My very first craft fair!

Next Saturday, 7th December, I am going to take part in my very first craft fair! I have been quite cautious with craft fairs as I wanted to pick the right one to try. This craft fair is in Colchester, Essex at The Minories, a contemporary gallery that showcases Art, Craft and Design. I already sell items in the gallery shop and it's the place I did my MA, so I feel very comfortable about it. 

My main worry is getting the right mix of merchandise to take and I have spent time thinking of some some different ideas. I don't want to take too much and I don't want to take too little. Creative dilemmas are tricky sometimes! In the end I have decided to take quite a range of things. Items that are all ready to go (like my cards and mirrors) and some new items that I have been making. I have created an infinity scarf from my "Fantastic Funghi" material which I am really pleased with.

I have also made some decorations in different ways. Firstly some wooden ones which I decided to paint.

Then some cut out shapes from felt which I decorated with blanket stitch and some embellishments.

Then I got really creative and used my needle felting machine to create these owls. I was really pleased with these and I love their googly eyes. I haven't used my needle felting machine for ages and I had such fun!

Lastly I decided to make some pin cushions from my left over samples of fabric.

I am feeling more prepared now but need to think about pricing, labels, bags and display! Do you think I've made enough? Wish me luck!

Reality Bites

So it's been a little while since I posted but I have been very busy. The title of this post is "Reality Bites" because that it how it is at the moment- I had to earn some money! I left my teaching career in August and threw myself into the world of surface pattern and since then I feel as though I have achieved loads. The simple truth is though, however much I love what I am doing it is not paying me much money at the moment. The very little I do make I reinvest to buy more things to make and design. Therefore I had to look towards my recent experience and sign up to an agency to get some work. This week I have been in a primary school. This is not my usual teaching setting as I am a secondary school teacher. It's been hard and I'm itching to get back to designing every day. The good thing is that the days are quite short so there is time later in the day to flex my creative side. The other thing I have had to juggle is the fact that I have started Module 3 of the ABSPD course "Monetising your Designs" (quite timely I think!) but I already feel that I am behind. You can't win in this game...

I have also been trying to add more items to my online shops and took the plunge by getting some items professionally printed. First are some Christmas cards I have put in my Folksy shop

 Next I decided to create some handbag mirrors with my designs. I am really pleased with these and I decided to try selling these on a newly created online shop Giggling Hedgehogs. In their own words,
"Giggling Hedgehogs is an online marketplace that brings buyers and sellers of unique products and services together. It’s where you go to buy gorgeous things that are a little different, quirky and most certainly beautiful." Here is the link to my brand new store where you can buy my little mirrors for £3.50 each.
Giggling Hedgehogs

Trying Out Typography

Recently I have been having a go at some typographic designs spurred on by some competition briefs that I have entered. The first one was the Tigerprint Christmas type submission. Although I didn't make the shortlist I really liked what I did. I used a combination of collage and hand drawn letters and then scanned them into Photoshop to add colour.

The next brief I had a go at was the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design mini challenge for alumni. I am just about to do Module 3 which I am so excited about. Since taking Module 1 and 2 I have come so far. It's such a fantastic course and so supportive. I never believed I would be able to have a second chance at this career after leaving it behind in the mid 90s, so I designed from the heart. I wanted to create something short but meaningful. Here's what I came up with...

What do you think?

Woodland Wonders.

One of the things that I have written about before is my love of jewellery. I adore it. One of my favourite things on holiday is seek out new and unusual pieces. I love quirkiness, colour and individuality and try and buy handmade one-off items. This love has also led me to try and develop some jewellery ideas of my own. I've tried lots of different materials when I experiment and have had some success with both polymer clay and resin. My new passion though is shrink plastic and I have been working on creating a new collection based upon my "Prickles and Pinecones" surface patterns. I really do love hedgehogs, hares, rabbits and other woodland creatures so I decided to take my original illustrations and make them into brooches and rings. I am going to develop these into necklaces as well but it all takes time! Here are some of the results so far.

I then thought that I would display them on some old fashioned brown tags and add some letterpress titles. My favourite two are the hare in the green scarf and the dozy dormouse! but I have a soft spot for them all.

I have added these to my Etsy store and am planning to develop some more!

Competition Crazy!

There seems to be so many design competitions around at the moment! At this stage in my new career direction I am quite philosophical about it. It's good practice, working to a brief and sometimes a restricted colour palette, and you can get some good exposure. The rewards are not always so great and terms are not often on a par with professional designers but you have to start somewhere! There is ferocious competition from other contestants as there are lots of immensely talented people out there all trying to do the same thing. This could deter you but I am really trying to tell myself that my ideas and designs are good, they deserve to be there and someone has to win. The thing that keeps me going is that thinking that one day (possibly, maybe) it could be me...

Here is some of what I've been working on: Cushions for the Ohh Deer design competition. These are available during the competition.

I also had a go at the Homebase design a wallpaper competition (On Facebook) and entered a range of ideas based upon their Anthology theme, here is one idea below.

Finally for now I have had a go at Front Row Society's "Illustrated Dreams" jumper competition. This is another Facebook vote. Lately I have been drawing lots of foxes, hares and rabbits and used this idea to create "Artic Fox Dreaming"

And what am I going to do today? Have a go at another Tigerprint Competition! Here I go again...

New Opportunities?

I can't believe it's been over a week since I lasted posted on here! I have been really busy designing and chasing all the opportunities that I can find. I have rapidly found out that there are lots of things out there (competitions, blogs, sites) that could help you realise your dream of becoming a recognised designer. The trouble is trying to juggle everything that comes my way. I was absolutely thrilled to have my work included on the brilliant Artistically Afflicted blog all about the Autumnal inspiration of mushrooms. My design "Fantastic Funghi" was featured and I have received lots of really nice compliments about it.

This lead me to thinking about other ways that I could "get my designs out there". Here are a couple of the ones I am trying at the moment. The first is Society6, an online store where you can upload your designs and sell them on lots of different merchandise. I decided to try my funghi design and I like the look of this bag tote bag. I think this still fits in well with my current obsession with all things Autumnal. Time will tell whether these new opportunities will pay off. Fingers crossed!

Prickles and Pinecones

In my last post I talked about how Autumn is inspiring me and talked about the drawings I have been doing based on my collection of Autumnal forms. I am still obsessed with picking up conkers! I have amassed quite a collection now. They are supposed to be good at warding off spiders so I will keep them around (I'm not sure how that works but I have heard it a few times). I thought I would now show you a couple of designs that I created from my drawings. I used quite a subtle, Autumn palette to create a homely feel.

You can see more of the collection here Moyo Directory.