Just a quick little hello to wish you all a happy Christmas (if you celebrate) and all the very best for the festive season ahead…and most importantly a happy, HEALTHY and stress-free 2021. Its been the craziest year, and Covid is really picking up around here again, so instead of trying to squeeze this insane year into one final newsletter, I am going to wait until I finally have some time in the new year to thoughtfully go through all our favourite projects (at least the ones that didn’t get cancelled) which I will share with you here.
As the year draws to a close, so will my little #coronacommissions series – I have 3 more to do and then I’ll have done 30 paintings for charity this year 🎉👊 It’s been a wild ride so thank you to everyone for all your wonderful support. Here are the next 6 paintings in the series.
You can view the full Coronacommission postcard serieshere, or on Instagram.
And because we all need a bit of cheering up this time of year, I am going to leave you with some photos of #mypinkseries which was an exploration into the delicious and varying textures of oil paint.
Some of these are available to purchase, or get in touch if you are interested in a commission 🤗
Happy new year and a warm welcome back to you all! Here’s hoping your 2020 is already off to a great start.
As most of you know, last year was a big change for me, trying to make my business more about design rather than production, and even though the lines are still often blurred, I feel like we are heading in the right direction.
This year I would like to try and take on some more exciting design jobs, so if you know of anyone looking, please send them my way, or send on their details. Here is a link to my online design portfolio. First prize would really be to partner up with a client or small business who needs regular ongoing work 2-3 days a week, basically something to pay the bills so I can continue with my other creative work in the meantime. But this might be hard to find, so I am just putting it out there to see.
Here are some of my favourite design projects and highlights from 2019. Please click on the main images and links to find out more about any of them if you are interested.
The brief was to create a unique Cape Dutch style plate illustration inspired by the landscape and traditions of Vergenoegd Wine Farm. The illustration incorporates the original Vergenoegd Cape Dutch homestead and it’s infamous Indian Runner Ducks who help keep the farm pesticide and pest free, which is also represented by the snail who indicates a healthy farm, the grape vines of course which are used to make their famous wines, the local Robin Chat who represents a fertile farm, and all the beautiful indigenous and local blooms found in and around the farm such as the Protea, Bladder Hibiscus, Arum Lily, Aandblom, Moraea, Angustifolia, Marguerite, Oxalis, Peacock flower, Sour Fig, Romulea Hirsuta amongst others…
I designed a range of bespoke products for well known ceramicist Anthony Shapiro for his Ant + Linda COLLECT ceramic range.
For the designs, we shot the ceramic patterns which had been carved into the clay so you can see the handmade marks and natural texture of the carving on the fired clay, and turned them into repeat patterns to be printed and used on the various products.
I created some placemats for Spier Wine Farm in Cape Town, South Africa, for their farm-to-table restaurant called EIGHT. They are well known for their ethical farm-sourced produce, and for their chickens!
I made some placemats to go with an overseas customer’s collection of Minton’s Cockatrice plates.
I designed a foliage inspired pattern for some fabric for a customer who wanted to make her own dress for a special event.
The first brief was to create an “indian block print” looking design which had to incorporate something floral (ideally local) and a bee. I used a South African flower called a Wurmbea Elatior, also known as a salt & pepper flower, and created this repeat pattern below.
I was then asked to create another pattern to compliment, but also offset the first design. This time the brief was to include beehives and/or beehomes as well as the same bee.
We created a peaock inspired print for a client starting their own range of home decor products.
We are now totally beyond excited to show you our new range of designs and products, but we are STILL unfortunately waiting on our beautiful backing fabric to arrive for our cushion covers. It was meant to arrive earlier this month, but with all the public holidays messing us around a bit, we have been told that it will now only be ready in May : (
So while we (im)patiently wait for it to all come together, we wanted to share a few things that have been going on behind the scenes, and how you can still get your hands on some of our new designs in the mean time.
These images were some sneak peeks we recently shared on our Instagram feed.
