New Stockist!

Glaswegian friends! You can now buy Cuppa Tea and Cake products in The Shop of Interest... at 1058 Argyle Street

I'm very lucky to be stocked in this fabulous little shop. They have a large amount of products including the newest addition to my range, the wooden kaleidoscope badges. I hope Chris and I will get to pay Scotland a visit soon, I know he wants to and we've made so many friends up north via the power of twitter.

One day I will have a vintage car....

Every year the Ipswich Transport Museum hold a Vintage Car Rally which starts in Christchurch Park, they then leave to rally over to Felixstowe and spend the afternoon sunning themselves on the front by the sea. This year was the 41st run and the second we've been to.

I love vintage cars, if I was better off I would have a normal runabout car and a vintage one for pootling about in the summer with the top down. I'm particularly keen on that little cream chap at the top, the Frog Eyed Sprite. Look at his happy little face!

My good friend Flo has always loved these dinky little fellows. You don't realise quite how tiny they are until you see them in the flesh. I don't think Chris with his long legs could get into one of these! I'd love to have a little test drive of one though. These was a woman looking at the engine who repeatedly told her husband that they can run on only 2 cylinders, so there's a factoid for the day!

I also love the text you find on vintage buses. Here is a few pictures of my favourites. Maybe i'll get myself an old bus or coach for the summer holidays too!

Finally, here's a picture of me looking a bit windswept and getting in the way at a crucial moment...

Necklaces too, i've been playing with power tools!

Hello all, i've been really enjoying myself this past week. I'm on Easter holidays from work and have had a To Do list as long both arms and one leg but amongst all that I have distracted myself by drilling holes in wood.

So now I am pleased to present the Wooden Kaleidoscope Necklace! Available in the usual places...

Folksy and Etsy

Working with wood

I've wanted to create things from wood for a while but without the right equipment its not that easy!

A while ago I made some stripy A5 pieces using markers, masking tape and stickers and then went on to cut hexagonal crystal shapes out of them. I was really happy with them and could see potential for the triangles i'd cut out so went about trying to mount them onto wood.

The only real problem I had was getting the shapes cut out of the ply without having to use a junior hacksaw and take forever to do it. Luckily a friend stepped in and cut these babies out for me so now I would like to present...

the Hexagon Brooch! Clever name huh?

I carefully chose the triangles to put together and have varnished these chaps several times to protect them from wear and tear. The first one is in my online shops now.

Folksy and Etsy. Please let me know what you think!

New Foiled Crystal Forms

Lovely new screen printed and foiled things! A tote and a cushion cover. These will shortly be available in the shops, links to which are down the side of the page.

If you want to know more about foiling please see my previous post or feel free to email me.

A little glimpse into my day job

I work at my local college full time as a Lecturer and a Learning Support Assistant. Each job has their trials and tribulations as most of them do but luckily for me I really enjoy my job and get to be creative when i'm doing it.

For my next 3 week illustration workshop we will be designing and making zines and so i've made a project brief for my group in the form of a zine. It can be difficult to wade through lots of words for some students and I think just saying it all out loud just isn't enough so I often go for a very visual approach backed up by laying out the lesson each week at the start of every session.

Here is my zine project brief, broken down into weeks and with a big long list of fantastic contemporary illustrators for my group to research.

I hope my students appreciate the hard work i've put in for them! Haha! It was really good fun to tell the truth!

New Products! Crystal Forms

I have recently been working on a new line of products based on crystal forms. I've been messing about really with a pattern I really like to see if I like the results. And so far the answer is YES! So i've popped a few in the shop to see if other people agree.

I really love the brooch at the top and also the screen printed fabric all the items here are photographed on. I have made it into a cushion cover but haven't had the fine weather needed to photograph it. You can see bits of it here and more in the previous post too.

All these items are available in the shop and there may be some alternative designs too as i'm still messing about and enjoying it.

Links to the shops are down the side of the page!!