Category Archives: illustration

design, fashion, handmade, illustration, vintage

Thrifty Finds

ThriftyFinds

It’s been a long time since I posted about my thrifty finds. I now tend to take a quick snap of something and upload it onto Instagram which has become a less time consuming type of blogging to me. I thought the other day though, that it would be nice to do a little post about some recent charity shop and Ebay finds. So here we are…

The spotted cotton shirt I found in my local St Giles Hospice shop for £3. It seems to have been hand sewn from scratch as there are no labels. I just love the bow at the front. Will come in handy as a nursing shirt too! The oversized vintage M&S blouse was from also from St Giles, and should make a nice light maternity blouse for the Summer and beach cover-up post-pregnancy. It was £5 and isn’t the type of pattern I usually go for, but I was drawn to it for some reason – probably the symmetrical nature of the pattern! Finally, my £2.50 Ebay find – a Gordon Stowell illustrated children’s book filled with inspiring bright images and simple wording. I can’t wait to show and read this to the little one in the future!

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design, good, handmade, illustration, interiors, tasty eat, vintage

The Affordable Art and Design Fair

AffordableArtDesignFair copy

For the last few months, myself and other ladies from the Made By collective have been planning and organising an art and design fair to be held in an old light aircraft top hangar. Selecting artists from applications, arranging a pop-up tea shop, and styling the big wide space was a huge task but the day was fantastic. Around 500 people walked through the large open metal hangar doors, cakes sold out by 2pm, dogs pottered around with their owners, and the feedback we had from the sellers and visitors was amazing. Above are some of my favourite photos from the day but more can be seen here.

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illustration, interiors, vintage

Brighton

BrightonSpent a day in Brighton recently and apart from getting drenched in heavy rain and my ‘new’ umbrella snapping in the wind, I still managed to enjoy a good mooch around fantastic shops and find lots of vintage and mid-century loveliness. I bought a new letterpress print with William Morris quote ‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful’, a 2 cup teapot, useful household goods, and 3 bright geometric washi tapes.

These are very nice shops indeed and worth a visit if you’re ever nearby…

Utility

Workshop

Unlimited Shop

Swag Brighton Antiques

Vintage City Brighton

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design, good, handmade, illustration

Young Artists Sessions

YoungArtistsSessionsFeb14

As part of my new freelance role as a workshop facilitator, I was asked to plan and deliver a Young Artists Sessions this weekend at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. These two sessions are held every Saturday and are a group for under 8’s and a group for over 8’s.

Inspired by work in the latest pop-art exhibition at the gallery, we looked at making our own pop-art work. The collage letter shapes and still life line drawings that the kids created were fantastic, and we had a really fun time together. I hopefully enthused them a little about what I do as a graphic designer too – there were definitely some future designers in the groups!

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design, handmade, illustration, vintage

Mad Dogs and Englishmen Exhibition

MadDogsandEnglishmenI had a meeting at Bilston Craft Gallery this morning and was so pleased to have seen a wonderful exhibition of work by artist Lauren van Helmond while I was there.

Wonderfully fun human and canine characters have been created in a mixture of wire, clock mechanisms, recycled biscuits tins, pegs, wood and washers. Each unique and up-cycled piece shows very British narrative scenes of gardening, tea drinking, day trips and hobbies. I loved the interest in dogs and tea particularly, being a fan of both myself! The exhibition is on until 18th January and is very much worth a visit. The rest of the craft gallery itself contains stunning locally made historical enamel work alongside more contemporary art and craft design.

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