Festive market stalls

Super excited to announce that I’ll be selling at some festive markets the first week of December!! 🎅🏼
I haven’t done anything like this since university so I’m also quite nervous but so grateful to the organisers for a new challenge and experience. I imagine this will be the perfect boost needed for my shop which I’ve been working so hard towards for the last few months!

The first is at UWE, and I’m lucky enough to share a table with my favourite fellow Bristol creative The Flower Girl Studios! For the second, I’m braving it alone but in a super cool new(ish) venue, Strangebrew!
So if you’re around in Bristol on the 1st, 2nd or 4th of December please check it out! Plenty of amazing small local businesses to discover and I’m sure loads of perfect Christmas present options 🎁

For more details on both, see the event posters below:

Come Together with Knowle West Media Centre

In July 2021 I was commissioned by Knowle West Media Centre as a digital storyteller. Since then I’ve been working alongside 4 commissioned artists, 1 additional storyteller and many members of the local community to explore the question, ‘As we move out of lockdowns, how can we create the shared spaces and experiences we need in order to connect and come together?’

The programme was designed to support artists and communities to: develop new skills in ‘hybrid’ arts practices (mixing digital and physical) and co-create new inclusive spaces / experiences for connection and coming together. The programme aims were to explore:

– Inspiring examples of practices that mix digital and physical tools and methods
– The barriers and challenges we face in finding safe hybrid ways to come together
– What more inclusive hybrid tools, spaces and experiences could look like
– What we can make to come together differently and how we can share through hybrid means

Throughout July 2021, we attended workshops exploring how to create more inclusive and accessible ‘hybrid’ spaces that mix the digital and physical. These were incredibly diverse, fun and useful for myself and hopefully everyone else involved.

In response to these workshops and general themes of the project, each of the commissioned artists focused on their own topic to explore either through their own workshops, events or mail-out parcels. These contributions then made up parts of the 4 day weekender event, and I create an illustration to bring attention to each of these days and their general themes. This past week the online booking for the weekender has gone live so each of these illustrations have been shared on social media, and I’m very happy to share them here too, with much more soon to come!

Each day of the Weekender delves into a different question. 

Day 1: Inclusion in Action asks, “What happens to ‘hybrid’ when you start with access and inclusion?” Aims to explore creativity centring around accessibility and inclusion

Day 2: Making it Sensory asks, ‘How can we make digital experiences sensory, warm and engaging?’. We will spend the day imagining our own sensory utopias and connecting through smell, taste and conversation.

Day 3: Imagining for Real asks, ‘How can we use a mix of tools to include everyone in neighbourhood visioning?’. Spend the day playing, building and 'neighbourhood-imagining' from where ever you are.

Day 4: Claiming the Right to Rest asks, ‘How can we use ‘hybrid’ to access and enjoy the spaces of rest we need to find peace and wellbeing?’ This is your chance to relax at the end of the weekender; take a pause and claim your right to rest.

For more info and to book your tickets, visit the KWMC website!

SHOP RE-OPENING!

Over the past few months, as well as working on a few commissions and developing the pack of cards, I’ve also be silently working towards re-opening my online store, mostly to allow people to enjoy the pack of cards, however also to try peruse the merchandise side of my illustration career... This has included a lot of smaller jobs and a rather scary amount of finical investment, all to try and ensure sales all run smoothly and customers get the best service. It’s taken quite a while, but very shortly I’m hoping for it all to pay off. - I also recently moved house! Which took more than its fair share of investment and time away from my work.

The main investment, was finally splashing out on my own high quality printer! Which is very exciting as I can now provide my customers with any print they would like, on a one-off scale, without having the worry about left over stock if it doesn’t sell too well. This also came with a lot of trail and error of different card-stocks, but fortunately I found what feels like the perfect paper that allows me to print a very high quality, colour rich, any size up to A3+!  

If any fellow artists are interested, the printer and paper I went for are:

  • Canon PIXMA iP8750

  • KOALA Double Sided Matte Inkjet Photo Paper 230gs

The image above shows my new house set up along with my lovely new printer!

The other smaller investments were pretty much all packaging related. Due to a few quality/posting issues last time, I wanted to ensure I always have enough hardback envelopes in all sizes so that no prints get damaged in the post. Environmental impact is also super important to me so I’ve oped for complexly plastic-free and recyclable packaging. This includes, Jiffy bags for the cards, hardback envelopes for the prints and tissue paper, paper stickers and some fresh business cards to make it all bit more exciting to open! I hope to make a ‘pack an order with me’ real in the near future to bring a attention to these added touches, and of course… more content woo…

I have finally re-opened my shop here on my website and hopefully soon I’ll be making an Etsy and even have a few places (locally in Bristol) where I can sell my work in person! This is to try expand my audience a little as I feel currently restricted to people that are already aware of my work. - Stay tuned for updates on this, but for now enjoy the few updates to my online store!