Tea towels...Salted Caramel Kisses

I received lots of lovely feedback when I produced this recipe as a screen print.  So much so that I've splashed out and printed it onto tea towels!  So if you've run out of space on the wall, or aren't sure that a friend would want a print, this tea towel offers a nice alternative.  Practical, useful and pretty!

Printed in a dark pinky-red (aka maroon) onto a 48mm x 78mm cotton tea towel, pre washed and ironed, ready for use straight away.  Just £10 plus P&P, and available from my 'Not on the High Street' shop.

Mail Art Update

A while ago (it's no longer a short while, I realise that I'm very behind on this) I received a very generous package from Jessica Gowling aka Nature's my Friend.  I've been safe guarding it on my desk, putting up various bits for inspiration and generally loving the look of the lovely typewriter written letters Jessica sends.

The main, amazing, marvellous (love using this word) object to this package was a beautiful hand printed moleskin sketchbook.  There was also a matching postcard, which went straight up onto my board of inspiration that I've recently created in my room.  I want to do this sketchbook justice!  I'm waiting for an awesome project idea to come along that would be perfect to fill it's lovely pages with.

Do you have any ideas to help me out?

If you'd like one of these for yourself, then you'll find it in her online shop here.  You can also find Jessica on Twitter here and here.

Exhibition - Artist of the month

Artist of the month

So YAY!  My first solo exhibition.  I'm pretty proud of it all.   The cafe where I used to work has been having an 'Artist of the Month' feature since about September last year.  It was a huge hit and success with artists and locals a like!  It's a great feature of the cafe now, a new artist, or group of artists, every month.  Works from all disciplines are welcome, from watercolours and oils to printmaking and photographs.  

So I have March all for myself!  After enjoying all of the previous work that has been up, I'm excited that my turn has come around.  I managed to get a bit of branding together for myself with some bright stickers and my globe illustration so everything tied together nicely.  I have a range of illustrations available.  From silkscreen and drypoint prints to watercolour illustrations, digital prints and books to pocket mirrors and magnets - there is something for every budget!

The space in the cafe is ideal for displaying artwork.  As you can see its a gorgeous light space, with a whole wall of windows, a roof that lets in even more light and a lovely long wall for all the work!  My work varies quite a bit, but in between wall lights I was able to group pieces together in sections, as it were, and it's worked so well.

There were drinks and nibbles and tea and cake available.  Lovely cupcakes on vintage tiered cake stands were scattered about on the tables along with information flyers and table talkers.  I invested in a couple of stands to display my prints and silkscreen books on.  Being the busy bee that i am, I painted a special 'Rowan flower' piece in watercolour for the exhibition which along with the 'Love Heart' design from the sweetie range, I had put on to pocket mirrors.  These were a huge success and will soon also be available in my Etsy shop for those of you who are not so local and can't make it to the exhibition.

I had a lovely preview evening, thank you to all who came!  The cafe is just so gorgeous when it gets dark.  There are fairy lights on the outside, and those, along with cute table lights and soft wall lighting...it's just a bit magical.

Printmaking and Polaroids

Printmaking and
Polaroids












For the past couple of weekends I have been frantically getting together material for my upcoming exhibition and this has involved two sessions at the East London Printmakers.  Unfortunately last weekend wasn't so successful as my images weren't quite black enough for exposing a screen with (silkscreen printmaking).  So it was really frustrating, but I literally didn't even get one colour printed.  This weekend however, more pressure to get it right!  I went away and got my images improved and came back fighting!  Last weekend I had had my trusty helper and loving boyfriend with me, this weekend, it was just me.

I did it. I printed an edition of 27 two colour MASSIVE Amsterdam silkscreen prints.  You can see how massive in the polaroid where I'm holding it up!

I am so relieved that I managed this small feat.  If I hadn't, it wouldn't of been the end of the world but I would of been a bit disappointed.









HURRAH!


After I had finished up at the printers I headed on over to Brick Lane to meet up with my cousin Tom Wright as he'd just held a Polaroid workshop there that morning (Impossible Project Workshop)...I was a bit late for the workshop, but I did manage to get a few photos taken on my little but chunky Fuji Mini Polaroid and even a few on a 'proper' polaroid camera of Tom's.  I let Tom take my polaroids back to Manchester with him so i'll have to share those with you another time!

Myself & Tom

Me & Lauren

THE Goat

Ahem...I think maybe I need to clean my scanner.

Artist of the Month of March

Artist of the Month of March at Seasons Cafe @ Rowan

I'm so happy to tell you all about my upcoming exhibition (My first ever proper one don't you know!) which takes place for the whole of March and is situated in the lovely Seasons Cafe @ Rowan.  

They feature a different artist every month, and take on work of all disciplines ranging from illustration to fine art to photography and all thats in between.  This provides a great rotation of gorgeous work for all who work at and visit the Cafe and the Garden Centre that it's located in.

