Inspired by the long rows of Georgian houses snaking up the Bath hillsides, this screen print is printed on to acid free watercolour paper, which gives it a bit of texture:
Here are some giclee prints of these screen prints. I tried lots of different colours, and couldn’t decide which I liked best! I’ll be putting these in my Etsy shop (as soon as I take some better pictures of them)
This is happening on Thurs 1st Dec at the lovely Green Bird Cafe. Delicious festive food, drinks, and the chance to browse some beautifully unique, locally made items!
Recently I’ve been having lots of fun working on some new designs and trying out some new colour combinations. As I’ve been focusing on one design at a time I haven’t had the chance to see my stuff all together until now, so I’m really excited to see my work all in one place, displayed beautifully by Donna at the Bath Tourist Centre shop. Situated next to Bath Abbey, in Abbey Green, the shop has a huge range of Bath themed stuff, much of it made by local artists, and some very tasty Bath Gin gifts too!
One of my favourite Ladybird books was The Elves and the Shoemaker. We’re talking a long, long time ago but I can still remember those gorgeous illustrations of Georgian shoes made by the elves!
So I decided to make some Georgian shoe bags, hand printed in Georgian Bath!
I spent a few days researching shoes on the fantastic V&A museum website, and drawing lots of variations of these until I settled on this design.
They’re perfect for packing shoes in your suitcase, and are made from lightweight cotton calico with a drawstring closure.
They’ll soon be available to buy in my Etsy shop and also in the Bath Visitor Centre shop (from September).
At last I’ve printed some bigger house cushions – these ones won’t get lost on the sofa!
I’ve used ticking on the back of the cushions, and the cover is zipped and removable. At last I’ve lost my fear of sewing zips, after sewing about 50 into bags, cushions and doorstops!
I’ve been using some deliciously neon ink lately, made by Hunt the Moon, who also sell lots of other screen printing stuff. Their neon pink eco-friendly water-based ink has a really gorgeous glow, and prints beautifully onto natural canvas.
These make up bags are headed to a little shop in Larkhall, Bath called Leak which is full of lovely things – I always end up buying something there when I’m just meant to be delivering things!
Many apologies for not having posted for so long! I’ve been working on lots of new stuff, and being a relative newbie to blogging, I find it so much quicker to post on instagram (@blockhousebath). I’m going to try to post more regularly on here now, so perhaps that will speed me up a bit!
Here’s a picture of one of the new doorstops with hand screen printed house and handles. I wanted the pattern on the handles to echo some of the details on the houses, and I also used the same delicious green colour. Permaset printing inks are so good to use, and look beautiful when printed onto cotton canvas (Permaset available from Handprinted or Hunt the Moon).
And here’s a make up bag in the same fabric. I just used hand-cut paper stencils to screen print these. Putting in zips has been a steep learning curve! As you can see in the doorstop above, I’ve put zips in these too, so that they’re a lot more postable, and customers can add their own rice (2kg for about 80p in Lidl when I last looked!
All images copyright blockhousebath 2016.
