London, anyone?

Umm, pretty short notice but WE'RE OFF TO LONDON NEXT FRIDAY!!!!1!1!

Pete's work has been talking about sending him over to work on a project with a fancy design studio (oooh) for two weeks, and I thought I'd tag along and make the most of free accommodation. We've been waiting and waiting for them to set the date and all of a sudden it's next week!

So yeah, I'll have plenty of time to kill during the day whilst he's working, so I'd LOVE some suggestions of places to visit! Not your typical tourist destinations (of course we'll do those too) but more interesting, quirky, DESIGN and CRAFT and TEXTILES places to visit. Anything you think I might find inspiring.

All very scary yet exciting. We've got our eye on renting a flat for the two weeks so we can save money and make our own meals. Fingers crossed we get it :)

And then, we've decided to stay an extra week and go somewhere else in Europe whilst we're there. Still haven't decided where to go so I'd love suggestions on that too.

Eeep!

The Printing of Sia's Village

Okay I think you can look at this two ways - as either really cool or really lame. Or maybe both :)

But as I was printing the remaining editions of the 'Sia's Village' print (available again in my shop), I decided to film the process. Just the part where I do the registration, so you can see the rego plate that I've been yakking on about in action.

So here it is, my video debut*:



*my face not included :)

A dress a day

Oooh, a big thank you to Erin from A Dress a Day for posting an interview with me on her blog today! (or it's probably yesterday by now) :)

This post needs some photos, so here's what you can do with a Gocco screen + the Gocco Hand Stamper... which is unfortunately discontinued. It's a handy little tool for when you want to print on large areas without the hinge of the machine getting in the way.



It's basically just sticky block of foam attached to a handle, so you could probably make one yourself. You can also detach the print bed from the PG-11 and use that instead!



And voila - quick hand made wrapping paper for when you have none :)

And the winner is ...

Commenter #35! Who is (da da da daaa):

Nuya ~ !!

Congrats Nuya! And to everyone else, sorry ... but thank you SO MUCH for all your favourite colour submissions. It really will come in handy :)

happy mooing

Oooh it's a very good mail day when my moo cards arrive! Really happy with how this set turned out - fairly cohesive colour wise.

I also just happened to upload a bunch of new images to my moo designer page so you can get most of the above designs plus heaps more for your own cards :)

And talk about a good response to the giveaway. I'm really glad I asked that question because there have been some great answers. Will definitely influence my colour selection in future. Anyway I'll keep the giveaway open till tomorrow morning and then will draw the winner - good luck :)

Good things

- Finding a copy of Frankie in the mailbox, with no recollection at all of having subscribed (!)

- Going to the beach for the weekend and playing in the shallows where the water is warm

- Talking to complete strangers on the telephone with surprising ease (I have never been much of a telephone person)

- Discovering a new favourite cheese - yum!!!

- Giveaways!!!


Fabric of all shapes and sizes (some misprinted bits but generally good), A/P gocco print on plain paper, gift labels and a letterpress card.

So go on - come out of the shadows so I can see you, and tell me you favourite colour combination (of anything) to go into the running :)

UPDATE - Okay at 159 comments (!!) entries are closed! I'm doing the random number generation right now :)

xo

waiting waiting

Wow it's been a great week for publicity this week! Thanks to both Ahn-minh and Janel from Apartment Therapy for featuring my lamps this week - that's awesome. I love how everyone likes a bit of tutorial action :)

I'm feeling super frustrated at the mo though whilst I wait to get some new basecloth to print on. I just found one that's really lovely but they're out of stock! And my other supplier isn't getting their shipment in till the end of March. That feels like FOREVER away. Sigh. So anyway, no new fabric will be appearing in the shop for a little while - sorry about that.

Just for a bit of colour with this post - my inspiration wall, which is looking very bird themed at the mo:


(the bird prints are from the yumi yumi etsy shop!)

Thanks Bloesem

Just wanted to say a quick but huge thank you to Irene from Bloesem for posting about my Lamps and Gocco print today!



Thanks Irene!! You're too sweet :)

Gocco love

Ahhh, so many lovely comments on my previous post about the lamps - thanks so much!! I need to show appreciation for all my readers with another giveaway! More on that soon :)

Meanwhile, I've finally pulled out the Gocco again for the first time in months and tried my hand at my very first multiple screen print! I think it took me awhile to get over the preciousness of my Gocco supplies and be willing to use up a few screens in one hit.



I'm quite happy with how the print turned out. I only did 10 proper ones (numbered and all) and a whole bunch of 'Artist's Proofs' on any surface I could get my hand on. As you do, when you have a ready inked screen:



The prints on wood and stretched canvas didn't turn out so good, but I really liked them on the cream and recycled paper:



One thing I have to say is that the registration plate on my PG-11 was indispensable for this project. I don't know how I would have gotten the colours to line up without it (see an example here).

Anyway I popped a few up in my shop to see how they go. I've never sold a Gocco print before and wasn't sure about pricing either. But we'll see.

xo

lamps and more lamps

So yeah, as I touched on yesterday, I went a little crazy over the weekend making lamps:



They are a bunch of birthday, housewarming and wedding presents that I've been putting off making for ages, for fear (and loathing) of the drive to Handworks in Prahran. It's totally irrational I know. I just dislike the drive along King Street and Kings Way, the parking difficulties and the general vibe of the area. But it's the ONLY place I've found that sell lampshade frames!



