My latest creations

Here are some of the things I have been creating since I left my job and want to set up in business soon selling things like this.

 Tea Cosy

Scarf

Cushion

and lots of Lavender bags

Just looking for venues to sell them at, this will be my way of getting by before I launch my surface pattern design business selling the wallpapers and fabrics that I design.
Just been to see a local Interior designer and she was so lovely and loved all of my designs.
Guess I'm about to jump, lets hope that net appears!

Inspired Tea Cosy

I was inspired just before Christmas to make a tea cosy for a work colleague, she loves bunnies so much. This is what I made.

For quickness I used the outline from a Crafty Individuals stamp

of moon gazing hares. 

I had planned in my head the layout while driving home from work.

The hares are in natural linen, and the rest just scraps of cotton. All are bonda webbed onto the recycled bed sheet fabric, and then machine embroidered.I really must make a box to photograph my work in, sorry about the dark shadows!

My Mill Town Molly logo of an Allium seed head and the words "from lovely old stuff" are on the reverse.

My tea cosies are lined with a fabric which has been given to me or I've bought it in the past from a household auction.

I hope you have enjoyed my tea cosy as much as I enjoyed making it.

We have sold our house in the city and are hoping to move very soon into the countryside where there is a ready make studio right next to my bedroom. If I can't sleep I'm sure to be found in there doing what I love.

Tilda 'Sweet Christmas' Envelope book.

Hi there, I know I haven't posted blogs often enough but I've been busy. Now though I've a little time to post a blog from my sick bed, the old body has decided to let me down and give in to a bout of Pleurisy. Nothing has ever slowed me down like this before. I'm determined to beat it though and hope to be back at work to teach a workshop I have arranged on the following book I made just before Christmas from the 'Sweet Christmas' Tilda paper stack.

Sorry about the shadow at the bottom of the picture, this is the front cover. A piece of the Sweet Christmas Tilda paper and one of the pop out die cuts too. I've added the word Noel by choosing some of the Woodware chipboard letters which I have stamped with Broken China distress ink using an old wooden snowflake stamp. Then I added a little Worn Lipstick distress ink to the sides of the letters and glossed them up with Anita's 3D Clear Gloss.

I've also added some sparkly flowers from Papermania's capsule collection and some flowers from Woodware. But if you wanted to make a similar book I would always advise you to add some elements of your own because if you try to copy something it never looks the same.

This is the inside cover. As mentioned in the title of this blog this is an envelope book, made from, yes you guessed, envelopes. Because it's a Christmas book, I decided to use some dark red envelopes which were in my stash.
I loved this heart die from X Cut and chose to use it for the hinge because it is so lacy and wouldn't obscure items tucked under it.
I've cut off the sides to make pockets in this book and inserted some Papermania  note cards I had bought a while ago, they went with the theme both in colour and content.
The pages of this book are made up of papers and die cuts from the Tilda 'Sweet Christmas stash, other than a couple of pages where I needed to use some of my own papers to bulk them out. Enjoy.

That's not them all but I thought you might be getting bored.

Next you will see the back cover and the book from the side so you can see the heart hinges keeping the book together.

I'd love to know if you like it, as I loved making this little book.

fi x

Wallpapers and Fabric designs from my final collection.

At last I almost feel human again after two years of studying and working full time.

I have taken photo's of my final show but do not think they show off my designs very well, I hope these photographs taken outside show my work off better.

It's been a while so I hope I can still master the art of sending photographs to my blog.

I'd love to know what people think of my work.

Wallpapers

Fabrics

Progress

I feel I am almost there with my final module and heading for my final show. With a little excitement and satisfaction in the knowledge that as a full time employed, mature student I have achieved a lot in two years. 
After all it was a last minute decision to embark on this adventure in the first place.
Not everything has been documented in this blog, and on reflection I wish I had included more, but my blog started after I had created my first sketch book and the resulting designs.

So not yet finished but well on the way here are some of the design developments from those sketch book pages seen in a previous post.
I took a turn into the art of painting a stretched piece of paper with Procion dye. We were shown this technique in a workshop by Libby Lagun quite a few weeks ago. My piece developed while in the workshop is featured below.

This was created from that stretched piece of paper. A quick two minute drawing of a flower from the silk tassle bush, was scanned and developed into a design in Photoshop. This was then photo
copied and printed down onto my prepared background by using screen print cleaner, a sheet of acetate and an old biro.
When this was done I went into the design with household bleach to remove colour. This has resulted in the turquoise areas. I then coloured more areas with a white pencil.
I loved the result so much I just kept doing more, as you can see below. Once the initial design or painting was done, I took them into Photoshop and created lots of repeats.
The initial drawing used for these is of a Hellebore which I drew into my sketch book with a fine liner.

Original part drawing worked into with watercolour paint.

This is my second attempt, here I have used the whole drawing and created a lighter back ground. I tried to created a fraying edge but it went terribly wrong. Thank goodness you can crop things down in Photoshop.

In order to change the colour of this type of motif you must start from scratch and create the painting in the colours required.

Which has resulted in a totally different look to my original design.

I've moved on from that now and am working with more of my drawings from my sketch book pages. Still working in Photoshop cleaning up the photographs I took of my repeats. looking forward to finishing this process and adding some colour. Not really adept at using Photoshop I am learning a lot from U-tube as I go.

I have realised at long last, in my very last module that I would like to find work as a surface pattern designer. Hooray! It's only taken two years.
See below my on going work in this module.

News

Today I'm happy to tell you all that on Saturday I called in at Made in Jesmond to discuss merchandising our produce in the shop ready for our opening night of Friday the 19th April.

I was pleased to collect monies owed to me from two of my Aprons being sold. This is great news as I haven't been successful in finding an ideal work placement. Due to me working full time, living in Carlisle etc. During the Summer break from college I decided to run up some of my stash of fabrics into aprons and bags, with a view to selling them.

The next exciting news is that Warwick Tower will be opening on 27th April, this is a new venture set up by A Vintage Affair from Carlisle. It will be a shop selling Vintage and Retro items, originals often made by people like me. I am taking a small space for the time being and will be selling items I have made like my tea cosies and aprons. Plus a few vintage things I have bought in the past, which now need to move on to another good home.

I would like to exhibit some of my paintings too.

St Johns in the Vale watercolour.

Talkin in watercolour

And Grange in watercolour.

In the past I have painted mostly French scenes which I feel

reflect the light there. I have to admit I have struggled with painting English landscapes.

When I have finished my course I hope to take up watercolour painting again.

Here are some of my paintings which are not for sale, but show other work I am capable of.

 

   

  


We look forward to seeing you at Warwick Tower.