The Creative Directory: Anna Rapson

Anna Rapson

In a sentence: 

Print and surface pattern designer inspired by the natural world.

Prickly Pear Sofa

Tall Cacti Wall Mural

Cacti Wallpaper

Cacti III Wallpaper

Mountain Journey Wallpaper

Mountain Print Toy Boxes

Where you can find her:

Portfolio

Website

Twitter

Instagram

The Creative Directory: Laura Berger

In a sentence: 
Cute little pink people experiencing serenity and happiness in a world where everything has a smiling face.

Sample the goods:

Birthday card - celebration

'Impatience' Painting

Notecard - Mama Sloth

Sun Shade Print

'Good Pairs' Notecard

'Spirit Guides' Painting

'Let's Start A Band' Card

Where you can find her:

Website

Etsy

Facebook

Instagram

Tumblr

The Creative Directory: Satchel & Sage

Satchel & Sage

In a sentence:
Creative duo Morgana and Gerren bringing forth unique handmade wares for the stylishly outdoors-y type.


Sample the goods:



Prickly Pear print

Screen print on wood



 Longhorn bull print

 Home Is Happiness on wood

You don't really need to guess twice as to why this is a favourite of mine but it certainly will make you look twice. A real striking piece that would look marvelous on any wall.  

 

 

 

Why:

 

Well it's certainly the first time I've ever seen something screen printed onto wood. I think this stuff is gorgeous. They also do a stationery and textiles range which is equally lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Where you can find them:

Website

Etsy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Tumblr

 

 

 

 

 



Patterns + A Pinafore

Wow what's this, an outfit post? Not done one of these for ages. I've been in a bit of a blogging slump lately but me and Alex have joined forces for a blog day and been...successful, kind of. If drinking tea and eating biscuits is considered successful. Which of course it is. Anyway, I was lying in bed recently when I pieced together this outfit in my head. Of course! that pinafore dress would look good with a patterned blouse beneath it! Of course! Orla Kiely blouse!

Some serious vintage vibes going off here with my mum's latest find, this 1920's parasol. It's so delicate and pretty and looks lovely in the sunshine.

I'm wearing this with my Bertie Brogues that Ben got me for Christmas. They're such good quality. My mum always says you should always be well shod because that's where you touch the Earth and the elements! The only downside to them is that they have absolutely no grip at all, that's why I've not been wearing them while we've had such a lot of snow and ice.

On another note, you'll have to excuse my latest hair disaster. I put a platinum dye on to do my really dark roots, didn't leave it on long enough even though I left it on longer than it said to, and so the roots are now yellow. To add to that I forgot to bring any toner to my mum's house so it's totally untoned. Ah well I'll get some tomorrow and just have weird yellow roots next to white hair! I must say though, there's a lot to be said for silver shampoo. I used some this morning just on my fringe and it's noticeably less yellow than the rest of it. I really would recommend a silver shampoo if you're blonde or white.

Blouse - Orla Kiely Old from Ebay

Pinafore Dress - H&M Old

Shoes - Bertie

Ps. I've got two weeks off work now for my birthday, wahoo!! So I'll have more time for some new posts I've got lined up.

Hope you're having a good weekend.

oxoxo

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Print Workshop Day Two: Collagraph + Hard Ground Etching

Hello again, time for day two!
Well first of all I've mastered the directions for the drive, I got there an hour early so I mooched in a cafe eating cake and drinking tea.

Collagraph 

At the workshop though, we started with collagraph prints. For this we spread tile grout on a piece of card and created a texture in it by pressing various things on it such as bubble wrap, lace, string etc. When it dried we inked it up and ran it through the press.
I wasn't blown away by this method to be honest. A lot of the time the textures and patterns don't come through too well. And believe it or not I actually forgot to take any photos of them! D'oh!

Hard Ground Etching

I really enjoyed doing etching but it's so easy to make a mistake. We were etching onto a zinc plate that had been coated in a waxy 'ground'. When you etch into it you reveal the metal beneath. It's then submerged in a bath of copper sulphate which 'bites' into the plate in order to create incised lines.
We then inked the plate and pressed it.

You can't see the metal plate too well in this photo above because of how shiny it is but here's my plate with a bit of a leafy design on and the first print I produced from it. Nice and delicate I think.

