Illustration and things

vintage textiles book covers

2012-01-22T21:11:00.006Z

at the schools where i work we have loads of awesome resources and books. here's some pamphlets & reference books with ace covers :)

Wakehurst Place

2012-01-22T10:24:00.004Z

one of my xmas presents from my husband was national trust memberships! yesterday we went for a day out to Wakehurst Place in Sussex.

Matisse drawing with scissors

2012-01-19T22:05:00.005Z

long time no blog!
just ages ago i borrowed a lovely book of matisse paper cuts from a colleague at work. these are just so refreshing and bright!

see you soon!

Etching evening course

2011-12-11T13:12:00.006Z

For the past 3 monday evenings i have taken part in an etching course in London. The course was run by adult education people, City Lit, at their site just off Drury Lane.
They had a nice little print studio which was at full capacity with the 15 or-so students on the course. It ran for 3 hours per night, for 3 evenings, and cost £75. this included materials, tuition, and use of the studio (materials included 1 small zinc etching plate, standard printmaking paper, inks and such. we had to provide our own gloves and buy the nice Somerset paper if we wanted to). We were instructed to bring 'source imagery' for the first session, which should have read 'a finalized image'- many of us wasted quite a bit of time trying to get a competed design from our source imagery. I brought my sketchbook along, which included my sketches from the recent Grayson Perry exhibition at the British Museum.

The first session consisted of mainly a presentation explaining the etching process, introduction of the students, safety information, finalizing our images, and preparing the plates (polishing, bevelling the edges, de-greasing).
In our second session we did the first etching process- 'hard ground'. this means we coated our plates with a layer of wax which we then scraped our design into. it was a very easy process as you only scratch into the thin wax layer- not the metal at all. of course, the acid does that! below is a print from the original hard ground layer. you use this method to get hard, precise lines. the ink is buffed into the engraved lines and wiped away from the flat 'relief' areas (intaglio printing).
i chose to use a sketch from a russian 19th century woodcut. i thought it had a lot of potential for the coloured background/ textures. it's an image of a forge for turning old people into young people. suitably weird :)

in the last session we added a 'soft ground' layer, a stickier wax, which is used to create shading or softer lines. below is my final plate. soft ground was really nice to work into- you can place tissue over the wax and rub into it with your fingers, a pencil, or textured material.
and here's my final etching with the softground! i used my fingers and fingernail to create the texture.
in the final session we also did some monotype coloured layers behind the etching. i wasnt so mad on this because we were running out of time and i didnt have time to plan the image. we rolled coloured printing ink onto a plastic plate, and dropped spirits/tissue/etc onto the ink to create a random effect. i can see it has great potential but i could have easily spent another session experimenting.
as you can see, in the above image, i used way too much ink. the below image is a ghost print of the above image, plus another splodgy/painted background.
lastly here's an image i experimented with some coloured layers on photoshop.

Animal Graveyard

2011-12-11T12:34:00.002Z

Last week's theme for Art School Disco collective was "Animal Graveyard". We had this plastic skull hanging around from halloween which I painted with acrylics.
check out the other entries on the blog

pow!

2011-11-24T20:26:00.001Z

free shipping until xmas on my etsy store :) http://www.etsy.com/shop/KatieLouiseAllen
use code FREEXMAS11
:)

Patterns

2011-11-20T20:40:00.003Z

Finally finished off some fun patterned badges this weekend. I found these wooden letters a while back and wasnt quite sure what to do with them. I made a stencil which I stippled black acrylic paint through. I completed the design with white acrylic paint, using dots, lines and zigzags so each design was different.

I'm selling the brooches on my folksy and etsy shops

new old books

2011-11-14T18:04:00.002Z

This weekend we went to one of my fave 2nd hand spots, a house-clearance yard in croydon. originally looking for some furniture, nothing was quite right so we had a trawl through the books instead. they have probably the best selection of vintage books you have ever seen! (and they price things by eying up the armful you bring up to the cash-desk!)

above: 1960 card trick book
above: 1952 penguin handbook
above: Nurses' exercise book from 1965. i found this so intriguing- the content is all like the below image; annotated pictures for different types of equipment setups. Many of them are pretty gross which probably arent used anymore!! (i'll leave it to your imagination!)

Saltwater animation

2011-11-08T16:32:00.001Z

i've had this quote sitting in my sketchbook for a while. i had some fun with inks and pencils and made this animation this week :)

trick or treat!

2011-10-29T11:38:00.001+01:00

This week we're having a spooky pumpkin carving Art School Disco theme! here's my entry. Check out the blog for everyone elses here!

Unknown Craftsmen

2011-10-16T19:31:00.004+01:00

Last week I had a lovely saturday in London with my mum. We had planned to attend Renegade Art Fair, but the underground was up the creek so we ended up at the V&A museum and then the British Museum. At the V&A we saw The Power of Making, an exhibition curated by the Craft Council. It displays 100 strange, thoughtful, clever and beautiful objects, all handcrafted. Check out my sketchbook images below for my drawing of a funky 'lion coffin', crafted in Ghana.

