I wish it would surprise you if I told you that I still have a wedding present to finish making for my sister who got married in May. (I wish it would surprise me too.) I did give her most of her presents at the time, but I had an idea to pretty up some … Continue reading A photo a day: August 28th
craft
A garland of tomatoes
I feel I should offer some apologies to anyone who isn’t that keen on gardening, if you've still stuck with this blog long enough to read this post, for I realise it’s been a bit plant heavy round here these past few weeks. Whenever I’ve put my head above ground from revising for my horticulture … Continue reading A garland of tomatoes
A petri dish of dead bugs
I’m a bit of a fan of insects. In art form, anyway, perhaps a little less in real life. There’s something really aesthetically appealing to me about the complicated little bodies of bugs, with their iridescent colours and gauze-like wings… I’ve made a paperweight illustrated with “the life cycle of the asparagus beetle.” I put … Continue reading A petri dish of dead bugs
A first teapot cosy and some grand plans
You know my hugely nebulous plans to start up a great fabric empire to rival Libertys? Well, in an attempt to make them less nebulous and more concrete, I've given myself a deadline to have my Etsy shop up and running and actually stocked with things that I've made. (Note the careful way I'm not … Continue reading A first teapot cosy and some grand plans
Things I’ve learnt: screen printing
I have a new love! It’s screen printing! Screen printing was the very first thing I wrote on my Things to Learn list, that lengthy tome of everything I need to do to get this fabric business started. I want to print onto T-shirts, babygrows, bags, cushions… ...you know, the usual old things. But I … Continue reading Things I’ve learnt: screen printing
Print your own wrapping paper
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most satisfying. I always find it really hard to find nice wrapping paper – and when I do, I'm then completely shocked at the cost of it. You frequently pay a fiver just to buy some paper to put a present in that will immediately get thrown into the … Continue reading Print your own wrapping paper
Beetles and fish and lobsters, oh my!
In which I feel some disappointment that my design skills aren't quite as faultless as I thought... You know the saying: the work of a budding fabric designer is never done. Buoyed by the success of my teapot fabric, I went straight back to Spoonflower to experiment with some different designs. With the teapots, I … Continue reading Beetles and fish and lobsters, oh my!
A bundle of bibs
Remember when I made the little sproglet a set of carrot clothes in celebration of National Carrot Day a few months ago? And how I broke my sewing machine making the first of four planned bibs? Well, the breakage turned out to be terminal, which was sad for my machine, but quite delightful for me … Continue reading A bundle of bibs
Matryoshka March
At school when I was younger (ahem, much younger) my favourite class was English. And my favourite ever English class was when we had to write a story. And my very favourite story-writing English class was when the teacher gave us the first line of the story and asked us to finish it. I used … Continue reading Matryoshka March
Tiny teapots and lurid lobsters: shrink plastic experiments
When I was about eight years old an odd craze swept through my primary school. The jewellery-made-from-crisp-packets craze. Do you remember it? It must have been about the late 1980s and it was suddenly de rigeur to put a crisp packet into the oven, watch it shrink and then stick a safety pin on the … Continue reading Tiny teapots and lurid lobsters: shrink plastic experiments
Wolves in London 