You may have seen last week on our Facebook page and Twitter feed that our trays, pot stands and chopping boards are now available to pre-order in both of our new Foliage colour ways : )
The very very first products in our Foliage on Green and Flora designs are presently on their way to Joburg for Kamers this weekend with PRESENTspace. The show will be on from 26-30 April at St John’s College in Houghton.
We are also very excited to announce a new online stockist for us called Esque. And they are having a very exciting competition where you can win lots of lovely beautiful things for your home including our Victoriana placemats. See below and check out their Facebook page for more details on how you can WIN.
Plein Str, another lovely stockist of ours based in Paarl, is having a pop store from 5-6 May, where you can browse their wares over a complimentary cup of tea and a slice of cake. See below and check out their Facebook page for more details.
And if you didn’t get your sweet fix this Easter, do not fear, our Sweet Hearts wallpaper will do the trick! And its sugar free! Featured in this month’s Home Magazine for their cosy Autumn must-haves.
And our end of season SALE lives on with more products being added all the time. Take advantage of our 2 for 1 deals, or take 40% off selected products. In-store and online. Only while stocks last!
Today we have a whole flamboyance of flamingo inspired things to show you! While the northern hemisphere is slowly starting to thaw out, and we’re just getting to enjoy the best part of our summer, the whole world is going crazy for these crazy beautiful birds!
We are especially excited about this really beautiful tropical inspired wedding decor shoot that Wedding Album magazine did recently using our Pink Flamingo napkins. How beautiful is this wedding spread? Makes me want to go back and do mine all over again : )
This young lady in Australia had her surfboard customised using our Pink Flamingo linen cotton fabric. How cool did this turn out? Makes me want to go surfing immediately!! Thanks so much to her for sharing these pics with us!
We are so delighted that our Pink Flamingo Wallpaper has been featured in the latest Woman & Home magazine, as part of their Home Edit! These little deco inspired birdies of ours are sure to liven up any home!
We spotted some flamingo trend forecast inspiration going on on instagram…we may be a little biased, but we’re super excited that they chose to use our design : )
And while we are at it…here are some of our favourite Etsy treasuries featuring all kinds of flamingo inspired beauties. If these don’t get you excited about flamingoes, I’m afraid nothing will!
So I am mostly excited to (almost) tell you all about our exciting new product that we have made!! I’ll give you a hint, its not made with fabric! But, it will certainly help make your dinner parties even cooler than you could imagine (and it is super affordable!! yay : ) BUT I can’t tell you what it is just yet as we are going to launch it with the CCDI at Decorex at the CTICC in Cape Town from 25th to 28th April : ) So unfortunately you will just to have to wait till then…pop into Decorex weekend after next and see for yourself, or watch this space for the unveiling!
In the meantime here are a few of Handmade By Me’s latest features…
Dawanda has released its Spring Summer 2014 Lovebook and I am so excited my Pink Flamingo cushion cover has been chosen to be featured once again, this time along with some very fruity looking tropicals : )
And my indigo blue purse has also been featured, as part of the “Essentials” section of Issue 38 of the lovely Crush online magazine. Anything that focusses on decor and cooking and looking good has a special place in my heart… along with these nifty items for some seriously grand al fresco dining! If you live in Cape Town you might agree that we have been spending alot of sunny days outdoors lately! It seems the summer ain’t going nowhere for a while…
I recently thought that my pretty proteas fabric (see below) needed a friend, something similar but different, that would work well alongside it, but also stand out on it’s own. I immediately thought of strelitzias (also known beautifully as birds of paradise) as they are absolutely gorgeous and really bright and colourful. And since they are also common to south africa, I felt they were perfect for the job. They also happened to work really well in the same geometric style I used for the proteas…and so after some seriously tedious repeat pattern work…I present to you…my striking strelizias pattern…
here’s a closeup…
Here they are together with my pretty proteas…sigh…
The striking strelitzias along with the pretty proteas are both available in cushion covers, napkins and tea towels at my Etsy store.
handmade by me 
