More murals and The Crafty Fax Market

Hello! I haven't posted anything for a while on here as things have been super busy! I have started teaching screen printing two evenings a week to adult beginners and intermediate which has been great fun. I have also been busy developing a little product range for a stand at The Crafty Fox market which I won as part of the Mollie Makes Start Up Award. Throw in two murals and some other deadlines and you have an absent blog! So to start things rolling again here are some photos from my mural in Zizzi Leeds the Light!

This mural in Leeds was based around light and shadows. The design was quite modern in this case, and featured landmarks in Leeds with shadows in bright colours intercepting them. Some of the murals were drawn on painted brick harking back to the industrial history of the city.

South Woodford Zizzi Mural

I spent last week staying in Epping forest near South Woodford painting a mural for Zizzi. This was the sixth mural I have designed and painted for Zizzi and was probably the largest surface area I have covered. It was pretty fitting that I was staying in the forest as that was the theme for this mural- the legend of the white stag, and the royal history of the area. This mural ended up a lot more traditional looking than I intended; it's always really interesting to see how your work changes in both large scale and when replicated again freehand, but I am pleased with how it integrated with the space. 

So there you are! The last image was taken by Zizzi so you can see a good overview and how it looks in the restaurant!

Feature in the Scotsman Spectrum on Sunday

Hello! Last week was a bit crazy for me- I spent 6 long days (and nights) painting a wall mural for Zizzi in South Woodford. It was lots of fun though, and I was staying in Epping Forest which just happened to be the theme for my painting too which was quite fitting. I'll share photos of my forest inspired mural soon. Onto more news, a few weekends ago I had a little Q&A in the Scotsman Spectrum magazine. I had a hilarious and super fun photoshoot for this piece and at one point I had to lie over all my fabrics. I'm very glad they chose this photo!

Photos of my mural and a beautiful hen weekend in the countryside to come soon!

New website in progress

Hello! We have finally hit summer and I'm so pleased the sun has been shining, the sandals have been out and the tights well and truly put away for a few months (I hope)! I have a few updates to share including one thing that is taking up an awful lot of my time at the moment- a brand new shiny website! I am moving website server and also updating my look with fresh branding and layout with lots of new projects to share with you too. Hopefully my new website will be launched next week but I will be sure to do a blog post about it. In other news, Mollie Makes issue 55 is out in the shops and has 8 of my patterned papers on the inside. Two are colour-in pages and the other six can be pulled out and stuck on your wall or used as wrap or card making papers. 

I love this photo of one of my colour-in sheets from the Mollie Makes Instagram here

A selection of designs form Mollie Makes issue 55

I am also currently designing a couple of Zizzi murals which are taking up much of my time, but are so fun to work on. Keep an eye on my instagram/twitter accounts to see updates as I paint these in the restaurants (one beginning next week). My new camera arrived in the post yesterday and I am so excited to play around with it and hopefully in the next few months I will have some lovely photos to share with you on here- hopefully some of Scotland and our adventures in Edinburgh and shots of my new studio too! 

Moorfield School Art Project

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Moorfield School in Ilkley about a project the Year 1 class were working on involving learning about printing and painting with fruits. In May, I skyped the children from my studio to their classroom and I answered some questions they had about my work and what it was like to be an artist! They had some great questions prepared and I loved chatting to so many aspiring artists and designers.

I then set them a competition and I wanted to share the winners work on my blog and social media! The class created some absolutely fantastic work and it was so difficult to choose but I have included my favourite three pieces of work below! Congratulations to the whole class on what looked like a very fun project and some great artwork.

Mollie Makes Handmade Awards

Last month I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards 2015. I was invited to a day in London (back to London already haha) to present my business idea to a panel of judges! Naturally, I was quite terrified as I hasn't had much of a chance to prepare due to moving from London to Edinburgh the week before!

The day itself was so much fun- loads of activities and talks to go to. My favourites including a talk from the team at Pinterest with lots of tips for great boards and how to use Pinterest for your business. The was some great crafting to be done too and a pretty great lunch to boot! As always at these kinds of events the absolute highlight was meeting so many fantastic, talented people to spend such a lovely sunny day with. 

I love this picture blogger Xanthe Berkley took of my fabrics- It's inspired me to take some new photos of my own!

