crumpets and crabsticks illustration

Society6 vs Redbubble

2014-07-26T17:50:00.000+01:00

Both have introduced bedding to their collections this month - both as duvet covers without pillowcases. The prices compare as such. (these are based on my prices, each designer sets their own on RB)

Redbubble Society6

Twin £58.73 N/A

Queen £72.78 £58.34

King £86.32 £76.02

Also - why in america is queen smaller than king? That’s gonna confuse a lot of British folk. Luckily they supply dimensions.

Redbubble Society6

Twin 68” X 88” N/A

Queen 88” X 88” 88” X 88”

King 104” X 88” 104” X 88”

oh no, scrap that. This just brings us onto another thing to consider my fair countrymen and women - our ‘double’ duvet size is 200cm (77”ish) squared so the US ‘twin’ is a UK ‘single’ but still pretty much neither of these products will fit our duvets comfortably

I’m gutted.

Buuuuut If you’re still interesting in purchasing a new duvet from either of these companies (maybe you’re not english…maybe you have a US duvet for some reason… maybe you’re clever and are going to use it for something else entirely like a wall hanging or a summer sheet) I personally recommendRedbubble at this point from the designers point of view.

My reason being that with Redbubble you can be really picky about layout and size as you can upload an entirely separate high res file for it, where as with Society6 you have to use the same upload file for the duvet as the tote bags and scatter cushions. I’m worried about upscaling, and personally for my designs - i’ve found that this hasn’t translated well. You can see for yourself on the pics above.

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Also it infuriates me that i cant opt out of some of the designs for bedding with S6. If i want totes and cushions i have to have bedding - regardless of whether the design suits it or not - please don’t judge me on that!

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Well, i hope that helps some people even if it does put you off buying something with my design on. I’d rather you know what you’re getting yourselves into. :)

Hydrangea gradient circle

2014-07-17T17:51:00.000+01:00

I don’t know if this is normal. Where i grew up, in the south east of England, on the chalky downs, you only ever saw Blue Hydrangea - we knew it as the litmus plant.

…But where i live now, you get hydrangea is all colours these were all picked on a short 5-10 minute walk to and from my local supermarket.
Anyway, was playing with the heads when i got in and figured they’d make a pretty neat clock.

Redbubble front page!

2014-07-13T17:52:00.000+01:00

So happy to have the support of the Redbubble team again with this new cactus and succulent water colour pattern

Best of Redditgetsdrawn

2014-07-12T17:53:00.000+01:00

Update: 25 days ago, this image won me the honour of my first “Best of Redditgetsdrawn winner” status. I definitely did not see that coming. I gots the warms and fuzzies.

Proof

2014-07-12T12:35:00.000+01:00

been out of the portrait saddle for a while - verrrrry quick sketch of redditgetsdrawn user itsandychecks

watercolour cacti and succulents

2014-07-09T17:56:00.000+01:00

spoonflower.com →

ended up making a pattern with these cacti and succulent drawings i did a way back anyway

Library - Day 1

2014-03-01T15:49:00.000+00:00

I have been working on a project with the Henry Noble Library in Douglas. They have asked me to make the Library a bit interesting for the month of February.

I chose to postpone mentioning anything online so as not to draw attention to it while it was happening. I wanted it to be something people stumbled upon, not something people seeked out.

Each day i went in and added a little something, i saw it as an opportunity to treat the regular 'customers', an opportunity to make some people smile, or make them question why i did what i did.

February 1st -

So here is the first day. i simply made a hella lot of tiny bookmarks shaped like baby seedlings and placed them in horticulture related books. The section looked like it had come alive over night. Like Totoro had been and done his thing. I visited regularly throughout the month and topped them up, as to be expected, some of the books were taken on lease, and some were taken home regardless. :)

I won something!

2014-01-30T10:20:00.000+00:00

Fantastic News!

I am happy to announce that i was picked not only in the top 10 designs for the Great Barrier Reef spoonflower competition. But i actually came third!

See the design on Spoonflower: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/2775087

The design is available straight away in 8" swatches, fat quarters or by the yard.

