March Meet the Maker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m joining in with #marchmeetthemaker this month and today’s prompt is My Brand

Well I’m Steph and my brand is Steph Thannhauser designs. I’m a designer, illustrator and beginners sewing teacher. I provide design services and have been freelancing and working for myself for flipping ages

I’ve designed and illustrated for many different products: books, craft fabrics, apparel, homeware, stationery and I love it. Basically if something needs a pattern or illo on it, I’m your gal.

A recent addition to my brand is that I run Beginners sewing classes. I started running them because I really wanted to share my love of making stuff and I had got fed up of being by myself all the time . Luckily I have been able to teach using fabrics I have designed for @dashwoodstudio which has been F A B U LO U S. Sadly due to you know what they aren’t running at the mo but fingers crossed I’ll be back soon helping people make lovely things, seeing the smiles on their faces when they put a zip in or create a buttonhole, both things they are adamant they can’t do

I hope my brand sends a positive, fun, quirky inclusive message. I am known for adding patterns wherever I can to my art and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE colour. When I find a great colour combo I honestly feel my heart miss a beat. I know that sounds arty farty and pretentious but I honestly do feel that way about colour

I look forward to hearing about your brand so join in with me and @joannehawker who set this whole fantabulous idea up

If you'd like to follow along on for the rest of March please hop over to my Instagram here

A Dazzle of Zebras

I worked on the illustrations for this book written by Sarah Creese. A super fun job with a great final book  all wrapped up in a fab glittery cover - yey!!!!

You can buy it from Amazon now here.

A School of Fish book...

A school of fish, a book I illustrated about groups of animals. It's got touch pieces, flock effects and lift up flaps. I'm really pleased with it. It's not available in the UK yet but will keep you posted : )

Baa, Quack, Moo Book

I created the little characters for the book Baa Quack Moo. Super pleased with it...

Rhinocorn Book

My week was already going well and then I received some samples of a book I illustrated for Make Believe Ideas called Rhinocorn. It's about a little Rhino who thinks she's a unicorn written by Elanor Best. That's the icing on the cake I reckon. You can buy the book here on Amazon

World Book Day

Yesterday was World Book Day (in case you don't know, it's a day created to encourage children to read more books and kids dress up in their favorite characters and spend the day talking about books and reading). My son dressed up as Bond: James Bond 007. Easy outfit to recreate (thanks son). It got me thinking about the books that inspired me at Junior school. I read Enid Blyton and loved Malory Towers and The Enchanted Wood but what I kept hunting out in the library (even when they were too young for me) was Miffy. I loved all the Dick Bruna books and understand now that it's the simple graphics and vibrant colours that hooked me. The Dick Bruna museum in Utrecht is on my list of places to visit sometime soon.

A glorious new book!

This wonderful book about David Weidman arrived this week. He is a brilliant illustrator, designer and screen printer who started out in the 1950's. He is still working now at nearly 90! See the book here on Amazon.

A new book

 Well it's new to me but is from the 1970's. I found this book in the charty shop  for 50p and it's worth so much more as it is full of really sweet illustrations by Joan Walsh Anglund. I hadn't heard of Joan before but after a bit of "Googling" found that she has illustrated many childrens book and that vintage copies are becoming quite collectable. To read more about Joan follow this link http://www.logan.com/harriett/most-anglund.htmlhttp:

Inspiration

Here are some fab. design books I received as Christmas gifts. Now the children are back at school I can have a proper look (I got the idea to show my Christmas books from this lovely blog http://schoolofcraft.co.uk/category/blog/ - thanks Jo).