Letterpress

I've become quite obsessed with printing presses lately, probably since I saw this Stephen Fry documentary on TV. I love the idea of getting a little tabletop Adana (only just resisted buying this one then someone else got in there!) and printing messages onto greeting cards. However, since even the tiniest press won't fit in our flat, I'm giving it a go by hand. I bought a fount of 18pt Times Bold from ebay and am going to try hand-inking and pressing it. Worth a try, anyway.



I also want to get back into screen printing when I have the time, space and money! I'm going to pick up a copy of Print Liberation in readiness.

Why I hate being a designer sometimes...

...When you've been working on a project for 2 months, then the day before launch the client decides they don't like the concept (which you didn't even come up with, but made the best of) and scraps the whole site.

Off to cry a bit now :(

Weekend in London

Last weekend we went to the Taste Festival in Regent's Park. It was a great evening of sampling all kinds of food, from Isle of Man cheddar to organic yoghurts to taster dishes from top London restaurants. For the £10 of show currency, I ate a Theo Randall courgette fritti and chocolate fondant, Sizchuan spicy tofu, Indian poories form Café Spice Namaste and many many more free samples.



And on Monday we went over to D&AD New Blood. I was particularly impressed by the Duncan of Jordanstone College show and I liked that you could make your own badges at the LCC stall.

Design by Humans

Just for fun, I submitted some mash-ups of my new playing card drawings to Design By Humans. Have a look and vote if you like them!



Love vs Money
Hip Hop vs Rock

New prints for sale!!

Whew, one final push and they're all done! Check out my Etsy store to see my 4 brand-new illustration prints, and for a limited time you'll get a free 1" badge with any purchase.





Lots more pics on Flickr.

Thumbtack press

I found out about Thumbtack Press on the Esty forums. You send in your artwork and if it's approved, they will make prints to sell. They keep 50% and you get the rest, which seems like a sweet deal to me! There's some brilliant pieces up there already, too.

New printer = new prints

I just bought a fantastic new beast of a printer and have been having fun all evening test-printing my new drawings! Here's a sneaky macro-tastic peek.. they'll be up on etsy by the weekend all going well.

Make London

I've only recently become aware of The Make Lounge - they run craft workshops in the capital as well as supporting local craft fairs and other events like Urban Knitting. I'm looking forward to going to the We Make London craft fair in Covent Garden on Sunday, which will mostly feature sellers from Etsy. All great stuff, just makes me wish I had more time to concentrate on crafts! Check out their blog for upcoming events.

P.S. Mostly for my reference, to-do list for the near future:
- Re-do my craft site
- Get new prints ready (got new printer today, squee!) and up on the store
- Re-do portfolio
- Threadless ♥ lomography t-shirt design

I've been ffffound!

I was wondering this morning how my new cameras drawing managed to get so many hits and favourites added on Flickr overnight, until I realised it made the front page of FFFFOUND today!



There's a little ambition ticked off the list :) Just ordered the prints for this and my other new drawings, so they will be for sale on etsy soon! There are a couple of brand new treats coming too..

p.s. don't suppose anyone has a ffffound invite they want to send me..?

New drawings

I've been busy lately getting some new drawings ready to print for my etsy shop. None of these are quite finished but I thought I'd share the works in progress.



I'm really happy with this series - the idea is modern playing cards, which I think I'll print as greeting cards.





Following on from my popular teacups print I've drawn some more of my favourite 'collections' - my shoes and cameras. i'm also working on an idea for the Threadless loves Lomography competition.

Yesterday..

..Popped over to Brick Lane to check out the Free Range degree shows in the flesh. Particularly impressive was Middlesex University's Jewellery show, and of course the Brighton University graphics and illustration work (where I picked up a lot of beautifully designed 'calling cards' which will be gracing my wall soon).


Illustrator Aimee Holmes from Brighton


Jewellery by Charlotte Mobbs from Middlesex

Cooked a lovely dinner afterwards. I love summer food - the tomatoes are so juicy and inviting.


Red onion, tomato, asparagus and mozzarella tart, salt'n'chilli roast new potatoes and some more asparagus.. yum

Faub - cool portfolio

I found faub.org via ffffound - I have no idea who they are or what they do, but I love the site. Great posters in the shop, too!

Threadless goodness

Threadless has a sale on at the moment, and some great new prints. I just bought these:



Captured Nostalgia - R.I.P Polaroid



Our Secret Tuesdays by Linotte, my current favourite artist. I just got a print of hers from her etsy store too and I love it!