Crazy Stockings at House of Vans

Earlier this month Lilli and I ran a lino printing and stocking decoration workshop at HoV to spread a little creativity and Christmas cheer. We had been busy on the run up cutting away at Christmas themed lino designs that could be selected and arranged to make personalised stockings.

It was the first lino printing workshop either of us had even run and we're really pleased with its success. The day was really busy and when we realised at 5pm that we hadn't stopped for a lunch break we took it as a good sign because we'd been enjoying ourselves so much we hadn't realised sooner! The day was filled with lots of smiles, colour and pompoms, a great way to start our Christmas festivities! 










Christmas Printing

This year I've tried to make my Christmas cards and presents as personalised as possible by drawing, printing and making as much as I can. Although I can't share some of the presents yet as I don't want to spoil any surprises, I can share my cards and a table runner that I've printed for my aunt (I'm pretty sure she won't see this).













Christmas is getting closer...

So start getting ready by joining me and Lilli for a Christmas stocking lino printing and decorating workshop. We'll have lots of pre-cut lino designs to choose from as well as ribbons, pompoms and other accessories to personalise your stocking. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Back on it...

After taking a short break from printing I'm back on it and preparing for a Christmas workshop at House of Vans with the lovely Lilli Cowley-Wood. Here's a little preview...

Last print of the summer...

After a pretty productive summer with lots of printing, I've now completed my last print run and am ready to relax in France!
I have used a mixture of gold and bronze ink to add colour to the chicken and cup to give them an extra shine. Hope you like the print!


Deer Printing

Next on the list after printing my hedgehogs was printing up my deer. I had prepared my screens so this one would be a three colour print and have printed them in two different colourways so far but there will definitely be more to come!





Open Studio Printing

In September my mum, sister and I have decided to get involved with Crowborough Arts Open Studios and take the opportunity to exhibit and sell some of our work. I'm super excited to be doing something with these two lovelies...but it did pose a bit of a problem; I have nothing to sell!

Over the last few years, although I've built up a good body of drawing, I haven't actually printed anything other than commissions or my own family portraits and I certainly haven't had anything stocked up that could be sold. So with the summer holidays offering so much time, I thought I better get cracking!

Sam bought me a lovely new screen for my birthday this year so, along with my other screens in mind, I started planning out my designs to expose. A trip to Lovenskate (who were printing some awesome skateboards at the time by the way, make sure you take a look!) last Friday meant that I could prep my screens in time to start printing first thing Monday morning.

First up for printing was my hedgehog. Despite being a four colour print, it was nice and simple because the registration didn't have to be massively accurate. It was a good print to get started on and after testing out a few different colourways I got going on my prints.











Mr Pangolin



Hummingbird

Just finished printing the first of my linocut hummingbird series and I'm so pleased with how they're looking!

 I start off by drawing out and cutting an image for the first colour. I leave out some detail, particularly on the leaves and the breast as this will act as a fill for the outline later on.
 I print a run of my first colour.

Once my first colour is printed I begin to work into my lino again, adding all the detail to make my final outline.
I ink and carefully line up the lino with the first colour print to add the second colour and outline on top.

The final print is so satisfying and really special as, now that I've cut into it a second time, there is no way for me to replicate it again. I have chosen to create a limited edition of 20 prints. I still have other colours to print though so I best get back to work!





Etching Collages and Experiments




Wander Anywhere and Aestheticodes at Caistor

I was lucky enough to be asked at short notice if I could run an artcode workshop in Caistor just outside of Norwich. Of course I jumped at the chance because I love exploring applications of the artcodes and the Roman town seemed like such an exciting location for it.

Along with Theresa, one of the Wander Anywhere developers, and Will, an archaeologist specialising in Caistor Roman Town, I met with a group of archaeologists and local Caistor enthusiasts to teach them how to create an artcode and discuss the possibilities in the area.

Our guests designed some really wonderful artcodes using some Roman books for inspiration.
Not only were we discussing the use of artcodes but also Wander Anywhere, a website that allows you to link information with a location that can then be accessed by others when they visit that location using GPS. It's something that I was totally unfamiliar with until the workshop and it seemed equally as exciting as Aestheticodes. The idea was that people visiting Caistor could get extra information relating to their location within the town through either using Wander Anywhere or by scanning an artcode places within the town. This information could be written, an audio file or a visual reconstruction and could be delivered purely as additional information or perhaps as a game, such as a treasure hunt guiding visitors around the site.

Of course we had to visit the town during the workshop to really get a feel for how these ideas could be applied. I was really excited about this because I'd never been before and I was basically surrounded by a whole team of experts in the field (that's a great pun by the way because it really is a field now) and got a really interesting tour.


As I mentioned, the town is now a green field, one of the few Roman towns in the country like that. It was fascinating hearing some of the possibilities to explain why Caistor became abandoned. Why wasn't Norwich built upon it? Why was Caistor built where it was? The site really does hold some mysteries, however, to the untrained eye,with the exception of the wall (which is barely Roman) it is mostly just a field. This is where I think Wander Anywhere and Aestheticodes would be perfect. A tool to allow visitors to interact, understand and visualise what once was there.

Unfortunately we had some problems with accessing the internet in order to view the information on the Wander Anywhere website as we needed a constant connection to ensure that we received the information as we were in the correct location. Aestheticodes was slightly better as you could scan a code and then wait while the information loaded, information isn't missed but can take a while to load. However, this isn't ideal for a truly interactive experience. One option for Wander Anywhere is that there is the possibility of being able to download information before hand and then access it using the GPS as a trigger rather than relying on the Internet at the time. This offers a great solution to the problem and, as long as visitors are aware of the website before hand so they know to download the information, could really work. I can imagine this could also be a possible solution for Aestheticodes too but would have to be looked into.

In the meantime, it got me thinking about how fantastic Wander Anywhere and Aestheticodes could be for creating treasure trails around a city. What about a guide to all the Roman remains in London? Or perhaps ghost stories?! It's not Caistor, I know (sorry Will), but there's plenty of WiFi and 3G!

Thanks to everyone involved for a brilliant day! Everyone was so switched on and engaged, it made for a really thought provoking workshop and I couldn't have hoped for a better team of people to work with!

Foxy purse

I recently decided to make use of some of my odd scraps of screen printed fabric left over from uni and combined them with some fox patches I also printed. My friend's birthday was approaching so it was the perfect excuse to have a go at making something with them. I went for a purse/pencil case/whatever you want it to be. Now I want to make more...
 Screen printed suedette fox patch
 Screen printed stripe pattern
Lined with light weight denim