I've been keen to try out my new camera as much as possible, especially as it gives me an excuse to get out of the house and catch a bit of fresh air. Not always the easiest thing to do when the bag-making is busy.

As I'm shooting film I need a reliable lab so I was happy to discover Photographique, a friendly independent professional lab and gallery in the centre of Bristol. Tempting as Asda and the cheapo online labs are, it feels better to be supporting the local guys. (Especially as Bristol's one and only public access colour darkroom has just closed due to lack of funding. I was gutted I hadn't used it more often but it's such a specialist niche now).

Last week I dropped some film off to be processed and mooched about taking some pics while waiting. There's a fabulous flower shop next door to the photo lab and the florist kindly let me take some snaps (above and below)


Moving on, I wandered over to Corn Street, right in the centre of Bristol which has frequent farmers/crafts markets. I happily stumbled across a distinctive vintage stall that I'd seen once before and loved. The owner has a fabulous eye for eclectic ephemera which would appeal to any left-field magpie collector. On this occasion I picked up some eccentric old photographs which I'll post soon. Here are some of the other glorious bits and bobs on his stall.

I thought it would be nice to have some bags in the shop that are a little more practical for everyday and so here's the hipster bag. It features goatskin leather with a Liberty peacock lining and a long skinny leather strap so the bag sits low on the body. More styles coming soon!

Feresaknit, congratulations for winning the clutch giveaway! (My partner Robbie chose the random number 27. He thought I was going to impress him with a Derren Brown type number trick and was a little disappointed to instead be a number generating monkey for this giveaway).

Also, special thanks to everyone for the ace jokes and sayings. My very favourite was from Cindy Hellcat Vintage whose joke made me chortle:

A pirate walks into a bar, and the barkeep says "Excuse me, cap'n, but did you know that you've got your ship's wheel stuck in your pantaloons?"
"Aye," says the pirate, "that thing be drivin' me nuts! Aaargh!"

Mid-February, it's bucketing down with rain here and I thought it would be nice to do a little giveaway to lift the spirits. I'm offering this Peacock Palace clutch as the prize and free international shipping.
Here are the details:

This giveaway is open to all my blog followers (please tell me how you are following so I can check, and if you're not currently following you can easily add yourself in the box to the right)

Please also answer the following question - what's your favourite joke or saying? (the winner will be chosen randomly but this bit is just for my entertainment to drive away the February blues)

from left to right, musician Howlin' Lord, Heather who runs indie club night Big Pink Cake, Thom from band The Kick Inside, Alex from band The Kick Inside

An odd thing has happened since I got my new camera - I've suddenly become interested in taking photographs of people. In the past I'd be far more interested in taking snaps of a wall or pattern in a place rather than the people who inhabit the space (partly out of shyness) but I'm overcoming this reticence and becoming a bit more bold about shoving a camera in friend's faces. Also, the interesting thing about shooting with film is that you're capturing a secret... you can't instantly share the results on the camera back and therefore don't get said friend screaming at you to delete it because they don't like how it looks. Sneaky!

pocket purses by redrubyrose

I've listed some new pocket purses on Etsy, featuring sweet frames and a mixture of my own prints and some of my favourite fabrics. Also there will be some new leather clutches coming soon (yes, I've been supply shopping, lots of new goodies!)

Photograph by Natasha from She left on a Monday

Photograph by Natasha from She left on a Monday

Photograph by Natasha from She left on a Monday

Photographic authenticity is cool, but getting totally hung-up on the process rather than the result isn't necessarily a great rabbit-hole to fall down. So, it was lovely to find that Natasha from She left on a Monday abandoned her proper camera for the day and used her iphone instead - with amazing results. Current apps available for photos include Lo-Mob, Camera Bag and ShakeItPhoto, all of which add filters to the images to recreate classic vintage styles including holga, polaroid, lomo and retro looks. In theory this teeters on the edge of gimmickry (and some purists may be frothing at the mouth) but in the right hands the results are truly lovely. Plus, no expensive film costs required and the discreet camera on the iphone does have a lot of benefits over lugging a chunky camera around.

There's a yummy new bread shop that has opened up in our neighbourhood, proper lovely artisan loaves all warm and steamy from the oven. The last time I visited, a sweet little dog was waiting patiently outside for her owner. She was a little reluctant to be photographed (unsurprisingly) but I sneaked in a few snaps.

I'd love to hear your feedback please! I've been working on some ideas for new printed leather clutches and would love to know your favourite designs from these rough drafts below (please excuse my rather dodgy Photoshopping). Because I only order the leather in very small batches I need to be quite careful about the designs I choose... so I'd love to know what you'd pick and whether you'd like to see any other colourways or themes. Many thanks indeed!