For this week only, you can get it in a specially discounted fat quarter bundle of 10 winning fabrics for $60 (£35) instead of $110 (£65) by visiting here:http://www.spoonflower.com/fat_quarter_bundles

Mini Bird Book

2014-01-29T17:55:00.000+00:00

Shag

Chough (caaig)

Raven (feeagh)

Guillemot (Stronnag)

Cormorant

Ringed Plover & Little Auk

Oyster Catcher

Razorbill

Golden Plover

Artic Tern (Gant Arctagh) & Curlew (crottag)

some bird sketches i drew whilst moseying around the Manx Museum (from Taxidermy) trying to keep warm. The book is an elastic bound one i made quickly with a note paper pad backing, and a handful of sheets of copier paper trimmed and folded.

New Clocks!

2014-01-23T14:16:00.000+00:00

Society6 have gone done it again. New products!

Wall clocks! That look rather fetching with patterned backgrounds!

View them here: http://society6.com/crumpetsandcrabsticks/wall-clocks

Also there’s free shipping on selected items til sunday! No code needed that i’m aware of.

Sea Urchins

2014-01-21T22:10:00.000+00:00

Newwww pattern of colourful sea urchins for another spoon flower competition about the Great barrier reef.

If you want to, you will be able to vote on this design using this link from some time midday EST (5pm GMT) on the Thursday 23rd January 2014 for a week.

Charter Stones

2014-01-18T13:57:00.000+00:00

New repeat pattern inspired by Garth Nix’s “Abhorsen” series.

Still my favorite books to this day.

Available from spoonflower (in the near future)

Cheater Quilt

2014-01-14T13:22:00.000+00:00

This is my entry to this weeks Spoonflower competition. ‘Spring floral cheater quilt block’ I was only allowed to use nine colours, of which i chose three, and white. ( i just don’t like pink)

I hadn’t heard of cheater quilts before now. but, in essence, someone would buy a yard or three of this fabric, some padding and a backing fabric, and stitch along the lines to make a quilt instead of cutting out the hexagons.

It will be available here: http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/2723171

The competition doesn’t open for voting until Tuesday, but i’ll be sure to remind y’all. ;)

Goat Cushions

2014-01-04T23:24:00.000+00:00

Finding photos people have posted of my goat patterns!

Available from:
Society 6 as all manner of products
spoonflower as fabric by the yard, fat quarter or 8" swatch

Don't forget! For every sale of this design i will donate half of the proceeds to the Boughton Monchelsea Sanctuary for Goats or ‘Buttercups’. UK Registered Charity No 109927

If you’d like more information about the Charity or like to donate here is their website : http://www.buttercups.org.uk/

FREEBIE - calendar

2013-12-31T16:02:00.000+00:00

I made you all a new years present! The first three months of a 2014 calendar! :)
Feel free to share, download, print off, put up in your office, kitchen, anywhere you like. I tried to make it as ink friendly as possible!

Don’t forget to post pics, i’d love to see what you do with them. :)

Happy new year folks!

[Go here to download uncompressed high res versions]

Lucky dip 100% recycled sketch-books

2013-12-12T17:22:00.001+00:00

I made some sketchbooks this after noon, perfect little stocking fillers for that creative person in your life! (starting at £1.25)

http://crumpetsandcrabsticks.bigcartel.com/product/lucky-dip-100-recycled-sketch-book

Sleeping Tabby - Process

2013-12-11T12:40:00.003+00:00

Recently i started working with Lino again, after some issues with my screen printing set up not working well with my new apartment in the Isle of Man.

So Yeh i hadn't done this since my first year of Uni, and apparently this was a lot longer time ago than i realised. So I use tumblr almost constantly, so if you follow me on there you will get the WIP process as it happens, This is usually done through Instagram as well. I only ever post to Blogger a wee time after everything's done.

So right, this lino cut; here's the initial sketch

And here is that loosely translated on to lino:

By the way i made a big mistake of using permanent marker on brown lino. It appears that if you are using waterbased inks, it's best to avoid as it adds a greasy residue onto the surface of the lino that makes the ink 'salt' and bubble up and not print a perfectly smooth black finish.

