2015 Highlights

1) This year I finally found my 'style' of working at uni, which is collaging in a naive way to tell a story. I still love my course and I am doing quite well finally, and I even made some lovely friends on my course!! 

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year!

I'm sure I will have lots of new work to show you in 2016.

Have a good'un : ) 

My entry for a Paperchase card competition

 

Home for Christmas!

Finally after a long yet rewarding few months at uni I am home for christmas. I have three weeks at home (even if I do have essays and designs to do before I go back!) and I can't wait for christmas with the family. 

Dixie <3 

Designing a collection

For the past week I have been developing my collages from the last project into patterns that will be made into fabric that we then take to Indigo at Premiere Vision in Paris to sell to companies (hopefully!!). I am designing mine for the market of newborn to 2 years old due to the naive, playful style of work that I produce.

 

New collage of Leaks and Spring Onions

A visit to York

My collages

 Last week I had a couple of days off from Uni as our last project was being marked, so I spent them collaging for various things such as the Hillary's Blind competition and Surtex. It was nice to have a couple of lay ins for once!

Deadline Week

The past weeks have been super intense on my course (Printed Textiles), what with our first deadline looming (tomorrow...AHH) of second year that actually counts, things have got super serious way too quickly.  

Munro House: Colours May Vary, Joan Cornella

This weekend I took a long awaited trip to Munro House, a building that is home to Colours May Vary (the loveliest design shop in Leeds that stocks my favourite magazines Frankie, Betty & Flow, a long with great books, stationery and prints as well as Mid-century style furniture that I was swooning over), Cafe 164 that sell the BEST brownies and do a lovely cuppa, a long with a Gallery, that this weekend presented the work of Joan Cornello: a cartoonist and illustrator with an unsettling humorous style (humorous being an understatement. 

Colours May Vary

I nearly cried laughing at some of his work as well as being shocked at other pieces. It is very controversial in a funny way and kind of makes him like Marmite, you love him or hate him.

 Munro House is a great place to visit for a few hours to buy some prints, magazines and catch up with friends over tea and cake!! Can't wait to go back there and spend way too much money on my favourite things :)

Adorable gift wrap

Lovely wash bags and cushions by Rosie Moss

Scandinavian style wrap by Tove Johansson (LOVE)

Dreamy Mid-century side board

Joan Cornella

Joan Cornella

Leeds Print Fair

On Saturday I took a visit to the Corn Exchange in Leeds for the Print Fair. It was lovely to see and chat to so many like minded people, and to feel like a proud mum when seeing my fellow course mates (Amy from The Creative Outlook) and Charlotte from http://charlottesurfacepattern.bigcartel.com, selling their work on a stand there. 

Priceless & Worthless Exhibition

On Tuesday we had our first mini exhibition at university in second year. We spent the past few weeks sorting out what we thought was 'worthless' and re inventing it to make it 'priceless'. 
For my entry I bought some old medicine bottles from a charity shop and played around with laser cutting for the first time, cutting floral wood pieces out of scrap ply wood, inspired by the lovely Anna Wisecombe who bases her work purely on laser cut wood pieces.
I then painted them in my favourite colours at the moment - Duck Egg Blue, Yellow and Orange. They go lovely together and suite my uni room (especially with my Orla Jar <3)

'My Creative Journey' Tag

Robyn from 'Robyn Makes Things' recently tagged me in the 'Creative Journey' tag that Lauren created (lovely idea). It is a good chance for me to try and reflect on my where I started to where I am now.

Autumn

I know I am a little late with a 'Hello Autumn' post but today is the first day it has really felt like it for me, what with the nights drawing in quicker and the air feeling super cold. I also invested in possibly the best thing i've ever bought, in my opinion, a super warm mustard knitted scarf!! Now I am on the hunt for matching gloves and a bobble hat and I will be completely fit for winter. My immune system however will not be!

Mustard Scarf <3

Whitworth Art Gallery & Manchester Museum

Whilst in Manchester last weekend I took a quick visit to The Whitworth Gallery and my favourite section, no surprise, was the shop. The main reason for this being that they stock a few Donna Wilson items, like the fox scarf, cushions and socks <3 I wanted to buy the socks with a mustard top but they only stocked them in 'mens' sizes 7-10 so wouldn't fit my feet *sigh*.

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

This weekend I took a trip to Manchester for the 'Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair' that showcased a wide variety of work from jewellery and ceramics to interiors and home wares and fashion textiles. 

Heather Shields Woven Textiles

A Quick Update

This week was 'colour week' at University which this time last year I would have been completely petrified of but ever since the 'coastal wanders' project I have felt a lot more confident and a little less scared to use it.

 So I have gone for bold, vibrant colours and shapes to fit in with my theme of allotments but also as a bit of a contrast I used unconventional colours (for instance the tomatoes being Turquoise and Green!).

Veggie Collages

RADSTUDIO!

You may have read the previous post about my visit to Saltaire to wander around Salts Mill and be in awe of David Hockneys work. 

Well, I have some more lovely pictures for you as whilst wondering around the village I came across 'RADSTUDIO!', a design shop offering modern home wares and gifts from lovely designers around the world including the UK, Switzerland, Denmark and Portland. 

Day out at Saltaire

On Saturday I decided to take a trip to Saltaire. A purpose built model village that provided a self contained living space for the workers at (what was) an alpaca wool mill, called 'Salts Mill'.

