Back in Granville Island

Today, my auntie Lisa and I went back to Granville Island. I really love this place, though maybe its because everytime we go i know i can go to Opus, a huge and actually amazing art store that serves Emily Carr University. 

We had some Tea from Granville Island Tea Company - very posh! And of course some cake. We visited some beautiful studioes, and gift shops. I did a little christmas shopping too. 

I was really excited that i saw some bags by 'bookhou' in a little paper shop. I have been following the work of Bookhou for a few years now, they make simple screenprints and print onto beautiful natural fibres, team them with leathers, waxed cottons and chunky metal zips, as well as leather straps and copper rivets. This company really inspired me to start screenprinting and are always on my facebook news feed, i would say they keep me grounded, their products are quite simple but they are very effective.

Anway - ive had this company on my radar for ages. They are from Toronto, Canada. And here they are, for the first time i was able to touch and feel the beauty of these products!! On little Granville Island! Exciting moment for a designer maker. 

Bookhou! Exciting :)

Block Printing with Speedball Easy Carve - Review

Today i completed my blockprinting cousins, which i had planned last week. We used Speedball Easy Carve blocks, i had some pink left over from my kit, and i bought a fresh block for Robyn (11) & Connie (9).

Here are some photographs from our creative day!

We like to make mess :)

Connie printing her nutella guy for the first test print on paper - awww bless her! it worked yay!

Connie printing her little nutella jar guy in a brick repeat

Robyn printing her leaf design - in both purple and white!

The blocks at the end after washing. The ink remains in some pieces - you can see how complex some of the cuts are!

Our ink :)

Connies Fabric :)

Robyns Fabric :)

My Fabric :)

The pink product and the white product :)

Okay.. this is where my 'review; comes in...

Both the pink and the white product here are branded as Speedball Easy Carve..

The pink came in a starter pack which contained my cutting tool

(i have a whole bunch of these but i didnt bring them to Canada - so just got this basic one for my trip)

The white you could buy as a plastic wrapped seperate.

The pink is super smooth, lovely product. You can see there are some knicks in the side of the carved piece. These knicks will not come off unless cut, if you rubbed them they would bounce back!

The white is super crumbley. Dont buy the white! Find the pink! its not just a colour change, theres definately something in there. The white is halfway between the really nice, smooth rubber, and lino. Its okay, but its not the pink. A word of warning!! You can see all the little crumbs, any knicks would just rub away.

Printmaking Plans

This friday is PD Day (Teacher training day to us british) - so im planning a project with my cousins, to make our own custom fabric prints, and then make them into little pouches also!

We visited a cute little art store first, we chose our inks. A beautiful pink and a deep purple.

We then went to fabricana, and chose the fabrics. My cousins, 9 and 11, chose these all by themselves.. my only rule? Kona cotton. Its beautiful, high quality cotton, which i have alot of experience using and printing onto. 

Look how the colours match so beautifully! Ill update on Friday evening.. hopefully the project goes well! We are carving our own stampes from easy carve speedball rubber too :)

Tofino PJ Pants from Sewaholic Patterns

YAY! my 'Tofino pants' pattern finally arrived! The post here is crazy slow, im totally not used to it! But - its finally here. Sewaholic Patterns is run by Tasia, and its based in Burnaby, Right near Vancouver, about 20 miles from me down here in Tsawwassen.

I bought a branded tape measure also, cause im super shallow and love brands :D

I (nearly) always do a mock up pattern of a product im making - which is usually bags. for some reason, since ive been in canada, ive been into dressmaking. So far ive bought patterns for a lovely tilly &tb floaty top, these PJS, a dress, and a raincoat. Im on mockup stages on all of them, im too nervous to buy the real fabrics!

Anyway - i gotta make a mockup cause otherwise i ruin the proper fabric. every. time. Well - i have to know my sizing too, since im a funny shape. I went for a size 8 (i think this might be US sizing or maybe a made up range - im size 12-14 in the UK) and it fits perfectly, perhaps a little too big, and definately too long, but this can be fixed easy peasy.

Really happy with these PJs, the piped sections down the side are super awesome. I slept in these last night too, very comfy. Im going back to Fabricana in richmond, to get some super soft fabrics for the main pair! 

(the toile fabric is just cheap polycotton)

I hope i can make these as gifts for my friends and family. Everyone loves PJs! 

There we go - my mockup! If you want to make a pair of these super comfy lounge pants, you can visit the Sewaholic website, by clicking the link below. Had to post this image from her blog too, of all the patterns packed up!

