Are you sitting comfortably?…Cushions and Chairs

Horrah! The long promised cowboy print is now available in fabric! It’s so exciting to see it in real life, and the colours came out brilliantly (despite some trepidation from the lovely lady who printed it due to printer problems).

And it is now available for sale in the form of this luxurious red velvet backed cushion Measuring 50cm x 50cm (nice and large for getting cosy), it has a beautifully squishy feather inner for ultimate comfort. This will be the first of many such delights – i have my ‘Jungle’ print ready and waiting at home to be made up, but to bag the first EVER BearHands cushion, pop into the Charlie Boots boutique.

My fabric was also put to the test for an upholstery course at The Makery in Bath recently with lovely tutor Nicky. It was a great day, and I took in a rather battered chair from a charity shop to pull appart and re-cover. Because I’d picked something that needed quite a lot of work, I didn’t manage to finish it during the workshop, and it is now an ongoing project at home. I really want to finish it though, and not relegate it to the pile of projects left half finished (don’t deny it, you have one too!).

My poor chair was stripped, re-stuffed and covered with calico…

…but then the fun began. And this is how it is sitting at home, waiting for me to finish it!

There was a bigger aim to the day for me though – to see whether providing upholstery as a service, with my fabric designs, could be a viable idea to add to my business. As it turns out there is a lot to learn, but I hope to keep practicing and perhaps introduce it at some point later this year. I will keep you posted!

Showcase: Charlie Boots boutique

Well it’s about time, since I am have now begun to settle in as a full time member of the Charlie Boots boutique in Bath, that I put some pics up of BearHands new home!

It’s a real pleasure to be a part of, and great to be meeting customers face to face on my days in the shop. Also it’s a good on-going motivator to keep making new things. It’s so important to introduce new designs and products so your brand stays fresh and exciting, but sometimes finding the time to actually sit down and make can be tricky. After all the emails, blogging, deliveries and orders, my day at Uni and time in the shop there’s not much left! But with a permanent outlet, there’s no putting it off. New lines are in production as I speak which I’m really excited about…sneak preview coming soon

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these flavours of everything handcrafted, vintage, ethical and local from the Charlie Boots shop floor…

My ‘Animal ABC’ is now sitting happily behind a beautiful ‘love’ cushion from red bird makes. I love the grey and yellow theme to this little nook!

Got a birthday coming up? Don’t panic! We’ve got it covered from gifts to cards…pop in for a browse of our collection.

My bird necklaces have found a new home in the trees! This is Charlies super cute jewellery display corner, which attracts loads of attention…branches dripping with handmade and vintage necklaces, there is plenty to covet here.

Some inspiration and badges

As write up’s go, this is a little belated, but few weeks ago I went to the brilliant interior accessory and design trade show ‘Top Drawer’ as well as it’s new sister show ‘home’ at Earls Court in London.

I’ve never been to anything like this before, but it was huge, with designers and makers from all over the country, showing everything from greetings cards to textiles, furniture, fashion and all sorts of other amazing products. It was a hugely inspiring day, and I came away with all sorts of new ideas and a motivated mindset. If you’re a creative of any sort trying to carve a living from your talent, I would highly recommend a visit to a show like this.

I hope that one day I’ll be one of the stall holders myself…but not for a year or two at least! A lesson to be learnt from this is how on the ball and clued up about the business side you have to be – people knew their products inside out, and had a firm grip on the figures.

One of the lovely displays in the entrance walk way

And now back to my level of things I put together a little trio of badges recently to go in my new shop in Bath – Charlie Boots. They are love themed designs and a perfect gift for that special someone…just add some xxxx of your own

BearHands in Bath

Exciting news for BearHands, shortly after Christmas I was asked if I would like to join the super cute shop Charlie Boots in Bath

Obviously I couldn’t turn down an offer like that, so from February I will be joining the lovely Charlie, who’s clothing and jewellery you will find on the website, and Joe, who’s wonderful creations you can find at ‘Red Bird Makes’. So do pop in and check it out if you’re passing – 35 Broad St – and I’ll hope to see some of you there after February!

happy new year!

