Lauren Cherice Designs is Ready to go!

So, I am so excited my studio is more or less finished. Needs a little bit of decor here or there but I have my table up! It has been a hard 6 months with the decision to move home and studio but has been worth it. I have also now left one of my part time retail jobs and ready to get back to doing what I love most.. designing and printing. 

So it began, a few months ago, moving in to a house with a little building in the bottom of my back garden. It then slowly started to get filled with my huge collection of arty supplies, big and small.

My screens made themselves at home on the racking. 

I am very lucky that my studio is metres from my back door. Dylan regularly patrols the area, making such everything is safe and sound in the garden. He hasn't yet spent an afternoon in the studio, but hes certainly been in to check the place out.

The hardest part of getting my studio together was rebuilding my print table. It took some muscles but eventually got there and is a lovely 3 metre in size. 

I then recovered and gave it a good clean to remove all dust ready for printing! I can't believe I've actually got it in, it seemed so large but has fit in the space perfectly with room to work and print around three sides of the table. It also has plenty of room for storage underneath. 

The last step was somewhere to wash my screens, here we have my makeshift wash bay. Made out of a long plant pot. When I do get printing I am going to back the wall with some plastic so thought I don't end up with multicoloured outside walls. Hopefully this will be a success! I'll let you know.

So that's it! I think I am now ready to get back printing. I am going to give it a go over the next few days. The only worry I have is the hot weather and how this might affect my printing as I am sort of printing outside. I am sure it will be fine. So back to the drawing board! I best get busy!

:)

New Studio Move!

So you will know that we have moved house. This has brought a lovely new studio for Lauren Cherice Designs. Located in my very own back garden! Yay! When we moved in we was left some lovely delights including this old metal filling cabinet! It is amazing for storing my dyes and pastes. It was also set up with some great storage shelves.

My screens and squeegees in their new home :)

It was missing one thing.... my print table. On Sunday with some extreme help from my bob the builder the table took back its shape. It was previously in my old studio but it wasn't a successful location due to the water supply not being able to work. Boo plumbing! I am very lucky to have both electric in my studio outside and a water tap in the garden! Yipee! This makes life as a screen printer a lot easier!

After a few hours the table was up! I can't believe it! A 3 meter print table in my own home. Wow, I know how I will be spending my summer days ready for my fairs! Dylan also approved the handy work!

So... with abit more tidying and cleaning I hope to have it all ready to go go go! I will post another pic when its all done :)

Living North Fair 2013!

Well on the 14th of November began an extremely busy weekend for Lauren Cherice Designs. The Living North Fair at York Racecourse. I was slightly nervous on what to expect as this was my biggest event to date. 

At Living North I was launching some new designs and ideas. The first being my Robin design featured on tea towels (seen above) cushions, cards, prints and tote bags. I do love the robin design as its slightly different to my other prints being a two tone. 

Also for this event I have a new selection of flyers. With social media growing rapidly it is quite difficult to get all relevant information onto a tiny business card. Therefore I opted for a leaflet. After an afternoons work my stand was ready for the weekend ahead...

                                                  What do you think?

Furthermore, I also had my Christmas card designs being launched. Mr Duck in his hat seemed to catch many peoples eyes and I was over the moon that he completely sold out! I hope he puts a smile on people's faces when they receive him at Christmas. 

I was also so excited to find out I was featured in last months Living North Magazine on their Living North Loves Page. Yay! The feature has definitely been one of Lauren Cherice Designs' highlights so far along its journey. 

Here are some more shots from the event :)

My Stockings also made their first appearance. Overall it was a great weekend. I am very happy with how the event went. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet people and discuss screen printing and my work. It was also interesting to see which designs people liked the most and what designs people would like to see. 

I also brought home my little sign as a souvenir. It would of only gone in the bin I'm sure ;)

Thank you for everyone who came by to visit and have supported Lauren Cherice Designs so far.

All images and text Copyright to Lauren Cherice Designs 2013. 

If your new to Lauren Cherice Designs... Here is a little introduction and update!

