Twitterers..

.. come and say hello - I've joined the sphere!

www.twitter.com/forestandsea

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

It's a winner!

Toile fabric available here!

Wowzers - first place! This was such a great surprise when I came home last night!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

I, Robot

I'd just finished reading I, Robot by Isaac Asimov when spoonflower posted their upcoming robot contest. My design is based on the first of the short stories in the book and features Robbie, the nanny robot. It was published in 1950, so I've used mid-century patterns throughout and the Peanuts comic strip was first published in the same year so I've tried to base the kid's faces a bit on Charles M. Schultz's brilliant characters.

I, Robot.

I was well out of my comfort zone for this one. Firstly, it's a design for a cheater quilt and I've never made one and secondly there are people featured, which I've always found tricky but I think I like. You really have to see the details below though because the yumtious textures are definitely the best bit:


I, Robot Details - close ups and textures.

I, Robot Details - fifties prints and cog flowers. Click to view larger.

 If you fancy a look at all the other robot fabric and want to vote for your favourites, click here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Grooveshark!

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. If you haven't discovered it yet, have a look at this amazing site! You can listen to your favourite music, discover new bands and assemble playlists for free! It's brilliant for when you're drawing or working on the computer and tired of all your old mp3s!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Medieval Woodcuts

I've got a bit behind with posting here! I'm hoping to do a few catch up posts soon but here's what's been keeping me busy this week:

Inspiration: Woodcut images from early printed works.

Medieval Woodcut Toile for this contest.

Toile Details - click for larger view.

I was thinking of adding a stamp-y, block print-y kind of texture to give it more of a woodcut feel but, in the end, the clear indigo looked better on a large repeat. It's definitely something to come back to though - it looks great on the individual elements!

Have a great weekend blog friends, I hope you'll be doing something you love!

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Update: This pattern won the contest! It's available to order on fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Eagles Return

They're back! Their first egg was laid on the 17th of February. If you'd like a look at the chick stills from last year, click here or visit the Raptor Resource Project's blog here!

Two eggs and a newly renovated nest.

3 Chicks on the 4th of April:

The first chick hatched on the 27th of March and I'm glad to see they're enjoying sunny weather over in Iowa this year. This pair are amazing parents; this is the fifth nest they've raised and four of these had 3 eaglets, which is apparently rare. If you click the image above, you'll see the humungous fish they've caught for them.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Lagoon

Lagoon



Lagoon details - click to view larger.

I love the versatility of vector graphics. For anyone who's looking to upgrade their software, I'm currently using Xara Pro 7 (update Nov 12: I've upgraded this to Xara Pro X which you can read about here!) which is a fraction of the price of the Adobe stuff and has a really usable interface. Apart from the layering and flexible editing of shapes that vectors offer, using the texture fills is addictive and they can be absolutely anything. The water in my design above for example, is made up of layers using a photo I took of sunlight reflecting off a bowl and I'm really pleased with how that's turned out!

You can see all the other 'fluid' illustrations here! 15% of proceeds from Lagoon go to the Coral Triangle Initiative!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

80,000 feet

Have a look at what two students from Canada can do with a lego man, a helium balloon and a couple of cameras:



You'll be pleased to know that he's safe at home after his stratospheric adventure. Read more here and here.

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

All quiet on the blogger front.

We've decided to use our spare time this month to continue work on our decrepit, but loveable, house. I was assigned as plasterer and wall fixer-uper a while back, which was daunting but turned out not to be so hard once you get the hang of it. Did you know that in past centuries they used to add white wine to plaster to help it harden? I heard that a lot of the wine ended up in the plasterer instead of the plaster and that's where the word plastered comes from - I bet that's the first bit of diy trivia you've heard today :)

Plasterworks at Owlpen Manor in the Elizabethan style.

My plastering efforts won't be anything like these beautiful examples; I'm still just trying to keep it as straight as I can (no wine for me then)!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Jhali..

.. is a set of four designs for this week's spoonflower contest: coordinates. I originally meant to call it Jhari (which, according to my Google search, means river in Sanskrit) because of the Indian feel to it and also because it is based on water gardens and fountains. Uploading the design last minute I mistyped and I think I prefer the typo - so Jhali it is! Does anyone know what that means (in any language)? I'd love to know; hope it's not rude :)


Jhali

Jhali details - click for larger view.

You can have a look at all the other coordinating patterns that the talented members of Spoonflower have uploaded here.. and vote of course!

I really hope you had a fantastic new year's eve and that 2012 will be good to you!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware