Printed Tree Decorations

I made a few of these for the Christmas Show last year and they sold out in a flash, so I've made a few more for Cambridge Christmas on Monday 25th November.  I particularly like the new birds and stars and hope I have enough to last as we are open for longer this year from 1pm - 8:30pm.  They are made my painting birch wood shapes and then hand-printing them with my own carved rubber stamps.  Then I varnish them and hang them with festive silver twine.

Perspex Pictures

So here's the finished framed pictures I was talking about a couple of posts down the page.  In case you missed it; I sometimes think that the perspex printing 'plates' I use to make my drypoints are as interesting as the finished prints. So, taking that idea further I made four special 'plates' that I've had framed in box frames.  This creates a shadow on the backing board.  I am really pleased with how they have turned out.  They are tricky to photograph though, so please excuse the rubbish photos.  The designs feature vessels inspired by Katharina Klug, who I will be exhibiting with as part of Cambridge Christmas on 25th November.

Cambridge Contemporary Crafts

I'm very lucky to have Cambridge Contemporary Crafts selling my framed prints and tea towels in their lovely gallery in Bene't Street.  Their Christmas show is now up and running and here is what they have to say about it: "CCC is celebrating the festive season with All Wrapped Up, featuring a selection of stunning pieces by artists working locally and nationwide. The show is on from 2nd November until 24th December. All works exhibited in the gallery are hand-made and hand-picked from the best of British craft, making for truly individual gift ideas. Set in a beautiful 16th century building, All Wrapped Up will indulge your festive spirit; come along and find your hidden treasures!"

Latest Drypoint Prints

I've been working on some ideas for prints that incorporate the beautiful vessels made by Katharina Klug, with her permission.  At our Christmas Show last year I bought one of her white 'bottles' in which I have placed some dried seed heads.  I thought the graphic shapes and patterns she uses in her 3D work would make the perfect subject matter for my 2D prints.

I sometimes think that the printing 'plates' are as interesting as the finished prints. So, taking that idea further I have made four special 'plates' that will be placed in box frames.  I will post images when they are back from being framed.

New Coasters added to Shop

More new items added to my shop are these four coaster designs.  They are just £3.50 each, making ideal Christmas gifts.

New Goldfinch Tea Towel Colours

My new screen-printed tea towels are now available in my online shop.  I wonder which of the new colours will be the most popular?

Two Birds

This is my 100th post on my blog, so I thought I'd show you a close up of my new card published by Phoenix Trading as in the previous post it's hard to see the quality of the printing.  I really like the matt watercolour-style heavyweight paper they use.  This design has also been 'debossed' to give it the impression that it's been handprinted like old fashioned letter-press printing.

I think this is one of my favourite designs I've done for them in a while and they retail for only £1.50.

New Tea Towels ordered

I have just placed an order for my Goldfinch tea towels to be re-printed in these lovely new colours.  They should be on my website by mid October.

October 1st - new product day

I really must update my blog more often, but I'm so busy designing and working to deadlines it doesn't take priority.  However I do try and put things on facebook more regularly as it's quicker and more immediate, so if you haven't looked on there for a while follow this link to my page.

So what have I been working on?  The above is a new card design from Phoenix Trading released today.  It is called Two Birds (code: WS285). It has de-bossed images which creates a 'letterpress'/hand-printed effect. 

Here are some fun colour-in finger puppets I was asked to design. A mixture of 17 farm animals and people plus 7 pieces of 'scenery' that stand up. Let your imagination run wild! You too could colour a chicken green.  (code: CP008)

Summer

Open Studios is over for another year and this was by far the best year ever, in the 18 years I've been taking part.  My Dandelion design seems to have been the most popular.  I sold a framed original drypoint print and sold out of my coasters and the cards published by Green Pebble.  Perhaps I should design a dandelion inspired tea towel next?

If you would like to see a little video of me being interviewed in my studio here is a link on youtube.  I am 5:48 minutes into the clip.

Now to think about and start some new designs.

