New Lines Acoming...

I have recently decided to extend my range and create embroidered tea towels! I was having a look at my existing tea towels at home and noticed that many of them do have embroidered details on them- hideous embroidered details, but embroidered none the less! This inspired my to create my own set of embroidered tea towels, each sporting different foods favoured by us Brits. These are the first two (both happened to be Heinz!), but there will be more to come. Other possibilities I am considering are scones, bacon/BLT, tea, fish and chips, trifle and gravy (no one non
British has ever undersood my obsession with gravy, so it must definately be a British thing!).

It's actually quite dificult to choose, as some foods are very much loved by the British public, but just don't work as stitched images. A good example I can give is bangers and mash. I think that would look pretty horrific as a stitched image. Some things just seem to get lost in translation when it comes to sewing. This is why I have opted for packaging thus far. I have kept everything really simple. They are literally stitched line drawings, but I think that is why they work. If you try to over complicate things, the delicacy of the stitched line can be over looked.

If there are any other foods anyone can think of feel free to comment and give me some more ideas! The stranger the better :)

Check out the talented Miss Spinks!

My good friend and fellow Illustrator, Lindsey Spinks was nice enough to give me a mention on her blog-http://www.lindseyspinks.blogspot.com/. Check out her work on her blog or her website-http://www.lindseyspinks.com/ where you will find her beautifully intricate pencil drawings, combined with textured fabric collage and an array of quirky characters (like this chap on the right)! I love Lindsey's attention to detail and her people are always bursting with charcter. So what are you waiting for? Mosey on over there, you won't be disappointed!

Tweet Tweet

I have finally given into the inevitable and jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Keep up to date with my goings on and follow my tweets!

New Phone = New Phone Holder

Designers/Makers Market Pix

Due to the bank holiday/sunny weather, unfortunately the Designers/Makers market wasn't exactly bustling on Saturday. It was a worth while experience none the less, I did make a few sales and was lucky enough to have had my sewing machine there (as I was doing workshops), so I had something to help the time pass. I got a starting on a new range I have designed. So it wasn't all bad!

The Switch

This is one of the peices I made to endorse my new Sew Over It embroidery workshops. It was the first full peice I created since scarily switching from a normal machine foot to a free hand embroidery one. It was a big adjustment and I felt like I was learning to sew all over again! I think the fact that the fabric has to be put onto an embroidery hoop to prevent it from runching is what makes it so difficult. You have to use the embroidery hoop to maneuver the fabric, which is an art very difficult to master! The hoop edge gets caught on parts of the sewing machine and jogs your perfect line, you run out of space within the hoop...it's a whole new set of problems. I was stressed out to say the least and what was meant to be a 3 hour image took me all day!

Now that I have adjusted to the foot (kind of), I do wonder how I had the patience to do some of the things I did with the standard machine foot. Intricate details are a whizz! Straight lines however, seem to be an impossible task, with the hoop issues and all that! Anyway, I am glad I got out of my comfort zone and am developing my skills with the free hand embroidery foot. It has opened a whole new world of possibilities (and frustrations) for me!

You can find out more information about my embroidery workshops and book a place on the Sew Over It website http://www.sewoverit.co.uk/lessons. Enjoy!

Workshop at the Designers/Makers Market

Come down to the Designers/Makers Market this Saturday for some machine embroidery workshopping goodness! You have a choice of three wonderful wonders- embroidered leather brooches, keyrings or pincushions. All for the bargain price of £3.50 a go! Also, I will have some of my handmade goodies on sale for anyone who doesn't want to take part in the workshop. There's a little something for everyone!

Designers/Makers Market

The Triangle,

Warburton Street,

E8 3RH

Visit their website at: www.designersmakers.com

Time to Get Crafty!

My DIY kits are finally done. You can now make your very own leather cupcake brooch or a pincushion! Each kit contains everything you need to make the product, all you will need is your sewing machines, you sewing skills and your creativity! The beauty of my DIY kits is that they have been specially designed so that the drawstring bag can be re-used as a gift bag after the item has been made. It makes the perfect gift!

There are currently three kits to choose from, but I am working on widening the range.

They are available to buy from my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/tugbakop. Enjoy!

Another Day, Another Bootsale, Another Bargain!

I have had yet another successful bootsale experience today. I managed to bag myself a cute sewing basket, with all sorts of wonders inside it, all for two measly pounds! Many wonders sat inside this sewing basket, including buttons, needles, threads, thread cutting scissors, brooches, poppers and all sorts of other wonderful haberdashery goodness. Also, I found (yes found!) me some peices of vintage fabric. Someone had dumped it! Well you know what they say, one man's rubbish is another man's treasure! So true.

First Boot Sale Bargain of the Year!

I have just returned from my first boot sale trip this year, and look what I found...It's a massive roll of fabric-the very same fabric I use as the base of all of my illustrations-for the bargain price of £5!!! The stall holder lady initially set the price at £10 (which I was more than willing to pay), but my mum a.k.a Queen of Haggling managed to get her down to £5. I think it's safe to say that my first boot sale experience of the year was a good one!

My Market Ventures

I had a lovely Saturday afternoon trapsing around Hackney in the sun. I ventured to the new Designer/Makers Market off of Mare Street to check out the hand crafted goods and talk about doing possible workshops. From there went to Broadway Market, stumbling upon two other markets along the way! It was market heaven! Due to the sun, car boot sales around my local area have opened up too, so I can't wait to go around having a browse and a rummage to find some rare beauties at bargain prices!

Book Up To My Embroidery Classes!

You can now book up for my Machine Embroidery Classes with Sew Over It! Each lesson is three hours long with tea and cakes provided to help fuel your creativity! You can either stitch your own designs, or one of the lovely templates on offer. By the end of each workshop you will have a peice of beautiful embroidery which will then be mounted at the end of each class so you can hang your new creation proudly on your wall!

You can get more information and sign up here: www.sewoverit.co.uk/lessons.

Write.

Here is another peice I've been meaning to do for ages and have only got around to doing it. This is going to be used as another book cover, much like the 'draw' sketchbooks. I want to make a whole series of them to aquire to all tastes (and creatives!). This one will be a notebook with lined paper, so this will be the 'write' one for, you guessed it, writing! I also want to do a 'create', 'capture' and 'ideas' notebook to complete the series.

10 months later and I've graduated...officially!

Even though I finished uni waaaaaay back in June/July time, I have only just had my graduation! It felt like more of a reunion rather than a graduation! The moment had kind of passed, but still good to be an official graduate!

I will tease you no more!

A few weeks back, I did a post giving just a tease of one of two peices of work I have been working on. I am now happy to reveal them in all of their finished glory!

These two images will be used to promote my embroidery workshops at Sew Over It (www.sewoverit.co.uk). These will be starting in May, so once again....watch this space!

Check out my designs on The Create Place website!

So, the Mother's Day Pop-up Shop is over and the nice people at The Create Place in Bethnal Green have written all about it on the blog of their brand new website! Take a peek here>> www.thecreateplace.co.uk/?p=514