I'll be showing original illustrations in watercolour, silkscreen print and drypoint print.  These will be available to purchase along with digital copies, cards and a few other bits and bobs.

I'll be having a preview evening for those of you who are local and are able to get to Chalfont St. Giles by 5pm on a Friday!  There will be drinks & nibbles or tea & cake, depending on what takes your fancy, from 5-7pm on Friday 2nd March.  Come along for a chat, ask any questions you may have, and enjoy a nice look at my illustration up close.

Hopefully the evening will be nice and clear as it's staying lighter and lighter in the evening already and there are great views across the fields from the cafe.

You will need a car to get there.  If you are visiting on a weekend, give me a shout and I'll join you for a cup of tea!  If you're visiting from afar (maybe via train?) Then hopefully I can give you a lift as well! Otherwise the closest train station is Chalfont and Latimer on the Metropolitan Line, which you can get a taxi from for not too much.

I've been busy working on these lovely stickers for promoting this exhibition.  I opted to create a sticker that could be used on the already existing A6 postcards from the Cafe as then visitors can view the map!  I'm very excited about distributing my 'QR-code' stickers :-) which when scanned will bring you straight here (to my blog) where you can see all I've been up to.  A few have been sent out to friends over seas, so keep an eye out for photos of them in random places!

A little something for you!

Hello All!

So since joining Twitter, Facebook and having a Blog, I have entered a fair few competitions, met loads of people (some in real life as well!), enjoyed supporting other illustrators and artists, and I am so grateful for the support that you also give me.

As a little thank you, and as it is the season for giving...for a lucky participant I shall put together a little package of goodies for you to get through the post.  If you have any special requirements then you can let me know but ultimately it will be a surprise!  And yes, I shall post to ANYWHERE!

In order to be chosen you need to leave a comment on this blog post, or tweet to me ( @charlsvallance ) which of the following books is your favourite, and tell me why, as well as why you would like to win!  I shall choose the winner the old fashioned way by putting everyones names in a hat and selecting one :-)

Row of Houses

Wake up and Smell the Coffee

(Delft) Blue

Birds, Boats & Buildings

(THE AMAZING FOLDING BOOK!)

Buildings

Statues of Europe

You have until Sunday 18th December 12noon :-)

Thank you everyone!

X

Wake up and Smell the coffee

This Drypoint printed Artists Book was inspired by my time spent working at Seasons Cafe Deli in Old Amersham, near were I live.  It consists of a front cover, 6 prints of different coffee and a contents page on the back page which tells you of the contents of the different coffees seen in the book.

I've used drypoint printing technique with Chine Colle to attach tissue paper/newspaper to areas of each print.  To do this I apply glue to the tissue and pass it through the press with the print plate when it gets printed.  The whole book is actually on one sheet of paper.  This makes making the book less time consuming, meaning that if you are interested in buying a copy then it works out cheaper than it may of done!  Nice huh?

I made an edition of 12, last year infact, I think it didn't get talked about because I was giving one as a Christmas Present!  However, now you can buy it as a gift too.  It's for sale in my Etsy shop HERE.

The Red Gallery aka Material

My lovely little '(Delft) Blue' Amsterdam book has made it into a shop - HURRAH!  Lucy, from The Red Gallery spotted it at The Whitechapel Gallery, London Art Book Fair and got in touch to sell it at both their London shop and their Ludlow shop too.  I am so excited about this!  I got to the shop quite late so the photos are a bit dark, but you can see what a nice space they have and all the other great books and artwork they have for sale by various artists.

You can find The Red Gallery @ 1-3 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DT

And the Ludlow shop @ 131 Corve Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2PG

Alternatively you can have a browse on their website: www.materialmaterial.com

The Amsterdam book has had the pleasure of being in this shop a month or so now, it looks like it's made itself at home nicely.  This week I dropped off a few of my 'Down Your Street - Old Amersham' books as well as a selection of my Christmas cards for some lucky Londoners!

All of these are also available in my Etsy shop if you can't make it to The Red Gallery or are not local, which you can find at www.etsy.com/charlottevallance


Thank you for reading,

X

Amsterdam Greeting Cards

A little collection of greetings cards from my '(Delft) Blue' Amsterdam silkscreen book.  I found that the book was so popular that maybe people would like to share it a little, and how better than in the form of a card?  These bad boys are printed onto a matt paper stock and are A6 in size, come with brown envelopes and are being sold in the pairs you see here in my Etsy shop, which you can get to HERE.

A nice little gift set if I do say so myself.  I'm going to look into getting some nice boxes for them to go in...Keep an eye out!


Thanks for reading,

X

London Art Book Fair 2011

Today was the last day of the Book Fair, unfortunately I wasn't able to be there over the weekend {so no photos!) BUT i did make it to the preview night on the Thursday so I have a few from then for you all.  It was really packed, a great atmosphere, nicely laid out space and lovely people!

The AMBruno table where there was a lot of blue.

My lovely little blue book.