Sewaholic Pattern Store

Westham Island Pumpkin Patch

Today was a fun day! We picked our own pumpkins. We dont do this in the UK! I dont think so, anyway. You literally pick the pumpkin you want straight out of the field.. pretty cool :D

I got loaaaads of pictures and ive been editing them all afternoon on an awesome new PC app ive downloaded..

The little farm is on Westham Island, a small island just off Ladner, right here us in Tsawwassen. you gotta drive over a 100 year old wooden bridge to get onto the island, right by the trees where the bald eagles have nests, 80m high above the ground. We saw two or three today, they are all back so im told ill see alot of bald eagles during my trip. We drove through the first nation land on the way back too, a true day of culture today! 

Pumpkin Spam!!

Lots of cute little displays all hiden in areas around the market site.

No idea what these were! They had lots of fresh produce which i had never seen before

Pre-priced, already-picked pumpkins. Where's the fun in that?!

Cute little displays everywhere

Selling all sorts of flowers and seeds

The entrance to Westham Island Herb Farm :)

Pumpkins... Everywhere

Of course we found the pumpkin which looked like a pair of boobs. Or a butt.. of course, we bought it, and we're thinking up something awesome for carving haha!

Education, too.

Corn :)

Robyn, Lisa, Connie, Gavin :)

Ugly pumpkin rejects..!

 You can click here to go to the Westham Island Herb Farm official website. Definately a place to check out if you are in the local area!

Surface Design with Illustrator - An Update!

For the past three years of university, ive been using Photoshop for repeat patterns. Its quite embarrassing to say. Its not professional, i know, but it seems easy! I know ive needed to make the jump from Ps to Illustrator for aaaages.. but im not brave enough!

Well - today ive had enough of putting it off.. I contacted Adobe, and my Photoshop Subscription has been cancelled, and i bought Illustrator. No more excuses!

You may have seen on my Regular UK blog that i started an Illustrator surface design class on Creative Live. It was so good, i bought it, and i spent today reminding myself how to do the most basic things, lines, pen tool, blob tool, and hey, i can even zoom in and out using the special short keys on my keyboard. Im learning!! Im learning!!

Ive banged on about it already, but i thought i would upload some images of my progress.

This image has been made by following the course very closely. The images are made by me, but are not my ideas at all. They are simply created to learn the tools, in this case we have used to pathfinder tools including unite, minus front, we have rotated, reflected, scaled and copied, and learnt to apply text to a shape. I've learnt alot!

I learnt how to create a design-seeds style colour palette, although i could achieve this on Photoshop, this way is so much quicker. The photograph is my own, of what i wore to my graduation this year! I realised my palette was kinda dull, this always happens to me! But i like natural colours, oatmeal, linen, and i love purples and blues, so i guess this palette is a good representation of myself.  Ive kept this picture small because the quality is awful. Forgot to save-for-web. But i did learn it!!

And lastly - when i watched the course for the first time a few months ago, i downloaded an illustrator trial, and i created this illustration of a shoe from Clarks. I work there, and i had grown attached to this shoe. I couldnt pull it off myself, so i thought i would draw it! It was a lovely red brown leather, with a tweed style fabric in between, with ribbon laces. Not sure my illustration does it justice, but i tried!

And here is a photograph Clarks posted to their instagram just yesterday, a close up of the tweed on this beautiful shoe.. now you can all see what i was going for!

Drawing with themes - underwater

This week I am back at my observational workplace - I have been lucky enough to be allowed to sit in the design studio of a local children's wear company here in Vancouver. I'm having fun watching all the technical aspects of being a designer as well as all the other teamwork around the office, including marketing, accounting, customer care, photography shoots etc! 

Today I was rolling with the theme 'underwater' - I was given a more broad nautical theme but I'm already working with a wave print, so I'm going under water :)

I'm told they don't like to use animals and creatures often used - like Owls, fairies, cats etc. So of course I did a bit of Pinterest research! Here are some of my drawing from today. 

I plan to use my new Adobe skills and create some placement motifs and also some repeat patterns, for my portfolio. It's very fun to follow someone else's brief! 

Spare Time - Dressmaking!

