Here’s a new poster design for Handm@de 2010. I may well try to do a screenprint version. If you want to know more about this excellent craft fair visit handmadewinchester.blogspot.com/

By the way, if anyone’s interested, my screenprinting endeavours are finally starting to come together after spending quite a lot of money and getting very frustrated trying to properly coat and expose the screens. I’ve managed to create four screens for the Chris Brokaw and Geoff Farina poster – one more screen to create and I can get on with printing it! So some photos to follow soon, I expect.

Except it will be after ATP Matt Groening and ATP Pavement as they are coming up in the next two weekends – yippee!

These are the first sample swatches of my fabric patterns! Our idea was for me and Raspberry to combine forces – I design some fabrics which she can use in her work (and also sell the fabric in fat quarters or half yards).

I’ve been taking a lot of photos of natural elements so I played around with designs using seed pods, window frames, tied string in fences, ropes on beaches, bits of wood, pebbles, barnacles.

The first two designs here are of beach worn pebbles and shells, and a tied string fence. The designs are 42 inches wide but these are 5″ square swatches to check colour and quality of print. They are printed by Spoonflower. I think I will also look to hand print fabrics myself in the future but we’ll see what happens.

So we think we will have some finished pieces and fabrics available pretty soon, I will keep you updated!

I’ve been recently learning about screen printing, which is something I’ve wanted to do for ages. I love the look of screen printed fabrics and prints on paper. My wife bought me a kit and I started off with a couple of prints onto paper which taught me quite a lot about how much of the various screen printing mediums to apply! I particularly wanted to help Lorna with her textile work by designing and printing fabrics which she could use in her work. The idea was this would give her unique printed fabrics and also the ability for us to design exactly the kind of things she wants to use in her work.

So for my third print, I worked with a photo of grasses I’d taken and produced a design in Illustrator (top left, above) which I was very happy with. This is my first print design to use colour to show a background and thus leave a negative space (the fluffy seeds around the grass heads). So I had two colours to print; the brown of the grasses and the blue of the sky. With my screen printing kit I had only screen drawing fluid with which I had to paint on the design and it took ages (a good week). I must get the photo emulsion stuff!

Anyway, with the screens finally finished (the two right hand photos, above) we printed four copies, two of which came out very well and two of which didn’t come out quite so well. We chose some fabrics to complement the print and Lorna worked her magic to turn them into two lovely cushion covers (bottom left in the photo).

It’m very happy with the final result and the cushions are currently available in Lorna’s Etsy shop. I have lots of new ideas for prints, so we’ll see what happens!

I just wanted you to see my wife’s hand made linen bags which I think are some of the best ones she has made so far. I really like it when she does a little stitching over shapes—it is very effective and graphical in feel and I think it communicates her personality.

These are all one-off bags, if you are interested you can go on over to Etsy to buy one.

Katy started making beads and other glass jewellery by lampwork – heating up special glass in the flame of a strong blowtorch which is formed around a clay coated mandrel, and then transferring to a kiln to anneal the glass. She also works with silver to create bracelets from whole sets of beads, as well as pendants using special “focal” beads.

In a short space of time, Katy has learned how to make some fantastic glass beads but also, I think, she has managed to put in some originality of her own and produced some really beautiful designs. The lovely thing about lampworked beads is they are all unique and lovingly handmade, so there is always a handmade feel and creative element of the artist.

She has begun to sell these on Etsy if you feel the desire to own such a nice piece of handmade glass, or even an entire bracelet of handmade beads.

I bought this wonderful case made by Working Class Heroes for my mobile phone, very unusual because I don’t often buy things like this. But I was really blown away by the fantastically stylish and simple designs and the great combination of materials; thick grey felt and brown leather.

The other thing to note is the products are very cheap, I think, and they made this case to the size of my phone; I just supplied the dimensions with my order. They make some very cool camera cases and laptop sleeves too. What more could you ask for?

I’m just wondering who has been good enough to deserve one of these beautiful cases for Christmas!