Screen Printing in the studio - Chrysanthemum flower

After a difficult start to the year, I've come out the other side feeling pretty positive again! This has been helped along no end by putting new work onto screen and sample printing in the studio this week. Also driven by the forthcoming exhibitions and applications this year which won't hang around and wait for me.

Here's what I've been doing. It's just the start!

I'd already (digitally) printed out a giant Spider Chrysanthemum onto drafting paper to get an idea of how it might look scaled up. I had to scale it down a little from that to fit on my screens but as you can see here (I'm 5' 7") it's still quite big.

I decided to do a test print onto fabric in black and white. Just lifting the screen on and off the print table can be challenging.

Printing white. Lucky that I remembered to check the size of my biggest squeegee when I scaled the flower. Only just fits!

Lifting the screen is always a wow moment!

Now printing the second screen - the black...

and finally - well - just a peek!

...and to think that I grew this Chrysanthemum from a little plug planted in my greenhouse!

Next week I'm print sampling in colour - more to come on this...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Rose (Raspberry Ice) red

A rose for everyone who might be in need of one today!

From our beautiful planet with love xx

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Magnolia white

In need of some early Spring cheer I bought a few branches of Italian Magnolia from my local market. On Friday they finally shed their gorgeous furry cases and burst from bud to flower!

Drawing from life means you can't wait 'til next week or even the next couple of days - Carpe diem!

Forgetting this, I started the pencil sketch on Friday early evening and on Saturday morning it may as well have been a different flower! I had to finish it from memory which is why (for those who may notice!) it's a little upside down on one petal.

Nonetheless! - I hope the joy from a small sample of Magnolia's Spring colour might uplift you a little (as it did me)...

Saturday flower!

Inspiring image of American Textile Designer Marion Dorn in front of her stunning Magnolia fabric from July 1947 House and Garden, photograph by Horst P. Horst.

This photo is for sale on the Condé Nast website here..

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Bramble leaf green

There are times when you have to put things that upset you out of your mind and look on the bright side. (Have I said that already? - well I'm working hard at it).

This was the most positive green I could find in the woodland! Moreover, it was the brightest green stalk on the entire bush. Drawn with dip pen and as a radical departure from the usual black, Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay Grass green ink mixed with a dash of Sepia.

It happened to have a dead leaf impaled onto it's stem, so I noted these browns alongside.

Nice thorns..!

Scaling up one of my favourite notebook drawings in the studio today..!

Listening to this..!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Curly Kale - Purple

Getting burgled at the studio was a bad start to 2014. It affected my sleep as well as my spirits and I didn't feel like drawing. When this happens I begin to think I may never draw again(!) the designer's equivalent of writers block. The only way round this I've found from past experience, is to make myself draw, something...anything.

So I collected rose-hip sprays from a Rambling Rector and they've shrivelled in a vase for a week! I picked up some interesting Oak Galls (or Apples) attached tightly to Oak leaves, spent an hour drawing them, but tore the drawing from my notebook! Gathered shells on the beach (still in my pocket)!

Finally, It was the fabulous dusky purples and deep magenta of a curly Kale leaf (and it's ridiculously intricate frilly fronds), that helped shift my mind away from everything else and put pen to paper...





















































...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Land, Sea, Sky

Yesterday I wrote a short statement and emailed it with photos for a group exhibition I've been invited to take part in called 'Land, Sea, Sky' (May/June 2014!). As my proposal for this exhibition relates entirely to my colour notebook/blog 'Planet Sam' I thought I'd share this, as well as work in progress as it develops.

I'd been asked for a statement of 250 words which had to answer specific questions (by Flora Pearson, exhibitions officer at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen), these were...

"I need a statement for each exhibitor of up to 250 words. Could I ask a few questions to give you pointers for the statement? They may not all be relevant to you but please can you answer as fully as possible or elaborate where you want to, thanks. If I already have a statement from you perhaps you could tweak it with these questions in mind please.

-          Can you define your relationship with the land, sea or sky (or all)?

-          In what ways do you draw on land sea or sky in your work? For example inspiration, materials, tools.

-          What processes in your work link you to your surroundings? For example sketching, harvesting, etc  (have you got any photos of these?)

-          What are you focussing on for this exhibition?

-          Have you got any ideas or plans to take this work further in the future?"

Here's my statement, which covers some of her questions (in 248 words!)...