We had a wander around the bookshop then some of the permanent collection. I took some sneaky photos of some book illustrations in the Asia collection- I'm always interested by images that tell a whole story in one image- see image above left. We then head over to the British Museum where they had gone Grayson Perry mad! People dressed as teddies (inspired by Perry's teddy, Alan Measles) and huge tables of children doodled on cut-out pots to form a giant image for The Big Draw (see image above right).
I went into The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman exhibition, items from the British Museum curated by Grayson Perry, alongside his own pieces. The exhibition space was cramped and full of displays, thoughtfully planned out placing interesting pieces together. It was fantastic seeing historical objects curated by an artist. He has a great eye for well crafted objects and ones that tell a story. I could have drawn in my sketchbook all afternoon but a rushed hour was about enough to take it all in and doodle the items of specific interest to me. I came away with my head spinning and bursting with inspiration and ideas.

the devil's in the detail

2011-10-13T21:58:00.002+01:00

This week's theme on Art School Disco was the Devil.

Driving to work everyday I listen to Woman's Hour, and last week featured an Old Time/ American folk band called the Buffalo Gals, who talked about the origins of the genre and Appalachian clogging. They discussed the role of women in the genre and how in the past it was uncouth for women to play the fiddle- a frivolous instrument where (heaven forbid!) the player can dance as well as play. The interviewee said the fiddle was called "the devil's box".

I had a lot of fun researching this genre further online... a few more illos may also be in the pipeline after finding some more mad imagery and superstitions. But in the meantime here's a great video:

So after wrestling with some sketches I made these papercuts. Matisse's favorite: drawing with scissors.

Throw in some crayon lettering & to the scanner!
I like both colourways- the white background looks cleaner and simpler, but the cream background looks more finished. Keiron prefers the cream background so I plumped for that as my final image. :)

Check out the rest of the blog here

Art School Disco

2011-10-11T21:15:00.002+01:00

I've been cordially invited to join my lovely friends at Art School Disco, an illustrated project where we create images on a theme each week. Last week's theme was Food and Drink.
I had super fun making these textures using rubber stamps, biro doodles and photoshop brushes.
Art School Disco Blog / Twitter

Sculpture Stuff

2011-10-09T11:36:00.006+01:00

another late catch-up, a continuation from this post.
I was lucky enough to visit Goodwood Sculpture Park way back in July, on a school trip with some students. The sculptures are set in beautiful peaceful woodland. Visitors are welcome to follow beaten paths to view the artwork, which is set both in brush and on open grassland.
This post contains a few more nice photos of the work we saw.

Tony Cragg:

Vong Phaophanit:
Sophie Smallhorn:
Julian Wild:
Gerry Judah:

And here's a little sketchbook page of this surreal metal sculpture- sadly cant find the sculptor's name :(

still life

2011-10-06T16:58:00.002+01:00

i did these pen drawings in a sketchbook over a year ago now. & the other night i decided to play with some awesome photoshop brushes i downloaded. grown-up colouring in!

More books

2011-09-28T20:16:00.004+01:00

Just a few more lovely book covers. Mum and dad were having a clear out and offered them to me before they went to the charity shop
Above: 1966 Guinness World Record book. I was really hoping it would be full of awesome colour plates of mad stuff, but its just chocka block with tiny writing and facts- lol. Cool cover design tho.
Below: My recorder book from when I was a kid! It's a handmedown from a family friend. Published 1950

Penguin book of Kites- 1976. Love everything about this- even the unusual square format.
Below: mad ~Canals Book~ from 1975! Who knows why my parents had this little treasure!
Lastly, here's some pretty flowers

Sunday inspiration

2011-09-25T10:26:00.002+01:00

Just a few things that have been mulling around in my brain this week

lovely Matisse papercut, above. It's all about drawing with scissors. Stunning.
Below: painter Elaine Pamphilon, who I stumbled upon through her commissioned pin badges at the Tate. I suppose her style is 'naive', mainly still lives of flat pots and objects. I really picked up on her use of textures, typography and pattern. It's also nice sometimes to be reminded that you can loosen up a bit in regards to the depiction of reality... :) The below image is slightly different from her usual 'safe' still lives (slightly more illustrative- i suppose that's why i like it!)

Above and below: Bit of a different choice from the previous images, but Maurizio Anzeri's work caught me off guard whilst browsing the internet... evokes so many ideas of shrouds & fashion.. The intricate and precise embroidery also reminds me of spirographs... I love the below Dazed and Confused commission, pushing the contrast of his precise patterns against the wild loose ends of thread... makes me shudder.

Ambition

2011-09-23T16:52:00.003+01:00

this was genuinely my ambition when i was little. i was the tallest girl in my class, which made it kind of feasible! i'm now pretty short!

illo made from collaged construction paper and ink. ive been really inspired by matisse recently and wanted to have a go :)

sugar

2011-09-21T21:36:00.002+01:00

not exactly exciting, but i just love sugar paper! i made this as a quick label/card for my friends' son's 1st birthday :)

Summer Retrospective

2011-09-21T14:02:00.004+01:00

The lovely thing about film is taking a whole bunch of photos, saving up a drawer full of rolls of film, and getting them developed in one big go. These are the first fruits of my 'new' (birthday present in April!) Diana Mini. It's a wonderful camera for sunny blue sky days.

Above and below: the British & World Marbles Championship, held in a pub just down the road from where we live. Being a 'townie' it is a serious novelty seeing two blokes turn up to watch the marbles ON TRACTORS! As you can see, beer is a very important part of the Marbles Championship.

Above: We visited the Booth Museum of Natural History near Brighton. Below: accidental double exposure- the tanks are dioramas from the museum.

Above and below: blue sky daytrips. Little Jake is my new brother in law!

The Formal Exercises of Karate

2011-09-18T13:41:00.003+01:00

Found this little gem in our local charity shop. The official manual of the Japan Karate Association! printed 1973. I'm obsessed and fascinated with the use of limited colour in print. Black and orange are used to great effect in the instructions, using photographs, illustrations and arrows.

