Illustrations.

Recently I've been looking through the illustrations i did towards my major project at uni and i really want to start getting back into them. I feel like i need to make them more personal and more 'me', and i also need to get a new work load together! I've been finding a lot of inspiration from magazines like Mollie Makes and Oh Comely. They are such lovely magazines with original projects and inspirations in them, I look forward to getting my new magazines through my letter box every month :D I'm currently looking at re-branding myself and my logo, getting ready to start and work towards a new collection from Rosebud Casson. It's really exciting with all these ideas whizzing round my head and now i just need to make them into something real and in front of me! 

Dabble outside my comfort zone..

Recently when we went to Penzance we stayed with two friends who were absolutely lovely and more than we could have asked for in the area of hospitable hosts.We had such a lovely time staying with them and i wanted to do something to say thank you for our stay there....So! I went a little bit out of my comfort zone and did this piece of embroidery. I've never done text in my work before so it was a very new thing and took a few goes to get the first letters to look right but i LOVED it!! I really like how it turned out and in the embroidery hoop i think it looks really effective - plus its easy to hang on the wall! I'm hoping i'll get more chances to do something like this in the future and i'd even like to start doing personalized commissions in the near future :)

Experiencing Poppy Treffry

Well! The time came and went. After organizing it months in advance and believing it would never come around, it did! My two weeks working with Poppy Treffry were fab, and I have learnt so much just from being around the people who work there. The Business was set up by Poppy about 9 years ago, and nine years on she is still going strong with about nine lovely ladies under her employment and a studio full of vintage singers! 

While i was there i was lucky enough to help out with one of Poppy's famous embroidery workshops, and people had come from far and wide to come and learn how to make something quirky and unique to take home with them. I think the person that had traveled the furthest was all the way from Belgium! It was a really good opportunity to see how she taught and managed a class of nine women, as I've always been interested in taking part in some workshops myself.

It was fab even just to see behind the scenes of a small to medium business, and very interesting to see all the little bits and bobs that add the finishing touches to the products. The workshop was full of little bits like tags, labels, wrap-arounds etc and it just shows you how the tiniest little touches really can make a business unique and effective.

At the end of my time there i got to sit down with Poppy and pick her brains a little bit! It was really interesting and inspiring to hear the story of her starting her business on her own, and then from there helping it grow and expand, employing various lovely ladies to help her out and then even acquiring her own little shop in St Ives! The whole experience was so so inspiring and i have so many ideas of my own to get me started.

For more info on Poppy Treffry visit her website at www.poppytreffry.co.uk and even treat yourself to one of her lovely products! For now it is up to me to get my nose to the grind and start my own work! My plan for now is to get as much work done as possible, i'll be churning illustrations out like a factory soon! (hopefully.....)