Work in progress

The upside of completing my MA earlier this month is that I have time to create new work and return to projects on I'd put on hold to focus on my major project. This image is part of a work in progress  for an experimental piece I am will print by combining silkscreen and etching techniques.

The original image is from The National Archive and is called 'Side view of a pig feeding' and is dated somewhere between 1869-1955.

Prints & Books

I started the Prints and Books blog around five years ago when I was setting up the Print Area for the BA Graphic Design course at University for the Creative Arts, Epsom. It was originally called the Print Area blog and was published on the course website.

Prints and Books is now independent from any institutions and websites but is still aimed at UK students as well as anybody interested in printmaking and bookbinding. I post about upcoming exhibitions and events, showcase artists, list resources, courses, promote competitions and opportunities and link to relevant websites.

There is also Pinterest account for Prints and Books which links to many tutorials, artists, studios and communities. The picture below shows a few of the Prints and Books Pinterest boards.

Work in progress: Keep on running letterpress and silkscreen print

Here is a sneak peek of my current project combining letterpress, digital design and silkscreen printing, this is at the pre-silkscreen stage of the process.

Pigment and papers research project

This is one of the outcomes from a research project I am working on. More to follow.

Click to see the details.

Malfunction glitch iphone case review

Last month I decided that I wanted a new case for my phone, and I really wanted to design my own, so I found Society6 and uploaded a few glitchy screen grabs from .avi files. I got a bit carried away and ended up drawing lots of little letters and making a completely different set of patterns and producing a range of cases, cushions, cards and other patterned bits. 

After much deliberation about which case to buy for myself I decided upon Malfunction as well as ordering a Leopard spots cushion.

I am still waiting for the cushion, but the phone case arrived this morning. I can't quite believe the quality of the case, the colours are super bright and really pop out, much more so than the images on the website. I was also concerned about the print quality of using an image zoomed in on a low resolution screen grab of a pixelated glitch, luckily it looks great.

The cases are made by Casemate and are much more sturdy than the last one I bought from the Apple store which snapped by the camera hole within a couple of months. I have uploaded a photo of the inside of the case which shows a thin gel cushion which is there to protect the phone.

My only complaint about the case is the fact it was sent from America, which meant it incurred a £12 charge for VAT and customs charges. Luckily I ordered it during a free worldwide shipping promotion so the overall cost wasn't too high, but it's still not nice to get an unexpected email from customs. The cushions do not incur duty charges, so at least I don't have to pay extra on my cushion too.

I am on the look out for a similar company to print phone cases within Europe so that anybody buying a phone case will not be stung with an additional £12. I think this will be hard because the quality of the Society6 cases are so good and I don't want to compromise the quality to make it a little cheaper.

[Update: 7 months of use later and the case is still just as good as when I first wrote this review and it has saved my screen from smashes and cracks more than once.]

Free shipping on my new cushions, phone cases & cards

Society6 are offering free shipping until Sunday 25th August, so you can save a few pennies when purchasing a new case for your phone or cushions for your sofa featuring my patterns.

I have lots of little hand painted letters and a few glitchy pieces from .avi file malfunctions as well as a few random hand painted patterns.

As well as the products below you can buy greetings cards, laptop cases and prints on my Society6 page.

Hand painted tile

I painted this tile around a year ago, today I scanned it in to add to my pattern library (it may be a bit greasy as it usually lives next to the cooker).

Typographic cushions, prints and cards

I've been busy painting little letters and transforming them into products in my Society6 shop.
These patterns are all hand painted with indian inks and you can see all my typographic together here.

Glitchy products

I have opened a Society6 shop selling glitchy products including phone cases, ipad cases, cushions and cards. All the patterns are from original computer glitches on .avi files.

Black and white

Bouncing balls

F for baby Freddy pattern design

.avi screen shots

Flagge Haus- Lovely hand printed flags

Today I launched the facebook page for my new venture Flagge Haus.
I have been busy hand screen printing bold flags on to lovely Fabriano printmaking paper, which makes the colours really rich and vibrant.

So far we have printed the Union Flag, the Cornish Saint Piran's Flag, the Guernsey Flag and the Scottish flag too. We have printed two sizes, the larger size are 82cm across and the smaller ones fit into an A4 frame and come with a mount. There is an online shop in the making, and until then if you're interested in more information or buying a flag then please email me rose(at)flaggehaus.com for more information.

There are more photographs and prices on the facebook page, and you can 'like' us for updates on Flagge Haus.

The bright and bold Guernsey Flag

The simple and graphic Cornish Saint Piran's Flag

The perfectly balanced Union Flag

Instapics

I post lots of work in progress photos on Instagram, 

amongst other less creative things I see.

Hard at Work

I've been spending lots of time playing with colour recently. Creating lots of patterns by marbling, painting with ink and drawing using my Granddad's water-colour pencils and crayons.

Pattern weekend

Here is this mornings pattern work, developed from some of the illustrations I created yesterday.

I've also been adding to my Pattern Pinterest board, and stumbled across the brilliant work Sonia Delaunay, an artist working with pattern at the beginning of the 20th century.

Sonia Delaunay

Patterns

It's been a long time since I've posted new work on the blog, mostly because I now have an online portfolio which has pretty much replaced my need for a blog. The only thing a portfolio website misses is work in progress, so I've decided to bring the blog out of hibernation to show some of the surface design and patterns I have designed recently. I have been creating patterns as a hobby since 2008 and I realised today that most of them have just sat in folders on my hard drive. Below are a range of my recent patterns, including a couple of illustrations for repeat patterns.

Pinterest and the rest

Look at these wonderful geometric compositions from the New York Public Library online collection. I came across them through Pinterest, which is a very useful way of finding, storing and sharing inspiration (and procrastinating). My Pinterest boards are here.

I haven't been updating this blog with all the little bits and bobs I've been up to for quite some time. I unintentionally let it float into the internet ether, and now it seems there are other things taking up it's place. I have started a new screen printing project which I will blog about here when the time is right, but until then (and probably afterwards) there will be much more action on...
my website
my pinterest
my flickr
my twitter
and the blog I write for the UCA Epsom Print Area

Withdrawn zines

Scandinavian Domestic Design

Industrial Design & the Community

Cities, Their Origin, Growth and Human Impact

Canonic Design in English Mediaeval Architecture

Each zine folds out into a different poster celebrating the Withdrawn series

Withdrawn is a set of zines created from books rejected by the University for the Creative Arts library in Epsom. The books had their covers torn off and branded with WITHDRAWN. They were found in the tip by tutors who saved them and the hundreds of others being thrown out. The covers were left in tact and the books found themselves on a table ready to be taken away by passers by. Each Withdrawn zine features one of these rejected books. I have re-ordered and re-edited the books to eight pages each chosen for their visual merit and each one folds out to a different poster celebrating the Withdrawn series.