Apart from an excuse to showcase my fabric in a self indulgent manner... they're also an opportunity to practice taking nice photos.



I still have a long way to go, but it's a fun way to kill an hour or so.



Of course, if you want to try your hand making your own lampshades (either with a ready made frame or by recovering an old frame) there's this tute that I wrote up awhile ago :)

crazy crafting lady

There hasn't been much blogging, but there has been a crazy amount of crafting going on around here. It's too dark to do the finished products justice, so here's a few in-progress shots:


Slicing through a sea of Ginkgo


Lampshade WIP - gluing fabric to polyprop


Lampshade WIP - rolling the fabric around the frame


An ink blocked and inked Gocco screen. Part of a new 4 colour print, ooh exciting :)

And I'm not the only one being a crafting machine of late. Check out these two gems from the 'hood:

- Insanely complicated yet beautiful papercut by Skinny laMinx and
- Fantastic new fabric prints by Hollabee

Nice work girls!

the case of the completely absent banner

I can't believe this - I just realised that the banner image on my shop was COMPLETELY MISSING when viewed in Internet Explorer! And nobody mentioned it! Maybe they thought I was trying to be all minimalist and cool with that big white empty space at the top of my site. No, not quite. Instead there's supposed to be a pretty slideshow banner there. Sigh.

Well, that teaches me to indulge in my little Firefox world and not test things more thoroughly.

In brighter news, check out these gorgeous one-of-a-kind hand stitched softies by Cat Rabbit!


These ones are sitting on the counter at Cocoon, looking so adorable I had to take one home.


And here he is keeping me company on the couch where I spent the day unwell. He's a cat dressed up as a rabbit and you can take his hood off and everything. Too cute.

there and back again

Getting there was half the fun. A plastic streamer attached itself to the front of our car on the freeway, we missed the turn off to the airport, parked in a 10min loading zone, managed to check in just before closing and ran outside to (successfully) wheedle our way out of a parking fine.

But we did finally get to Launceston. And Cocoon was amazing. It was like stepping into another world, full of the work of many artists I admire at the moment, and alongside it the work of myself and my friends. Very very cool. Here are some pics:


Ginkgo and Birch Mattt bags


A whole stand of pieces by Cloth (who I am slightly obsessed with)


Bags made with Kristen Doran & Auntie Cookie Fabrics, and Auntie Cookie cards


More bags made with mine and Kristen's fabrics


Little cards made from Kristen's Mollybirds fabric and some of my mix packs


Me, Suz (the lovely owner) and Shannon

All in all it was a great, quick little trip. But unfortunately I caught a cold just before we left so I was all sniffles and sore throat whilst there. And probably wont be able to go to the Mix Tape launch tonight at Sticky :( I was really looking forward to that...

Teeny Tiny Art Show II

Oh, one other cool thing I should mention before I go... some of my little drawings are appearing in the Teeny Tiny Art Show at the Three Graces Gallery! It's in Portsmouth, NH (somewhere in the States) and runs from February 6th (today, or tomorrow really if you're over there) till March 10th.

If anyone is in the area I'd love to know what it's like :) Becky Oh will be there taking some pictures for me. Thanks Becky!!

Cutting Edge Patterns

I have to laugh - Spin Spin just alerted me to this post I hadn't seen yet on Print and Pattern. About a book I didn't even know was finished. Which happens to have some of my patterns in it! Whoo!!

I submitted them awhile ago, so it doesn't feature my more recent, favouriter patterns, but it's awesome none the less. I've never been 'published' before!





There are soooo many awesome patterns in that book (I hope/assume I'll get a copy in the mail). Go check out all the pics on the P&P blog in the meantime tho!

I'm off to go visit some of my favourite shops. A quick stop by Meet Me at Mikes in Fitzroy, and then on to Cocoon in Launceston! As you do. Shannon and I got cheap cheap flights. I'll take lots of pics and will be back tomorrow!

making days

Oooooh, I just found out I am the recipient of no less than 3 "you make my day" awards. How crazy is that! Thanks to sia, sooz, and sandrine
(update: AND spin spin!! what's with all the names starting with S???)

Here's the rules:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs (or 10 according to some) that make your day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Tell the award winners that they've won by commenting on their blogs.

Geez, this is tough. Too many to choose from. So I'm just going to do this quickly, and try not to just pick my friends :)

Catherine - My Folk Lover
Wendy - Dozi
Sia (of course) - Siagraphica
Leslie - Goodness
Arounna - Bookhou
Danielle - of Paper & Thread

That'll do!

just leave it be

More random drawing. Don't know why - I think I need to give the textile designer in me a rest and experiment with some other things. A break from all the pressure and confusion in my head about where to take my textiles business next...

This illo came about in a weird way. First came her face with the downcast, worried eyes. Worried about what? What could she be looking down at? Ahhh, nasty mushroom thing. Don't touch that, just leave it be. Fill in the gaps with pretty forest scene and cute cottage. Done.

first batch o' 2008

I've been eagerly awaiting this latest print run - some reprints of my favourite & most popular prints and colourways. And the best bit is that the colours all go well together - I like it when that happens:



There's plenty of Ginkgo again this time. I've made a slight adjustment and made the robins egg blue colour slightly greener. It goes better with the olive green. Plus, this time the printers managed to get a wonderful 'overprint' effect on both the colourways , so you can see the dots through the leaves like I originally imagined. Yay :)

I'll be putting these ones up in the shop first thing Monday morning - 9:00am Melbourne time. Hope to see you there :) :)

xx