(photo above from Mollie Makes blog)

And....... I was lucky enough to win the Start Up Award category! I was so happy to win an award and some fantastic prizes including a stand at the Crafty Fox craft fair this Autumn. It was so great to get some positive feedback on my products especially as I am so new to setting up my business and to meet to many great, inspirational creatives. 

Better late than never - May Moodboard!

Links Below (Clockwise from top)

1. Ombre dyed bag from Toast

2 & 3. Beautiful fruit styling by Clare Nicholson

4. A pretty summer bouquet

5. Lovely window display by Seasalt

6. Origami Lampshade

7. Yellow is the best colour

News!

It is almost the end of May and I still haven't posted my May inspirations board yet which is ridiculous but I have a good reason! My lovely fella and I are moving to Scotland at the end of the month for an adventure. We have been thinking about the move out of London for a little while and had a couple of opportunities come our way so are going for it! We have a lovely little flat in Morningside, Edinburgh and we are so excited to explore our new area and make our flat cosy. I lived in Edinburgh six years ago now and it feels like a good time to go back for a little while to explore a new(ish) city and focus on my business. I have a fantastic studio space at Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts (now Process Studios) with a huge fabric printing table and lots of space to experiment.

So hopefully come June this blog should be a place full of new designs, inspirations and Edinburgh antics. I will also be sharing what I have been getting up to over the last year whilst at my in-house design job. And now, I must pack...

Anthropologie Tropical Fruit Journals

I should probably wait until these lovely journals are properly online before I share, but I'm too excited! Here is a photo of my collaboration with Anthropologie - three patterned journals. I have been waiting for these beauties to be released since last summer and I am so glad they are finally here. I spotted this picture on Pinterest and I can't actually find them for sale online yet - but I will keep you updated, and I should receive my artist samples of them soon - they are currently in the post from the U.S! I am so happy to have had the opportunity to work with Anthropologie; ever since I was a student slaving away over my screen printed fabrics and day-long drawings, they have been a client I have always aspired to work with. I'll let you know when they are on sale!

Tropical Fruit Journals- Anthropologie

Candid Fabric and Lazy Sundays

Happy Sunday! Today has been lazy in all senses of the word. I have been list making, watching trashy TV shows for hours on end and finishing off making my best friends wedding invitations (I will share them here soon) which has been so lovely! 

I wanted to start documenting a few projects I have been working on over the past few years and chat about some of the fantastic companies I have had the opportunity to work with. These images above were taken by the lovely folk over at Candid Fabric as part of one of their collections and have been styled in such a lovely way! 

I hope you all enjoyed a lazy Sunday too...

Monthly Moodboards- April

Links Below (Clockwise from top)

1. A beautiful sketchbook

2. These grapefruit, rhubarb and thyme cocktails look amazing!

3. A lovely spring arrangement

4. Edible flower decorated cake!

5. Some mark-making goodness plus amazing colour

6. Handprinted fabrics

7. Hanging plant illustration

Spring Flora

Hello,

Another Monday is upon us after a wonderful sunny weekend in London. Over the last few months, I've been working on some new prints with a whimsical, ditsy approach just for fun. I entered this little print into the Minted 'On a Roll' fabric competition and it won an editors choice award! I'm going to be working on producing some more colour-ways of the design for the Minted website, but for now I thought it was a perfect April print to share with you.

April begins and so does my new blog!

Welcome to my brand new blog- Pattern Colour Repeat which aims to document my creative process and other daily musings. I'm excited to see how this new space develops over the next few months.

April has come around so fast this year and I am so glad it is finally Spring- Winter was seriously taking it's toll. We had such a lovely Bank Holiday weekend at home with my family with lots of spring walks and playing with our crazy puppy Fergus who got so tired on this walk and lay down numerous times. It was so great the day afterwards, as he became this tired ball of fluff that constantly wanted to be cuddled!

These photos are taken in Arnside, Cumbria- a beautiful little spot in the North West of England- a lovely break from London. These photos are taken with my iPhone 4 and hopefully I will be ordering a new camera this week, I can't wait to play around with it!

Here are some links from the web that I have loved recently:

A great guide of things to do in Lancashire from Freya at Nishaantishu 

Design Sponge share the beautiful, colourful home behind Block Shop Textiles

I'm really intrigued to try this pea pesto from Joy at 3 Chairs

A lovely springtime post by Jen from Little Birdie

A great insight into living in a small village from Me and Orla

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!