hand drawn cards

I often make hand drawn cards for family and friends and have been doing so for many years.
I'm often asked why I don't just print the design. It's simple really I don't like wastage of materials and I am faster at doing thing by hand anyway so it's the cost effective method for me! So no printer inks to pay for, no cost of running the printer or paying for professional prints besides I enjoy a freestyle of working with the ink directly onto paper and this makes each artwork unique. I also buy things locally and so try to work in a "greener way"
Here is some tea time inspired designs currently  in my Folksy shop.

Here is one of my favourite designs which I have used in the past few years for laminated place mats and drawings. Here I have done a coloured version as a greeting card

Hand drawn card (copyright Fatema Hossain) 

Here is another favourite one, this time I added patterned paper to the tea cup

Hand drawn card (copyright Fatema Hossain)

My Christmas stall

Last weekend I had a stall at a local Christmas event.

It was very cold, the temperatures were around 3-6 degrees centigrade.

Luckily for me I was well wrapped up in my favourite Brora cashmere hat and cardigan coat under my cape jacket.

It was a very enjoyable day mainly because I was kept company by a good friend and despite the cold weather lots of people were out and about and supported the market stall holders. I sold lots of cards, gift tags and notebooks and flower magnets.

Me at my stall, (photo taken by We love Enfield)

Me with my friend ,photo taken by Karen Mercer, owner of My Coffee Stop

My favourite items on the stall were these colourful felt flower jumbo paper clips and the Christmas flower fridge magnet clips.

These flower and insect mini bookmarks were also popular.

The highlight of the afternoon was when my family popped by. 

There was also a brilliant brass band playing, lighting the Christmas tree and a parade.

runner up for a design competition

I love entering design competitions and this week found out that I hadn't won but was a good runner up.
The competition was by the Soil Association for a design for a t-shirt. The winning t-shirt would be made and sold in their shop.

The brief was to design a logo that explained "What is Organic"

Here is the basic design I did based on my thoughts on Organic

Organic logo design by Fatema Hossain, 2012

for Soil Association competition

My design is called "Organic adds up"

My explanation for the design is as follows

Organic is all about everything adding up in the manufacture or food growth or farming stages.

It is all about getting the balance right the way mother nature intended without the addition of artificial factors.

I designed the mathematical logo as I thought it looks striking and being an ex Science teacher the design came about naturally.

A while back I also entered a design competition for designing a children's duvet, again for an organic company called Fou Furnishings   and the design was made up into a children's duvet. My design is called "Love to Learn" The design was originally all over but the lower part was used to create the beautiful embroidered design. I blogged about the design before but here is photo of the duvet that is from the  the Fou Furnishings website ( the photograph is copyright of the Fou Furnishings website)

I'm getting really interested in surface textile patterns and designs and will be reading some books on the design process over the summer. I have recently acquired some great books on designing, printing and e- textiles. I am looking forward to learning more about creative design  and putting it into practice

craft stall and daily art challenge

Here are a couple of photos of my recent stall.

I am pleased with the set up and the paper bunting I made for decorating the stall using Tilda papers. I had paper goods like cards, notebooks, paper covered pencils and flower magnets and a few French style noticeboards for sale.

It rained heavily both days which is why I am wearing my rain mac ( and wellies) in both! but despite that it was lovely to have some customers and get feedback on my paper goods. I have always wanted to do craft fairs but having to arrange child care means I am only going to be able to do the local markets, when I can get family to help out.

Last week I set myself a challenge , to do a painting or drawing, however small everyday before breakfast. Its been great, I surprised myself with my work so far. This is what I did this past week

Fruit, Inspired by the bold colours and shapes of Paul Gaugain's early work

Lady with a purple head piece , watercolour on Indian script paper

flowers in a vase 

Ink drawing 

Volcano 

Inspired by microbes

I have been really suprised by just how much I have enjoyed  making accessories inspired by microbes and cell biology.

After years working in a microbiology lab, then several as a science teacher , I  left  my career behind for stay at home motherhood and thought I had left microbes and science behind , but recently I have been getting lot of science, geeky , microbes and biology inspired inspiration.
The newest additions are these cell biology inspired brooches in their own little petri dishes!

cell biology brooch in a petri dish

I have used Liberty print fabric and beads for this cell brooch

This one has a lovely Vintage button sewn onto felt to represent a cell nucleus

I have also designed and made necklaces like this one above

This brooch has the added texture of mohair wool 

They are a great addition to the rings that are already in my Folksy shop

customising girls clothes

I used to love clothes shopping and it used to be relaxing and fun especially when it was sheduled in with some girly chat and lunch with my best friends. These days with 3 young children clothes shopping is mainly done in a mad rush or over the internet. I also hardly find anything I like for the girls. The kids departments of many stores are filled with skirts that are too short and tops too skimpy or everything is just a mini version of grown up fashion. Even a simple t-shirts isn't so simple, there is too much emphasis on fashion styling and logos.

So this week I decided to customise plain t-shirts for my 4 year old daughter. A pack of t-shirts cost me £6 and the fabric scraps I already had and here are the results!!

The pretty  little designs on plain t-shirts mean they go with more or less everything, these tees will look fab with trousers or a skirt.

It's so easy too, it hardly took any time at all. First I attached the scraps with wonder web and an iron. Then proceeded to randomly sew around the shapes with straight stitching or a zig zag stitch which is great for sorting out fraying and creating a strong edge.

Here I used a piece of white frayed edge linen and the added the Liberty fabric heart to it.

 Here I have left the edged to fray a little from wear and tear to add an interesting edge

Here I have used a zig zag and a stright stistch to create some definition.

With so many stitch options it would be easy and fun to play around and create alot of detail and interest.

The t-shirts look great and my daughter loves them.

I also turned a pair of old jeans into a pretty girly skirt for my daughter. The jeans were a basic range pair which cost a couple of pounds and were no longer worn by her sister. I cut off the bottom where the legs are and attached a pretty skirt of Liberty print fabric and it's become a firm favourite.

It looks so girly and sweet and cost a fraction of the similar styles that are in the shops and ofcourse so much nicer!!

hand built and hand painted pottery

This post is a visual record of some of the hand built and hand painted pottery I did over ten years ago.  They have been mostly neglected, one in the garden gathering cobwebs, a couple with a few cracks  so I decided it would be good to photograph them and put them here as a record for myself.

One of the first things I made was this decorative fish tile. The first hand building technique we were taught was slab making.

I also experimented with these colourful coasters

One of my favourites because of the way the colours have come out is this little hand made bowl

This hand built bowl is a  favourite too, here you can see the front with engraved flowers in earthy colours

and the bottom with engraved lines

This one has a fluted edge and flowers engraved into the base, this one has got a bit weathered from being left in the garden

This hand painted bowl was a ready made white ceramic and my design is based on water , mountains and greenery

I've used this regularly as a fruit bowl.  This vase has now got a crack near the base but I love the colours and it now sits in the garden

This salt pig didn't quite come out as planned but I love the organic feel and the colour and grainy texture of the finish.

Hand building pottery is alot of fun, very tactile and easy to built something spectacular with hardly any tools it's definately something I'll be trying again, this time with the kids!