Poorly Geek Time

Today I am poorly in bed, with two black fluffy kitties for company and a wealth of internet tutorials before me.

Between the sneezes, and the 'lets play with the computer cable' game Daisy keeps attempting, I have worked out how to do this:

Pretty snazzy huh?! And all in photoshop too...genius! 

 In other news I have been getting rather overly excited about the prospect of getting going on my all new (to me) screen printing table!

 

Now I am one very lucky girl in that my charming other half not only puts up with my space-encompassing passion by letting me take over the Outhouse out the back of our house, but that he also buys me the tools to help me achieve printing equilibrium - including this vacuum table :) What a fine fella I've got right?!

 We collected the table from an old University buddy of mine, Chris from We Three Club who along with his lovely Mrs, Alex, design some amazing posters and apparel for too many clients to mention!

 They also run a stupidly fun live poster printing/gig watching experience Poster Roast where you can simultaneously watch the gig posters being screen printed by the artist whilst also watching that band perform, legendary right?!

Well I hope that some of the printing heritage that oozes from this table will help me along in my screen printing adventure, I feel as if I have inherited a warrior! (and I promise to treat her good Chris and Alex!)

One of the great things about this table is that it has a vacuum built into the table - you see all those tiny holes? Well under there is a powerful vacuum that will hold my paper in place when I've finished a pull. Before this I used to just use some screen clamps attached to a bit of board, and the paper would always be stuck to the under side of my screen when I had printed, meaning an extra movement in every print.

The other bonus is that the table has a weight balance on the back, meaning that I can simply lift the screen gently and it will just float in the air above me. Now this isn't something that would be that exciting to most, but when you're doing a run of 200 two colour invites (i.e. 800 prints inside and out) these little bonuses will save my grandma back enormously!

The other new bit of kit that is signaling my beginning of my self-sufficiency is my exposure unit.

Now to 'expose' your screen means to make a stencil for you to print through. 

Very simply put you: 1. Coat your screen in a light sensitive emulsion (the green goop!) 2. Place an acetate of your design on top and 3. Leave under a UV light to harden.

The new exposure unit is proving a trial and error beast to tame, as I'm used to using the hyper-fast expensive machine at the print studio, but I'll get there and will soon be able to print on a daily basis....HEAVEN!

I have been beavering away on new designs this past week and am super stoked to soon be able to be printing them all in the Outhouse. I have so many ideas in my head of things I want to print and now it will be so much easier to achieve them. 

There are also some all new baby plates to treat your new-parent friends with...here a couple of the circus design I made up for an order this week, do get in touch if you'd like one too :)

And finally, a little bit of down time was spent yesterday (before the lurgy really took hold)with a trip to East Carlton Park, near Corby.

The park used to be part of British Steel and Iron, and still has a museum there (and an amazing dolls house shop!) but this magnificent building has now been turned into flats, can you imagine living there, it's like the Addams Family's house!

We took the picnic set I got for Mr Phil for Christmas (a £2.50 bobby bargain from a charity shop!) and he made his signature homemade scotch eggs...yum!

Hope you are all having a nice start to your week and have managed to make it out of bed!

The Little Peach x

Setting the Moon Balloon Free

Good afternoon print fellows, are you well today? I do hope so. All is good at Peach HQ, Bruce Springsteen 'Dancing in the Dark' is on the radio, Daisy is practicing for the Olympics around the living room and I have my scruffs on ready for an afternoon of printing, life is good*.

First off, the poster above is for a open show I'm in that has just opened (it opened last night) in the very open and openly lovely Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering. It's the very first exhibition I have been involved in with my prints so it was very exciting to see people scratching their chins whilst looking at the hyper-modern-artistic-commentary that is always at the epicenter of my prints.

Doesn't this man look puzzled?!

The exhibition is the best of work by local artists, and I'm very honoured to be grouped with some other smashing work. People make the nicest things don't they?

Paul Bursnall

Graham Clarke

The exhibition is open till 9th June and you can buybuybuy all the work, so if you're in the area why not take a picnic and make a day of it? The Mayor of Kettering was so overcome by looking at my work he nearly fell over (and lightning bolt over here caught it on camera)

At school I have been designing some help sheets to try and encourage the students to run with their creativity (apparently showing that you are interested in ANYTHING these days is almost unforgivable act for modern teenagers) Here are the sketches for the booklet.

