I love Spoonflower and really wish I had more time to sit and play, I must make time soon. They have regular competitions and I’d like to enter one in the not too distant future.
In the meantime, I received an email a couple of weeks ago from a lady called Beth who had seen my tulip lampshades on etsy but wanted to order the fabric in a different colour to decorate her new baby’s bedroom. I can mix different colours for screen-printing but if you live in another country then Spoonflower is just amazing. I uploaded three new colours, Beth chose one (peachy pink) and we both ordered swatches. Mine arrived today and it looks gorgeous, hooray!
I really hope she likes it and goes ahead and orders fabric to make curtains and bedding for her new baby. You never know, maybe later this year I’ll be posting some photos of the finished room on here, here’s hoping!…
I’ve been working on card ideas over the last week and am hoping to have a bundle ready to sell at the next craft fair. From what I’ve seen they’re always a hit and I thought it would be a good way to use my textile designs printed onto paper (plus I like making them!) They’re drawn in ink and then I’ve cut out parts of the picture to show my fabric designs behind – see my retro circles in blue on the mini and house and my tulips in purple on the handbag. These were really tricky to photograph so sorry they’re not that clear; they look lovely in person, honest. At the moment they’re A6 size but I’m thinking I like these square so that may be the way to go for the next ones. The only problem is I keep giving them away and might not have any left by the time I do another craft fair – oops!
I’ve had a very productive morning, printing strips of fabric to make into lampshades. These are for a gallery in Leeds called The Bowery who asked me to supply them with some of my handmade lampshades. I’m really excited about this opportunity to see some of my lampshades and gilhoolie patterns in a gallery. I decided to go for a deep pink for the tulips, a dusky purple for the butterflies and a bright turquoise for the windmills. The only problem is I never seem to be able to screen-print without holding my breath in case I mess up! I’m sure there must be some breathing techniques I should practice… All done now, just the lampshades themselves to make. And breathe….
A friend of mine told me about this amazing website called Spoonflower recently and as they are offering free postage tomorrow I thought I should have a go at uploading some of my gilhoolie patterns. Spoonflower allows you to come up with fabric designs which they will then digitally print onto a choice of fabrics, how amazing is that?! Okay, so maybe it’s cheating a bit as the fabric won’t be ‘lovingly screen-printed by hand’ but I’m very excited about it. It means you can print large runs of fabric and play as much as you like with lots of colours and patterns, no exposing screens and getting messy! (That’s fun too but I’m all for making life a bit easier you know!)
I’m going to order some swatches of these gilhoolie patterns, then other people will be able to access and buy my designs (you won’t be able to see them until then). Fabric lovers should have a look, there’s lots of gorgeous designs; I especially like Holli Zollinger’s work, that’s someone to aspire to!
I’ve added links to some other fabric websites I like on the right hand side of my blog page, just so you know.
My favourite seasons are definitely Autumn and Spring but if I had to choose between the two I guess it would have to be Spring, with the last remnants of Winter fading away as the days gradually get longer and the sun’s rays get warmer. My favourite flowers are tulips too; I love their sleek curves, simple lines and bright, cheery colours. So it’s no surprise my first designs included tulips; at least I can dream of Spring…
And while I’m dreaming, here are some of the things I have made from my gilhoolie tulip screen-printed fabric. The large turquoise tulip lampshade and the pouffe are for an order I took at the shopping evening last month. They’re a Christmas gift for a little girl’s bedroom, I hope she likes Spring and tulips as much as I do!
I’m ALWAYS looking at houses; windows, chimneys, brickwork, pretty details, I just can’t help myself. So when I visited a friend this week I left feeling I had to go straight home and draw their beautiful home. This is the third one I’ve completed (see my earlier post ‘Our house in ink and collage’) and it’s another thing I absolutely love doing.
I wanted to experiment with the sky this time, so instead of making a collage of bits of blue paper from magazines I used one of my gilhoolie patterns. It has a bit of a retro feel, which I love, and contrasts with the Victorian house. I just hope my friend likes it too!
If you would like me to draw your house just leave a comment on here and I can send you the details. Great for a Christmas present with a personal message added at the bottom!
Well, writing a business plan is going okay but I’m taking a break from Excel spreadsheets (reminds me too much of my old job!) to play with a new toy – a proper camera!
