Country Living Magazine - December issue

The cat's out of the bag!

Some of you might have noticed already . . . there's a feature about me and the inspirations for my block prints in this year's Christmas issue of Country Living Magazine. If you subscribe you probably received it last week, but it will be on the news stands very soon.

I'll tell you a few behind the scenes secrets . . .

I've had to keep this under my hat for 10 months.

I designed my "Christmas 2013" designs just before last Christmas (which was weird!)

The photos, were taken by Laura Edwards early last February when Suffolk was under a blanket of snow.

I pretended to draw non-existing birds in a hedge for one of the shots.

Cheep and his hens upstage me in another photo.

The studio assistants refused to co-operate.

Before writing the article, Louise Elliot spent a whole day with me in the summer, both in my studio and visiting some of my favourite local places.


I enjoyed meeting both Louise and Laura, hope you like the feature they put together.

Celia
xx

St Jude . . . SuperStorm or storm in a teacup?

The weather forecasters are issuing a warning of a huge storm system sweeping eastwards on the jet-stream over the Altantic. St Jude (it's due to hit land just after midnight on Monday, St Jude's day) may not be as bad as the Great Storm that flattened thousands of trees in 1987 or the Burns Day Storm in 1990, but we've been warned to . . . er? stay indoors and have a cup of tea, or something.

However, today dawned bright and breezy, the sky was a deep blue and clouds scudded briskly across the sky. I felt the need to get out there in the fields, to go for a walk.

I started by walking under the Lime trees in the churchyard opposite my studio, the colours are swiftly changing from green to pale primrose.

Out along the footpath that follows the Stour Brook the gently sloping valley fields are bright green with young shoots of winter wheat and the trees in the woods have barely a tinge of autumnal tints.

I love the framed views through breaks in the hedgerows, as winter creeps toward us I'll look for migrating flocks of birds; and fallow deer and hares nibbling the crops. But today I was enjoying the sunshine, the sound of the wind in the trees and just being happy to stride out in my walking boots. If you follow me on Twitter you'll be aware of my slow recovery from Achilles problems which has meant months of not being able to walk far on uneven ground or to wear my boots. Well, I'm happy to report that I'm on the mend, the damage to the surrounds to my tendons is healing well and as long as I do as I'm told by the physio and the podiatrist, I'll be able to gradually build up to 6 or 7 mile walks this winter.  

This is a huge relief, outside in the fields is where I gather inspiration and walking gently distils the ideas into images I jot down when I get back to my studio. Like the beautiful silver and faded gold of the Crack Willow leaves against the blue sky; or the crouched shapes of the woods.

I walked as far as the derelict WWII Nissan huts where the Barn Owls live.

On the way home I noted the black Sloes in the hedgerows and made a mental note to check whether we have enough gin to make a bottle of Sloe Gin from the Sloes in our garden.

Of course my hand was full of leaves I couldn't resist picking up along the way . . . Oak, Hawthorn, Pear, Lime, Aspen, Dogwood, Gelder Rose and my favourite buttery yellow Field Maple.

So, if you're in the path of the St Jude's Day Storm tonight and tomorrow morning, don't get blown away and stay safe. Let's hope St Jude remains the patron of desperate causes and not synonymous with a devastating weather event. 

"May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, 

loved and preserved now and forever. 

Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us, 

Saint Jude worker of Miracles, pray for us, 

Saint Jude helper and keeper of the hopeless, pray for us, 

Thank you Saint Jude."

Celia
xx

My blog is a RHS Gardening Blogs 2013 Finalist

I could hardly believe the email I received last night . . . my blogpost "As UN-like as peas in a pod" has been been shortlisted for the RHS Gardening Blogs Competition 2013!

There are 10 finalists and I have to admit that they are all very very good. The winner will be decided by a public vote . . . so please follow the link above or click on the green button in the side bar, then scroll down to find all 10 blogs (mine is at the bottom by the way).

As as finalist I've already won a lovely prize – I can attend the press preview day of one of the RHS garden shows . . . maybe I'll go to Chelsea! If I do, I'll definitely blog about it.


