Arts Trail Blog

Just to let you know that I will also be posting on the Chelmsford Arts Trail blog on the run up to the trail, here's my first post: http://www.chelmsfordartstrail.com/2011/blog/?p=1224

Here's a sneak preview - this is my patterny portrait of Hannah the company owner of 'Make Do & Mend' my venue for the event.

Riot Raffle

Morning Everyone :-) Just to let you all know that I've donated to the Riot Raffle - a raffle creared by Zoe Grant which is raising money for small businesses who were affected by the riots in the past few weeks. All the prizes have been donated by creative designer/makers, and there are some gorgeous things on there! To buy and ticket and have a look through all the wonderful prizes please visit: http://www.riotraffle.org/

Footstool Workshop at Make Do & Mend

Yesterday I went to the wonderful Make Do and Mend (who coincidently is my arts trail venue, very excited about the collaboration!) to do a footstool upholstery workshop. It was so lovely, the shop has all the types of things I love, cosiness, teacups and saucers, lovely handmade gifts and gorgeous wallpaper! There was a really nice atmosphere with some people chatting and browsing and others learning to knit and crochet.

Anyway onto the workshop, we had a lovely tutor who took us step by step through the whole process of making, which was surprisingly easy with help! I used an off cut of my 'Lucienne' fabric which I got printed for the arts trail last year. Was so lovely seeing one of my designs in situe as a proper little piece of furniture - there really is a limit to how many cushions you can squeeze onto a sofa! Anyway, here it is, am feeling very pleased with myself! Want to do lots more upholstery now :-)

(Excuse the quality of the pics, can't find my camera lead!!)

The brown version of the design I used for the fabric.

A well earned sit down for a sit down for me and the bump (Am now 30 weeks, eesh!) Our new favourite past time aside from eating!

August Vintage Florals

Decoupage Disaster!

I was inspired by a post on the Lolita and Me blog to collage our old ikea table with one of my patterns. I thought I'd give it a go with the 50's style blue print I designed last week, and spent pretty much the whole of saturday sanding and painting and varnishing. Unfortunately I think the printer paper I used was too thick and so it really didn't stick well and has all puckered up horribly! (Heidi, I don't know how you got yours so smooth and lovely!) Oh well, lessons learnt and all that - I'm pleased with the grey colour we painted with the legs and the blue, but will definitely have to brush up on my decoupaging skills!

Tile Designs

Here's a 50's design I've been working on, i haven't worked on the repeat yet, but am pretty settled on these colours.

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My twitter feeds for the last couple of evenings have been just so heartbreaking, and scary really, am sending out lots of love to anyone affected by the riots. Last night I saw this poster designed by one of my favourite illustrators Emmeline Pidgen (click on her name to visit her website), I really like the positivity in it.

I also found out about Zoe Grant's idea on our some of us designer/makers can do something to help - she's organising a raffle/auction to raise money for people affected by the riots in some way (either loosing their homes or livelihoods, or anything really) by getting lots of artists/designers/makers to donate work. Please visit her blog if you're interested in donating: http://www.zoeanddrew.blogspot.com/

Colour Coded Books...

Have really missed blogging lately due to moving house, those boxes just won't unpack themselves, but oh how I wish they could! Anyway, me and Ian had seen on a few design websites/magazines houses where people had colour coded their books, so thought we'd give it a go. We only did it with some, as doing the whole lot would just take forever, but we're pretty pleased with the result. Whether we'll be able to find the books we need quickly is another matter!