For the most recent brief, we were asked to choose from any current design competition, so given my obsession with food I opted for the Marks & Spencers’ brief; basically you are asked to design the ultimate picnic so really I couldn’t resist. I don’t think I have really worked to the brief though per se, with the addition of my felt food characters it now seems more like a children’s picnic play set but I suppose that’s something I could look into making in the future!

It was nice to put my felt food characters into context and I have really enjoyed this brief. At first I was stressing out a bit about making it look perfect but then I let go a bit and just let myself have fun with it. I don’t know if I will actually submit it to the competition (and if I do then this version will be a very, very rough prototype; for one the box is smaller than your average lunchbox!) but nonetheless it was a very fun brief and I think it looks good! Something I could think about if I were to remake it for the real deal would be the sort of food that would go in; I have chosen quite traditional fare for this – sandwiches, salad, chicken legs etc – perhaps it could be a bit more interestingly themed – Japanese or Mexican? And also the size of the picnic hamper and the way it will be constructed to be made ecologically friendly.

I set up the mini-cove to take some photos while I was already photographing another brief – two birds, one stone – and I like the way they’ve come out, for some reason I can't upload the photos right now but I will when they're absolutely finished!

Despite the fact that deadlines are looming, I stupidly decided it would be a fantastic idea to do a stall at a craft fair today. Okay, admittedly it didn’t go badly except that I didn’t sell any of our D&AD Christmas cards, which I was really disappointed about because it’s sort of last chance before Christmas now. I went to the craft centre on Friday for a portfolio visit but unfortunately Kathryn forgot to set her alarm clock so she wasn’t there when I got there. We arranged to reschedule however because I was busy making things to sell I missed out on an opportunity for another portfolio visit which was very silly of me because I’ve only got one down so far.

The print fair we did a couple of weeks ago and today were quite similar in the way that I think people were mostly looking to buy functional things rather than prints, which is a shame because Carrie-Anne’s prints are really lovely. I made some Christmas tree decorations which did quite well, put out some of my tote bags, key rings and some new headbands but I didn’t sell any of them! I think it’s just a case of trying not to let it get you down too much and keep trying because eventually you’ll find somewhere that is in your demographic. For example, my Christmas tree decorations were sold primarily to small children that were there with their families! So that was sweet.

I’d really like to try having a regular stall at the Stockport market craft fair because if you’re a regular then you can build up a bit of a fandom and spread your name out there more. Although I am kicking myself a little bit now because I have loads of stuff to do, I am glad I did the stall today because it went a little way into figuring out things like this and what to do for the next one and so on!

Today Chris and I went to Liverpool on a little day out for his birthday, and he was kind enough to humour me to go to the Tate while we were there! I had a brilliant time; it was freezing in Liverpool especially at the dock but it was so worth it. It cost £6 for the Alice in Wonderland exhibition and then there were the ‘This is Sculpture’ exhibitions which have been on since 2009 but as I’ve never been to Tate Liverpool I’ve never seen them. The series of This is Sculpture exhibitions included a collaboration between the Tate Liverpool curators and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and others such as Philip Treacy. Duffy’s exhibition included artworks responding to text and English language which were interesting and there was an interactive display to create your own original poem.

I loved Philip Treacy’s exhibition; there were pieces from his private collection alongside specially selected works from Tate’s collection and the most interesting pieces I found were the photographs of his own works of art, his hats. The most striking and beautiful part of the exhibition was the enormous shelf which spanned almost the entire room, which held his collection of wooden hat blocks, in every shape and size you can imagine. There were also works by Andy Warhol, including a few little known pieces that I personally had never seen before, so it was interesting to see some lesser-known works that inspired Treacy himself.