Something we did in addition to these plates was a technique called chine colle. This was really cool. We found snippets from newspapers and tissue paper and cut them out. Then we glued one side and put them onto our plates glue side up.

The paper we want to print onto is then placed on top of this and because the rollers on the printing press roll over with so much pressure, the tissue paper is not only glued onto the paper but is pressed into it so it becomes almost one with it. It's very clever and looks really good.

This was my attempt at it below (I re-inked it with turquoise this time rather than green.)

I also managed to grab a few minutes to look around the gallery upstairs and wow there were so many lovely prints! Just take a look at this one by Lisa Stubbs!

Here are some of the other gorgeously printed bits and bobs that were there

Memo Illustration

Some by Dee Beale

Can't wait to do screen printing next week!!

oxoxo

Print Workshop Day One: Drypoint + Mono

For our anniversary last month, Ben got me a truly awesome present - he paid for me to go to printmaking classes! It's a kind of crash course introduction to printmaking spread across three Saturday's and I went to the first one yesterday. It's only the beginning but I already love it. I'm having my eyes opened to so many new techniques for producing an image, which is exactly what I need. I'm gonna see which technique in particular suits me best so I can produce some prints of my work which are up until now only available as greetings cards. 

Source

The studio where it's held is the West Yorkshire Print Workshop in Mirfield (which I managed to get to on time despite getting lost numerous times!)

It's your typical artists playground inside with several rooms all overflowing with tools, textiles, paints, everything! The printing room itself had some beautiful old presses in (and gorgeous wooden floorboards.)

So I want to share with you all what I got up to on day one!

Drypoint 

This basically is carving or etching into a surface with a sharp pointed tool. We did three, one metal, one perspex and one card. The whole surface is then covered in an oil based paint and wiped off so the only remaining ink is in the groove that's been created. 

The plate (surface you've carved into) is then put onto the press with the paper over it and away you go! Rolling the press was quite a work out on the arms but really cool.

There he is, Mickey dowg! This was my best attempt at it. It was so hard to keep the plate clean after wiping it when you're hands are completely black with ink. If you don't like to get messy this isn't for you. Oil based too so it was a bitch to get off!


Secondly, Mono Printing

This was so fun to do and the results were amazing. I really enjoyed mono printing. What you do is coat a sheet of perspex in one colour, we used a water based ink for this, and place on top whatever you want. The kind of things you'd find in your average artist/crafter/hoarder's bits and bobs box! The tutor told us she once held up traffic to collect some netting from the middle of the road because it was too good to pass up.

You then run it through the press with your paper over the top to create a really cool effect and a one off print. You can do this again several times onto the same piece of paper, each with a different colour. The colours will over lap as will the gaps made by the objects you've used. The finished print is usually very bright and expressive and very fun!

These were the experiments I did using this method. It's giving me loads of ideas for making prints of my octopus designs.

I can't wait to see what we'll be doing next week. If you're even remotely interested in it I would recommend you try it out.


So who else out there has dabbled in printmaking?

oxoxo

Current Loves: Cacti

Not just a current love, an ongoing life long love. Ben bought me a beautiful one for my birthday as well as a huge succulent. They currently live with him in Sheffield because I don't want to risk damaging them trying to transport them to York. Plus I'll be moving there myself next month (I've got a transfer with Sainsbury's!) so they're lapping up the sun on his windowsil for now. I can't wait to find a nice sunny corner for them when we get our own place.

Meanwhile, I've found and bought some other things to satisfy my cacti needs...

Kate Broughton

I found these nail transfers on etsy recently and squealed a little bit. I saw them, loved them and now I own them. They're by Kate Broughton and when I visited her full shop - oh my, there wasn't much I didn't want. I also bought the cacti writing set even though they're too nice to send to other people!

Something else I'd love to have in our flat is this 1870's Cactus Botanical Chromolithograph print. In a thin wooden frame it'd look great.
 

Nachokitty

Lastly, for now, is this shower curtain. I just love it. Hopefully Ben will too, though I suppose he'll have to seeing as I've already bought it...Ha!

H&M

...and now I'm looking at holidays in Arizona...

You can see more of my tastes on my Pinterest page.