WOOO!

Happy Halloween!

This week we've finished another batch of last year's Christmas gift, the flat pack Robin, only this year it's available for retail and wholesale. Being laser cut and then dip-dyed by hand, they're a bit crafty, but all-in-all we're happy with their uniformity.

I love the sticker-sealed opaque paper on the aniseed flat breads you sometimes find in London delis, I've been waiting to appropriate their packaging for the longest time!

Disappointed by the failure of another Indian Summer? Luckily there's plenty of hot colour and blazing, vibrant pattern on show in the V&A Museum's India Festival this autumn.

Specially commissioned for the occasion, Lisa Jones Studio's new A3 fluorescent riso print will be available from the V&A shop in Kensington and online for the duration of the exhibitions.

Anybody searching for us at Olympia's Top Drawer trade fair this week will find it even more difficult than usual; we're not there! Hope everyone has an enjoyable and productive show, perhaps we'll see you all again next year.

I tried to write a bit of a toast to Les Ellis, our next door neighbour and dear friend who died quite suddenly last week, only it kept coming out all wrong.

After all, Les was loads of things: an energetic teacher; inveterate jazz head; accomplished print-maker (recent work pictured); one half of the perfect team; awesome parent / foster-parent / grandparent; tireless walker and — without doubt — the most outspoken lefty in the golf club.

Quite simply, it was a joy to be in his company and an honor to call him a friend. Loved far more than he would’ve thought necessary, we’ll miss his sparkling countenance and just knowing he’s around.

To Les!

Here's the dude that's burning black the last of our home's larch cladding. The final few bits are going up today (before 4pm when they all speed off to drink barrel loads of beer)... yay!

Wriggly Riso

Have a Good'un!

Seriously?!

Here's to a little extra romance this weekend...

 

Being surrounded by kiddie-mess isn't always a drawback, the boy's Ikea felt-tips made perfect droplet shapes on this Bird Bath illustration last week!

 

Sometimes I get so busy trying to flog things that I actually forget to blog things! Here are some of the new styles of drum shades we've been making recently. Huge gratitude to Jane Warren who invented the humble lampshade… okay, maybe that's a slight overstatement, but she certainly gave us the idea after crafting a super-cute shade from our Forest gift wrap.

As the roof rises on our home, so does the budget. Gulp!

Jump for Joy!

Old friend Matthew Bickley made the resurgence of our clubbing days even less likely with the birth of his gorgeous son, Cassius. Even when sending congratulations I kept one eye on business, making sure I took snaps of their card. Who knows, this kangaroo may just jump its way right into our range!

Spent the new year visiting much missed friends in the nation's capital and took in the Sigmar Polke retrospective at Tate Modern on a particularly quiet Sunday. It was every bit as good as I hoped. Odd to see the originals of works you've known so well in reproduction.