Thursday, 20 March 2014

Spring has Sprung

Today is the Spring Equinox, marking the start of Spring! We've already had a bit of beautiful sunshine (I even grew a few freckles), not to mention new buds & flowers growing, morning & afternoon birdsong and the skies being so much lighter in the morning & evenings. All these things have brought so much more joy to me, here are some spring-like images from my Instagram lately...

Hyacinths

 Walking in Portobello
 
 Walking in Kensington
 
 Evening sunshine skies in Kentish Town
 
 A Sunday morning walk
 
 Sitting in the garden
 
 First picnic this year, Anna.
 
 Willow Tree's in Regents Park
 
Blossom Tree in Kentish Town

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Workspace & Lifespace

I have recently redecorated my workspace & bedroom & it makes me very happy!
When I design, I work from home, my home being my family home, and my workspace being my bedroom (not ideal, but it works for the time being while I find a job & eventually my own home space)

My parents always let us do whatever we wanted to our rooms, paint & write on the walls, from a huge yellow sunshine, to the usual teenage song lyrics & walls covered in photos and blue-tack.
My dad is a super dad handy man and built many different shelving & desk systems I requested over the years and I had an awful purple glittery ceiling too! All fun at the time, but all of which had left the space looking a little dishevelled with layers of paint to cover it all up.

As a trained painter & decorator I decided to just go for it and whilst I am still job hunting and have time on my hands. I also wanted a nice space, with more room, it gets a bit much juggling work and life in one room (I spend half my time at the Mr's to get away from it) and it was a room that was a bit run down and bugged me every time I looked up at the purple glittery ceiling. I wanted something nice for me but also nice if we need to house guests and nice for my parents for when I do move out.

After lots of sanding, filling, cleaning & painting, then a bit of clearing out, organising & rearranging  have a new space just in time for Spring! Here are some Instagram images of the space...

 Workspace, Desk & Shelves
 
Glass Jars, Paint brushes & pens

 Glass Jars & Dried Flowers

Tobacco & Sweetie Tins

 Chest & Chair with blanket

 White & Wood

 Old wooden slide boxes

 Little Glass bottles

 Workspace turns into bedroom

 Bedside Table - White painted wooden crate & magazines

Bedside Table - Lamp & Flowers 

Wooden Crate side table & woven bag 

Workspace meets bedroom, shelves & wardrobes 

Makeup 

Wooden shelves & flower books 

Jewellery 

Wood, Leather & Suede 

Tins

Seek & Adore Features

I'm excited to see two lovely features of my work on Seek & Adore!

My Handmade Notebooks were featured in the 'Make Mother's Day' newsletter & trend! 
View the trend by clicking HERE

 
 
 
And my Botanical Paper cuts featured in the Seek & Adore 'Bring the outside in' trend! 
View the trend by clicking HERE



Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Something Personal & Special

I have been working on a special & personal project over the past few weeks, in the hours between different work loads, I have been making a paper cut card/work for my Mr.
It was our 9 year anniversary last weekend, (not marriage, just being togetherness, we're only 25!), so I wanted to make something special!
With process inspiration taken from my love of pencil & watercolour illustrations and my passion for paper crafting, I developed a layered tunnel book, much like those from my 2010 degree show 'Paper Garden', but this time, with colour and a lot more layers.
It's a bit cheesy to share it, but I really enjoyed making it and am really inspired to develop more works, combing my two techniques of pencil & watercolour with papercrafting.
The work is 9 layers representing 9 years, depicting a Hampstead Heath walk, one of my all time favorite things to do together, with layers of 'Kentish town blossom trees', 'Grassland', 'Meadowland', 'Young trees', 'Willow trees', 'Distant trees', 'Hampstead village skyline' & a leafy first layer with words 'My favorite thing in the world is to go on long and lovely walks to Hampstead heath, holding hands'.


 






 All images & designs Copyright Freya Lines 2014