Do you like the flower arrangement? It was inspired by the amazing floral arrangements I saw at Het Loo while on holiday. The in-house florist (can you imagine that job?!) creates the most stunning exuberant arrangements in all the palace rooms, using the beautiful antique ceramics as containers. We had a peek inbetween the flowers and the secret was tall, tiered up containers ;-) so I experimented with a tall jar standing inside a Victorian planter . . . it looks OK don't you think?


Celia
xx

Tah-daaah! My first fabric collection

I've wanted to do this for years – adapt my block print designs for a repeat pattern for fabric. Then someone pointed me towards Spoonflower, and I got very excited!

There were other options of course . . .
Such as, printing directly onto fabric from hand cut blocks (tempting but it would mean completely reorganising my studio and I had other priority projects this summer)then printing to order - and I don't think I could handle the stress (perfectionist).
Or finding a UK digital fabric printer – yes there are some good ones BUT I would need to order everything and then resell it.

With a Spoonflower "studio" I could upload all my design ideas and order swatches/trial lengths and test them out before then opening a shop for anyone to order from. Fun and no wastage :-) Everthing is printed to order using eco-friendly water-based ink on beautiful natural fibre fabrics.

I've put together a collection Birds Wedding based on my print and popular card design 'The birds' wedding day'.

There is a large repeat design 'Hearts', a solid colour with small white motifs 'Sprigs' each are available in three colourways: Ruby, Sea and Stone. And also a modern Regency-style  'Stripe', which is available in the two pastel colours, Sea and Stone.

Well, the sample lengths arrived and I skipped around a bit because they were very very lovely. Then I snipped them up into pieces and made up three bundles of the beautiful linen/cotton soft furnishing quality canvas for my "Secret Sewers".

Later today they are going to blog about what they made, so pop over to visit:
Tracy's blog – where there is some superb patchwork (a table runner, coasters and cushions) and a give-away!
Over on Gina's blog there is a stunning tea cosy, a lovely red cushion and a make-up purse (which she's giving away to one lucky person)
And on Su's blog her makes are a large comfy cushion and padded case for her iPad.

For myself, I ordered a length of the cotton voile fabric printed in the Stone Stripe design . . .

My vintage Singer Starlet helped me stitch it into a simple curtain (a pole slides through a large hem at the top)

It makes the little window in the old stable room look very charmimg :-)

Although it was very difficult to photograph because the room is always quite dark . . . so I took the curtain outside and pegged it onto an apple tree to watch it ripple in the breeze.

And to admire my neat stitches :-) In fact it was a dream to sew, no slipping and the design makes it easy to align the hems perfectly straight.

So there we have it! 'Birds Wedding' my first ever fabric collection, available to order here.
Please don't let ordering from the US put you off, it is incredible efficient and even if you have to pay a little extra shipping/vat (duty is only charged for parcels over £135) the prices are very reasonable for such good quality fabrics.

btw I've started a Pinterest board Sew me! to collect together all the things that have been made from my fabrics, so if you buy some fabric and make something, please let me know and I'll Pin it :-)  
Celia
xx

PS with quilters in mind two small scale prints, "Small Sprigs" and "Small Stripe", will be available soon (I am trialing them in the quilting weight cotton this month).

The Secret Sewing Project

I promised in a previous post fabrics designed by me . . . and there isn't long to wait!

In fact sample lengths arrived in my studio earlier in the summer, but I knew I'd be too busy to make things from them . . .

then I had a cunning plan :-)

The Secret Sewing Project

I enlisted the help of three of clever creative blogging friends who I knew wouldn't be able to resist a free parcel of fabric :-D

And I invited them to . . .

Then, inspired by the excited emails I received with attached photos of work-in-progress, I got out Starlet and did some sewing myself :-) The fabric was so lovely I've found my long-lost stitching mojo!

The Secret Sewing Project big 'reveal' is coming to a blog near you very soon . . . Friday 4th October is tah-daaah day :-)

I'm excited to see what Gina, Su and Tracy have been stitching, aren't you?!

