Silkscreen & Scribble the inner workings of a hand printed textile studio

Lots of new things in the works but nothing finished and ready to share yet I’m afraid. This week’s been an interesting mix of working on new things - printing the fuchsia samples, finishing another new cushion design (more on that soon) and working on designs for a rather exciting project which I can’t wait to be able to write about!

However, the realities of running a business means that a fair amount of time is also devoted to printing and making existing designs for orders (not to mention sales, marketing, admin and lots of other important tasks) so I’ve also been printing up some bluebird baby t-shirts and making some purses.

Whilst it would be nice to spend my days making one of kind items there is something very pleasing about lots of little baby t-shirts lined up drying on the print table!

Of course one of the little perks of batch production are the offcuts…

I have a nice little pile of offcuts growing and seeing them together like this I think some one of a kind patchwork cushions may just have to be made soon.

Posted: March 20th, 2010 in hand-printing, inside the studio, making things.
Comments: 1

I opened up my studio shop for a couple of afternoons a week through the summer and met all sorts of interesting people who were visiting Orkney. When people visit my studio I often ask if it is their first visit to Orkney and I’m amazed at the number who say they come here every year. I think Orkney is a kind of “Marmite” place - people either come once and don’t like it (too quiet, too remote, not enough shops) or (and this is the more common response) they totally fall in love with the place and want to come back again and again. If you’re into the outdoors, big open skies, beautiful coastlines, wildlife, history, walking, crafts and locally produced food then it really is the place to visit and if you would like to then I suggest a look at Visit Orkney to find out more.

Also in the summer I showed at the County Show. Now I’m just to going to admit from the start that I was pretty sceptical about this one. Normally handmade crafts aren’t the first thing I would associate with an agricultural show but I am clearly out of date in my thinking. First thing on a morning in August I packed up the car and headed off to Kirkwall to setup my stand in the Craft Tent.

It was a scorchingly beautiful day and after a quiet start the craft tent was packed. I had printed up some special “100% percent Orkney beef” t-shirts for the show and they went down a storm! It was a fun day and I’ll definitely be taking part again this year.

Just goes to show you should never be afraid to try something new! Massive thanks have to go to my great friend Eilidh for coming along to play shop, putting up with me worrying about getting everything set up in time and going on little excursions for steak rolls, icecream and sweeties!

Posted: February 22nd, 2010 in exhibitions & events, inside the studio.
Comments: none

One of my lovely customers who had bought a pebbles coin purse from me got in touch to order a swing bag to match but she wanted the slate grey but with ice blue/turquoise detail instead of the normal natural/green stripe.  So the sewing machine was duly revved up and here it is.  So for the moment at least this one is unique but if anyone fancies one the same just let me know and I will get the sewing machine going again.

One of favourite things about these bags is the leather thong drawstring, at first I wasn’t sure how well it would work but it stays closed really well but when you do open it it’s great because it opens nice and wide so you can actually find your keys without 5 minutes of rummaging which is fabulous.

Posted: October 1st, 2008 in commissions & specials, inside the studio, shop.
Comments: 2

As a small business it’s always interesting to be able to do special commissions for customers. I had been thinking about trying out printing a couple of my designs in red ink on natural linen but I hadn’t got round to printing up some samples yet. Then one of my neighbours came to visit the studio with her sister who was in Orkney on holiday and she asked me to print a couple of cushions for her home.

I’m really pleased with the way this design looks in red and I think I may have to print some more of these for the shop sometime soon. The other cushion is in my pebbles design - I like it in red too but not quite as much I can’t decide whether to make more or not?

What do think red pebbles or no red pebbles?

Posted: September 20th, 2008 in design, hand-printing, inside the studio.
Comments: 7

I did an interesting commission last year for the Pier Arts Centre, which is a local gallery. It’s an amazing place to have on your doorstep and they have an impressive collection of work from artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicolson.

The centre is really part of the community and have a great program of educational events and involvement with local schools and they asked me to produce some floor cushions for kids to use as they take part in various activities around the galleries such as drawing and storytelling sessions.

Although it was the end of last year that I made them I’ve only recently received these photos and it’s great to see them in action.

Posted: September 6th, 2008 in art, design, hand-printing, inside the studio.
Comments: 2

So I guess I should fill in a few of the details. I live in Orkney which is a tiny group of islands off the north of Scotland and from here I run a studio designing and making a range of hand-printed textiles. I’ve got lots of exciting changes planned for the business over the next few months and hope you’ll come along for the ride.

One of my new projects has been setting up a wee studio shop in my workshop and the printed leaves fabric on the print table has become a lovely curtain to tidy up the sink area in the workshop. Unfortunately the sink is at the door and although the inks I use are all non-toxic and water based, I wouldn’t want anyone to spoil their clothes by getting ink on them.

Until the end of September my studio at the Old Academy (in the town of Stromness) will be open Wednesday and Friday afternoons 2.30-5pm. I’m not sure how often I’ll open in the winter, it does get pretty quiet around here once the weather becomes more wintery.

Posted: September 3rd, 2008 in hand-printing, inside the studio, it's all me, me, me.
Comments: 2