2021 Summer Collection - Behind The Scenes

Becky Woolley

 

As the new collection launched on the 11th of June I thought it would be good to introduce each of the designs in the collection and and a bit about what inspired them.

This collection is actually made up of a few different themes, with quite a focus on Spring as well as Summer so it should probably have been called the Spring/Summer collection. However I kept adding more and more designs as I got new ideas and therefore kept delaying sending the designs to be printed... so it’s now the Summer Collection instead!

You can browse the whole collection here

Here are the different designs, what inspired them and what they have been made into:


Coffee and Tea - 


I actually love drinking both coffee and tea and I'd wanted to create some coffee and tea themed designs for a while but hadn't got a concrete idea of how I wanted it to look until I put four or five colours together on my Ipad and started drawing teapots and mugs. I loved the way the colours worked together and it made the whole piece come together very quickly.

A week later it was my Dad's birthday and I wanted to create him a coffee themed birthday card as he is a big coffeeholic. So I kept the colour theme from the tea design but instead drew a cafetiere, black coffee and lattes to complete the theme.

I found during lockdown in 2020 that I enjoyed using this kind of set palette of colours for a design and I'm still loving the cohesive look it gives now, the coffee and tea designs are very much part of this look.

The coffee and tea designs are available as prints, stickers, cards, notebooks, gift notes and writing paper sets.

 







Garden Birds - 

Having spent a lot more time at home because of the lockdowns I also spent a lot more time doing my work in the garden when the weather allowed or sitting looking out the window while doing it if it wasn't so warm. 
Whilst I've always loved being outdoors, my work being mostly computer based and life in general had meant that in the last few years I've not been outdoors as much as I used to be so I really relished the increased chances to work outside and watch the birds.

Their characters and increasing tameness was so lovely to watch and it led me to hopefully try and capture some of their essence.

The birds included:
  • Coal Tits
  • Great Tits
  • Nuthatch
  • Wood Pigeon
  • Robin 
  • Blackbird
  • Blackcap

So I included Coal Tits, Great Tits, Nuthatch and Blackcap in the Garden Bird collection and gave woodpigeons, blackbirds and robins their own collections.


The Garden Bird designs are available as stickers, notebooks, cards, gift notes, prints and writing paper sets.






Spring and Summer Flowers - 

The primroses, cowslips, daffodils and grape hyacinth were so beautiful and cheering this year after what had been a difficult start to 2021 for everyone. So this selection of designs were really just an ode to their cheerfulness.

The first designs created were the 3 vase/planter type designs which came about as I was doodling on the sofa in the evenings while watching TV. They were then followed by the cowslip designs which I decided to make into birthday cards.

I also deliberately chose bright jewel like background colours for all the designs as I wanted them to sing out from the paper.

The spring and summer flower designs are available in prints, notebooks, greeting cards, stickers, gift notes and a writing paper set.




Hedgehog - 

I’ve been wanting to create a hedgehog design for ages but found trying to get the texture of the prickles really challenging so I kept starting and then erasing the design each time halfway through. Then in May I started again and decided to try a layered effect instead of trying to use a single or double colour. I started to feel using this method worked a lot better to create the effect representing the complexity of a hedgehog's spines and so the design finally progressed to a finished piece months after my first attempts.

Originally the background was just a plain blue but when I was arranging the design to make into a notebook it just looked like something was missing so I tried a few things but ended up adding a grassy bank dotted with daisies and a simple moon shape. I deliberately made the colours cooler to work with it being a scene lit by moonlight and I think that combination worked well with the hedgehog.

This design is available as stickers, cards, notebooks, prints, gift notes and writing paper sets.





For Teachers - 

This part of the collection came about when I was playing about with drawing colouring pencils and thought that it might make a nice way to thank teachers.
I kept the colours simple, small in number and repeating to try and keep it looking more cohesive.

Teacher and colouring pencil  designs are available in prints, notebooks, greeting cards, stickers, gift notes and a writing paper set.





Birdboxes - 
Another accidental design, I was doodling some birdboxes and thought they looked cute. They were definitely missing some occupants thought so I added a blackbird, great tit and robin to each type of birdbox. Again I kept the colours simple and cheerfilled, I also added some leaves to some of the design backgrounds as it seemed to work well.

These designs are available as stickers, gift notes, writing paper sets, notebooks, prints and cards.



Robin and Blackbird in the Snow - 

We are lucky enough to have very friendly robins and blackbirds in our garden with very expressive personalities so these designs were inspired by them. I added some bright berries to add a little cheer. I actually designed them as winter/Christmas designs but they seem to work year round too as everyone loves robins and blackbirds! 

These designs are available as cards, notebooks, stickers, gift notes and writing paper sets as well as prints.

Blue Remembered Hills - 


Inspired by the poem A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman, featuring the blue remembered hills of Shropshire. I enjoyed playing round with combining different colours for this design and settled on two colour-ways - a yellow and icy blue design and an orange and deeper blue design.

These designs are available as cards, notebooks and prints.






That's all the new collection, I hope you've liked reading a bit about how it all came about. You can browse the whole collection here

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