Bye Bye 2011, and Hello 2012…i have to say I’m actually quite happy to be getting back to work, and really excited about what this year has in store for me.

but before i get started on that, i’ve got a few new creations to update you on from my christmas efforts. i think my last post was as we were setting up our ‘Pop up Shop’ (which went really well ) and since then i have just been so busy i didn’t have time to breathe, let alone take pictures, sit down and upload them! after that it was all go for the christmas fairs, and getting a load of stock made up to go in a number of shops around Bristol – very exciting! so here are a few of the things i have to show for my endeavours…

…firstly, some of my tile necklaces and tea towels which were on display in our Pop up Shop…

like the tile necklaces? you can now buy them in a number of different shops around Bristol – Dutty Girl, Elsie Riley, Iota, Amulet, Alice’s Secret Emporium (BS8), and The Silver Shop. but if Bristol isn’t your neighbourhood don’t panic, my next task is to get my etsy shop stocked up with all my goodies! if you do pop to the shops, then as well as the tile necklaces you will find these statement bird necklaces…

…made using my watercolour illustrations, they were very popular in the run up to chrismas…

…as were these broaches, with their little characters floating away on balloons, which you will also find in the shops

well i could go on and on, but will restrain myself! if you want to see more pics of what i’ve been up to then take a peep at my jewellery page and there’s more to see there. in the mean time i hope your 2012 is on the road to being a great year, and will be back soon with news of the Distance print exhibition i am taking part in

our shop and all my stock

so tomorrow is finally here (well, tomorrow it will be!) and i have managed, in addition to severe sleep deprivation, to make a fair bit of stock for our Drawn in Bristol Pop up Shop – quite a mouthful . come down from 6pm to meet the artists and browse our wares…all with a drink in hand and music to entertain.

check out the progress so far…thank you Carys (another DIB member) for this picture. take a peep at her website for all her beautiful work.
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i’ve spent a good part of the week at the shop with the other lovely members, preparing it for its grand opening. furniture painting and arranging, picture sorting and lots of cleaning. it looked pretty good when i was last there, so by now it must be sparkling! if you can’t remember where it is, scroll down to my previous posts and its in there along with all my other Christmas ventures.

but in case the sound of 20 or so talented illustrators selling very reasonable priced work and gifts all under 1 roof is not enough already, here are a few more pics to tempt you down tomorrow…

after a long day in the printing studio i came away with some (i hope) very cute notebooks, each hand printed with plain paper, and individually packed to keep them safe. great for your own notes and doodles, or a perfect pressie, and at under £5 you can’t go wrong!

i also put my screen printing to the test on fabric to make these ’3 Kings’ tea towels. a little Christmassy in theme, but not so much so that you have to put them away come the 1st Jan! these are almost done…just one more crown to add…but what colour could it be?

if neither of those catch your fancy, how about some illustrated jewellery? these pendants are handmade and feature all my furry friends and characters. They also come on a nice long 50cm chain; it is a bug bear of mine that when you buy a beautiful necklace, you so often get it home only to find the chain barely fits around your neck.

also a pic of my shrink plastic necklaces and broaches a bit nearer completion – just chains to add now.

lastly i was very excited to receive my new batch of business cards in the post the other day, horrah! so you can take one away with you if you pop down…and it wont cost you a penny

well, hopefully i will see some of you tomorrow night, if not, any time before the 3rd December. until then….

activity in the BearHands camp

so Christmas is fully under way here at BearHands HQ, endless packages of materials and parts are arriving in the post, and a veritable production line of jewellery and printing is on the go. its all very exciting, but also a bit scary as deadlines are fast approaching, and as always I have too much to do and too little time. anyway, i thought i would share a little of the excitement with a few pics of what i’ve been up to…firstly i ordered myself a custom stamp with my logo and a message to use on my packaging…here it is in action!

