Wayfaring stranger

 February so far for me has been all about playing my ukulele around the South Island with The Bitter Years - I've travelled from Invercargill to Picton and many other places besides.  I've met a miniature horse that's allowed inside the house, participated in a mystical wedding and played songs to the regulars at Formerly the Blackball Hilton until 3 in the morning.  But one of the parts of the tour I was most excited about was visiting the Grainstore Gallery in Oamaru, where some of my prints are stocked.  Here is a little peek into the beautiful gallery, and spot some Millicent Crow bunting and prints!

No rest for the wicked; I am heading off to Splore this weekend to help with some creative embellishment in the Sew Love Tea Do sewing tent.  More on that soon!

Blackboard menu

I have:

 But:

I'm planning a Felt and Etsy shop update but our band  The Bitter Years is playing in the Coromandel tomorrow night, at the Purangi Winery near Whitianga.  So I'll pop some new prints in my shops when I'm back in town...stay tuned.

Oh and I am having lots of fun with my new blackboard and blackboard marker!

Happy 2014

Happy new year to you!  I was saying to Mr. Millicent Crow this morning that I had barely stopped accidentally writing 2012 when I was writing the date, and now it's 2014.  Here's a little montage of some of the things I made last year...a lot of bunting, a lot of brooches and badges, and some new screenprinted patterns.   I also did Antarctic drawings aplenty for Mr. Millicent Crow's show The Explorers' Club, did some good markets and did a screenprinting collaboration for some wedding outfits that are being worn tomorrow!  2014 has been busy so far with our new band The Bitter Years, and you can see what we've been up to on Instagram: @thebitteryears and Facebook: www.facebook.com/thebitteryears.  I was lucky enough to find the most perfect chalkboard in an op shop in town today (we lugged it home on the bus on one of the hottest days of the year) so I'll show you some of the crafty things I get up to with that soon I hope!  And one day I will finally get my zine that I'm working on finished.  Happy 2014. 

Christmas gift tag giveaway

Seeing as it's Xmas I thought I'd have another little giveaway, this time of the printable variety.  If you'd like some Millicent Crow gift tags to adorn your presents you can download them here and print them out onto some card in colour.

I've just bought one of those hole punches that only punches one hole, so I'm very excited about its potential for making gift tags.  Happy printing!

Winners

I've reached into my hat and pulled out two winners of my Xmas giveaway and they are...
- Helen
- Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

Congratulations!  Flick me an email to millicentcrow AT gmail DOT com and I'll get your goodies in the post for you!

Thanks for all your entries - I like the fact that other people's tea and coffee preferences are so much more diverse than mine.  And stay tuned, I'm hoping to have a giveaway of the downloadable variety round these parts soon!

Xmas giveaway

Thought I'd have a bit of an Xmas giveaway and I've got two prize packs up for grabs.  They've each got an A4 digital print, a huia medal and a screenprinted badge...

 

 To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment telling me how you like your tea or coffee (I like mine black with no sugar thanks) and I'll draw two winners next Friday.  And I'll post them anywhere in the world...good luck!

The Auckland Art and Craft Fair

 We had a great day at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair on Saturday and here are a few pics of the stall. 

 The most commented on prints were my new tea and coffee ones...turns out the issue of who makes the tea or coffee is an important one in many relationships! 

Mr. Millicent Crow was resplendent in his new borrowed-from-Oamaru boater...

 

...and I had new business cards to give away.

Thanks for another great fair Kylie and Jess, and stay tuned...I've got a bit of a Friday giveaway for you!

See you at the Fair!

 

This is one of the new prints I'm going to be bringing along...oh and there is an interview with me on the Auckland Art and Craft Fair blog here.  Contrary to the interview I'm afraid I won't be bringing along any dinosaur printed fabric...some things just have to fall off the to-do list, but I'll have a whole lot of other goodies for you!

Birdie badges at the Fair

The Auckland Art and Craft Fair is tomorrow and I'll be bringing along these screenprinted birdie badges (which I finished late last night) and lots of other printed bits and pieces.  It's 11-3 at the Aotea Centre...might see you there?

