Christmas Joy!

This week we've spent doing the Christmas window and arranging the Christmas presents (or stock), as well as updating the studio space with new prints and pictures.


This year's window theme is winter birds and we've kept it simple with black and white line drawings and a lovely Christmas red.







Bex's Winter Birds


Christmas Prints



Skyscape Prints and box frame illustrations with acetate overlays.


Work in Progress wall with all our recent scribblings!

Sunflowers, Ladybirds and all things Puffin

Here's the latest work from Derby Royal Hospital, this time we painted a corridor linking the previous murals we'd done in the Emergency Department with the Children's Wards. This time there were no seagulls but a puffin ward, ladybird, sunflower and dolphin and kite themes to include. We decided on a sunflower growing competition as the story, with puffins and ladybirds entering various sunflowers, some cheating! The dolphin aspect was added in the form of the dolphin cup presented by Peter Porpoise, the mayor of Herring Beach.



Two ladybirds cross as their cooking pot's being used to grow a rather nice sunflower!

A puffin hastily paints on a sunflower just before the judge arrives, two outraged ladybirds stand astonished.
The cheek of it!




The very official looking Mayor... Peter.



A very ladylike ladybird waters her teacup flower with her spotted teapot.




The prestigious Dolphin Cup with various photographs of past winners. To the right of the image are the parachuting ladybirds from the flying kite.



To the right side of the picture... More cheaters! This time ladybirds seek to fool the judges with their sunflower compiled of 'green things' including a sunflower spread lid.



One end of the corridor was decorated with wildflower illustrations using flat colours and subtle tones to create a more graphic but calming effect whilst still including the sunflowers.

Return of the Seagull

Last week saw us back in Derby, this time painting the outside of the Children's Emergency Department. It was a little different for us, using the different paints, painting on a very bobbly wall and the use of a rather high scaffold, but still good fun!
Warren, Shrimpy, Puffball and Crabby help direct people in in their own unique way!

As well as the outside, we also did a little more work inside on a corridor that connects to the rest of the hospital. The brief for this was more seagulls, but to incorporate the other various wards we had to include puffins, ladybirds and sunflowers!


Indiana LadyJones runs away from a boulder of wool!

Skyscapes by Firecatcher

A new range of illustrations we've been working on based on buildings and architecture around London. The images have a dreamy quality, taking elements of the architecture and juxtaposing them with abstract shapes and transparencies to create places that could be anywhere.

Bookbinding Workshop at Hot Bed Press

This weekend saw Bex and myself head off to Hot Bed Press in Salford to teach a contemporary bookbinding workshop. We had a great time, met some lovely new people who came up with some really impressive books using the techniques we'd taught (see below!).

Busy binding!

Caroline with her concertina Beach Hut book created to house sketches and photographs of some beach huts discovered on a recent trip to Westward Ho. The finished book will have a screen printed cover depicting the front of a beach hut.


Sarah's book has windows so her etchings can be viewed from both sides in this beautiful concertina book. This is a great idea as a showcase for prints or any art works. The book has hardback covers with a pocket on the inside of the back page to keep the original etching plate.

Julie's book employed most of the techniques learnt over the weekend including the section sewn book, japanese stab bind and the envelope book.

A & E opens tomorrow...

The Children's Emergency Department is having its grand opening (well, sort of) at 2am tomorrow, and our work is featured on the front page of the Derbyshire Telegraph ... http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/cut-wait-times-new-e/article-1003229-detail/article.html

We're very excited about the prospect of the public seeing our work for the first time and would like to wish all staff and patients a very successful and stress-free move. I wonder who will be the first to find the Dr. Who Seagull in the X ray..?

Seagulls invade the Children's Emergency Department!

Here's a few photos from the Derby Children's Emergency Department, more to follow!...

Derby...done.

It's been a great month for us at Firecatcher as we finally managed to get into the hospital to start work on the Children's Emergency Department. We arrived on 30th March with a toolbox full of paint, more masking tape than was humanly necessary and a folder full of designs. We were unsure of what to expect, but everyone was lovely and very friendly. We'll post more pictures as we upload them very soon...