Scampi Moo

After thinking about it for aaaaages, I've finally got on with designing a little 2D otter character - Scampi Moo.

This is a concerted effort to move forward into products that don't take so much time to make as her image can be printed onto other things (I am currently sporting a fetching Scampi Moo Tank t-shirt).

So far, I've been making purses (more about this in a future post!), tote bags and badges, mostly experimenting with iron-on photo paper, but hoping to expand into proper printing.

Anyway, cut the crap, let me introduce you to Scampi!  Here she is.

I see her as having a particular personality (very cute but a little bit naughty - like all the best things are) and being slightly eccentric.  She enjoys tanks for example.

She is based on Scampi, a particularly loved soft otter who has been bestowed with some strange personality traits  (I know I'm definitely old enough to know better, but I don't have kids or pets, so that's my excuse!).

'Moo' is a derivative of 'mou', a Greek term meaning 'mine' that is sometimes put after someone's name.  Not that I speak Greek or anything - I think I read it in a book set in Corfu.

Anyway, here are some of the things I've been Moo-ising so far.  I would love to know what you think about them!

Coin purse - front

Coin purse- back

Totes

Badges

If you want to keep up with all Scampi Moo related stuff, she has her very own Facebook page so why not pop across and get properly introduced - she'd love to meet you.

Cally Festival

After making the decision not to do any more fairs over the summer, I did my first one for three months at the weekend!  The Cally Festival is a street festival held in a section of the Caledonian Road in Islington, London and aims to bring together the whole community to enjoy street theatre, live music, food and lots and LOTS of stalls.

I had a stall with the very lovely We Make London collective and it was great to see Mary and Julie again, as I hadn't seen them since the Thames Festival in September last year.

I was woefully unprepared and spent most of the day before realising that I needed to do a LOT of sorting out - which took forever - and I forgot to do a lot of things that would have been good to do. Boo me.

The journey up was pretty annoying, as all the Brighton - London trains were very slow and infrequent, so I walked to Hove station instead with my massive pink suitcase of delights trundling along behind me.  As you can imagine, this is always fun to lug about on public transport, especially on trains with no luggage compartments and Underground stations with a lot of steps.

The weather was cold and cloudy with some very gusty wind, which scattered cards and flyers and occasionally blew down prints and framed pictures on neighbouring stalls - very alarming!

Holly from Holly Francesca had a few battles with the breeze!

However, the sun did manage to squeeze out and people turned out in droves to soak up the atmosphere - it felt very bustling and I had a lot of customers, which was great.

A piper leads a very Wicker Man-esque procession of people in handmade animal masks!

I launched a couple of new products too (I plan to do a separate post on these a bit later on) - a fox print and a cute printed otter range, which appeared on totes and handmade purses.  The fox print items sold out, so that's definitely worth pursuing!

Scampi Moo & foxy totes

Handmade foxy & Scampi Moo purses

I printed out a pic of the cute meeting between Otto and Nemo and popped it up next to the small otter range on display, where it caused much amusement.  I'm hoping it will also stop people mistaking the otters for: a. meerkats b. squirrels and c. beavers.

 

So all in all, it was a good day and I came home exhausted but quite happy.  I now have lots of work to do now preparing a proper launch for Scampi Moo and sorting out some foxy prints, plus stocking up for forthcoming fairs and (whisper it) Christmas.

Back soon! xxx

Nemo der Kleine Otter

Allow me to introduce you to little Otto Otter.  Here he is.

Woo hoo!  Here I am!

He went to live in Germany and we got sent some pictures and . . . ah, hang on . . . what is he doing?

Who is he playing with . . . ?

Could it possibly be . . . a REAL otter?

Otto vs Real Otter (with a nice chewy biro)

Yup, Otto went to live with Nemo the little otter at the Aquazoo in Düsseldorf.  Nemo is an Asian Short-Clawed Otter and is a minor celebrity in his home town.  He has hundreds of fans around the world, his own Facebook page (with over 2200 friends) and regularly appears in many newspaper articles and TV clips in Germany.

