Showcase Sunday: Print For Love of Wood

Back to the Showcase Sunday after a short break due to excessive busyness (is that a word?!) This week my Showcase Sunday featured shop is Print For Love of Wood

I bought a print off them last Christmas for my partner and I and really loved their work. Now I see that their shop is full of new and different things and so I had to wave my flag for them.

Look at this wonderful Owl print, made from a vintage linocut found in an antiques shop. I love the almost recycled nature of this and the fact it is still being used decades on. Printmaking is a technique I fell in love with years ago when I was a student and I think that's why I love this shop so much. The shop profile describes how all the work is printed using an antique printing press and using inks often bought from printers that are closing down and is if that wasn't eco enough, everything is printed on recycled paper stock.How's that for sustainable huh?

Print For Love of Wood is stocked with a great range of beautiful letterpress and linocut products but by far my favourite is the print that led me to finding the shop last Christmas.

I used the picture of the print in my previous post so here is a close up picture of the linocut used for printing the image.

My print hangs in my workroom where I do most of my printing and other work. It completely sums up how I feel when things are going well and i'm bursting with ideas, desperate to print something.

Showcase Sunday: Sarah Waterhouse

The seller I have chosen for my Showcase Sunday this week is the excellent Sarah Waterhouse.

Firstly I have to say that a lot of Sarah's products that she has small numbers of are 20% off in her shop at the moment to make way for her Autumn line of products, so you can grab yourself a bargain and get excited about new things to come too!
I really love Sarah's products and the two big reasons are her colour choices and her gorgeous illustrations.

Also, as I said in my Folksy Friday, I love the way people package their products. I love the jute string around the tea towels and her tags which match everything so perfectly. If you read this blog often you will know how much I love matching branding and colour schemes. And look Sarah's tags match her shop banner, which matches her website which matches her blog. Love it!





The other thing that is really important and that Sarah does so well and simply is her product shots, a clean white background gives a great minimalist look to show off the product at it's best and the lighting is perfect, I am very jealous I must admit! I am still battling to get the ultimate photographs of my products.

Most of all Sarah's products and her site inspire me to keep pushing my work further and encourage me to work harder to make my shop the best it can be. I admire it greatly, it is definitely in my Top Five Folksy shops!!

Showcase Sunday: Mengsel

It's time for another Showcase Sunday, along with it being migraine Sunday for me but I will push on promoting my fellow sellers! This week my chosen Folksy seller is Mengsel.


As usual I have taken the time to find a seller who I think has it all, beautiful, well made products that are unique, a well designed shop and great product placement. Oh yes and I forgot, photographs that clearly show the products and give you a style to picture in your home as well.

From reading the Mengsel bio I have found out that it is the Dutch Afrikaans word for mixture. I love the story behind a name! And so do buyers, finding out a little bit about the person who makes the products you are going to buy and how they are made makes them all the more interesting.

Luzelle's style has a lovely Scandinavian feel to it which comes out through her designs, the colours she uses and also the settings for her photographs. This fresh, clean, white paint and wooden furniture compliments the products and almost makes the feel like a breath of fresh air. Which it must be said, handmade products definitely are after walking through your local department store or high street!

Mengsel's designs include crockery, chickens, robots, super 8 cameras and coffee pots. The mixture of homely and vintage/retro styles that I love and is also very "in" at the moment. I'm a big fan of product prints being available as art prints as well so you can have them on your wall as well as on your cushions!

Mengsel offers tea towels, cushions, pillow cases and prints too, some Scandinavian some just quirky and fun and all beautifully printed.

Don't forget to visit the Mengsel blog too!

Showcase Sunday: Lucy Player

Here Sunday is again, I have done my food shopping but annoyingly I still have the washing up to do! My least favourite job, I would rather iron than wash up! Anyway, before i succumb to the horrors of the washing up bowl here is my choice for this weeks' Showcase Sunday. I love Showcase Sunday!

This week I will be promoting the graphic talents of Lucy Player.



The thing about Lucy's products is they are perfectly simple and minimalistic, that is all you need. I love how her work is often just black line drawings on a cream background letting the artwork speak for itself, you don't need bright colours, gaudy slogans or careful stitched embroidery (not that I don't love that myself because we know I do!) in Lucy's work.


These postcards is where it really gets good for me, detailed illustrations of biscuits and teacups printed onto cards! Simple yet effective, and to me that is what Lucy's work, shop and website encompasses. Her product photographs are so suited to her work I just want to drink it all in, her shop is everything I want from a shop and will make me want to buy the products.

It also makes me want to keep taking product photographs to improve mine even more!

Visit the Lucy Player shop and you'll see what I mean.