Blue Cushions

Now available in my Etsy shop and Hello Pretty shop.  Printed on a hemp-cotton blend, 45cm square with a zip at the back. 

Local Listings

Picture from Giggletree

Shwe-shwe chameleon mobile from Giggletree, in Joburg. She has dolphins, loeries, sharks, rhinos, leopards, camels - all beautifully made.

Local Listings

Picture from Susie Qu Textile Design

Clip purse by Susie Qu Textile Design, from Cape Town. Her other fabric designs are equally beautiful.

Borage Leaves

Late one afternoon, at the end of a printing session, I found myself with a batch of red ink left over. I rummaged through my box of blocks, and found this one, that I'd cut for printing on paper. I was curious to see how the detail would show up on fabric.

Not bad! I'm keeping this one for myself, but I have put some in my Etsy shop as well. 

Local Listings

Picture from Kyootopia

A Pirate Goat Skull pendant! Lovable and a bit creepy - an irresistible combination. By Kyootopia, from Johannesburg.

Local Listings

Picture from FiBeauNikxi

Hand felted cobweb scarf by FiBeauNikxi, from Cape Town.

Local Listings

Pic from EmmaJayneSA

Beautiful cushion covers by EmmaJayneSA, a Durban Etsy shop.

Local Listings

Picture from Moonseats

Now that I've found jeans (two pairs! three and a quarter hours!*) I need shirts - this one from local Etsy seller Moonseats is pretty perfect. (Also this dress.)

* Jeans with a narrower waist than hip measurement seem to be out of style. But Fashion Express has them for only R99, in case you're looking.

*And - can someone please explain what 'leg measurement' might refer to? Does it mean hip measurement? Does it mean both legs, or just one? I couldn't actually tell from the jeans, the sizes varied so wildly. And if legs, where exactly is it measured?

Local Listings

Picture from Postcard Happiness

A pack of 8 beautiful postcards from local Etsy shop Postcard Happiness. Who doesn't love getting real post? Go on, send a postcard today!

(She also sells Posticks, stickers that turn anything into a postcard.)

Local Listings

Pic by Evolution Product

Class Picture Cushion Cover by Evolution Product, from Joburg.

Local Listings

Pic by SenseHandbags

(Having a look at what South African Etsy sellers are up to - I think I'll make this a regular feature.)

I'm really smitten with this tartan tote by SenseHandbags, from Cape Town.

New Ribbon

Putting those Numbers blocks to good use.

Sixteen Fifteen Ribbon

Two new ribbon prints. Or, more accurately, one-and-a-half: I planned to print two-colour ribbon, but the brown looked so good on it's own that I left it that way.

Colouring-in Cards

Colouring-in is the drawing equivalent of the Nice British Lady Detective Novel. It's not too demanding, yet not completely mindless either. It feels faintly productive, but you can daydream while you're doing it. It's relaxing, and pleasant, and good for making a bit of space in your head, good for untangling other thoughts.

So I made some colouring-in cards:

They're printed on a lovely thick uncoated paper, that has just enough of a tooth for pencil crayons, and goes well with the squiggly dip pen lines.

By happy accident, the ink is not only waterproof, but slightly water repellent too. So paint right over the lines - they tidy themselves up.

I tested pencil crayons, gouache and watercolours. There's a bit of buckling from the wet paint, nothing that a night under a phone book won't fix. (Because you do still have phone books, right? For this sort of thing.)

I've listed these in my Etsy shop and some of my local shops as a set with envelopes. They're thick enough to work as postcards, but you'll have to draw the lines on the back yourself. While my original plan was to make postcards, I'm not sure anyone buys stamps and posts postcards these days, and great-aunt Edith might feel a bit miffed if the card you stick on her present has postcard lines on the back.

But let me know what you think; if you'd prefer to buy them without envelopes, and a touch cheaper, it can be done.

Oh, and did I mention that they're sort of educational, too? I mean, they're more or less made-up insects, but all the bits are in the right places.

Fat Quarters

Yes, I have them! Only three, but they're in the shop as of a few minutes ago.One is on light, crisp, dense cotton, and the other two on lovely wobbly linen.

These are sort of limited editions, and not just because I'm making up the designs as I go along (which I am), but because the base cloths I printed on were lucky finds, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get more once my tiny stash is exhausted.

I love how differently the ink sits on the two cloths.

I'm also not sure how much printing I'll be able to get done in the next few weeks, because Illustration Season has started! Panicky publishers are popping out everywhere, but I'm going to try to find time to print at least one thing every two days.... that sounds manageable, doesn't it?

New Stuff!

New cushion covers, in patterns from my new Numbers range! I am having so much fun with these blocks. They'll be in the shop soon, but I'm having a problem connecting to Etsy right now. (Just when I'd settled in with a cup of tea to do a lot of listing... grr...) (Update: they're all in the shop now.)

And, in the same patterns, tote bags!

They have a zip at the top, and four small pockets inside. I made a prototype for myself last week so I could test things like the placement of the straps - it's very very annoying when straps are too close together, I find. Also due to land in the shop shortly, and I'll probably write up a tutorial too.

New Cushions

New cushion covers in stock, including the first two samples of my new Numbers range. I've printed more patterns from this range, but haven't had time to sew them up yet, since I'm also printing up a bunch of other orders. But soon!

This is the most exciting set of prints I've done (though every new print feels like that). They're a fiddly heap of challenges to print: I'm still working out which colour combinations bring out the best in each pattern, and some of the configurations require very, very precise placement. Hopefully this is something I'll get better at in time. At the moment they seem to take a very long time to print, but I love them so much that I'm shushing my conscience. Even if I'm spending more time on them than makes sound financial sense, they simply have to be printed.

I've also reached the end of my stock of blank ribbon (but I have ordered more). That means I've printed and sold a full kilometre of ribbon. Yikes! When the next kilometre of ribbon arrives in a week or so, I'll have a giveaway to celebrate.

New Cushions

I've been catching up on sewing, and there are a bunch of new cushion covers in my Etsy shop. Some of them are one-offs, experiments with new colour combinations, and a few have small misprints and have been listed at a reduced price.

On Order

I've decided to try something new: I'm listing items in my Etsy shop that I haven't made yet. Instead, they'll be made to order, and shipped within a week of purchase.

They're all items I've made and sold on Etsy before, and things that I keep intending to make again and re-list for sale. The problem I have (if you can call it a problem, I'm aware that it's a great situation to be in) is that I'm constantly printing big orders, and snatching bits of time to try new prints, but not getting around to reprinting sold items. There are so many things I want to print second or third versions of that I can't decide where to start.

So now you can help me decide!

Speaking of new things, I had a Facebook page for my prints for about a week or so. I've deleted it now. (Thanks for liking it if you did spot it while it was up.) I really did try to hang in there, but something about Facebook creeps me out. I can't seem to figure out how to navigate it, and I don't really understand what it's for. It's also rather ugly. Every time I opened the page I felt prickly, itchy, squeamish .... It didn't seem worth putting up with.

Slightly Off

I've been having loads of fun with off-register prints lately. This pencil case is in the shop, along with a few new purses. More to come soon!

And hop on over to Ruby in the Dust for some more gorgeous off-register printing - it's a trend, I tell you.