Hippo

Bit of symbiosis going on with these guys!

Little One

Just in case there's anyone who's not had enough eggs over Easter, here's our recent New Baby card!

Have a Good'un!

Seriously?!

 

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!

Shady Characters

We're planning a couple of more styles of these drum shades and hoping to streamline the assembly stage (i.e. get a bit quicker at making 'em). Edward made the zig-zag base prototypes by hand and, even by his own admission, they took ages. First job for the new year: cost their properly mechanised manufacture!

Trade fairs tend to ape the structure of little towns in their layout and, to date, we've been quite lucky with our neighbours. Though last week we were especially fortunate to spend a few days in the good company of Ligne Claire illustrator and Kenny Everette lookalike, Robbie Porter.

We also saw some lovely new bits'n'bobs from our competitors: Wrap's stand looked even better than last year, while Francesca Iannaccone's open window illustration is just plain gorgeous. And who could blame us for picking up a couple of things at cost, like these stripy Moroccan bowls from Skoura.

This season our fluorescent Octopus print is juggling junk in the Good Stuff section of ANORAK magazine. All press is a plus, though a mention from something you admire is much better!

Pick Me Up

London's graphic arts festival, Pick Me Up, previewed Weds and opened proper Thurs. Unlimited asked if we'd like to contribute, so we thought we'd take opportunity to show off four new screen prints.

If we like animals and textiles, what could make more sense than a suite of creatures on carpets. Here's Couscous, Beigel, Paprika & Nutmeg.

The level of detail took Edward a little bit longer than usual to draw… he even demanded a new rOtring art pen! Go join a union.

Two wavy meters of this appeared from the stuff-nobody-wants box in a fabric sale recently. Nobody except me, that is! Better make it into something quick before I change my mind.

I wanted to post something joyful to match this glorious weather we've been having, so here's a Sicilian DeSimone plate (1964) I picked up recently.

Originally I mistook the abstracted motif for flowers but, what with all the fish those Christians will get through during Lent, it's still loosely topical, no?

↑↓

Phew! We managed to mail all our A0 Xmas posters out to friends and associates in plenty time for last post, but, wait, what's this? A seriously beautiful poster from the kindly folk at Ryantown... now I have seasonal illustration anxiety! Still, it does look real pretty (even on the difficult walls of the roundhouse). Thanks guys.

Some Stripes

So far, my Christmas list seems to be shaping-up pretty stripy. I think I'll mismatch the boy's socks like those in the picture, it's not like you don't still get two pairs. Then there's a lovely pen for his papa and a big ol' brooch for me.

• Images: COS / A Platform / Darkroom

P+P II

Is it really 5 years since 'Press + Pull', the first show of power-pattern prints from Kate Gibb (work pictured) and James Brown? It seems like only yesterday. In another 5 years I guess 'Press + Pull II' will feel like only yesterday... but really it starts tomorrow.

Press + Pull II, The Stour Space, 7 Roach Rd, Tower Hamlets, E3 2PA

Dishy Cloths

I do try to foster a vague air of humility on this here blog, but sometimes you just have to pause in public and throw an awkward air-punch. I like our new collection of tea towels so much I'd probably even buy them — from a shop! Let's hope it's not just us.

Life

If you're not running too late you can glimpse the curious new Design Museum taking shape behind the hoardings on route to Kensington Olympia... not that Olympia didn't have enough curios of its own at Top Drawer trade fair earlier this week. It's been predictably good to catch up with old friends (now stockists), Black Bough and some of our oldest friends (also now stockists), Present London.

It wasn't all familiar faces though, we spent a few days in the spirited company of Joy, Anna and Rose of London Pooch and Anna Wright, even getting to meet Polly, one half of pattern-mad design duo, Wrap. While I admit the current copy (No.8) is my first, at least I can check out those back issues while I wait for more!

Too preoccupied to scour the charity shops proper, we did find a copy of Charlotte Salomon's (1917—1943) extraordinary document Life? or Theatre? in Oxfam, W8. This untimely 836 page tome dates from the early 1940s and forms a dream-like diary, or early graphic novel, where each gouache panel becomes a fevered or fluid artwork in its own right.

Wrapper's Delight

This is our third selection of recycled gift-wrap. I can’t say we’d been especially eager to make any more in the intervening years, but eventually you idly imagine, ‘that might make a nice pattern,’ enough times that another batch is ready-to-roll.

I'm so pleased we did.

You can see those old, discontinued styles from 2006 and 2008 on our scrappy archive page. If you can spookily guess what book is gift wrapped for these pictures, I'll send you a set of the new stuff. Good luck!

From top: Madras / A2B / Stars / Jungle / Forest / Fruit'n'Veg

Things I probably should have left at the charity shop/car boot sale/house clearance

#1. The Silk 'Statement' Jacket

CC

Maybe they're deeply unfashionable, I don't know, but when I bought a swatch of Liberty's Bauhaus fabric last year it sparked a little love affair with the patterns of Collier-Campbell.

In an age when creativity means a handlebar moustache motif on a canvas tote, the live's of these sisters, spent in the highly specialised advancement of their aesthetic, is an absolute inspiration.

This ratty old cushion in CC's exuberant signature fabric, Cote d'aZur, repays its 50p over again in given pleasure.

Watch video clips here or here.

Late, Great

Some 1st birthday cards are worth waiting for… even nearly a month! And here's the proof. You can see more beautiful work from Kate Queen-of-Colour Gibb right here. It ain't all done with computers, you know.

No, kid, please don't put that in your big wet mouth. Oh, you insist? Okay. Er, oh…