One thing that DID excite the students at school was this little fella, who hung out on the edge (of life) for nearly 6 hours (I'm not joking) what a mental bastard.

And last but definitely not least in Friday's exciting news is that I'm now being sold though superduper sellers of home ware treasures Folly! They have 'La Luna', 'You're the Best', and 'Diamond Maj' up on their site, which makes me very proud as there are some very talented peeps to be smuggled amongst. Go visit them!

 ...and LOOK what turned up today - my very own exposure machine (which is busting to get out of it's bubble wrap and get helping me printing!) but he will have to wait as I have a very lovely client's wedding stationery to print in this magnificent blue...

Hope you all have a splendid Bank Holiday (hooray for lazy banks!) We're off to see my sister, have you got anything special planned?

The Little Peach xx


*apart from the letter 'g' is stickin on my computer so if I sound like I'm tryin to be all street by leaving the 'g's' off my words - don't jude me!

Sunny news on a rainy day :)

We are also SUPER thrilled to announce that we will be selling our printed wares at the Designers Makers Market on June 23rd :)

The market takes place at The Old Spitalfields Market which is a stones throw from my old neighbourhood in East London, and a really awesome place to spend a Saturday with lots of boutique shops and small food outlets.

Designers Makers is a 'not for profit Agency for contemporary Design & Craft within the UK. An essential resource to help create a strong supportive community for freelance practitioners of Design and Craft within the UK. Providing information on professional development opportunities and multiple marketing and selling opportunities for our members; our aim is to make a valuable and comprehensive resource for the industry.'

They have been running markets all over the shop for a while now along with other stupendous and interactive artfun days:

The markets will be happening every third Saturday of the month till Chrimbo and you can visit their Website or Tumblr for more information.

I think I'd better get printing (like I ever needed convincing!)

Hey Bambino!

We are super stoked to have had such a lovely write up of our prints on Bambino Goodies - a blog celebrating the best of design led children's products.

The post mentions most of the prints for sale in my shop and says of 'La Luna' 'it's the perfect marriage of Science and Art' which is a lovely observation!

Kat from Bambino Goodies also has a personal blog that has some truly wonderful pictures and stories from her experiences of motherhood - Housewife Confidential, it's definitely worth a read :)

Take Good Care of Yourself!

The second new print to find it's way into the shop, shop, shops is this sweet thought.

Spring seems like the perfect time to dust off those proverbial cobwebs and stretch out the soul!

 And this happy little peach is doing just that! I'm not sure that they'd be classed as actual real Ohnmmmmm Yogi bear Yoga poses, but she sure is having a go!

The print is hand pulled in charcoal black and soft white on my very favourite 100% recycled ecoboard, which each print signed and editioned on the front.

Here are some photos of the process...

The original drawings to make the screen from!

The white has been printed and dryed

Really to pull through the second colour

 

The apprentice looks on quizically

Second coat done and drying on my amazing and innovative drying friend - Mr Slinky!

Next to print...Batman!

 

All I see is you...

Hello there my lovely print loving lovelies! Have you had a nice Easter? We hope the bunnies stopped at your house and left some chocolate goodness!

We had a rather smashing break away in France, and I will blog about that shortly...but first I'm excited to let you know that there are two new, lovingly hand printed images in the shop :) (you can also buy through Folksy and Etsy if you prefer!)

The first is another night time/sky time theme (I think I'm a little obsessed with the sky) and shows this little chap longing for his beau, who he is so in love with he sees her everywhere! Here she is spelled out in the stars above.

The image is printed in a lusciously deep and vibrant purple which really pops again the soft white. The card is a 100% recycled board and each one is signed and editioned with a Little Peach stamp on the back.

I really enjoy printing on this recycled card, and working out how to incorporate the brown tones into the image...think I might try printing on different colours more often!

 From the original sketch for this piece.

 (taken with instagram, follow me - @thelittlepeach1 )

I'm really loving being able to print at home in the outhouse (although sometimes it get a little short on space and I have prints drying in every available nook) I currently expose my screens at Leicester Print Workshop, a brilliant studio that I love visiting and printing in. The only problem being that it is a little too far away to always be convenient. I'm hoping to get my own exposure machine very soon (and a drying rack!) so that I can be a self-sufficient printing monster!

Although, I'm not sure we need another monster around here!...