Winter Wallpaper from Kiran Ravilious

Here is a picture of my downstairs bathroom, or loo, depending on where you're reading this. I know its not very nice to look at, but it's sort of a metaphor for what January is feeling like for me right about now. Stripped down, bare, cold and needing some color.

I'm not usually one for wallpaper. It's too much of a commitment, and I'm too afraid of getting it wrong. Luckily, I recently happened upon the beautiful textile designs of Kiran Ravilious. She's a local(ish) artist, based in Leicester, where she prints fabrics and wallpaper by hand from her own linocut designs. Hooray for supporting local and handmade artisans, plus, Kiran's aesthetic is right up my alley. 

This blue and green trumpet leaf design is what's going in the bathroom once it arrives. Each roll is printed to order, so I have to look at that horrible bathroom for a few weeks longer, but I think it'll be worth the wait. Here are a few more of her prints that I love:

These black nettles are so bold, but I loved the green and blue leaves the best.

I also considered this Pastle Rowan print, but it was a little too softly, softly. 

Kiran also prints on lampshades...

...and cushions. 

And I LOVE this tulip print, shown here on a notebook. I would've gotten this for the wallpaper if it had been on offer. 

Kiran also blogs here, and I just started following her beautiful Pinterest boards, which are here. I'll post another image of that bathroom once the paper is up. I bet you won't recognize it!

All images courtesy of and copyrighted to Kiran Ravilious.

Knocking a Block Off

I had so much fun teaching an introductory block printing class to some folks in the neighborhood recently that I thought I'd share a few pics of what we made. I love printmaking so much for its affordable and low-tech ease. Its an art form well suited to the kitchen table any day of the week. With just a basic set of Speedball cutting tools, a block or two of rubber and a little ink, my friends and I whipped up these designs before the class was through. (Okay, so it was just my friends who did the whipping up. I sat around watching and chatting.)

Melissa made some envelope prints (above), since she's obsessed with the dying art of letter writing. I want to give her a special shout out for her workshops that teach kids how to correspond the old fashioned way. Be sure to check out her website Viva Snail Mail! to learn more about how she does it. She inspired me to incorporate a snail mail element into the goody bags I'm currently cobbling together for Jake's birthday party. Look for that in a future post soon.

Dari, Jessica, Pete and Gaby also made beautiful designs. My poor photography skills were not equal to the task of capturing their lovely work. But I thank them all for coming out to the class and sharing their creative spirits with me. I'm going to try and squeeze in one more embroidery class over at Hootenanny before the big move. Details to come.