Winter's Moon

If you're looking for a blast from the past and re-live some childhood memories then take a look at Winter's Moon. It has collections of furniture, accessories and children's games and toys that have stood the test of time and ready to move on to new owners. I love these bright cushions with the stylised flowers, I also have my eye on a couple of vintage chairs that I might see if I can find a space for in the new house!

I'm starting to get my new room sorted out and will soon be back to drawing and creating new patterns and designs. I'm also getting ready for Decorex which is rapidly approaching.

Please note that if you look for Silvertabby Designs blog you will no longer find it. As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to have a revamp and you'll now find me here at Ballistic Owl, please keep popping by I enjoy your company.

New name, new look

After a busy few weeks moving house, I got thinking about my blog and my design identity. I decided that although I love Silvertabby it was time for a change and think of something more dramatic and punchy. So a rename was in order and after a glass of wine and some wondering thoughts "Ballistic Owl" was born. I hope you like it and I feel it reflects myself and my crazy love of colour and my love of all things natural. My designs often have a quirky twist to them and so I thought my design name and logo should too!

Whilst in the land of dragons

Just returned from a lovely break in Wales down on the Gower Peninsular. I had a lovely time and even though it was a long, long drive from Newcastle it was worth it. We found some gorgeous beaches and even learnt that the Torchwood series had filmed on the bay at Rhosili, which is a fantastic 3 mile long beach not far from the end of of the peninsular (above image).

We also visited the National Botanical Garden of Wales, which was a lovely place to relax and enjoy the flowers and plants. It's a huge place and one that we discovered can't really be done in a day. So maybe next time we're down that way, we'll go back and finish it off. In the gallery space there, they had an exhibition by KATIE ALLEN who paints gorgeous pictures of woods and flowers. We fell in love with the Cherry Blossom print and also liked the one above called "Crocus Woodland", all full of movement and interesting patterns. Might have to save some money and buy a print! Take a look at her website, link above.

I'm still here!

It's been a short while since my last post, but I am still here. I've been enjoying pottering around and visiting some lovely places (well at least before all the rain started). This image was taken at Cherryburn the home of Thomas Bewick a wood engraver and print maker. It's a small place but interesting to see the small blocks he worked on.

I have also been looking through some of my old images and working on some ideas for pattern designs. There are a couple of competitions coming up, so I have been busy finding inspiration for those too. Generally doing research and a few rough sketches.Over the next few weeks I will be preparing some new work to add to my portfolio to take to Decorex. We are also moving house, so I will be busy packing boxes and clearing out junk. I'm really looking forward to being in the new house and having a new place to decorate and a new study to design in!

Great ideas for finding a colour palette.

Design seeds is a great website/blog that forecasts colour palettes and just loves exploring colour ideas. It reminded me that to gain inspiration for colour use all I need to do is look at some of the photos I've taken and extract some of the colours from them. Brilliant feel inspired now and will organise my own palette file.

Pinterest is fab!

Pinterest is a rather additive site where you can look up or add images and where you found them on to a virtual pin board. So if you're looking for inspiration for a project or ideas for your room or house have a look at pinterest.com. But I'll warn you it's distracting and you'll be wondering what else you can find amongst it's pages! It covers anything from interiors to food recipe ideas. I think you can upload your own images too of work you may have done, but I've not worked that one out yet.

Image is a sample screen shot from the site.

First practice prints at Northern Print.

Now I have the bug for screen printing I wanted to to find somewhere I could do it now I don't have the college facilities. Northern Print is not far from where I live and I had been a member in the past for lino printing. So yesterday I rejoined and shown how to use some of the equipment by the very nice and very helpful Helen.

Once settled in I printed some practice pieces off, I must say I'm quite pleased with them! I used kodas from past projects and came home with a buzz and now I want to get my head down and do some new designs and print some samples off.

The screen printing area is small but perfectly formed and has everything you should need. I think I'll be down there quite alot over the summer!