colour + sound

Lovely plants

2012-01-28T14:32:00.000Z

I'm spending today mucking about with freshly painted paper to make jungle plants. It's not for anything in particular but I recently read a great book called To The last City by Colin Thubron about a group of people who travel along the Inca trails in Peru. It contained some lovely descriptions of plants and birds in the cloud forests. I'm just not sure what to do with these yet, any ideas?

Have a great weekend!

Arcades

2012-01-20T17:15:00.001Z

These were some photos I've had on my computer since Bonfire Night when we went to Southend. I love arcades for the colours and lights. I thought I'd share them as it's so grey and horrid outside today.

In other news, I've been interviewed by the lovely Stephanie Levy for her site Artists Who Blog. I'm a big fan of Stephanie's colourful work and I love that she takes the time to get to know other artists. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a lovely weekend!

Matchbox labels

2012-01-15T21:29:00.001Z

I bought some matchbox labels and have been having enjoying playing with them. It's fun working out what order the colours were printed. This weekend I also made almond biscotti and a robot costume. Hope you had a good one!

Giving it away

2012-01-09T16:51:00.001Z

I'm getting back into the groove of doing some illustration work alongside the day jobs. I've just completed a really exciting commission (which I'll reveal once it's gone to print) and this was a little self-set piece about ignorance that I did today.

The article was about how we tend to outsource responsibility to people we feel know more about say, economics, or environmental matters than we do. Interestingly, the less we know about a subject the more likely we are to avoid finding out about it. Head in the sand stuff. I thought the idea of passing blame was interesting, hence the balloons changing hands.

Don't quote me on it.

2011-12-27T17:37:00.003Z

I did a little illustration this week (between Christmas wrapping and eating) about misquotation. I'm enjoying playing with books in my work, they're such simple lovely shapes.

What good books did you get for Christmas? I got The Help by Kathryn Stockett, I bought my Dad Salt by Mark Kurlansky and my chap The Worst Journey on Earth by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. I'm now settling into Vanity Fair, which is brilliant. It does have nearly a thousand pages of bible-like paper though, so it's going to take me til next Christmas to finish, but I love it.

What are you reading this winter?

Merry Christmas

2011-12-22T15:47:00.000Z

Thanks so much to all that have read my blog or bought from my Etsy shop this year. It means the world to me. Have a wonderful Christmas and an energetic start to 2012!

Lots of love,

Anna

Closure

2011-11-14T21:39:00.001Z

A little self-set editorial that I worked on over the weekend about 'Closure'. You can read the article here.

Omnicrom

2011-11-04T19:40:00.001Z

Have you ever heard of, or even used this stuff before? It's a shiny sheet of colour that you put ontop of a photocopied image then apply heat. In the 80s of course there would have been heated rollers for this, but I made do with an iron. Where there's carbon, the colour will stick. Isn't it great?

I am now the happy owner of a whole pile of it that was going to be thrown away at uni. The colours are fab, and now I just need to think of an interesting way to use it. Any ideas? I think I need to experiment with getting a really dark photocopy as these were copies of quick pencil drawings, and the colour hasn't fully stuck. I like the texture though.

Dinosaur disco

2011-10-25T19:30:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I decided I wanted to do things differently this year. Cambridge is in the middle of it's brilliant Festival of Ideas, so my friends and I attended evening openings of five museums in town - each brought to life with music, light and alcohol. The Museum of Zoology is a brilliant place during the day, but lit up and with the addition of a DJ, it was like the coolest nightclub EVER. Such a good time!

3D lettering and 60s ski slopes

2011-10-16T22:02:00.000+01:00

So I have a new brooch design in the shop and wanted to show you a little of my thinking behind it. I was looking at a 3D full stop that I saw on a vintage business card that my grandpa was given on a trip to Europe in the 1960s. You may remember the project I did on his travels a while back, and this was the drawing I made from said business card. He filmed some of the skiing he and my granny did on the trip too and I thought it was rather wonderful. Aren't their outfits funny?

The District 'Project Yellow'

2011-10-13T10:29:00.001+01:00

My new job working at design agency The District has been very yellow-themed so far. We've recently set up a collection of yellow objects in the exhibition space, The Front Room, for which I am now booking new artists.

The Front Room has been host to a wealth of interesting people setting up special exhibitions often unique to the space. You can see past events here, and the rest of Project Yellow on the flickr set here.

If you are interested in using the space please get in touch!

Fedrigoni Commission

2011-10-06T18:21:00.000+01:00

I recently did a lovely little job for paper company Fedrigoni, to promote a lunchtime event they are holding. It was an open brief and had to include something about lunch. I'm a big fan of olives, so it started from there. Yum.

Pop of colour

2011-09-30T13:42:00.001+01:00

The amazing sunshine we've had this week in the UK has had me ogling my vintage paper stash. And here is the result, new zingy collages for the shop.

Walk like an Egyptian

2011-09-25T14:26:00.001+01:00

I made some camel brooches for a customer and decided to do a few extra for the shop. I like what a weird shape camels are. I drew this one whilst watching some amazing footage my grandpa took in Egypt in the 1960s. He travelled allover the place selling tobacco from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and went to over 100 countries in his life. Amazing! This snippet was from a trip in September 1965. I love it.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Mailers, Vermeer and internships

2011-09-14T20:42:00.000+01:00

Well hello! Long time no blog.

I thought you'd like to see some promo cards I've had printed up to send out to prospective art director types. I decided to do two versions, one for editorial and one for narrative/book illustration stuff and am happy with the way the colours tie together across both.

