Mudam Market in Luxembourg

Me and my sister (and I think my mum is hiding behind me) at the market at Luxembourg's museum of modern art (MUDAM) last week. It was such a huge help to have my family around, I don't think I would have managed on my own, and it definitely wouldn't have been as enjoyable. Part of the fun of a market is meeting and chatting to your customers, so you really need someone there to help you.

*the picture is taken by MUDAM - not sure who the actual photographer is.

Treats

Ben and I decided to treat ourselves to another day off today. There are a lot of downsides to being self employed, like not having a steady income, not being able to switch off, no paid holidays/sick leave, no pension etc. But being able to spontaneously take a day off is definitely a big bonus.

It was strange being in town shopping, I never shop for myself these days. When I was working in soho I used to count the minutes till I could go home and to cheer myself up I'd "treat" myself and go shopping in my lunch break. Now I find shopping so boring and I keep thinking of all the other things I could do with the money instead, like holidays, screen printing materials, presents and food. It's not a treat anymore.

Ben did treat me to an amazing pair of trainers - they're a (very) late birthday present (my birthday is in January), but I haven't been able to find any I liked until now. Thanks Ben!

I treated myself to a delicious ice cream.

The biggest treat of the day was, by far, having lunch with Ben in the sunshine.

Ben & Pepper

I'm so excited because my cushions are now available in the lovely Ben & Pepper shop in Luxembourg! If you're in Luxembourg this shop is definitely worth a visit, the owners are so nice and know everything about their products and their designers. It's perfect for everything from a small gift to a bespoke sofa!

If you're not in Luxembourg, then my cushions are also available from my online shop.

Spring Give-Away - winner

I've finally picked a winner - and it's comment number 4: Hawthorn! Please email me your address and I'll pop your gift in the post.

I loved reading all your great ideas, thank you everyone! I'm still not sure which one to choose but I think I've narrowed it down to either, scones, crumble or Victoria Sponge. If I use your idea, I'll send you the tea towel as soon as it has been printed.




The weather is just amazing here in London, after the worst spring I can remember it's so good to finally see blue sky and to leave the house without a coat and umbrella. Since I got back I've mostly been hanging out in cafés drinking iced coffee and soaking up the sun, but am back to work this afternoon.

Park life

I've given myself a day off today and I'm spending it in the park with Ben. I've worked pretty much non-stop this month so it feels a little weird, but so good to just do nothing.

I promise I'll select a winner of the giveaway tomorrow!

Apron Printing

Before I left to Luxembourg, I started printing aprons for the amazing E5 Bake House. It's my favourite local place to go for coffee, they make the best bread (the Hackney Wild loaf is addictive) and everyone is so nice.

You can read a great article from the Observer about the place here.

I met with Ben (one of the founders), who explained that they just wanted a subtle branding and we decided to screen print their logo onto used aprons - so all the aprons are slightly different. The white aprons are printed with black dye and the darker ones are printed with with white.

If you're ever near London Fields in East London, you should pop by their bakery and try a slice of Hackney Wild!

Marché des Créateurs

This weekend I took part in a design market (marché des créateurs) at the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg (MUDAM). I met so many interesting people; designers, customers and old friends - apparently around 3000 people visited over the two days. It was great to hear suggestions, comments and critiques from people and it definitely gave me a lot of ideas for new projects.

As you can see from the images below, the building itself is so beautiful and it was such a luxury to have a stand in those surroundings.

I'm still in Luxembourg for the next two days, I have so many things I need to do before I leave, time always flies when I'm here. Today I'm going to visit the shop Ben & Pepper to deliver some more of my tea towels and maybe to do a bit of shopping myself!

I'm going to pick a winner on my giveaway tomorrow - thank you so much for all your suggestions, there are so many good ones it's going to be difficult to choose just one.

Today is all about ironing

I arrived in Luxembourg yesterday, it's really nice to be here. I had to pack all of the newly printed tea towels, cushions and prints into suitcases and somehow I managed to get it all on the flight without having to pay extra. Unfortunately most of it is now pretty creased and I'm going to be spending most of the day ironing. I'll need to find a good film to watch to make it more bearable because I've calculated that it will take me around 5-6 hours! I wish I hadn't bothered calculating that, sometimes it's better not to know.

