oh comely tape giveaway

Issue fourteen of oh comely magazine dropped into my letterbox last week and it's as inspiring as ever. In amongst its beautiful pages, you might spy some silly birds sticky tape. They've got five rolls to give away. So if you want your presents looking 'as good as a big top tent in the afternoon sun', you could ask them nicely and see if you win. Or if you don't fancy your chances, you could always grab some rolls over in my shop.

Oh, and if anyone ever finds the copy I left on a Sheffield to London train last February, I'd love to have it back. I miss it.

valentine wishlist

It's nearly 14.02. A day for hearts and flowers. Love and affection. Tears and tantrums. The day when Mr Bettyscotch can be heard to say: "But you hate valentine's day and told me you didn't want to be drawn into a commercial celebration of love, so I didn't get you anything . . ." (the last bit of the sentence is muffled because I am leaving the room.)

Yes, I know you shouldn't have to spend money to show someone you love them. And, yes, a cup of tea in bed and a spot of buttered toast is really all I need. But if that toast happened to have any of these delightful valentine treats next to it, oh, how very, very happy I would be  >  >  > 

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♥   VALENTINE WISHLIST   ♥

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<<   1. Ernest and Eloise Play Telephone printable pattern by Flapper Doodle   >>

<<   2. Adorable Valentine Card by poosac     >>

<<    3. Love at First Sight gocco print by Olive Dear    >>

<<   4. Valentine Dodo screen print by Hello Dodo    >>

<<    5. Folk Heart Ceramic Coaster by Tilissimo   >>

<<    6. Stained Glass Love Birds by The Round Window  >>

<<   7. Love Let Go embroidery hoop by moxiedoll   >>

<<   8. I Like You Big Time and You Are Purr-fection cards by Hello Small World   >>

From pod to print

I've been working on a project with Cocoa Wonderland (the most delightfully enchanted sweet shop you are likely to ever come across), who showed me this video of a single origin chocolate bar produced for Wallpaper* Handmade. It's from last year so you might have seen it before, but it's too beautiful not to share.

The chocolate is made by Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat (the only bean to bar chocolate maker in Vietnam) and the packaging is designed by Rice Creative. Every Marou bar is a work of art. Each wrapper is coloured to reflect the hue of the cocoa pod it came from, and over this a pattern of clouds, cocoa pods and flowers is silkscreened by hand in gold ink. The bars produced for the Wallpaper* Handmade issue bars also have a 'W*' embossed in gold - - - you can see them in the video or in the August 2012 issue of Wallpaper*.

I think Marou's bars and their beautiful packaging is an inspiration in design and quality, and proves it can be possible to keep every part of production, from pod to print, as local as possible.

There's more about the design on the Lovely Package blog or in Wallpaper*.

Love at the circus

Love is in the air at the circus.

Look closely in the trees high above the big top and you might just spot Mr and Mrs Owl. The circus carries on as usual below . . . zebras parade, silly birds swing, while an elegant elephant balances exquisitely on the tightrope. But despite all the marvels to behold, Mr and Mrs Owl only have eyes for each other. Betty Butterscotch watches them and marvels at how astonishingly wonderful love can be.

You can find the Twit-Two-I-Do Owls on two new cards made especially for Valentine's Day or equally nice to send at any time of year to the person you love marvellously too. They've even got the tale of Mr and Mrs Owl on the back. They're in my Etsy shop in either corals and pinks, or in black >>> here and here >>> 

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Or if you want to add a sprinkling of magic to your Valentine, Bumblewick Beesting has been creating playing cards in honour of the queen of his heart (Miss Betty Butterscotch, in case you were wondering). But these are not just any old playing cards. Heavens no. These are magical playing cards which you can pop in your mouth and eat. What a delight.

There are two versions of the cards, either King of My Heart or Queen of My Heart, depending on your fancy. Both come with a very special edible playing card to take out and devour. The cards feature hand-drawn lettering and original illustrations . . . although I'm not sure how anatomically correct the heart is, so it's probably best not to base any major surgery on my drawing. If you'd like an edible Valentine card, they're in my shop over here >>>

British Library Spring Festival 2013

This time last year I was getting ready for the British Library Spring Festival. Winning their competition was a huge boost for me and probably the first big outing for Butterscotch & Beesting. You might be able to spy me in this video. (I'm still not sure how they persuaded me to come out from my hiding place and put me in front of the camera.)



The second Spring Festival is coming up, and it's open to all designers/makers who've used the British Library or their Business & IP Centre (even just reading books there counts). If you win, you get a stall in their plaza, lots of press, a free workshop on how to market yourself, plus your work will be featured on the British Library website. If you can enter, do, do, do  – I really can't recommend it enough. The closing deadline is midnight this Sunday (27th January), so you'll need to be quick. Here's the application form.

If you can't enter this year, have a look at what else the British Library offers, as they have incredible resources for creative businesses, plus you get to pick the brains of the wonderful Fran Taylor, their marketing manager for creative industries. She's full of wisdom and hugely supportive of people trying to make a living from doing creative things. And best of all, most of their workshops and events are free.

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One of my best bits of last year was meeting the other designers at the Spring Market, like Kay from Ketchup on Everything, Pheobe Richardson, Kethi Copeland, Sarah Cole from Cole of London, Holly Barton from hb-design and Sian Zeng. Thanks for all the support and inspiration xx

New Year • • • New Work

I've been designing quite a bit recently.
It was all a bit crazy before Christmas, so I didn't have chance to list any of my new pieces.
But as it's a new year, new things will be appearing in my shop.

Here's one of them.
It's the Circus Tents Postcard Set and it's part of the Circus Tents collection, which also includes the  Teatime at the Circus Trio.
The set includes four postcards, each with a different design.
I think they're nice to hang or frame or send.
You can find them here >>

There'll be more coming soon.

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Teatime at the Circus

Like me, the inhabitants of the Butterscotch + Beesting Circus are partial to a spot of afternoon tea.
Betty's favourite is a layered vanilla sponge with raspberry jam and elderflower custard.
Bumblewick prefers to keep it simple with a gingernut.
The Tattercock rarely says no to a slice of treacly parkin.
And Wilhelmina finds it hard to resist a macaroon.

Their affection for the afternoon tea tradition persuaded me to make them an appropriately fine and circusy tea set.

'Teatime at the Circus' is designed to sit together as a trio, one on top of the other, with the illustrations beginning on the cake plate, continuing on the saucer and leading up the tea cup. 

The cake plates and saucers are decorated with hand-drawn circus tents, triangular flags and magical strobes that have then been digitally coloured in delicious shades of yellow, coral, mint, teal and jade. There are four different cake plates in the collection, decorated with the same patterns but in various colour combinations. So at a tea party of four, each guest could delight in their very own plate. Oh, what fun!

The teacup is decorated with a silly bird riding a trapeze accompanied by neon strobes of magic shooting down from the sky (an everyday occurrence in the Butterscotch + Beesting Circus). The back of the teacup is decorated with a triangular cloud of raindrops.

The tea trios use the very finest bone china (made in Stoke), which gives them a beautiful translucent creamy finish. They're still an incredibly limited edition - - - I only have four sets. I promise I will be making more though, as soon as I can sneak them into my mum's kiln.

Teatime at the Circus is available either as a full trio ( cup + saucer + cake plate)
or as a cup + saucer duo
or as individual cake plates.

You'll find the whole collection in my Etsy Shop.

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PS. The photographs are by India Hobson. She's wonderful.
Her website is a treasure trove of beauty.
Have a look at her 'Revealing Craft' series.
I have serious studio envy.