Cambridge Open Studios

My studio will be open to the public this weekend and next weekend (13-14th & 20-21st July 2013) from 11am - 6pm.  I have been taking part since 1995, so am well established and have plenty of work to show you.  I have new drypoint prints of plants and seed heads, flotillas of boats and imaginary hares in the garden.  Pictures are available framed and unframed.

Also for sale are my large range of published cards, wrapping paper, stationery and hand-made cards.  I have expanded my popular range of coasters, screen-printed tea towels and added a little collection of magnets.  I have information about how I produce my designs and will be demonstrating some printmaking techniques.

The studio is well signposted from the High Street in Milton, just follow the yellow flags.  So why not come and see what I get up to all year?  The studio is nice a cool on a hot day and I will have elderflower cordial and sweeties.  I look forward to seeing you.

And the winner is.....

...apart from Andy Murray (yay, I could hardly watch with the excitement)... Sasha.  I have emailed you, so please let me know your address.  Congratulations.  To keep it fair, I typed in the 63 names of the people that had commented or shared the tea towels either on here or on my facebook page and then used the random number generator to select a lucky winner.  I am now also well over the 2000 mark on my page so thank you everyone for taking part.

Giveaway

Time for a give-away.  Two reasons, Cambridge Open Studios starts this weekend (although mine isn't open until 13th July) and as I type, I have 1939 people who have 'liked' my page on facebook (plus more from 'pages', that don't show up on the counter thingy).  It would be great to reach the nice round figure of 2000, so I'm going to give-away one of my new Goldfinch tea towels, shown here in the window of Cambridge Contemporary Crafts.  So if you would like to be in with the chance of winning, you can comment below or on my facebook page.  Feel free to spread the word and I'll announce the winner at the weekend.

Facebook purchases

I feel facebook is still fairly new to me and I'm still finding my feet.  But it's been a great place to connect with other people, not just potential customers but other artists who also spend their day working really hard,  holed up in their studios making beautiful things.  This year I've started to buy presents from other 'makers' as it's really great to be able to deal directly with them.

This is a beautiful screen printed bird house by printmaker Jane Ormes that I bought for my lovely illustrator friend Emma Quay in Australia.  It was a bit nerve-wracking shipping it all that way, but it survived the journey and is being enjoyed in it's new home.

It was my husbands birthday this weekend and I bought him this little wire wren, made by the very talented Helen Godfrey.  It is happily perching on our gate we had made earlier this year and gives me a little surprise every time I open the gate.

I've also bought this fantastic painting from hugely popular artist Louise Rawlings.

And not forgetting these cards from Busy Blackbird (top) and Natalie Rymer.

Strictly speaking I bought one of these porcelain pieces from Katharina Klug at our Christmas Show, but she also had a lovely facebook page and is taking part in Cambridge Open Studios.

I've linked to their facebook pages but some also have websites: www.janeormes.co.uk,  www.helen-godfrey.co.uk , www.busyblackbird.com and www.katharina.klug-art.com

Cambridge Open Studios 2013

It's now the busiest time of the year for me, the run up to Cambridge Open Studios.  The new guides have arrived, featuring 260 local artists who are opening their doors to the public during the weekends of July.  As someone who usually works by themselves all day, it 's lovely to welcome visitors to my studio and have instant reaction to my work.  I try to produce work that will appeal to as many people as possible with prices ranging from 50p for hand printed gift tags to £150 for framed original prints.

I have an ever expanding range of published work, mainly for Phoenix Trading, which includes cards, wrapping paper, stationary sets, bags and paper chains.  I am very proud of my new range of six seed head cards for East Anglian fine art publisher Green Pebble and you will be able to see the original images that they used.

I've been working on some new prints featuring boats, two of which have already been sold at Cambridge Contemporary Crafts.  My next project features bold colourful flowers, which I hope to have printed this week.

I always have written explanations of my techniques for people to take away with them and I'm happy for art students to come along and ask questions or take photographs for college projects.  There are several other artists in neighbouring villages, so why not make a day of it and have a tour around Cambridgeshire and experience the once a year opportunity to see what us artists get up to the rest of the year.

