New Inspirations

This week I have been doing some research for work and personal use and I came across these talented people which I thought more people should know about so I'm dedicating this Post to the following people:

Suzanne Carpenter - I think I have a new favourite illustrator and I had to share this with you! Please check out her work here. I promise you won't regret it!!

Suzanne Carpenter - Home Sweet Home

Janine Rewell - Illustrator and Graphic Designer based in Helsinki, I think her work is quite unusual but I like the vibrancy and quirkiness of it, take a look at her site here.

Janine Rewell - Altarpiece, Made from paint on 3 Dimensional wood.

Phil Wall - Artist, Phil has a few different websites/Blogs but I particularly like Project Photo Doodle. I think the concept behind this blog is really well thought out. I love it. It's so fun and anyone can get involved! Check it out. This is one of my favourite pictures on his blog...

Phil Wall - Baby Nike Creepy Crawlers

These 3 Artists are some of my findings for this week. I hope you like them and please share them with others!

Primark Wrapping Paper

It's Official!!

My wrapping paper designs are now being sold in Primark nationwide. I was very excited to walk into Cardiff Primark yesterday and saw them at the checkouts. It took me by suprise as I didn't expect them to be there.

Sorry about the quality of the first image. It was a store snap and I had to take it quickly!

Here's a close up visual of the two wraps

Please Note All designs are Copyrighted to SwanMill Paper Co. Please do not copy!

The Big Draw

I found something really quite exciting this morning. As I was looking for some exhibitions to visit I came across this, The Big Draw at BayArt.

Basically, This event is being held on Monday 29th August 2011. It encourages you to take your own art materials (and paper) and gives the opportunity to all ages to spend some time drawing. Best of all this event is completely free and you don't need any experience at all.

"This year the drawing starting points will be linked to the Harbour festival – the tall ships, the crowds, the architecture. Differences of scale will enable everyone to take part – from adding marks to a huge wall size drawing, to making small individual tile size drawings which will add up to a huge drawing" 
- http://www.bigcardiff.co.uk/cardiff-events.php?event_id=4862

I'm a bit disappointed that I cannot make this event as I think it will be so much fun to meet new people and share experiences. Plus with it being the school holidays this event is a great day out for the family!

For more information on this event please visit this link. 

Featured Designer - Johanna Basford

When I was talking to my boyfriends sister not so long ago, she introduced me to the wonderful work of Johanna Basford. Johanna Basford is an illustrator who Graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee with a degree in Printed Textiles. Her porfolio mainly consists of Monotone drawings which turn into life size artworks spreading over several sheets of paper. I'm fascinated with her work. It's just so complicatedly beautiful.

Johanna has worked with several clients such as, Absolute Vodka, DKNY and Sony, to name a few.

My favourite print of hers is this one...

It's very simple in comparison to the other prints that Johanna designed but I just love the natural elegance to the piece. The way the artwork flows on the page is stunning.

I just love how from afar it looks like a sophisticated styled heart but as you look closer you begin to realise what beautiful imagery the heart is made up of. I think it has a little bit of a William Morris influence to it. 

I'm actually getting quite jealous of Johanna's Talent! I think her work is truely stunning! I've been requesting some of her prints as a christmas present, It's on my wishlist.

If you would like to take a look at Johannas work then visit her website here. Her website also has a blog and a shop (so you can buy that extra special gift).

New Background

Finally!
I have got my own designs up as my background page. It took me a little while to format it properly but now it's done, I don't think it looks too bad, (Although I do still have a few things to amend!) What do you think?

(This design was for my degree collection, It's called 'Painterly Orange')

 

Design Copyrighted to Leanne Carpentier. Please do not copy!



Busy, Busy

So this weekend just flew by as they usually do. Last week I was very excited as I had a ticket for the rugby on Saturday. Now if you know me personally you'll know that I just LOVE Rugby. There's nothing quite like the atmosphere in the City when a match is to be played. And this one match was always going to be important for us Welsh, because it was against England!

If you've never been to a Rugby match in the Millennium Stadium before then you definitely should. It was pretty much a full crowd Saturday and the roof was closed, so the noise and atmosphere of the place was unimaginable! Amazing!

Myself and my boyfriend were surrounded by English and as always I'm very Proud to be Welsh, so I was the only one (boyfriend excluded as he's Scottish) in a group of English singing my national Anthem to the top of my voice! Lovely! I honestly did love it! Talk about all eyes on me. Anyway I'm not going to ramble on about this sport as I know not everyone is interested, but I thought I would share a few pictures. Please excuse The quality and the heads that were sat in front!!

I wanted to show you how full the stadium was! Incredible isn't it?

This was the first point of the match, And it was to Wales!!! YAY!! 3-0

For the readers from around the world, I thought I should explain that at Welsh rugby matches, it's quite normal for people to dress up, and the most common is to dress up as a daffodil head. As you can see in the bottom right of this picture! The Daffodil is our national emblem along with the Leek.

The New Welsh Rugby Kits

And the Final Score....

Wales 19 - 9 England

Woo-hoo!! We won!

Moving on to Sunday, Well that was a complete disaster. I aimed to do some design work for my Big Cartel shop but sadly that didn't happen. My nan had a fall and we ended up spending the majority of the day in hospital, so I wrote yesterday off! Hence why I'm doing this today! Nan is all good though, few stitches later and she's fighting fit! Thank Goodness!

  

'UK' Riots (only it's not the whole of the UK!!)

So my title says it all, the UK riots are still going on, although it has calmed down a bit now. Thank goodness!! I'm so frustrated and sickened by these attacks. And just to clarify these Riots DO NOT cover the whole of the UK. Wales and Scotland are riot free!!

