Teacups and Teapots

Remember the tea cup illustration I did for Master & Miss dress?  Here is my very cute neice wearing it as top!   It was sooo nice to arrive at a family gathering recently and see her wearing it!!


By the way, thank you to some of the lovely sites that have featured some of Yashar and my crafty projects recently!

Among them was Las Manualidades in their post Cómo hacer tarjetas para el Día del padre of the sand cards Yashar and I made for Fathers Day - Yashar looks so little in that photo!!

And another sand related father's day card Yashar and I made a while back was featured on Parenting.com in their father's day crafts round up.  Thank you!

Finally! New Prints!

I am so happy that I have finally got to finish some new prints!  You might remember back here and here that I mentioned the work I was doing for the Australian Organic childrenswear label Master & Miss. One of the things I worked on was a pattern featuring the Master & Miss bird to be screen printed onto organic cotton and then made into these and these blankets. (you will need to scroll down to see them on those pages)

  

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And now I have made some matching prints to go with them  :)  And, so, finally I have some new prints and am getting the Light Garden shop going again - yay!  Where did the time go???

The Sophie Tea Party Dress

Oh my goodness I am so excited about this!!  It definitely feels good when you work so hard to create something and then see it all come together so well  :)    Liane from Master & Miss contacted me a while ago about creating an illustration for a pattern after being inspired by watching her daughter play with tea cups.

I went pretty crazy with it and ended up doing quite a detailed design with lots of differently patterned teacups and pots.  Liane used it for this gorgeous Sophie dress made in pure organic cotton jersey - I love the dress she designed for it - so pretty and practical.    Sigh!  Big smiles around here at the moment  :)

New Work for Tirtil Kids Bookshop

Some more work for the wonderful Tirtil Kids Bookshop in Istanbul.

Yashar in his new retro racing car tee

Here are a few shots of Yashar on his new scooter in his Master & Miss Retro Racing Car T Shirt!   Scooters seem to be the thing at pre school at the moment and Yashar was so so excited to get one! 

 And he was so excited to learn how to use it too...definitely one of the best things about being his mum - seeing that face when he looks up and says 'I can do it!!'   I am also loving that he is so proud to be wearing the tee with my illustration on it.  Big smiles around here at the moment  :)

Yashar showing some scooter boy attitude! 

To get your Istanbul fix...

It's no secret...we are missing Istanbul - we loved living there - it's an amazing city, full of contrasts and with an exciting energy all it's own.   And if you are missing getting your fix of of Istanbul here now that we are in Australia, or if you just love truly beautiful writing and photos, then you need to head over here.   My Philosofia is a blog written by the very talented Innes Welbourne, whom you can read about more here and in the Elle Magazine Turkey profile of him here.   Innes captures the essence of Istanbul beautifully, exploring the hidden nooks and crannies of the city and visiting and photographing all the places and people you wish you had the guts to!

These are just some of my favourite photos taken by Innes that are on my philosofia.

A hidden glimpse through a half open gate.  Yenikoy.  From the post Churches: Glimpses into a different times.

SLANTED SHADOWS AND PLENTY OF LOCAL COLOR ENLIVEN AN ALLEYWAY OUTSIDE A MOSQUE from the post Karakoy: Long shadows, deep colour.

KARAKÖY QUAY, MID-MORNING from the post Volumes of Silence:  Part I

RUGS FROM ALL OVER ANATOLIA AWAITING A NEW LIFE from the post Dhoku:  Rugs Reborn

NEW CAFES AND SHOPS ARE APPEARING IN FORMERLY RUN DOWN BUILDINGS from the post  Karakoy: Long shadows, deep colour.

Commuters on the way to Eminonu from the post Vapur 1: Timeless travel

ESCAPING THE MIDDAY CRUSH. FROM THE BOSPHORUS TO THE SEA OF MARMARA from the post Volumes of Silence: Part II

PIANO PLAYER AND SINGER STEAL PHOTOGRAPHER’S HAT, LOSE THEMSELVES IN
THE MOMENT from the post Sefahathane: Thickening the Beyoglu Atmosphere

Inside one of Mimar Sinan's mosques from the post 24 Hours on the Golden Horn

I was lucky enough to become good friends with Innes and his wonderful wife Sevim and his gorgeous daughter, that the blog was named for - Sofia.  I did this illustration for Innes a while back - inspired by Alchemy - which Innes writes about here - and especially Thoth and Hermes Trismegistus.  It was definitely a departure from my usual illustrations - something  I really enjoyed getting in to.

     

Work for Master & Miss organic children's clothing

Wow!   I have been waiting for a long time to share this with you ...one of the projects that has been keeping me busy is the illustration work I have been doing for a wonderful new organic children's label called Master & Miss.  Master & Miss create 100% Australian made, organic clothes and blankets for 0 to 5 year olds and the bonus is the label has a wonderful owner, Liane Shannon, who is warm, friendly and fantastic to work with! 
 

I am so excited to have some of my designs printed on onsies and t-shirts (and some more things to come soon!)  I have been working on quite a range of illustrations for Liane that are then screen printed on organic cotton.   She also has a beautiful range of basics in great designs and lots of colours - I'm in love with all the skirts she has for girls!!  I can totally see these over some cute tights for Autumn or Spring.   I also know that Liane has lots of plans for her label, so be sure to check back there often to see what's new.

I have some photos of Yashar in his new tshirt with the retro racing car on it - I'll be sure to post them soon.

