Goose Fat And Garlic Cover

I've just received my copy of Goose Fat and Garlic by Jeanne Strang. I was commissioned to create the cover illustration earlier this year, by Kyle Books (with whom I previously worked on Chickens by Suzie Baldwin).

Goose Fat and Garlic is a collection of traditional recipes from south-west France, originally published in 1991, and this revised edition still features the beautiful original illustrations by Tony Gregson, like these on the cover pages:

                                                                                                                                                                                         'Scuse fingers

It's packed-full of wholesome and hearty recipes, featuring a lot of potatoes and cheese, that I'm quite eager to try out (with a few veggie-friendly tweaks!).

 It's available on Amazon, but as you know they are very naughty mega-rich people who refuse to pay their fair share of corporation tax in the UK, which - along with all the other fat cats doing the same - has no doubt contributed to all the cuts to the arts, libraries, the NHS, disability allowance and countless other wonderful things that shouldn't be cut. So why not wander down to your local bookshop and see if they've got it. I'm sure they'd be very happy to order it for you if not (as would your local library if you want to try before you buy) and who knows what other treasures you might discover while you're there?
 

Stereohype Sneaker Badges

I've just received my batch of AFOMFS badges from Stereohype, snazzily displayed on their very own Stereohype/AFOMFS/Art & Sole shoelace. The badges look awesome, if I do say so myself. After seeing how jazzy and cool a lot of the other designs were I thought that maybe mine would be a tad boring, but actually they look clean and simple and I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

If you'd like your own badge, or a selection, head over to stereohype.com/pages/badgesAFOMFS1_list.asp. They also sell T-shirts (a surprise badge comes free with tees from their Fl@33 range), prints, books, cards, magazines and a huge range of button badges.

I've got 9 of these beauties to give away, so I'll be popping them in with orders over £5 from my Etsy store.

AFOMFS Badges on STEREOHYPE

A couple of years ago I was asked to contribute to Art and Sole blog's A Few Of My Favourite Sneakers (AFOMFS) series and created a linocut of my knackered old Connies. The series has now been realeased as a range of button badges by Stereohype, available on the site for £1.50 each or £72 for all 48. See the whole range at stereohype.com

Mother's Day Earrings

Today I discovered that this Sunday will be Mother's Day. I only realised when I got an email from a shop telling me there was still time to buy stuff and have it delivered by SuperMegaFastPostieWizards. I'd had big plans to clean the house today - we've got friends coming for the weekend and I want to find the source of a weird smell before they arrive - but I decided that making a present for my mum would be much more fun.

So I knocked up these little beauties. I'm rather pleased with them - I think I might have to make some more for the shop. And myself.

Mail Me Art - The Arrival

Just received an email from Darren over at Mail Me Art confirming that my piece has arrived. It's quite a relief to hear it got there safely, with only a tiny, barely noticable rub in the print (on the middle book). Here's the scan he sent for me:

Hoorah! Thanks, Royal Mail! There are new images going up on the MMA site all the time, click here to see the most recent.

Mail Me Art 3: Short and Sweet

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been invited to take part in Mail Me Art 3, the third of Darren Di Lieto (of the Little Chimp Society and Hire An Illustrator)'s mail art projects in which an international community of artists and illustrators turn envelopes into art, post them to Darren, and he makes them into an exhibition and book. This time round it's limited to just 200 artists and invite-only, so it's very exciting to be included.

This is my main image. I'm hoping these guys will feature quite heavily in my personal work in the future.

When I came to print the image I found that it seemed to be too big for the envelope, despite my working to the exact dimensions of a C5 envelope and drawing around one to cut my lino. I considered removing the border altogether, but I decided I quite like the wonkiness, so I've left it as it is. I discovered later, when I scanned it in, that the envelope's wonky, so it's not entirely my fault...... I printed three and managed to get ink all over the back of each one too. In the end I just resigned myself to the fact that I am a messy printmaker.

I think I'll blame the mice.

The exhibition will be in late July; you can find exactly where and when on the MMA website or Facebook page once it's all announced. You can also log your interest for participation in Mail Me Art 4 on the project details page of the website.

Captain Crochet!

I've spent the last month or so designing and creating crocheted goodies, learning new stitches, making myself a shop banner and getting some green business cards from Moo, and in the last couple of days I managed to photograph all my new creations while the sun graced my little photography corner. So now, here it is:

My new Etsy crochet shop, Captain Crochet's Craft Emporium. I've started with just a few key items, but now I've got some patterns down I'm going to make lots more in different colours. If you like the look of anything in there, but don't see a colour you like, please let me know - I'll happily make things to order.

In illustration news, I was invited to contribute to Mail Me Art 3 and am now just waiting for the ink to dry on my print before I can scan it and post it off. I'll show you once it's ready to go!