Here comes the Bride...

One of many projects I have been involved with recently has included a commission for drapes to hang inside a marquee; 100 metres of hand printed fabric incorporating a butterfly motif designed and printed by me! I was really pleased that it all worked out so beautifully and I was commissioned to produce such a special piece of work. Thanks to Best Intent Marquees for all their help with logistics and getting them in-situ. After many days working out measurements, ordering fabric, creating designs and then finally printing I was pretty amazed at the finished result. Even though I had been with the drapes throughout their creation I just couldn't picture how they would look inside the marquee...so it was such a sense of achievement to receive this picture and know that it all looked pretty good!

Lets Celebrate!

So as it turns out I have some kind of a life outside of my own design bubble, and when I pop it every so often I usually find it's for a celebration of some kind...the best kind of breaks from the job! Just last week I attended the wedding of two very dear friends, and they, being absolutely lovely, asked me to design and craft their wedding stationary (above and below). I had the invite laser-cut for that little extra sparkle (many thought I had hand cut all 100 invites...I am mad but not that mad)!

Here is the menu in-situ and below is the invite stood up, before I fastened the blurb inside. It was an absolutely beautiful day enjoyed by all and I was soooooooo happy to be part of it...thank you!

Continuing on the theme of me putting my design skills to good use among friends and family, I also designed and made the invites for my Aunties Surprise 40th Birthday Tea Party earlier this year...check out the result below.

Harestanes Craft Fair

I may have moved away from a lovely studio space located at Harestanes just under two months ago now for pastures larger (!), but I was recently invited back to take part in a small craft fair the centre was organising, showcasing a range of crafts people from across the Borders. The weather has been so changable of late, so it was a nice surprise for the sun to make a guest appearance for the Sunday afternoon event.

It's great to be able to get involved with the local craft community scene and small events such as this are a great way of doing so. I just had a few smaller pieces on offer such as greeting cards, purses and tea-towels, but everything was still hand-screen-printed by my own two fair hands!

I shared the space with another fantastic screen-printer who is based over in Selkirk, where my new studio is. Her name is Gina Tebbutt and her attention to detail is spot on with a lovely mix of quirky owls and florals mixed in with some beautiful interpretations of the local borders region which whe creates into greeting cards and framed prints with canvas bags thrown in for good measure.

Me and Gina are hoping to do fairs together in the future as the work really sits nicely together, we both have a passion for screen-printing and want to sell it to the masses! I'm hoping to be taking part in a small craft fair at Abbotsford in the near future, so stay tuned for more information on that one.

Papa Stour

Papa Stour is one of those great little finds if you have ever had the pleasure to stumble across it, as I did several years ago. Bringing together the finest contemporary craft designer-makers based in Scotland, it has a huge range of unique and beautiful household items, stationary and jewellery which would make the perfect gift for friends, family or even yourself!

And I now have the pleasure of announcing I am one of their newest recruits with a selection of my current work available for sale from the Papa Stour website...so make sure to pop along not just to check out GraceInk but the other wonderful design work they have to offer.

And one last thing, new design work at Papa Stour has been recently blogged about at the design sponge blog (which if you're not already a fan of, you should really visit the possibility) www.designspongeonline.com/2010/07/new-at-papa-stour.html

I have been forecasted...WGSN

For those amongst us with a membership to WGSN then the news is good as you can now view my work as part of the Interiors Trend Analysis for New Designers Part Two, for those of you without (including me) you'll have to take my word for it...I did get a sneak peek at the article and I get name-checked below!

'WGSN loves Grace Smith's tactile, hand-printed linens featuring birdcages and folk art references'

WGSN is a fantastic trend forecasting and analysis website providing the lowdown on anything and everything design from fashion to product, illustration to furniture as well as the coolest boutiques and exhibitions worldwide.

New Designers: One Year On Update

Thought you might all enjoy some pictures from inside the One Year On stand at New Designers Part Two this year. If you couldn't make it then you missed out but hopefully the pictures below will go someway to making up for it! If you want to check out the designer-makers that were there then head over to www.newdesignersonline.co.uk.

Lisa Connolly and GraceInk Design

Paul Cummins

Kate Usher

Sarah-Jayne Guest, Tamar Balakjian and Edward Robinson

Andy Murray

Home Addict by Caroline Gauci

Lauren Revell and Leah Wade

New Designers: One Year On 2010

New Designers has come and gone for another year and while I'm busy collating all the lovely work on show at One Year On to get online I thought I would direct you towards the Arts Thread Blog to check out some of the lovely people that took part.

Arts Thread is the World's Only Creative Graduate Website and allows those of us in the creative industry to get their portfolios out there to be seen by the right people at the right time.

Check back soon for more...