Country Living

I’ve just been down to the village to post my first Etsy order. It’s a temporary Post Office in the Village Hall, only open a few hours a week, which is really annoying.There was a queue though ,so we all had to chat about the weather and the loss of village amenities and I was mistaken for the mother of my 23 year old neighbour which really made my day!

I’ve wasted so much time this morning that I’m determined to get loads of work done this afternoon. I just thought I’d mention a few events coming up in Osmotherley, in case anyone’s passing this way.

February 26-28 Osmotherley Village Theatre presents “Busybody” .Tickets available from The Top Shop. ( Jane Thorniley-Walker has been painting the scenery and several of my favorite people have leading roles, so it should be  fun, I’m not even packing the rotten tomatoes… )

March 10th An Apple Event presented by famous local cider maker Giles Pinkney. I’m not sure but I think this is all about encouraging people to make more cider and includes visiting monks from Ampleforth who make a good brew apparently!

Now, enough “Country Living”, time to brew up some strong coffee and get designing.( The image above is a close up of a design on fine wool, using various print methods and padded embroidery)

The Bees Are Suspicious

I have finally put some things in my little virtual shop. You can have a look by going to KimTillyer.Etsy.com. The photos aren’t fantastic unfortunately; it really is getting desperate this lack of broadband situation. I just had to get my brother in Wiltshire to upload the images in to this post for me, which is crazy but also nice because he made up the title which made me smile… thanks little brother!( they must be the wrong bees…)

More family stuff… I made this flower necklace for my daughter’s birthday on Thursday. I really like it ( and luckily so did she) so I’ll be making a few more for the Etsy shop.

Now I must make some coffee. I had a good afternoon in the garden, discovering snowdrops and new shoots, under the rotting leaves that I’d forgotten to cut back in the autumn.The moles have ravaged the lawn but its so exciting to venture out and hope that soon all will be spring green.

Anyway, its worn me out so I’m off to put the kettle on.

Oh, here is a link to the blog of my friend Suzanne Auty who is another 3rd year student from CCAD’s Textiles and Surface Design degree. I love looking at these blogs and seeing how everyone is getting on.

“Just ‘Coz You Feel It, Doesn’t Mean It’s There”

I know I said I’d be drawing and showing you my sketch book; well I got sidetracked and ended up trying to make some things to sell in an Etsy shop. So far I have set up my shop but have nothing in it; so its just me sitting behind an empty stall , looking a bit lost!

Obviously I have the added problem of the rubbish internet connection up here which makes uploading pictures a bit of a chore. Still, I have been busy making some of these little books (4″x4″) which are covered in printed and embroidered fabric…

…and some of these heart brooches which contain a sprig of lavender and are made from hand printed and embroidered re-cycled wool.

Those, along with some screen-printed t-shirts will form the main stock in my fabulous emporium. It can’t be worse than doing nothing, can it? Can it? Is it so very different from what I was doing 20 years ago, messing about on the “Enterprise Allowance Scheme”? Is this what my degree prepared me for?…

I’ve been doing some research and costing some garment blanks to use in my designs but it just doesn’t seem to work out. It seems mass production on the scale of Tesco or hugely expensive,exclusive one offs, are the only options. More research needed I think.

Now I must go and bake cakes for my lovely daughter’s birthday. x

Reading: Still reading the Moomins! Listening to: Radiohead

Birds and Flowers

Good grief, more snow, and this time I wasn’t expecting it! I’ve been having to buy those silly bags of logs you get at petrol stations because nobody seems to be able to deliver a propper trailer load.

I was going to post the latest batch of designs today but instead of risking the road I did a bit more to my orange ,bird t-shirts. I think they look pretty good now so its just a question of trying to decide where to sell them and for how much…pricing hand -made things is a very thorny issue.

