Scandinavian Winter

I've wanted to make some patterns with northern animals or mountains or European wildlife for ages and so when spoonflower suggested winter toiles as a subject, I decided that now was a good time to make a start. I usually work best under a deadline and I've found their prompts to be really productive for me in the past. This is my Winter Toile contest entry:

Scandinavian Winter Toile

Here you can see a Eurasian elk (or moose), rock ptarmigan, hawk owls and foxes - all species that overwinter in Scandinavia. If you'd like to see some lovely winter inspired designs and vote then click here. I hope you have a brilliant festive season and happy new year!

Details of the Scandinavian Winter Toile

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Four things about me

I've been invited to be the next in a long line of bloghoppers and answer the four questions below. I'm not usually drawn to this kind of thing, this blog is mainly about the pictures, but illustrator-extraordinaire Nicky Linzey asked me to, and I like her and her work a lot. Also, I'm going to take the opportunity to tell a bit more about myself because, up until now, I've been pretty anonymous here.

See? Illustrator-extraordinaire! I love this picture. © Nicky Linzey

Why do I write / illustrate what I do?

I've always loved to draw and paint so at 18 I went to study art at UCA and specialised in textile design - I loved it! In my 20s I spent quite a few years in seasonal jobs across Europe (some of the more interesting ones being pear picker, EU helpline operator, campsite receptionist, flight school sales administrator and épicerie manager!) and although I was still drawing when I could, my mind definitely wasn't on future careers. After a summer driving around France, my partner and I drove through the medieval city of Bruges on our way to his family's home in the Netherlands and we've been here ever since. After a lot of work and dust our old house is a bit more comfortable (giving us back our free time :D) and I so want to see if I can make a living by returning to what I love. Four years ago I thought that starting a blog and learning from others through their blogs and other social media would be the best way to start.

This design is based on the history and buildings of Bruges in the style of a medieval woodcut.

Poortersloge (detail). I made this watercolour when we first moved here. It's not a myth about the light being
special in the Low Countries - it's especially beautiful in the autumn.

What am I working on now?

Right now I'm working on inventory for an Etsy shop; it's scary and there's a lot to it but.. see above!

Clockwise: Palace Garden in Indigo - Zipped pouch featuring a Hiroshige woodblock print - textile paint experiments - Migrate in watercolour

How does my work differ from others in the genre?

All my work is based on the natural world. It's a popular subject but I think everyone has different thoughts and feelings, a different take on it. There are so many tiny decisions and lucky accidents made when you're drawing or designing that it's inevitable for the results to be unique.

How does my writing / illustration process work?

I've got a lot of (very messy) sketchbooks with little doodles, drawings, ideas and lists; the biggest limitation is always time! A few years ago I taught myself how to work with vector graphics and found it totally absorbing; it's especially addictive to use the texture fills, they add instant depth and warmth to a design. If I'm not painting or making, I prefer to scan in drawings to use as a base for digital work - I don't think there's any replacement for the kind of marks you get when drawing by hand, no matter how versatile the program. Then I play around with the colours and composition until I'm happy.

Thanks for reading :) If anyone has experience with Etsy or selling online elsewhere, I'd love for you to leave any tips in the comments. Have a good weekend!

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It's the usual thing to pass on these questions to someone else. If you'd like to have a go at answering them and would like to see your link here, email me!

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@forest_and_sea

From Instagram (clockwise):
~ a greeting card in watercolour
~ one of the pencil sketches for the Arabica Cherry pattern
~ block printed cotton
~ autumn leaves in the park
~ Benny's paw (and some Nilofar on denim)
~ working out the repeat for Palace Garden

I've been posting regularly over at Instagram and I've met some amazing people over there! If you're interested, come and say hi - my user name is @forest_and_sea

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Boo!

Did I scare you? No, didn't think so, but I thought I'd make an effort for Halloween!

Some seasonal photos from Instagram: an October evening in the park and Benny doing a spooky lit-from-below face.

Have a great weekend - are you doing anything nice? We're going to be enjoying our (finally!) finished living room with new sofas and everything :)

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Twenty Fifteen

The Love, Luck and Happiness calendar for 2015 is now ready and available in the shop here!

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Burlap & Azure

Also proofed and in the shop are the new colours for Arabica Cherry: Burlap and Azure!

This repeat design was made using botanical drawings of the Arabica coffee bush - my favourite bean. So if you're like me and love a strong, aromatic brew to get you going in the morning, then you can find this pattern in my spoonflower shop!

Arabica Cherry - in Burlap and Azure - printed on heavy cotton twill at spoonflower.

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Palace Garden in New Colours!

