mina braun screenprints...

 

 

 

'the green blanket', £70 (unframed)

 

New to Boo Vake are these wonderful screen-prints from Edinburgh-based artist & illustrator Mina Braun. Hoping to have some of these available framed soon.

'when I step outside', £50 (unframed)

 



'the red bench', £70 (unframed)



'turn up the volume', £40 (unframed)



'the last hour of the day', £50 (unframed)

 detail of 'hidden in the grass', £100 (unframed)

 

 'as I was passing by', £30 (unframed)

 

'by the windmill', £40 (unframed)

'happy crocodile', £30 (unframed)

risograph lions & crocs

 'jungle lion'  - A3 risograph print (£12.50 unframed)

'crocodile' - A3 risograph print (£12.50 unframed)

We've just taken delivery of these rather lovely risograph animal prints from Lisa & Edward at the Lisa Jones Studio. You might remember we had matching bone china mugs last year (if you were in the shop).

I have to admit I wasn't entirely sure what a risograph was until a few weeks ago (or rather I was sort of familiar with the outcome but a bit woolly with the process & the name for it). 

After a little bit of searching it would appear it works something like this: a thermographic master is created for each colour before the master is wrapped around a drum which is filled with ink. Whilst the paper remains flat the drum rotates at high speed, forcing the ink through the stencil (or master) and onto the paper. 

It's an attractive choice for artists & designers wanting a more affordable option to screen-printing as it achieves similiar spot colours (each colour is printed seperately) but with very fast duplication. 

And from Lisa & Edward themselves...."The paper needs to pass through the machine to receive each colour, which makes a mockery of precise registration, while the colours themselves are limited and can't be mixed (although, in truth, subtleties could be achieved through overlays or halftones). Despite these clunky limitations and inbuilt imperfections, they have a wonderful quality that's utterly matte and simultaneously somehow luminescent."

     

close-up of croc print

Whilst looking for imformation I came across this print studio in Glasgow that specialises in risograph printing. Worth taking a look at if you are interested.

stags, boars, clowns & crows

stag

At last a new blog post! In my (feeble) defense I have spent the beginning of this year painting what seems like endless coats of paint on our walls & ceiling (almost there), trailing around trade fairs & making lots of new orders to keep things fresh here in the shop. All this whilst spreading boo vake thinly over Tweetdom & Facebookland too (mmm...two more things for potential neglect?).
In the meantime shop life has gone on with  new (undocumented) things arriving all the time. Which brings me on to these gorgeous new prints from out of the head of Lush Lady Maria Livings. You might recognise the top two designs as they feature on some of our most admired lamp shades.

wild boar

clowns

crow

They are A3 size (so will fit many standard frames) and are digitally printed onto traditional mould-made paper - beautiful quality and £25 each!

some new donna wilson

I've got a bit behind in showing off some of the new things that have been arriving in the shop recently, so to get back in the groove, here are a few of the lovely new things we have in from boo vake favourite Donna Wilson!  

First timers at boo vake are Big Ted (pictured at top), who is a bit of a stunner (& rather large, measuring in at a height of 83cm), gorgeous arm-warmers & mittens, and mixed packs of cards, perfect for sending or for framing. We also have a number of rather stunning baby blankets.

Taking of babies... spurred on by a number of friends having (& about to be having) babies this last wee while I've finally got round to knitting something from Donna's book The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch . First time I've picked up knitting needles since circa 1982 so needless to say 'he' has some imperfections but I'm hoping that might add to the 'charm'!  Will maybe post a pic after said 'odd-bod' is safely in it's new home.

big ted £60, arm-warmers & mittens £38, pk of 5 large cards £12.50 

dee beale

Often I'm asked how I choose things for the shop. Sometimes it's quite a quick immediate process - I see something I think would fit the shop, I get in touch, and I order straight away. More often than not though I see something I really like (and would fit the shop) but it's just not the right time, I can't give it the space or it's just not what I 'need' at that time. These products /designers/artists/makers then go into my 'wishlist', existing in notebooks, my computer or just in my head, and remain there until an opportunity presents. I have a very big wishlist. And sometimes an opportunity never presents.

Which brings me on to the beautiful original prints we have in now from printmaker Dee Beale. They were indeed a long time in the coming. I bought one as a present for a friend a couple of years ago (the one above infact) and was so impressed that I immediately had Dee on that 'wishlist', but as our space for artwork is so limited in the shop, there she remained until very recently.
So we are very pleased indeed to have Dee's work here in boo vake at last. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnpartridges (open edition)

red hare (open edition)

winter doves (edition of 100)

snowy owls (edition of 65)

song thrushes (open edition)
original prints by dee beale (approx 10" x 7") £25 - all images courtesy of Dee Beale

back....with orwell and goode

Well, now been back from our hols for a week and a half now (went to Stockholm & Helsinki but more on that at a later date) - so about time I showed you some of the new things that have been appearing in the shop in the last wee while. First up are some screenprints and tea-towels from design partnership Orwell and Goode (aka Zuzana & Bronagh), who from different parts of the country (one in the Highlands & one in the borders) design & handprint an array of distinctively Scottish homewares.

