Celandine

Celandine

A member of the buttercup family, apparently these sunny flowers are named from the Greek for Swallow (chelidon), blooming as the swallows return for the summer. If you feel like making something sunny, this design is up in my spoonflower shop and available in 9 different kinds of cloth!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Bees & Blooms

Bees & Blooms - Medieval Woodcut

What says summer better than lying in the grass hearing bees going about their work? As you've probably read, these indispensable pollinators have mysteriously been in trouble for the last few years. A couple of new studies published this week have helped to establish that a certain group of nerve agent pesticides are a large part of that puzzle but there are things that we can do to help! Buzz About Bees have a list of 10 simple things you can do, even if it's just buying local honey and scattering a few wildflower seeds on your lawn.

The bees shown here are adapted from my Medieval Woodcut design. I've made a repeat pattern with them which you can find on fabric, wrapping paper and wallpaper here!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Print & Pattern Kids

Bowie Style over at the Print & Pattern blog is working on a third book and this time the theme will be children's design. Patterns for fabrics and wallpaper as well as wall art, illustration and greetings cards may be included and I've submitted a bit of everything!

Five-a-day placemats:

Around the World in Fruit & Veg - see the original here

a couple of birthday card designs:

and repeat patterns for fabrics:  

Sand Dollars in Pink Pearl, Seaglass, Honey & Seaweed | Butterflies | Scatter! (see more about the sea lions here!)

I think the book will be more geared towards 70s retro-style graphic design and illustration but fingers crossed - I'd love to be in a Print & Pattern book!

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

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