Hi! I think this might be the longest I've left between posts here; we've been so busy this summer! Good news is that our old falling-down house isn't so falling-down anymore. We've worked on almost all the things we needed to, including the living room which was one of the biggest jobs, and at the weekend we ordered new sofas! This was so exciting for me because we've been using an upstairs bedroom with an ancient sofa as a living room for years. Click here to look at before and after pictures of some other work we've done on the house and read about being plastered here!

More good news: I've updated and proofed the Palace Garden repeating design with the new colours I came up with for the original tiled version of the pattern a while back. Here they are on the cotton twill fabric (which is lovely and my new favourite) from spoonflower:

Palace Garden | Aubergine

Palace Garden | Lapis Lazuli and Jaipur Pink

Palace Garden | Cinnamon and Indigo

If you'd like to order this pattern on fabric, wallpaper or giftwrap, these colours are available in my spoonflower shop here.

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Seedlings

Sketchbook seedlings:

on a sugar paper background for this contest!

Those sketches needed quite a bit of editing from my ancient flatbed scanner's image! Time for a new one soon; does anyone have any recommendations?

You can see all the Herb Garden entries and vote for your favourites over here.

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Hand-dyed Cotton

If you look at my account over at Instagram every now and again you will have seen that I've been looking into hand painting and dyeing fabric. It's much more fun than having designs digitally printed and it quite often happens that you get some wonderful but totally unintended results! These are my dye experiments from last month, made by stitching, rolling, dipping and tying cotton swatches before putting them in the dye pot:

My favourite is that one on the top right. Don't you think it looks a bit like waves at the beach?

PS For those who're interested, Benny's already put on 400g since he came to live with us - 30% of his body weight! I think he's going to be big :)

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Benny the Ball

We've adopted a kitten! Funny, brave, affectionate Benny:

He's also full of beans and has been keeping us very busy with all his crazy antics. Normal posting to resume here soon :)

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Waterlight

The Galápagos Sea Lions I sketched from a nature documentary a few years ago have had a bit of work done! I've redrafted the fish and given them all a bit of watery light:

Scatter!

Scatter! details.

The shop has already been updated with this new version here!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Nilofar

I'm getting better with the sewing machine and it feels really good to learn something new. I thought the panels I printed recently went great with this old denim and so used them to make a toiletries bag:

I was also testing out an idea for some snap wallets this week; the second turned out better than the first but it was very satisfying figuring out a good pattern:

I've made a digital version of this print if you'd like to try it. It's called Nilofar, which means lotus or waterlily and it's available HERE on all sorts of fabric, decal and wallpaper!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Beginning of Summer

Some pictures of sunny greenery from Instagram to celebrate the beginning of summer, a tradition on the 1st of May for thousands of years. Have a good May Day and a lovely summer!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Block Printing

I've been finding time to expand on my first attempt at block printing. I like the simple repeat I got with the asian-esque sort of flower but I also wanted to try it out with an extra element:

This block is even smaller than the first - less than 2cm - teeny weeny!

Now to make something good with these panels :)

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Colouring Book Wallpaper

When I was a kid, colouring in was one of my favourite things to do. At one time, I even had it in my head that I would be a professional cartoon colourer-inner (!) and so I had to enter the contest over at Spoonflower this week. Their idea is to print black and white wallpaper designs to use as a colouring book once in place and I've made a black and white version of the Palace Garden repeat pattern for it. Have a look at everyone else's designs and vote over here!

Palace Garden | Black & White

I had to print off a version to try out!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Linocuts

I've been wanting to try block carving and printing for a long time. Here is my first attempt, and a couple of images of that attempt printed onto cotton:

In the process of cutting my first small block - it's a bit less than 3 cm (about an inch)

A lot more lino than I thought needs to be taken away for a clear print on fabric.

A close up of the first repeat print in red..

.. and a repeat in blue.

I'm looking forward to trying my hand at a lot more of this :) I hope everyone had a good bank holiday weekend!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Cinnamon

Palace Garden in Cinnamon

ÝA new pouch made from Palace Garden in Cinnamon (on linen-cotton).
ÞI'm getting a bit of a collection of these; after a bit more practice I think I'll open a shop.

'Evening Snow in Kamubara' by Andō Hiroshige - Palace Garden in Aubergine - Palace Garden in Indigo - Pines & Cranes

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Hiroshige

'Nihonbashi Bridge on Snow Morning' and 'Mt. Fuji Scene from Satta' both by Andō Hiroshige

'Evening Snow in Kamubara' by Andō Hiroshige and 'Mt. Fuji on Fine Day' by Hokusai Katsushika

Hiroshige Pouch from the 'Evening Snow in Kamubara' postcard.

