Upcoming shows

If you're looking for some nice weekend plans, look no further! I'm exhibiting at the Makers Fair at Saltaire as part of the festival line up there, Fri 4pm-8pm and Saturday 10am-5pm in Victoria Hall.

Sunday sees me over at Port Sunlight for Landbaby & Co. Handmade Fair in the Lyceum 11am-4pm. Both have a seriously talented lot of people exhibiting and we'd love to see you there!

S x

New wooden jewellery range at Stephanie Cole Design

Hi all,

It's been a busy few weeks in the studio working on my own range, such a treat! I had wanted to add to my Jewellery range for some time as my Bunny Necklace is so popular, and lots of tweaking, sampling and trying out later, I bring you the fruits of my labour...

Hope you like it! 

Now you can get your cards, art prints, home textiles and presents sorted all in one place! I think they sit with my range perfectly- creating a lifestyle shopping experience with a whole host of illustrated curiosities is what I'm all about, whether in my own store online, at market stalls or in galleries and brick and mortar shops. I love the idea of being able to pick and choose from a whole host of created things, (and in the studio it certainly is nice to mix it up a bit!) 

Special thanks go to my beautiful cousin for modelling the range so expertly!

I'm taking a break from things next week and heading to bonny Scotland! Orders this week will go out Friday lunchtime as usual (UK), then the shop will be staying open whilst I'm away, with orders being posted when I'm back in on Monday 7th August. Sorry for any inconvenience caused but hopefully the wait will be worth it :) 

S x

July sale at Stephanie Cole DESIGN

That's right! Shop this link now and receive 25% off orders of £10 or over with code SUMMER17 

Happy shopping folks!

S x

Mural project at Port Sunlight

I spent a nice week over at Bridge Cottage, the new community hub run by Port Sunlight Trust on the Wirral, where I painting a mural looking at life then and now in the village. 

I wanted to make the piece about the people who lived here rather than the soap factory legacy (have a read here if you're interested, it's fascinating stuff) so the design features the finer, undocumented details, such as the black and white cat which hangs about the Lyceum, the weddings that go on here, the boules tournaments, dog shows and allotment prizes, the annual 10K race, the old fashioned prams which are paraded around, the couple of ducks which return each year and more of what residents get up to here...

The building has some beautiful original features and has also undergone some unsympathetic modern alterations over the years as a residence too, so the colours I chose hopefully work with the building's history and appeal to the young and the old which will now use the space. It'll now play host to all sorts including book clubs, coffee mornings, toddler groups, has a craft room upstairs and board room too, and with community spirit and volunteers behind it, should become a real success story and pride of the community. 

I'm going to be in Port Sunlight again on the 1st July at Landbaby's Handmade Fair there, come and say hello and have a look for yourself!

If you'd like to commission me, let's talk! See my website for details and more projects.

S x

Summer Arts Market at Liverpool Cathedral

Morning! I've been busy painting murals over at the beautiful village of Port Sunlight for the last week or so, (check my Facebook or Instagram for progress pics) but wanted to let you know I'll be selling my wares and enjoying amazing Open Culture event Summer Arts Market at Liverpool Cathedral this coming Saturday (17th June) 10-7pm. Come on down and say hey! 

S x

Shop Coupon Code and new things!

There's a host of new bits in the shop if you haven't stopped by recently, and a nice discount coupon you can use from today through the weekend! Read on to find the deets...

There's a new enamel pin to add to the flock, a sweet Alpaca- by now you'll know they're one of my favourite animals so it was only a matter of time...

Also a whole bunch of new cards for different occasions I had fun designing. I debuted them all at Manchester Print Fair at the beginning of the month and went down well with you lot, success! It was my first show in the city and was so happy with how it went, the line up of artists, illustrators and creatives was really impressive, and as the months go by since moving here, I'm feeling more at home.

The weather's been pretty grey since *that* weekend of summer we had, and as it's Friday I thought I'd treat you to a shop coupon code for 25% off orders of £6.00 and over through the weekend. Just use code: APRILSHOWERS17 at the checkout. 

S x

Introducing Luna Hops

I spent last week painting one of Cotswold March Hare Festival's large hares, you'll know already if you keep up with my sporadic blog posting or social medias. My sponsors at New Brewery Arts, Cirencester kindly let me use the pop-up studio as I wasn't convinced the fibre glass creature would make the journey up to Wilmslow in one piece. It was cosy and peaceful and I had a wonderful stream of folk popping in to see what I was up to. Lovely week!

I went about designing the hare in flat profiles in the hope that the design would wrap around the hare nicely- of course my mural projects are generally on a flat surface so that's what felt most natural to me, and luckily worked ok.

Along with New Brewery Arts the project was also sponsored by Corinium Ales and Geoffrey Carr Garden Design, so between us had a dream brief drawn up with the theme of this year's trail as 'heritage'. I looked at the history of brewing in Cirencester and old images of New Brewery Arts with it's former large chimneys and the Barrel Store which I'd already worked on the branding of, it was a no-brainer. 

After pencilling on where everything would sit, I went about painting in acrylic wreaths of hops and barley for making the ale, pub relics, brewing equipment in the most amazing copper and a couple of Cirencester ties- the hare mosaic from Roman times and Sophie Ryder's beautiful grey hound sculptures which (used to) sit outside.

My wonderful sponsors, Geoffrey Carr Garden Design, Yours truly, Tracey from New Brewery Arts and Lucy of Corinium Ales. All excellent people.

You'll notice I've only really got images of the hare from one side, but with any luck I will have a time lapse video of the whole process I'll be able to show you soon, excited for that.

I'm feeling a bit love sick since I finished up if I'm honest! Over the course of the week 'it' became a 'she', and we all finally settled on a name, 'Luna hops'. Luna, Latin for moon- being a moon gazing type stance, again with the local Roman links and a nod to Lucy's fabulously named (delicious) beers, and Hops, used to make the beer and a play on hares-a-hopping! Clever, eh? She's off for a high shine varnish at the car garage so she'll be able to withstand whatever the British summer throws at us, and goes on show with the rest of the 80 hares throughout the Cotswolds from March 25th this year, before getting auctioned for charity in the Autumn. Hope you like her, I can't wait to see the rest of the 'Flick'.

S x

Cirencester March Hare Trail

A belated happy new year to you! I hope you had a wonderful festive time, I'm easing myself very gently into 2017 and have some nice plans to tell you about...

I've been working on something quite different since Christmas, a departure from my usual flat walls, a large fiberglass hare! He'll form part of the Cirencester March Hare Festival where, once finished he'll join many others and become part of a public art trail which will encourage people to explore the beautiful Cotswolds. Why a hare, you ask? Hares have historical ties to the area, for instance the hare motif in mosaic works dug-up close by. You know I'm rather fond of them anyway, they crop up quite regularly in my work which means I'm pretty thrilled to be asked to paint a huge one! For details on when the trails are a-go, check the website here. I believe the launch is around Mother's day- what could be a nicer thing to do indeed? The hares will be auctioned in Autumn this year where they'll hopefully raise a tonne of cash for charities including National Star and historical renovation works in the towns and villages the hares have appeared in. I'm all for that.

Next week the nice folk at New Brewery Arts are letting me take over the pop-up studio next door, where you can catch me painting the large creature. Pop in and say hello! They are also the sponsors for my Hare, along with Corinium Ales and Geoff Carr Garden Design. Dream team. It's been quite a challenge thinking in dimensions and I'm not even sure how long it'll take me, but am sure up to doing something different to start the year off...

Will show you the progress shots soon, have an excellent weekend! S x