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