Surprises

I like when old things jump out at you as if new. I just rediscovered these photos in my iPhoto library.

This week I've been drawing from old cine films which has been so much fun. Will show you how the project is going soon...

Happy weekend :)

New Project

We're doing a big project at uni based on a theme of our own choosing. It's pretty daunting as it's worth half of the marks for the year for the core module so if it goes wrong we could fail the year! So we're all bricking it a bit.

I'm doing mine on my Grandpa's travels around the world in the 1960s and 70s. He was a tobacco trader working in Zimbabwe and regularly made trips to Europe, the Middle East and China sending postcards all the while. So I have a big box of them to use as reference as well as several amazing cine films he took whilst in places like Egypt, New Zealand and Rome. I really want to make the project my own so won't be using any original imagery, but will be doing lots of drawing and hand lettering from the pile of old business cards that also survived my grandparents' move to England. So if this is all you see on here for the next few months you now know why!

Hope you're having a good weekend :)

The Paper Flower Tree

I bought this beautiful book from Amazon on a friend's recommendation a week ago and was kind of dreading its arrival. I'd bought it from Amazon.com rather than .co.uk and had totally forgotten the added shipping costs when I pressed Buy, so hadn't quite got the bargain I thought I had. But when I unwrapped it on Saturday morning I was so thrilled, it was worth every penny.

It was written and illustrated by Jacqueline Ayer in 1962 and I got a first edition. It looked familiar in format to me, and when I held it next to my copy of Edward and the Horse I realised it was released by the same publisher just a year later! Don't you think the illustrations look so contemporary? I've been looking up other works by Ayer but they seem to be pretty rare, perhaps I snagged myself a bargain after all...

Happy Valentines!

I hope you're all tucked up at home this weekend with the ones you love. We've been thrifting today and noticed all the red things that I seem to have found in the last week. How serendipitous. Lots of love to you all xx

Experiments in Letterpress

Last Monday at uni I was given the task of printing Take One Home for the Kiddies by Philip Larkin in letterpress. I wanted to try a bit of everything so my version is a bit of a jumble sale of typefaces and sizes but it was really nice to have a good play! I feel confident that I could use letterpress in my work now without too much bother. It takes ages to set the type up but is so satisfying.