 

Victoriana

I've just got back from Dunedin, Waitati and Oamaru, where I had a stall at the Victorian Fete, played my ukulele on stage for the first time, met my friends' new baby, sold merch at the Explorers' Club in the opera house, watched a pennyfarthing race and took about a bajillion photos of nice buildings.  No wonder I nearly fell asleep on the plane on the way home!  Here is my bunting at my stall (I was lucky enough to be able to take over the bar at the Loan and Merc with all my prints) and at the Opera House, which was decorated for the weekend like a Victorian Explorers' club, with taxidermy aplenty. 

 And some other Oamaru sights:

 

I'll have to find a Victorian frock for next year, and brush up on my pennyfarthing riding skills!

Deck the halls

I've been printing up some bunting to decorate Mr. Millicent Crow's upcoming mammoth album release tour, based on images that I've drawn for the album cover art and associated bits and pieces.  There's a dog, a gramophone, a lyre of Orpheus (based on a brooch Mr. Millicent Crow wears most days) and a pocket watch.  Here it is being tested out at home:

It'll be adorning halls, bars and maritime museums from Auckland to Milford Sound over the next couple of months; tour dates are here if you'd like to come along...

Flourishes

The artwork I've been doing for The Explorers' Club lately has been mainly decorative flourishes and borders, making a kind of hand-drawn clip art that can be used in different ways for CD covers, programmes, posters and, most excitingly...screenprinted bunting!  Here are some of the borders and bits and pieces I've been working on - the lyre of Orpheus at the top of the border below is based on one of Mr. Millicent Crow's favourite brooches - our friends The Broken Heartbreakers brought it back from Poland.

And you'll be seeing this one soon on an album cover!

You are next in the queue...

I usually keep the things I'm waiting to draw on my drawing table in a loose sort of a queue, which can end up an odd assortment of things!  First in the queue I have this kakabeak branch, which Mr Millicent Crow kindly brought me on the plane from Wellington.  So far not too weird...  

 

But I've also got this gaggle of dinosaurs!

 

I want to make some dinosaur fabric, and seeing as I can't draw the real things from life I thought I'd draw them from some quite detailed dinosaur toys.  They probably wouldn't have had such a civilised meeting in the wild!

Fossick

I was working on Saturday so I didn't get to go to the Zinefest, but I was lucky enough to stay at the Leigh Sawmill on Saturday night, where Mr. Millicent Crow was playing with Great North.  And seeing as we were driving through Matakana, we decided to take a look at Fossick.  Fossick stocks my zines, but I had never been to the shop before, and was excited to find it filled with beautiful taxidermy, maps, glittery cardigans and miscellaneous animal skulls.  They describe it as "A little bit vintage, a little bit gothic, a little bit industrial, a little bit Golden Girls" which is a good combo!   

Here's my zine, tucked away in a beautiful set of drawers

It also had coffee to fortify us for the drive back to town, and a good selection of magazines, very important!

So although I was sad to miss the zinefest, it turned out to be not an entirely zine-free weekend for me, and if you ever find yourself in Matakana and  in need of a copy of My Magpie Eye then head for the old dairy factory!

Mixt up

 My gocco prints, digital prints and huia brooches with ribbons are now being stocked at lovely Kingsland store Mixt!  It's at 502 and 504 New North Road for all your print, jewellery and beautiful vintage furniture needs.  It's also in close proximity to the Shaky Isles, so that you can have a siphon of coffee and make sure those caffiene jitters don't go away until sunset, and you might spot some Sophie Oiseau prints there too!

Kraftbomb

 When I got home from the Auckland Art and Craft Fair yesterday I felt inspired to make some more brooches, so I rustled up these ones.  They're made with the embroidery from an old linen cloth I bought a while ago from a great op shop in Putaruru.  It had seen better days but had been lovingly mended in places, and was lovely and soft.

 

 I brought them along to Kraftbomb and here they are with my huia brooches:

And here's the stall:

 

There were lots of clever display ideas at Kraftbomb, and at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair, and I spent a bit of time today dreaming up ideas for displaying my wares better.  I'm thinking of making some kind of shelving unit for my prints, maybe out of the vintage spice racks that seem to be accumulating in my car.  Now that could be an excuse for an op shopping excursion!