New Colourways

New colourways for my temple designs, hoping to send a few of these to Paris in a few weeks for the Indigo Tradeshow.

Jazzy Giraffe Beta Fashion Scarf Design

Another scarf design for Beta Fashion, find it here.

Online Portfolio

You can now look at my work here if you want to have a good luck at my work without all the ramblings.

Camoforest Beta Fashion Entry

You can find my design on the proper website here.

Dodo

First lino print from my new project.

Treasure From Far Away Lands

Some of my favourite designs from my last project.

Tomorrow

Photo by Alicia

Tomorrow I'm going to London to see some pretty things and draw a whale.

Spots and Stripes

2012 Round Up

A very late Happy New Year! Here are a few things I got up to last year, hopefully 2013 will hold even more lovely surprises. 

January

January was a busy month with a placement at Fox Linton Textile showroom, where I had a great time burying myself in beautiful textiles for two weeks. Followed by a trip to  Maison & Objet in Paris where I found lots of inspiration mainly through drinking lovely coffee in beautiful cafes and browsing wonderful shops.

February

In February I was lucky enough to exhibit at the Indigo Tradeshow also in Paris where I sold one of my silk birds to a mysterious lady from New York.

March

In March I won a competition to do a placement at Tigerprint Studios, It was so much fun getting to know the team and spending time in such an inspirational studio, the 6.00 am starts took a bit of getting used to though!

April

My Secret 7" was exhibited in London and I completed a placement with the lovely Bombay Duck design studio, I also took part in a Ship Shape Studio design forum which was full of tips for Illustrators and freelance designers.

May

In May I got back to Uni and cracked on with finishing my final project of second year, basically tons of lino cutting!

June

In June I went to the beautiful wedding of Tom and Rosie (invites by me!) and then I jumped on a plane to Bangkok to see the world!

July and August

I was busy soaking up the culture somewhere in the back end of South East Asia, finding lots of wonderful adventures and getting a very slight tan.

Setember

I flew home in September and moved back to Leeds to get cracking on my last ever year at Uni, managed to get in a few cocktails before the hard graft properly began.

Cocktail Picture by Seth

October

October- worked at the Textile Society Antique Textile Fair  and took part in the Tigerprint 'Hub' week designing a new Christmas range.

November

In November I took part in the 'Worthless Priceless' Exhibition at Leeds College of Art and polished off my 'Treasure From far Away Lands' project.

December

In December I was keeping my fingers out of the Quality Street tin by packing up my tea towels for Christmas deliveries and powering through the dreaded dissertation.

Bombay Duck

In April I did a wonderful work placement at Bombay Duck, just had a little look at their website and found some mugs I helped design! So weird but exciting to see my drawings turned into proper products, I will have to go and track one down in my nearest stockist. You can buy them here!

Question Time

Here is an interview I did AGES ago about my 2nd year Bird Project, it was for Annabell's  Tatty Devine targeted Zine, take a read if you fancy! (please excuse the poor photos!)

Tell us a bit about yourself?

Well hello there, nice to meet you I'm Hannah from Leeds. I'm a printmaker, illustrator and good egg.

When you approach a new project how do you find inspiration and what is your ideal work space?

I am a serious blog lover and tumblr addict. I think its really important to spot trends and try to consider them in design work. Tatty is one of my first stops for inspiration especially their fab photo shoots. I would love a beautiful studio but at the moment a desk and good cup of Yorkshire tea an some wonderful company is all I could ask for.

What are you favourite materials/mediums to work with?

I am a serious paper lady although this year I have been dabbling in the odd tea towel and fashion fabrics project for the Indigo trade Fair in Paris.

In your series of birds you used a laser cutter in the same way Tatty Devine do to create the feathers of the birds, could you talk us through the process of doing one of your birds.

I was inspired by a book of illustrations by Archibald Thorburn which I found in my Grans dusty spare room. I loved his intricate illustrations but wanted to create more of a personality and a sense of movement to the birds so started to experiment with laser cutting and layering. I basically design the intricate shapes and then collage millions of feathers together using my trusty pritt stick to create an instillation/illustration.

How long did it take to create this parrot? If you could give him/her a name what would it be?

He is called Percy, and he was a massive labour of love, he took forever! My tutor didn't believe me when i said i had done an A0 version of my intricate work and I couldn't afford a folder big enough so I had to strap him with cligfilm to a flattened cardboard box to transport him to the studio. I completed him in stages over Christmas while watching alot of Great Expectations I would say he too about 12 hours just for the sticking down. The laser cutting took ages aswell but wasn't he worth it?

Have you always known that being a artist was what you wanted to do?

Kind of, at first I thought I wanted to be a lingerie designer but I changed my tune when it became clear to me that I could just illustrate beautiful characters and spend hours in the print room for a living.

What would you be doing if you had not chosen to do this?

I really fancy being a florist, I have completed a floristry short-course but would have loved to do it as a profession. I love the colours and all the trimmings and the fact that they are such a lovely gift to brighten someones day.



























Who are your influences?

I am very much influenced by my family and the crazy little village in the Yorkshire dales where I originally come from. I think its important to stick to your roots and let your day to day life be a big influence on your work. My Grans are both very crafty thrifty yorkshire women with a 'can do' attitude which have been great role models. The work of jibberish writers such as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear are great for a little bit of a crazy influence.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

I am going on a massive adventure around the world during my last summer of freedom before the looming big bad world of a career creeps up on me. I'm heading off with a backpack full of bikinis to tour some tropical islands and I can't wait.

Whats been the most exciting thing to happen to you and your work this year?

It has all been kicking off this year! It was great to sell one of my silk birds at Indigo because I spent so much time on them with all the embroidery/lasercutting and silk dying. I was also privelidged for my design to be chosen for the Secret Seven Inch exhibition to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust which is a really great cause, but on a smaller scale I have had a great time setting up a collective with my friends and selling out of my first run of 'billion badger' tea towels. 
You've created a series called 'Secrets Of Your Average Songbird', where the birds each have a secret, do you often create characters for you designs/illustrations?

I usually do create characters,  I think the reason I'm so drawn to animals is because you can give them little human traits like hating Gail Platt or something ridiculous!  I think its important not to take your designs too seriously and have fun with it.

If this parrot was to have a secret what do you think it would be?

Probably hating Gail Platt for always getting with creepy men and putting her family in danger, you would have thought she would have learnt her lesson by now!!

What are you working on at the moment?

I have been working on a series of lino cuts influenced by the wonderful 50's textile exhibition at the Fashion and Textiles museum. The colors are lovely. Similar to my laser cut birds, its a very laboriousness crafty process but they will look great eventually!!