However, the main attraction was definitely the Alice in Wonderland exhibition. I thought it was absolutely fascinating throughout, seeing different artists’ responses to the book in non-traditional ways. There were paintings which Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) had visited which had influenced him as a writer and as an artist which were really interesting to see his development of surrealism. There was a huge collection of the book illustrated by many artists around the world and it was great to see how people in different countries interpreted the words. There were also a lot of photographs of the Liddell sisters which I enjoyed because Dodgson supposedly modelled Alice on Alice Liddell, however it is Edith Liddell who looks more like the traditional ‘Alice’ we all know from the many, many adaptations – she has a beautiful soft face and golden curly hair whereas Alice had a sharply cut dark brown bob (seen below). I suppose ‘Edith in Wonderland’ doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it! I really loved this exhibition and definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see some more original pieces rather than the well known works of Disney, etc.

Pablo Picasso once said “Computers are worthless. They can only give you answers.” - Even though he died in an age where the modern technology we have today was but a mere dream, I agree that sometimes there comes a point where you need to get away from the screen to stay creative.

Personally, I don’t work digitally – I tried it for a while last year because I felt I should. I felt like because a lot of others were working with collage that I would see if I could try my hand at digital collage and see if that would be ‘my style’ but it’s just not for me, I don’t enjoy having to rely too much on computers. I know it sounds ridiculous but I have bad-technology-luck; I accidentally delete things, lose work, and ruin work etc so I prefer to make things to have a hard copy, even if that does make it difficult sometimes to actually get onto screen. Due to this, I’ve had to utilise photography to get a digital copy of my work for posting on the internet and Etsy etc, and sometimes this can lose the effect of the textural quality.

I feel like the amount of work you will find on Etsy currently is evidence of a backlash to digital work; people have been ‘making’ more and more, creating handmade products that in my opinion have a lot of charm compared to some digital work I see. While on the one hand, digital work is always clean and polished and would therefore be preferable in an editorial piece or online where work can be zoomed in on to inspect the imperfections, I enjoy the delightful quality of something that is imperfect, something you can hold in your hands and feel the amount of effort that the maker has put into it. My personal preference is that of 3D objects and that’s something you can’t really get with digital illustrations.

However, I don’t in any way dismiss digital illustration, as much as I think there is too much of it out there and people can become jaded, there are always new ways to improve and rejuvenate any work such as adding textures to make things look real and textured. I don’t really like vectorised illustrations because they just seem flat and lifeless. In my portfolio visit with Mary Shears, she said how she likes when people can tell her products are handmade; there is a fine line between pieces looking shoddily made and handmade but she likes elements of imperfection that makes a customer able to see how it has been made, this is exactly how I feel. You have to make sure it looks professional enough that someone would be willing to actually pay for it but handmade enough that they know it is well made by you and that there is an element of yourself in the piece.

I feel this type of thing isn’t really possible with digital illustration and therefore I don’t like to work digitally, but I think the future of digital illustration is bright, with the introduction of more online newspapers, magazines, apps etc there is a lot more of a market for digital illustrators to design work for things such as these.

With what feels like hardly any time left before the end of my degree, I do have a few fears right now. I worry about what will happen after I graduate, if I will have to get a part-time job that is not related in any way to illustration, if I have to get a full time job unrelated to illustration that I never get out of and don’t get to do anything creative.. I don’t ever want to do anything that isn’t creative, I’ve had part time jobs in retail and administration and I felt like I was dying inside. In my last retail job it was as if every employee was completely replaceable in an instant (therefore do your job right or you’re fired!) so my main hope is that I can be my own boss.

Another fear is that I will be unsuccessful. I love what I make and I want to continue making plush toys and accessories and my dream is to run my own shop where I can sell things that I make – I would absolutely love to have a Made by Millie/Baked by Millie store! - But unfortunately of course there are always people who make similar things to you that are either already established or just create things to a higher standard. I worry that I will open my own shop and never sell anything and have to close it just as soon. Things like this have been witnessed in Affleck’s palace, Manchester where shops are changing owners constantly to make way for products that will sell more units. Another dream is that I could design products to be made for larger chains such as Thunder Egg, that way my products will still be out there but I wouldn’t have to run my own shop and worry about not being able to make ‘the bread and butter money’ and support a business that is still relatively small, but well known enough to be able to feel successful.

