Print, cut, fold, print, cut, fold.........

It's been a long summer of printing, folding, cutting and packing cards and books.

I did Pulse 2010 at Earls Court at the beginning of June and it's been non-stop ever since.

I love being busy and most definitely am not complaining as I'm at my happiest when I'm busying away in my print room or studio but sometimes I feel a little like I'm on a conveyor belt. I know that if I out-sourced my printing it would free up more time for designing and making other new cards and products and I wouldn't be working until stupid-o'clock every night.

The trouble is I just love the printing and making process too much. I love mixing colours and getting them just right and then labelling my jar of ink for future use. I really enjoy spending time in my print room and I love the physical making process. It just feels like I've properly 'made' something. For me it was always about my products being hand made. I have nothing at all against non hand made products and cards, it's just that for me printing and making are what makes me tick.

So I will continue (at least for now) to print, fold and cut.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

It made a lovely change at the beginning of the week to work on some of my little map collages again.

I started doing these a couple of years ago when I had an exhibition at the Red Door Gallery in Edinburgh. They were very popular so I've been making them for the gallery (and some for Hooper & Shaw in Cornwall) ever since. They seem to have struck a chord with the Red Door visitors and I can't seem to make them fast enough - especially in festival times.

They're always editions of 1 and I don't use the same phrase twice making them all unique.

Cut out of old ordnance survey maps which I buy from a flea market in Pickering, you could get a bit of Scotland or a piece of Devon - who knows! I source lovely well-made small frames from Gillygate framers in York who do a fantastic selection of unusual small off-cut frames. They're all different too so the finished thing really is very unique. They always look great grouped together that I always think it's a shame to split them up. One day I'll get around to doing a group of them for our walls at home.

They've winged their way up to the Red Door Gallery now and will be available to buy in the shop.

The choice this time is:

All or Nothing

Not to Worry

The Best Is Yet To Come

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Job Well Done

Contact the gallery if you want to snap one of these up.

I've noticed they seem to reflect what kind of mood I'm in at the time so you can generally tell my outlook. I think I must have been feeling positive this week!

Mengsel Blog

Thank you to Luzelle at Mengsel for featuring my 'Some Things Are Best Left Unsaid' print on her blog. Have a look at her website and blog - lovely screen prints and screen printed textiles.

Gardens Illustrated & The Balcony Gardener

Back in April I worked on a commission for The Balcony Gardener - a lovely online gardening shop selling unique ready made container gardens and garden accessories.

They'd seen my notebooks and Make-A-Book kits and wanted me to design and make a range of bespoke garden-related stationery/kits to sell on their website. This resulted in a range of 3 products - a Garden kit containing 'bits and bobs for the discerning gardener' (garden notebook, wildlife spotter, stickers and garden planner), a Make-A-Book garden edition (for making your own garden notebook) and a small garden notebook (constructed from a seed packet and containing garden stickers.) I had great fun designing and screen printing all of these and sourcing garden-related imagery.

The garden kit is currently featured in the August edition of Gardens Illustrated and all three are available to buy from The Balcony Gardener.

At last....

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog.

Well at long last. What's taken me so long you might well wonder. The truth is I've spent a bit too much time over the last year (or more) reading and being very inspired by other peoples blogs (mostly of a creative nature but baking, interiors.... I'll look at them all!) and wishing I had the time to keep a similarly interesting online account of my work and interests/inspirations.

So here it is.

I hope to keep you up to date with what I'm working on, new designs and products, press, news and generally anything which catches my eye and I want to share.