In other news, I've been working at the Fitzwilliam Museum on a catalogue of Vermeer paintings for the upcoming exhibition for the last two months. It's been really interesting. I've also been interning for the same time at The District which has been lovely, especially as they're re-branding and I got to paint lots of thing yellow!

I hope you've had a lovely summer and that it doesn't yet feel long ago. I hope to be a more blog-active from now on, so see you soon!

Genova

2011-08-28T23:25:00.000+01:00

We spent a lovely few days relaxing in Genova, this week. The weather was warm and perfect for strolling around in the evenings by the harbour.

Genova is a small town in northern Italy with few English-speakers, so we got to practice our rolling Rrrrs lots. We also went on the double-decker train to Sestri Levante, a pretty beach resort and visited the Aquarium - one of Europe's largest apparently.

The photo at the top demonstrates the amazing 3D paint effects many Genovese buildings are decorated with to look like dressed stone. I found them fascinating.

So back to Blighty, and to work, but first a long weekend to recover... Hope you're having a happy summer.

Kettle brooches

2011-08-08T21:30:00.000+01:00

I managed to get a couple of hours on the laser cutter last week and made these new kettle brooches. Available in the shop in red and soft white for now, but I have just received a package of turquoise perspex - so who knows what might appear soon!

New Designers

2011-07-31T20:23:00.001+01:00

Hello! What a long gap that turned out to be...

My classmates and I had an amazing time at New Designers in London at the beginning of July - I can't believe how quickly the last few weeks have gone. It seems only yesterday that I stayed with family in Islington. It was so much fun, I had a gorgeous ten-minute stroll to the exhibition centre each morning, so was very spoilt.

I'm now working at The Fitzwilliam Museum and interning at The District which is keeping me pretty busy. I really need to do some new work of my own though. Any tips for a jump-start? I'm thinking of doing some book covers as a nice exercise. What have you read and enjoyed lately?

Hope you're all enjoying a bit of a summer break. We just booked a cheap holiday here for the end of August - are you jealous? I'm going to eat my own weight in olives!

Look after the pennies

2011-06-19T22:56:00.000+01:00

I found this lovely little elephant bank at a car boot sale today. I've always wanted a Carlton ware moneybox but they're a bit out of my price range, so this was rather exciting. We're going to use it to save up for something special.

Good things!

2011-06-12T13:11:00.000+01:00

This week the results of the YCN's Student Awards were announced and I was commended for my entry! My classmate Dom was also commended for his work on the Open University brief, so we'll both be off to the ceremony in London in September where (I think) an overall winner of each category is announced - correct me if I'm wrong on that. Last year's event looked great!

New Website

2011-06-03T21:42:00.002+01:00

Get your bookmarks ready, I have a new professional website for my Illustration!

www.annabetts.com

Degree Show

2011-06-03T21:13:00.003+01:00

Last night was our Degree Show private view, and it was great. This last fortnight had been so stressful getting everything set up, painting boards, printing work, mounting, making special envelope boxes for 150 sets of postcards etc etc. So to see it all finished and everyone dressed up was lovely. We even borrowed a RNIB collection dog from the chaps at The District which we re-labelled for our purposes, to raise money for Van-hire to London for New Designers! It certainly added something to the show...

And the Winner is.....

2011-05-31T09:56:00.000+01:00

...the wonderful Darryl Joel Berger from red-handed! Congratulations! Do send me your address and I'll send it. Thanks so much for everyone who commented, I'll have to do more of these...

200th Etsy sale Giveaway!

2011-05-25T20:31:00.003+01:00

Yippee! Today I hit my 200th Etsy sale, and to celebrate I'll be giving away one of my unique paper collages. They're made from mostly vintage paper cut into diamond shapes and mounted onto fresh white card measuring 8x10". To enter leave a comment below and I'll draw the winner on Monday at noon UK time. Good luck! And thanks to all of you who've bought from my little shop over the past couple of years, it's truly appreciated.

Last-minute panic

2011-05-23T19:22:00.002+01:00

The degree show is just around the corner and the fear is starting to set in. Faced with a rather large hole in my exhibition, I've been working on a new (or rather old) article from a winter edition of Elle Deco from Lucie's impressive archives. This was a bit of a new challenge as the article required three illustrations, and was quite light-hearted and called for something decorative. I certainly enjoyed it though, getting back into cutting paper. What do you think?

Flowerpress Brooch Swap

2011-05-17T20:18:00.003+01:00

I'm taking part in Flowerpress' brooch swap so I've been seeking inspiration and putting together some clues for the person making a brooch for me. I've got til 21st June to come up with something, how exciting! Are any of you lovely lot involved?

Anonymous no more

2011-05-11T08:04:00.004+01:00

This week I worked on an article about the internet and the increasing likelihood that we will be identifiable by the sites we visit.

I've started to notice it myself lately. I once went on the Habitat website to look at sofas and rugs and for a few months now an advert for a particular rug I looked at has appeared repeatedly in sponsored advert panes in third party websites. Does that seem strange?

In other exciting news, I'm having a website of my own made this week! But, I won't try and steal your identity or anything if you visit it. I promise.

It's the future!

2011-05-04T21:07:00.001+01:00

This afternoon I finished this editorial about 3-D printing, which is the craziest thing I've ever heard of.

In a few years time, according to some, we will all be able to download and manufacture anything from clothes to body parts on 3-D "additive manufacturing" machines - just like using a home printer. The machines work by building layer upon layer of atoms of a certain material according to a minutely-detailed design. It sounds a little far-fetched but imagine the possibilities! I wonder what it will mean for sites like Etsy, and for the future of "handmade"! Exciting stuff.