I try to be optimistic all the time and although there are sensible things I should worry about, I tend to just think about what is happening in the present rather than worrying too much about the future. I do worry sometimes that I might not even graduate my degree because I find the written aspect difficult. I enjoy the making side of illustration so much but the journal is something I am scared about as it is such a large part of the grade. It would be devastating to go through three years of illustration and not pass, it would ruin me and I would definitely be disheartened and decide that it’s probably not the profession for me. Hopefully there will be no problems here though because I feel the past few months have been the best yet and I feel like I have really found my own ‘style’ in my work.

I do want to stay in Manchester (unless someone offers me a one-way ticket to Canada) because I feel there is a lovely atmosphere within places I would love to work such as the Manchester Craft and Design centre and various shops in the Northern Quarter. As I doubt I will be able to afford to open a shop/studio as soon as I graduate, I will definitely be continuing my shop online on etsy and I have begun using folksy, which is a similar premise but based in the UK so is much easier for UK users. I also hope to go to lots of craft fairs with my wares as often as possible, as I feel this will be where I will be successful. Lots of people visit craft fairs so I need to get myself and my name out there, whereas it might be harder to find things online. At a craft fair you might find something you didn’t even realise you’d been looking for, so it’s easier to shop rather than trying to find something specific on etsy etc.

I definitely need to start making myself more accessible before I graduate because then I hopefully won’t be in as much trouble financially after my degree ends, so I need to put myself out there more on social networking sites, use my facebook page and twitter more often to talk to other illustrators and I am still yet to go on any portfolio visits, after which I feel I will know more on the subject than I do now, for example I am hoping to visit artists that have studio-shops in the Manchester Craft and Design centre, who I’m sure will be able to tell me how difficult it is to run a shop and create your pieces at the same time along with trying to generate enough money to stay afloat. This will be the most useful advice probably because it is much more relevant to my work than visiting the same agencies that frankly will have seen so many people from Stockport College they might be jaded by my portfolio visit.

There are opportunities I need to take advantage of while I am still at Stockport college, for example honing my photography skills which will be necessary for running an online shop and listing products and also I have been doing quite a bit of screen printing which I would love to experiment with more and create my own fabrics to make things with. I also need to take advantage of my tutors, who will be my best tools in preparing what will happen after graduation. I don’t really want to take a break because I don’t want to lose any of the creativity I have gathered along the way, although I know after I finish university I will be so stressed out I might not have any hair left.

In conclusion, I am going to try and stay positive about everything, keep working very hard so I can get the best degree I can hope for and not feel like I could have ‘done better’. I am going to continue to dream big and completely throw myself into the world.

Below are the images I created as my response to the compound noun 'ice cream man'; the brief we were set by Lord Whitney. I chose Ice cream man as I wanted to do a larger piece related to the small fiddly work I normally do, it was a lot easier to work on a bigger scale as you don't need to worry about every thread being visible. I also chose it because I love to make sweets related work as most of you probably know! I tried to spend as little money as possible to create the costume; I used ironing board underlay felt from Aldi and cardboard boxes that I took from Poundworld! I sewed him together mostly with my sewing machine which took no time at all and hand sewed the rest. The ‘idea’ behind the ice cream man is that Mr. Whippy was once a regular man but his obsession with frozen treats got too much and he became an ice cream! :) I've included some of the 'making of' photos so you can see the progress.

