Just a quick hello

Hello,

Well, I'm really getting into the creative swing again at the moment (I think the sunshine, great morning walks and a flowering garden have all had something to do with this). I've been trying out new prints with the hand cut stencils.  I made this lampshade the other day and I have already decided to use one for a floor lamp in our home;

I am thinking of calling the next collection the 'meadow' collection. I've never really been interested in drawing plant life much before, but this year I am really enjoying it. Plus I am starting to learn all the names for our wild flowers now which is great too! There is also another stencil which is half cut featuring dandelion seeds so hopefully I will be able to get printing that next week too. The meadow collection designs are going to be printed in some nice natural colours to add another dimension to the overall look of Whinberry & Antler products.

Text will also start to feature in the meadow collection. I have always really liked hand drawn typefaces and I think this would be most fitting to go alongside hand drawn designs. As a child I used to get my nan, who has the most immaculate and beautiful handwriting, to try and teach me how to write properly. Well, my handwriting is not as nice as hers, but I think it will look nice printed with the wild meadow imagery.

Our booking for the Nunney Street Market and Fayre has also now been confirmed. Taking place on Saturday 3rd August, it is set in the very picturesque village of Nunney, just outside of Frome in Somerset. There will be around 130 stalls and it should be a really great day, so come along if you get chance.

A couple of weeks ago I was in London for the notonthehighstreet.com event 'Make, Do and Meet'. It was a really interesting day, full of lots of entrepreneurial people (mainly women!). It was so fantastic to see so many people making a business out of being creative. One of the highlights of the day was a talk about 'creativity' by Michael Atavar. It was truly inspiring and great for developing processes on how to get more creative and push through blocks. The event was hosted in the lovely Royal Opera House too, which I had not visited before.

Ok, I shall be off now to continue cutting my dandelion stencil. The plan is to take some photographs of products on Sunday so that the meadow designs will start to become available to buy online soon. I shall be sure to update when they are.

One last thing.... I have rediscovered some of my design books and along with something Michael Atavar mentioned (about finding an image each day that you like and keeping them all in a kind of image journal) I have decided that each time I write I shall finish the post with an image or two from a designer or illustrator that I like. So, this time it is two screen prints by the illustrator Andrew Holder (andrewholder.net). These two screen prints are my particular favourites;

'Two Bears'

 

'Two Bears Revisited'

Thanks for reading, see you soon, W&A.