Pattern Colour Repeat

Monday, 19 October 2015

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.

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

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!

Friday, 17 July 2015

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!

Sunday, 5 July 2015

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!

Thursday, 25 June 2015

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.

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

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.