Ministry of Craft

Hello! Next Saturday I'm running a screenprinting workshop for the Ministry of Craft at Fred Aldous. There are still a few spaces left, so if you fancy giving it a go head over to the Ministry website and book yourself a place! We will be using simple stencil-cutting techniques and screen printing onto fabric. Bring some inspirational images and something to print onto! In past workshops people have printed onto t-shirts, bags, pillow cases and cushion covers. You could even print onto some lovely fabric and frame it, or make a sweet, personalised bunting for a party...Many possibilities! Hope to see you there! x

Beetles and bugs in Blackburn

Here are some photos from the Blackburn Museum's collection of beetles. The colour and variety are amazing, I love the handwritten labels too. I'm going to be focusing more on the Japanese print collection, but we're keeping these as a back up as they're so fascinating!

Celebrating ceramics

As promised, here are some more photos of the ceramics collection at the V&A. I foolishly forgot to write down the names of the makers, if anyone can help, that'd be great! The V&A collections website is a brilliant resource, but I think the most recent items aren't on it.



Ceramic carrots



Glazes - gorgeous colours!



Tile Panel, William de Morgan




Look at the little feet on these guys!




More beautiful colours.



'Trophy' by Clare Twomey. This was originally an installation where visitors were invited to take away their favourite bird. How lovely!

Hello sausage!

'Sausage' by Richard Slee

Yesterday I went for a training day at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Design for Life project. I worked on it last year with Bolton Museum and 2 school groups. This year it's slightly different, with Bolton as the core museum, and Salford Museum and Art Gallery as one associate partner and Blackburn Museum as the other. I'm hoping to work with young carers from Salford and possibly a school group in Blackburn. Exciting stuff! I've never been to Blackburn Museum and am itching to have a good look at their Japanese print collection!

I'll put up a few more snaps I took at the V&A of the ceramics collection as soon as Blogger decides to play nice! I focused on this as we're thinking of taking the Pilkington ceramics collection as a starting point for the workshops in Salford.

Workshops and websites

Hullo hullo, last month I did a little screenprinting workshop with some students from the Manchester School of Architecture. It went really well, they all seemed to enjoy it and produced some fantastic work. The blog for their project is here, I must admit I'm a little late with this post, tsk tsk. The last few weeks seem to have drifted by, and whilst things are going in the right direction, I feel like I'm coasting along, rather than being a driving force. I'll cut myself some slack though - the weather has been beautiful and I've been grabbing every opportunity to get out on the bike. I've even been going to maintenance classes, coming second in the puncture repair race on Tuesday!


She's looking nice, no?

I've finally sorted my Big Cartel site, so you can now buy direct from me, without having to set up an account. It links from my website and I feel it's a lot more professional.
Today I'm going to get on top of my admin and do some more site updating, I need a better system! Has anyone got any tips for getting a good routine in place when you're self-employed? I'm still in my pyjamas! xx

All Tomorrow's Parties

Hello all, been a bit quiet on the internet front as I've been busy indulging another of my loves - live music. I just got back from the Matt Groening curated ATP at Butlins in Minehead. It was amazing, I had the best time! I've been to ATP a couple of times before, years ago, at Camber Sands, but this was the best one I've been to. We lucked out on our accommodation, which was really nice and near to all the action. I went with some great friends and we basically had a blast. I saw Iggy and the Stooges on the first night, with Mike Watt on bass (I love him so much!) and The xx twice, just awesome. I think the highlight for me was seeing Boredoms, a band that, on paper, I thought I would hate! (Japan's iconoclastic experimental music "unit" anyone?) but they blew my mind with a 9 drummer performance - I've never seen a drummer be carried in on a platform drumming through the crowd before, put it that way.



If you get the chance, go see them! They will change your life, I promise! Anyone got any musical recommendations?

I ♥ Bicycles

Handprinted poster, available on etsy and folksy.

The past couple of nights have been very much bike-based for me. The annual I Bike MCR festival is on over the next month, with lots of activities, films, get togethers, bike maintenance classes and of course cycling! I was aware of it, but learnt more on Tuesday, when me and my housemate went on the Full Moon bike ride. The weather was absolutely awful and I was wearing inappropriately skinny jeans, which hindered me in getting on and off the trusty Pioneer somewhat. In fact, it turned on that my poor old Raleigh Classic, bought for £5.46 from ebay around 2 years ago, has seen better days, as I got a puncture 30 seconds after leaving the pub and whilst fixing it in the pouring rain realised that the rear derailer had come loose. Argh! Not cool in front of a group of cycling afficionados I didn't know! Luckily they are very nice and I feel we all have a bond after patching up the old girl in adverse conditions. We rode to Jackson's Boat by Chorlton Ees and had a thoroughly nice time, yay for new friends!
Last night I went to the Lass O'Gowrie pub for a screening of Beauty and the Bike, a film exploring why so few teenagers in Britain cycle. It was a lovely film, and I got a little sentimental as half of it was based in my home town of Darlington!
The upshot of all this 2 wheeled fun is that I have decided to buy a new bike, does anyone have any recommendations? I've been checking out Globe bikes, drool drool! I'm considering the Haul or Live models. Yum!



I need to get sorted asap, so I can enjoy the rest of the festival! Hopefully see some of you out and about, come rain or shine! xx