A little bit blocky

I've been working on some new lines over the last few weeks & top of my favourites list to play with are blocks of wood...

Here's some of what I've been creating - these 'Little Blocks of Sea' are for sale in my etsy shop - and there are more ranges coming very soon; 'Little Letter Blocks' are the next contenders, with a quirky, illustrated capital on a nice little distressed chunky block...so keep your eyes peeled for those, I'll be posting pictures shortly.

Other news on the art front - my bigger canvases will be gracing the walls of a local favourite eatery very soon. More details to follow when they are up but here's a snippet of one of the collection in progress...

The Beach Boutique

The Christmas orders have been rolling in. 

I've just packaged up a load of mounted prints for the SurfGirl Beach Boutique. If your stuck for gift ideas then go & have a nosy - they've got some lovely crafty pieces from artists & crafters on there. My favourite are the vintage board sock covers, and there's an 'under a fiver' section perfect for stocking fillers - so get shopping!

Stickers and general stickyness

The postman brought my new logo stickers today. These are for me to stick on things like my letters...prints...envelopes...cards...stationary...my little assistant's forehead...and such like. I had some fun with them anyway, I obviously had far too much time on my hands this afternoon...

Inky seahorses

Seeing as its pretty cold outside now & the sea is even colder, I thought I'd cheer myself up with some tropical turquoise.
This little seahorse definitely doesn't need a 5mm wetsuit & boots, I wish I was him...

'Seahorse Splash'
 Pen & ink, watercolour & collage. High quality print on thick, matte, archival paper.

Click here to purchase

I like you

'I like you'

by Emily Hamilton

 Pen & ink, watercolour & vintage fabric collage.

Good friday

I like a good friday and today is a good friday. 

Top of the thrill list this morning was unexpectedly getting a new bathroom sink fitted - this may be low on the excitement-meter in the grand scheme of things but the taps are very nice and shiny.

Then the postman arrived, complete with some jeans I'd ordered (didn't fit) and a parcel from Australia. Always exciting. But more exciting on this occasion because it was filled with a proof samples of my new card range with Blue Island Press. Whippee! 

To round things of, there's a little piece on me in this month's Surfgirl magazine, who are always very nice to me, so thank you Surfgirl.

Christmas, yes, Christmas cards...

I know Christmas seems to start far too early nowadays, but seeing as it's less than a week until November I thought it wouldn't be too out the way to start getting a bit festive - so with that in mind, I've been surprisingly organised & produced a set of 6 Christmas cards.

I'll be selling these on my etsy shop as well as locally but you can also order them directly from me - just drop me an email at mellyhamilton@hotmail.com or a text (if you have my number!) or facebook me.

Cards are: 

Tree : Baubles : Snowflake 

Single - £1.50

4 pack  (4 x 1 design) - £4.50 

6 pack (1 of each design) - £6.50

12 pack (2 of each design) - £12.50

Postage is the usual Royal Mail charges & nothing on top (unless you live near me & I'll deliver them for free!)

Shopping & guinea fowls

I created some prints for the SurfGirl Beach Boutique shop - you can have a look & a buy here.

I also felt like drawing a guinea fowl. I'm not sure if he's too impressed with his new tribal-style feathers or not...

'Tribal Guinea Fowl'

A print of an original drawing, which I created with pen, ink & watercolour.

I love the black & white glossy, spotted feathers of the guinea fowl. This one gets a splash of sea-coloured tribal to go with its dots.

High quality print on thick, matte, archival paper.

This print will be approx. 8" x 7" with a white border for framing.

Cold worms

Summer is officially over - the airs cold, the seas cold, and I've got a cold. Boo. 
Last week (before the cold) Sunny & I went on a walk, which turned into a nature walk. She loves her creatures & we spotted slugs, spiders, snails, crows, hoverflies & a worm. Lovely.
It reminded me about when I was small & we lived in Kenya - our school backed onto a national park so on the way home we'd often go on a little animal spotting session. I had a little reminisce & here's part of a work in progress..

 I've also been busy getting some greetings card designs ready for a new project. These will be available soon (ish!) but contact me if you like them and would like a card/to see the rest/have a custom design...this can all be organised! 

happy fridays

Smile, it's Friday :)

Love circle - ink & paint

Cornish feet

The sun has been shining this week & I've been making the most of it. Here are my feet enjoying some Kernow sunshine.

 

 

 

 

And on the subject of feet, here's one of my latest prints, available for sale in my etsy shop.

 

 

 

 

 

Giclee print of an original pen & ink, watercolour & collage illustration. On thick, matte, archival paper.
7" x 7" with a white border for framing.

New prints...

And so the prints are rolling out...!

I'll be posting 'where to buy' details in a few days but here's a snippet for starters...

'Take me to the Ocean'

A print of an original drawing, which I created with pen & ink, watercolour & collage.

High quality giclee print on thick, matte, archival paper.

This print is approx. 7" x 4.5" with a white border for framing.

