Slowdown Studio

For the past two July's the wonderful Slowdown Studio (I love their throws, mixtapes and vibe) run a competition over on instagram, where you can submit a design which they might select and make into a throw! What a dream. The winners were announced in early August on their instagram, and they are all lovely. Here are my submissions: 

My designs weren't selected, but I really like them anyway (I'd certainly have these as throws!) so I am going to try and rework them over the next few weeks!

Lucky black cat wall hangings.

I have been using the laser cutter at the Art House to cut out wooden versions of the Chewy (the cat who inspired my appliquéd bags) I really enjoy painting on wood and I thought that my characters would lend themselves well. I cut out a few of these, and handprinted them. Then I screwed in a ring and placed a ribbon as a hook so that it can be hung - anywhere. They are also vanished so that you can hang them outside or inside with no worries. I believe - I know some people don't - but, I believe that black cats are lucky (beautiful mini panthers they are) so you can hang one in your home and feel lucky all the time! They are up in my shop now! 

Just the two of us: bear and cat.

Here is a recent one off commission I made. A lovely man got in touch after seeing my ‘Just the two of us’ greetings cards I made around Valentines Day last year, based on my Staffordshire Pottery paintings. He wanted a little one off for his fiancée, so I obliged: 

CATS CATS CATS

The more I draw and paint cats, the more I get commissioned to do more. Which is fine by me! I was recently asked to paint individual cats for a beautiful wedding. Here are some of the gang that made it to the big day. Three different breeds, all painted in acrylic paint and made into name tags. 

Like these above. I love all of the characters I've created! I am thinking about making them into a pattern and printing them on to fabric to make giant wash bags or something similar. I am definitely going to collect all of the cats and make a big print for the bride and groom as most of the guests took their name tags away with them after the big day. 

I may have mentioned this before, but I have my own Cat, which we rescued as a kitten. So the transformation to Cat-lady is well and truly setting in. I draw and make so many cat characters people always assume that I have an army of cats. I do sometimes dream of opening a cattery in the countryside and living a life a pure joy surrounded by furry friends, but maybe that's for later on in life? 

As you know, I deliver workshops up and down the country and last month, I delivered a screen-print workshop in Nottingham to some MA students studying Graphics, Branding and Illustration. I needed to make a positive as an example, and I thought who else rather than Chugsely, my Cat to be the model. 

Here she is being shown her screen-printed portrait, clearly very impressed. 

In other cat news I have made some big pillows from my cat pattern which will be in my etsy shop this week! 

New Tings! Digital Fabric Prints.

 

Recently I got some of my work digitally printed on to poplin cotton. The cats, pictured above, is the pattern which I entered and got shortlisted in the Make Art That Sells Uppercase magazine competition earlier this year. The cacti/succulents print was made from a series of mono-prints which have become repeat patterns on notebooks and prints, available through my etsy shop. I thought that these would be interesting to bring alive on to fabric and open the opportunities of where the illustrations and prints could be found.... and this is what I made:

With the cat material I made these fun hexagonal cushions, using plain material to match the colour palette in the pattern.

 

I also made one plain one, patterned all over - the other side of the cushions with the plain triangles are plain on the back.  

The buttons in the middle have been covered with a cat face - which made me laugh when I made them - they look pretty cheeky! Especially when they are looking at the other cat characters on the pattern!



Close up of one of the characters. 

From cats to cacti... the cacti material was transformed to pencil cases - well, pretty big cases that can be used for anything - not just art supplies! Anything you'd like to carry around. They are lined with green spotty or gingham material too to compliment the colour palette. 

 All are available in my etsy shop right now. So have a peek if you fancy them! It's opened up so many possibilities. I love screen printing on to fabric, but digital print allows for a wider range of colours and different textures, and more complex designs... so here's to making more very soon!

Happy Halloween: Make your own pumpkin or cat! FREE TEMPLATE!

 

It's Halloween weekend - if you fancy getting crafty and making one of the pumpkin or cat cushions which I've recently been making (see this post here) I've made a printable PDF with template for you!   You can download the pattern and template here. You can reduce or enlarge the size of the template to make any size cushion you'd like! The size of this template will make a cushion about 25 cm high and 60 cm circumference. If you do make one I'd love to see! Please show me. Tag me on instagram or twitter!

Halloween is coming!

I just LOVE Halloween! I just love the imagery, the dark nights, the oranges and reds. I love blasting out AFI and Misfits, crunching through leaves. I love bobbing apples, carving pumpkins, making ghost bunting. I keep Halloween decorations up all year round. If you've been following me for a while, you know this. Every year I try and add some Halloween inspired creations into my shop. This year, I restocked the cards, tattoos and bunting which I've had available for a couple of years and added these notebooks: 

I also made some home decorations, including this super super soft, velveteen crescent moon pillow. I have an extra one for myself because they are just so nice to cuddle and they look ace around the house:

Annnd, some round pumpkin pillows, fun cat round pillows too, which I had fun photographing in my studio:

I'd love to know what you think! Check out the links to see the creations in my etsy shop. Stay spooky.