Some Illustrations from Hong Kong

Considering my posting was once erratic and unfocused at best, I'm not sure how much I will need to cover in this new post which relates to my year in Hong Kong. So, sorry in advance if I repeat anything!

After I graduated in 2008 I was lucky enough to be one of a group of people who were selected by my tutors to go to New Designers with my work. It was an amazingly sunny week and despite a few upsets (including the infamous leaky roof at the design centre, in which my most treasured illustration suffered some disasterous splashes of water AND one of my friends having her ENTIRE protfolio stolen) it turned out quite good :/

I was in the foyer when someone from my course called to say a lady wanted to speak to me so I ventured back upstairs to our stand and 'hey presto!' my life changed! After some interviews, one project, countless emails, visa form filling and a trip down to Lewes I found myself at Heathrow airport with a very large red suitcase which contained my whole life (or what I could fit, at least!) I was off to Hong Kong on my own for a three month placement to design for a major bedlinen company.

That month rolled into a year and would have stretched even further had I not decided that I really wanted/needed to move back home. What a year! It was a good 'un and I had an amazing time living there with my partner and welcoming/waving on various friends and family members who came to stay with us (always so sad when they went!). And my goodness, I LOVED work. I mean, was literally in love with it. I used to get so excited when my samples would arrive back from the factory, the friends I made were lovely and I had the most stunning view of the botanical gardens out of the window wall in front of my desk. What a beaut'! Oh and the amount I learned was just completely invaluable.

I still work for the company, from home and I still absolutely love it (I hasten to add!). But the excitement of it all when I first began teamed with living in a new country was extraordinary. Unfortunately I didn't do much in the way of my own work while I was over there, because I literally lived and breathed my job. And, although people might say it's only a job, I was in another country and away from all of my friends and family for my job, so it really was all-ecompassing.

Slowly since I've been back, I've had more time (no more evening and weekend skype calls!), space and energy to make my own Illustrations. They develop much slower than when I had the eternity of time bestowed upon me during my degree but I enjoy it so much and I still get excited everytime a person coos over something I've made or buys it. So I have to say that most of these Illustrations were done when I returned (as you can see from one of my earlier posts, from photos that I had taken specifically to draw/document from. They were exhibited last Summer and I hope you like :)

'The Wet Market'

'Wong Tai Sin Temple'

'Joyce is not here'

'Centre Street'

'Sai Ying Pun'

I should also say, I really hate using watermarks on my work. But I've had so many problems in the past with copyright and even had some drawings physically stolen from the Truman Brewey. So sorry if it spoils it a little. It's a shame I feel I have to do it.

I'm planning on putting a few of these on Etsy as prints...which one/s are your favourite? Perhaps it will help me to decide which to choose! Would love to know your thoughts. Next Post will be the Illustrations I did for my degree show, which hold a special place in my heart! For now you can see them here. I am taking down my website in a few days so I can concentrate on having it rebuilt without it being live as it's shamefully messy at the moment. So use the link while you can!

Have a great day y'all! x

Some Etsy Loveliness and other things!

I've begun adding some of the screenprints I mentioned last week onto my Etsy Shop, which is very exciting!

I haven't really delved into the world of selling online yet, so it'll be good to see how it goes and learn a few things along the way. You can find the shop in the link to the right, or here!

Have also been updating my blog a little bit in general and making it look a little bit more exciting but nice and clean at the same time! Hope you like it...I'm sure this will be an ongoing project...

Looking forward to work (day job) tomorrow as desiging Kids Duvets which I LOVE. Must get in some zzzzzz's before then...



Bye for now!

