Fishing Line

I wanted to try to make my dip pen line bolder and create more texture so I drew these fish.

Illustration Friday - Soaked

Illustration Friday - Soaked

The Blackdown Rings

east

south

west

north

We went to the Blackdown Rings, an ancient iron age hill fort near the hamlet of Hazelwood  in South Devon, between the moors and the sea. It's 185 metres  (607 feet) above sea level and you get this incredible 360 degree panorama which I tried to photograph and didn't quite manage, but you get the idea. From the top of the central earth works you can sea as far as Dartmoor and Hay Tor to the north and the coast and Bolt Head to the south. Its one of those glorious places that on a sunny day like today with a strong gusting wind, takes your breath away.

Kitty Jay

Do you know the tale of Kitty Jay, the poor servant girl from the 17th Century who's grave is just below Hound Tor on Dartmoor? It's on a crossroads and always, mysteriously, has fresh flowers. Kitty Jay was the victim of unrequited love, on becoming pregnant and then rejected by her lover, killed herself. As a suicide victim she was not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground and was banned from the parish of Widecombe in the Moor, so was buried alone in the middle of nowhere. This is now a beautiful wild spot on Dartmoor. The moors and the folk tale that has always touched me.


With this in mind I have made some fabric designs that are inspired by poor Kitty Jays melancholy tale. I just hope I have done her and the moor justice.


For a beautiful telling of the story of Kitty Jay click on this link to the incredibly talented Seth Lakemans song of the tale.
Link to  Seth Lakeman Kitty Jay

There are more designs and colourways on my Spoonflower site.

Fabric Swatches

My swatches arrived from Spoonflower. Its always so amazing to see your own work printed up, I love it. I have tweaked the colours in some of them and they are now all for sale on Spoonflower on a lovely selection of fabrics including organic cotton, a beautiful crepe de chine and my favourite linen-cotton canvas.

A fourth birthday party with dragons and castles and chocolate castle cake.

I haven't been doing much work in the studio over the last few days as I had the task of organising a birthday party for smallest son, A, who was 4 years old yesterday. This involved making 10 castles out of cardboard boxes,

a large dragon painting for pin the tail on the dragon and a very sticky chocolate castle cake.

So yesterday the fun started with the arrival of 8 small four year old knights and a couple of princesses in my very small house, luckily the sun was shining and outside was the best location for chasing big brother A and his 'cool' friends, some games, lots of party food and the hysterical scene of catch the dragon (Daddy E dressed as a dragon being chased by numerous sword wielding small people). Even big people were invited and I was given these flowers from B's garden.

A beautiful day full of fun. 'The best day ever' one small said, I reckon that's the biggest complement possible.

 Back to work today in the studio with B, not sure either of us has achieved a huge amount, but we've made lists! And I've decided to name my Etsy shop 'Woodle Doo', now I just need to fill the shop with all my luscious creations for you to peruse and buy.

Dean Rag Book Co. London

I found this little rag book in a charity shop. It's so sweet and has inspired my latest project for Spoonflower.

Deans Rag Book Co was set up in the 1900's producing these little babies books, it expanded into producing a range of soft toys including dolls and their clothes and teddy bears. They were printed onto a length of fabric ready for you to cut out and sew.


I am hoping to design four rag books so you can buy 1 yard with the four to make up, but for now I have loaded Rainbow Rag onto Spoonflower. It was smallest son who inspired the rainbow theme for the design. He has devised his own names for colours, such as 'daddy chocolate', you and I would call this brown. I have had to make the colours names less obscure though, as it would defeat the objective of introducing colours to small people.

 

For a more detailed perusal check out   

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/582766