I have just discovered another great time saver though. Once you've screen printed the fabric you need to heat cure the dye, the professional studios will have a heat tunnel, but unfortunately I don't, so I usually use a heat press. It works well for small projects like tote bags and aprons, but for larger items such as tea towels it's not great as I'll have to press it several times to cover the printed area. Anyway, I thought maybe commercial dryers would work, so I chanced it and spoke to my local laundry guy, who turned out to be a trained textile screen printer!! I just love Hackney. He knew exactly what I wanted and he could heat the fabric to the exact temperature I needed in his dryers. Saved me about two days work.

Tomorrow I'm taking part in a design market at the Design Museum in Luxembourg, I was there last year too and it's always so well organised and full of lovely products. I can't wait. If you're in Luxembourg, please come by and say hello.

Ralph and his beloved tennis ball

We were looking after my friends Steph and Paul's dog Ralph, this weekend. He's by favourite dog, I just love him, he's got so much character and is so mischievous.

Ben and I were watching a film and Ralph didn't feel like he was getting anywhere near enough attention, so he found his ball. At first he was just lying staring at it, as if to magically make it move on its own or maybe he just thought we would start to feel sorry for him and throw it for him. When that didn't work he started to bring it to us on the sofa, first to Ben who is his favourite playmate, when that didn't work he brought it to me, his second choice. He knows exactly how to get you to make you feel sorry for him; just look at his little face, you can't say no to that!

Message in a Pattern

I am a bit of a geek really, I love facts, academia and technology, just as much as I love colours, patterns and making. After I did my Bachelor in Product Design, I went on to do a masters in Social Sciences, I need a bit of both to feel balanced. So this project is the perfect combination for me. A group of designers came up with a way to illustrate messages as a pattern; they made a cryptographer which creates patterns that are actually encoded messages, using bleach on coloured fabric.

I love the idea, the execution and the look of the end result - perfect!

I read about it over on Design Milk.

CMYK Embroidered Poster

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. The sun finally showed itself here in London and it was great timing, as we were looking after Ralph so we had lots of lovely walks in the sun. Today it's raining again, and I've just been for a not so lovely walk with Ralph (he hates the rain and I practically have to carry him outside), now I'm trying to motivate myself to go swimming, I've even added it to my list so I must do it if I'm going to keep up my good track record of completing my daily to-do lists.

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions on the Spring Give Away, I love all of them. There's still a week left to enter...

I love Custhom's work and I just spotted these new embroidered posters they made. So simple and so nice.




Found them via here.

Cross Stitch

A lot of my friends live far away from me, and a lot of my friends are having babies, so I need to send gifts that wont break and wont cost a fortune to send!

These embroidered hoops are quite a nice and personal gift. I've made two so far this year, one for Carolyn and her baby Freya in South Africa and one for Cecilie and her baby Jack in Norway. Unfortunately I didn't take photo of the one I sent to Freya but you can see it over on Carolyn's beautiful blog.

They're really simple to make and I've put together a short tutorial here:



1. Embroider your image onto the fabric, keep it in the hoop with app. 3cm of extra fabric all the way around it. Turn it over, cut out a thick piece of white fabric, felt or quilting stuff (can't remember the proper name for this?) in the same diameter as the inner hoop - it's best to do this before you start embroidering as you can then use the inner hoop as a template when cutting the fabric. Place the felt/fabric/quilt stuff on the back of your embroidery to protect it.

2. Get a needle and piece of thread, sew around the edge of the fabric.

3. Tighten the thread to collect the fabric together, and fasten it with several knots.

4. Cut out a piece of thick cardboard which fits the inner dimensions of the inner hoop - (again this is best to do before you start so you can use the hoop as a template). Put glue around the edge of the cardboard circle and place with the glue side down on top of the fabric. - you can also cover the cardboard in the same fabric used for your embroidery as I've done in the top picture.

It's best to leave it with something heavy on top for a few hours while the glue dries completely, I usually use jars ors tins.

And that's it!

Spring Give-Away

I'm so bored with the grey and rainy weather we've been having here in London, so to cheer things up a bit I've decided to have my very first give-away here on the blog.

I've been wanting to do a British version of my Gromperekichelchen Tea-Towel, for quite a while now, but I can't decide which recipe to use. Gromperekichelchen are little potato cakes, which isn't the national dish, but is loved by Luxembourgers and in many ways symbolises Luxembourgishness. So, basically, for the British version, I'd like to use a food recipe that Brits can be proud of and which symbolises Britishness and I'd love to hear your suggestions (you don't have to be British as it would be great to know what other nationalities associate with Britishness).