Retrospective: Norman School Sketches

When I was at Primary School I was very quiet, shy and softly spoken. I had a suitably wild imagination and the only thing I loved more than pouring over the pages of all my books, was writing the stories themselves. (And of course illustrating them!) I was lucky enough to spend my earliest childhood memories at Norman First School in Norwich. Now I know...everyone believes that the Primary School they went to is the best. Who couldn't love the place that helped them create those warm, fuzzy early memories? But Norman First School was a very special place.
Many of the teachers had been there for decades and community around the school grew in a way that generations of the same family all attended the school. Sometimes only to be taught by the very same teacher! My Dad went to Norman First School back when it was just for boys, and my Grandad did too. He could even remember when the school was nothing more than a hut with a pond (although how much of that was true, you could never know as he forever had a twinkle in his eye when he told me anything!). But let's just say for now, that it is.
So, my past and present collided in 2007 when we were set with the task of carrying out a work placement in the second year of my degree, and the final term in Norman First School's History. I quickly decided that there was nowhere I'd rather spend my time than visiting the school, learning to teach a little bit and documenting this great building which would be knocked down that Summer. And I guess you could say everything just fell into place. It was almost too perfect.
As you can imagine, I had an amazing time with all of the children drawing and doodling away with them (hopefully teaching them a few things too!) And when I wasn't teaching or sitting in on lessons I found more time to seek out little details and corners to draw...

' A Window is an excellent place to hang things'

'Australia and Egypt'

' Everything you need for a Reception Class'

'Friday the Eighteenth of May, Two Thousand and Seven'

'Graham the Sink'

' Little Chairs for Little People'

'Look At Me'

'Mrs Westwood's Cupboard'

'Pots and Papers'

'Projectors are especially good for large groups of Singing Children'

'Remember me, I am the Tree!'

'Six'

'Stacked'

'Stars adorn our Ceiling'

'The bottom of the Projector Screen'

'The Old Brass Bell'

'Three Views from Palm Tree Class'

'Twenty Bottles of Paint on the Shelf...twenty bottles of paint...' 'Wonky Chairs sit at the Table'

Sadly none of the things above I've drawn remain now. The whole school was demolished in 2007 and a spangly new one built in it's place. (I'm sure it's a very nice one...I haven't actually been inside so I can't say for sure!) ;)
Still, it was lovely for me to be able to go back during it's last days and document little pieces of it.
Hope you enjoyed looking!

Screenprints and some Hand Embroidery...

Whenever I sell an original I always like to get a photo of it before it leaves me, so I can have some idea of what work I've done for my own record (but mainly for a very strange sentimental value I have with my dearly departed pieces! ;) )

I was completely unable to squeeze in a spot of shutterbugging before Clutter City on Saturday and the lighting there was too poor for a good sesh in between finishing set-up and the customers piling in. Not quite able to let go with out a photo, the flashing was left to the moment just ever-so-slightly inbetween the customer handing the Illustration over and me wrapping it. Needless to say the photos are very bad, and won't be making an appearance on this blog!

So, I have quite a good collection ready for our next outing (Norwich Lanes Street Fayre, unless I get an urge to squeeze something else in between now and then!) and I was, this time, determined to get some half decent photos before they (hopefully!) all sell. Armed with my Fuji Finepix (ooh yeah...rock and/or roll!) and a puppy who thinks EVERYTHING is a toy (particularly the lead on the camera) I set about my business. Here they are, with some slighly more amusing photos at the end ;) Hope you enjoy! I agree, this is WAY to many images for a post, but they took forever and a day to upload, so they stay! ;)

Cute photos still to follow...

Just very quickly, the images above...some are screenprints and some are screenprints with hand embroidered areas in accent colours...some subtle...some not so subtle. Did you spot them all? I LOVE the surprise element when people pick them up expecting just to see print and then spot a few stitches here, and then some more, and some more. I noticed these reactions from people at Clutter City (it's still nice to hear nice things!).

Here I have the screenprint run of 'The Awkward Chair', 'Counter' and 'The Sideways Chair' from December 2010 - I suppose I must have had about 30 prints in all, although I wasn't able to frame them all, so framed the few I had left for the Spring Soiree....but that's it...these are the last ones! I don't really like to reprint the same images over and over - I think it makes it more special when they aren't mass produced, and I like to make sure they all look different enough to be unique. The newer Screen prints 'Wong Tai Sin', 'Librairie Des Jardins' and 'Number 60 Guernsey Road' are the Illustrations I decided to embellish. I won't print anymore of these either so, besides those already out there, this is it! And now. I give you Marty...