Tumblr Gallery

Oh dear please be patient with me, I have spent the weekend uploading images onto my new Tumblr gallery and trying to get my over loaded brain around how to link all these things together but not sure yet SO here is an old fashioned invitation please look at my tumblr if you care to! One woman bands are all very well ...

http://nancynicholson.tumblr.com/

Mother's Day

It's another Mother's Day without my dear mother, Joan Nicholson, my great friend and my great inspiration, one of the most creative women I know, always eager to talk of new ideas and listen to those from others. I miss her, but enjoy her with me in my own work.

Screen prints from 2008

Having a much needed computer spring clean today, and found these which I did having a lovely time back in 2008 as Artist in Residence at Benenden Girls School. I still have a folder full of the screen prints from that time ... these are collages from the screen prints. Oh I would love the time to play again with printing. Happy Days! I will post the finished screen prints when I find time to scan them!

Pigeon Poster

I took delivery of the first proofs of the Pigeon print this morning and very pleased with it ... it is a poster though rather than a print, though I am getting some samples done for super duper prints too ... also the samples came for the cloth bag for the kits! It all feels painfully slow but I am getting there. It all seems whizzy but in truth i am sitting here infront of the computer with a quilt wrapped around me and a hotwater bottle at my back as it is freezing and I have run out of logs ... brrr, sick of the cold. Anyway I have posted these new designs onto Facebook now so we shall see. I am still not sure how to use Facebook properly and feel I am being a bit dim about it.

Dilemma

Though I am still wondering whether or not to have a yellow background, behind the stitches ... does anyone have any opinion? Leave comments on my Facebook page please or here ...
This is the yellow, which is a dull yellow / green, a favourite of mine though bright yellow is usually a colour I have difficulty with strangely.

The teapot embroidery came from a sample I did while teaching children and adults to do simple embroidery back in 2000, this is the original one which uses sequins and bits of lace also. but the stitches used are very little really and still have great effect!

I would love to do some beetle stitch kits but not sure how they would go down ...

New Kits

Lovebirds Stitch kit

Tea Pot stitch kit

Well despite having a carpel tunnel op this week ( luckily the left hand!) I have managed to finish designing two of the six new stitch kits, and begun collecting together the posters artworks also. Here is a sneek preview of the two completed which will be available over next couple of weeks all being well with suppliers etc. The kits now will come in a calico drawstring bag which can also be embroidered and makes for a great work bag in which to keep the project while underway ... take a look at the website for details

House and Garden 1951

Here is the article from 1951 House and Garden with my parents tiny flat in Kensington Gardens. My mother always used to say that it was actually very damp and dark and pokey, and to line it with asbestos! The hardboard flooring was constantly curling up and tripping you up ... but it looks so like the beginings of a style I came to know as 'home'. My father and uncle, Robert Nicholson both used to smoke heavily and my mother would say it was quite hard to breath let alone bring up my older brother John then a baby in this little flat. But still my father looks so handsome here, ... and some of the ornaments and pieces of furniture including the Ernest Race rocking chair I still know and love. The rocking chair was also another death trap as small squidgy fingers could be sliced off guillotine style under those rockers! Ah the pitfalls of modern living in the 1950s!

Christmas preparations!

It has been a very busy lead up to the holidays, but now there is a little more time to make presents for friends and family. And the 'card', which I did not do last year and though I DID survive and the world did not end, I did do one this year and am pleased with it. I also designed a free downloadable one for the Christmas Newsletter. But here are some photos of what I have been doing, and enjoying myself in the doing ....

NEW WEBSITE!

Please take a look at the new website, and with ... very exciting a shopping basket!
http://www.nancynicholson.co.uk/

Dear Papa!

A dear freind has just sent me this which she found as she says

"This is an exhibition catalogue of 1955. Inside the cover it says "Cover design by Roger Nicholson adapted from No. 20 in the Exhibition". No. 20 says "River and Garden Scenes. Plate-printed in red. About 1785." I found it in rummaging around in my collection of old catalogues while helping one of the V&A's archivists"

Does anyone happen to have similar or the same catalogue? I would so love to hear from you.

Little City

Little City. I can't wait for the new website to be ready ...

Sam Smith

I was prompted recently to look at the work of an inspiration from my college days and on whom I wrote first first year thesis ... Sam Smith. His surreal figures, so beautifully executed, depicting his own world of myth and fantasy completely blew me away as a first year art student. It fed my own deep seated love of toys and play which has not left me to this day.

Threads

The first order packed and ready to post!

Wonderful threads

Finished framed 'Cat' embroidery, and packs.

Well the stranded cotton came today and it looks wonderful in such a huge quantity ... not sure if I have enough but this is still a steep learning curve. Now the kits can be assembled at last. Though it is lovely to do now, I suppose the novelty may wear off after the 200th kit!

Lion Street Store Rye

The display of  the 'Little City' in Lion Street Store today

I am building up to Top Draw, showing the cards and kits, but also trying to finish some prototypes of the new range of colouring sheets. I am really hopeful for these ... but I can't share images just yet, frustrating though that is!

Photos taken by Sarah

My favorite mugs .. I won't say vintage but they are

I also had a great afternoon with Sarah from Lion Street Store in Rye the other day and we had a satisfying time exchanging ideas and dreams ....  her little girls were so, old fashioned word but they just were, enchanting, and had fun making blackberry mush with heaps of sugar and trying out the colouring sheets which looked amazing, so good to see it working.

Back again ...

It has been a long time, but in real time I have just been whirling around, and doing much including designing a new range of sewing kits, of which the first orders are going out now ... more on that soon. But thanks to Emily for all your help, heaving me into the 21st century ...

But here are some photos of ...  a recent trip to The Weald and Downland Museum 

Shepherd's hut on wheels

Interior

Perfect little wood burner