New illustrated mugs for anniversary gift, Valentine’s Day, or *just because*. “If you were a bogey, I’d pick you.”

New to my Etsy shop: ceramic mugs with my illustration and the text “if you were a bogey, I’d pick you.” A special gift for your favourite bogey – the one you picked yourself! The mugs each have the same image/text on both sides and are available to buy here in my shop.

Have you seen my Instagram account? Regularly updated with sketches, illustrations, new products and the like! Pop on over and say hello!
Feel free to repost these images to spread the word on social media – please credit with a link to either my blog, shop, or social media account so people can find me, but also because I love seeing where my work has been pimped 🙂

New illustration for Goblin Market poem

I’ve been revisiting the poem Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti after a number of years – I first studied the poem at art college over a decade ago, as part of a self-initiated degree project, and my fascination with the dark children’s tale continues.

This illustration wasn’t planned. I knew I wanted to illustrate Laura and Lizzie, so began sketching the sisters, and subconsciously the hair grew into trees and menacing little goblin men started appearing in the woods.

An excerpt from the poem:

“Evening by evening

Among the brookside rushes,

Laura bow’d her head to hear,

Lizzie veil’d her blushes:

Crouching close together

In the cooling weather,

With clasping arms and cautioning lips,

With tingling cheeks and finger tips.

“Lie close,” Laura said,

Pricking up her golden head:

“We must not look at goblin men,

We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed

Their hungry thirsty roots?”

“Come buy,” call the goblins

Hobbling down the glen.”

I used pencil, ink and watercolour paint before scanning and editing the image digitally.

If you’d like an A5 print, I have them available to purchase here: Goblin Market prints.

Goblin Market was written by Christina Rossetti, published in 1862, and originally illustrated by her brother Dante Rossetti. Lawrence Housman and Arthur Rackham also illustrated Goblin Market. You can read the full Goblin Market poem here.

I’d love to hear what you think?

New Home card – illustration for Colour Collective

I haven’t participated in the weekly #Colour_Collective illustration challenge since March 2016 but yesterday posted an illustration for the chosen colour ‘Iris Blue’. I was thinking about the things I do now that I live by myself – talking to plants being one of them. They are good listeners by the way, and they never answer back. Score! Then I made the image into a New Home card by adding text and it’s now available to purchase on Thortful.

My illustration in the book “Drawn from Life – Contemporary Artists, Timeless Techniques” by Helen Birch

One of my sketches is featured in a showcase of life drawings in the book Drawn from Life by Helen Birch. This is a lovely little book for those interested in drawing the figure from life, and provides inspiration from a variety of artists and traditional (yet contemporary) techniques.

My drawing comes under the heading ‘informal practice’ as it’s a sketch drawn while lounging on my parents sofa a few years ago (hence the Marimekko Unikko design blanket – Finnish mother!) This sketch came at a time when I was trying to rebel against my natural desire to perfect what I was seeing, to draw what I see without improving on the truth. Society inflicts images of perfection upon us with Photoshop, make-up, filters, and fakery. Life drawing should be about what is real. I love the truth and all its imperfections!

If you’d like a copy of the book, you can buy one here.

Easter egg cups and grow-your-own home decor in one!

I’ve listed egg cups with happy faces that come ready for your Easter display with a chick and alfalfa sprout seeds that you can grow for hair. Fun for the kids (and big kids like me!) I can personalise the egg cups with a name on the back as a custom order too – just contact me via Etsy!

Here’s a custom bat egg cup order (with names on the back), that I decided needed chicks and seeds too:

You can also find my egg cups in UK Handmade’s Spring Showcase at the moment:

I post on Instagram more regularly than on my blog, so if you’d like to see what I’m up to, feel free to find/follow my account @makingstrangers.

Happy Easter!

 

Drawing into 2017 -Valentine’s, weddings, and easter illustrated!

2017 brings a new creative urge to make use of ideas that have been hibernating in sketchbooks and journals throughout 2016! I’m not going to lie, some of them have probably been waiting since 2012 to be born. Half of my time now is dedicated to Digibloom, my one-woman-business that champions and supports creative small businesses.

The other half is spent working on illustrations and fulfilling my need for creative expression. 2017 is about sustaining a work/life balance for me, so there is also yoga and t’ai chi, family time, and long nature walks to keep the inspiration and wellbeing tuned up.

So what have I been working on?

Valentine’s Day cards:

Bogies!
This card is my best seller at the moment!

Want to send this card to your favourite bogey? You can order one here on Etsy.

Sloths!

My new sloth Valentine’s card is currently only available via Thortful.com. You can find it here.

Valentine’s Day gifts

Personalised couple egg cups with names on the back.

The names on the back are handwritten in ribbon banners. They come as a pair so make a thoughtful and personal gift idea for a couple celebrating Valentine’s Day, their wedding, or an anniversary! The egg cups have multiple uses, such as little succulent planters, ring holders, and candle holders.

The smiling couples set of egg cups can be ordered here. Also available – a single personalised egg cup here (see images below).

Currently in stock is a cat face egg cup, and I’m about to list a sloth and a bat. Keep checking back as more are added to my Etsy shop!

Happy new year! x

Christmas is coming, and so are my illustrated gifts!

New items in my Etsy shop, ideal for Christmas gift giving.

This little elf has been busy in the elf workshop painting on ceramics and personalising journals. My hand-painted porcelain egg cups can also be used as tea light candle holders, tiny succulent pots, or little ring bowls. These are indeed a great size for stocking fillers or token gifts for friends, colleagues, and family.

You can pick an egg cup to adopt from my Etsy shop. They are hand-painted, so no two are the same, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

My shop wouldn’t be complete without ‘little peekers’ aka Finnish tonttu (Christmas elves) sneaking peeks out of Moleskine journal windows! I’m currently working on new journals that people can have personalised with a name or word as well. So keep ’em peeled in my Etsy shop.

See all my latest bits and pieces on my Instagram: MakingStrangers.

Til soon!
Heidi x

Happy Halloween and Autumn Tidings

Some pesky pumpkins are causing mischief, Moleskine style!

This altered Moleskine pocket journal is a one-of-a-kind illustration piece for sale in my Etsy shop. Go get ’em!

Happy Halloweener!

Personalised naiad journal – notebook with water nymph illustration & cut out cover

Fresh in my shop – a personalised Moleskine notebook with cut-out cover and illustrated 1st page.
This journal depicts a naiad/water nymph, a female spirit that presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.

There is a blank ribbon banner so the journal can be personalised into a thoughtful gift with a name or word of your choice.

New illustration print for the lost souls

Here’s a new print in my shop, taken from a pencil drawing in one of my sketchbooks. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing” is a feeling I keep returning to throughout my life. I guess it depends if you focus on the bigger or smaller picture, but every so often this reality check comes back around and I question everything.

This is the first of my illustrations to be professionally printed on 300gsm white recycled board with a textured look. It comes in A5 size as part of a signed, open edition.