Sea Lion Fabric

The sea lions on cotton are back in the shop!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Flock

Hand printed birds on soft, white cotton.

I love printing the fabric for the shop - if you have a custom colour you'd like to see, send me a message. This turquoise flock of birds are flying to their new home in Alaska today!

You can find more of this print in stock here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Pewter and Gold

Indian Woodblock in Pewter and Gold

Some fresh designs up in the spoonflower shop - I scanned in the Indian woodblock print, made it repeat nicely and added some colour. These two are Pewter and Gold and there’s a Sapphire one too!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Red, Turquoise, Indigo

Night Sky with Pines & Cranes (bottom), Evening Sky (top left) and Morning Sky (top right).

I’ve been working on some new colours for the Pines & Cranes pattern. At the bottom in this image is the original - Night Sky with Pines & Cranes - and I've added the red version 'Evening Sky' and turquoise version 'Morning Sky' to the spoonflower shop!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Printing and Wrapping

Hand printing and wrapping custom made cloth for the shop!

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

block printed nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Spring Printing, Making

Hello! Are you having a good spring? I think March is my favourite month - starting cold and drizzly but with promising snippets of the good weather to come.

Here's what I've been working on the last few weeks:

Pines & Cranes on cotton fabric; Blackbird, Silver Birch Pouch; Mountains Travel Wallet; Denim back to the blackbird pouch.

I love the brilliant colours and detail you can get printed onto fabric digitally and the way the new Mediterranean landscape pouch has worked out is great (more of these soon)! Also pictured is the blackbird drawing you can see on this blog's banner ^up there^ printed onto cotton twill. With the denim back, it makes a really sturdy and tactile little bag.

I've also been experimenting with paints and methods for block printing on linen and cotton. I love the immediate results and great texture of hand printed fabric:

Hand made, hand printed drawstring bag; colours for spring; Two for Joy block printing and finished zipped bag.

To find out more about these images, visit the Forest & Sea Instagram or Etsy page.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

It's been a gem!

New prints for a new year..

I've loved 2015! As with any year, it's had its set backs but on the whole, it's been a gem! One of the highlights for me was to finally open an Etsy shop, make some sales and find my way around over there. It's still a work in progress but I'm so looking forward to 2016 and making some new things.

How was this year for you and what are you looking forward to in the next? I hope you have a fantastic new year's eve and wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2016!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Elaboration..

Some screenshots from the 'about' section at the Forest & Sea Etsy shop:

a photo of my sunny workroom with superimposed logo, birds + bees...

..woodblock prints pegged out to dry in our city centre (read tiny!) garden...

..and the drawing of Bruges from the medieval woodcut pattern, here superimposed on a photo of Bruges; Bruges on Bruges!

There are still two image spaces on the about section for me to add to; what do you like to know about the person you buy handmade from? Suggestions are very welcome - leave a comment below if you like :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Online shop!

I've added some zipped pouches, gift tags and fabric to the new Forest & Sea Etsy shop! Click here to head on over and have a rummage :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

♫ Tweet ♫

More Instagram posts! Just click on the title under each image if you're interested to read more:

Bird Carving | First Impression

Patchy Prints | Black + Gold

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Ink!

Hello! To catch up here with some of the projects I've been working on over the last few months, here are some photos from my Instagram page. Just click on the title below each picture and it'll take you straight to the post if you'd like to read more about it :)

Tea Bags | Family Cards

Rubber Stamp | Paisley Linen

Medieval Woodcut INK! | Wash Bag

Handmade Handles | Birds & Bees

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

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

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

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

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

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

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Palace Garden: New Colours

Some lovely new colours for Palace Garden! From the top: indigo, aubergine, cinnamon, lapis lazuli and Jaipur pink; available here.

22nd September: Thanks Spoonflower for featuring the little pouch here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Surf

Click for details in larger image.

'Surf' in Indigo; tweaked after proofing and in the shop!

Surf in Indigo detail.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Linen Washi Tape

A new phone case I made this week out of linen scraps and a new washi tape design; it's great for borders or to add just a bit of decorative pattern:

Phone case using the blue strip.

The multicolour version is available here if you'd like some on fabric, paper or peel and stick decals in all these colours:

It's been a while since I posted - I hope everyone's having a great summer!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware