ToyBox

These are a few images of my ToyBox collection. The inspiration for this collection came from my mums old bear that she has had since the age of one! A well loved bear it is missing an eye and even has one leg shorter than the other, due to a DIY sewing job years ago, after a hole appeared. Its a charming piece and is full of character. I looked into other older toys such as puppets, dolls and robots to create the characters used in the prints. My style is usually quite illustrative but layering the sketches over photographic imagery gave the motifs a new dimension. I felt I needed more basic prints to sit with the collection, finding a box of vintage silk scarves, that previously belonged to my auntie, helped me create the simple spot and stripe pieces, again reworked with a hand-drawn quality.

Although the prints have been used on fashion garments they work best on interiors such as the cushion and tea set. I also had one of the robot prints made into a wallpaper which looks amazing as a feature wall. I am working on getting some of the pieces reproduced and hopefully they will be available to buy on etsy soon... I will keep you all posted!!

I mostly used digital printing on cottons but I also experimented with screen printing onto printed fabric such as this floral on stripes. I preferred the digital prints as they enabled me to use a wider range of colourways and show smaller details in the illustration.

This print worked really well on a hand-sewn notebook. 

 All transfers were placed by hand on my ceramic pieces, the tiny robots were a big hit!

I think the pom-pom trim adds a retro feel! 

I also covered the buttons to tie in with the print on the front.

 These were some of my simple fashion items created using my digitally printed fabric. I also used embroidery to add detail such as the strings on the puppet as well as screen printing a simple polka-dot on the top of the robot crop top. I looked through old family photos like the ones below to aid the shape and styling of my pieces giving them a playful child-like feel.

A few old family photos, my mum is pictured in the black and white, it is one of my favourite photos!