But Nemo is not an exhibit at the zoo. Nemo has been raised since birth by the director of the Aquazoo Dr Wolfgang Gettmann and his family, and as Asian Short Claws are so social and family-orientated, he now regards the Gettmanns and their dog Balou as his own family and loves their company.  These unusual circumstances arose when Nemo's mother gave birth to seven cubs at once. As otter mums usually have a litter of four cubs max, she found seven way too overwhelming to care for properly and sadly two cubs died.  The decision was made to take one of the other cubs away so that they would all have a greater chance of survival and so Dr Gettmann became the Daddy!

Baby Nemo being bottle fed.

Nemo in his favourite place - on Dr Gettmann's shoulder.

I thought it would be really sweet to have a picture of a Shark Alley otter with a real live otter so I made Otto and sent him over.  I chose to sew his eyes from felt rather than sequins so that he was completely safe for Nemo to play with, hence them not looking as super-shiny as those of the other sewn otters.

Dr Gettmann and his family went to a great deal of time and trouble to take the following shots, for which I am very grateful (I'm sure they had a lot better things to do!) and they're so fun and cute that I'd like to share them with you too.

"And who might you be?!"

Rolling with the homies

Got any spare?

Otto, Balou and Nemo.  Happy families!

(All Nemo pictures by Dr Wolfgang Gettmann)


UPDATE

In December 2012, I was lucky enough to spend some time with Nemo myself. Full story here!

Fun with Collage

Back in March I spent two days at the fabulous St Andrew's Primary School in Stockwell introducing SEVEN different classes to the joys of mixed media collage. Nature was our inspiration, as it tied in with their class projects, and some of the finished pieces were quite fantastic!  The kids were brilliant as well - very polite and flatteringly excited by some of the examples of my work that I showed them, plus some of the younger ones were delightfully and unexpectedly affectionate, which quite bought a tear to my soppy old eyes.

I have some of the work pictured here and I'm looking forward to the rest as I didn't get to spend long enough with each class to see the collages finished.

Beautiful Things

A visit home for tedious things (dentist, work) also meant a much less tedious visit to the wonderful Wisley RHS Gardens for some sunny floral inspiration.

This is one of my favourite pictures from inside the tropical greenhouse.

 

And here is some more gorgeousness.

Olympia's Big Night

Olympia Otter had a big night out at an Olympic Opening Ceremony party in Brighton yesterday.

 

Take a look at the Shark Alley otter-based website Get Buzzy With The Fuzzy to see what she got up to.

Summer!

Whoa - sunshine.  Steady on.

I've got so used to staying in, making and trying to psych myself up for some Shark Alley marketing and PR, that it was a shock to the system to get out of the house and enjoy some sun!  We took the number 12 bus from Brighton to East Dean (about 4 miles from Eastbourne), passing the gorgeous Cuckmere Haven on the way, and took in the Seven Sisters Sheep Centre and a bit of the footpath to Beachy Head (must do the whole walk at some point).  It was all very beautiful and good for the soul.

I've been taking a bit of a break from markets over the summer and concentrating on making lots of jewellery for the Shark Alley and Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous websites and to restock Oak Studio in Hampstead and Bellis here in Brighton.

I have been working on combining resin with paper, as I still love the colours and patterns of the handmade papers, and have been using gel resin to coat the pieces.  This not only strengthens them but also gives the most incredible luxurious glossy finish which really enhances the colours, especially the metallics.  I'm so pleased with the results.

Shiny shiny . . . very shiny

A recent trip to Falkiners in Southampton Row, London introduced me to the delights of Japanese Chiyogami paper.  This paper is screen printed by hand with patterns based on kimono fabrics and each sheet is just beautiful.  I could have bought them all, but at £7.00 a pop, I had to settle for an Origami pack of mixed smaller sheets!  They have inspired a whole load of brooch designs and are a joy to work with. As I only have a limited amount of each paper, each brooch is a complete one-off.