front page of etsy :-)

I was honoured to make the front page of Etsy yesterday, and with some fabulous company - I am new to Amanda Blake's work which she sells on Etsy as thisisalliknow and I just love it. See her blog if you don't know her work. (I am saving my pennies to buy one of these magical paintings see below.)

twila protects herself from a coming storm

And PataPri, i've loved her work for ages, she makes hand screenprinted tea towels and fabric. After finishing five weeks of hands-on screenprinting today I have an even greater admiration for anyone who takes on multi coloured prints, or really, any screenprinting at all!!!!!
I just love this Cath Deeson lino print too, it's been in my ever growing favourites for a while.
I'm looking forward to checking out some of the other beautiful things - love that dog.

Tea Towels!!

I've had such a nice day today, woke up to find a lovely mention of my Ruby Slippers print on the tinyhappy blog (thanks Melissa) and a few resulting orders then spent the afternoon making microwave paint pictures with my sons' year one class (yes, two sons, they are twins :-)
I will post a bit more about this tomorrow but it is a simple project I found on the internet and used for the art classes which a friend and I have volunteered to help at.
Then this afternoon I sent off a parcel to a new shop opening in June, more on that later!
A great happy day. So I was inspired to list this new offering to the FlowerPress shop. Something I have been dying to do for a long time - textiles.
These beautiful 100% linen tea towels are screenprinted with my designs.
Above is Filigree (I actually designed the image, exposed the screen and printed this one all with my own fair hands).
Available for the first time today in my shop. First buyer gets a bonus Ruby Slippers card.

tiny happy

tiny happy has long been a favourite blog, and shop of mine. I love Melissa's mix of simple style, wonderful skills and repurposed vintage materials. I love the simple crafts that she shares with her children and the inspiring way she looks at the world.
Originally from New Zealand (aka an honorary Australian :-) she lives now in Norway.
Sadly my kids are all too big for the clothes and shoes she makes, I originally found her online through a picture of her delightful corduroy pants for toddlers, unfortunately just as my boys' legs started to stretch!
The other day I finally bought some of her exquisite baby shoes for a friend of mine (who is pregnant with her fourth child).
I was wonderfully surprised and honoured when an hour later she ordered a print of mine.
Since then we have swapped emails and enjoyed some mutual admiration :-) and our parcels have passed somewhere over the world. What a nice surprise to find out that Melissa is even lovelier in person.


My tinyhappy parcel arrived today and if possible these shoes are even more beautiful in real life. Melissa's parcel too was a work of art in brown paper with polar bear stamps!
I know my friend, an artist and designer herself, is going to adore these little shoes, if I can bear to give them up!! If you haven't already visited Melissa's shop you better be quick. She sells out almost as soon as she updates which if I remember rightly is on Wednesday, her Wednesday that is! Thanks Melissa.

yellow tote from tiny happy blog.

new grass

Love this new grass, Miscanthus sinensis 'Graziella'.

This is what it will grow into (photo taken at the nursery last year) when I give it a bit more loving, its been in a pot for most of the time since I got it and only recently planted out, oh and moved a couple of times. Pretty standard treatment around here!

kiva

From the talented Lara Cameron of Kirin Notebook comes another great idea - Kiva is an microfinance organisation that "lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty." What a great idea.
As someone starting a small art business this seems the perfect way to pay back some of the good fortune I've had. And you can lend to a craftperson to buy their materials, like I did. How cool is that!
You also see a photo of the person and get a description of their business and their situation.
For your donation you also get a portfolio page which lets you follow your donations. There are a range of businesses and countries, ages and sexes.
It's easy to do, just click here!

vintage fabric buys

Went looking on Ebay for vintage fabric, big mistake. Couldn't resist this beautiful Eames barkcloth and these couple of quirky floral/op art fabrics. Surprise surprise LOL!

I just got the course notes for the textiles course and there is some information about repeats so it's interesting to look at these wonderful designs and work out how they repeat. I want to try and make print a repeat pattern over these last two weeks of my screenprinting course.

Last week was great fun and I managed to transfer one of my designs to a screen and then to a tea towel. I haven't taken a photo of it yet but I'll post it soon. I'm hoping to post them in the shop really soon, the first exciting step in my textile dreams!