If you would like a smaller or larger size print, please contact me with your preferred dimensions.

Each print will be hand signed by me.

Let us drink tea

'Let us drink Tea'

A print of an original drawing, which I created with pen & ink, watercolour & collage. 

High quality print on thick, matte, archival paper.

This print measures 732mm x 711mm, not inclusive of white border for framing.

Home is where the heart is

A sneak preview of one of a set of 4 prints, which will be available to buy soon.

Surfing & cooking

I'm waiting patiently for the postman this week - he's due to drop me off a copy of the Surf Cafe Cookbook, which I'm very pleased to report I was asked to help out with some illustrations a little while ago. 

I can't wait to see a hard copy as it looks amazing and I've heard on good authority that there are some pretty unmissable recipes inside...that's all I need to know, yum.

Read more about Myles & Jane, the Surf Cafe Cookbook's creators, here

I'm getting a bit niftier with a camera lately so when I've tried out some recipes, I'll share some pictures... 

Yonderland, Yonderland, Yonderland

Yonderland?

Yes please.

Dreamt up by the lovely Ella & Steve, Yonderland Clothing is a brand new little company selling simple, stylish and ethically friendly things for us all to wear.

7 months ago I was sunning myself in Lanzarote when a little email from Steve arrived in my inbox. 'We're setting up a new company' were his words 'is this something you might be interested in?' were the next. 

I said 'yes please!' and lots of pens, paper, pencils, emails, tea and Ella's awesome chocolate cupcakes later, is...

Yonderland's Debut Summer Collection

I know Steve & Ella have worked incredibly hard to bring this all together, from sourcing the perfect tees to sorting the printers and a whole host of other stuff along the way. They put together a great little team of talented people (who you can read about here), and I've had a brilliant time helping them create   these super lovely garments. 

So for now, all that's left to be said is GO AND BUY ONE! or two...or three...

          

Germ free

Just a note to say that the plague has finally left the Hamilton/Shapland residence. Visitors are now more than welcome, although Josh has still got something weird on his shoulder.

Also, the clothing project I've been involved with is finally about to come to fruition. Yonderland is a new British clothing company making very cool & very comfy tees & vests. Their website will be coming any day now but have a look at http://www.yonderlandclothing.blogspot.co.uk/

Coping with Colin

I haven't blogged for over a month, oops.
I have got the excuse that I've been away for a couple of weeks. That was nice, until me and baby sun got back from our travels and caught the bubonic plague. Then we passed it on to Josh. So we've had to draw a cross on our front door this week and lie around the house being all ill. Josh has been the worst, he's now called Colin from The Secret Garden because he's been so pale, sickly and groany, whilst Sunny & I have just got on with it. Typical man. 
Anyway, we've lost a stone between us collectively and tonight Josh wants "salad" for tea so things are definitely still a bit off. 
What did cheer me up was a trip to the garage to get a film, and I spotted this in the magazine rack...

...the August edition of Surfgirl magazine 

with a lovely double page spread of my illustrations inside it (pages 66-67 if you were wondering)

I recommend buying a copy and enjoying it with a big bowl of salad.

Fartlekking all over the place

It's been very quiet on the blog front...not quite sure where the last week or 2 have gone but they have gone, and its time I posted up all of the brilliant things I've been up to. So, I went to tesco, did some shopping, saw some friends, went to tesco again, had a swim, had a sleep, tried some fartlekking, went to tesco, had a glass o wine, did some stretchy yoga mental moves, popped into tesco...

Yep, pretty exciting. I've done a few drawings too, here's the latest 'work in progress' for a double page mag spread...

flippin hippy

In the run up to the Trelawney Craft Fair (on Monday 7th May), I got my hands on a few sachets of dye and went a bit babygro mental.
Now I can't say I'm a massive fan of the 90's-flouro-rainbow-hippy-tie-dye look, but I reckon any little miniature person would look pretty awesome in one of these...

(Custom orders more than welcome, I can even make them sporting a pair of harem pants and chewing on a celery stick...)

cakes and cards and cakes and cards...

I've had about 5 projects on the go this week.

One of them is getting some stuff made for the Bank Holiday Craft Fair on at Ashford's Trelawney Garden Centre, 7th May, 10am-4pm. Come along, come along.

Cards and cards galore...

Cakes and cakes galore...

Piece of cake, dear?

watercolour, 8cm x 20cm

Cool week mate

What's been happening? Not loads but here's my week in pictures...

I did some sketchy things for the Amazing People Club.. The 'Amazing Olympians' e-book is out with Apple really soon and my portraits are being turned into moving 'avatars' so I had to fiddle around with some facial expressions!

..I showed my little bubba how to forage for food on the kitchen floor. Ok, not really...at least I hope that's not what I was doing, that would be kind of unhygenic...

 

 

 

...and I've just been sketching up some 'love circles' (as I like to call them) and getting my lino carve on for a logo (soon to be blogged about, keep your eyeballs peeled).