And here are some of the Orwell and Goode teatowels & screenprints in the shop!

dandy deer teatowels £9, in the woods (with stags) teatowels £9, in the woods screenprints (with stags or hares, light or dark backgrounds) £29

new donna smith notebooks

A new delivery of felt-covered notebooks by Shetland designer/maker Donna Smith are now on our shelves at boo vake.

Beautifully made from pressed felt, with a quality (removable) hard-back notebook cum sketchbook inside. All made by Donna in her home studio on the island of Burra in Shetland.

A5 flowerbud £20, A6 stem £15, A6 bird £15.

our forest friends

Hmmm....ok, so Spring may not have sprung in Perth quite yet. Just going to ignore the alternating flurries of snow, sleet, and ice-cold rain outside the window, and celebrate the imminent coming of less sludgy times regardless. Helped along no end by the arrival of some papery goodness designed by Madeleine Rogers (aka Mibo).

Meet our Forest Friends. I've just made up a set of these and they are now sitting most resplendent in our window. They come as flats sheets which you cut out yourself, and with the help of a bit of glue (or double-sided tape as I used) are transformed into super-cute 3d friends with little bobbly heads.

If you're more of a big animal kind of person then maybe The Wid Bunch would be more your thing.

And for lovers of tea-towels.......

.....which can be used for the drying of the dishes OR alternatively cut up and stitched to produced these fine little chaps below!

forest friends paper animals £7, the wild bunch paper animals £7

sew your own fox or lion teatowels £11

bikes, hearts, party dogs....

Now that Valentines Day is now well out the way......some heart brooches!! Well, we'll call them bike brooches, and as a lover of the two wheels myself (even though the bike has yet to make it out the spare room this year) these ceramic badges by Mary Goldberg hit the mark.

Or for those that prefer a bit of pattern......

And finally a close up of Gemma Correll's new Boston Tea Party wrapping paper!

small ceramic brooches £7.50, large ceramic brooches £8.50

cards, notebooks, badges....

A bit of fruit & veg now from Sarah Knight with these fabulous new screen-printed cards! (to join her equally magnificent fish-suit (and gentrified dinosaur) cards). Sarah suggests they could be an alternative to the slushy Valentines day card, and I couldn't agree more.

Oh, and her Bright Ideas/Rubbish Ideas screen-printed notebooks are back in stock too!

A wee peek at some new Ewan John badge sets and notebooks that are in the shop right now. The Valentine and Cats & Dogs badges come in mixed sets of 4, printed on white cotton, and are extremely sweet.

And from his Flightless Birds range we have badge sets and two sizes of recycled paper sketchbooks (A5 & A6).

badge sets £5, A5 sketchbook £5, A6 sketchbook £3.50

donna smith

These are some of the fabulous new brooches, purses and notebooks we have in from Shetland designer Donna Smith.

They are beautifully made in 100% wool felt with great attention to detail - what we've come to expect from Donna. Really lovely.

brooches £9, purses £20, notebooks from £14-£20 (with removable Windsor & Newton hardback notebook inside)

new(ish) things

Now that August is out the way (and more importantly the boo vake computer is no long in danger of shutting itself down in the middle of writing this) time to get back to showing off some of our latest offerings. First up some of Alice Melvin's delightful Cut Out & Dress Peg cards. Sailor Peg is currently hanging out in our window, ever hopeful of a last gasp of summer in his rather fetching swimsuit.

Also from Alice we have some of her really lovely little booklets of bird stamps.

And still with lovely paper things - new cards from printmaker Alison Hardcastle.

And again from Alison - a little bit of positive thinking in the shape of 3 fabulously packaged mini screenprints in an optimistic theme.

a

More Alison Hardcastle news next week. We've been doing a bit of collaborating.......!

cards £2/£2.50, bird stamps £4, mini prints £20

laurie's matchboxes

We have some great illustrated matchboxes in the shop at the moment from Edinburgh illustrator & printmaker Laurie Hastings. The backs of these matchboxes once went to make up one of Laurie's larger prints All I Want (below). Now you can buy one (complete with matches) for a bargainous £2.

Also from Laurie -As We Make Our Way Home postcard sets featuring her illustrations to poems by David Troupes.

.

Sukie Dances purses also back in stock.

matchboxes £2, postcard sets £4, purses £10