I'm also dying to sew some simple projects with my new fabric but actually my sewing machine has recently died and I have to buy a new one. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a good brand second hand or just get a cheapie new one. I'm so inspired by all the crafters out there who make such beautiful things. I was halfway through a tote, my first, when the Janome started sewing tiny stitches and only going backwards. I'm not a great sewer at the best of times but that was too hard for me!

hyacinths

My sweetie bought these home for me today. I wish I could blog the scent. Glorious.

creature comforts

Wow, what a lovely surprise! Reading through my favourite blogs this morning and there are my Love gocco cards on the lovely Creature Comforts blog!! Poor old brain goes - click click click, I know those cards - wow - they're mine, hooray!!
Thanks to Ez for featuring these cards in her gold and white feature, I love this blog, it is on my must read list, really inspiring, lots of clever ideas and exquisite images collected and curated so beautifully. I love all her choices here but particularly the teapot and cup set with the shadow tree pattern below.
My sister in law recently chose these cards to give a young couple getting married this weekend, she thinks its the perfect message and the perfect colours for a romantic wedding.

screenprinting classes

A while ago I mentioned that I'd signed up for a textile printing course at a local Art College. For five Saturdays in May I'm in the studio learning to expose screens and print images on fabric. Yay!
I'm really enjoying it and learning heaps. And I'm looking at textiles and pattern in a new way.
Last Saturday was our second lesson and we got to print our own designs. Here's a sneak peak of my first experiments using my Filigree pattern. Unfortunately we had problems with the emulsion this week, it didn't set properly so no one's screens were perfect but here is a part of the pattern which came out perfectly.
I quite like this colour which I mixed myself. And I love putting images on fabric, the possibilities are endless, if anything I'm having trouble deciding what I'm going to print.
I can see though that this will be a long term love. Now I just need a large studio, a darkroom and a few printing tables!

Repeat Tutorial

You might have seen this elsewhere, but if you haven't, Julia Rothman is guest blogging on Design Sponge. She does some fantastic designs with amazing illustrations and patterns . Today she posted an amazing tutorial which shows a simple hands on way to make a repeat. For all of us obsessed with pattern design this is really exciting! I can't wait to have a try.
Check out her wonderful website too.

Paper Pops!

Woo Hoo!
When I read that poppytalk handmade were having a Paper Pops showcase dedicated to papergoods and affordable art I got really excited, I've been a big fan of their blog and this market since it started and this category just seemed to fit my work perfectly.
So I was really delighted when Jan and Earl gave me my own table. I love their amazing Poppytalk blog, which is full of wonderful finds and desirables and chock full of inspiration.
I've been setting up my table all week and now today is the opening day!!! I know I will be in fantastic company in this showcase, I've seen a few of my favourite bloggers talking about their involvement already but I can't wait to see all the contributors together.
Come and visit me there http://www.poppytalkhandmade.com

nesting instincts

A big thanks to Courtney of Nesting Instincts for featuring my new Ruby Slippers print on her beautiful blog in Friday's Fab Finds, a weekly round up of special things which catch her clever eye.
I was particularly delighted to be featured alongside the whimsical folk art work of Catherine Holman, don't you love this house!

My Etsy front page

The other day I was wandering through the Treasury pages of Etsy, as you do, when the chance came up to make one. I quickly put together some of my favourites which all seemed to be red. so I topped it up with some beautiful red things I found in search and called it 'Beautifullness', I know, dreadful name but you have two seconds to choose, unless you've thought about it before and I hadn't even finished the treasury, that's my excuse :-)
Yesterday evening I came back to check it and what a nice surprise, I'd made the front page. I missed my 15 seconds of fame but it was nice to know all these lovely things were noticed.
I'm especially pleased that there are some Australians in the mix: the lovely Mizu Designs, I have one of her lovely dragonfly prints, AuntyCookie with one of her delightful fabric pieces and Howlindoggie from Sydney, if you haven't seen her beautiful japanese silverwork designs they are really beautiful.

ruby slippers print

I've been wanting to print my Ruby Slippers as a signed print for a while now and finally the other day I made a few. I am going to frame one of these for my wall.

seed

The illustration friday topic this week is seed. Coincidentally last week I drew this illustration of a dandelion seed setting out on its journey. I like the way the leaves seem to be waving goodbye!

nasa clouds

I don't know how I found these, I think I stumbled across them while googling. These fantastic images are satellite images of cloud formations from the Nasa Visible Earth site. I love them. Amazing patterns.