WhiteMoonLight

Another little side venture I have started up is WhiteMoonLight: the home for bespoke designs for special occasions.  My first couple wanted a cheque book style wedding invitation which included butterflies and royal blue.  Below are a few stages showing the development.  

Initial ideas & drawings

Laser cut design in progress

Ivory pearlescent underlay paper

Separate invites made for wedding & evening guests

Tiered cheque book style contents

WhiteMoonLight logo stamps in Royal Blue 

To read more information about these invitiations & keep an eye on the next two I am working on go to the WhiteMoonLight site here
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Custom hoodies

I decided as gifts for my nieces & nephew this year I would print up some hoodies especially for them.  All three are fans of what I do and have favourite illustrations of mine so I worked these into the design.  Using a sublimation printer the illustrations were transferred permanently onto the colour hoodies.  

 Steven Seagull

Animal  Zoo

Wolf & Bear

All of them love their new tops, but until I have photos of them wearing them, Mr. Bones is modelling them.  Happy New Year x

"An elf is for life, not just for Christmas"

I have been working with Lapwing as a tutor for the past two years, being paired up with the very inspiring Paige C Clifford, we are now sadly in the third and final year.  

The tailored made course taught Paige textiles and crafts.  However, working on a brief Christmas card project last December the course took a little side road which then lead to a massive explosion of glitter fuelled ideas...

Disguised as elves, we have been creating away ever since on a project which has finally been revealed to the public today in the window of LoveOne. 

The fun and quirky window display is a great representation of her brand, as well as getting a little festive!  LoveOne's Christmas window goes up early November so make sure you get down there to see how many elves (and a little walrus) you can spot!!

"The House of Elves" fills the gap in the market for all things elf related with the perfect tag line: "An elf is for life, not just for Christmas"! This initial gift range includes greeting cards, elf plushies and DIY elf packs, all of which will be available to buy from LoveOne this weekend.  Her website will then be the hub for all future projects and gifts that she (and her little family of elves) have in the pipe line.

I have been very fortunate to have Paige as a student over the past three years.  She is extremely hard working, driven and talented.  I have no doubt that her elves and her brand will go down a storm and will continue with the success long after our course has come to a close.

I started Lapwing with a student, and I shall be leaving with a friend. x

To support Paige & elves check out LoveOne this Crimbo and her website here.

Mister Millerchip Plush

Early Summer Joel AKA Mister Millerchip, approached me about a collaboration   He was wanting one of his characters brought to life in the form of a giant head and fore arms.  Having been a massive fan of his for years I jumped at the opportunity to work with him...

Original mock up & close up of freehand embroidery

He sent over the mock up of what was needed for his character "Two Sticks Foggan".  This certainly was a new challenge for me.  I have never made a mascot head to fit a human before, so the structure was a daunting prospect.  After doing a little research I decided to build up a sphere from layers of upholstery foam and then carved more to shape...

Foam head base size

Applique & embroidered facial features

Stuffed forehead & nose & sculpted hair

I then started adding his design using applique and freehand machine embroidery techniques.  Sections of the face had stuffing added to enhance his shape and make his profile more interesting.  The hair and beard were hand sewn on and stuffed again.  Finally his neck was added, which will be tucked into the T-shirt so no human flesh is on show.

His arms were made in the same way, with a layer of wadding to make them padded.  All the hairs and tattoos were appliqued on individually.

Joel is planning a photo shoot with Two Sticks Foggan in December so when the images return I shall post them up.  In the mean time here is a quick snap of Mister Millerchip himself playing the part of his character when I presented it to him at Stix Festival....

I absolutely loved working on this collaboration & Joel seemed over the moon with the results.x

To check out all his brilliant creations, characters and chipshop goodies have a peek at his website here.

Stix Festival

Another commission I had during summer was to produce a poster for the Stix Festival.  I had to follow a strict five colour palette to fit in with the Mix's branding, and to include illustrations of the festivals activities.  Below shows the development from initial design, to what was edited down for use.

Original mock up for Stix Poster

Final Stix poster

As well as working on the poster, I was asked to hold another Critter workshop as part of the festival.
Equipped with two sewing machines, a cloud of stuffing and fabric up to my ears I set up my workshop  in a beautiful green patch, under a canopy of trees in the last of summers' sun.
The day was a huge success with many fresh critters being born!  I had a real range of ages getting involved, but it was great to see many budding young sewers use a machine for the first time.
The father of two little ones kindly sent over some photographs of us in action:

Lucy & Emma's freshly created critters! They worked so well and really got to grips with sewing on the buttons....think their dad is going to be learning from them!!

The day was a great success, thank you to all who came along and got involved, hope to see some of you again at future workshops. x

Check out The Mix section on ip1zine to see what activities are happening soon.

Pillow Fight

dark-dreams

coming-out-his-shell

Ohhdeer.com had a summer competition called pillow fight.  It gave illustrators and artists the opportunity to upload their designs onto cushions, with the best being sold online.  They were inundated with entries and so decided to sell all designs for a limited time period.

I have two designs now available on their site amongst many other beautiful cushions by talented humans....Click the links under the images to go to the webpage.x

Puppy Love

Lurchound

Basseter

Another little commission over summer was for two dog themed mugs.  She requested a lurcher and basset hound for herself and her partner.  Both mugs were completed with a paw print inside and "puppy Love" tag.x