Natty Wrappy

This has been a busy couple of weeks! Doing some alterations to the house which has resulted in Ikea visits, checking out the Farrow & Ball colours and living in a house that looks like we have just moved in again. To add to that we have recently got two new recruits to the Natty household. Little 9 week old kittens called Alfie and Delilah. Absolutely adorable and settling in fast....but my goodness they are FAST!!!!!! Here is a pic of them chilling (very rare but hoping it will happen more so I can get some nice wee sketches of them)

Alfie & Delilah

I thought I would have a shot at screen printing my own wrapping paper. I had made tags using my gocco heart design initially for Valentine's last year. But I think it looks kinda Christmassy too. So I have decided to make some more.

Heart labels printed with my trusty Gocco

For screen printing the gift wrap, I prepared some acetates with the heart design for exposure onto a large silk screen. Having only an A4 printer meant I needed to print off enough to cover a 500mm x 700mm area. That's what I miss about art school...they had a huge printer that could print off images onto acetates as large as A1...so much easier when you want to screen print a large surface area. Anyway after a very early start I went through to www.fifedunfermlineprintmakers.org to prepare my screen and see how things turned out. Not sure if this is going to be cost effective for me using my current method, but I want to start exploring printing pattern on a larger scale for surface decoration/textiles so it seemed a good idea to try this out.

Screen Printed Gift Wrap

I got some really nice gingham ribbon from www.josyrose.com for the labels. All in all I think it looks ok...for a trial anyway!

Hand printed wrap and labels

I am going to try this out 'salewise' at an open day at the Dunfermline workshop this Saturday. We'll see if it's worth it.
Now I have got to start thinking about next year. Although my work has been  successfully selling both privately and through fab places such as www.northrockgallery.co.uk and www.lakesidearts.org.uk  I now need to start thinking about taking things a stage further. I have decided to take the plunge and I am going to be exhibiting as a Newcomer at www.bctf.co.uk/ in Harrogate in April. As a result I need to get a whole load of new designs and work together. Got a couple of new ideas up my sleeve. I am now live in the Design Edge Catalogue http://www.design-edge.uk.com/2011nattymaid.html so it makes it official. NERVOUS! There is a heck of a lot to do and I am hoping that as my work progresses I will be able to put little snippets on here.