PS - Do you like my box kite?

PPS - I just realised how girly the colours are in my illustration, which is for a GQ article. Whoops. Do I change it?

Bacteria... yum.

2011-05-04T11:52:00.002+01:00

This week I've been working on a really tricky article about "Bioleaching", an increasingly used method of extracting rare earth metals from low-grade ore with the use of rock-eating bacteria. Delicious.

I really struggled with this one and for some reason I can't get the colours to pop on blogger like they do in the original, but trust me it's a much livelier orange and turquoise combo. Now, on to an article about 3-D printing. Erk.

I'm making a satchel

2011-04-27T14:38:00.000+01:00

cardboard templates

drawing out the pieces

two layers for base of bag, saddle-stitched together

Apparently I've finished university FOREVER. I'm so sad it's over. We've still got to hand in all our work in a couple of weeks, put up a degree show and do New Designers in London so it's not quite goodbye yet but I miss it already. Despite this, I've been working on a project that has filled me with unexpected amounts of joy.

Working with leather is a bit tricky, but when you slice through its buttery softness with a sharp knife or set your first rivet it's just the most exciting material. I chose a beautiful dark tan leather and brass fittings - and so far, so good. I wanted to make a portrait-format rectangular satchel with backpack straps, to carry my laptop around. I love the old school satchels around at the moment but couldn't find any backpacks in a similar style. I am beyond excited to see how it turns out!

Good Sport

2011-04-15T13:58:00.000+01:00

You won't need to know me well to know that I'm no great sports fan. This editorial from GQ magazine (which until this week I suspected was a slightly porno lads' mag) was therefore well out of my comfort zone. It was about a film about the West Indies cricket team and loosely references the team's logo, but is mostly about a tripod made out of wickets. I hope it works.

Cover Design

2011-04-13T14:54:00.002+01:00

This is the finished cover design for my Penguin Design Competition entry. I really struggled with how to represent the complex themes in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In the end a simple and graphic family tree seemed best, enabling me to choose some slinky typography to make it look grown-up. I'm rather pleased with it.

Dear Mariella

2011-04-09T20:36:00.002+01:00

This week I worked on an editorial piece about bereavement. It was a moving article about getting past the pain of losing a parent and carrying on with life, and it really wasn't easy to think of a suitably sensitive way of dealing with the subject. I hope I've done it justice but I think the colours are still a bit blah. Hmm.

Watching films

2011-04-04T10:30:00.000+01:00

This weekend I had fun watching Frida, with Salma Hayek. The colours were gorgeous so I did a little colour study. This could possibly be my new favourite thing to do. I wonder what films I should do next. Any tips for wonderfully colourful films?

Matters of the heart

2011-04-02T09:28:00.001+01:00

This is the editorial I set myself this week. Romance. Tricky stuff. The story was about the breakdown of a relationship because of his addiction to pornography - I thought it would be a challenge! I hope you get that the self-pitying anglepoise is her, and the blue light from next door is him at his computer, the dirty rascal! It's darker colours than I'd usually go for but I think it needed it.

Hope you have something fun planned for the weekend - and Happy Mothers' Day for Sunday, yummy mums! xx

Wooden Ampersands

2011-03-30T16:53:00.000+01:00

My brooches are now available in walnut and obeche, you know, in case you need a more neutral typographic accessory for Spring. Available in my Etsy shop.

A bit more editorial

2011-03-26T12:25:00.000Z

This week I worked on a self-set editorial brief. It was about the idea that feeling anxious during certain times of year can be linked to subconscious feelings from our childhoods. In my illustration I highlighted the example of feeling anxious towards the end of the summer holidays as dormant back-to-school-blues creep into our adult minds. Interesting stuff. And nice to draw chairs.

Hope you're having a super weekend - I've just been to a made it market in Cambridge, and am now off to a jumble sale in a really posh village. Yippee!

I finally finished!

2011-03-22T18:30:00.000Z

I can finally show you my entry to the YCN's Student awards as I submitted it yesterday. I worked on the brief for Fedrigoni, an Italian paper manufacturer, and I focused on their Woodstock range as it's recycled and in beautiful soft colours that appealed to me.

It was quite daunting setting up the installation and photographing it, having a private view, then taking it all down. At that point I rather ran out of steam so had a week on another project which was a welcome change. I then thought of setting the installation photos and resulting promo flyer and swatch booklet into a presentation. And who doesn't like a little story? Everything is cut from paper and photographed by me - although, if I were to do it over I'd certainly enlist the help of a proper photographer. Paper is so hard to shoot!

What do you think? Keep your fingers crossed for me - there's some stiff competition!

New brooches for Spring

2011-03-21T14:10:00.002Z

I've been rather neglecting my Etsy shop lately so here are some new offerings for Spring. They're meant to be coral but they're also a bit like antlers. They add a bit of a natural-shaped zing to an outfit (and, as it happens, the red one turned upside down doubles as an excellent fake nosebleed - in case you needed such a thing. I hope you find it entertaining that I discovered this...).

Today I also submitted my entry to the YCN's Student awards, so fingers crossed it does well. I'll finally be able to show you what I've been working on for the past 6 weeks!

Full of the joys

2011-03-19T17:03:00.001Z

I just had a wander round our neighbourhood and found all this amazing blossom. I love this time of year, it's a shame things at uni are so busy as it's only too easy to miss all the nice things coming to life outside. Hope you enjoyed the sun today, it's been amazing!

Absolutely Faberlous

2011-03-06T15:04:00.002Z

These pretty book jackets were all made by Faber and Faber. I was looking for inspiration on Friday and borrowed the excellent Eighty Years of Book Cover Design from the library. It's full of typographic gems, in the loveliest colours.