And my trusty Starlet will share her 'make' too!

Celia

xx

Psst! I've heard a rumour there may be a give-away

In a gardener's garden

Gardens, like rooms, fall into many categories; some are beautifully conceived spaces with each element carefully selected, some are work spaces and others are the result of one person's personal passion.

While on holiday in Holland earlier this month, I was able to visit a garden I'd dreamed of seeing for many years – Anja and Piet Oudolf's garden at Hummelo. I've been an admirer of Piet Oudolf's work for many years and have visited many of his gardens – I love the landscapes he creates inspired by nature, art and time.

It was a glorious late summer day, we were the first visitors to arrive at the garden on the outskirts of Hummelo village surrounded by open fields. Anja was watering the plants and saw us drive in, she showed us a cool shady place to park the car, then invited us to take our time enjoying the garden.

We had the garden all to ourselves for over an hour before a few other visitors arrived, what a treat . . . I could pretend this was my garden!

This is the back garden, a series of rectangular beds with narrow paths running down to the end of the garden where a painted cut-out 'statue' stands under a tree.

The front garden is the one you may have seen photographed in books and magazines, an area surrounded by tall blocks of clipped hedges contains a tapestry of Piet Oudolf's signature grasses and perennials. I noticed that there are now fewer hedges – the space has evolved and is now a more open and softer than its former design.

Oudolf's style is all about texture and movement . . . and time. In late summer the garden is a rustling, shimmering, sea of grasses and seed-heads. 

And what photographs can't convey is the sound . . . of thousands of buzzing insects and the swish and rustle of the breeze through the ever moving stems.

I think this is the most inspiring garden I've ever visited!


And now for a complete contrast – the garden of an eccentric English gentleman plant-hunter and gardener . . .

Last weekend was Open House London, we took the opportunity to see inside the house of one of Britain's greatest gardeners E A Bowles . . . if you've not heard of him, I bet you know Wallflower 'Bowles Mauve'! 

Edward Augustus Bowles lived at Myddleton House in Enfield; now the offices for Lea Valley Parks, the ground floor rooms are grade I listed and were open for just one day last Saturday. However, the gardens and new visitor centre/museum have been restored and are open throughout the year. The gardens encompass Bowles passions for Alpine meadows, native water-side plants, bulbs and the weird and wonderful of the plant world . . . as well as odd pieces of architectural salvage!

Cliff and I visited many years ago, before the restoration; I remember the secretive, rambling, overgrown garden. Now the greenhouses and cold frames are beautifully restored and full of Bowles' favourite plants and bulbs. The rock garden restoration is still in progress, but will soon be a fitting tribute to its creator where his ashes rest.

Well – with all that inspiration I couldn't wait to get to work on our garden! Now the tree has gone, the left side of our patio has been transformed into a cutting-garden full of flowers grown from Higgledy Garden seeds.

What was needed was another large border to balance it on the other side . . . to fill with perennials and grasses, with spaces inbetween to grow flowering annuals. Cheep and the under-gardeners helped mark out a shape on the lawn and we've started digging :-)

There's still a lot more digging to do, but I've already planted the plants I bought as souvenirs from Myddleton house – and I can admire progress from the bedroom window. 

I've taken some of my favourite books off the shelf to make lists of plants to track down and make more plans for the new plot :-)

Who are your favourite gardeners? Have you ever visited their gardens?

Celia
xx

My new Spoonflower shop is now open!

This is a little bit exciting and I have no idea if it will be success . . . but I've opened a new on-line shop! There's been a lot of beavering away behind the scenes and *secret fabric projects* are in the making as I type, but this morning I've opened the doors for the very first time and you can now order rolls of my new Christmas gift wrap designs.

I ordered two rolls as samples printed on matte paper, they were shipped in a sturdy card carton and they are gorgeous! They complement my new Christmas card range which will be available in my etsy shop from next week.

Celia

xx

The fabric designs will be available to order very soon ;-)

Woo-hoo! I'm back!

Hello! I thought I'd pop in to update you with goings on . . .