"Ki-ai!"

Woodland UFOs

2011-09-13T19:07:00.004+01:00

I'm still catching up on blogposts I've been meaning to write!
I was lucky enough to visit Goodwood Sculpture Park way back in July, on a school trip with some students. The sculptures are set in beautiful peaceful woodland. Visitors are welcome to follow beaten paths to view the artwork, which is set both in brush and on open grassland. I had a wonderful day- the students well behaved, it was sunny, and was a welcome day of calm amid the stress of work (end of term gets a bit hairy!).
This first post is about some pieces by Eilis O'Connell. I was fascinated by the infinite shades of grey and white created by the dappled sunlight. Her pieces look like UFOs that have landed 30 years ago and have never been discovered in the secluded woodland.

I could have taken photos of these sculptures all day, waiting for the light to change and finding different angles and nuances!

i also like how this last sculpture looks like a bottom.

More pictures coming soon :)

10 minutes

2011-08-27T10:19:00.003+01:00

i hope you'll excuse my lack of blogposts in the last month. we kinda went and got married. i don't know how much i'm gonna post about it (there's so much to say, so many people to thank, so many lovely photos and wonderful gifts) and i don't want to favour some photos, stories, gifts, over others. so i'll leave you with this little video, which sums up the day in about 10 minutes, and promise that i'll get back to blogging, interacting, selling and creating soon. soon!

Textured textiles

2011-07-30T15:00:00.005+01:00

Last installment! a bit late.
So, I work as an art technician in two schools. The photos in this post are from the pupils in one of my schools, from the GCSE & Btech students' end of year exhibition.

It's not suitable for me to mention any names of the students or the name of the school, but I would like to highlight that all of this work is not by me and I only took the photos. The work is by students who are 15-18 years old. Amazing!

The work below summarizes some great fashion/textiles/textural/conceptual work.

above: re purposed dress covered in bank notes (6th form work)

above and below: more 6th form experimental textiles. they have a great sense of colour and texture. the above piece makes up a large, vintage, worn, sepia-toned montage, using large stitches, photo transfers, burnt paper, burlap fabric...
the below piece uses embroidery, felt, collage, and woven recycled plastic and more to create a wall-hanging.

above: beautiful 6th form textiles piece experimenting with different stitches and exposed fabrics.
above and below: a GCSE student's final piece, a montage of open-mouthed magazine models who have been defaced using thick, garish oil pastels(?) or crayons, and stitched into with chunky embroidery thread. The result is beautifully designed yet disturbing.
Related posts: http://teapotjazz.blogspot.com/2011/07/scales.html
http://teapotjazz.blogspot.com/2011/07/typography-inspiration.html

Well done to all the students and staff involved. All the students' work is so impressive :)

Dreamy Day

2011-07-26T11:29:00.003+01:00

I was seriously impressed with this beautiful film made by Fix The Sky Productions. They were asked to film the Southampton Ejectorseat Arts Festival (in June this year), and have captured the atmosphere perfectly.

I was lucky enough to have a stall in the arts & craft market (see my blog about the day HERE). The festival boasts live music, interactive arts installations, workshops, food, and loads more!

Illustrators also featured in the video-

Keiron LeVine's Monarch butterfly installation

Simon Abbott's birdbox installation

Hannah Simpson's Live Illustration

Ejector Seat Festival 2011 from Fix the Sky Productions on Vimeo.

Scales

2011-07-24T21:43:00.003+01:00

So, I work as an art technician in two schools. The photos in this post are from the pupils in one of my schools, from the GCSE & Btech students' end of year exhibition (which happened a few weeks back). I've already written a post HERE about the typography in the exhibition, and this post is about some great fashion/textural pieces.

I was so incredibly impressed with the quality of work that these young people created. The atmosphere in the art department is really positive and I have a great time working there- and I think the atmosphere shows through in their work, too! It's not suitable for me to mention any names of the students or the name of the school, but I would like to highlight that all of this work is not by me and I only took the photos. The work is by students who are 15-16 years old. Amazing!

The students have projects based around recycling and fashion, reflected in the pieces below.

Above: Textural experiment made from latex rubber gloves
Above: Beautiful headpiece made from 'soda' cans. This work reminds me a lot of the masks/headpieces by my lovely friend Keiron
Above: Shoulder detail from a papier-mache waistcoat. Scales/feathers made from construction paper. BTech students do a project on cubist fashion, where their final piece is an item of clothing made from paper crafts and origami.

Above: I think this was a study in different materials a shoe could be made of. Again, cut soda cans.

More to come :)

typography inspiration

2011-07-16T11:23:00.004+01:00

This first set of photos are of some really inspiring sections of typography, found in books, final pieces etc. This is of course my area of ~special interest~ and I have especially been inspired to do some semi-3D typography work after seeing their exhibition.

the kids did a graffiti workshop with a great artist. They made stencils of words to describe themselves (i think the above word was 'hope'). The artist's aim was to change their perception that graffiti was about tagging and marking territory.

This was from a student's final piece. I think the techniques used here are really sophisticated, and really like the combination of textures and colours.
Some sketchbook work. The kids are never afraid to have things sticking out of their books and most of them cant close their sketchbooks anymore, cus they're so full of work :)
more sketchbook work, above and below. the work is by the same student. I love the thick daubs of acrylic paint and the evidence of brushstrokes.