I'm giving away a zippered pouch (20 x 11cm) made from the fabric from my Faroese cushions, a tiny butterfly brooch - crocheted using fine pink silk thread and an original Gromperekichelchen Tea Towel in red.

To take part, you just have to be a follower of my blog and comment on this post with an idea for a British recipe. I'll randomly select a winner on Monday the 21st of May and post the gifts that week.

Printing

I'm busy printing in the studio today. I still have a few prints to go, but I'm nearly done. It's so nice to be away from the computer screen and actually produce something. I love screen printing and time flies by whenever I'm in the studio.

Tomorrow I'm starting on a new client project, hopefully it'll go smoothly and I'll have time to upload a few images here.

Oh and Ralph is coming to visit tomorrow! We're looking after him this weekend and I can't wait. He makes me laugh so much, and there's no way he'll let us stay in front of the computer for too long!

Tillykke Morfar!

Today would have been my grandad's 89th birthday. They have a flagpole in their back garden (the one in the picture) and he would always raise the flag whenever it was somebody's birthday, at his funeral in March we raised it at half mast.

In Denmark, if the sun shines on your birthday, we always say that's because you've been good this past year. After weeks and weeks of grey clouds and rain, the sun is actually shining today and it is in Denmark too. I'm not surprised, because he had such a good soul.

Tote Bags

This weekend I finished printing these tote bags for Linda Bos at Pretty Forest. Linda made the beautiful origami bird illustration and I screen printed it on to bags that will be on sale at the Marché des Créateurs in Luxembourg, which I will also be taking part in.

Today is a bank holiday here in the UK, and it is of course pouring down with rain! I've been working most of the weekend and I really need to get away from the computer and out of the flat, so we're off to the pub for some lunch with friends (Ralph might even be joining us). On days like these I really do wish we had a car, or lived in a city where it was practical to have a car, or a city with better weather...

I'm planning to have a give-away here on the blog later this week, just getting it all together and will post about it soon.

Have a great Monday!

I'm quite sentimental when it comes to objects, I always have been. I like products to have a story, I want to know who made them, how and why, and if they're used, I like to think about what the previous owners were like and where they lived.

 This ruler is very special to me, it belonged to my grandad who meant so much to me. I definitely got my love of crafts and making, from him and he encouraged it though out my life. Absolutely everything I ever made was treasured and displayed at their house, and it still is.

He passed away in March at the age of 88.

I use his ruler for everything I make, and I think about him every time I do.

Typography Pouches

Lately a lot of my work has been on the computer, I've been building a new website, making a logo and preparing quotes for client screen printing jobs. When I've needed a break from all of that, I've been making pouches using my left over fabrics. These ones are made from one of my tea towels. They're on sale in my shop for £10/€12.

Labeling Labour

I was being stingy and didn't want to fork out on expensive woven labels, instead I thought I'd just make my own using fabric ink and a stamp. In my mind this was super easy and quick, alas I was wrong. I think it looks nice though.

Yayoi Kusama

One of the many things I love about living in London, is all the amazing galleries available to you. It's difficult to choose from all the exhibitions that are currently on, but I'm so glad I chose to see Yayoi Kusama retrospective at The Tate Modern last Saturday. It was incredibly inspiring and beautiful.

One of my favourite pieces is shown in the top image; it's a room filled with mirrors and tiny coloured lights that are mirrored in a way that make them seem to go on forever, or at least further than the eye can see. But honestly I loved nearly all of her work, patterns, repetition and the colours. If you're in London, and have the chance, I definitely recommend you go and see this one.

Two weeks ago I went to see the Hockney exhibition at The Royal Academy, it was equally inspiring and also a retrospective. Hockney is in his late 70's and Kusama in her 80's. They're both still producing beautiful art, still inspired by new tools and techniques and obviously still passionate about it. I think I find that even more inspiring than the art itself. I'd love to be lucky enough to be able to continue working with something I love, when I'm their age, when it's no longer about recognition or money. Surely this is what work should be all about, not just working for money and a retirement. If only we could all be this lucky.

 Top image from www.theguardian.com
 Second image from www.roslynoxley9.com.au
 Third image from http://www.moma.org/
 Fourth image from http://arrestedmotion.com/