Sam Pickard

Land, Sea, Sky

My studio is situated in a small market town close to Exmoor and the surrounding North Devon countryside or ‘Land’ is a rich source of inspiration for my fabric and textile design. For the past three years I have been collecting samples of flora and fauna specifically to document the colours I find in them. What began as a reaction against simply following global trend colour forecasts, and to look instead at “seasonal” or “local” colour, has become a rich source of reference material for my work.

In the winter months I sketch in the studio, but in Spring and Summer I often sketch outdoors using pencil and dip pen and ink. Using a dip-pen helps me to capture the vitality of the subject, the blots and smudges adding to the imperfections and scruffiness I find in nature. These sketches and colours are then translated digitally from Moleskine sketchbooks, scanned into the computer to create digital pages, bringing the colours and drawings together into pages of a blog ‘Planet Sam’, (which had 43,714 page views in 2013).

Some of this imagery has already filtered into my textile products, for example, a Pheasant is now immortalised onto cushions and trays, a Monterey Cone is super-sized and screen printed in bronze foil onto linen. 'Land, Sea, Sky' is an opportunity to develop these notebook drawings and documented CMYK colours from ‘Planet Sam’ and take them into screen-printed textiles using both the colour and drawing together for the first time.

(not entirely sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'm working on it!)

and the example images I sent (Corn Grass from July 2013)..

In the (French) landscape, (unusually) caught in action taking photos of the subject.

Photo of that subject...

Pencil sketch...

Pen and ink...

and lastly from the 'Planet'...

More to come on this...

...Hope this made sense but if I've failed to sound my usual fairly chipper self - it's because my studio was broken into and burgled last night - and I'm feeling upset and totally fed up - not a great start to the New Year! At least (looking on the bright side) - no-one was hurt, most of my design work is backed up, plus they didn't trash the place (so all sketchbooks/fabrics intact) but can't even begin to think about the things that are lost...

Colour from the Season - unknown shrub green

As this was the second time I had purloined a cutting of this beautiful shrub (from a certain car park in Exeter), it would have felt criminal not to post it's colours here, just because I didn't know its name!

Perhaps it's fitting on the eve of a new year to post the colours and form of a plant I don't recognise and haven't been able to identify - though I'd love to find out if someone knows?

So here's to unknown horizons...
...and nature's evocative colours!

UPDATE 2/1/14 - Many thanks to Lesley, Joy and Mary for getting in touch while I was away for New Year to tell me that it's a Callistemon - more commonly known as Bottlebrush. See it in flower here and you can understand why!

The ink drawings. I drew each branch separately in my A3 'Moleskine' sketchbook, then scanned and pieced the branches back together digitally.

Photo detail for ID purposes...

...and VERY Happy New Year!

(drawn listening to the album 'Reflektor' by Arcade Fire)

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Walnut shell brown

I've been totally flattened by a flu-bug this week. The up-side of feeling so rough is that I have at least been spared much of the joy(!) of last minute Christmas shopping.

Ranking above all other nuts, Walnuts are one of natures top super-foods (more here), give the most sublime (and fast) natural dye colours (this and so much more on Jenny Dean's "Wild Colour" blog here) and, I've just discovered, a fabulous ink for using in dip pens (this is a lovely blog post on making it! here).

The top brown is the familiar colour of the outer shell, next the deep warm brown of the inner husk (and most like the dye-colour), third and fourth are the two-tone ochre yellows of the kernel. As a natural dye/ink it's the outer green husk which is used (not shown here).

So there you have it! in a nut shell...

Seasonally good wishes one and all...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Tray bien!

A preview peek at my Moorland Tray collection which will be launched in January by the Swedish company Ary Trays. Rabbits and Pheasants galore :)

This week I've been taking tray photos - I'd forgotten that taking photos of trays isn't that easy! If the light hits the trays at the wrong angle, they can look strangely inside out.

I don't have studio lights but I do have four large Velux skylights in my studio and a wall of north facing windows. The sky however has insistently stayed a dense grey for most of the week so at even the slightest hint of blue sky, I've downed tools on the illustration work I've been finishing off for Buckfast Abbey and leapt into action up and down a ladder, as the camera was suspended 8ft from the floor above our dining table from a Manfrotto tri-pod (no dining table in the house all week to boot) - the things we do for love!

