Kid Icarus screen printed 2012 calendar

UPDATE: the Calendar will launch at A Handmade Holiday, a craft show in Kensington Market on Dec. 3rd! I will also be there as a vendor.
Time: Saturday December 3rd 2011 (one day only)
Time: 11:00am – 6:00pm
Location: St. Stephen-in-the-Fields, 103 Bellevue Ave (College and Bellevue)

I was recently invited to illustrate a month for the Kid Icarus screen printed 2012 calendar. I love projects like this where I'm given complete creative freedom. I saw it as a chance to continue developing my digital style and I've created my favourite piece to date.

I asked for spring, and was given April which is perfect because it's my birthday month. I was inspired by the lovely cool freshness of early spring. My original concept was to have a tree with little animals hanging out their clothes on laundry day, and each piece of laundry would have a day in the month. It wasn't quite working, so I reworked the composition dramatically but in the end it still had the original atmosphere I wanted.

The main challenge for me was working in two colours and trying to make sure the art would work for screen printing which is new to me. Something I suspect I will be trying before very long!

I can't show you the whole piece yet in order to maintain the suspense until the calendar is released but I will update you when it is out. It will be a limited edition of 125 calendars and will be for sale at Kid Icarus (a beautiful little shop in Kensington Market that I recommend you visit anyway) and Magic Pony.

An update on craft shows for me this year: I'll be participating in Nathalie-Roze's Crafternoon Tea on November 26th and at the Kid Icarus Handmade Holiday show December 3rd. I've added banners to my sidebar with links.

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Spring Trunk show

rcboisjoli bowl with Beside Herself doilies

As always, the Spring Trunk show was so good. I love going to the Workroom, but now that I'm living in the east end it's a bit more travelling and I don't visit as often as I'd like. The day of the show was awkward because the marathon caused streetcar delays and the construction at Bay subway rerouted the trains. But it was well worth the extra effort!

As usual I was tempted throughout the day by the contents of everyone else's trunks. I came home with a nice little collection of treats. Happily I was able to swap a little bit as well.

First up the beautiful bowl featured at the top of this post. I've been admiring the creations of rcboisjoli for some time now and was thrilled to come home with a bowl with a polka dot carousel horse decorating the side. I love the overall pleasing shape and colour of this bowl. Right now it graces my coffee table where I gaze at it from time to time in the day.

Also adorning said coffee table is a pretty set of coasters made from a sweet vintage blue floral print by
Knotted Nest.

Also from Kristen's trunk, some floral fabric, two sweet linen napkins with yellow roses and an embroidery hoop framed machine embroidered house picture. So sweet! This will be perfect for display on my craft room shelves.

From Becky's trunk, a vintage scarf with a pretty colour scheme and elegant pattern, and last but not least a long necklace with delicate pink tassels made by the lovely Debbie Arruda.

I chatted with Bianca from Kid Icarus, the result of which is that I now have my things for sale in her shop! The shop is so nice, it's right across from Lettuce Knit in Kensington Market and I've always liked it. I gave her a few of my wool embroidered brooches, wristlets and coffee sleeves which are available there now.

Thanks so much to everyone who visited despite the rain throughout the day.

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