Above- Tracey Emin-esque typography work.
More awesome spray stencils. Yellow and turquoise are awesome! I think all the students have a really strong sense of colour and texture.

More pics to come :)

maps and flowers

2011-07-12T19:45:00.003+01:00

Quick update of some summer photos:

i was sick last week and daniel bought me this beautiful gerbera(?) to cheer me up! i love the subtle coral hues. sadly our flat is far too hot for it to survive, so i snapped a photo of the lovely colours before it wilted.
sweet map my granddad gave me along with his car I bought from him. he's giving up driving at the age of 89!
I also made a bow from another OS map for my mum's birthday card this week :) we went to a very nice pub which had some great veggie dishes for her and my nana.

More updates soon!

Old Wives Tales

2011-06-19T13:41:00.004+01:00

So absolutely ages ago, I came up with the idea of a little illustration project centred around old traditional sayings and superstitions that are passed down through generations.

I liked the idea of drawing visual inspiration from old fashioned folky imagery, so thought linocuts would be ideal. (Also useful for me to test out my new linocutting kit :)) My wonderful friend Polly joined me, also wanting to get going with some linos. She usually works with intricate papercuts with handpainted paper, so her final linoprints are beautifully well planned, precise and delicate.

And here is the final product! Four handmade prints on lovely printing paper, all packaged up and being sold on my etsy shop.
Above: Bad luck comes in threes; break a match by Katie

If a woman develops curls on her head, her man has not long to live by Polly

Hang a root of rhododendron round your neck to ward off savage dogs you may meet by Katie

Share a strawberry, fall in love by Polly

Just a note about Bad luck comes in threes- my mum and nanny always use this superstition, which has of course passed onto me. I had a bit of artists block before the project, and came up with the yellow image below, consisting of ink drawings and digital colourings.

I wasn't very happy with the outcome (far too flat) -but liked the idea. luckily i had a brainwave and came up with the more ~dynamic~ lino version.

much better!

say hi to Polly on twitter and check out the pack of prints on etsy :)

Ejectorseat Arts Festival 2011

2011-06-08T17:19:00.007+01:00

Well I'm very excited to be writing about my lovely weekend last week down in sunny Southampton. To be honest, you should really read Keiron's excellent blogposts about the event here. I've even stolen some of his photos for my little overview-- I'm still waiting to get my film photos developed!

The festival is in it's 2nd year, and after enjoying myself thoroughly in 2010 (as a punter) I jumped at the chance of selling my wares in the arts & craft market this year. I was really impressed with the variety of stalls and how sleek and professional they all looked! I have to give some massive credit to Daniel for setting up my stall so artistically!

Image by Keiron, of course! Down the front are some beautiful prints and digital collages which I was selling on behalf of Nina.

I also ~premiered~ some new products, including some handpainted badges. but i'll write more about these in another post :)
Simon gave me one of these cool metal tabs. definitely gonna get me some!
To the exciting stuff! There was lots of cool installations and events at the festival. Here's a snippet:
Keiron's Monarch Butterfly paper installation, inspired by this:

Images by Keiron: Giant Rangoli ~ Painted birdboxes by Simon Abbott, live epic illustration of The Odyssey by Hannah Simpson.
I even did a little swap with Simon and got my own lovely little yellow birdbox!

half term

2011-06-05T13:23:00.008+01:00

I haven't written a blog in almost a month-- and i wonder why my stats are slow?? haha idiot. busy stuff at the moment.

i've been taking loads of photos recently- only problem is, they're all on a roll from my diana mini, 70-odd photos from the past month waiting to be processed!

above: lovely little vintage tin bought for me by my colleague.

Bank holiday weekend was spent visiting out friend in Bristol. first time I've ever been and it was lovely! Will write more about our weekend when i get my stupid photos developed-- but here's two nice little book purchases. Daniel bought Frontier of the Unknown for himself as a holiday book- the tagline "a novel of the men of the future working in a nuclear plant" sounds exciting, but the blurb on the back less so! I was really impressed with the lovely overlapping handdrawn futuristic dial panels, though. and the typography!

Tales of the Greek Heroes- bought this comprehensive book to help us with our weekly pub quiz (always an inevitable question about Greek myths!) and got a double whammy with this lovely illustrated cover. The colouring is great, and each chapter has a nice line drawing header, too.

Below is a little snippet of the elements in our wedding invites ive now completed. Theyre at the printers as I write!

Had a wander around our local area to a very nice pub and the nearby churchyard and fields. Discovered we have hidden alottments in our town! we poked our heads in and saw a rabbit nibbling on someone's lettuces... poor gardeners! I liked the handpainted sign in the communal hut.

Lastly I picked some daisies from our walk.

Must hurry up and get my photos developed!

Red + Brown

2011-05-09T18:37:00.002+01:00

Had a fun afternoon on Sunday making up some new products to sell. I wanted to make use of some stamps I carved a while ago, and decided on using some large brown gift tags I bought on ebay. After trying some colour combos/layering, I was most happy with this simple red on brown theme. I've decided to sell them in pairs of patterns.

Below: Stars and stripes, available at my etsy shop

Below: Spots and dots. Will be selling these next month at an arts fair
Below: Waves and triangles, will also be selling these at the arts fair.
Below: the reverse of each tag, in matching ink
Below: how each product is being sold. Will test out these, and will eventually like to sell large batches (once I know it's profitable to invest in a big batch of tags!)