Speaking of which, I'm heading off to Bristol shortly for a friend's birthday - we've known each other nearly 40 years!! Happy Birthday Marion X

Posy - Olive, Tulip, Hawthorn

I was a bit fed up when 'Feedburner' sent out an old post yesterday (all by itself) from July! I suspect that it was mischievous blogger goblins, teed off with all the jargon they have to deal with (if you write a blog yourself you'll know what I mean). Apologies for that.

So I thought I'd cheer myself up with a posy as it's been a while since my last - A flowery way to say love and peace with a little bit of hope thrown in for good measure...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook

Colour from the season - Chrysanthemum dusky orange

I recently bought a second hand book from a market book stall called 'Flowers in Art from East and West' Paul Hulton and Lawrence Smith, published by The Trustees of the British Museum, 1979.

I'd just started drawing these Spider Chrysanthemums, so to find, among the many plates in the book, one of a exquisite Japanese wood block print of Chrysanthemum ('General of Three Provinces?') was great timing.

It was I discovered one of a series of wood block prints from the book 'One Hundred Chrysanthemums' by the Japanese Artist Keika Hyakukiku first published in1893 (you can see the first volume of these prints here and the second volume here). There are only seventy-five prints in fact, as he died before completing the series, these are inspirational don't you think?

Masses of these imperial colours in my greenhouse at the moment and this variety is I believe called "Dusky Queen' - Here's the book...

...and this is the image that captured my attention when I was leafing through the book in the market!! Painted in 1585 by Jacques Le Moyne de Morges it's called "A Young Daughter of the Picts'. The floral pattern is tattooed in a mirror repeat across her body!
(Interesting information about the image/painting in this article from 'The Independent' here).

Thinking of pattern - I'm really looking forward to the Selvedge (Textile) Winter Fair in the Kings Rd. London this coming Friday and Saturday!! 

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Hot off the Press! - Moorland Rabbit and Pheasant collection for Ary Trays

I can't begin to tell you how delighted I am to have designed a new tray collection for Ary Trays!

The samples will be arriving in my studio next week (and will be available from Ary in January) but in the meantime here's the very first photograph of the new collection taken in Sweden last week!

May I introduce...(drum roll)...Pheasant and of course his best mate Rabbit and some other Pheasant he met in a pub on Exmoor.

Designs in progress on the studio wall a few weeks ago...

Ary will be showing my Moorland Tray collection at Home (the definitive Homewares and accessories event), London 12th - 14th January 2014 - for more information contact Joakim Sohlberg.

Colour from the Season - Smoke Tree Leaf Red

Do you know Smoke Trees? So called after the summer flowering plumes which resemble clouds of smoke, but in the Autumn the leaves are fiery!

I wasn't sure how to tackle drawing these intensely colourful leaves and because of this, nearly stopped after the inked line drawing. I decided I'd scan the drawing so that even if I ruined the next part I had this, then relax, enjoy the (paint) journey and not take the outcome so seriously!

A sensual Autumnal palette of reds and golds..

Inspired to draw the leaves laid out in a sculptural row (as this is how they were given to me).

Colour was created in Bombay ink, Acrylic, pencil and lastly gloss varnish because
though its hard to see it here

the leaves have the appearance of burnished leather.

Links to the work of the two talented artists who kindly collected these leaves from their garden!
Helyne Jennings and Trevor Jennings...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

'The Accomplisht Cook'...

...'or the Art and Mystery of Cookery' by ROBERT MAY published in London in 1685

contains...

"Bills of FARE for every Season in the Year; also how to set forth MEAT in order for that Service, as it was used before Hospitality left this Nation".

Designed last year for an exhibition at Dartington Food fair, this runner sets out extracts from... "The most Exact, or A-la-mode Ways of Carving and Serving"..."A Bill of Fare for Christmas Day, and how to set the Meat in order" (not for the faint hearted it has to be said!).

The Preserve recipes screen-printed on the linen napkins are for Gooseberries Green, Damsins, Cherries and Apricocks, (all of which I intend to attempt making one fine day).

Owing to popular demand - I've just put the design back onto screen and have been re-printing it this week onto fine natural hemstitch edged linen. Durable and fully wash-board and mangle friendly, I think even Robert May himself might have approved!

Favourite things: Accomplisht Cook table runner and napkins; Vintage 6 Pt Casserole by Pearson's of Chesterfield; Antiquated Sharpening Steel by Taylors of Sheffield; Rosehips; Sweet Chestnut and Sparrow feathers.

