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