I could not believe what I was hearing on Tuesday, Radio 1's news beat had some people talking about these riots and someone said that they felt the need to loot shops as they were from a poorer background and the shopkeepers were rich people. This just goes to show some peoples ignorance! The only reason why these shopkeepers are so called 'Rich' is because they've worked exceptionally hard to get where they are today. I just feel so sorry for these victims who have been looted, Whose houses were set alight and burnt to the ground, Who's car's were smashed up and set on fire!

Come On Cameron! Get this sorted, too many people have suffered enough already due to these mindless idiots!!

On a slightly happier note, the social networks have come together to stick up for Britain, There are messages of encouragement to clean up this mess that has been caused. If you'd like to help cleanup, visit this website.

I also came across these magnificent prints in response to the Riot Clean Up. Take a look...

Print by EmmelineDraws, follow her on twitter here

And this one has to be my favourite...

I found this print on twitter too, follow @Adzlamb here. I really like the subject of his prints, they're very quirky and quite amusing. Adzlamb also has a website which can be found here, check it out.

Anyway I've had my little rant now, I hope that these stupid acts of violence and Criminality die down soon! Come on people we're better than this!!



Ash's Birthday

It was my boyfriends birthday Wednesday, and if I wasn't busy enough I decided to go all out and treat him. I bought him a helium balloon, some banners and even made him a cake. I never cook! I am appalling at it, I love to read cooking/baking blogs, and I envy the bloggers so much for having that skill, as they can actual make something without almost poisoning someone (I Can't). Well anyway I made this....





A Chocolate Fudge Cake,

I was extremely impressed with myself and could not wait to give it to him, and it smelt so good!! The following day he was given the cake and he was really amazed by my efforts and how my cake turned out. But all was not good, we took a bite and low and behold it was slightly overcooked! Typical. I'm really gutted.

(He's going to be annoyed i put this pik up of him! hehe)

Never mind, there's always next year to try again!

Primark

I'm getting more and more excited as the date is nearing, when my first wrapping paper designs will be stocked in Primark. They're due to hit the shops this month, so I will post more about it when they're out!

'Made In Wales'

Today I had an email from Mellisa Warren, a textile artist based in the Rhondda, Wales, inviting me to a Contemporary Craft event called 'Made in Wales'.

Made in Wales is a unique event that is held to promote Rhondda makers. It is free entry and the Open Art exhibition is on too. It will take place on Sunday 7th August 2011 from 10.30am-3pm at the Rhondda Heritage Park, See below flier for more details. You can also check out some of Mellisa Warrens work here.

New Ideas

I've been thinking of some more ideas for some new prints, and I thought I would post up a  little sneaky peek of one idea.

As you can see they're still in the early stages, so stay tuned.

The Pumping Station, Cardiff

Hello,
Yesterday myself and my partner decided to go for a random drive in and around Cardiff, We were looking for places we'd never really seen or been to before as we were getting a bit bored with the usual. We drove past this one place called the Pumping Station, I knew this existed for a while but I never actually went in. The building is lovely, It is a Victorian Pumping Station which was once owned by Welsh Waters. It consists of 35 individual Stalls, which sell an array of items, mostly vintage but there are some modern finds too. It's spread over three floors and the thing I loved most apart from the little stalls, was the old cobble stones on the bottom floor. Its just a lovely building to go and visit.

As I was wandering around I came across a few Beautiful items such as these...

I've been looking for a certain clock for such a long time now, and found something quite similar to what I want. I'm aching for a clock that looks like its from an old train station. Don't ask me why I'm craving for one. I just LOVE them! Something a bit like this only bigger and a bit more original.

You can find this clock here.

Another item I really wanted at the Pumping Station was this clock, I have my eye on this, I think it's so beautiful with the iron detail around the clock face...Stunning.

I love it!!!!!

Here are some more photos I took of items that caught my eye.

I really liked this print, It's made of metal so it's quite a sturdy structure.

This Jewellery box really stood out to me, I love it. I think the legs on it give it a simple elegance and it has a leather finish to it too.

I also found a lot of furniture units that I really liked. I really wanted these two units for my bedroom, I love the country-like style to these. Just beautiful, I'm a bit sad to have left them behind to be honest.

(Please excuse myself in the picture!)

I also found some other interesting bits and bobs, Like these little notice boards, I thought they were a really good idea, so simple but so effective. And they're a good accessory for tidying up those loose bits of papers which you can't throw out.

There were also some eclectic pieces regarding the Royal Britannia theme, this chair was beautifully constructed and looks the part.

But, My Favourite thing I found in the whole Building was...

This Beautiful Singer Sewing Machine! I could not believe my eyes when I stumbled across it. I instantly fell in love there and then. I'm not sure why but my brain told me that I couldn't buy it as I didn't have any room at home to put it. But my heart said that I had to have it! Anyway, my head over ruled, (I think my partner had something to do with that too!) so I left it behind.

This morning I woke up and the first thing that came into my head was the sewing machine. I just knew that I had to go back and get it, so guess what, I did. I am the happiest women on the planet right now! I cannot believe I own this little gem! Wow. I'm going to polish it up and sort it out as soon as possible, because it still works really well. Nothing is missing and there's nothing wrong with it. Plus for £22 what a Bargain!

So I think what I'm trying to say is, Get down to the Pumping station if you can. It is amazing for special gifts and furniture, (basically everything) modern or vintage. Just get down there!!!

Visit the Pumping Station website here,

http://www.the-pumpingstation.co.uk/