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...

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!

Mohican research

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

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!

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?

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

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

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.