I really enjoyed this brief; it was so much fun if a little embarrassing. I had to get in the costume at one point and I feel the pain of my poor enlisted friends and family that I forced to post in the silly thing. I met some very grumpy shop owners that wouldn’t let me take any pictures (especially in the Arndale!) and some absolutely lovely ones like the nice people of Sivoris. Sivori has a wonderful history, they’re the best known ice-cream men in Manchester and in the 60s they ran an ice cream factory in Levenshulme (about 5 minutes from where I live), an ice cream cafe and over 40 vans. They were so sweet and let me into the storage room where they keep the vans, which are all absolutely beautiful, each one is so unique. It was so much fun to do something different and work quickly on this project. I love the work of LW and after meeting they just made me like them even more! Such lovely ladies and I'm hoping to go to Leeds to visit their studio very soon.

Today the absolutely fantastic Lord Whitney - which is the name of the collaboration of Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney – came to Stockport to give us a talk about their experiences of university, how they formed and how they got from there to what they are doing today. The lecture was so inspiring because they discussed how they only really realised what they both love doing a couple of months before they graduated university, which is very reassuring to I’m sure a lot of the people in our class that don’t feel they’ve developed their style fully yet, I know I myself have only really found my passion in this last few months!

After they graduated they really didn’t want to start working straight away so they formed a collaborative which was the drive they needed to enter the Estings competition. They say that you definitely need to keep working once you’ve finished at uni to stay creative. Another interesting thing they said was that it is difficult to keep a creative balance between doing work that you really enjoy and doing work that will make ‘bread and butter money’.

After the lecture they came up to our studio and set us a one-week brief to respond in our styles to a chosen compound noun. They came round and spoke to everyone and were so lovely and I was really pleased talking to them because they were so enthusiastic about my work and when I discussed wanting to branch out a bit into larger scale work they were thrilled and pushed me towards that for this brief. I’ve chosen ‘ice cream man’, and I’m going to make a costume – again something that I’m really excited about because I’ve never tried this before – of a literal man-sized ice cream. Because time is limited, I’m really going to keep it lo-fi, buy all the things I need tomorrow and machine sew very haphazardly, and then hopefully I’m going to find an ice cream van to do a photo shoot with this week!

Overall it was a really excellent day because I got really excited about making something which is always a good thing and I’m doing something new and big and I really hope that will turn into something I can start doing more of in my work and possibly with FMP! Here is some of their weird and wonderful work;

I'm so stressed out about blogging right now, I wish I had like 6 pairs of hands so I could get everything I need to done! At the moment I need to sew things, and I definitely can't blog and sew. Stupid two hands.

Anyway! This weekend I attended Thought Bubble comic-con, and it was just an amazing day. There was so much variety there and some great artists that I was really excited about meeting, especially Felt Mistress. Felty was there with her partner, Jonathan Edwards, and they were both absolutely lovely. She is a real inspiration of mine and they say you should never meet your heroes but she was such a pleasure to talk (briefly!) to. I was a bit intimidated because I didn’t want to come across as a complete fangirl and I was kicking myself for not thinking to bring my portfolio. Chris bought a few comics from them (and kindly bought me a FM tea towel!) and Jonathan even drew a sketch in one for him, which was very lovely.
































One thing I really learned from visiting this event was not to limit myself; I worry sometimes that my work might not be relevant to something like this but after seeing Felt Mistress and several other stalls that were selling plush toys, jewellery and other accessories, it really made me want to do something like this! I’m quietly hoping Chris will get some work together and run a stall with me for next year’s festival...

Another stand that I loved was Creature Kebab, otherwise known as UK illustrator Jennifer Bryan. She had an array of amazing plush toys, stickers, art cards and these incredible scarves. I wanted one so badly! I might buy myself one for Christmas.




























































Again, I was shown how diverse this festival is and not to tar all comic-cons with the same brush. Other artists I met included Philippa Rice of My Cardboard Life, an online comic which I adore, Jess Bradley of Squid Bits! who had some of the cutest stickers I’ve ever seen, and Stockport College’s very own Jane Richardson had a stand too. It was an excellent trip and I’m so glad we went, I want to go every year and I definitely want to exhibit one day. One can hope!