Goldfinch Tea Towels

It's been a busy week for deliveries, first the coasters and now 150 of my new tea towels have arrived. The design, printed on 100% unbleached cotton, features 'Goldfinches perched on seed heads'.  They are a dark purple with turquoise detail.  They are £10 each, available from my shop. 

Alliums

I've always admired alliums in other people's gardens, so when I saw an offer in the newspaper for 200 bulbs, I couldn't resist.  I now have four different types that flower one after the other and they are putting on a very fine show.  On a sunny day this week I took this low level photo of this Aflatunense, a vibrant purple flower ball.  The white Nigrum variety are just emerging, so I will take another photo of them next week.

New coasters

I have just added eight new coasters to the range of coasters available from my online shop.  And also restocked the existing designs.  They are proving to be very popular

New online shop

I'm am really thrilled to announce that at last I have a working (hopefully) online shop.  My tea towels, coasters, handmade cards and limited edition prints are all now available at the click of a button.  Follow the link at the top of the page and let me know what you think.  I will be adding more prints, new coasters and a brand new tea towel design very soon.

Christmas

 

Sorry to bring up the festive subject, but that's what I'm working on at the moment.  New designs for Phoenix Trading, that will be launched in August.  I'm also starting to think about designing the invitations and promotional material for our Cambridge Christmas 13 show, taking place on Monday 25th November at the Unitarian Church Hall.  We have announced the list of makers taking part this year, so see the website for more details.

Chine Collé

I've also been working on some new prints using a method new to me called chine collé.  It basically means glueing on thin coloured paper at the same time as printing from a plate. Not sure about it yet, might just stick to adding watercolour, but always fun to try new things.

May launch

Phoenix Trading have just launched their new summer products.  A section from my frieze has been turned into a very girly Princess Carriage pop-up card (DC61), suitable for princesses of all ages.

New Products for March

Here are my three latest projects for Phoenix Trading.

This colour-in Princess Parade was a mammoth task with lots of costume and horse research required.  There are six panels that all join together to make a two metre long frieze.  If anyone buys the pack, I'd love to see a photo of it all coloured in.  Click on the image to see more detail.

Phoenix were short of cards for girls in this release so I was asked to come up with a design featuring mermaids.  I only had a couple of days to produce roughs and final artwork.  To save time having to have artwork scanned, I 'painted' in a watercolour style using photoshop creating lots of soft layers.  The three mermaids are off to a party riding on jolly turtles.  It's printed on matt paper with plenty of added glitter and sparkle.


This little Sorry duck gift card is a very simple design, just charcoal, watercolour and coloured pencil.  It's 83 x 110mm, the perfect size for sending a little note to cheer someone up or if you forgot a birthday or an occasion.

Claim to Fame

Blink and you miss it, but one of my Christmas cards has been spotted in the new film 'I Give it a Year'.  It's in the background of the risqué but funny Charades scene in the film.  Apparently Phoenix sent them a selection of cards and wrap to use.  I've spotted two other Phoenix designs on display so I will have to go and see the film to see if I can spot any more.

Green Pebble cards

I am pleased to announce I have had six of my drypoint and watercolour prints licensed by Green Pebble.  The 6" square cards are available to buy from their website for £2.50 each and I will also have some available at my Open Studios in July.  The originals are also available for £50 each, apart from the top right image which is sold out.

Snow

Our village is looking very pretty today.  Thought I'd post a few pics.

January 2013 new product release

*** Happy New Year everyone ***

I haven't posted anything for a while as that pesky Christmas thing got in the way.  My show went really well, selling out of my new hand-printed tree decorations and mini canvas paintings.  The coasters and tea towels were a big hit and I now only have the black and green tea towels left in stock.  We are working on a new selling website, so watch this space for it's launch.

Above are three of my new card designs published by Phoenix Trading.  It's the first time I've done 3D cards, so they were quite a challenge making sure the designs lined up properly.  The Musical Birthday design should appeal to anyone who plays an instrument or likes music.

Here's to a happy, healthy and creative 2013.