After the excitement of FolkEast we needed a break, so we loaded up my Tardis and went off for a holiday . . . not too far away, 260 miles to be precise, not as far away from Suffolk as Cornwall or the Lake District . . . we headed due East :-)

Yes! we took the overnight ferry from Harwich and after a good night's sleep in a cosy cabin, we ended up in Holland . . . our destination was a little thatched bungalow on the western edge of Gelderland.

I haven't had time to download the photos I took, in fact I didn't take that many. We hired bikes to explore the local area, took the train to Amsterdam and couple of times and had some trips by car a little further afield, including one just over the 'border' (such as it is these days, just a missable sign on the grass verge) into Germany on the Rhine.

Having got back into drawing after the very inspiring #DrawingAugust on Twitter (see all my August sketches here) I took a brand new sketchbook and my watercolours to keep some sort of holiday journal. The resulting paintings can be seen here . . . I'm adding a new page each day and Tweeting for #paintseptember.

Meanwhile things are getting interesting in my studio, various projects are coming to fruition :-)

Coming soon:

Christmas Cards and Gift Wrap

Fabrics

New small woodcuts 

and a feature in a very well known magazine
(I've just been sent a proof to check, so it really is happening!)


Stay tuned!
I'll be back soon
Celia
xx

Lovely Folk at FolkEast

At the eleventh hour I decided to pull a new print out of the hat, this is my special 'Folk East 2013' linocut hanging up to dry. It features the impressive facade of the folk festival venue Glemham Hall with the FolkEast sun and swallows in the sky and Suffolk hare and seagull landing on the roof. In the garden the topiary bushes are fiddling and whistling a toe-tapping tune to make even the flowers dance.

I'd opted to have a stand for just one day, Saturday; I'd also agreed to do 'demonstrations' so was allowed a second table and an extra free day-pass for an assistant (Cliff). To drive across Suffolk from our corner of the county to almost the coast and set up our stand by 9am, meant getting up at 5am – the sunshine and heat of Friday had deteriorated into persistent rain, we tried not to get downcast.

Ta-dah! here's my stall all set up and ready to roll! From the 10am start there was a steady flow of people through the Art Arcade tents, they were all friendly and polite, lots were very interested in the blocks I was carving – each of a flying swallow  - from different materials: eraser rubber, Japanese vinyl and lino. 

But, for most of the day very few bought anything. The showers came and went and came back. Across the field form the main stage we could here Gypsy Fire's most enjoyable set. I had time to run across to the food area to buy tea and flapjacks but I was mostly busy all the time. Cliff reported that takings still had barely covered the modest stall fee. The rain turned into a torrential downpour of biblical proportions, the ArtArcade roof drummed with the deluge drowning out the music, people sheltered inside and so there were even more to talk to.

Then it brightened up! The field of tough Suffolk grass didn't turn into a quagmire and more people arrived at the festival arena for the headline acts in the evening.

There was a general move to start to pack up the art stalls, but Cliff sensed sales were up! We decided to stay put for another hour and thanks to being able to take credit card payments (via PayPal on my website using my iPad) our takings were respectable.

With the stall dismantled and everything packed into the car, it was time to enjoy the festival. Sadly I'd missed the Vintage Market and Social Knitworks yarn-bombing teepee as they had closed for the day, but we had been tipped off that Sam Lee and Friends were worth seeing on the Broadroots Stage . . . and so they were! 

After that we realised we were starving! So we bought a tub of chow mein pork noodles and wandered over to the main stage in time to see the end of the very last ever gig of Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray's Wayward Tour . . . Eliza was a frenzy of fiddling and powerful voice as she bounded back and forth!

We were now in the mood to stay to the end, so Cliff fetched our waterproof picnic blanket from the car and we found a good vantage point at the top of the slope from which to see The Dhol Foundation – a fusion of Punjabi drumming and dancers and just about any and every music genre you can think of – great fun! And it got even more fun when Eliza Carthy and Jim Moray joined them for a folk mash-up extraordinaire.

So, all in all we had a great day – we met lots of lovely people and heard some great music. And after being awake for 19 hours we  arrived home absolutely shattered!