Well, I didn’t come anywhere in the Tigerprint Valentine competition, the results were posted today. However, I am glad that entering made me pick up a sketch book and do something other than sewing. I’m determined to do more drawing, in fact that’s my plan for tonight, since another night of Golden Lion work has had to be cancelled. Another log on the stove and another pot of coffee, a good mystery on the radio and thats me sorted! I will try to show you the results tomorrow…

( These are details from a recent design © KimTillyer 2009 as usual)

Lovely Bear

I have  just discovered the work of the Swedish artist John Bauer and fallen in love with this lovely bear and his friend. Bauer’s illustrations are, like the Moomin books, full of  the dark imagery of Northern myths; trolls and forests full of bears and wolves.I’m so glad I stumbled across them during one of my snail’s pace internet research sessions. Bauer’s story is quite tragic though as he apparently drowned in a shipwreck in 1918.

There is a wood just like this near here…

It seems a bit of a cheek to put one of my drawings next to those, but  here is  a very fat rabbit  I did a while ago.

I’ve had quite a productive week and today I took a trip to Middlesbrough to visit Rachel from North East Fashion Network.We had a good talk about business plans, the need for better post graduate support and the lovely shades of yellow and orange you can get from marigolds and alum! Hopefully Rachel will be able to help me write a good business plan so that I can try to get some funding for equipment and materials.

This week I also had an e-mail from Tom Hutchinson. Tom lives in the village and recently graduated with a BA in Illustration. He’s offered to help me with my ongoing battle with Illustrator! You can see some of his work here.

Who Built the Snilesworth Igloo ?

I had to show you this amazing igloo that has appeared on the moor. I want to see it at night with a light in it.Apart from that the snow is a bit disappointing now ,but I have stocked up on books and things to sew with , just in case I need to amuse myself next time it comes.
x

Busy

I’m feeling guilty; I should be at work but the road was worrying ,so I turned round. I knew I could get there,getting back was the problem. Oh well, another night in the kitchen trying to build a career as a designer!

I’ve been messing around with paper cut-work; scanning in used heat transfer stencils and playing with them in Photoshop. Of course this means the end result is a bit pixelated but its only for fun, so it’ll do until I decide to give Illustrator another chance.

Meanwhile I found a big bag of ORANGE t-shirts that I must have been going to do something with once. I decided to screen-print onto them and maybe add a bit of embroidery so that I could try to sell them,on Etsy or the next Designers Marketplace?

The orange is a bit mad though, is it a bit too “Guantanamo Bay”? Is this why I got so many so cheap?! Oh dear.

As you can see I’m keeping busy ; just hoping that something good will happen soon.One good thing is that all this talk of Moomins has sparked off a small flurry of comments from long lost friends and family which is so nice and makes life on the mountain seem a little less isolated! Thank you x

The Lonely and the Rum

The snow came. The big red chicken sat on the gate looking like Captain Oats contemplating his fate… why didn’t she go in the nice warm shed? As usual I have failed to stock up on all essential supplies, ie: no cakes or chocolate.

Being snowed in means not having to go to work in the village so instead I can stay home by the stove and try to get some more designs done. I did some maths the other day though and felt a bit hopeless about it…I would be interested to know exactly how other freelancers manage. Does anyone actually make a living doing this?

I read late into the night on Sunday, “Moomintroll Midwinter” by Tove Jansson.I fell asleep dreaming slightly disturbed dreams about the “lonely and the rum”, until the snow storm woke me. Blinding lightning and crashing thunder in the whiteness.I know people who are terrified by Moomins and I can kind of understand why; there is a dark, mysterious atmosphere to the stories. In midwinter the sun never appears,strange creatures roam the valley and bonfires are lit to hurry on the spring.I loved it and the weather was perfect!

“There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring.Everything that’s a little shy and a little rum. some kinds of night animals that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everything’s quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleep-then they appear” (“Moomintroll Midwinter”)

Anyway, its all wonderful and the illustrations are beautiful, so if you only know Moomins from the TV cartoon go and read the book (after midnight in a snowstorm is best!)