About:

Lauren Cherice is a Surface Designer currently based in the East Riding of Yorkshire. After graduating from Cleveland College of Art and Design in 2011 with First Class Honors in a BA(Hons) Textiles and Surface Design, Lauren launched her tote bag range. Lauren specialises in producing furnishing fabrics and accessories by traditionally screen printing her designs from home. 

Inspired by natural flora and fauna, she uses her own photography to help her produce beautiful contemporary detailed drawings. The use of pen, ink and other mix media allow her to create several layers within her artwork to give her pieces subtle depth that develops through into her prints. 

Stockists of my work: 

1. Alex May Gallery, Bridlington
2. Behind the Times, Bridlington
3. The Old Grammar School Gallery, Otley
4. The Joe Cornish Gallery, Northallerton.
5. Laure Loves Boutique (Online) http://www.lauralovesboutique.com
6. The Folio, Hartlepool. Soon to be online.
7. My own Etsy Store. http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LaurenChericeDesigns

Events Coming up attending:

1. Sewerby Hall, 30th June
2. From Yorkshire with Love, York. 28th July
3. Hornsea Leisure Centre, 4th August.
4. Others to be confirmed.

I am hoping to book more events later in the year along with finding more stockists for my work :)

Current and Future News

My dream is to have my own screen printing studio in which I can print fabrics and have workshops. This is currently in development but I am hoping to seek some funding to help me with this dream. At present I screen print all my designs for my tote bags and cushions from my home in Bridlington. To fund my love for printing I currently have part time jobs in retail. 

At the beginning of the year my mouse drawing was used for the Priory Mouse competition. http://www.priory900.org/name-the-priory-mouse/ I was very excited to be involved with the Priory 900 celebration.

I currently have a collection of screen printed tote bags and cushions for sale. I also produce my illustrations on greetings cards, iphone cases and giclee prints.

Social Media:

Blog: www.laurenchericedesigns.blogspot.com

Facebook:www.facebook.com/laurenchericedesign

Twitter: @Laurencherice

Email:laurenchericedesigns@hotmail.com

I hope this info has been useful and you feel you know me and my business a little bit more.

Thank you,

Lauren. 

A Lovely Feature: Becka Bonce's Blog!

I was very excited this week to hear Becka Bonce has featured me and my work on their lovely Blog. Becka Bonce had featured me earlier in the year in a blog post about pastel tones featuring my popular love bird tote bags in blue. The Becka Bonce blog is full of fantastic design inspiration and I am so excited to now be included in parts of it. Here is a quick preview of the blog post but to read the full feature follow this little link... http://beckabonce.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/wednesdays-spotlight-lauren-cherice.html

Above: My tote bag featured on Becka Bonce Pastel Blog Post. 

See the full post here: http://beckabonce.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/beckabonce-loves-pastels.html

You can also find Becka Bonce on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beckabonce

And Also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Becka_Bonce

I would just like to say a Big Thank you to them for featuring me! 

Dear Diary 27.05.13

I feel like I have so much going on at the minute but I do love being busy. I have three part time jobs which isn't including Lauren Cherice Designs. I am also busy getting organised for my first craft stall of the year which is less than a week away! Eeek. 

At the weekend I popped in Behind the Times in Bridlington to supply them with my new stock.. my Iphone cases. The only problem going into the shop is that I want to buy EVERYTHING! There is so much to look at and want to buy. I love that the shop supports local crafters/designers too.

There is only one of each design there at the moment though! I hope for them to be on Etsy very soon :)

I have also been very busy in the knitting department. I am very addicted to 'Knit one, pearl one' at the minute. I have completed the pattern for Dylans jumper based on a book full of dog outfits which I got for my birthday. I decided to go with the size L but I think now it is going to be too small for Dylan. I intend to add a front panel to solve this problem. I would like to say thank you to my close friend Maggie who has had patience with me along the way. I also found this old multicoloured wool which I have started to knit with also.

We have also finally been in the Bridlington Free Press to celebrate our 1st birthday of been going for a year. I do think its such a lovely photo of us all. I have also got myself my dream bike! I LOVE it. It is so refreshing in the morning getting up and going for a ride on your way to work. 

I also came across these old cards I produced at university. They are screen printed with my squirrel repeat. I am debating what to do with them next. I can't decide whether to take them to my stall in Stockton this saturday! 

