Getting ready...

This week we have been busy getting ready for the Pick 'N' Mix Makers Market in Holt this Saturday. We're really looking forward to it, and have got all sorts of new printed goodies for our stall.

Here's a peek into a box of books and other little things all packed up and ready to go -

We've also been printing new notebook covers on the Adana - my new favourite thing is bright orange paper...


And we've got a few new prints as well, including a new engraving by Jon using this lovely dark blue ink -


There are going to be lots of other lovely handmade, vintage and edible treats on offer - so we'll hope to see some of you there on Saturday, from 10am to 4pm in St Andrew's Church Hall, Holt.

The winners of the Folksy and Sue Ryder Upcycle competition have been announced! You can read all about the winners on the Folksy blog, and all the entries are now up for auction on ebay (100% of the winning bid will be donated to Sue Ryder). You can bid for our upcycled black journal here, and we've got our eye on a few of the other entries too!

Handm@de Cambridge

Well, we are home from a lovely day out at Handm@de Cambridge. Here is our little stall!

We had a fun day, the sun shone, and lots of people stopped by to say hello including Celia (we love her work, and her blog Purple Podded Peas), one of my students from UEA, our little nephew Gabriel (along with his Mum and Dad), and some of our lovely blog readers (hello!).

It was hard not to resist spending all our taking on other stalls (I am still coveting this necklace by Claire Howison), but I got some lovely earrings from corryvreckan, and we got some sweet Gocco bicycle cards from Paperleaf. Too lovely to send!

It was nice to meet so many lovely fellow Etsy and Folksy sellers for the first time too :)

Now we've tidied everything away back into our little studio store and we're having a gin and contemplating Open Studios....

Price labels

Preparations for H@ndmade Cambridge are in full swing here - there still seems to be lots to do!

This morning I made new price labels to have on our stall - we put individual price labels on things like handmade books and prints, but we find it always helps to have big price labels standing on the table too.


These ones have little Lapwings standing up from the top of the fold - a happy morning with a sharp cutting knife awaits...

More books (and some bookplates too)

This weekend we are busy getting ready for the next Clutter City and H@ndmade Cambridge - Jon is working on a new engraving, and I've been letterpressing plenty of cards and notelets.


We've printed a batch of Penguin bookplates, and letterpressed 'Ex Libris' in black oil ink on the Adana.

We popped out into Norwich yesterday to buy some leather offcuts from Norwich Art Supplies and Anglian Fashion Fabrics to make some more hand stitched books... We picked up lots of lovely brown leather, and a really gorgeous piece of soft grey suede.

We've got plenty more to keep us busy over the next couple of weeks, including new prints!

A relaxing weekend

We have had a very relaxing weekend in the Fens, playing with dachshunds and whippets and eating yummy little cupcakes.

Since getting back we've realised that it isn't many weeks until we're at H@ndmade Cambridge - it's on Saturday April 4th. We've got plenty of printing and letterpressing to do before then, so we've drawn up a long to-do list and we're going to spend the next few weeks gradually crossing things off.


You can read a little interview with us on the H@ndmade blog, and find out about all the other lovely people who will be there too.

It's also not long before Open Studios - this will be the first year we've taken part, so we are very excited but quite nervous too! More details to follow soon...

We had a load of peppers lurking in the back of the fridge, so this morning I roasted them up and stuffed them in a jar along with plenty of olive oil, garlic, chilli and balsamic vinegar. I don't think they'll last very long though!

The joy of fusing

Today I had a long list of errands and work I wanted to get done before we have a few days away next week....
Unfortunately I got sucked into rummaging around in the cupboard under the stairs to find some plastic bags after reading this tutorial on Etsy. Once you start fusing, it can become difficult to stop. By lunchtime I had a large pile of pieces of fused plastic bag all ready to be made into exciting things.

So, this afternoon I whipped up a bag with some fused Waitrose and Co-op bags and some black canvas handles. Not perfect by any means, but not bad for a first attempt!

Now it's nearly half past four and I still haven't done anything on my 'to do' list today, but I do have a new and useful bag!

Perhaps even more exciting that fusing plastic bags together are these - Penguin stamps!

Finished holly leaves

This weekend we finished a pile of holly decorations ready to take to Clutter City next weekend. Here they are at various stages -

And here they are finished! We're saving most of them to take to Clutter City, but we have listed a pair in our Folksy shop too...

As well as making holly leaves we've also been adding to our pile of concertina books too. They look so pretty, and we're really pleased with how they have turned out. They're very relaxing and therapeutic to make too - must be all that paper folding. This photo is rather dark (it is a very grey day today), and the colours are much more sparkly and vibrant in person.

This afternoon we are going to letterpress some new Christmas cards, as well as baking a cake and lighting a fire!

Christmas Decorations

Today we have been experimenting with printed Christmas decorations and this is the most successful one. Two holly leaves printed with green ink, sewn together with little red buttons and some red ribbon for hanging.

The design needs a little work, and we need more red buttons and thinner red ribbon - I feel a crafty trip into Norwich for supplies coming on...

Weekend treats and a little book

This week we had our first fire of this winter! It was lovely and toasty on a cold autumnal day, especially when combined with another weekend treat - Chelsea buns! These are from a recipe in Dan Lepard's book, The Handmade Loaf, which is brilliant. This week we also made cucumber pickle rye bread, with the pickle juice from an empty jar of gherkins - also very nice, although perhaps not quite as good as Chelsea buns...


In a few weeks it will be time for another Clutter City market, so I'm attempting to be organised and make some new prints and other things a few weeks in advance. Here is the first new thing - a little concertina book with lovely covers made from Japanese origami paper. Here it is all folded up -


And unfolded...


I'm so pleased with how it turned out, although the gold colours on the paper is really difficult to capture in a photograph - expect to see a large pile of them on our stall at Clutter City!

Clutter City and new stuff

We had a lovely day at Clutter City today - saw lots of people from the last time round, and lots of lovely new people too - so hello if you've stopped by after picking up one of our postcards!

We made lots of shiny new things for our stall, including the paper flower brooches that I made this week. They were really popular, so I'm planning on making lots more!

We also made a little pile of hand sewn books with hand printed covers, filled with nice drawing paper. I used a mixture of old letterpress blocks and larger wooden blocks, in all different colours. The ones below have got various 1960s 'dinner dance' blocks all over them. The dandy felt pincushion is by Lupin, and is the nicest thing in my sewing box!

Here they are all finished -

There are still some notebooks and brooches left over from Clutter City, so we'll be listing them in our various shops this weekend...

Hello Duckie!

I've started clearing the first of the three lino blocks I mentioned in our last post. I've always wanted a set of ceramic flying ducks, but now I'm creating a set of three printed ones instead! This is the largest one - the other two smaller ones need to be cleared as well before I print the first layer. There's a long way to go yet!

I've signed up for an interesting project all about handmade flowers, thought up by Christine from Paper and Cloth. Each artist/crafty person involved makes several flowers which will then be sewn together to make one big piece of art. You can find out more about the project (and join in!) on her blog. I'm going to be making some printed paper flowers over the next few weeks - I just have to work out how they could be sewn onto fabric first. I think I might need to experiment with some prototypes!

Should Hello Duckie really be Hello Ducky? We couldn't decide...