Illustration fancy: Off to the printer

There has been hundreds of last minute changes, but finally they are ready. Instead of getting them printed digitally, I'm going to fork out a little more money and get them screen printed instead. I can't wait to see how they will turn out. Fingers crossed.

Illustration fancy: Japanese Maneki Neko tea towel

For the past couple of days I have been working on this tea towel design, I wasn't too happy with the colours and texture in the old design but I persisted thinking that it can be tweaked once finished. Although I was sort of happy with the outcome, it just didn't feel right, the colouring was too controlled, too cartoonish. I went back to the drawing board and came up with this second idea. It is now more muted with less colours and am now very happy with the result.

Just need to work on two more designs and get it printed. I can't wait to show you once it arrives, really excited.

I have posted some pictures of the Oxford St Design Store launch party on my  facebook  page. It was such a fun night and it felt so good to see my tea towels in a shop. There were only two left, so I'm assuming the others were already bought and taken to their brand new home. :)

Twelve by 2012 recap

So we are officially well into 2012, did I achieve the 12 goals set for  twelve by 2012 ? 

Well, lets see...

1. Start an imagined travel series 

Not exactly a series, but I have started and the idea is more refine now which I am happy about. See the first of the series  here .

2. Finish my crochet cushion cover  

Yay! I even made a fabric one to accompany my new crochet cushion. See  here .

3. Add more paintings and crafty goodness to my  shop 

A bit of a fail here, but one new item is better than none right?

4. Sell at least one item in my  shop 

Woohoo! Had my first customer on Christmas eve, he bought the tea towel within 30min of me putting it up in the shop!

5. Get back into dressmaking

Sort of, I am in the middle of finishing a dress, will show and tell soon.

6. Make more jam

Nope, no jam making unfortunately. Will need to make some by the end of this month.

7. Bake more

I have made the ugliest but tasty  choc chip cookies , meringue, super moorish poprcorn crunch using this  recipe  and a few ultra delicious veggie quiche. This is quite an achievement for someone who used to bake once a year. 

8. Try making macaroons 

Failed, see  here . Will need to try again very soon.

9. Finish reading all my magazines

No, not really. Only finish reading 2 Frankie magazines, still have a stash to go through.

10. Take a road trip  

We took a trip to  Barrington Tops  for my 31st birthday, visited  Watsons Bay  for the first time and went bush walking around Berry Island Reserve.

11. Do something unexpected for someone

I'm not sure whether I have achieved this goal, hopefully I had put a smile on someone's face this last couple of months.

12. Make at least one new friend

I'm glad to say I have made a couple of really good blog buddies and met a few new friends from Brown Owls. I look forward to developing these friendships this year.

Limited edition tea towels

It's here! My Limited Edition tea towel is finally up on  etsy . Come check it out, and get one for your friend or yourself. It is lovingly screen printed by me using organic water based ink on 100% cotton. The illustration is of Japanese vending machines I encountered during my travels to Tokyo.

This is the first of my Imagined Travels series, and as this is just a soft launch, only an extremely limited amount will be available. The tea towel will come beautiful packaged, ready to give to your loved ones.

Arcade screen printing class

Mat and I went to a screen printing class at  Arcade Screen Printing  on the weekend. It was a belated birthday present for Mat, but since I couldn't resist the opportunity to do some screen printing of my own, I enrolled as well. The course was aimed at people who have never screen printed before as well as people who want a refresher course on the craft. We were given the choice to print our design on either a t-shirt or a tea towel, and I guess anything else to your heart's desire. It was so much fun! We are now officially addicted and are already talking about setting up a print studio of our own.

Making sure the design fits within the tea towel.

Getting ready for my first print.

Mat's t-shirt. That's right, he made a t-shirt design on Miso, look out for a Miso appreciation club in the near future.

 Happy camper. This is going to be the first of my Imagined Travels series. I will be putting it on my 

 etsy shop  in the next couple of days. There will be an extremely limited amount of tea towels available. So get it before it is too late.