I might even be prepared to do it all again next year . . . and maybe for more than one day.

Celia
xx

btw let me know if you'd like to buy a special Folk East 2013 linocuts . . . I have some left.
The Folk East 2013 linocut is now available to buy here for £35.00 inc. p&p to UK addresses (for shipping overseas please add the £7 overseas shipping surcharge)

Variations on a theme - Tomatoes

At the beginning if June I would not have believed that the summer would be so gloriously warm and sunny! It's been such a treat to eat all our meals outdoors (I think we had two meals outside last year) and in the greenhouse the tomatoes have been thriving.

Today I was able to pick some of all the seven varieties
Red Cherry
Liguria
Imur Prior Beta
Orange Strawberry
Madame Jardell's Black
Marianna's Peace
Tigerella

I love the variation of shapes and colours. Even more interesting is the subtle differences in texture and flavour.
I'll try to add some tasting notes later, but for now here's a photo.

Celia
x

August is show time!

The past few weeks have been so busy! I'm gradually synching with the timetable of the retailer's year . . . the Christmas cards are printed and already I have orders coming in from my increasing list of stockists, it's all very exciting!

Summer is the month for holidays and festivals, I'm taking part in two . . .

The first is this weekend, Saffron Walden Maze Festival; Helen at the Church Street Gallery asked for prints on the theme of "A State of Bewilderment" for the special maze-related exhibition.

My linocut 'When I find you' will be available at the exhibition, framed and unframed (in the smart new packaging). Cards are also for sale, if you are unable to get to the exhibition you can buy the cards here.

So, with my prints and cards safely delivered to the gallery for the opening of the exhibition tomorrow, I could turn my attention to FOLKEAST. This major festival has moving to a stunning new venue - Glemham Hall in Suffolk. A huge amount of work has gone into making this year's festival fatastic in everyway (I know, beacuse my best friend Kathy has been working her socks off making the web site and facebook page look great, as well as designing the printed programme while her other half is gearing up to run the sound). So when fellow Suffolk printmaker Mandy Walden got involved to organise 'something arty' on the festival site, I could hardly say no to taking part.

On Saturday 24th August I'll be at my stall in the Art Arcade on the FolkEast festival site, selling my prints and cards and also demonstrating cutting lino and wood blocks and maybe doing some printing too. So, if you're at the festival please drop by and say hello.

With just over a week to go there's still a lot to do! Framing, packing, etc. But why not add more pressure? So yesterday I started work on a new linocut specially for FolkEast . . . I'd better do some carving!

Celia
xx

Big Butterfly Count 2013

Small Tortoieshell on Marjoram

There has been much in the media lately about the plight of Britain's butterflies; the idyllic picture of flowery meadows a-flutter is sadly no longer reality.

Red Admiral on Buddleia

After last year's record wet summer and the long harsh winter, it is good to see butterflies back in good numbers . . . but is this true of all or just some species and habitats?

Gatekeeper on Whitecurrant leaf

To find out what is going on across the UK, Butterfly Conservation is holding a Big Butterfly Count. If you have a Smart Phone or Tablet you can download a free App to make recording and submitting your survey really easy. 

Large White on Buddleia

I've just done a count in our garden (it only takes 15 minutes) here are the results:

4 x Large White

1 x Small White

2 x Green-veined White

2 x Meadow Brown

1 x Gatekeeper

11 x Peacock

2 x Small Tortoiseshell

1 x Red Admiral

2 x Comma 

Of course Buddleia is great for attracting a crowd of butterflies and nettles are the food plant of a few species BUT there is more you need to do to help our native butterflies – here are my tips for attracting more butterflies to your garden:

- don't use pesticides or fungicides

- leave messy areas, not just nettles! rough grass is important for the life cycle of many species.

- grow native British wildflowers and shrubs

- grow lots of herbs and let them flower

If you haven't already done so, please take 15 minutes this week to do the Big Butterfly Count.

Celia

x

PS the photos were all taken in our garden during my 15 minute survey, with my iPhone.