Matariki!

We have just had our 50th sale on Felt over the weekend so to celebrate . . .

If you love surprises now is the perfect time to pop on over and have a nosey at our store on Felt.

Pink Ribbon Breakfast

Yesterday in little ol' Kingsland we had a fabulous time at Crafternoon Tea, partially due to the delightful company and wonderful browsers and customers. I think that the scrummy baking that lovlies like Emma from The Little Card Factory, Alice from Absolutely Alice and Kylie from Broken Bits (whose excellent idea it was), might have had something to do with it too.

Yes we had cake for breakfast!

Well I can bake, however not consistently. It is not a skill I aim to develop as I seem to end up eating it all which does not do fabulous things for the figure. Instead I decided to do what I am good at, and paint a pink animal. The first thing that sprung to mind was a pig, which are cute, but not necessarily what people would like to have on their walls. The next idea was of course, a flamingo. They have such a lovely retro feel to them, combined with their stunning colour, I decided they would be the beastie to paint.

Their gorgeous hue is derived from the krill they eat.

Here is the final illustration here, which I framed using a pink ribbon and reference old copperplate flourishes. 

It is painted on 300gsm water-colour paper and available on Felt

From this water-colour I did a limited edition series of 25. There are still 15 at this stage left which I would love to move quickly so as I can get the funds to the NZBCF. There are available to purchase too, just follow this link to ellaquaint on Felt

Little A5 digital prints on 185 gsm watercolour paper.

This poor blog has been so neglected this year, in part due to the number of markets I have been doing and I fear that it will stay a little quiet due to the fact that I am back in the class room again too. Hopefully I won't neglect it entirely but my apologies if it gets even quieter.

Latest Hi-Jinx

It has been a wee while but finally life has settled down again and I am able to get caught up on things. ellaQuaint has been busy creating new designs for handmade cards. The 'Warm Fuzzy' range has expanded to include robins and cats.  They seem to resurge when the weather cools, something about the association of warmth that felt brings with it I think.

Some of these have been sent off already :)

Some fresh colours have been added to the ellaQuaint palette which has worked wonderfully with some old favourites. There is something rather meditative about the process of hand embroidering things and the contrast of the matt card against the lustre of embroidery silk is very effective.

Chevron Hearts in fresh hues.

Part of the reason I have been focusing so much upon cards lately, as well as the advent of Mother's Day is because I intend to put together a catalogue of some of my favourite designs and go and attempt to sell them to stores.

I love masking tape. 

Sometimes you have to fix or even remake old templates. Today I got to make some new ones which was exciting also. The perfect activity for the shocker of a day we have had in Auckland.

I really love masking tape.

The old maps that I use can be problematic to cut so lining them on the back with tape allows for a cleaner edge and makes them less likely to disintegrate.

A fresh design and one that I think is pretty special.

Maps are so evocative of travel and that sense of freedom and adventure that comes with it, which is why I have been so selective with the imagery that I have chosen to collage on the cards. Many folks think that it is bordering on madness to hand-cut such intricate designs but when you end up with a result that you are happy with and that people might treasure for sometime to come, then in my belief, it is worth it.

Two old trusty designs one of which has had a bit of a make over.

Some of these are already listed on ellaquaint on felt or ellaCute on etsy should you be interested in seeing the designs in better detail.

The Art of giving Cards

my work space in it's typical state . . . no sign of hoarding here

Ever since I was a kid, I have been a terrible hoarder . . . probably as a reaction to my mum being a stream lined, efficient non-collector. One of the things I have always had issues parting with has been cards, there is something about them that brings out my sentimental tendencies. Sometimes it was because of the images on the outside of them, other times what was written on the inside but mostly who they were from. I have shoe boxes filled with them!

experimenting

Over the years, what with our dependency on the internet and social networking sites, the art of sending physical mail or cards has subsided. It is such a treat to get something that is not a bank statement or bill in the post. That is where I really like the idea of producing carefully crafted, hand-made ones, ones that people would really want to keep . . .

work in progress

or even possibly frame . . .

as they really are little illustrations in themselves.

As you can see there is a slight February-esque theme to some of them being produced at the moment. They are available for sale on either ellaCute on Etsy
or ellaQuaint on Felt

Bunny Valentine

Spring is in the Air

Nice! Our wee dear made it into a spring selection on Felt Spring is in the Air. Do check out the other lovely treasures that people are listing :)

Huia and Tui

I had been thinking about experimenting with combining old Victorian photographs with our native manu for quite sometime. As usual, I over-researched and then got farrrr to many ideas and images so it took a while longer to get started than I had hoped.

This was the image that I used for Huia and Tui; a diptych that I recently completed. I am stoked with how well it turned out. Subtly layering up the washes to render the fabric of the blouse. I tried to show the fragility of the huia through having it more transparent, symbolising its eventual disappearance.



Huia and Tui 2011

 This work continues on with my Wikitoriana series that I started earlier this year. It is available for purchase from Felt

Fresh on Felt

Wikitoriana Lace by Ella Thomas 2011

We have made it onto Felt. Even better there is an image of Wikitoirana Lace featured on Fresh on Felt, one of the blog posts that the site runs.

http://www.felt.co.nz/blog/