Back Again!

I actually realised that it's been over a year that I posted anything after being quite a frequent poster! I did explain that I was in the middle of a big move. Well I eventually relocated to Dorset in late August and since then spent a lot of time working in my studio. Yes, I was extremely lucky to gain a studio when I moved and it has helped me build up my business over the last few months. I made a little video to introduce you to my work space! 

Where have I been?

I'm so sorry blogging fans but I have been neglecting you! I realised my last post was in the run up to Valentines Day and here we are in June. Why the silence? Well I am in the process of relocating from Norfolk to Dorset and it has been a long drawn out saga which is still going on. Consequently I have nowhere to work properly and things have become a tad tricky. I still have my trusty Mac so I've been designing patterns and I'm keeping my Etsy store ticking over. However I can't wait until I'm settled again and back to making. The exciting thing is our new house has a studio in the garden! Yay! Anyway here's some pics of things I've managed to do in the short term including placing in the top 10 of a recent Spoonflower comp!

                   

I've also been busy keeping a sketchbook going in preparation for the time when I can really concentrate on my creative life! I have managed to design and publish some greeting cards though.

Here's hoping I can be settled very soon. Watch this space....

Love is in the Air

Following on from the success of my Christmas range I decided to design a limited edition series of designs for Valentines day. I wanted to keep with the idea of woodland creatures and this time settled upon a badger, a bird and a bunny. I also wanted to keep them light hearted and quite subtle, using a play on words and fun, cute sentiments.

These are my final ideas in their original format. I decided to get them professionally printed and am very pleased with the results. Check them out over on my Etsy store!

Christmas Is Coming!

During December I have been keeping myself busy by working on the 2014 Advent Challenge organised by the fab Faye Brown.

I have been determined to complete all 25 and thought I would share some of my favourites here. Together I think they make a really strong story.

I have also set up a Pinterest board to showcase work by other designers taking part. There are some amazing designs to see. So get in the festive mood and have a browse!

Christmas Maker's Market.

It's that time of year again when us Artists and Craftspeople go all out to sell our wares and promote a "handmade" Christmas. For a number of reasons I have only signed up to do one fair, a Maker's Market at The Minories in Colchester. I sell my work in the gallery shop and it has a lovely, contemporary vibe to it. Here are some photos of my stall complete with new units to sell from!

I spent a long time creating some new pieces to sell, both my original illustrated jewellery and some needle felted wares, and I was so pleased with how the market went. It was spread over two days and I made lots of lovely sales. Many people may get a SlumberMonkey original on the big day!

Winter Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the big Winter blog hop! I am thrilled to be taking part alongside other ABSPD alumni. Hopefully you have just come from the wonderful Joanne Cocker                        (http://jojococo-design.com/wordpress/) and seen her fab work. If not click on her name to explore now!

I thought that in this post I would show you the development of my Christmas card designs, from drawings to finished products. I began thinking of themes a few months ago because I wanted to make sure that my cards would be ready in good time. Woodland animals are a huge love of mine and I decided to concentrate on using my illustrative work to create my festive designs. Here you can see my early sketches and ideas.

I then began to add colour and other details, layering some patterns and adding wintery textures. Here I tried out darker grounds for my curled fox. I was trying to create a feel of frostiness and snow.

In the end I decided on my three designs, a fox, a hare and a badger. I also used my own typography, adding simple hand drawn greetings to enhance the overall look.

Here are each of the designs showing a little more detail. You can see that I decided on a lighter colour scheme for my curled fox.

Finally the designs were ready to be printed and for this I used Printed.com who I have found to be quick and reliable. I am extremely pleased with the results. They are exactly how I hoped and imagined they would be. I have achieved the look I was aiming for, but what do you think? I would love your opinions!

They are now for sale in my Etsy store! https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Slumbermonkey

Now it's time to hop on over to Petra Hoffman at http://perunoto.com/category/blog/

Some Good News!

This week I was really happy to find out I had been chosen as runner-up in a fabric design competition!  Back in May, Sewing World Magazine asked for designs based upon the theme of sewing. This sounded right up my street so I decided to enter. This competition was being judged by a panel and not based on popularity votes so I thought it sounded ideal. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out I was runner-up. My prize is to have my fabric printed by Woven Monkey. I was also pleased that the winner (Suzanne Washington) and another runner-up (Wendy Flynn) are design friends of mine. Anyway, here is the magazine article showing my design.

And here is my original design which was based around The "New Look" of the early 1950s