remember, remember

the darker days and frosty mornings can only mean one thing ... christmas is just round the corner! i can't believe how quickly it's come round, i'll be spending this week getting all my bits and pieces ready for my first (and probably last, as i forgot to apply in time!) christmas market of the year!
at 'the place' theatre in oakengates on november 5th from 10am - 2pm
i wasn't brave enough to apply for an outdoor stall, so i'll be all toasty inside selling items from my shop, prints, cards and cushions by luke waller (he may even be making a guest appearance) and a selection of crochet items by my lovely sister, liz :) do pop over for some festive merriment

totes special tote

i've been working on a fun little project recently, some of you may have seen some of work in progress snaps i posted on twitter ...

the lovely ladies from ballad of... have been busy bees getting together goody bags for guests attending the next issue's launch party in november, only to find they were short by 10 bags! so they called for help from ten illustrators
the task : to create a super special one off horror-esque tote bag for the next ballad of... party, to be given away (yes GIVEN away!) to the first 10 lucky so and so's through the door! ...is it too early to que up now?!!

so here's my offering. i've got to admit i wasn't thrilled about the idea of having to draw in pen. but actually, i was pleasantly surprised with the results! i used an ultra fine black uni posca pen, and the effect it's given on the tote is really lovely. the resistance of the cotton allowed me to do more shading than i thought i would, which was a nice surprise.
i also tried my hand at a bit of embroidery (not sure if i'll be doing this again!) but it was a nice excuse to use my metallic thread to make the gemstone.

looking forward to seeing the next issue of ballad of... (i submitted an illustration for it *sneak peek here* so am keeping my fingers crossed for that) really hoping i can make it to the party too!
i am quite surprised how much i enjoyed this little project, i'm thinking of making a few more one off totes  like this to sell in my shop ... what do you think?
hope you're having an ace weekend so far :*

SMUG exclusive

very nice news to share with you today : a selection of my prints will be available from a beautiful shop called SMUG this winter. from 26th october, through to january SMUG will transform the upstairs area of it's camden passage store into a pop up print shop. if you take a peek at smug's website you'll see that it's a bit special, sooo many handsome items i'd love to fill my home with

even nicer news : lizzie (creator of smug) invited me to produce an exclusive illustration for an exhibition of prints unique to smug, which will run alongside the pop up ... so this is one of the drawings i've been busying myself with recently, my brief was to produce an illo based on the old definition of the word smug 'to smarten up a room' with a lovely 50s style lady, feather duster in-toe 

so make sure you get yourself down to smug  - 13 camden passage, islington, london n1 8ea - to have a good rifle through some lovely work ... and maybe buy one or two 

ps. this is my 100th blog post! huzzah!

puck

sorry for the lack of posting recently, is it just me or is the new blogger layout a teeny bit confusing? hmmm, just me then? ok anyway

a couple of little things to share with you today.
this week i've been working on a tiny little something for a postal art project, here's the concept :

orange dot gallery (bloomsbury london) in association with the british postal museum are producing a show.
artists are selected, and then given 32 blank postcards each.
that artist pieces the postcards together in a grid to make a single canvas.
they produce a singular image covering all 32 postcards.
once done, the postcards are separated and posted off to 32 differing creatives.
those creatives interact with those postcards in any way they see fit and then send them back to the gallery.
the gallery then rebuilds the original larger image, now with 32 individual and unique additional pieces contained within,
once all are rebuilt they will be on show as part of an exhibition on october 20th.

after a call out on twitter, 'robbies brown shoes', from puck chose me as one of his 32.
robbie drew his illustration in black ink and i worked over the top in pencil and coloured crayons, i must admit it was quite a challenge to work so small and on textured paper! just as difficult to draw on as it is to scan in, so apologies for the small image - i assure you it looks a whole lot nicer in real life! i'm too used to working on big sheets of super smooth bristol board
more details of the exhibition can be found here.
i'm looking forward to seeing what these mysterious inked lines become with the other 31 postcards!

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also this week i was featured in issue 8 of burst magazine, the pen and pencil edition. go here to download. lots of nice work in there, including some from ohh deer's jamie mitchell, he's a bit special - keep an eye out for my exciting collaboration with ohh deer coming in the near future!

ohh aaand i don't think i blogged about this at the time but matt spencer created a few illustrations based on our cat loving, tea drinking twitter bios, including my wiggly worm one!

pretty penny

... i thought i'd quickly let you know that i've finally gotten round to listing my new purses in my tiny shop. four sizes to choose from. all lovingly hand sewn and waiting for you to take home, sowhatareyouwaitingfor?