Mother's day screen printed card

My latest little screen print project, a cute Mother's Day card, drawn and designed by me. Available for UK mother's day on March 6th in my Etsy shop.

Screenprints of Volkswagen T1 Split Screen Camper Van Micro Bus

A whole load of prints on the drying rack

I've gone back to screen printing lately, and decided to this quite ambitious set of T1 Split screen Volkswagen Camper Van prints. I drew the image myself, scanned in the outline and then created the separations, deciding on a main colour, silver for all the metalwork, and a black outline. I thought it would be cool to use some coloured paper as the main areas for some of the vans, so I set about cutting out the paper for the main parts. Printing on top of these collaged areas proved to be more ardous than I thought, trying to get all of the ink out of the screen on top of the raised paper was difficult! However I am really pleased with the results. I also printed pink, lime and yellow versions, and printed onto some colourful pieces of wall paper that I had from a sample book. I think my favourite is the pink chequered collage one, I think I'll put it up on my wall. The rest of the 'Vans are available to order through my Etsy shop: welaughindoorsuk.

Lino printing

Last weekend I had a go at Lino printing for the first time since I was at school, at a workshop in Frome Cheese & Grain. I had a few ideas in my head before I went but once I began to practice I realised I would have to scale down my ambitions to get finished in one day!

I decided to create a trio of Cacti and Succulents, that I could print all together or seperately. I wanted to print a terrarium shape on the top but I ran out of time, so maybe I'll do this in the future!

The material used is called soft-cut and is a bit easier to gouge out than traditional lino, however it is very easy to go wrong so if I was doing a proper print I would use proper lino I think.

New handmade Lampshades

Having made a few lampshades in the past, I decided I'd like to create some that were a little bit more original, so I have been experimenting a bit with crocheting a weaving tshirt yarn to make some unique shades. More to follow soon.

 

 

 

The following lampshade is a more traditional drum one, just thought I'd add it in to the post to show everyone. I can't remember the name of the fabric design but it is by Riley Blake Designs.

Crochet bowls

Lately I've been working on some crochet bowls, it took a while to get the hang of it so I practiced some different shapes and sizes. The best thing about crochet being that if you go wrong, you can just unravel and start again! 

I've been using Tektek tshirt yarn, which is made in Portugal, leftover from garment production. Each different roll of yarn varies in thickness and texture, so if you want to make a few matching things it is best to get a large roll so that you'll have a big quantity that'll be consistent. I found this tutorial from The Makery really useful in getting started. You can buy the yarn from there or else from eBay.

My latest Cornwall Trip

I've collected a few pics I took whilst on holiday in Cornwall a few weeks ago.

 Loved the different textures in this pic, taken on my cliff walk from Polzeath, and the vivid orange of the Lichen.

 I photographed lots of coastal flowers and plants, which I plan to draw at some point!

 A selection of beautiful Dahlias from the collection at the Eden Project

I love the the beautiful leaves on these Succulents and how they grow out from the centre. 

 Adorable Tree Frog hiding amongst the leaves in the rainforest Biome

 The contrast of colour on the leaves of this plant really caught my eye.

 The ethereal beauty of the Sensitive plant's flowers 

A lovely mix of colourful wild flowers

 

 Lovely contrasting green and purple cabbages in the vegetable garden at the Lost Gardens of Heligan

 Not sure what flowers are but their colour and scale is stunning!

 Mud man at Heligan

Sunny Harlyn Bay on the final day.

Craft fairs

I've done a few craft and country markets/fayres lately so I thought I'd post up some pics of my stalls.

Below is Nunney Fayre which I went to today (it did get busier than in the pic!) which was great, lots of compliments on my work and met some lovely people.
I always like Nunney Fayre because it's popular with local people and visitors alike, though I think it always rains there. Also there is a Castle, which is cool (you can see it in the background).

Last month I had a (very tiny) stall at The Frome Independent which was also very busy and full of lots of great designers and makers.