Now, time to figure out how this helps me make my own cover...

One Week of Solitude

2011-03-03T12:47:00.002Z

I'm taking a week out from the YCN project to focus on the Penguin cover competition. This year the title is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Yesterday I mostly cut leaves out of nice colour paper. Today I plan on doing something a bit more substantial! But I do quite like the leaves, perhaps they will be a new set of collages for Etsy...

It's quite a tricky book as it revolves around 100 years in the life of a family in central America. They re-use christian names from one generation to the next, so flipping back to the family tree printed at the front of the book was somewhat necessary... It was quite like listening to your granny for a couple of hours - people, places and time sort of melted together!

+++++++ Update +++++++

Leaf collage now available in my Etsy shop!

Oh, 1964

2011-02-21T19:51:00.001Z

You have my heart.

I've been overdosing on Mad Men and early James Bond films in the last fortnight, and it's been swoon-tastic. I was born in entirely the wrong decade.

Chop, climb, stick

2011-02-19T18:31:00.000Z

Hello!
It's been a while since I wrote anything here because I'm working on a very exciting project. It's involved climbing a stepladder and hanging things up with nylon thread, then tweaking. A lot of tweaking.

I'm not giving too much away yet as it's a competition entry for the YCN but here are some in-progress snaps. I can't wait to take lots of proper photos and share them, but you'll have to wait a little bit for that.

I should also mention that the wonderful space and numerous cups of tea have been provided by the kind chaps at The District, who have put up with me crashing about all this week. Thanks guys!

Have a happy weekend.

Fishies

2011-02-09T18:15:00.000Z

We got some goldfish this week, aren't they cute?
They're quite small and the one with the orange hat is called Jamesy, and the one with the orange stripe is called Belinda. after famous redhead Belinda Carlisle. You can see my favourite song by her here. When I was five she was my absolute favourite.

I have my suspicions that Belinda (the fish) is going to be a bit of a sex pest. Poor Jamesy already spends most of his day being chased...

Exciting news!

2011-01-31T19:22:00.011Z

Originally uploaded by uppercaseyyc

I submitted my Northwest Passage work to Uppercase Magazine's matchbox label submission and four images made it! I can't wait to see the real thing.

You can buy a copy here.

Back in the habit

2011-01-29T13:51:00.001Z

I'm back at uni now at it feels good.
This week I worked on a short editorial project based on The Guardian's "This column will change your life". I might try and tackle a few more of these as the psychological subjects are quite challenging. Next week I start an exciting YCN brief, which should be good fun.

Now it's time for me to listen to some gangster rap and eat a baked potato - let's face it, that's a recipe for a good Saturday. Have a happy weekend!

Making maps

2011-01-24T15:15:00.001Z

For the last two months I've been working on a series of maps for a book about Art in East Anglia. It's been really good experience, and fun to meet with the nice publishers. This is one of Cambridge which was the first I worked on. I used OS maps as reference but drew all the components then edited colours on Photoshop.

I'm excited to see my work in print! It will be a lovely book for planning daytrips too, as it lists lots of public exhibitions and sculptures.

Eeeek!

2011-01-19T10:53:00.001Z

This is possibly the best thing I've ever found whilst charity shopping.
It's a Czechoslovakian cognac bottle from 1928 and I guess was for a French market.
The beautiful typography on the front says "Brasserie Th. Goledzinowski - La Reole - .

Spotting it across the shop was the most exciting feeling!

Christmas presents

2011-01-10T12:34:00.000Z

This lovely book was the first of my Christmas presents from the Mr. Isn't it sweet? It's a bit sciency and very colourful! Illustrations are by Helen Borten and it was published in 1962.

The second lovely book he bought me was I Know a Lot of Things by Ann Rand, which I've been after for ages. The illustrations are by Paul Rand and this is a first edition from 1956. It's a bit scruffy and has "Discard" stamped on a few pages, but that adds to the charm I think.

Best chair ever.

2011-01-06T18:16:00.003Z

I picked up this amazing little chair at Emmaus yesterday. Actually it was Nikki who spotted it but I swooped in and bagged it for a fiver. It's really like Ercol but is painted this zany colour. I like it though, it mis-matches the rest of our chairs perfectly.

Yeah.....and?

2011-01-06T15:19:00.001Z

I am noticing ampersands everywhere at the moment! So I'm sorry if it's getting a bit old (and dare I say it "design bird"/moustache-esque cliche) but these brooches went down a treat at the Winter Fair in December so I've put some in my Etsy shop. They are laser cut and hand polished, and would add a typographic zing to a jumper near you.

Happy New Year / 2010 in pictures

2011-01-03T12:08:00.000Z

Happy 2011 Everyone! I hope you've had a great Christmas break.

I'm so looking forward to getting back into things this year, and I suppose, finishing things off as this is my last semester of my degree. There's so much that I want to do this year so I thought I'd have a look back at 2010 to see where I left off.

Have you any resolutions for 2011?

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-23T16:29:00.000Z

I'm getting in early with my Christmas greetings! Hope you all have a lovely Christmas break, see you in a few days when I will be significantly plumper...

PS - be careful if you're travelling, we spun the car and got a flat tyre this week, v. scary!

Retro Food

2010-12-12T22:32:00.000Z

The last project of the semester had us choosing between a range of briefs - from Darwin to Sea Shanties. I chose a combination of themes: Recipes and Mistakes.

I took four Betty Crocker recipes that struck me as particularly forward-thinking (circa 1960) and thought I'd do them with a bit of an atomic look. I also used type from old American motel signs.

