The Amazingness that was London Craft Week: Part Three

Today we're playing a fun game called "guess which blog post Laura thought she'd published months ago but actually was gathering virtual dust in her drafts folder this whole time". Yup, that's right, this one! Oops. Better late than never though, right? :)

So, a long long time ago (May of last year) I spent two amazing days zipping round London exploring the awesomeness of the first ever London Craft Week.

On the first day I met so many interesting people, chatted to loads of different makers about their work, oohed over some incredible craftsmanship and got to peek behind the scenes of some fascinating spaces, it was wonderful. (You can read all about what I got up to on the day one here and here).

After that busy day I made the not entirely sensible decision to stay up late watching the election coverage... then had trouble a) getting out of bed the following morning and b) tearing myself away from the news of the (dramatic!) results. I'm glad I did though, because day two of London Craft Week was jam-packed with great stuff.

Once I'd finally got up and on a train and into London, my first stop was Trunk Clothiers, where the founder of (ki:ts) was demonstrating the art of hand stitching leather and showcasing his (then) current belt collection. It was so interesting to see the work in progress.

 

Next door, jewellers Cox + Power were running an open house, so after admiring their collections in the shop visitors could see the workshop where all that loveliness gets made.

Something that came up again and again during London Craft Week was how today's fine craftsmen and women are creating inventive, modern pieces but drawing on traditions, skills and techniques that stretch back hundreds of years.

At Cox + Power it was fascinating to hear how little a jeweller's workspace and tools have changed over the centuries, and we had a great chat about makers and making and the things that connect us all (whether we're making fine jewellery or cute stuff from felt!).

Next I headed to Savoir Beds - whose tailormade beds were first created for The Savoy Hotel in 1905 - where a skilled (and hugely entertaining) craftsman was demonstrating the craft of mattress making. I was especially fascinated by the large half-moon shaped needles used for slip stitching.

 

My next stop was the Contemporary Ceramics Centre which includes an exhibition space and a shop filled with gorgeous ceramics. The Centre is just opposite the British Museum, but I had no idea it was there as I always approach the Museum from the other direction. I will definitely be taking a slight detour and popping in here again in future!

 

After oohing over the beautiful ceramics, I headed down the road to a shop that I'd walked past many times on my way to the British Museum but never visited before: Cornelisson & Son. This is a truly wonderful little shop! There are so many art supplies squeezed into the space, everywhere you look is a riot of colour and creative possibility.

They sell some very specialist supplies here, but lots of more accessible ones too. Even if you have no interest in art it's worth a visit, just to see the shop's original drawers and storage jars filled with a rainbow of pigment. If you are a creative type though (and if you're reading my blog, the chances are that you probably are) what a pleasure it would be to shop for even something as small as a new pencil sharpener in a place like this!

For London Craft Week, Cornelissen were running a series of free talks. I turned up just in time for the one on colour charts, which you might think wouldn't be that interesting but you'd be wrong. It was wonderful to be able to peek behind the scenes at the shop, hear about its history and the specialist colour charts they produce for their customers... and we were treated to lots of great anecdotes along the way.

After filling my brain and eyes with all things colour-related, I walked up the Tottenham Court Road to Heals where textile designer Gemma Kay Wagget was spending the afternoon demonstrating screen-printing and giving tips to people who wanted to try printing for themselves.

Sadly I missed the demonstration itself as Gemma was taking a well-earned break, but I picked up a lovely notebook she'd screenprinted and a copy of Hole & Corner - a beautiful magazine "celebrating craft, beauty, passion and skill".

 

On to my next stop: the British Library, where weavers from Dovecot Tapestry Studios were working on a hand loom and discussing their work. We didn't get a chance to talk about much though, as a very loud fire alarm went off and the building had to be evacuated! You can see a short video about one of their projects here and see more of their work here.

As the Library emptied out and the fire engines arrived (to what I'm guessing was a false alarm as they left again pretty soon afterwards!) I headed down the road to The Crypt Gallery, a unique and highly atmospheric exhibition space under St Pancras Church.

This was the venue for the MAKE / CREATE exhibition, a collaborative exhibition between fine artists and makers that explored the intersection between traditional craft and contemporary art. I'm not the world's biggest contemporary art fan but this was a really rewarding (and slightly spooky) exhibition to visit.