Accomplisht Cook table runner and napkins now for sale in my shop (here :)
'tis the season to be jolly and all that!

Colour from the Season - Yew Green

My studio is sited on the North wall of St. Mary Magdalene Churchyard and (as in so many Churchyards) there are Yew trees a stones throw from my studio. I've been thinking of documenting their quite unusual colours for a couple of years but a little put off by the fact that they are so poisonous!

The attractive glossy pink "berries" (aka modified female cones), would not look out of place in a packet of Dolly mixture and might be edible, but for the fact that the single seed within is as toxic as you can imagine! The spiky deep green foliage reaching up to the heavens is the most poisonous part of all.

I've brought together (wearing surgical gloves!) the colours of the berry, foliage and branch which are unusual and exceptional together as you can see here for yourself...

Yew colours - St. Mary Magdalene.

I'd rather like to live in a tree house, but perhaps not in this Yew in La Haye-de-Routot ..!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Pattern Repeat and Heart Fawn napkins

Batten down the hatches - stormy weather here!

The clocks went back last night and gaining an hour today, I went for an early morning walk at Simonsbath on Exmoor (pronounced Simmonsbath). Got totally drenched through, but exhilarating nonetheless as Exmoor is incredibly beautiful at this time of year. Then to the studio for a spot of screen-printing. It never feels like work whether it's Monday or Sunday and anyway I was dying to sample print my new napkins.

I had designed a simple repeat background using some of my notebook drawings selecting those that would balance well together as silhouettes, as for this design I wanted to create a single colour print - this was how I started...

(in case you didn't recognise them here they are in their full colour glory all from my notebook..!)

I then developed the design by mirroring and balancing the elements until I felt it worked well as a repeat pattern - now in perfect digital repeat...

I scaled down the design and placed it in a heart shape, carefully cutting around the pattern to keep an uneven edge. I then added the Fawn because it's Christmas!

They come in packs of two - screen printed on 100% natural linen. I love the fact that you don't see the heart shape until you open them fully...

'Heart Fawn' - designed with some of my best friends in mind...

A postcard from Simonsbath today, in the foreground Moorland Bracken and Chip dressed appropriately for the weather ...

'Heart Fawn' linen napkins are £26.50 for a pack of two. Screen-printed with love (!) the price includes UK postage (Please email me further details and for shipping costs for the rest of the world).
(Heart Rabbit and Pheasant coming soon!)

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Sweet Chestnut brown

Kicking through the leaves every morning with Chip and it's beautiful! I love this time of year when the woods are becoming the colours of gold, bronze and rust.

Unbelievably vicious spikes on these Sweet Chestnut cases, the spikes face all directions making them painful to collect, dangerous to prize open but interesting and fun to draw.

My days are full up at the moment screen-printing, sending out orders, designing a new tray collection, illustrating for Buckfast Abbey as well as getting stock together for the Selvedge Winter Fair in a few weeks - all very exciting but little time for my notebook... So, I drew these chestnuts late in the evening on Saturday night (multi-tasking!) drinking a glass of wine and watching 'The Jane Austen Book Club'.

(and woke up on Sunday morning dreaming of Hedgehogs)

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Cyclamen pink

Last week driving through the local countryside here in North Devon, I spotted a bank of naturalised Cyclamen. It was a narrow country lane, but just had to have a closer look. I pulled in at the next slightly wider space and put my hazard lights on. Suddenly the road became a major highway (Sod's law!) so had to race back and move the car (I did get a quick picture on my phone). Apologies if you were there - yes, held up for a bank of Cyclamen!

I often plant them (they always die). Fragrant to be close to, elegant in form as well as colour, (not stolen from the bank on this occasion by the way), heart shaped leaves and lovely to draw.

Car stopping pink and white in this Devon bank..!

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

My favourite things - Still life with Chris Taylor vase.

Another in 'A few of my favourite things series'...

A few months ago I went to the private view of an exhibition at White Moose gallery (in the North Devon market town, Barnstaple). As soon as I saw the latest work of the talented ceramicist Chris Taylor I knew I had to own a piece. Just like that - fell in love with it and this piece in particular.

In case it isn't obvious why this particular piece - it was the Indigo blue and copper glazing, the rose like repeat pattern, the creatively distressed erosion and controlled roughness of the finish. Take a closer look at Chris's ceramics here.

Also of course - as anyone who's met him will know, he's a thoroughly nice bloke.