Over The Rainbow

2011-05-06T20:25:00.003+01:00

Had some fun with some collage and felt tips last night! Have been desperate to do some art recently, so I'm super pleased with this. next time i get some printing done, i might get some of these on a postcard. must find out if the phrase is copyrighted... (?)

I completed the first "spread out" version, but as i was arranging the elements, i loved how the colours layered. and voila!

Below is a poster for the science club at school. bit too cartoony for my liking, but it was a quick project. would prefer there to be some more textures going on!

Sunday snippet

2011-05-01T23:38:00.002+01:00

quick sunday update on a few bits!
below: finally finished the illustrations for my website- screenshot below
(etsy and folksy shops)
below: beautiful vintage pinny that my colleague gave me for a late birthday present! everyone at work is so lovely :)
finally, below: vintage type drawer. i've always wanted one because my auntie had a really big one filled with so many lovely eccentric things. we're slowing filling ours up. it's in the bedroom, which is quite a calm, blank canvas (lots of white and wood!) -other than this piece :)

Right Royal

2011-04-30T15:39:00.002+01:00

*soldier teatowel from Aldi, of all places! We had a fry up whilst watching the wedding on TV, and went for a pub crawl in Guildford in the afternoon

social networks

2011-04-26T16:51:00.000+01:00

doodles for links on my website. love felt tips!

website update

2011-04-25T22:41:00.001+01:00

just updated my website with some new stuff, and the linking image above for my shop. fun and games!

23

2011-04-16T12:41:00.002+01:00

here's a selection of the thoughtful and beautiful gifts I recieved for my birthday this week!
Above: note the dan shears EP given to me by him and nina and their lovely family. I cant stop playing it, and cant wait until his album comes out. (the strawberry socks are from their lovely little strawberry boy, who is turning 1 year old in a few months)

Below: Gorgeous apron from mummy Jacqueline Jones, and a sweet little sewing kit. Astro Cat tote from our friend Amy, from the Magma store. So cool.
Finally, below, my lovely little Diana Mini from Daniel :) I'm so excited to finally have one. I can carry it everywhere and take double the amount of photos! So handy.
I've had such a great birthday!

Red and Black

2011-04-15T19:54:00.003+01:00

Was gonna upload a couple of these pics, but realised I had a few more combos of red and black to add to them :)

Above: Snippets from Le Silifer magazine, I assume from 1968 from the dates in the mag. it's about architecture but can't find anything about the publication online.
Above: 1967 instruction book from my Spirograph set.
Above: A projector lamp box from 1977 (found in a stock cupboard in the science department at school)
The Studio art magazine cover from 1951

It's all about limited colour and half tone!

in 3's

2011-04-12T23:14:00.002+01:00

3 random pictures from today. we're on half term from work and have spent the whole day spring cleaning.
Below: iris folded early birthday card from my nana! she really enjoys making cards and these are my favorite.

Leaf I found when we went to Richmond Park a few weeks back. Finally got around to photographing it in the light

Acorns, again, collected in Richmond Park. These are sitting happily on the window sill in a little measuring jug. it has a broken handle so I can't use it in the kitchen anymore. sigh!

Jaqueline Jones

2011-04-06T20:24:00.004+01:00

I teamed up with my future sister-in-law to make some banners for mummy-daniel. she has opened a sweet folksy shop here, selling hostess aprons and other nostalgic items. I digitally coloured the line drawings by louise, and added the font (from dafont.com).

below is a lovely cath kidson esque apron.

p.s. she does requests, too :)

Daddy Cool

2011-04-01T23:31:00.003+01:00

... and mummy cool. Mum and dad were married in the 60's and have had some pretty awesome fashions. Dad was a jazz dude and mum a fashion/arts college girl.

Love this photo below of them. They look very happy and mum looks really pretty.

Mum and her parents. I do love a good overcoat, all three are pretty ace!

Oh mum! Check out the matching curtains and sofa. I think she still looks cool with a purdy bowl haircut, though!

I remember dad still had that belt until a few years ago (and the haircut!)

I think dad was late teens in the photo below, so it would be in the 50's sometime. I don't think there's many photos of him when he was young.
Rocking some aviators

Haha this one is ace. Mum made her suit. She has matching yellow platform clogs. Wahoo!

Old photos

2011-04-01T20:06:00.002+01:00

this post is inspired by KLV's very own nostalgia pics here :)
These pics were recently sent to my dad by his sister-in-law. Dad grew up in South London and was born in the family home which was lived in by the family until approx. 20 yrs ago. I remember the terrace house (edwardian?) lovely high ceilings, wooden drafty floors and big bay windows. or at least it seemed huge to me as a child, and probably seemed extra drafty too.

the picture below, i assume, is in the front room- i dont think i ever went in there (the back room was a living room and i think the front room was converted into my nan's bedroom). i remember snippets of my nan, but she must have died when i was very young because i sadly don't remember it happening. My dad's father died when he was a teen, and I know very little about him. My grandfather looks incredibly similar to my uncle in this photo. My dad and his siblings all look very similar to grandfather + each other!

The next photo is (l-r) of my nan, uncle, great aunt, and my dad is the littl'un- photo must have been mid-late 40's? I have no idea where the photo was taken. Digging nan's headscarf!

TTFN. More to come, maybe

Settling Sticks

2011-03-30T19:29:00.002+01:00

lol RIVETING blogpost of the sticks we brought home from Richmond Park. I promise there will be better posts soon!

