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

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

Slow - Busy - Slow

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm working on starting a shop over at Etsy. It's taking much longer than I thought it would - there are so many things, for both production and admin, that I need to research and am doing for the first time - but I'm working hard at it and I hope to open soon!

Motifs for the shop banner & cotton panels in the dye pot.

Clockwise: Sparrow - Palace Garden - Butterfly & Bloom zipped pouches!

I'm impatient to open and send off some goodies! Are you the same as me? Do things take longer than you think they will?

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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

  

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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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

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Palace Garden Repeat

Hi all, hope you had a good weekend! We had a relaxed one with a bit of shopping, a bit of wine and plenty of reading and sleeping!

I've been meaning to make a repeat pattern partner to this design for quite a while now and last week I had the perfect opportunity to concentrate my efforts with the hand drawn design contest. There were over 500 entries this week, the competition over at spoonflower is growing fast!

Palace Garden Repeat

Details of Palace Garden Repeat - click to view larger!

I'm planning on reworking the original too, as soon as I have enough time; so if any of you have had your eye on the colours currently available, now's the time to grab some!

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Update 2014: You can read about the new colours for this pattern here; they're available to order here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Forest & Sea @ Spoonflower

Now available at Forest & Sea on Spoonflower:

Palace Garden in Peacock Blue, Lime and Jaipur Pink

Palace Garden in Indigo and Pomegranate

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

For Sale...

... never-ending yards of Palace Garden in Peacock Blue! Available at Forest&Sea on Spoonflower.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Coffee - Kahvi - Kaffe - Koffie - Café...

.. takes centre stage next week at Spoonflower.

Below are my sketches from Google image search. The idea is to tie my entry in with the Vanilla Bean and Cocoa Pod (as yet unfinished) designs to make a sumptuous group of the world's most popular flavours.

N.B. I'd never have thought it but Europeans drink the most coffee per capita in the world. This post's title is 'coffee' in the languages of the countries topping the list - according to Google translate that is :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Folk Tales of India

A new Spoonflower contest entry based on the palace gardens and jungles of India:


Palace Garden in Peacock Blue

Clockwise: Palace Garden in Indigo, Lime, Jaipur Pink and Pomegranate.

Palace Garden Details (click for larger view).

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NEW: See the new colours for this pattern here and the repeat version here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

Illustration Friday: Beginning

I've really enjoyed the weekly Illustration Friday challenge since I started participating in January; it has brought out ideas that I would otherwise never have had and it's been so interesting to see everyone else's interpretations of the themes. I've been looking to see if there are other projects out there I would love to join in with and came across Spoonflower, a website where you can order prints of your own textile designs that also holds a weekly design contest. I specialised in textiles at college and have been thinking for a while now that I'd like to get into it again so, to begin, I've entered the design below into this week's contest. If you like it please click through and vote for me!

Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Bean Details

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware