This week's Crafty Lady is Zeena Shah - regular readers might remember that I attended one of Zeena's lino printing workshops at the Handmade Fair a few months ago (so much fun!)
As well as running fab workshops, Zeena sells a range of homewares decorated with her charming designs. You can find her cushions, prints, tote bags, and other hand printed creations in her shop, heart zeena.
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Hello! I’m Zeena Shah a printed Textile designer / maker / stylist / creative tutor living & working in East London. I run my own brand heart zeena – a collection of hand screen printed and hand made goods for your home. I started the brand in 2010 and have been designing and making happily for the last four years and I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by!
I also run workshops from my east London studio and pop-up at venues and businesses all over London spreading my love of screen printing and hoping to inspire you all to screen print and create. I also like chocolate a lot.
Recently I’ve been...
... running lots of workshops for lots of different people from Google to UCL, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Kirstie Allsop & more which is keeping me rather busy. I’m also gearing up for my next Christmas event, the Renegade Craft Fair which I’ll be selling my collection at and some new work too.
[Zeena sent me her Crafty Ladies answers before Renegade took place a couple of weeks ago - you can read about my visit to the fair here]
I’ve been working on…
Most exciting of all is that I have just signed a book deal and am working on my shiny new book which will show you how to print fabric and make lovely things too so keep an eye out for sneaky peeks on my instagram feed. The book will launch in September 2015. I can’t wait!
I’ve been blogging about…
Hmmm now I’ve been a terrible blogger and neglected my blog over the last year, so I’m going to tell you about all the blogs I’ve been reading instead. I’ve been reading…
Deliciously Ella’s blog I love, she has some great recipies and I’ve been trying really hard to look after myself and think about what I eat more especially after working such crazy hours.
Pinterest – I’m really a little (ok a lot) obsessed with Pinterest at the moment, I find it a great resourse for diy projects and makes that I wouldn’t necessarily stumble across.
Garance Dore’s blog is lovely her illustrations are beautiful and I’ve also been keeping an eye on goop and Preserve as I like the recipies mostly. I’m getting a bit food obsessed.
Design favourites are Bright Bazaar and Little Big Bell’s blogs, they are always making me lust after new things!
While I print...
... I love listening to Desert Island Disks on Radio Four, it’s my favourite! They have a fabulous back catalogue too which I’d definitely recommend checking out. I also like listening to This American Life for the weird and wonderful stories about Americans!
Zeena’s 3 Top Tips for Running a Creative Business
People often ask me for advice on running your own creative business and this is what I say...
1. Trust yourself and you will make things happen. If you really believe in what you’re designing/ making/ creating people will see that too reflected in your work.
2. Be nice to people, lots of wonderful things have happened to me because I not a horrible mean person! You never know who you might meet and who they might tell about you so always treat everyone how you would like to be treated and good things will come of it.
3. Stay motivated, make friends doing similar things and share your problems and experiences, it can be lonely on the road to solo business success so it’s important to make an effort to go to networking events. The Fashion & Textile Museum have a great series of events for women in creative businesses which I’d recommend too!
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Visit Zeena's shop to see her range of homewares or check out her upcoming workshops. You'll also find Zeena on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
Click here to read more posts in the Crafty Ladies series.
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