British Summer Time

2011-03-27T20:47:00.003+01:00

Went for a breezy walk in Richmond Park this afternoon. Lots of cyclists, startled deer, and lovely trees. We brought home some nice dried out, stripped branches, that look like driftwood. Photos to follow.
Photos were taken on my rubbish ~5 year old phone!

lino WIP

2011-03-22T18:07:00.004Z

Have been working (slowly) on a collaborative set of lino prints with Polly, about old wives tales, superstitions, sayings, etc.
lovely Nina gave me this unusual lino. she bought it from germany. it's very tough but allows for fine detail. Next, i wanna buy some fine linocutting blades :)
testprint dryin on the radiator
i went to 'art club' at school to make use of the space and their ink rollers. my colleague showed me how to burnish correctly with a spoon. Now I see the image printed up, i think the composition needs some adjustments. back to the lino i go!

post&rainbows

2011-03-21T22:33:00.002Z

Did a zineswap with Owt Creative last week. i got a teeny supercute zine full of grainy photocopies of old slides. its bound with nice transparent and coloured inlays, and the front cover has a slide taped to it. naww :)

Also I just found this photo I took with some ~rainbow firework glasses~ daniel bought for our friend's birthday. max is seriously into pinhole/matchbox cameras, and dan made the glasses 'lens' into a filter. cool!

also, pictured is daniel rooting around inside our friend's whurly electric keyboard we're looking after

printroom

2011-03-17T21:20:00.004Z

i took these photos about may/june 2010. i was spending loads of time in the printroom at uni and took 20mins out to get some photos one afternoon when it was quiet.

i was feeling very nostalgic today and had a look through some photos from uni. i cant wait until the summer! natural light and a breeze coming through the window. yes please.

stamps stamps stamps

2011-03-14T18:13:00.005Z

did some rubber stampin' the other day and used them for a digital collages. for a secret collab with Beavory :)

and here's a snippet of the final thing!

and recent acquisitions

2011-02-12T16:59:00.002Z

I recently took part in Pikaland's Pikapackage (find out more here!) and received a lovely selection of the other contributor's work this week :) yay!
Cool book about magnetism from 1968
Cool embossed french textbook from 1969

Corners & Contrasts

2011-02-12T16:09:00.003Z

found this funky pamphlet in the school i work in. it was reprinted in 1994 but have no idea of the original printing. i love the limited colour, montage-d cutout photos and line drawings. also i find it hilarious that there is a whole pamphlet and map for children to visit the wrought iron ~serifs~ in London! fun!

Viva! mkII

2011-02-08T23:24:00.001Z

Months back (here) I wrote briefly about our degree show called Viva! I've just gotten 'round to photographing the limited edition print boxset by everyone on the course. The boxset subtitle is ~Here Are A Few Of Our Favorite Things~
Above: handrawn typography by meeee, edited by Jonny Hannah, and the little thumbnails are by everyone on the course, (of course :P)
Handful of screenprints, digital prints etc in the boxset :) below is how it's all wrapped up!

Lastly, above, very cute minizine by some of the tutors on our course!

2011-02-02T12:12:00.004Z

Fabulous vintage kitchenware D & I recieved for Christmas from his mama.
Below are: handpainted crockpot and handpainted serving dish from Poole pottery. No idea of the date of these items, though :(

We also recieved this superduper breadbin, and to top it all off, a breadmaker! I'm a doorstep convert- normal sandwiches made from thin slices of shopbread will not suffice!
- i assume the breadbin is from the 60's-70's, thanks to that awesome font and the funky emerald paintjob- inside the bin is painted white.
More of our kitchen (and boring ol' life!) here: Living flickr set

2010-11-30T14:52:00.002Z

found a goldmine of lovely old magazines at school recently. mostly from the 1950's, many in pieces, but many in excellent condition. love this charming image found lurking at the back of a torn magazine destined for the recycling bin:

MORE HERE

2010-11-17T19:19:00.002Z

i'm so rubbish at updating blogger......
here's some old and new photos
above: antique antlers, ikea stuff and lovely painting on my wall by jonny hannah

really old sketchbook stuff from april/june 2010? studying european/russian folk ware/art
g+t +making felty xmas decorations

Pollock's Toy Museum

2010-06-29T22:34:00.002+01:00

Pollock's Toy Museum at Scala Street in London is a new gem discovered recently. Non-English speakers, children and the disabled must hate this museum because it's everything a museum shouldn't be..... the staircases are tiny, winding, funny tagged on stairs everywhere with packed rooms, and a smattering of old, faded information cards in stuffy English. It really is a dreadful museum, it will never make any money (charging £5 for adults to walk around 6 tiny, confused rooms is surprising) and in the centre of London I was lucky enough to have the whole place to myself. Anyway, I did some drawings and scared myself silly in a room full of china-faced dollies.

Horniman's Museum

2010-06-28T20:52:00.002+01:00

Horniman's Museum is probably my favorite museum ever. I have super fond memories of going there as a child and I still remember all the popular exhibits. It's such a good place with it's own little quirks (still has a lot of the Victorian cabinets, and typewriter signage from the 60's/70's), but it's had a nice makeover in a few of the spaces with an ace new aquarium in the basement and cool interactive musical instrument archive. the "natural history gallery" (which features the victorian cabinets and typewriter signage) is exactly as i remember it from my childhood and i fear has been sidelined in funds due to perhaps its controversial content (basically, loads of stuffed/pickled victorian animals). I've always had a huge soft spot for this collection and I hope it doesn't fall into further disrepair... it's an important part of history and it would be nice to retain it's old-fashioned feel and perhaps add some more knowledge about the history of the collection. anyway i've rambled now about stuff that probably doesn't interest you. here's a mixture of drawings from my visit this month.

turns out the Egyptian hand (above) is the oldest known musical instrument (it comes as a pair and is a little clapper! eeh)

2010-06-28T17:36:00.002+01:00

Viva! here's our degree show. it was very fun!
I re-made some of these, each pack is a plethora of colours and Apollo 11 facts! They're only £2, you should buy a pack!

