Beautiful skirt

I'm getting quite into this making clothes malarky! Following my success with the skirt for Melissa, I have made another skirt, for my lovely new Brighton friend Helen. I found some fabulous yellow 50s sateen curtains in the Emmaus charity shop in Port Slade, with no particular project in mind, but quickly realised that they'd make a glorious skirt for Helen.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the skirt before I gave it to Helen, but thankfully she and her lovely fiance took some snaps when the skirt made its inaugural trip abroad (they had a long weekend in Brussels). Hopefully Diarmuid won't mind but I nicked some photos from his facebook page so you can see the loveliness!

The Elephant Bed

On Saturday, Rob and I nipped into town to do some errands, and happened to stumble across a gorgeous exhibition: "The Elephant Bed", by John Grade.

It really took my breath away, so I got a bit carried away snapping on my camera phone (alas, I didn't have my decent camera with me). The shots came out better than expected, but don't really do it justice, so if you are around Brighton before 31st August I would highly recommend popping into the Fabrica gallery on Duke Street (opposite Heals) and wander in (it's free!).

Typography spotting

Rob's Dad came to stay with us the other weekend, which was lovely. On the Sunday, we headed over to Lewes for a bit of a snoop, as we hadn't made it there before. It was a surprisingly cool place! I didn't realise that Lewes has close links with Thomas Paine, so it being the 4th July there was a bit of a festival going on. I really like it when you visit a place and unexpectedly find it's got some cultural activity going on, it makes me feel more alive!

On a slightly disconnected note, I snapped this sign with my phone, as I just loved the typography! It really reminded me of the "Keep Calm, Carry On" poster font, and I just love the way they've typeset the St. Perhaps this could be a new game for me, collecting great examples of typography when I'm out and about? Oh dear, I feel a new obsession coming on....

quick craft

I have a serious pen addiction, and recently it's been threatening to take over my desk at work. I'd been keeping an eye out for some funky storage ideas, but everything I've seen has been too pricey for my current tight budget. So, one night, I had a flash of inspiration. Some washed soup cans, bits of wrapping paper from my stationery stash, and some double-sided tape, and 10 minutes later, voila! Custom pen pots!

The American Scene

We stumbled across a great exhibition at the Brighton Art Gallery on Saturday, "The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock" The American Scene" The exhibition "...features around 80 outstanding prints by 56 leading modern American artists, including George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois and Jackson Pollock. The first half of the 20th century was a period of great change in America, and this exhibition examines American society and culture through the prints produced by some of the most important artists of the time."
It was a great exhibition with some really inspiring prints, and has made me doubly-sure that I really want to learn how to do printmaking. I had a look around the Brighton Independent Printmaking studios as part of the artist open houses during the Brighton festival, and they have a lino-cut/relief printing course that I may try in August. However, my real intrigue is with screen printing, and so I'm hoping that I can get onto the saturday course that the Uni of Brighton will be running in Autumn.
That said, before I get stuck into yet another creative medium (sewing, knitting, photography...) I really should start drawing again, so I have some ideas of what designs I want to print!

phone photos

I've been taking photos on my phone for ages, but only just got round to transferring them to my computer. I'm really pleased with how some of them have come out, considering there on a 2MP mobile phone camera.

1. retro wallpaper (detail), 2. Grandmother's oven glove, 3. The Book of Nonsense, 4. Tea at Otello's cafe, 5. ... judge a book by its cover, 6. (heart) don't break it, 7. loved the design in the balcony ballustrade, 8. loved this shade of green!

It's great to be able to snap things when I come across them, and makes me wish I could get back into photography. Back when I was a student I used to take photos ALL the time, but over the last couple of years I've been distracted by other things. It's such an immediate format, especially now it's a digital possibility, and I really should snap more. Maybe I should reintroduce photography walks into my routine?

The ugly skirt

Back in February, I had a fabulous non-birthday weekend when my old school mate Melissa came over to Brighton. Whilst we were mooching around The Lanes, we spotted a great fabric shop, where Mel fell for some "ugly" daisy fabric. She works for the Electoral Commission and so will get to be on tv when the count is done, so the dare was if I could overcome my fear of making clothes and make her a skirt, she'd wear it on tv!

It's unfortunately taken me ages to finish it, but as the european elections were this week it spurred me into action and so I finally got it done and in the post on Friday. Thankfully Mel really likes it! Now we'll just have to wait and see if she wears it (I want photographic evidence!)

Hurrah for making stuff!

Well, it's been ages since I've posted as work has been manic and I've not really been near a computer. But thankfully the business at work hasn't impeded my attempts at being crafty!
One of the things I'm really pleased with is a bag that I made, having been inspired by some patterns on the net.

I used some fabric that my Aunt very kindly bought me for my birthday, at the craft fair here in Brighton, and I used fabric from a retro duvet cover (charity-shop find) for the lining and applique Cedarlily bird. With some finishing button touches, it all came together and I love it!

Hand-lettering: what got me thinking...

I'm a bit of an obsessive when it comes to reading lots of design blogs to get my daily fix of loveliness and inspiration (as you can tell from my blogroll!). One of the things that I really connected with was a guest blog series on Design*Sponge by Sarah Millar. You can read the series here, here, here, here and here!

It was this series that got me thinking about hand lettering, and probably why I noticed the new packaging I posted about previously. That's what I love about the internet- you find all these strands to pull at, and they just keep pulling you through to more and more gorgeousness! There's too much to take in!

(PS. Sarah blogs at Oatmeal & Cinnamon, and links through to all sorts of hand-lettering loveliness!)

Birthday Pressie for Sis!

I had a moment of creative inspiration at the weekend, and crafted something for my sister's birthday. She had requested a few bits and pieces of make-up for her present, but I wanted to give her something a bit more personal as well. So I decided to have a go at making a simple make-up roll for her to keep it in. I'm really pleased with the results- hope she likes it too!

Bigfish strikes again!

Popped into sainsbury's last night for a few bits, and spotted some very scrummy packaging design in the cake section (I wasn't buying for me btw, my Dad and Pauline are coming to stay today so I wanted to get a few traybakes in, in proper Norn' Irland style!).

Mr Bunbury's cakes do indeed look "sincerely delicious"; I think I was smitten again by the illustrated and hand-lettered style. I'm a sucker for great handwriting! And when I checked the small print, guess who had done the design.... Yep, that's right, Bigfish strikes again! The official website is still in the pipeline, but they've got a holding page up at the moment, with a cute little competition. Will keep an eye on this one!

Clipper Tea

One of the things that I discovered on my fab weekend away was that Clipper Tea have had a makeover. I'm loving their new packaging design, which taps into a trend for illustration and hand-lettering.

I did a bit of digging and the redesign was done by a company called bigfish, who also did the packaging design for Dorset Cereals and Belvoir Fruit Farms (whose cordials have more yummy hand-lettering on the labels). Fab!

London, baby!

I had the most amazing weekend in London with my ladies- Bea, Cathers, Rach and Shannon. We stayed in a hotel in Kensington and had a great time- good food, fabulous company and real quality time. I love this being my birthday year! I'm totally claiming my new decade! Photos of our trip can be found here.

rip it up and start again

so, welcome to my new blog. i've decided that now is the time to really get to grips with what it is that i want to write about- good design. i'm feeling so inspired at the moment by design, rediscovering crafts and learning new skills, and i'm hoping this blog will be a repository for what i'm learning. hopefully this will be the blog that breaks away from my previous navel-gazing introspection and moves to a celebration of all the things that bring me life!