I have just spent a lovely weekend with some of my close friends from home. Lydia lives in York and Daniel lives in London so it is lovely to catch up with them at home for this bank holiday. Jade is now back after training to be a teacher. Dylan is growing up and I just love him more each day. He now has a new favourite thing of sneaking for a little snuggle on the bed in the morning. Here is Dylan watching me dry my hair. I think he was very bored as it seemed to take forever.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! 

Screen Printing for Bespoke Brooch Bouquets by Lydia Rose

I was delighted when Lydia asked me to produce a screen printed sign for her company, to display at her wedding fayres and events. I had a thought about what designs I had available and then compared them to what Lydia had in mind. I then remembered my mirror silhouette. It was perfect. I then chose to place the companies name in the centre with my baroque motif around the edge. If you have followed my work for a while you may have seen this design on the repeat of one of my furnishing fabrics I produced whilst at uni.

Lydia's bouquets are beautiful. I knew this design would work well with the golds and metallic colours of her brooches. However I didn't want to just print the design on to plain white fabric. So I sourced this lovely fabric with a light floral motif across it. With the base fabric already having a faint design on it I wasn't sure how the pigment would take to it, but it worked really well creating alternative tones. 

I love printing with gold pigments. This is the final piece I chose. I did a few samples for Lydia to have a look at and use if she wished. I haven't exposed a screen from home for a while so that was a bit difficult but in the end it worked well. I am glad Lydia likes her fabric and hope to see it in use soon. :)

Find Lydia on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BespokeBroochBouquetsbyLydiaRose

My Drawing of Dylan!

This is Dylan on the first day we got him! I can't believe how small he was compared to now! But he is still ever so cute! (Even if I say so). Recently my friend Abbie painted this picture for me for my birthday which I absolutely LOVE! I did however start a drawing of Dylan myself, which I am sharing with you today! 

Dylan would never sit still for a portrait so I am drawing straight from the picture. I always find animals with dark fur hard to draw, not sure why. 

I have discovered now from drawing I do have a particular style. Again, this is a drawing on tracing paper with a black biro pen. I love this method as I love the tones it creates (I have said this before). One thing I would change about this drawing is his eyes. I think I have done them too bold. Eyes are a tricky thing to draw. But I think either way he still looks like my Dylan :)

Above, is my finished drawing. I may add more depth to it at a later date and make the tones darker but I have decided to 'finish' this for now. I find sometimes its always good to have a break from a drawing, you don't want to over work it and spoil it.

I've really got the drawing bug at the moment and I'm eager to draw more. So here we go!

A Little Tote Bag Commission!

I can now share with you a special commission for someone's special 13th birthday. I couldn't before as it was a surprise. I thought I would use this design of mine which I love. The majority of my tote bags are all single colour prints at the moment. Although I would love layering different colours with more time. Because this was a special gift I took my time to produce this in a three colour print tote bag.

You may have seen these little hearts below before. These are from my love birds tote and I used these to add a little special detail on the opposite side of the main print.

And there we are. The finished tote ready for ironing and wrapping :)

New Design: Foxgloves & Butterflies.

I did this drawing last year (seems ages ago) but have always had an idea in mind what I wanted the design to look like. So I thought it was about time I got cracking with it. It felt like being back at uni producing a repeat pattern. It was great! With design I have always loved how with a single image you can produce a beautiful repeat pattern. 

After deciding on a layout which, in this case I chose a block repeat. I then drew out the design onto paper ready to produce a paint out. 

I had a look at the dyes I had available. I am aware I need to broaden my colours but to me this happens during the printing process. The dye I chose was a bottle green with some aubergine. I love/hate how messy using dyes is. Green fingers were a definite! 

Next... was the drawing part. Adding all the detail to the foxgloves. Each flower took just over an hour to add its detail. It was very time consuming but I loved every minute of it. I also found it very theraputic.

After the foxglove detail I just had the butterflies to finish. In this case I chose a gold pen to add the detail. With the majority of the piece being quite dark I think the gold is what it needed. They also look lovely when the light catches them. 

Here we are.. the finish paint out of my new design. The next step is producing a cut-threw and starting the Koda Trace. More details to follow!

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