1. Stencil Chrysanthemum

2. starburst

3. feather

4.sea holly

5. magnolia

6. polka

I just heard on Radio 4 that Lucienne Day has sadly died. She was the foremost British textile designer of the 20th Century and was a pioneer and ground-breaker in her field. Jonathan Glancey has written about her most eloquently here and the Guardian obituary says: "She took motifs drawn from nature – flowers, grasses, shoots, the intricate patterns of the landscape – and transformed them into something absolutely new. Part of their success was the implied message of regrowth and optimism for a Britain only just recovering from war."

I happily stumbled across Estonian photographer Alexander Gronsky's work last night and was so moved by his work that I browsed his website and Flickr sets into the early hours (feeling slightly like an internet stalker in the process). It's just wonderful stuff. Sharing this find with a friend today, he commented "it's the sort of work that makes you half sick with envy and half wanting to rush out into the street with your camera".

Moscow, 2009, Alexander Gronsky’s “Pastoral”

Moscow, 2009, Alexander Gronsky’s “Pastoral”


Moscow, 2009, Alexander Gronsky’s “Pastoral”

Unsurprisingly he's an award winner, represented by the agency photographer.ru and most recently swooping the Aperture Portfolio Prize and Linhof Young Photographer Award. He's based in Moscow and his work seems concerned with outermost regions.... border country and the fragile blur between population density and wilderness. Oh, and for the geeks (me included) he shoots 6x7 medium format ( told you I was stalking).

Oddly, his work reminds me of Pieter Bruegel, there's a painterly quality in his skeletal landscapes, and the same figurative scale and colour palette.

Pieter Bruegel the elder, Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap, 1565

Heads-up about the first of two giveaways I'm doing over the next couple of weeks. The first is kindly being hosted by the lovely Daisy Dayz and I'm offered this clutch as a giveaway, including free worldwide shipping so please do head over to Daisys to add your name into the hat!

Silk starburst bloom clutch

This giveaway runs until the 6th of February and you can multiple post if you follow the rules that Daisy Dayz sets out. Good luck with that one and never fear if you don't win as I'll be hosting my own giveaway here when this one expires to win one of my original printed clutches. Yay!

I shot some slide film last week while I was testing out the lovely Nikon and cross-processed it today. I love the increased grain and contrast, the heavy shadowing and saturated colour, all achieved without a sniff of Photoshop. Joy! This camera is wooing me - I shot these pics on a cloudy day, handheld, indoors at the local reclamation yard. They came back looking like they'd been shot in a ramshackle Spanish Cantina.

Earlier this week I posted some images that I'd created in the colour darkroom, using Clematis seedheads (colloquial name 'old man's beard'). Last night whilst trawling through Google and Flickr I discovered some amazing images that have been created using this ethereal hairy plant.

Bill Westheimer's work is breathtaking. These images have such movement and drama, and the Collodion Glass Plate technique adds an unusual inky depth.

Clematis 17, original photogram on collodion glass plate by Bill Westheimer

Clematis 11, original photogram on collodion glass plate by Bill Westheimer

I don't know much about Sébastien Maloron but he publishes his work under the moniker Ventadour on Flickr and Deviantart. This image below has the distinctive finish of a Lith print - a technique that is created in the darkroom with specific Lith paper and developer, I love the grain and beautiful contrast.

lith print on Fomatone 132, Moersch Easylith 1+50, Homemade G253 1+100 by Sébastien Maloron

Finally, here's a Clematis ziatype (of the flower before it seeds) by German photographer Wolfgang Moersch. I must admit I didn't know what a Ziatype was until I googled and I found out more about it here, it seems to be an offshoot of the palladium-platinum printing system.
Clematis Ziatype by Wolfgang Moersch

A beautiful and haunting Etsy find: Lemmikkiapina. Paulina makes the most astounding sculptured animals that have an incredible emotional depth. There is a sense of stoical burden and quiet melancholy to these creatures, which are lovingly hand-stitched and assembled with collected materials, old lace and buttons. New additions to the shop sell very quickly but custom orders are accepted. Find out more about the artist in this interview on enhabiten blog.

I've added two new peacock clutches to the shop this week.... I'm still loving this fabric after nearly two years of working with it and these new additions broaden the range. Lovely peacocks.

This morning I booked a session in my local colour darkroom. I realised I hadn't been for over a year which I'm a little ashamed about as these facilities need to be used. Most colour darkrooms have been phased out so it's a little jewel. Note to self, use it or lose it! The session was an experiment as the chemistry is out of date there and I was testing to see if it was still useable. Unfortunately it wasn't so great but I still had fun. I couldn't contact-print the paper negatives so I inverted them in Photoshop (below), not ideal as I can't get the same depth and saturation of colour but I'll go and do some more shots next month when the chemistry has been replaced. My plan is to update my 'polaroidsandpinholes' Etsy shop over the next couple of months as it's a little unloved at the moment and to get inspired for new textile prints.