I visited the Salford Zine Library today! There were loads of beautiful zines and I had a lovely time flicking through the ones that caught my eye (if I'd read them all I would have been there for days!) It was really nice to see lots of different art styles and topics in one place, and obviously it was exciting seeing my own work! (Not that I even noticed it, Chris pointed it out first)











































































I wrote down a few names of people whose zines were my favourites, one of which was Lottie Pencheon. Lottie is an illustrator and printmaker from Macclesfield who studied at the University of Salford. Below are a page from one of the zines she entered and a menu she illustrated for Night & Day cafe, in Manchester. She clearly loves cats! I think her prints (using lino cuts, I think!) are just gorgeous. I love lino cut prints because I love the messy, handmade quality you get when you use them. I think everything should have that small area of imperfection.



















































Another set of zines which were awesome were by Girls get busy, a feminist collective that make a monthly zine. They were wonderfully made and they were really interesting because I've been studying a lot of feminism for my journal, the zines really intertwine with what I've been writing about.
I'm not going to go on about all the zines I liked because it would just go on forever but again, it was really nice seeing my work alongside others such as Philippa's, Lisa's and Emma's.

Today I also visited the Manchester Craft and Design centre. I am ashamed to say I've never been because I didn't know where it was.. However I thought it was brilliant and I'm planning to go and pester a few people with my portfolio, I found there were some designers that were really relevant to my work so hopefully some will be willing to talk to me! Fingers crossed.

I went to the Great Northern contemporary craft fair on Saturday, and I found it was a really useful and interesting visit. There were lots of makers that I admired the work of, as well as gaining tips about branding and presentation. The only downside I think was that there were 4 rooms in all, so there was quite a lot to process and because it was so busy it was quite overwhelming. I feel like I forgot about a lot of stalls as soon as I had seen them because of the sheer amount of work there was overall!

However, these are some of the crafters I really enjoyed and their amazing work; first off there was Rachel Eardley, who makes a lot of lovely jewellery but I was drawn to the embroidery work on her website, particularly these two pieces. Very simple in nature as she has embroidered just the small biscuit on each but I thought it was very interesting and unusual that she had sewed her work onto vintage napkins! On her website she says; 'already lovingly stitched and crocheted on by their maker, I then use traditional techniques, hand stitching my drawings onto each piece to complement what is already there' lovely!

























































Next is Caroline Kirton. On her website she describes her work as; 'snap shots of how I view teenage life, by observing my daughters and their friends. It is an observation of my relationship with my daughters as they progress through their teenage years, and considers how this relationship is always evolving.' She uses a combination of free machine embroidery and appliqué, and occasionally screen prints her fabric beforehand. I like her unconventional use of patterns and colours, and her stall at the show was lovely, she had used rows of bunting in patterns that matched her work which was a nice touch.






























































Finally, and my absolute favourite of the show, Jennifer Collier. Miss Collier's work is outstanding, she uses found and vintage papers and creates 'fabrics' from them by using techniques such as 'bonding, waxing, trapping and stitching'. She treats the paper as cloth and sews together to create objects such as cameras, sewing machines and tea sets. On her stand she had flyers which was really useful as I took one to remember her name, (for the rest I snapped the names above the stalls on my phone camera, haha!) this is definitely something to consider as not many other makers had thought to do this.





























































Last night I watched Kirstie Allsopp's new program, Handmade Britain. In the program Kirstie hopes to enter craft fairs across the country using contemporary and traditional methods of crafting, and in episode two she entered a few papercraft categories, one of which was titled 'something new from something old', and she made some rings out of damaged vintage books. I thought this was nicely linked to Jennifer's work because she uses something old, like book pages or an atlas to create an interesting decorative household object.