There are plenty of things I'd change but I also had my dissertation in this week so it wasn't plain sailing! That's all done now and I await my mark after Christmas. All I can do now is consume my weight in mulled wine and hope for the best.

Tomorrow I start a short internship which will be interesting. Wish me luck!

PS - The Winter Fair last weekend was a knockout, we made £416 for our Degree Show!

Roll Up! Roll Up!

2010-12-04T07:12:00.000Z

Today my friends and I will be holding a stall at The Mill Road Winter fair in Cambridge.

As the poster suggests, we will be selling allsorts of handmade and hand-drawn goodies perfect for Christmas presents. If you're in the area the event is well worth checking out - lots of foodie stalls, Chinese dancing dragons, live music etc etc.

Wish us luck - we're raising money for our Degree Show!

Stars

2010-12-01T23:23:00.000Z

I've been playing with paper again!
These cards and exercise books are very limited edition items now in my shop.

New Brooches

2010-11-28T14:18:00.002Z

At uni we were taught to use the laser cutter and since then my lovely friend Nikki and I have been cutting out a few shapes. We've actually been gearing up for the Mill Road Winter Fair which is this Saturday but we had time to cut a few brooches for ourselves too.

I'll be listing some perspex shapes over the next couple of weeks too, but here are some wooden goodies to get your teeth into! These are now in the shop.

1 hour

2010-11-27T16:30:00.000Z

Saturdays have lately become days in which I chain myself to my desk and get some serious Dissertation work done. Today however, I escaped the house for a clear hour to go to a jumble sale. I hadn't been expecting it to be any good but found a few pretty things - the fabric is so bright isn't it great?

Tomorrow I will be listing some new things in my much-neglected Etsy shop. Exciting things!

Hope you're having a great weekend, and have some snow!

Cakestand!

2010-11-15T19:24:00.001Z

I made a cakestand out of bits of spare crockery, isn't it sweet?

The turquoise saucer is melamine by Texas Ware, the middle plate is by Royal Doulton and the dinner plate by Meakin. I thought it would be nice to see the designs in the centre of the plates so I used glasses instead of cups and the stripey base is an upturned (and rather chipped - so happy to upcycle) sugarbowl by Hornsea.

We've been laser-cutting at uni for the Mill Road Winter Fair (a huge arts, crafts, food and local culture street fair held in early December in Cambridge) as we have a stall to raise money for our Degree Show. I'm so excited to display our line of brooches on this here cakestand. Yum!

The Lost Mariner

2010-11-12T20:23:00.002Z

These are the images I've been working on for my latest uni brief - Oliver Sacks' The Lost Mariner, a case study from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

Jimmy G, the character in the story has amnesia that has wiped all memory from the age of 19 to 49, at which point he arrives at the residential home where Sacks works as a neurologist. He has short-term memory of just a few minutes but remembers his youth and life on a navy submarine in 1945 as if it were the present. He struggles to find any long-term interest in games and puzzles (at which he is adept) and remembers little from one day to the next - a kind of limbo. This is until he finds gardening and chapel, which fulfil him on a higher level and hold his attention, giving his existence some meaning.

It was a really interesting read but not an easy thing to illustrate! I wanted to go for a kind of vintage textbook feel, to suit both the era that the story was set and to entertain myself. I decided on an abstract way of handling the equally abstract themes, and although I realise the images don't do much on their own, I hope they add something to the text.

Vintage goodness

2010-11-09T20:17:00.000Z

I picked up this cute set of children's books on Ebay recently. They're all written by Irene Dark (brilliant name) and I really like that each is illustrated by someone different. Another interesting thing that my friend pointed out is that next to their credit at the front, most say "Birmingham School of Design",which I can't find any evidence of on google. I wonder if they were students, and what happened to the school...

The Luck of the Irish

2010-10-31T22:07:00.004Z

We spent a week in western Ireland and got back today. The landscape was to die for.

We went gorge-jumping before breakfast, and collected mussels whilst kayaking and had them for lunch. We went hiking and got soggy bums from slipping over in the bog, we built fires and did Irish dancing too. It was my first trip to Ireland and I'd recommend it to anyone. So so beautiful.

We also went to a lovely beach, and dipped our toes in the Atlantic. Try sliding the photos below, it should make a rough panorama...

The North West Passage

2010-10-22T11:48:00.006+01:00

These are the finished pieces I came up with for my latest uni brief. I'd been given the letter 'L' and had to pick something from the Brewer's Dictionary. My choice was Last of The Mohicans as you may already know but the project soon turned a corner and became about the North west passage, a fabled shortcut for ships to get from Europe to China via the icy waters of Northern Canada.

For hundreds of years the Europeans searched for the route, often employing natives for their knowledge of the land. I wanted to go for a 1950s travel poster look, and think these have that feel. Also, it was a good chance for me to try something quicker than my go-to scalpel and painted paper resolution. I drew most of the parts for these, and made some as simple papercuts. Then I spent the rest of my time on Photoshop using lino print texture from past projects. There are still bits I'd change but I'm pretty happy.

And I learned what a Narwhal is. A fun project!

Mohican research

2010-10-12T12:47:00.006+01:00

I'm in the middle a new project for uni which started off being about Last of The Mohicans. It's now changed direction a bit, but I'm excited to see how it will end up. In the meantime here are a couple of experiments I did in the early stages of research. The hand print is meant to be the Human Hand of Mica, and I like it (despite terrible photo). Perhaps it would make nice wrapping paper?

A weekend in pictures

2010-10-11T12:47:00.003+01:00

I've been really enjoying Gemma Correll's Daily Diaries and thought I'd tell you a bit about the weekend I've had.

