Thursday, December 23

Happy Holidays!



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!

Sunday, December 12

Retro Food








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!

Saturday, December 4

Roll Up! Roll Up!


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!

Wednesday, December 1

Stars










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

Sunday, November 28

New Brooches






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.

Saturday, November 27

1 hour













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!

Monday, November 15

Cakestand!



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!


Friday, November 12

The Lost Mariner







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.



Tuesday, November 9

Vintage goodness









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...

Sunday, October 31

The Luck of the Irish





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...


Friday, October 22

The North West Passage








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!