february wall art

I have just finished my february piece for Lilla Rogers assignment bootcamp, like January I found it a little tough at first to do the mini because I didn't know what the end piece would be! This time around the mini was something I was quite familiar with, enter.... Vintage plates depicting scenes! I have always loved the figgjo flint range of ceramics and have spent many (too many?) hours eyeballing the beautiful designs, as much as i love them they arent really in my style of drawing, dont get me wrong it would be AMAZING if I had those skills! I also discovered Bjorn Wiinblad and the arabia finland pastoraali collection how could I have missed these? I sketched quite a few concepts and I am so happy that I did because I intend to use these to make a few giclee prints, this is not really a theme as such that I would have really thought about drawing, but it something that I am so glad that I explored, definitely more exploration in the future too, it is so open ended!

The major assignment was to create a piece of wall art for the home decor market, but the twist was that it had to be on wood!  It would have been great to be able to have painted this assignment (if I could actually paint?) but I couldn't source any actual slices of wood so I mocked up digitally. This assignment was a huge challenge because I used photoshop to work up my final, I am usually quite a vector girl (lady? now over 30...)   I think being a graphic designer and having it always drummed into me that 'this needs to be scaleable, 300dpi at final size blah blah blah' I have never let myself really explore photoshop for designing? sounds a little crazy but seriously I was having this conversation with a fellow friend designer the other day and she felt the same about always having to have crisp scaleable graphics! anyway I thought that I would feel a bit bummed about not trying to paint the final piece but I really got SO much out of this assignment and learnt so many new things that it doesnt even matter.  I am completely happy with the final piece and cant wait to get cracking on a little series of these, enjoy!

MATS Manifesto

I was asked to create an entry for the MATS manifesto competition for Lilla Rogers Studio, below is my entry. Basically the brief was to "create a piece which embodied and reflected your MATS experience"  My entry is about being 'ready to grow' which I guess is why I signed up for bootcamp in the first place! I definitely have grown so much already. I know we are only one assignment in, but I really  think I have altered the way in which I approach and generate ideas. Enjoy!

done & done

Well, I have finally finished my assignment hooray!, I actually started out working on a totally different design concept and colour scheme but I felt that it wasn't really me.  After a rethink and a little more exploration I arrived here.

I have to say that I am pretty happy with how my interpretation of the Edwardian brooch theme turned out, the gallery goes live on tuesday 27th January so make sure you check all of the lovely work done by my fellow bootcampers.  But for now you can still swoon over last years gallery here

Lilla Rogers assignment bootcamp

Wow the deadline for bootcamp assignment 1 is fast approaching! I am almost finished and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed myself so much. The way in which the assignment brief is revealed is great... First Lilla releases a mini assignment which is just really about exploration/drawing based upon a theme and the first theme was Edwardian brooches. The second part of the brief (the major?) is released a week later, I am pleased to say that I did guess correctly and it was a journal! So basically we had to design a journal based upon our exploration done in the mini assignment.

I felt a little weird at first about this structure to be honest, as a graphic designer you always know what the end goal/application is and whom you are trying to target, so to go in and draw blind felt a little strange at first but it was actually amazing because I was really able to just explore drawing freely without an end product or application in mind.  Had I known that the major assignment was to be a journal from the beginning, I think I would of predetermined a direction after only a little exploration and gone with it without allowing myself to just really concentrate on drawing, from which some many other ideas grew.

Below is my mini exploration in full, I can't wait to see everyone elses journals. There is an amazing bunch of talented people in my ecourse, producing some amazing work, a little scary at times but very inspiring. Enjoy! I seriously can not wait for assignment two.

Welcome 2015

Happy new year! It has been a VERY long time (2 children and 4 years later) since I have blogged. Nevertheless, I am back and ready to go for 2015. It is going to be a really great year and I am very excited to be taking part in the Lila Rogers Studio assignment bootcamp ecourse for 2015.

I have always loved surface pattern and I thought that it was about time that I delved a little further into this beautiful printed patterned area of design! I hope to share my journey with you.

Yikes 2012 fast approaching!

Wow! I cant believe I am already thinking about 2012? Luckily I have some beautiful calendar eye candy to help me cope with the reality of all that next year holds. Shivani from My Owl Barn and a team of fab designers have done it again, a fantastic little free calendar for you to download and print, take a peek here. Just gorgeous!
image by Petra Boase

a good little bargain

It is no secret... I love a good eBay auction, who doesn't I guess? my latest little winner was this set of sturdy vintage kids chairs. The seller was an absolute pleasure and threw in this cute little table as well as a very funky random ice bucket. His place was jam packed with sooo many lovely retro and vintage items I had a field day browsing through his shed. I really felt like I was part of the American picker team, minus the extensive pricing knowledge of course... The sellers house was also completely amazing, it looked like it was straight out of a magazine shoot themed around vintage. Little girlie can't sit on these chairs yet which thankfully gives me enough time to give them a tiny bit of a make over...hmmm I am off to get my sanding block.