T t'owl

I have been working on a Tea Towel design for the To Dry For competition. My final entry is the first of the three photographs above. As I only found out about the competition by chance a few days ago, it was all "rush rush" to develop my idea and design my T t'owl. The idea combines phonetic spelling and a visual icon to create the word Tea Towel (there is probably a name for it but it has'nt come to me yet), but basically if you don't get it straight away then I suppose it has failed as a communication medium.

 

I also had a great idea to use Illustrator owing to the lack of time to draw and scan and colour etc.. Owls are quite easy to "construct" so I thought it might save time, I also imagined the finished result to be a clean graphic image suitable to screen print. As I enjoyed myself so much I designed not one Owl but lots so as tradition has it I will be incorporating them in other designs.

So pleased with the results, I even experimented with a "Cup a T", and I could'nt resist the "plural version of T t'owls". 

If I came across my T t'owl in a shop I would certainly buy it!

Hope you like them.

More of the same... Gift Cards

More of the same you might say, however my illustrations look good on Gift Cards too, so they are now on sale in Turin at the 'posh gift shop'... and there are loads of them!

The main reason for this post is to let Flowerlady know that I have already posted some to her. Meanwhile enjoy a couple here.

I'm moving on to better things. Watch this space for more OWL drawings.

First day of Spring 2011

Whilst driving home yesterday this lovely flower caught my eye and seeing as I had my camera with me I took a few shots. It was painted on a wall in a grubby little park. The part I like best is the sky, the person who drew it bothered to paint a beautiful blue all around the flower, a perfect setting to celebrate the first day of spring 2011.

Twelve cups of tea with me!

Back in July 2010 I posted two illustrations inspired by an exhibition I saw on LENCI CERAMICS. I have continued to work on a series of illustrations which have evolved from these first two drawings. The twelve final illustrations have been positioned onto porcelain mugs and I love them. I would like to have a nice cup of tea in every one of them. I am only posting six here for you to admire, two from each colour way. If anyone is interested in seeing all of them just let me know.

I am also printing up some gift cards using my favourite drawings from this collection, they will be sold exclusively in our gift shop in Turin.
I can now concentrate on a series of cards which have been neglected because I have been working solely on the above illustrations for a couple of weeks. Strangely the new project involves flower illustrations... I think I'm becoming obsessed!

Spoonflower fabric delights

I heard about Spoonflower from one of my favourite haunts True up. 

I have been browsing the site for quite a while and have noticed that more and more well known Fabric Designers are using Spoonflower to sell fabric designs.

It works around a very innovative concept, it allows you to create custom fabric designs, print them for your own use, and, SELL THEM TOO. 

As I am experimenting with surface pattern and repeat designs it is the perfect way to get samples of my work printed up onto the real thing. There is a wealth of information available to help you reach your goals, so with a bit of extra instruction regarding LAB colour spaces, and some tips, tricks, and tutorials about digital fabric printing I should be ready to start producing quite soon. They also organise a "Fabric of the week" competition where you can enter your designs or vote for designs you admire in the current competition. As I can never resist a good competition I think I'm hooked! 

I opened my "nice and fancy" account at Spoonflower yesterday so watch this space for the latest news on fancy fabric swatches.

P.S. Whilst registering my account I voted for Bright by Rabble, Friut Salad by Cynthia Frenette, and Paisley by Snork, in the Paisley competition (see above images).