Vintage World Map Hearts Illustration

I’ve been very busy working on new artwork and illustrations recently, I am particularly happy with having used the old atlas I found at a carboot sale last year. It was such a beautiful book that I felt almost ashamed of cutting it up and making things from it, so I made sure to keep copies for future use. Regular blog readers may remember the map lampshade I decorated last summer, which still sits beside my bed and with my alarm clock, but I wanted to make something which I could share with the wider world, so to speak. Whilst I’ve always loved hearts with maps on them, I wanted a larger image to be displayed with them forming a pattern. This latest tote bag design is one of my favourites so far, and it’s ready in time for Earth Day in April!

I decided to use geographical map because the colours were so stunning, but also to avoid out of date political borders.  I managed to conclude that the atlas must have been printed sometime between 1914 and 1921 since the adverts for other educational books at the back (which are priced in shillings and pence) state that they were revised in 1914, and despite large portions of the map being described as being part of the ‘British Empire’, certain country names and borders indicate that it was before 1921. Of course this information is not present on the geographical map, but seeing the different depths of the ocean and the heights of mountains makes the design so detailed.

I hope to make many more things with my maps, but the pages seem so precious that I only want to use them on crafts I’m sure will be lovely! Then again, I suppose that attitude has kept the atlas almost unused in my studio for the last year!

Driftwood Christmas Trees

With the Christmas season upon us, it’s time to deck the halls. It’s been many years since I’ve put up any decorations, because I’m not overly fond of the artificiality of tinsel, plastic baubles and synthetic trees, and I’ve never liked the idea of cutting down a tree for the holiday season. But this year I’ve made an early resolution – all the decorations will be handmade, thus saving our house from a plastic makeover and celebrating the creative coming together of loved ones.

I started this venture by constructing a driftwood Christmas tree, drawing inspiration from a few I’ve been ogling in the past month or so. It took under an hour to actually assemble, but finding and sorting the driftwood took considerably longer. I was lucky enough to have a box of driftwood in the shed, left over from a driftwood mirror project my mother was working on last year. We had spent many months combing British beaches for the materials, beautifully sculpted by the sea and sand, which cut out so much time from the process of making the Christmas tree. I only had to spend an afternoon sorting the wood into size order and then dividing it into two rough piles, so I could make two of the trees. (One for myself, and one as a thank you for using the materials!) After this, it was a simple matter of drilling holes in each piece of wood and threading them on a metal pole. I came across two rather sturdy pieces of curved wood for the bottom branches, which made a stable base, but this was sheer luck, and would recommend further research on the bases of driftwood trees for those who would like to try their hand at making one!