Then there was just time for one last stop before I headed homewards: the Art Workers' Guild where some of the members were chatting about their work and giving tours of their meeting hall. 

I was especially entranced by Vicki Ambery-Smith's intricate architectural jewellery (and I'm hoping to get a chance to see this exhibition in Oxford featuring her work, sometime soon).

After all that, you might not be entirely surprised to hear that I decided to stay home and rest instead of attending some of the weekend's events!

This year London Craft Week will be taking place from 3rd-7th May. Visit the London Craft Week website for more info and to check out this year's programme of tours, talks, workshops, demonstrations and other event.

P.S. You can read more about the places, events and makers I visited during London Craft Week in part one and part two.

Three Easy Valentine's Day Craft Ideas

This is an advertorial and I received a fee to create some Valentine’s Day crafts for https://www.tescoliving.com/making-and-doing

It looks like we're in for a wet and windy weekend, doesn't it? Perfect weather for staying indoors doing some crafting for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day isn't just about romantic dinners with chocolates and roses, it's also a great excuse to let your family and friends know you love them with a handmade card or gift.

I've designed three easy paper crafting projects that are lots of fun to make... wanna see them?

First up, there's a Valentine's printing project: use everyday things from your home like kitchen sponges and cotton buds to make pretty printed heart cards.

This is a great craft to do with young kids, but honestly I'm in my 30s and I had an absolute blast making these! Click here to see the cards and the step by step instructions.

Next up: make a Valentine's Day card with a secret, hidden message!

It might be because I read so many spy and mystery novels when I was a kid but I adore anything involving a secret message. Can you guess where the message is hidden? Click here for the full tutorial, including all the templates you'll need to make your cards.

Finally (and, not gonna lie, this is probably my favourite of the bunch), I made some bunny gift boxes.

Not boxes for putting bunnies in (sadly, as a box filled with bunnies would be pretty awesome) but boxes that look like bunnies. They have little fluffy tails and everything! For added cuteness, the bunny faces are made from heart-shaped pieces :)

The bunny gift boxes would be perfect for Valentine's Day gifts, or you could make a whole set over the next few weeks and use them for Easter instead.

I made a whole rainbow of bunny gift boxes, click here to see how they turned out and grab the templates for making your own.

Book Review: Ladies of Letterpress

Today I'm reviewing a gooooooogeous book: Ladies of Letterpress.

Ladies of Letterpress "is an organisation that champions the reviving craft of letterpress, and seeks to showcase the work of women printers". This book is a collection of that work - from greetings cards to posters and from calendars to coasters.

This is a big book! Here's one of the pages next to a biro, to give you an idea of the scale.

The book is a cross between a stylish coffee table book and a poster book, as all the pages are perforated so you can (should you wish) tear out the pictures you like the best and put them up on your wall.

Over 80 different printshops are featured, with one main image then (overleaf) a selection of smaller images of their work. So, when you tear out a page all the info about the printer is on the back.

 

There are also short profiles of each printshop...

... and details of the paper, inks and press used for each piece:

The book also includes five interviews, with printers chatting about how they fell in love with printing, their favourite tools, business tips, etc.

There's a wide mix of different styles represented, and dozens of pages that I wanted to tear out and put up on my studio wall immediately.

My only niggle about this book is that the info about the main "poster" image is always printed in the gutter of the page (so it's quite hard to read) and on the "wrong" side of the perforations (so if you tear out a page then the information about that design is left behind). Honestly though this doesn't get in the way of my enjoyment of this book as I'm not a printer myself or a student needing to know that info... I just want to ooh over all the lovely designs!

This is a beautiful book whose contents would look equally great on your coffee table or your walls, and it would be a great buy if you're looking to decorate a space on a budget.

Ladies of Letterpress is published by Ivy Press. RRP £24.99. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and many other bookshops.

Please note: I was sent a free review copy of this book. The Amazon & Book Depository links in this post are affiliate links.

Crafty Ladies: Meet Zeena Shah

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.

-------

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!

 -------

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.

Book Review: Fresh Prints

Oh my goodness, I am such a bad blogger, you guys. I've got a whole stack of lovely craft books in my "to review" pile and I've not reviewed any of them! Tsk tsk. I am determined to be a better blogger and share all this crafty goodness with you all, so you'll be seeing a few reviews popping up over the coming weeks. I hope you'll find some new books that take your fancy :)

First up: Fresh Prints by Christine Leech. 