and of course if you have a stamp to stamp your goodies, you need some goodies to stamp this is my new favorite discovery – shrink plastic. some people remember this as ‘shrinky dinks’, and American craft phenomenon a while ago, but if you don’t, it is basically a sheet of plastic ‘paper’ which you print on with your home printer, then cut out your image, pop it in the oven for a minute or two, and out they come as little plastic charms…amazing! this is a prototype of one of my designs, and there will be lots more available from my stalls and shop this Christmas. This one is a necklace, with the chains fastening on either tip of his wing.

lastly (for the moment) i did a nice big print run of my ‘king bear’ print, who you might remember from last year, and he will be available this Christmas too, along with other designs.

well time to get back to the crafting table, and i will keep you updated of all my endeavors along the way. have a good week

Dates for your diary

yes, i have a few little Christmas ventures to mention…so get that pencil out and flip to November. Here goes:

I am VERY excited to be taking part in the running of a pop up shop with Drawn In Bristol as part of Pop Up Bristol. We have an amazing space in Quakers Friar, opposite the Apple store, a few doors down from Carluccio’s Deli, and there will be loads of beautiful hand made stuff to solve all your Christmas pressie problems! Opening on November 11th (the same day the Christmas lights are turned on), we will be open until the 3rd December, and there are 3 other creative pop up shops dotted around Cabot Circus, so why not make a day of it!

Drawn in Bristol also has stalls at both the Create Christmas fair on Friday 2nd & Saturday 3rd December, and Made in Bristol on Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th December, both of which will be selling my work (I will be manning the Create fair on the 2nd and Made in Bristol on the 11th).

I also have my VERY OWN stall at Made in Bristol on Saturday 17th December…so if you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping by then (and lets face it, who has!) then pop down and maybe you will find just what you’re looking for! Christmas cards, illustrated jewellery, fine art prints and other hand made goodies

And last but not least, on Saturday 3rd i have a stall at the lovely Christmas Steps Market…loads of handmade goodies from local artists and traders in a beautiful setting with the Christmas lights twinkling. what more could you ask for!

a fresh start…

well hello! i am home from holidays, and back in work mode.

last month i started my MA in printmaking at UWE here in Bristol, horrah! i can’t wait to get back into some proper old fashioned inky printing…and no doubt you will see some of what i get up to over the next 3 years. yes, 3 years, it’s not a typo – it’s a part time course, 1 day a week.

i also moved into my new studio with Drawn in Bristol in Hamilton House (under the Canteen for those of you who know Bristol)…it’s so good to be back in a studio environment with other people around me drawing. Drawn in Bristol is a new Illustration collective set up by the wonderful Dave and Bryony, who organise loads of exhibitions which us lucky DIB members get to take part in! follow them on facebook or twitter and the website will be up and running very soon.

in other news my Wow!Gorilla has finally left the streets, and after (2 days worth of!) fixing up his colourfull coat, was auctioned along with all the others to raise just under £500,000 for charity!

so now i am trying to get my head down with some t-shirt designs to get back into drawing mode…here is one of my efforts so far, and as a work in progress any suggestions and feedback would be welcomed. the idea is pretty simple, and there are designs for BLUE and YELLOW too, as you may have guessed. i am planning to print them big over the whole of the front of the T…or would it be better with all the words in one design?

studio ghibli cream cakes!

i couldn’t not put these up when i found them (completely by accident, looking for cakes on google – as you do)…amazing cute Totoro cream puffs! if you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Howels Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro) then you will know what i’m talking about, if not go check it out. It is an amazing Japanese Animation Studio, with a definite Manga edge, but a broader style appeal, perhaps, than the Manga from comics etc. They are the top animation studio from Japan, and their stories are wonderful, full of spirits and magical worlds which collide with the human one. Totoro is a tree spirit who welcomes a family to their new home when they move house, but he can only be seen by the children. It’s a beautiful little story, for grown ups as well as children. And the cream puff? Take a peek at Shiro-Higes’s Cream Puff Factory, a bakery in Japan themed around Studio Ghibli’s characters and art! Such a cute idea, with artwork on the walls, and cakes and cookies of the characters and their world. If only it wasn’t on the other side of our world!