I dont think i posted before - but in my spare time here in Vancouver - which is pretty much all the time - i have tried to get into dressmaking! I love sewing, but ive never been good at clothes. I can follow a pattern but altering it and understanding drape in fabrics etc is completely out of my comfort zone, well all the more reason to try it, i think :)

I bought a book by the lovely Tilly & The Buttons whilst i was at home, as a treat to myself after art on the prom! Last week i made the Megan Dress, which is essentially the reason i bought the book really! Its ok for a starter dress, but i definitely need a full bust adjustment and to make it shorter, into a nice long top i can wear with leggings, or just slightly longer and ill wear it with tights :)

Here we have, my first attempt! It wasnt too hard to make, which was the main issue i thought i would have. I had to shorten it because the previous length was way too long, i have strange thighs and can only do a just-above-the-knee dress!!

Also, i did buy a raincoat pattern last week! My sample laminated cotton fabric arrived also, so i cant wait to get my final fabrics through and i can finally get making that one! 

This week i also bought another Tilly pattern, a top i have been wanted to make for AGES! But - no spare time! Well now i can sew away all day if i wish!

Here we have, the Mathilde. Its got pleats down the front, big sleeves with cuffs and a cute yoke which i will totally be making in a contrast fabric im sure! Or embroider it.. ok now my mind is going! 

This pattern was a PDF purchase, and i printed it at the Staples store in Richmond, for about $4 which is like £2.50, so i dont mind :) 

I think ill be back to Dresssew in a few days to choose some fabrics for sure! 

Our Social Fabric

This weekend we visited a fabric store which i knew about from my research in Vancouver! Its basically a charity event, this place gets end of bolts etc donated to them, they either cut it up into two yard selections, or they also sell the entire bolt! All the money goes to textiles based charities to make sure there is fair trade and ethical sourcing in other countries. 

"Our Social Fabric is a non-profit Vancouver group that helps recycle excess fabric from manufacturers, the movie industry, and more. Through monthly sales, we put the fabric into the hands of creators in our community."

Well i visited, and $40 dollars later i left with an entire bag full of beautiful fabrics as well an an entire, extra wide bolt of fabric, which i thought was PERFECT for all my toiles im going to be making here over the next three months! It was $20 for the entire bolt, and i spent about $4 on a meter of extra wide calico, there has to be at least 25 meters on this massive bolt. I cant wait to get cutting!

My bolt!! The staff were so happy someone was finally taking it. It was very heavy, looked like i was dragging a naked white lanky person across the street!!

Here is a stock photograph from their website. they have so many beautiful fabrics, if you are in the area on one of the market dates i would recommend you visit for sure!

You can find out more about Our Social Fabric, and see when their next market date is, by clicking here.

Speedball Easy Carve!

Well today i tried Speedball Easy Carve for the first time. I am genuinely shocked at the results, how easy it was to carve (not sarcastic at all!) and what a clean, crisp print it produced. I teamed the block with the speedball block printing ink, in black. A teeny tube which will last me all of five minutes im sure.

Here are some photographs of my speedball stamp construction and printing adventure!

 . .

You should be able to see the inspiration drawing in a previous post here. Im really happy with this fabric, its a beautiful natural linen (of course, im obsessed), and im going to create the huge chevron shopper tote i have on the go at the moment, in this fabric, as well as some accessories, perhaps a little pouch or purse :)

A New Bag Idea

So recently ive been thinking about making another bag. All my products are purely in the ideas stage, even some ive made and tested really wont go any further, so im always churning out something new!

I did quite a bit of research is one day, mostly just inspiration, what do i want out of a bag, what is the market used to, which materials would be suitable etc. I came up with a few designs, all featuring diagonals, or 'chevrons' which is what i will refer to them as from now on. I had this theme throughout my degree pieces, all the foldovers and flaps were the same shape and the angles were the same, to just make the collection cohesive. So ive come up with some great chevron detailing on this new piece

The first one i made is huge. My aunty thinks its good huge, but i just think huge huge. I then made an 80% version, well i got as far as drawing it and realise it was WAY too tiny, really. So redraw a 90% version. its a good job im good at maths, and not easily confused by numbers!

So ive also made a 90% which i prefer. There are not yet handles on it.. I was creating them when i managed to seriously burn all up the side of my hand on the edge of my upstanding iron... so i was smothered in burns cream and bandaged up for the night!!

Here are some photographs of my progression :)

Once the pattern pieces have been cut! You can see how the base piece is going to be a different material

Sizing, working out where the handles should go according to placement of the bag on the body

Some adjustments and adding topstitching on the corners also

This is my second toile at 90% yay!