Fresh Prints is another beautiful book in Quadrille's "Simple Makes" series which (among other titles) also includes two other books by Christine which I reviewed last year: Felt Sew Good and Scissors, Paper, Craft.

This time round (as you have probably guessed from the title) the focus is on printing projects. Quadrille's books are always gorgeous, and Christine is such a talented, creative lady that I am quite, quite jealous of all her ace ideas... and let me tell you, this book does not disappoint. All the projects in this book are fresh and fun and creative and have been beautifully presented.

Fresh Prints is all about block printing - using different objects as printing blocks. The 25 projects are divided into chapters by technique: "printing with found objects" and "lazy lino prints", with a small final chapter of "other printing techniques".

The book begins with informative, helpful sections on the tools and equipment you'll need, how to mix colours, getting the right ink consistency, printing tips and a step by step guide to making and using a "lazy lino" block (a printing block made with foam sheets which are apparently cheaper and easier to work with than real lino blocks).

Then it's on to the projects, each with clear step by step instructions and photos. As with the previous books in this series I had great difficulty picking out just a few projects to snap and share with you guys!

I especially loved this gorgeous feather cushion...

 

... and this fun ricrac-printed scarf.

Tools used for printing include leaves, feathers, bottle caps, a potato masher, buttons, sweet potatoes, lace doilies, a rolling pin, a knitted sweater and cookie cutters... which are used with household bleach in one project to create these wonderful patterned towels: 

The book includes printing on things like greetings cards, notebooks, teatowels and cushions and t-shirts, plus more unusual surfaces like lampshades, shoes, and even an umbrella! So much fun.

 

There are templates provided for all the projects in the "lazy lino" section, and it's great to see that most of the templates are included at full size.

This is a really lovely book. If you're looking for complex projects or a comprehensive guide to different printing techniques then a book in a series called "Simple Makes" is, as you might imagine, probably not going to be the book for you! But if you've never tried printing before or you want some ideas for fun and accessible printing projects this would make a great addition to your bookshelf.

You could also put together a fab "introduction to printing" kit as a special gift for a friend or loved one this Christmas by combining this book with some of the ink and tools recommended by Christine.

Fresh Prints is published by Quadrille. RRP £12.99. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and many other bookshops.

Please note: Quadrille sent me a free review copy of this book. The Amazon & Book depository links in this post are affiliate links.

Lino Printing at The Handmade Fair with Zeena Shah

I had a very fun day out on Friday at The Handmade Fair - a new, crafty fair with a focus on learning and making. One of the lovely bloggers I bumped into described it as being "like a crafty festival" and it really was, with lots of tents for workshops and talks plus shopping and eating... lots of famous faces from the world of craft and sewing... and lots of bunting! :)

I'll be blogging about the day later this week, but in the meantime here are some snaps from the workshop I attended: lino printing with Zeena Shah.

I'd never tried lino printing before so I was quite excited to give it a go at the Fair - although I was a teeny bit nervous about using the sharp lino cutting tool! Me + sharp objects = usually a bad combination.

We started by drawing a design we wanted to print. I had a bit of creative block but I eventually settled on a simple star design and drew it onto my lino. 

Then we carved out our designs, leaving raised areas where we wanted to print and cutting away the sections that would be white space. The lino was easier to carve than I expected but still quite hard work after a while (I suspect lino cutters elbow might be a thing!) and you had to be very careful with the cutting tool as it was indeed very sharp - as proven by one of the ladies on my table who cut herself (ouch!)

It was really fun to see the design gradually appearing in the lino and really nice sitting and chatting with the other ladies as we worked. We laughed about the mistakes we were making, admired each others designs and talked about the things we'd done at the Fair earlier that day.

My design was finally finished...

... just in time for me to do a couple of prints before the workshop ended.

I used too little paint (oops) then a too much (double oops) then my third print was just right. Hurrah!

Trying new crafty things = so much fun!

If you'd like to try lino printing, Zeena runs lots of lino printing workshops.

Disclosure: I attended The Handmade Fair as a guest of the organisers who sent me a free ticket.