bonbah » pattern

Dino-mite! Starting to come together

admin — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:37:12 +0000

There are so many things I’d like to develop and offer in my Etsy/Folksy shop that I often have difficulty focusing and have ended up feeling like it’s all spread a bit thin. It’s normally through customer requests that I start developing things a bit more logically. I’ve recently had some requests for printed decorations that I don’t currently carry. It’s given me the push to move away from just offering pdf versions of things to keeping part of the fun (cutting and pasting, yeay!) for me. So first up is the Dinosaur suite of stationery and decorations:

There are cupcake toppers too, but they still need to be photographed. Next up pinwheels, bunting banners and party blowers. Then on to all the other party suites and hopefully still time to get Christmas going.

UK Inspiration: Lil3Birdy & Naughty Dog

admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:09:43 +0000

A couple of talented UK based surface designers to get me back into the swing of things.

1. Lil3Birdy (London) beautiful, intricate designs with birds & geometric patterns.

Bird Gift Tags, Illustrated Art Designs, Turquoise Blue Grey

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Cute Bird & Flower Gift Tags, Illustrated Art Designs, Blue Green Pink

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Owl Gift Tags, Ink Drawing Designs, Brown Black White

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2. Naughty Dog (Hartlepool) really lovely cushions with line drawings of dogs, shoes, butterflies…

Appliqued Dog Cushion

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Shoe Cushion

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Dog Cushion

new birthday invitations

admin — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:55:25 +0000

I’ve finally listed a couple of new children’s birthday party invitations: a spooky theme and a teddy bear tea party. The spooky one was designed for my son’s first birthday party and the other for his friend’s but they’re both now on Folksy.

spooky birthday invitation

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teddy bear tea party

UK Inspiration Caroline Cowen & Robin and Mould

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:50:53 +0000

Finally some time to find some more UK based inspiration. Another random search on Etsy brings up some lovely silver jewelry and beautiful hand screenprinted home textiles.

1. Caroline Cowen (from Hertfordshire) – beautiful handmade jewelry in quirky, pretty designs.

sterling silver and cold enamel retro flower necklace

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gerbera daisy earrings

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sterling silver and purple felt bow necklace

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2.Robin and Mould (from Devises, Wiltshire) – beautiful handmade and hand screenprinted home textiles.

hand screen printed sleepy dog in teal

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hand screenprinted owl toy in yellow

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hand screen printed dream big cushion in teal

UK Inspiration – Summersville & Ruth Robinson Ceramics

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:05:31 +0000

I’ve been doing Folksy Friday for a while now and I really like Folksy and what it is growing into. I’ve also started getting involved with UK Handmade which is very exciting and very inspiring. There’s nothing more motivating that meeting and building relationships with people with like interests. Especially when you’re a work-from-home mum like me. Sometimes it can feel a bit like I inhabit my own little universe. Etsy UK seems to be stepping up a bit of late which is great as although I love Etsy and have for ages, recently I’ve been feeling like it’s a bit too US based. There are alot of very talented artists, designers and craftspeople in the UK, but the public opinion of ‘craft’ definitely needs changing. There are still a lot of old-fashioned WI style things around (and I probably have an outdated vision of the WI!) if you’re looking but there are also many hand-crafted products that could match and outdo any commercially made product for ingenuity, craftsmanship and uniqueness. Looking back, for the most part I have been focusing on UK makers, but going forward I’m going to make a stronger effort to find inspiration from the UK.