Recent Work: Tirtil Kids Bookshop - Istanbul

I am continuing to work with Tirtil Kids Book Shop in Istanbul and am loving it!  The work often needs to be done quickly and I try to make it eye catching and fun...  These are a few I have done recently - above is a detail from a birthday related one, ...and you can see some of the past illustrations here.

One of the exciting things that the book shop is doing at the moment is having different comedians and actors in to do readings each month..so fun I think!  This is the most recent one - the reading is on this Thursday:

And this was the one for last month:

Recent Work

Recently I have been doing some illustrations for Tirtil Kids - a wonderful children's book shop here in Istanbul that stocks books in English, Turkish, French and German.  The two below are little details from a couple of the illustrations.

And here are two more - one for 'Summer Skill Sharpeners' and the second 'Going on Holiday'.  The illustrations are for their fortnightly emails that you can sign up for in store.  I'm so happy to be working with them  :)

Also, check out this great post over at the Lots of Lovely Art blog full of excellent ideas on what to do with all your child's art work. Very needed in our house!

Have a great weekend!

Press!

After a little unplanned hiatus (things have been very busy behind the scenes here), I am popping in with some exciting news - my 'I have climbed to the top of the tallest tree' print was featured in Shop 4 Kids magazine!  It was in an article called 'Off the Wall Colour Combo's' on the Peach and Gold page.  Definitely a little off the beaten track for children's bedroom colours...but I like it!!

Can you spy it there?...In the middle, to the right of the lamp.  I put a larger image of the print below too in case you are interested.

A huge thank you to Amanda from Brown Paper Packages - one of my lovely lovely stockists!  If you haven't visited her shop recently go and check it out.   The site has been redesigned and looks fantastic and there are so many gorgeous and interesting finds that she has there...perfect for present buying!!

I will be back next week and plan to be back to my usual posting.  I miss it!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

NEW PRINTS!

Still very busy here at the Light Garden and Hamamist HQ :)    Here is a sneak peek of a couple of new prints I'm adding to the shop  - I only had a chance to take quick photos for the moment and I was getting lots of reflection in the glass...but anyway - here they are! 

I hope you like them!

Making Mondays: Think and Draw Creative Page #2

I hope you all had a great weekend!

This is a free printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! Click on the image to print.  You can find the whole collection (of 2!) Think and Draw Creative Pages here.

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered, resold or used for another purpose..

A super sweet nursery

Late last year Katie ordered a Cool Forest print while pregnant with her son.  I was so thrilled when she contacted me recently to share this adorable family portrait in her baby's nursery with the print in the background!  The print looks so at home there with the beautiful pale walls, white floorboards and of course the gorgeous family!    Katie and her family live in the mountains and she hoped that it would help to inspire him to appreciate the wilderness around them. 



Katie has put some more photos of the forest themed nursery up on her blog if you want to have a peek!  I particularly loved these beautiful birds and the large painted tree with the Animal Portraits from Berkley Illustration perched around it.  So cool.



And the cutest thing in the room - little Eliot of course! 

 

Thank you Katie!  Seeing this makes me ridiculously happy :)

Making Mondays: Think and Draw Creative Pages

Wow! I have been meaning to do this for so long...and finally I have started! This is a free printable page for creative drawing and colouring. Feel free to print and use as many as you like! This is the first time I'm doing this so please let me know if you have any troubles - you should be able to just click on the image and then print.

The plan is to do one of these each week...let's see how that goes!

Copyright Verity Heysen Kizek 2011. Must not be altered or resold.

Mr Sleepy Fox

You might have noticed that I'm in the midst of changing things here at the blog ...about time.!..those snowy trees that were in my header before weren't quite suiting the middle of Summer!    And it gives me a chance to introduce my little sleepy fox here...  he's one of the things I have been busy working on lately!

I created him as part of the designs I am doing for my collaboration with Secda  - to be screen printed on fabric and then sewn up in to all sorts of goodies.  I am actually working on a second version of him now - a little bolder and less finely detailed as I think that might be better for a screen print.

I also had an amazingly wonderful customer recently that I designed some baby shower invitations for.  It really makes me love what I do even more when I come across such lovely, encouraging and supportive people.    I also made this matching notebook for her and I made a few extra for the shop - which you can find here if you would like one.

I feel like I am showing you about 10% of what I have been up to lately...so many projects in the pipeline!  I'm looking forward to sharing it all with you!    Thank you so much to all of you that come here to look and read, for all your support along the way.  Thank you to everyone that leaves comments...I love reading them - and replying whenever I have a moment!  And if you have never left a comment before please don't hesitate - I would love to hear from you - what are you making at the moment?  what is inspiring you?    :)

I hope you all have a gorgeous weekend!

v

New Work: Alone with the Sea

Good morning!  I hope you all had a wonderful mother's day!

To start off the week I wanted to share a new illustration that I have been working on.  For a little while now I have been working on developing my illustrations - my technique etc.  I have been experimenting - there were these illustrations I posted here and here.  And also lots of sketching, thinking etc!  I wanted to bring more atmosphere and texture into my work.

Now I finally feel like I am starting to get to where I want to be with this - which is both exciting and a relief!   I would love to hear your thoughts on it...

I will also be making this available in the shop...finally a new print!!  

ps thank you to Alara for the lovely shout out in the LOLA newsletter and a very warm welcome to my new visitors!  Hope to see you in at LOLA :)