2010-05-31T11:06:00.003+01:00

Ok ok so I never use blogger anymore. but ive been working!
oh, and making stuff to sell. drop me a line if you want one. they're cute
and ive been eating healthy. honest.

2010-03-13T17:04:00.003Z

i cant believe i have been screenprinting the same bloody image for 2 weeks now. so many things have gone wrong. weep
a little self promo zine

haha, lovely thoughtful cd made for me by jonny hannah! i can even forgive him spelling my name wrong

2010-02-26T22:20:00.001Z

omg most amazing blazer ever, DO WANT

Prague

2010-02-10T21:49:00.002Z

prague was very tired, smokey, achey, grumpy and so much fun :)

2010-01-22T12:59:00.001Z

thoroughly recommend these catchy tunes from the 60's and 70's. My dear keiron has gotten me into this stuff recently, yay :)!

2010-01-13T22:21:00.003Z

i went with keiron to Romsey, and found a christmas tree, left fallen in the street. it was huge and had so many of these beautiful handmade decorations still on it. i hope the children who made these dont find their lovingly decorated tree left in such a state :( more here.
i got some of my illos made into little stickers at Moo.com. If anyone is interested in a swap (for art or money! lols) just email me.
up, up, up!!

Photo mishmash

2009-12-17T22:08:00.002Z

Dan relaxin' on our lovely new SKY PARLOUR QUILT! made by Mrs. Bangs, it features fabrics picked out by us to match our varying bedding and tie it all together. I seriously recommend!! Beautiful stuff! (photo also features dan's xmas jumper [bought by his mama] and vintage suitcase).
two successful sales have raised £240 for our degree show. everyone made such an effort and was so generous, as you can see in the photo above :)
bedroom wall photo (jonny hannah greetings card [gift from my mother] and sea animals from the isle of wight)

2009-11-18T16:46:00.004Z

poster for the performance degree people at my uni. i'm well proud i constructed alllll of this in photoshop, putting together each element from separate ink drawings. ok i didnt do it all myself, i got a lot of help from Dan. but now i know how to do it! woo!
also guess what. found this in a charity shop on the weekend. it really was fate

2009-11-04T19:14:00.004Z

excuse me while i go and cry about how pretty these are!

i saw them in waterstones last week, they have brought out a new set of penguin classics with these beautiful hardbacks. the patterns are embossed into the fabric covers, soooo luxurious. beautiful

2009-10-12T23:04:00.002+01:00

leftover film from a summer camping trip
quickie poster
quickie anniversary gift for ma and pa

i'm posting mainly because i can upload finally!

2009-09-29T11:47:00.002+01:00

lol, they wont give this ikea stuff a rest, will they? these photos are awful, i'm embarassed to have my name on it.

desperate to do new work.. and have a few ideas buzzing around my head.. i cant wait to get back into the print room and also have some projects lined up with my buddie keiron.... if only i didnt have to write my dissertation.... sigh

2009-08-23T19:34:00.002+01:00

there was this comp on e4.com to design a new background for their website. this was my result (to be tiled across the page). It's very different to what I usually do, and was a little bit afraid it was going to be too static, but I had a go at it on photoshop to add tone and a little texture and i think it's perked it up a bit. thing is, the examples they gave and their current style is also quite staid, very neat and tidy and lots of smooth computer graphics style images, so i didnt want to go too scruffy.

summer 2009 in film

2009-08-22T20:25:00.002+01:00

dress: vintage & handmade. Found it in a charity shop and mum shortened it just because it was a bit too *ott*. sandals: primark (heart) fan: ebay. location: surrey uni campus
katie's shoes: office. daniel's shoes: primark. location: punting in cambridge
daniel and jack. discussion: how amazing the pattern in the tree above them was. location: the new forest

2009-08-16T17:30:00.001+01:00

zines are the best!

epic

2009-07-27T22:09:00.002+01:00

subconsciously i might be turning into jonny hannah. i should get out of this habit before i go back to uni.
im watching the Martin Bashir/Michael Jackson documentary made 6 years ago, its really sad

2009-07-25T11:52:00.001+01:00

this is an awesome box to hold lighters in

2009-07-24T10:57:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we celebrated the Apollo 11 40th anniversary with a very informal event organized by a friend of mine. There was some music, art on the walls (above! mine on the left, lewis' on the right), delicious food provided by the lovely Tony Tang, and a no-show from an astronomy professor. Although not many people turned up, those who did certainly made up for it- I met lovely, interesting and friendly people for the first time, plus some lovely old friends showed up, which is always a wonderful surprise. The original plans for live "ambient moon music" soon evolved into everyone contributing with drums being made out of plastic tubs, tins, and jars, with a wonderful singer, and her adoreable two children amusing themselves using pots of nuts as "maracas" and tin trays as "drums".
My dear friend Nina also surprised me with these prints that I BEGGED her for. Yay! They are made from digitally-collaged photos of crockery found by the Thames.