I also employed the 'something new from something old' technique today! I accidentally felted (shrunk) a Christmassy cardigan recently, so I decided to make some mittens with it! It was so easy and only took about an hour, definitely worth it (sorry for the rubbish picture, it was dark by the time I'd finished)

Recently I've definitely been posting more about crafty etsy folk and less about actual working illustrators, so I decided to do a post about a couple of illustrators I really like. First is Mike Lowery, who is an American illustrator whose clientèle includes Disney and Hallmark and has created a number of children's books, but what I like most is his use of hand-drawn type. He has several pieces (below) that feature his lovely hand-rendered type and I think they really lend a lot to his illustrative style. I also love the tattoo style of his work which still looks organic and sweet.

























































































Another illustrator that I absolutely love at the moment is Kris Atomic, who currently lives in Brighton. She mostly does fashion based illustrations which is what she’s known for, but after a little digging on her website I’ve found that she also has some excellent cross-stitched samplers and even a series of painted ceramics! It’s fun to find out that artists with a really distinct style have also worked with different materials. I adore the faces on her illustrations, they’re so cute and I love that she keeps them consistent rather than changing them for various clients and briefs.























































































































The point to this post is that I still gather inspiration from illustrators, despite my work leaning towards a craftier/textile feel... Speaking of, I’m going to the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair tomorrow at Spinningfields. I’m really excited to see Julie Haslam's work in the flesh and many others! I’ll probably post more about this later, but I’m a bit gutted that my portfolio isn’t ready because I could have potentially spoken to some people about my work. The next thing I want to make for my shop is some more screen-printed items, I’ve drawn up some patterns that I’m going to screen print onto fabric which I will then make into zippered multi-functional pouches etc, so I’m busy thinking up things for that along with the two new briefs we have, but I’m feeling positive!

I've just found a brilliant article (albeit slightly old; 2008) on LA weekly about Sarah Jo Marks, who runs DKE toys, along with her husband Dov Kelemer. However this article is not about her own work, it looks into Sarah's collection of plush food!































Her collection began with a dozen plush doughnuts:

' "Honey, what did you do?", Marks asked.

“I just bought you a crapload of fake doughnuts, that’s what,” said her husband, Dov. The doughnuts, stitched out of felt and decorated with sequin sprinkles, were a Valentine’s Day present. From then on, she became a lover of food rendered as stuffed toys. A collector of worm-ridden parsnips, a worshiper of felt toast, of carrots with teeth, of bananas that cry.
Today, two years later, Marks piles her collection of plush food onto the table. Pink cotton candy, pirate peas, an apple with a detachable worm, a portabella mushroom, shrimp sashimi, links of sausage and bratwurst, a melted ice cream cone, ribs, tofu, gyoza, pork loin. Gingerbread men with their parts bitten off. She hurls a stack of pancakes into the melee. Where is its pat of butter? Hiding under the angry asparagus, of course. A T-bone steak, nutritional analysis: 40 percent wool felt, 50 percent polyester fiberfill, 0 percent actual meat. “Love us,” implores its tag, “don’t eat us.”

I find it really interesting that plush food has been such a large part of someone's life, and although it adds a bit to my worry that it might be overdone as a theme, it goes to show that it has had a continued popularity for years and it has so many directions such as surreal, cute, realistic, etc.

Marks then went on to curate a plush food show called Stuffed in 2007, contributed to by artists such as the likes of my much-loved Heidi Kenney, Kenta Shibusawa (who I can't find anywhere, boo hoo!) and Snaggs!. I wish I could have gone to this show but it is obviously long gone.

'The show will be comprised of 3 main sections. The first is “The Feast”. The Feast will center around a plush turkey designed by Shane Geil of Purple Flavor and will be rounded out with lobster, sushi, pizza and many more mouthwatering food favorites. The second section is the “Dessert Cart” which will be spilling over with sweets, cakes and pies made of delicious looking felt and fabric. The third section is the “Grocery Store” which will have bountiful baskets of all different kinds of colorful plush foods that can be purchased and taken home starting on opening night! The Grocery Store will house fortune cookies, apples, doughnuts and more fun treats.'
It sounds amazing!