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Folksy Friday – Festival

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:32:39 +0000

So the theme of this week’s Folksy Friday is ‘Festival’ in honour of Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common which is happening this weekend on Clapham Common. We’re going tomorrow for the first time with child. This is more of a family-friendly festival, or used to be, so the theme is more bunting (I love bunting) and less wellies and throwing bottles. Oh and the bandstand is because the first Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common was thrown to raise money to rebuild the bandstand:

Slide 8 x 8″ Print by Cassia Beck

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Scrap Bag Festival Bunting by Flaming Nora

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The Circus Is In Town – Mini Print by Blackoutwell

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Carousel Rose by Maria Allen

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Bandstand by Lynsey Hunter

Folksy Friday – Hungry

joanne — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:14:39 +0000

I’m hoping to keep up with this every week. This is my second one so that’s a roll for me. This week’s theme is ‘hungry’ because I’m hungry:g

Hungry Bear Plate from James Ward

Chocolate Cake Coin Purse from Dinky Daisy

Alice in Wonderland ‘Eat Me’ Cake Toppers by Crafty Pagan Designs

Apple and Pear Card from Little Bird Too

Cream Egg Cosy from Charlotte Macey Textiles

Now I’m even more hungry.

Russell Ayto – illustration

joanne — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:18:07 +0000

Because I have so much spare time (ha ha) I have also started another blog to try to keep track of some of the great children’s books we’re finding to read with George. Funnily enough I haven’t been that great at keeping up with it, but I did manage to write the first part of a post on Russell Ayto last night. He is a really great, versatile illustrator who I hadn’t heard of before, not that my knowledge of children’s illustrators went much past Eric Carle and Richard Scarry! We were going through a stack of library books yesterday when I realised that a good percentage of the ones I pick are illustrated by Russell Ayto. So if you aren’t familiar with his work have a quick look at my other blog – Reading to George – for the first of a couple of posts on his work.

little bulldog design

joanne — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:04:12 +0000

I officially back from maternity leave to my freelance business, little bulldog design, a couple of months ago, but you wouldn’t really know it as not much in the way of work has come in. I blamed it on the recession for a little while, but it quickly became apparent that my clients had either understandably found replacement designers while I was off or there’s just not alot of room for a freelancer who is at the beck and call of a little boy during most working hours. So although I will hopefully still get the odd design job, it’s time to finally take the initiative to create on my own and see where that takes me. As it’s the world I’m now becoming apart of I’ve started with a few baby designs so we’ll see where that takes me.

birthday invitation

My website is soon to be revamped but in the meantime I’m starting to post new personalised invitations on Folksy and Etsy, if you haven’t already visited either they’re very addictive and full of amazing stuff you won’t find in any high street shop. I’m also thinking of offering a sort of invitation service for busy yummy mummies – sending out the invites and managing reminders etc. Also on the cards are packs of personalised children’s birthday cards so you can buy them all in one swoop rather than stressing at the last minute.

lace dress wedding invitation

Folksy Friday – Sunshine

joanne — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:52:53 +0000

This is my first go at Folksy Friday and in honour of the beautiful day we had today I’ve chosen a few sunshine-themed handmade items:

sunshine corsage from Mud Puppy

complete van-atic greeting card from hello sunshine

vivid green paisley flowered sun dress from Kryshees

happiness earrings- sunshine yellow from Chain of Daisies

'The Summer Sun' print from bubble or squeak

Click on the photos to view their other lovely items. Here’s to more sunshine.

charlotte hardy

joanne — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:07:44 +0000

Ever since I started working freelance about a year and a half ago, I’ve been having an extended “you know, I think I used to be quite creative and artistic” moment. So I’ve gone on a long-term journey to rediscover my long hidden drawing and creating abilities.

My first step on this relearning process was a three evening course at CityLit called “Drawing for Textiles”. I had no idea what to expect but was incredibly excited to walk into a room full of easels and sticks and paint and to meet my tutor, Charlotte Hardy. The three evenings were not nearly enough, but I came away with a new lease on life and remembering all the reasons I did an art degree years ago. And it was so nice to have paint encrusted under my fingernails rather than computer lint. And a wonderful feeling of “I can make anything I want, anything!”

I’ve taken longer printmaking and drawing courses at CityLit since then – and they were both brilliant, but last week I did another 4 evening textiles course. I walked in on the first night and was really thrilled to see that there had been a change in tutors and I was back with Charlotte again.

Charlotte is an absolutely brilliant teacher, she has a way of encouraging you with your strengths without making you feel badly about the things you’re not so good at. But she’s not just a teacher she’s also an talented professional artist. Having met with her a few times now I can really see her lighthearted, honest personality in her designs.

There’s something really lovely about the way she takes everyday things and gives them a presence so you feel like you’re looking at your granny’s favourite things and all the memories that go along with them. I’m off to see Charlotte at the Urban Art Fair in Brixton. It will be really nice to see some of her work in person although unfortunately I can’t afford to buy anything today.