On Friday night some friends and I went to our local pub that was celebrating Oktoberfest with lots of German beers and sausages. We even had coconut beer that you could drink out of half a coconut! Not so much German but fun nonetheless. Isn't the Bavarian flag pretty - seen here in napkin form?

On Sunday we went to fish restaurant for lunch and ate whitebait. And today I'm trying out a new (vintage) printing set I found on ebay.

I hope it carries on being sunny, it's lovely outside. Here's to a productive week!

Up up and away!

2010-10-08T12:57:00.003+01:00

I really want this poster. In A1 size please. An original print of it is currently in the gallery at uni and it's beautiful. It was designed by Enid Marx for London Transport in 1965 and I pretty much love everything about it.

Did I tell you it's my birthday in two weeks?

Feeling jaded?

2010-10-06T18:34:00.003+01:00

Not me! Because I have all these jade green goodies! I bought the angular milk jug and sugar pot for £1.05 yesterday, the teacup weeks ago and the glass object when I was charity shopping with Lucie. I might add that we discussed whether or not it looked like it was off somebody's grave, but I decided it liked it anyway... I think it's to hold flowers upright. Isn't the colour dreamy?

The book is by Salvatore Rubbino who teaches on my course and the MA in Children's Book Illustration, and it's absolutely lovely.

Excitingness

2010-10-05T12:16:00.003+01:00

So this morning I'm packaging up a nice big lot of posters, prints, collages and a teaset to send up to a shop in Norwich. I'm very excited as I've not done consignments for ages and not with my illustration work. Yonks ago I used to have altered clothing and jewellery in a few shops around Cambridge but this is different. And mega exciting!

You can see the shop that will be stocking my stuff here. It looks gorgeous.

Wampum

2010-10-04T15:00:00.004+01:00

A little side-project of my current uni brief which is about Last of the Mohicans.

These little watercolour paintings are of wampum, the beadwork made by Native Americans of the Eastern woodlands.

The beads were made of the insides of clam shells and are a lovely shade of purple. They were often made into geometric patterned beaded belts to be given as wedding or engagement presents. I was inspired to try my own patterns and I have to say that painting all the little rectangles is kind of like needlepoint - very relaxing!

These three are now in my shop.

A Commission!

2010-09-28T12:19:00.004+01:00

This has been a really fun project, working with the organisers at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Central Library in Cambridge. It was rather daunting at first as I knew the trail would be the basis for the whole Big Draw event. Now it's done I'm just really keen to see what the kids will make of it, but most importantly what they end up drawing themselves!

The trail will be printed at A2 size - double sided - and the posters will be up around town for the first few weeks of October (that's the top image by the way). I can't wait for the big day!

My Summer Project

2010-09-21T16:04:00.006+01:00

This was not particularly well thought out on my part but what it lacks in strength as a coherent sequence of images it made up for in being fun to do. Apart from an achey hand from cutting all those letters out! But that kind of detailed, slightly mundane job is my favourite especially if I've got some nice music on or re-runs of River Cottage on my laptop. Sad but true..

I wanted to show Grenuille (who has no smell of his own) as a negative, defined by the things he smelled or perfumes he created as a disguise. I enjoyed making 3D stuff for a change and photographing it as it's like my usual cutty-outy stuff but a bit more interesting and unpredictable.

Funny day

2010-09-10T16:55:00.005+01:00

Today I have mostly been trying to think my way out of the creative hole I'm stuck in.

For a summer brief, we were asked to illustrate a book. We had a choice of a half dozen or so, so I read three of them and decided on Perfume by Patrick Suskind - not easy I hear you cry - but the alternatives were equally abstract and challenging. With two weeks left of the almost-five-month holiday I decided to get my rear in gear today!

I decided that I'd like to do something a bit 3D and use photographs as my illustrations, so I set to work making lots of coloured paper cubes to illustrate this line:

"And during that same night, at first awake and then in his dreams, he inspected the vast rubble of his memory. He examined the millions and millions of building blocks of odour and arranged them systematically..."

I then cut out the shape of a man and photographed through it to the inner workings of his brain. Not 100% successful but quite different to how I normally work.

Istanbul drawings

2010-09-08T12:55:00.002+01:00

I wish it had not been *quite* so hot in Istanbul as I didn't get any sustained drawing done while we were there. These were all done either in the hotel room from my camera or since we've been back, and as a result I don't have any of the attachment that I do to the drawings done in Belgium.

It's an interesting problem and is something I'll be investigating for my dissertation which is looming this semester. I'm basing my research on travel illustration but it strikes me as a universal problem for illustrators. Obviously you can't sit and draw all night on location but is drawing from photos cheating a bit?

I love lamp. I think.

2010-09-06T20:38:00.002+01:00

Well, even if it is a bit of an odd one, I still quite like it. The lampshade was from a charity shop on our last trip up north, and the bottle was in the "hardcore" skip at the recycling centre a couple of weeks ago. I swapped it for some sheets of horrid non-reflective glass that I wanted rid of since I've decided to stop picture framing. Bottle lamp kit was £3 from ebay and hey presto!

I remember my auntie having a bottle lamp when I was little that she'd filled with yellow periwinkle shells like these. I loved it!

Any thoughts on what I should fill mine with? Or leave it empty?

Belgium

2010-09-04T19:22:00.006+01:00

Another photo pairing project - en Belgique.

Sketchy sketch

2010-09-01T11:01:00.012+01:00

OK, these are slightly awful but they were fun and got me back on the old drawing horse this week. I just love having books of drawings to remind you of a place you grew fond of. They're so much richer than photos and I'm sure the bits that I cringe at now will be remembered in a good way years from now.

