November Roundup

A little November update, and a little peek at some of the stuff i've been up to in November (and some of October... I've been a bit slack at keeping track!)

Illustration Friday - Tree

Illustration Friday - Tree

Illustration friday - Shy - 2/11/12

Illustration Friday - Shy

Frankfurt Illustration frenzy

In September, I was commissioned to produce a set of 104 smallish illustrations for various projects going off to be showcased at Frankfurt book fair earlier this month. It was a daunting project with so little time. But I managed to pull it off!

Norwich Print Fair

I can't get over just how quickly this year has gone! It really doesn't seem a year since the last Norwich Print fair exhibition.

There were some fab artists at this years fair, and if I had more money, would definitely have bought something more than a couple of postcards, hopefully next year. There were just so many fantastic prints to choose from. There are certainly some new local artists I shall be watching out for (and saving up for).

Autumn goodness

A quick little Sept/Oct update, and an Instagrammy snapshot of what we've been up to in Sept/Oct.

Patchwork Cushion Mk.2 - Tutorial(ish)

In the light of my recent worky projects I've been feeling a little bit crafty, so I decided I'd have a go at another patchwork cushion.

Whilst I was making it, I thought it would be fun to take a few photos and post up a bit of a tutorial... I took the pictures on my phone - so sorry about the poor quality! I hope it makes sense too, I've not written a tutorial before... so any suggestions on how I could improve would be welcome!

Step 1 - Choose 6 different fabrics, and cut strips of 90mm x 540mm from each fabric. Then cut these up again into six equal squares, measuring 90mm x 90mm. It helps if you use a rotary cutter, and cutting mat! you should have 36 squares altogether. (I didn't take pics of this... but you end up with lots of 90mm x 90mm squares)

Step 2 - On the back of each square, measure draw a line 5mm in from each side using a water soluble pen, or tailors chalk. This will be your seam allowance.

Step 3 - Arrange your squares into the pattern you'd like them to be on your cushion front.

I decided to use lots of orange
fabrics for this cushion.  

Exciting projects

It's been a while, but I've been given a super exciting project to work on, so I've been a little stacked out. It involves fabric, so I've been organising my fabric stash.

I've also become a bit of an instagram addict.

Patchwork Cushion

Ok, so, I did this cushion a little while ago, and it was up on etsy for a little while. Then, one night I realised how sad I'd be if it was sold, so I whipped it off the internet, and it now has pride of place in my living room.

Front

I used a mix of new and charity shop fabrics, and for a first attempt at patchwork, i'm really pleased with the result. I think there shall be more to follow!

Back

The fabric for the back came from a charity shop, I think it might have been an ikea bedspread in its first incarnation.

My photography has improved since I took these photos! I love these fabrics though! I can see me making many more patchwork cushions in the future, and maybe even letting some go to new homes...

Juke Jonah - Work in Progress

A while ago the fab 'Juke and The All-Drunk Orchestra' commissioned me to paint them an image. I took a few snaps (only poor quality phone pics i'm afraid) as I went along.

I dug out the old G4 to work downstairs

A little texture

In it's new home

After a little Photoshopping

Thanks to Juke and the All Drunk Orchestra for commissioning this, I had a fab time painting it, and I hope they enjoy it.

Illustration Friday - Refresh (Somewhat late)

Refresh - a little bit of a stylistic experiment.

Illustration Friday - 'Secret'

Illustration Friday - 'Secret'

I've been meaning to do Illustration Friday for quite a while now, and have finally got round to it. Hopefully I can keep it up!

This week's word was 'Secret'

I played on the definition: 'something that is or is kept secret, hidden, or concealed' 

It's a bit of a quick black and white silhouette experiment in Illustrator, I may continue playing with the image, using this as a starting point. 

Birthday papercut

I made a papercut card for dads birthday.

Papercuts seem to be my medium of choice at the moment... they're really quite fun. So expect to see more soon!

A Fine City - Papercut

I've been working on a little personal project lately - a papercut. I used to do a lot of pop ups while at college, and really missed playing about with paper and scalpels. So I decided to have a little bash at a papercut to get back into it. 

It's based it on two iconic parts of Norwich - the market roofs and the castle. I took a lot of inspiration from old transport posters.

I also had a go at a time lapse too - it's amazing what you can do on your phone these days! It was my fist attempt and I missed the start of me cutting bits out, but I learned a lot, and i'm pretty pleased with the results. 

Exciting times....

I'm having a bit of a rebrand, new logo, new website, new work online...

New beginnings really... i'm on the brink of going freelance, and am really looking forward to it. I've been  testing the water a little lately, and have really enjoyed the work I've been getting, so it's now time to bite the bullet, jump in the deep end and go for it!

My new logo is a little bit of a re-styling of a doodle I did a while ago. It features an owl. Although I think the owl is slightly over-used at the moment; for me he symbolises knowledge and learning and seeing as I  want to continue to work doing information based design (amongst other things), either for publishers, or museums, the owl is a symbol of wisdom. I also stay up too late, and have a soft spot for birds.

Here he is:

He's sitting on a pencil too, I use a lot of pencils while sketching out ideas, so it seemed like the obvious replacement for a branch.

He occasionally appears in orange as well:

I'd love to hear any thoughts on him!

So, while waiting for Indesign to take an age to to make me a PDF of my book so far (it's a 96 page boys sticker book, with an Uber-short deadline), I thought i'd take the time to post some pics of my adventures in crochet so far:

So, I've made 9 squares so far, so i've got a way to go before I get a blanket out of them! But I've been doing a little bit every now and then, and their numbers keep growing, so I have faith that one day, there will be a blanket!

I've got Pip at meetmeatMikes to thank for helping me get to grips with the squares. There are some fab tutorials here:
http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.co.uk/p/granny-squares-101.html

Mine are nowhere near as nice as hers yet, but I reckon i'll try to master some fancier ones sometime soon... Watch this space!

I'm excited about the crochet, once i've mastered the granny squares, i'm going to have a bash at something else, maybe some amigurami...

Though i'm now quite tempted to try needle felting...

Finished patchwork!

So, I finished the mothers day cushion, and never posted a pic!

... So here's a couple of the finished cushion. It's not strictly a patchwork cushion, seeing as I used fabric glue to stick the flower thing to the front...but time was tight, and mum loved it anyway!

In other news, I've been learning to crochet, and have taken on a fairly nightmare-y design job.

But CROCHET! I'll post pics soon!!

F x

Getting there...

It's coming along, i'm hoping to be finished soon!

Mothers day patchwork

Tonight I'm making my Mum a patchwork cushion for Mothers Day.

I'm not a fan of the commercial side of these kinds of holidays, and I know my mum would rather I gave her something that I spent time making and considering. I think it's a lot more personal, and special to receive something handmade.

Mothers day is a great excuse to break out the creativity and show your mum you really care. There's some great bit and bobs on etsy too for people who have less time to make things, but still want to get something unique and handmade by independent crafters/artists.

I'm a big fan of etsy, and plan to get my shop back up and running soon!