ALSO LOL I have had my work experience at IKEA confirmed, after winning this competition...... I'll apparently be working in the "communication and interior design" team, described as "a busy team looking after the store and ensuring that our products are displayed in inspiring and innovative ways." I hope this does not mean I'll have a week of "tidying" the store...... fingers crossed!

it's lonely on the moon

2009-07-21T21:56:00.001+01:00

giveaway freebies for an exhibition on thursday

totem

2009-07-21T18:19:00.002+01:00

these are submissions for the scribble project. i have lots of fun taking part in their projects :)

collabs

2009-07-21T13:24:00.002+01:00

i did this collab with my dear friend jack a while back. the title of the poem is Retirement Home. it was featured in issue ten of birds on the line online zine. i wanted the word to be sort of frail, but i cant quite tell if it's TOO illegible. I am still trying to find that fine line.

2009-07-16T19:59:00.001+01:00

Oddly this is the prettiest scar ive ever seen
soft grey nail polish (cheapo Collection 2000) +massive plastic ring (therapy @ house of fraser) . love itt.

snoozing

2009-06-29T17:22:00.001+01:00

i like to feed my eyes

2009-06-26T16:08:00.003+01:00

~my sketchbook doodly collages

Hi, How Are You?

2009-06-25T00:23:00.002+01:00

I think daniel johnston was made famous by kurt cobain wearing a tshirt with his album artwork ("hi, how are you?") on it. daniel is primarily a singer songwriter (see below) but his artwork is also fantastic.

I’ll never marry; I’ll never wed
Nobody wants to kiss you
When you’re dead
Nobody wants to lie in bed with you
When your flesh is rotting

the images are from the daniel johnston fansite which has loads of awesome stuff on it too

more lovely stamps

2009-06-18T12:03:00.001+01:00

2009-06-17T15:50:00.001+01:00

WHAT IS THIS. IT SCARES ME. I FOUND IT IN OUR FAMILY PHOTOS. I DONT RECOGNISE HER. WAAA.
plus, nice stamps

2009-06-16T23:01:00.002+01:00

I came across this old post and decided to illustrate it

2009-06-16T22:44:00.002+01:00

Inspired by this

it's got me going, slowly

2009-06-16T10:07:00.002+01:00

Solent/Ikea exhibition. Shame the visual arts entry was sort of tucked around the side. mines the one at the end.

vintage glass beads i dug out from our button box
mouse pad HAX. Covered mouse pad using spray adhesive
Ditto with the pen pot hax.
~

I feel so slow and sluggish. so uncreative, so little motivation

2009-04-30T00:04:00.005+01:00

so, today was a bit crazy, in southampton there's a new ikea opened, and they had this arty competition or something, i entered, completely forgot about it, then they had the judging today, it was well official (well, official as it could be with a shit local newspaper present) AND WELL I FREAKIN WON MY FREAKING CATEGORY DIDNT I. ftw, i was up against this TOTALLY AWESOME guy in the year above me and everything. so YAY--- £200 ikea vouchers (O.M.G.)....yay! anywayz

listening to: mumm-ra for the first time. epic~emo~indie

2009-04-21T00:28:00.002+01:00

i made a camera bag from some scrap wool and ribbon. cute!
and i finally got the book i was in, along with many other w_rers! <3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Wore-Today-Fashion-Remixed/dp/0955339871 :D
http://www.graffitobooks.com/wiwt.html i also really like the look of the people who published it, graffito books

OH hai, here have my card

2009-04-16T10:46:00.001+01:00

21st birthday

2009-04-15T23:10:00.003+01:00

(two puddings, all to myself!)

2009-04-13T17:31:00.000+01:00

oh hai. here's my card.

how beautiful!

2009-04-06T16:00:00.001+01:00

they don't make them like they used to

2009-04-02T13:47:00.003+01:00

Books in my parent's bookcase

2009-03-31T01:54:00.000+01:00

i just realized what i was doing

2009-03-29T23:04:00.001+01:00

ive decided i like blogger, although it's pretty chunky or something. i made my page look pretty so i like it more

blogger difficulties

2009-03-29T21:56:00.002+01:00

i dont know if blogger is that great, i find it very hard to interact with other users and its not very accessible. my friend has a tumblr and that seems more instant. however, you cant comment on tumblr. tho noone comments on my blogger anyway.

same with my website, really

tho, maybe i shouldnt show many people my blog. it has shit poems! ha

angstalicious

2009-03-01T15:36:00.003Z

this week ive started using my radio alarm clock again. i generally wake up to the news on radio 4, always indepth stories about plane/car crashes, david cameron's son, and wars and stuff. in my half sleep i start weeping about these horrific tragedies. its horrible but i dont want to stop listening to the radio again because i dont want to be one of those people that believes ignorance is bliss.

we've had so many wonderful lectures this week from great illustrators-- its really frustrating me that i dont have my own "style" yet. im scared i never will and i'll never get employment because my work seems too erratic. nearly all of the people on my course seem to have their own thing going on and i feel terrified.

grumble

2009-02-03T11:05:00.003Z

fuck you snow! stupid snow.

i did a zillion drawings for this cute little show that our tutor organized for us in berlin. i did drawings of every item i took with me to berlin--- or should i say, i was GOING to take to berlin. eventually i'll lay them all out in a grid and get a good photo on D's camera, because mine is shit.
so here's some pictures of some socks i was going to take to berlin, but didnt

poorpoorpoorpoorrprporporr

2009-01-18T19:33:00.001Z

p.s. i love our new flickr pro account. linkwhore!