So here are a couple of wonderful designers I had never heard of but found by doing a couple of random searches on Etsy:

1: Summersville (from Suffolk): Beautiful screenprinted prints, notebooks & fabric

totem – hand screenprinted fabricsdfaf

scandi hand screenprinted fabric

twist hand screenprinted fabric

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2: Ruth Robinson Ceramics (from Cheshire): Gorgeous ceramic buttons and hairclips

Handmade blue porcelain owl hairclips

Handmade green porcelain buttons

Handmade grey porcelain buttons

Folksy Friday – Gocco

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:22:18 +0000

I wanted a gocco machine for ages and I got one two years ago. I think I’ve used it once. Mainly, in all fairness, because I don’t have access to an old-school carbon copier. But it’s still one of my favourite things and finding a way to use it more often is definitely up there on my todo list. One day I’ll be able to gocco as well as this (click on the images or shop names for more info):

Vintage Button Gocco Badges from Asking For Trouble

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Hoot Owl A6 Notebook from Nell

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Blue Hare from deebeale

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Matryoshka Gocco Print by Kipi Ka Popo Shop

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Brown Owl Gocco Printed Lavender Bag from Inkmeup

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Have a Terrierific Birthday – Boston Terrier Card from Forever Foxed

(please click on the images or shop names for more information)

new photos

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:36:27 +0000

I’ve finally got my new product photos up on Folksy just need to do shots for the new wedding and children’s party invitations once the samples are finished.

mini inspiration: Lucienne Day

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:31:55 +0000

I’m starting a new weekly post: mini inspiration. Just a very quick visual look at someone or something I find inspiring. Who better to start with than my favourite textile designer Lucienne Day:

cards at the tate

joanne — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:09:08 +0000

I wasn’t too sure about the Tate Modern when it first opened. I think that was because I was still very much in love with the Pompidou in Paris, which is still my favourite museum. So on my first visit to the new Tate Modern, shortly after it opened, all I did was compare it to the Pompidou and complain about the room of poo (still not a fan). But over the years it’s slowly grown on me and now I love it. As well as the museum collection itself (apart from the poo), I love the building and I love the bookshop which in a dream world I would transplant to my house. But I guess having it easily accessible along the South Bank is just as good. I normally spend all my time in there looking at the books, but when we went yesterday (to see the Cy Twombly exhibit – separate post later) I wandered over to the card section. And I think, as well as having the best book collection, they might also have the best cards. Here’s just a couple of the companies they stock (more on the others later)…

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we are family design

quirky & eco-friendly too, they’re all printed in Britain with vegetable based inks on FSC, chlorine free paper. who knew you could make a nice pattern out of sprouts?!

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rose hip cards

the notebooks are on recycled paper but not sure about the cards. these weren’t the designs they had at the tate but they’re lovely all the same

angie lewin

joanne — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:05:51 +0000

It’s probably pretty obvious to tell that I’m just discovering the wide world of illustration and pattern and I’m sure if anyone other than my family accidentally falls upon this blog they’re probably thinking – yes we knew about that ages ago. But hey, I didn’t and there’s sure to be someone else out there as behind the times as me!

So I thought I’d write a little bit about Angie Lewin who I’m thinking is probably pretty well known but she was the first surface designer whose work I could actually recognise. So I’d feel quite smug pointing out her cards and notebooks in a shop, knowing full well in the back of my head that it was probably a bit like pointing out a Picasso or Warhol – pretty obvious really. But there you go, I’m learning and Angie has a definite distinct style that is very easily recognisable even if you are a bit of a novice.

Angie studied at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design and Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. She works in a range of printmaking techniques including lithography, silkscreen and etching and more recently lino and woodcut and wood engraving. Her designs are mostly botanical and they have a retro feel to them which I think comes from the areas of flat colour. The colours she uses are really beautiful, muted and saturated blues, pinks, yellows and greens.

We’ve got some really lovely card shops on our local high street (Oliver Bonas and Zeitgeist) where I’m pretty sure I had seen Angie’s cards, but it wasn’t until Jeff bought me a couple of her notebooks for Christmas (which I can’t bring myself to use) that I actually knew her name. Since then I’ve found quite a few excuses to buy boxes of her notecards – much cheaper than buying separate cards every time, right?! Next step is obviously prints and textiles, but how to choose…

see more by Angie here – www.angielewin.co.uk

have a look at Oliver Bonas here – www.oliverbonas.com