up a pattern for a new Christmas table runner Ive had on my mind for a while using some tjaps and wallpaper blocks Ive been dying to use.

Its quite a laborious process inking the tjaps and repeatedly block printing a  new pattern template which needs regular tweaking.
Doesnt help when your three year old decides she wants to squeeze onto the already heaving table (ink, tjaps, paper etc) and decides this is the best time to start her own masterpiece with the (foolishly) laid out ink I was poised to use.

This is the end result fifteen hectic minutes later at which point she serenley  wandered off covered in paint and oblivious to the disaster she left in her wake.

So after a bit of a clear-up I carried on printing - starting off with the bird at the top. However I kept changing the lay-out as the pattern needed to flow smoothly and coherently without breaks  whilst still achieving that lush factor I have in my head (!)

I usually cut out some of the print when its just not working for me and use it to help with the next attempt at a  lay-out.

Finally I got there - a lay-out that Im happy with (ish)

I re-inked it up again and joined the two halves together to form the entire 2 meters of what will be the full runner length. I use these templates when I come to print my patterns - most of the fairly complicated lay-outs I have will have gone through this process and then I have a visual guide for when I come to block print the fabric.
Bearing in mind I work free hand and by eye when I block print each piece of fabric, they  will never be an exact duplicate of the ink -up but always a very close match.
The final lay-out -

So now I will decide what colour ink to mix for this pattern - I will probably keep it to one colour rather than two as its quite busy on the eye already being ornate in detail.

The Tate Britain

This December Im going to be doing something very exciting.  Tate Britain have asked ten sellers (of handmade items) to collaborate with them to promote their Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde: Exhibition. 12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
We were asked to each write a blog on a particular piece within that exhibition - I chose a William Morris block printed fabric panel (naturally) - The Crayfish.
Our blogs have already begun to be posted on the Tate Britain site - mine is scheduled for 26th October.
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On the 7th December we will also be involved in the Late at Tate Britain: The Pre-Raphaelites - if you are in London that evening pop in - you get to meet us all. 
We`ll be selling a variety our handmade items that evening and there will also be music and a variety of other forms of entertainment.

I decided to make a special range of items geared towards this event - so it will be mainly the highly ornate patterns like Baron, Big Ben,  Raja and Madame Wong and lots of blowsy exotic flowers and fauna that I will focus on.

Here is the new wood block pattern in print - Baron.

Christmas owl

The finished hamper in red - I used scarlet red linen for the lining and mixed my ink to match it.

Boggy and wet

Today started off wet and soggy - just like it has for the last three weeks. Heavy rain at night and thin  incessant drizzle during the day means we constantly squish through murky puddles and (if you`re particularly unlucky) fox poo.
My resident fox is firmly entrenched in our garden - he seems to like the fact he has good cover and a source of winter food (the heavy laden grapevines and a good array of slugs and snails..eeww )
However he also feels the need to 'mark' his territory out by regular deposits....

On a nicer note the garden has peaked and from this point the deciduous plants will start their beautiful riots of reds and russet leaf displays before becoming bare.
Ive already popped the fleece into my tree ferns before the first real frosts. However as the majority of my garden is evergreen it will always be lovely to look out the window even when its bitterly cold/wet and or both!

I also had a red print run - its almost Christmas so red is always a good colour for the festive season.
I had been meaning to make a small batch of  hampers geared towards the holiday period but was so busy that it was a nice coincidence I was asked to make a custom red owl hamper by a customer. So this morning I started to print the owl in red instead of the blue- I can only make tiny batches -so five or less hampers at a  time as my lino sheet becomes too saturated with ink, so losing detail. Its also a two stage process as after Ive printed the owl I then have to block print the lotus flower all around each one.

Im also going to be creating as I mentioned a few days ago some new linen runners with birds and blossom using some vintage tjaps - I will ink a pattern up first as it will have to span a  two meter length so its very important for me to block  print everything first before I start to print. I`ll post the ink up once its done.

A parcel

Oct 12

In December Im going to be involved in a very special project that I will be able to blog about very soon. Its tremendously exciting but will mean I have to be very productive over and beyond the normal Christmas levels - I will also be creating a new range  for this event which wont be stocked in my Etsy shop so you may see some of them here in the making.
It will involve some new patterns - predominantly ornate and exotic wallpaper block patterns  - one which Im extremely excited about as its a new block- beautiful....
In the meantime here are a couple of tjaps which I will be printing with.  I think I`ll team the bird with other  tjaps to make a  lush 'birds amongst blossom' lay-out.

For my Etsy shop Im in printing overdrive - the overflow of drying, freshly printed fabric from my studio now fill my living room floor waiting to be heat set and stacked in the "to sew" tubs. Ive even got the odd finished item!!

You have to...

 Absolutely love what you do ...even when you`re flagging and wondering whats the point really?

So in simple pictures heres what I love to do - every back breaking, ink smudged minute of it.

printing Raja

block printing

Inking up my giant owl lino pattern

My foo dog and auspicious clouds lino patterns as a tea towel.

My addiction....tjaps - this is one of my collection. Peacocks are one of my favourite themes.

My orchid lino pattern

Another of my linocuts - Madagascan pineapple

and the giant silkmoth I carved at the same time as the pineapple and orchid - thoughts of my childhood.

Funny things you see in London

The duck boat

 .....which make you smile!

And once we got back home I realised I had run out of tissue wrapping paper  for my shop stock.
So my three year old and I had a bit of morning fun bock printing a new batch up (at least she tried and then  decided it was far more interesting to paint herself up to the elbows)
She  had a small butterfly tjap to print with, much to her delight

And I used a simple orchid tjap for this batch of paper...

An hour later and I had enough wrapping paper to keep me going for a bit so I decided to call it a day.
Im hoping to get some new tjaps this week so will be experimenting with new pattern lay-outs for a few Christmas editions items.

September blues

As September is the start of the busy stock building season for me its easy to get stuck in a repetitive rut as I spend large stretches of time doing the same thing (block printing, sewing, heat setting, cutting measuring, the list goes on) in regular cycles.

I decided one morning to stretch my wings and instead of the scheduled sewing slot I had lined up, to try and make a mini  carry all tote.

I had a batch of linen washed and ready to go. I even trialed a rough template for the shape bag I had in mind. It didnt work though so I decided to tweak my existing tote template.

I picked three tjaps with strong patterns to print the linen with and mixed up a soft oyster grey ink and a deep olive green for the other patterns.

I wont bore you with the inbetween bits Ive covered in previous posts about the process of printing and sewing the fabric up - best to skip to the end and show you one I finished....

Tools of beauty

Now my studio is nearly complete Im able to hang my tjaps and wallpaper blocks properly on custom made racks on the wall. Problem is my collection is larger than my wall space. Some of the square tjaps are now stored like this in my spare wall hung units and the free form and larger ones - mostly the big florals and pairs are wall hung.
And of course my love affair with wallpaper blocks is ever present...
These beautiful antique blocks are massive in scale, some are over 2 ft in width alone and are all intricate metal pins and lines set into a huge slab of wood - oak was commonly used.

 They are the hardest to print with but often the most beautiful patternwise.  Im making a small batch of special large fabric hampers to stock in my shop at Christmas (yes Im thinking that far) which I will use these blocks for.