Beyond Awesome

On Monday, I went up to Oxford to see the lovely peeps at OUP and have a celebratory lunch to mark the publishing of the project I worked on all last year. They had some HUGE teachers' packs there to view, which I hadn't seen yet, with the most amazing A3-ish sized picture cards of my stuff in them. They look just wonderful, if I do say so myself; the print quality is just lovely. I also got to meet one of the other illustrators, Ian Cunliffe, who was very nice and had drawn some great, "cute" versions of my characters in some of the other packs. I'll put photos of those up as soon as I get my copies through.

The lunch itself was a very nice cold buffet with the most impressive cupcakes EVAH for pudding. I mean, people, my work is on cake. CAKE!!! Apparently, they got the rice paper characters printed online. I'm going to have to find this site and get some stuff printed myself. Maybe here? Either that, or buy one of these.

End of Week 21

One Week To Go!

Poster from the Craftaganza blog. Design by Jennie Ball and Silvia Sella.

Cut, Sew, Stick, Rinse, Repeat

It has been a weird mixture of busy creativity and utter lethargy recently here at Illustration Towers. I've made some alterations on the current project (which I'm just waiting to hear about, hopefully it's all finished now), and have moved straight on to crafting it up for the upcoming Craftaganza Fair over the Jubilee Bank Holiday

To say the crafting is not going to plan is an understatement. You plan these things, you see, but they never seem to run to schedule. I've had some issues with components not quite fitting, running out of supplies, and, yesterday, unable to find the half metre of yellow spotty fabric I bought just before Christmas and I KNOW I had out on the work table a month ago, unused. I still have no idea where it is.

However, things seem to be sloooooowly getting back on track. I bought this splendacular printable, washable fabric from the amazing Crafty Computer Paper (who also supply the printable shrinky plastic). So far, I've just printed some labels, but other possibilities are whizzing round my brain. Dolls, maybe. I've got over a week to get my craft groove back on track, so that'll be enough time, right? RIGHT?!!!


Excuse crappy photo of said labels, it was rather late. 

So, the lethargy. That'll be the weather's fault. For most of this week, it's actually been summer, which is lovely. However, the past few weeks have been miserable and moody, and that, quite frankly, just makes me want to sit down with a pot of tea, a DVD and my knitting. There has been mucho knitting. In fact, I've nearly finished the jumper I started knitting last November. It's getting a bit hot to have it on my lap now, though, so I'm knitting in the evenings and trying to get it done ASAP. Not that I'll be able to wear it until the autumn (hopefully!) but I'm really enjoying ticking things off the old "To Finish" list. Now it's sunny, I want to do a hundred things, and all at once. Who knew I was solar powered?

Right, back to sewing up a storm for me. And maybe a walk to Boho Gelato later.

Heck, Yeah

In the window of JuJu.

What a Difference Six Years Makes

3rd October 2006, newly painted:

Today:
 

End of Week 20

For Sale: One Collection

I got the samples for my "Sunday Roast" Spoonflower collection through yesterday. I'm preeeteh pleased with how they've turned out. And Spoonflower have changed their "basic" fabric since I last ordered and it's just lovely; it makes the print so vibrant.





If you fancy checking it out, the collection is now up here where you can see how they all repeat, plus the finer details that my hurried and excited Instagram snaps don't show so well!

Instagramming It Up

I've had Instagram on my iPad since I got it, almost a year ago now. However, I've not really used it as it's an app designed for the iPhone/iPod touch, rather than having its own iPad equivalent, so that little, rectangular app plonk in the middle of my screen makes it hard to use. Also, the camera in the iPad isn't amazing, and it's too large and awkward to take pictures with when out and about. BUT, and I can't quite believe it's taken me this long to discover this, you can take your old photos, ones already in your library, or ones you've taken on your phone/camera and bluetoothed over, and INSTAGRAM THEM UP.

I am addicted, of course.

PBK 12

I can't quite believe I haven't posted this yet. I can't quite believe that we're already two weekends in to the festival, and I haven't been to a single Open House, either. Gah! That's the plan for the weekend sorted.

Anyhoo, here are two rather low quality photos of the current staff art exhibition at Jubilee Library, which don't really show the degree of skill or range in approach to art making that are obvious when you see the work in real life, but I was taking these rather quickly on my phone and trying to avoid the mad crowds. Although I managed to just about grab the main display area (which is HUGE, btw), there are other more sculptural pieces at either end and along the back. Do go take a look, it's all up on the ground floor at Jubilee Library until the 26th. Ta!

Please Vote!

I have serious competition, 281 other entries, to be precise. If you like my design, please go vote here before tomorrow night. Thank you!  
 

End of Week 19

End of Week 18

Completed Socks

I finished these socks over the weekend. I started them right at the end of February, got two thirds of the way to completion by mid-March, but then didn't pick them up for five weeks or thereabouts while working on the latest proj. But, thanks to an ongoing Jeeves and Wooster DVD marathon, I finally finished these babies:





The navy blue yarn is Regia Colour 4 Ply in "Marine", the rainbow yarn (YUM!) is Crystal Palace Mini Mochi in "Intense Rainbow". Sure is. I must confess I shamelessly stole the idea for them from Anne here. I have another ball of the rainbow and a ball of white, so I may make another pair in mirror image.

Cuillèrefleur Numéro Trois

In a rare spurt of hyper-activity while waiting for the latest artwork comments to come in, I went and knocked up a design for this coming week's Spoonflower competition. The theme is "Retro Kitchen", and it's a restricted palette contest, always my fave when they come around. I've gone for a Sunday Roast vibe:



That is my basic square. It looks great tiled up/repeated, even if I do say so myself! I've also gone a bit mad and designed a range to go with:



I'm referring to the colours as "Chocolate", "Cranberry", "Mustard" and "Mushroom". That makes me chuckle, although I'm not sure why. Voting starts this Thursday and runs until next Tuesday, you can see all the other entries and vote on the Spoonflower site here. I can't wait to see what the other entries are like!

New Print!

Back in March, I was contacted by lovely lady called Rachael who wondered if I ever undertook commissions, and, if so, if I'd be up for designing a screenprint for her based on The Enormous Turnip. Indeedy, I was.









This one is a three-colour print, and, even though I told Rachael I probably wouldn't have it done until the end of April, a nice break in my current illo project a few weeks ago meant I managed to get in to the print room and get it all printed up in one day. I do like it when the Print Room Zen just flows and you can simply crack on. I've tried to make it look properly old and battered, as if it really might be a mass-printed poster for a long-ago circus act. It works, I think.

Rachael's family's nickname is "The Turnips", so they've always seen The Enormous Turnip as "their" story, so I was happy to create something so personal for them. The dates on the poster refer to Rachael's wedding day, and the birthday of her daughter (not in the same year, I hasten to add!) I've sent it off to its new home now where I hope it'll spread a little screenprinty joy.

Rachael graciously allowed me to create a whole edition of these, so they are up right now, freshly listed in my Folksy shop here. I'll also have this print at the Jubilee Library AOH all through May. There are notecards to match, and these, along with copies of this print and some of my other prints, will be for sale on the opening afternoon only, this Saturday 5th May. Do come along!

End of Week 17