London Graphic Centre

All of the lovely creative bloggers <3

I can't believe it has been a week already since my last post. But what a busy week it has been!! 
I moved back to Leeds for my second year of university, and travelled to London with Amy - The Creative Outlook for the London Graphic Centre blogger event (which was my first ever event!). 
It was so great to meet lots of like minded creatives and they were all so lovely and down to earth. 

Flash Back Friday

As I start my second year of university next Thursday, I thought I would look back at the final project of my first year. 

I think this project marks a turning point in my work, as before this I used to struggle ALOT with using colour and compositions. However, seen as it was my last project I decided to just do what I liked and refine what I was doing instead of just shovelling out loads of work that my heart wasn't really in. As well as this I created colour studies and referenced these when collaging. I also added more colour and marks using Photoshop, just to give a professional finish. 

The Past Week

For the past week I have been attempting to get my Summer Project done for university, as I only have just over a week left until I am back. We have to do 20 A4 mark making pages, 10 A3 observational drawings and 5 colour studies. I really enjoyed getting messy with the mark making and using lots of different objects to make marks with, this was super fun. 

Inky Observational Drawing

Weekend in LDN

The Hoxton Hotel front/reception, Carnaby Street and Covent Garden

The Hoxton Hotel, Holborn

As some of you may know, I spent the weekend in London with Rob and we stayed at The Hoxton hotel in Holborn. It was amazing! As soon as we walked into the reception/bar/lounge area it was already buzzing due to being a Friday night, however it stayed pretty full through out the whole weekend. 

Stationery Love

I recently discovered 'Present and Correct' - a sophisticated stationery shop with a vintage edge. If you are anything like me then you will also be obsessed with stationery, but this stuff takes me back to primary school with the 60's style pen organisers and wire baskets to organise your work sheets in. 

Summer Holiday

It has been nearly a month since my last blog post and as I have been on holiday in Tenerife for half of that I thought I would show you a few of my holiday photos!

Cactuses everywhere!

Orla Kiely S/S15 Shoe Collection

As some of you may have already guessed (by my Instagram), I am an Orla Kiely fanatic. I am forever searching for everything Orla, and if I could afford it I would own the majority of it by now (One day...). 

Holiday Wardrobe

Seen as it is only 10 days until my holiday in the lovely, Sunny Tenerife, I decided to show you all what I have been packing in my suitcase.

My Favourite 'Arty' Materials

I was tagged by the lovely Dork Features to write a post about what is in my pencil case (or in other words, what arty materials I like to use), so here goes! 

1) Collage

Recently this has been my favourite thing to create, using Acrylic painted papers, a scalpel and glue to make my collaged pieces. I then look at an image of something (for this instance, I used my picture of local allotments featuring some lovely strawberries) and cut things out directly. Tip: For small pieces that are tricky to pick up and glue with your hands, put a bit of glue on the tip of the scalpel and pick up the tiny piece of paper with this. However, this does make the scalpel super sticky so not the best thing to do (it might just be one of my bad habits!!)

Hello July!

It has been a month since my last post!! After finishing university for summer I decided to get myself a summer job, so I have been working lots ready for my holiday soon! Sorry for the lack of posts.

A few weeks ago I decided to sign up to the Oh Comely magazine 'Perfect Strangers' parcel swap. This is where you swap anything from photographs, food, any type of gift, to a stranger that can be from anywhere in the world (that also reads Oh Comely). I found this aspect quite exciting, so decided to join in myself this year. 

University Halls

Before taking everything down from my walls and packing things up in my first year flat of university (I stayed at The Plaza in Leeds, as it was in the centre but only a 10 minute walk to Leeds College of Art where I study, so close to everything!) I decided to take a few photos to remind me of what it was like. 

Orla Kiely Folder. Crosley Record Player. Succulent Plants. Camera from a vintage fair.

Last weekend in Leeds

This weekend is the last I will spend in Leeds until September as I move back home for Summer, so we decided to take one last visit to Mrs Athas (A lovely, quirky cafe next to Pop Boutique in Leeds) Along with a traditional 'English Breakfast' tea we tend to go for a piece of cake, this time Rob chose a slice of Lemon  drizzle (a slice the size of quarter of the cake!!) and I chose Victoria Sponge. 
I always get comments like 'you will be getting fat eating that cake', but at the end of the day I go there as a treat once every couple of weekends, I don't eat cake every day, and we all deserve a treat every now and then!

http://www.mrsathasleeds.com

I-Dott Wallpaper Competition

I have finished University for a few weeks now and I have needed to keep myself busy, because as soon as I stop I get bored so easily. So I decided to enter the i-Dott wallpaper competition, under the category 'My Home' that required you to take inspiration from the decade of 'Mid Century Modernism'.

Dulux Colour Trends

Hello!

For a while now I have been debating whether to make a blog and actually stick to it (unlike my failed attempt last summer where I wrote about two posts.) So now I have finished my first year of university for Summer, I have lots of spare time to blog!!
I want this blog to be about all things 'textiley'. This can be from drawings, prints, wallpaper, interiors, fabrics, exhibitions and artists, designers and illustrators.
I also want to talk about my every day life, what I have been upto, where I have been visiting (mostly cafes and anywhere with cats) 
I also will be showing my latest work and talking about it in more detail to when I usually just post a picture with one sentence on Instagram. 
I hope you enjoy my new posts!

Dixie <3

My favourite cafe in Leeds- Mrs Athas