Sienna cathedral - a photo composite

Here is a photo composite I did of Sienna Cathedral when we visited there in May 2011. It's not perfect but I like it a lot. I really love the distorted dimensions you get with composites and how not every join fits perfectly together. Want to do some more of these; another thing to add to my list of things to do in 2012.

Arkitip geometric cover

This cover of the Los Angeles-based art magazine Arkitip pleases me so much. Once I have saved up for the postage or a flight to LA I am definitely going to pick up one of these for myself, even if it is for the cover alone.

Coming soon

Notebooks

3.2 million dots

A beautiful video of a picture composed of 3.2 million dots.

Another weekend, another...

This Saturday we will be at the We Make Christmas Fair at the Battersea Arts Centre in Clapham. There will be over 80 sellers and I think it is going to be something special.

Then on Sunday we'll be at the Rushmore Road Primary School market on Chatsworth Road.

In addition to this bhmakes is having an open studio along with the other people in her yard. There will be a party with mince pies and mulled wine on Thursday night and a studio shop/drop-in for the rest of the weekend. There is some really interesting and beautiful work coming out of there so if you get the opportunity you should definitely try to make it.

This weekend coming...

 

BHMakes and I are going to be at the Of Cabbages and Kings Market on Saturday at Abney Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street, also at Craft Guerrilla Christmas Fair, Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow.

Sunday we will be at the Wonderhill pop-up at Keston Lodge, Upper Street, Islington and the Sunday Morning Market at Rushmore School, Chatsworth Road, Homerton!

Come and see us!

This weekend

This weekend the Christmas market's start...

Tomorrow (Saturday) bhmakes and myself will be at the Wonderhill market at The Miller in London Bridge.

Then on Sunday we, along with Sanna Panda, will be at the Got Craft market in Tooting.

If you're in the south London over the weekend, come and say hi, and buy some hand made craft goodness.

Pinhole photos

I was given a pinhole camera kit for a birthday present and have loved using it ever since. I like how basic it is, essentially you lift a tab which exposes the film via a tiny hole in a piece of acetate. The experimenting I have done so far has produced some interesting results.

Timothy Information Limited

I have been aware of his work for a little while but I totally fell in love with his machines that do nothing at the recent Dialogue 11 exhibition at Lo & Behold in Brick Lane.

Ice cream van

Featured...

I had two piece of my work featured in the Etsy UK yuletide newsletter this week. See if you can spot them in the picture...

Christmas stock

I have been thinking about Christmas for quite a long time now, maybe since the Thames Festival finished in August. I am not a huge fan of that time of year, especially not the three months leading up to it when shops and TV vomit Christmas everywhere but as I now make carda and wrapping paper it should be my busiest time of the year. So I have been producing some Christmas designs and there will be some more to come in the coming weeks. Everything is available now on my etsy and will be soon on my Folksy too. Also there will be plenty at the upcoming markets!

A few pictures I took

Haven't been out with my camera for far too long but here's some photos I took a while back

Daniel Pudles

Daniel Pudles is an illustrator who uses wood cuts to produce pieces which often accompany stories in the Guardian, where I first saw his work. Beautiful.

We Make London Christmas market

I've been chosen to have a stall at the We Make London Christmas Fair which will be taken place on 10 December at the Battersea Arts Centre in Lavender Hill. I have heard some really good things about this market and judging by the stalls they had at the Thames Festival, its going to amazing. Check out the other stall holders here and if you're in London on that date you should definitely pay it a visit.

Sandstone screens from Agra

I had the day off work on Friday and went to the V&A to see the Power of Making and Private Eye exhibitions. The V&A ranks as one of my favourite museums in London. It is packed with so much variety and stuff that you could easily spend a day wandering through it and not see everything - something which I have done many times. The Power of Making contained some interesting bits (a wooden battle bot for Stephen Hawkings(!) and this video) and the Private Eye exhibition is well worth a visit if you are in London - the outbursts of belly laughs from other visitors make it worth it in itself.

One of the highlights was definitely the sandstone screens in the Middle East room. Although they are (relatively) modern reproductions of 16th century originals they really are something to behold. Made up of geometric patterns, they have a handcut aspect to them in that they are not perfectly straight lined but also fit together with no problems. Definitely going to be looking at try out a print like this in the very near future.

New idea

A new idea I have been working on. Think this will look great as wrapping paper or maybe a print.

New designs

Spent my Sunday afternoon photographing and uploading a load of new designs. All now available in my Etsy shop:

Anton Stankowski

Something I came across recently while looking through printmaking and linocut tags on Tumblr were the linocuts of the graphic designer Anton Stankowski. They are appearing again and again and for good reason. Amazingly simple geometric designs using black ink make a massive impression. So, so good...

Stop motion making

Making a sheet of wrapping paper from David Stelfox on Vimeo.

Thames Festival

Last weekend Bridget and I had a stall at the Thames Fesitval as part of the Craft Trail, which was a series of mini-craft fairs dotted all the way from Tower Bridge to the Tate Modern. We were by City Hall and had an awesome view of the City all weekend, it reminded me why I love London!

A mini-photo essay: wrapping paper, from conception to completion

As a way to get more inspiration, I spent a couple of days doing a two minute drawing exercise. I set myself a couple of basic rules (two minutes, each drawing unique and no more than two colours) and each hour I did a drawing. The picture above is some pages from my sketchbook.

From my sketchbook I drew the pattern out onto graph paper.

I used graphite paper to transfer the image from the graph paper to the lino block

The cut block.

Laid out materials: brown paper, rollers, lino block, ink, plastic thing for spreading out ink

Printing in progress

The finished sheet

Close up of the finished design