I think I’ll definitely be taking Charlotte’s drawing class again this year

see more of Charlotte’s work here – www.charlottehardy.co.uk

find out more about CityLit here – www.citylit.ac.uk

for more on the Urban Art Fair – www.urbanart.co.uk

julia rothman

joanne — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:18:51 +0000

I really like the hand-drawn repeat patterns by Julia Rothman. She’s drawn everyday things like cars and chairs and made them into really lovely patterns

Julia also has a really interesting blog on book illustration – Book By Its Cover – I’ve only just discovered it but it looks like it will become one of my regular reads. She also has a design agency with a brilliant website – Also – that looks to do really lovely work.

see Julia’s website here – www.juliarothman.com

read her book blog here – www.book-by-its-cover.com

NineteenSeventyThree

joanne — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:10:23 +0000

I realised the other day that for the most part all the wrapping paper and cards I’ve been buying over the past year have come from the same company, eventhough I’ve bought them all over the place. So I guess I must like them alot. The company is called NineteenSeventyThree and their products “are environmentally friendly whether they are boards made from 100% post consumer waste or from mixed sources of recycled material and pulp from certified well managed forests with sound replantin gprogrammes. all the inks used in the printing of our products are vegetable based and all our cello bags are compostable and biodegradable”. And they’re all really cool to boot. They work with several different artists/designers, some I already knew like Jon Burgerman and others I discovered: Catalina Estrada, TADO, PushMePullYou Design, Eboy.

My favourite ranges are The Good Life:

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PushMePullYou:

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Suki:

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and the Melvyn Evans address books and notebooks:

see & buy more lovely stuff from 1973 here – www.nineteenseventythree.com

Snoopy will never die

joanne — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:08:54 +0000

I was really happy to hear that my nephew Jonah is now into Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. My absolutely favourite thing for most of my childhood was Snoopy and he’s still pretty high on my list of favourite things. I still have two rather weathered Snoopy dolls that would have been carted around pretty much everywhere. Although sadly my original Snoopy was lost when we went on holiday one year and I think you can imagine the tears that followed. How I managed to survive without him I don’t know, I seem to have blocked that trauma from my memory, but I know a replacement soon came along. My Snoopy watch with the flying Woodstock hand is also still going strong. I’m hoping Jonah’s relationship with Snoopy will be as long-lived as mine.

Although I loved the Peanuts gang, my favourite strips were always the ones with Snoopy on his own or with his sidekick Woodstock.

I think I owe Snoopy, and Mr Schultz, alot towards my love of animals and dogs in particular. I grew up constantly associating my own dogs with Snoopy. Buddy in particular was very fond of doing the “vulture” pose.

although he never ventured up a tree as far as I know. And how brilliant were his illustrations, just a few lines but it’s all there. With all the incredible 3D computerised stuff of today it’s easy to forget how great a simple line drawing can be. Who can picture Snoopy dancing, just a few lines on a page, and not smile?

So hooray for Jonah and the new generation of Snoopy lovers because as I said to Jeff the other day – Snoopy will never die

look what you can find by scavenging

joanne — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:08:05 +0000

I was looking through my ever increasing collection of scavenged things when I found some really lovely business cards by illustration students and graduates. They’re great not only because they show off their artistic talent, but also because they have yet to be properly chewed up and spat out by the mass-produced, bash-it-out, we all look the same corporate world (sorry do I sound disenchanted?).

I’ve got loads of these lovely cards, but I picked out a few of my favourites and did a bit of searching on the web to see what else they’ve been getting up to.

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My favourite is definitely the one by Rosie Parfitt. Her card features the first two images below on the front and the third on the back

Evil Von Weevil and the Sneaky Weevil gang – brilliant! Unfortunately I could only find Rosie on the Swansea BA Illustration website – StopLookListen, but I’m hoping to see more of the weevils soon.

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The best find came from searching Nadia Sparham whose website is just as cool as her business card – the little bird flies around a town of patterns and it seems there’s nothing Nadia can’t do, and well.

Nadia is a self-described designer/maker and she produces beautiful upholstery and ceramics as well as illustrations and murals.

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Another card that caught my eye, and not just because I love the majestic moose, is by Rhona Breeze. The first image here is the front of her business card and the other is from her website – it’s definitely worth a visit, she’s already had a couple of commissions and has done some lovely illustrations for an Orange competition (again a bit partial to the moose).

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And finally (although not last – I have loads of other great cards, but just haven’t had time to look up all the illustrators/designers behind them, but I’ve put the rest up on Flickr) is Nathalie Oger. In her website portfolio she also shows paintings and 3-D modelling, but I like her illustrations the best. According to her website Nathalie is currently working on a leaflet for children on ways to save the planet.