Here is an example of this:

I thought it was because i needed a new roller, the brayer i was using for some reason when i was still at uni, i thought it would be clever to roll acrylic with it and not wash it off instantly. This resulted in a weird acrylic paint texture to it. I really really don't advise this! So that roller got demoted to rolling the back of lino and that's it. Had to buy a new one.

This is the one i got, for some reason i went for a 2" one, i guess at the moment i'm working small out of fear of wasting lino, so a smaller roller seemed the best choice, and they're easier to store, and less cumbersome. i kept making a mess with my old 4" going over the sides.

So after asking around a fair amount to print makers i know and randoms on the internet i realised that it might be the permanent marker, so first thing i tried was white spirit to dissolve it. it worked a bit. But it was still really evident. I started applying loads more ink to the plate as well, and this helped. At this point i realised that print making is practicality 99% trial and error. So i has no other option at this point i had to literally sanded it down lightly. This i can assure you was terrifying.

But it kinda worked., i felt that the image didn't warrant 100% perfect coverage as it actually added to the fur texture, i was happy to start printing, i chose 100% recycled brown and 'eco-natural' card to print on.

And my living-room temporarily turned into a drying rack

I printed a run of 25 on brown card stock, and a run of 25 on a beautiful 160gsm fine grain cartridge paper A5 with a large boarder.

You can see here on the back i added my information and a note of "100% recycled". This was simply done with my ink jet printer

The greetings cards are available from my big cartel, but they are limited I may do additional runs on different substrates in the future. If there is demand.

I really enjoyed getting back into lino, and since cutting this, I've actually done a load more stamps that i'm using for my personal Christmas projects. These will go on sale next October/November (2014). (so as not to spoil anything for my friends and family :) )

Trip back to the UK

2013-10-31T10:51:00.000+00:00

So last week i went back to the UK for a wedding and visit my family

I made a sketchbook to take with me:

I made it out of a random selection of papers, bound with a couple of heavy duty staples, and a nice charcoal grey cover.

I embossed the front with a little message:

I was quite excited, i'd never flown on my own before. And of course, by excited i mean worried everything would go wrong and fall apart!

So i did quite a bit of sketching mostly when i was traveling. Which i did a lot of. reminded me of how much i hate trains. so glad there isn't any here.

New BIG CARTEL Shop!

2013-10-19T23:00:00.000+01:00

i have a few things up for grabs on my big cartel!

All items are limited edition, and will only be available until November-ish when i switch the stock around for some more festive items! (and or they sell out… which ever happens first… i think we know which one will happen first…)

We’ve got a tote bag, and a lorra greetings cards for the moment with some tea-towels and fabric goodies to come.

Ghosties - Spoonflower competition

2013-10-18T10:42:00.000+01:00

I’m entering my first Spoonflower competition, and im going to pick one of these

You can find my fabrics here

oh and here's a silly little gif i made of the ghosts

Buddleja

2013-10-12T15:29:00.000+01:00

My new pattern, using water colour sketch paintings of the tiny flowers that make up the Buddleja flowers. More commonly known as the butterfly bush.

available on spoonflower: http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/2484236?view=

calendular

2013-10-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

A quick calendular for a friends birthday - HOW IS IT OCTOBER ALREADY?!

Ratcliffe

2013-10-06T15:27:00.000+01:00

This is the pattern that greets me when i enter my building.

I’ve seen this on a few houses here in the Isle of Man, but i don’t know if it is specifically Manx. If you’ve seen it before, let me know :)

I made in the same way as my ‘morocco’ pattern

available on spoonflower: http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/2466162?view=

A new collaboration - Bourne Creative

2013-10-04T22:00:00.000+01:00

Playing about with making drawings translate to screen print, for tote bags hence the canvas texture.

Two colours,
1 Beige/sand half-toning
2. Black line-work

The half-toning is two different patterns, Dots for the face, lines for the clothing.

Some cacti

2013-10-03T15:25:00.000+01:00