When I was about 12, a family friend returned from a Tokyo business trip with a huge pile of beautifully printed, thick, mat postcards with old Japanese woodblock art on them. Everyone was allowed to keep a few and above are the ones I chose. They were blu-tacked to my bedroom wall for all of my teenage years and are a bit worse for wear, but as you can see the colours haven't faded. A while ago, I digitally cleaned one of them up and had it printed on some linen-cotton from Spoonflower. For textiles, digital printing is perfect for this kind of thing - it couldn't have turned out better. I've finally made something of it (the last image here) and it's great to have something to use, made by hand, from an image that's always been there.

I hope you have a great weekend. Spoil yourself at least once :)

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Here are some of the March pictures from over at Instagram: rearranging vector elements from this journal design - windmill sails at sunset - a print for spring and last but not least.. Pines & Cranes has made the Spoonflower Hot Sellers list :)

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

No more whale hunting in the Southern Ocean!

I'm so happy with today's ruling by the International Court of Justice and I know I'm in good company! Japan can no longer continue its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean, where they make the majority of their catch, and the argument that it is for scientific purposes has been rejected.

"a more concentrated campaign focused in Japan has begun to see major change in the perception
 of the whaling programme at home, despite it coming at great risk and cost to campaigners"
Source: Greenpeace

Read more about it here, here and a good article about reduced Japanese support of whaling here.

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Update April 2014: "Japan says the whaling is scientific.. Tokyo is making preparations to submit a revised whaling plan for both the Pacific and the Antarctic to the International Whaling Commission by this fall.." despite the fact that, according to a recent survey of Japanese consumers "Only 4% said they consumed whale meat 'occasionally' while 10% said they ate it on 'rare occasions,'" (Source).

If you are one of the growing number of Japanese citizens who are against whaling or dolphin hunting and would like to find out more about how you can help, Japan's first open opposition group, 'Action for Marine Mammals' is an excellent place to start - go for it!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Sundance

Poppyfield and Sundance

Hi, have you had a good start to your weekend? I've been sorting out these new designs. On the left here is a new version of Poppyfield with updated, brighter colours and a smaller repeat. To the right is a new pattern which I've based on it and I'm so happy with how the colours have printed - they're so fresh and bright. It's called Sundance after the flowers I'd never heard of and only happened to come across after designing this pattern - meant to be?! I hope you like them too; if you do, you can find them in my Spoonflower shop!

Have a good Sunday lovely peeps :)

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

El Condor Pasa

Textile paint experiments - first flowering cherry - winter sun and a new blanket - el condor pasa.. a few pictures from over at Instagram. I hope you have a great week!

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♥♥ Pairs ♥♥

Happy Valentine's Day; I hope you can share it with someone you love! Swans pair bond for life so I thought this picture from my Instagram account would be a good one for the blog today. Speaking of pair bonds, the Decorah eagles have reclaimed their nest and are due to start laying any day now.. watch this space:

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Wild Cub

This album has been helping me feel sunnier on these grey and rainy days; especially this song:

And I've been dreaming of being back on this holiday in Portugal:

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Pines & Cranes Night - Large Scale

I've had a request through Spoonflower for this design on a larger scale so if you'd also like to make a throw or a bedspread with this pattern then Pines & Cranes - Night (large scale) is available here!

Update 30th March: This design made the Spoonflower Hot Sellers list this week - many, many thanks to those of you who've ordered some!

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Taiji Cove

I've been horrified by the events in Taiji Cove the last few weeks. The cruelty witnessed by the Cove Guardians is shocking and many zoos and aquariums around the world (and thereby their visitors) are financing the slaughter by buying the best looking dolphins caught by the 'fishermen'. This week around 50 have been captured for sale, many just infants and juveniles taken from their mothers, destined for a boring, shortened life of imprisonment. Many, many others have been killed in a slow and painful way for their meat. If you could spare a couple of minutes to sign a petition for WAZA (World Association for Zoos and Aquariums) to enforce their code of ethics and expel the offending aquariums, it could make a difference!

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE. Their goal is 200,000 signatures and right now they're at 124,610.

Here are some other good links to find out more:

Read here about captive cetaceans

Read the list of aquariums known to buy wild dolphins from these dolphin drives

Debunking the romanticized myth of becoming a dolphin trainer

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If you are one of the growing number of Japanese citizens who are against whaling or dolphin hunting and would like to find out more about how you can help, Japan's first open opposition group, 'Action for Marine Mammals' is an excellent place to start - go for it!

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Silver Pool

I had a birthday recently and I was very lucky and got what I asked for: a sterling silver pool necklace by Elizabeth Scott. I really love it! You can find her nature inspired handmade jewelry both on Etsy and on her own website and she also has a blog.

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hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Insta-pin

Hello, are you all having a good start to 2014? I hope so.

Are any of you on Instagram? I've just started over there and I love it, so come and say hello if you are. You can click on the tab in the margin over there ➵ to see my profile. I've added one for Pinterest too if you're pinterested :D

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Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware