An imagined conversation between writer Dave Eggers and his shower curtain has now come to life as a shower curtain.  It is also the 16th issue of The Thing Quarterly.  It can be purchased here.  Great idea, present …

These could be the first recycled banner bags that we put in our soon to be online shop.  Just got to get them to the local sailmaker to sew up.  We have cut up some theatre banners – a mixed bag of colours, imagery, text, illustration and patterning.  One batch reminds me of the circus the other of Christmas, summer and holidays. We hope you  like. I use these to do my shopping, can pack a ton if your arms can manage the load.  Mine are 7 years old back when we just threw them together any old how, not now.  I’ve decided to match by colours, some by theme others by text and imagery.  Will load one or two batches at a time and see how they go in the shop.

Are you into Street Art? Ever since we started a page on facebook I have been liking street art pages.  I think Banksy’ art got me going before this but I love some of the work of particular artists, ones I guess that are more photographic or type driven, or have a strong comic or political message.  Pablo Delgado, a Cuban artist, falls into an illustrative/photographic category.  I love his miniature art. I also love that it’s not easy to find, rather something you would stumble across.  What a delightful discovery it would be.  I think miniature art like this would be beautiful on an external/internal wall in your own home, on rendered or old stone walls, hidden down the shady side of the house; dark, mossy spots that would delight young eyes that spied.  Check out Street Art London‘s collection of Pablo Delgado’s images here.

The Story ….

What do you do with that massive collection of artwork you have accumulated on behalf of your children for over 13 years of schooling?

Well, you could create a very personal keepsake for a child that is not only aesthetic but functional too as a shopping bag or a storage item at home. Kieran’s mum wanted to create something special for her son who was turning 30 out of all of the drawings and notes Kieran had created growing up. I received all of the original drawings and notes and scanned them and then laid them up to print. Small nostalgic references were added like Kieran’s father worked at the railways and often brought home machine generated accounting paper which had lots of holes down the side and perforated rip off sections. Kieran used the blank side to draw and write and I incorporated elements of this paper into the design. The drawings and writings show the innocence of a child and his unconditional love for his parents. Rose coloured glasses days …. it’s a shame we grow up.

Late last year we were trying to come up with an idea of a gift for Miss B, a very passionate teacher whom last year reached the milestone of 40 years in teaching.  The important thing was to make it relevant and unique to Miss B. If there is one thing about Miss B it is her obsession with shoes and love of fashion and colour.  She has close to 400 pairs each with a story from here to the many parts of the world she has travelled, from missing ferry boats to secure a pair to her own students growing up and handing on shoes to Miss B due to her petite foot size (6).  She loves the stories attached to her shoes as much as the shoes themselves.   So we worked with the idea of shoes, then we decided to get the children to each draw a picture of Miss Bs shoes or of their own idea of a shoe.  Miss B brought in books about shoes and pictures of her shoes and the shoes she wore each day were all used as creative inspiration for the children’s artwork.  What we got back was truly amazing, embraced by the girls and boys of Class 1m.   The children submitted numerous pieces which we pegged to 1 of their choice.  In the end the idea grew and the parents also wanted bags as mementos for themselves.  25 bags were printed for the 21 students in the class and 1 bag for Miss B.  The childrens shoes became one element of the bags, along with Miss Bs love of daisies.  Her home is called Daisy Cottage and she has Daisy wallpaper in her home which we photographed and used as another element.  On the door to her classroom there is a caricature of Miss B created by a past student who has long since left school and that became the third element we used.

Inspiration | Afternoon tea at Miss Bs house and the display of her shoes and the daisy wallpaper
A photo taken of Miss Bs wallpaper which we photographed and later cleaned up
The caricature of Miss B by a past student
Final Artwork | check out the boys and girls individual drawings for creativity – amazing!

The printed bag | we printed two bags one especially for Miss B with daisy images on both ends, Miss B on front, and class artwork on back and for the parents, Miss B on the ends and class artwork on front and back.

We have created printed shopping bags for a grade 5/6 class.  The students created Warholesque images of themselves which we have then printed onto our shopping bags.  Each student has their own image on the front panel, the class group images on the back panel and the teachers were placed on the side panels.  A ripper keepsake for those graduating to high school, in a style befitting their age group.

This has got nothing to do with nothing apart from the fact that it is random and quite beautiful and a bit of an artform in itself.

Not quite sure whether the beautiful shiny pattern slugs leave behind is a health risk but this is what we arrived home to after having been away for two weeks.  Last night I decided to check on the nocturnal habits of this very slimy creature and collected a couple of  families en route to who knows where.  They obviously didn’t check in with Google Maps for the most direct route.

Please nobody tell me that the slime they leave behind is well very unhygienic … I’m not even going to google to find out.

Peeling back the layers” How we get out inspiration

but you have to start somewhere …..

This is a big project; one we have sat on for many years, just ask our kids, but have finally began.  We are at demolition stage, or as our daughter mentioned to her class in show and tell yesterday … our house is being demented.  And just looking at it here well the word demented is appropriate although she meant to say demolished.  Delightful Miss B wrote it up in her comments to keep book.

So this doesn’t relate to print as art directly.  But as crushed and demented as it now appears it is a canvas nonetheless and our vision is big and bold and beautiful.  Above all it will be a home for family and friends and it will be filled with our art.  So I will use these pages as part of an artful journey and a keepsake.