Competition entry

2010-09-01T10:14:00.005+01:00

I got back from Belgium last night after a brilliant week drawing. The weather was really weird, unbelievable downpours one minute, clear blue skies the next, but we had such fun.

In Antwerp we watched a car chase being filmed for a TV show. It all materialised right next to us as we sat outside a cafe having lunch. Make-up artists, camera men and directors descended within minutes and an hour later they had their shot and the whole square stank of burnt rubber! So exciting! We partied in Liege with Erasmus students, soaked up the atmosphere in beautiful Bruges, ate chocolate in Pierre Marcolini's shop, went to a flea market and drank lots of beer. Photos and drawings to come...

In the meantime, I thought you might like to see my entry for a wine label competition. I cut the lettering and images out of coloured paper then added logos etc on photoshop. A worthwhile exercise (especially as the prize is a week's holiday in San Francisco!).

Seaside Texture

2010-08-23T16:39:00.003+01:00

I don't know where the last two weeks have gone.

We had some sad news last week, Jacob's grandfather passed away, leaving the most amazing legacy. You can read about him here. I've been clearing out our spare room to make way for Jacob's new study area (he does his teacher training this academic year, so I wanted to get him comfy and ready as I could). And tomorrow I hop on the Eurostar for a week in Belgium with my girlfriends from uni. We'll be drawing up a storm - or so I hope, I'm quite out of practice.

It still seems relatively quiet in the blog world, what have you been up to? Something fun I hope.

PS these photos are bits of lovely crumbly boat on Aldeburgh beach. Don't they look tactile?

Istanbul

2010-08-12T00:13:00.005+01:00

Complete visual overload! Istanbul is the most amazing place.

We were pretty sticky wandering round the city as it was always around 33 degrees and 95% humidity, but we had an absolute ball. We took ferries and trams and ate fish sandwiches by the Bosphorus. There was beer served in mugs, an amazing junk shop, banter with stall-holders, fireworks and fresh produce markets to die for, and reflective times in the most fabulous mosques and palace architecture.

What a brilliant trip!

Arrivals

2010-08-10T00:03:00.003+01:00

Phew! Just got back from an amazing week in Istanbul. I'm shattered and off to bed in a min, but have missed you dear blog, and wanted to wish you goodnight with pictures of prints that I listed on Etsy before we left. I promise not to neglect you anymore.

Istanbul images to come this week...

Night night xx

A collection of things

2010-08-01T15:59:00.003+01:00

One day we also collected a whole hoard of pottery bits, sea glass and shells. Then we lay in the sun and I shut my eyes as Jacob passed me one piece at a time to identify. Weirdly, I got through about thirty of them correctly by just touch! I wonder if there can be a career in this..?

A Welsh week

2010-08-01T12:56:00.006+01:00

Time is whizzing by this summer! We got back from a week in Tenby on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales yesterday and it was beautiful. I'd stayed there a lot when we were kids so it was lovely to find it as special as I remembered it. One day we went fishing on a boat and caught lots of mackerel for supper. Another day it rained and I found the most wonderfully overcrowded bookshop. And one night we went clubbing in a place as big as my living room!

Dog days

2010-07-15T09:42:00.004+01:00

Today is the last day of dog-sitting. It's been fun, Saffy!

A lot of bottle

2010-07-12T20:50:00.003+01:00

Hello! Long time no see!

Today I've been painting paper and cutting the shapes of my old bottle collection. I love looking at the lovely raised lettering on them, they're so tactile. I like that they are from local (and long since folded) companies too, and the more gross things like 'Lung Tonic" that appear on the sides are hilarious! Ew, lung tonic...

Tomorrow I am babysitting the most gorgeous labradoodle called Saffy. Her owners are off to Italy for three days and I have lots of fun walks and picnics planned. I'm pretty sure the weather is going to be awful but I don't mind getting a bit damp and chasing rabbits! Thing is, she barks like fury at men. I'd have her at home with me in the day but of all the blinking weeks of the year, this week my landlord is having the entrance to our flats repainted so there will be noisy workmen everywhere! Typical! Any of you lovely lot got some rainy day ideas for dogs? Wish me luck people...

Finding the way

2010-06-30T17:41:00.005+01:00

So, rather fatally I'd been playing with patterns with a view to ending up with some nice new paper collages for the shop, but things don't often work out that way. There's something about experimenting whilst knowing that it should amount to something nice which instantly sucks any joy out of it! But then I started looking at the things around me, my turquoise collection piece, the box of Echo and Narcissus prints back from uni marking and I realised something...

Cutting paper letters is what I'm probably destined to do. I absolutely love it. And when I think about it, it keeps popping up in my work - the Tobacco Trader project, my Freakshow poster, my Porto typography book - and they're some of the projects I liked most in the last two years.

Obviously I still love drawing and making images but making type really excites me. I have some plans now for new collection pieces, in the same kind of format as the collection of turquoise but varying the theme. I'd love to have a shop full of lovely posters.... the first of which will be a new ABC poster (top picture) in the shop soon.

A Fresh Approach

2010-06-19T14:45:00.005+01:00

Since uni's been out for summer I've been losing momentum like nobody's business. It's fine, I needed a break, but now need a bit of a kick up the arse to make some nice work.

This month and next I'm working as a research assistant for one of my lecturers and am looking at storytelling, in particular Folk tales. The tales I've heard are mainly based on strange things lurking in forests and a lot of superstition which for me at least, conjures all sorts of visual intrigue.

Then on Thursday I found this wonderful book full of interesting patterns (that I instantly thought Lucie would love), which got me thinking about patterns and their early origins and uses to identify people. I don't know if any of this will lead to any new work but it's got me excited which is a good start...

In print!

2010-06-15T17:52:00.004+01:00

I had some exciting news today. One of my images is going to be used as the cover of 10,000 student diaries at my university!

A couple of weeks ago I submitted a "colourful image" for consideration and today I got an email to say they are going to use it. I don't know if anyone else submitted anything so I guess they had little choice, but it just goes to show it's worth doing these things. My biog and web address will be printed in every copy too so it might bring me a bit of traffic and the image will be used to decorate freshers' info in September. Yay for paper diamonds eh?

And the winner is....

2010-06-10T12:22:00.002+01:00

Congratulations Caitlin!

Thanks for everyone who left a sweet comment, I wish I could send you all something.

Caitlin if you can send me a quick email with your postal address I'll get the jug and brooch on their way to you!

All tied up

2010-06-08T12:26:00.006+01:00

For the last couple of evenings, Jacob and I have been working on a project togther. And it's been great! Jacob is wanting to get into sailing this summer so was looking at knots on the internet. I'd always wanted a knot sampler since the collection project I was set last summer and I love arranging things as you might know, so it all came together quite quickly. I'm so happy with it!

Me me me

2010-06-07T20:52:00.005+01:00

The lovely Cathy of habit of art contacted me a couple of weeks ago about doing a little interview with me and I immediately jumped at the chance...then promptly forgot all about it. But this morning I emailed her my answers and with impressive speed she's put together a lovely piece all about little old me! You can read the whole interview here. On her blog she also writes about her own creative practice, fashion and beautiful design.

Thanks Cathy!

Life's a beach

2010-06-06T23:15:00.003+01:00

On Thursday we went to Wells-next-the-Sea, as it seems to be our favourite beach on the Norfolk coast. I finally got the chance to photograph most of the gorgeous beach huts there and am planning to do some drawing from them when I have time. Aren't the colours amazing? See the whole flickr set here.

Giveaway!

2010-06-05T14:03:00.003+01:00

To celebrate my 100th sale on Etsy I am giving away a happy face brooch and a hand-painted milk jug!

It feels like it has taken forever to get to this landmark but I've learnt so much on my way. My style has changed a lot and more and more I'm making my shop reflect what I do in my uni life, which is exciting.

Thanks so much for all your support on here, you lovely things. Leave a comment before midnight Wednesday (UK time) and I'll draw names out of a hat on Thursday morning to decide the winner.

I've also listed another happy face brooch on etsy, sad faces to come soon...

Rain rain go away!

2010-05-29T13:26:00.002+01:00

Oh, why must it rain today?

I was getting used to wearing sunscreen and sandals. Nevermind. Here are some cheery things from the last few days - some wooden flashcards with faces and vegetables that I might turn into badges, and a couple of new diamond collages for Etsy.

Did anyone just see this in the paper? Amazing!

My second quilt

2010-05-25T20:14:00.002+01:00

I started this quilt for my friend Liz this time last year, and finally got round to finishing it on Friday! It's not the finest thing ever made but she sent me some pics of it in situ in her beautiful house and it looks great I think. The coloure are a bit more grown up than the first one but still bright and fun. Hurrah!

Catch of the day

2010-05-25T12:14:00.003+01:00

I remembered this morning that there is a huge sale at the Salvation Army centre 4 miles out of Cambridge this week. I'd noticed the sign last week but totally forgot over the most hectic weekend I've had in ages.

On Friday, 13 of us jumped on a train to Edinburgh to run the marathon in team relays (my bit was 4.7 miles), and it was such an amazing experience. The heat was pretty unbearable - a freak 25 degree weekend in Scotland - but all three teams did amazingly, finishing at 3h 58mins, 4h 17ins and 4h 19mins. SO proud!

Today's haul of treasures was my way of treating myself and includes a sweet collection of old bottles, all decorated with lettering from local companies like Cambridge Lemonade, some early plastic dishes, and some vintage Corningware, an original pencil drawing of a boat and Hohner Melodica. The whole lot for a fiver, brilliant. Now if I could just lose the aching in my legs my day will be complete...

Political type?

2010-05-18T19:59:00.004+01:00

Another great second-hand bookshop in Cambridge shuts this week. Galloway and Porter, one of the cheapest places to get paperback classics and obscure art books also has a large collection of interesting old books and ephemera, and at the weekend I found this fascinating piece of history.

Soldiers of Lead was published in 1948 for use in the Labour Party to advise on how it should be using type in a persuasive way. It's beautiful, and I would have been absolutely convinced if my vote were cast purely on typographic merit!

Weekend bargains

2010-05-17T13:06:00.002+01:00

Some little bits and pieces I picked up at a car boot sale yesterday. I spent £1!

What shall I do with the scandinavian-looking pieces? I daren't use them on the table in case I get food on them but they're too cute to stash away somewhere...

Happy Day

2010-05-13T15:41:00.003+01:00

Today I had a day off.

These sunny hand-painted cups and saucers are now on Etsy.

Phew

2010-05-12T15:47:00.002+01:00

I just wanted to mark today as the day I handed in all my second year work for my degree. I'm now two thirds of the way through and it's equally exciting and terrifying. I worked really hard this year and have had some great successes I think. I was so chuffed the moment I handed it all over and felt all the more special for being with lovely friends doing the same.

Bring on Summer, holidaying in Istanbul, reading on the beach, barbecues and bare feet on grass - but first - celebratory drinks!