Thank you Neil and Angela for putting us up in your lovely new house last week and for giving me your old Canon digital camera. I really, really appreciate it and will try to repay you by sending interior design ideas for all those big rooms whenever I see any!
I’ve taken a few pictures of my tulip lampshade to see if I can make it look any better. Yes, I’ve got lots to learn; I’m not sure I’ve got the hang of focusing on the right part of the picture (not a good start!) I really should read the instructions beforehand but I wanted to have a play. Come on, they’ve got to look better than the old ones, surely?! I also need to practice setting up shots to make things look more professional but I’m sure when I have several lampshades set up in different designs and colours they’ll look ten times better.
I bought a frame today to display a sample of of my first printed tulip fabric so that I can look back and remember where it all started:
gilhoolie tulip in a frame
And here’s a gilhoolie label close up, can you see it now?! Oh yeh, and here’s my lampshade of course. Now I’m off to finish working out costings for lampshades, tea-towels and beanbags, oh and to read that camera manual…or maybe just play a bit more first… P.S. Did anyone spot the difference in the header on my blog?
Quiet in terms of posting on here but not so still as the boys are on summer holidays for six and a half weeks! However, I have moved on a lot since school broke up – I collected my A4 screens, practiced printing fabric and even made a lampshade with it today – yippee!! I’ve been so excited I haven’t been sleeping well, but hopefully I can sleep soundly tonight now that I have a gilhoolie tulip lampshade sitting pretty in our front room.
Here’s what I did (I’m making an effort to give you more detail this time as I can’t blog as much right now and people have been asking what it all involves).
I changed the old gilhoolie tulip design as I decided it was too complicated and I wanted something a lot less fussy. I’m still planning to print with the butterfly and windmill designs but this is actually my favourite so far.
3 screens and gilhoolie tulip fabric
Here are the three silk screens I’m going to use to print with and the tulip fabric on my printing table (worked brilliantly, thank you James!) This is for our living room so I chose a coral colour to contrast with the duck egg blue walls (it was all looking a bit too blue and grey for my liking). I just need to find some small matching accessories to complete the scheme. Although I originally wanted to go for pastel shades I think the tulip and windmill patterns are more suited to bolder colours as the lines in the designs are quite fine. Lots to learn but the only way to come up with final designs I’m happy with is to experiment.
gilhoolie tulip lampshade!
Then I used a strip of the fabric and a lampshade making kit and wham boom! (Bjork again) you have a gilhoolie tulip lampshade! That bit was easy really and the end result looks very professional so if you want to make your own lampshades give it a go.
I’m hoping to start printing and making lampshades, tea-towels and beanbags with screen-printed pockets from September for a shopping evening at school so my next task is to put together a business plan, how hard can it be?! Arrghh!
I’ve had a few set backs over the last week as it seems I’m being a tad ambitious trying to start off with A2 size screen prints. I was close to giving up but I really want to see my designs in print so I’m going to perservere and try and be a bit more patient.
I thought I’d have a go at making up some designs that could be printed A4 size and then repeated to make a lampshade. First of all I started along the lines of a trailing flower print but I think those kind of designs are more suited to bigger prints and wallpaper so I had to go for something a bit simpler (there I go again, being too ambitious!)
There’s so much choice in terms of textile designs these days; it’s quite hard to come up with something original but I like this and it’s definitely simple. The taller flower is supposed to be one of those pretty pink/blue/purple flowers (Allium Azureum for all you horticulturists!) which I love (an ornamental member of the onion family apparently, a bit like a big lollipop). The other one is just made up, can you tell?!
News flash – while writing this the printers have emailed to say my A2 screens are ready for collection – see, it does pay to be patient!!
Geometric design cushionGeometric cushion and runner
Well, the three weeks of the Easter holidays were glorious but it’s good to be back making things again (not how I was feeling yesterday, it’s weird being in the house on my own again!) I finished the runner and one of the cushions for our bedroom today and I was dying to post them on my blog so here they are. There will be two cushions when I’ve finished and they’ll go on the bed but I was trying to be artistic with the shot in the garden and it looks good on the chair too.
So that’s the bedroom all done (except for the bedding, hence still no photo of the bed, sorry!) I must say it is very calming and I’m really pleased with the design. Now onto making a beanbag for a friend (my first commission, thanks Sandi!) and thinking about decorating the living room. I’m also going to try and master Adobe Illustrator as I’ve heard it’s good for textile design, busy busy…
