NEW HOME!!

The Bonbi Fruits blog has a new home, on our new website!

To see the less neglected blog please visit us: http://www.bonbiforest.com/bonbi-fruits-of-the-forest-blog/

...and to see the new shop please visit www.bonbiforest.com

Thank you!

I'll Watch Over You...

I have had an obsession with making things with eyes on for some time, scribbling eyes in my sketchbook and painting them into Masquerade themed paintings for the Girls Who Draw book. Then they were everywhere, all the fashion magazines were featuring eye pieces and I thought oh well, boat missed, I'll keep them for another time. But it wouldn't go away this eye obsession (my first ever word was 'eyes' after all!) so I decided to go with it and I have made some new lockets featuring a handful of watchful peepers!

I'll Watch Over You is available in gold and silver and has a sparkling perspex disc attached to the chain...both versions can be seen HERE!

There is also another new design in the shop...I know! Double whammy, right?! City Lights is the other newbie and, little secret, my favourite. I know I shouldn't have favourites but I am so pleased with this one! I never really use orange but in this instance it was just perfect and gives the little city a real glow...I'd love to know what you think. City Lights can be seen in both gold and silver HERE!

Masquerade

Goodness me...long time and no squeak. What a serious case of blog neglect poor old Bonbi Fruits has been experiencing!

It has been a summer of busy madness, lots of good things going on personally (camping, holiday - Kefalonia! Festival fun, friends coming down for some Cornwall good times, fitting in the odd ride on Miss Pia, watching Ruby become more beautiful and mobile by the day...you know the kind of thing) as well as business related happenings. The annual Cornwall design Fair in the summer was a success as always and since the end of August Christmas has been high on my mind and my hands have been working hard making lots and lots.

I have also been making pieces for the latest Girls Who Draw postcard book which you may have seen landed in the Bonbi Forest shop a few weeks ago!

The theme is Masquerade and the book is lovely. As always it features 24 postcards by 12 female illustrators and artists working in a broad range of styles. I love all the different takes on masquerade, from animals wearing masks, folkloric characters, creatures parading as something they are not, wrestling masks and my own take on the theme...

Forest Floor

Under Sea

The book can be seen here! and if you are in Leeds any time soon we have an exhibition on at The Bowery Arts Centre until the 14th November. More information can be found here!

In other Girls Who Draw news we are revisiting last years Mythical Creatures theme and have an exhibition coming up in Birmingham soon too. I am making new work for that which I will be sure to post here too...I have other things to show here as well. More soon, Bonbi Fruits shall never be so neglected again!

Swan prints...

Swan scarves are finally available, hurrah!

I have been trying to get this scarf print finished for what seems like an eternity and last week I was finally able to launch them in the shop...if you didn't see, they are available HERE!

The back of the scarves are covered in tiny stars while the fronts have a smattering of stars and the swans paddling over the top...As usual they are available in two colours: White swans and peach stars on royal blue, and dark grey (black) swans and red stars on cream.

I hope you like them!

A job I love

I do love a good wedding. All that lurve in the air, the gathering of friends from afar, the dancing, cake, merriment and afternoon champagne sipping, canapés (whenever else do you get to eat those?!) confetti and the general warm fuzzy happiness that a lifetime coupling brings is such a delight!

I also L O V E making wedding invitations and was honoured recently to be asked by some a lovely pair of long known friends to make the invitations for their forthcoming wedding. They came up with a beautiful idea of the snow globe based on my 'Forever' painting, but with little geometric shapes dancing inside and a fun colour combination of pale blue, bright orange and white and I designed and hand screen printed them.

I have always loved the ability with screen printing to put pale colours onto a darker background so was pleased to be working with my favourite hairy manila card again which I had for my own invitations...

After making a few invitation designs now, they are another string I would like to add to my bow. If you are interested in commissioning some please do get in touch...lets discuss!

More of them there swans...

I hope everyone is getting to enjoy some of this beautiful weather we have been having the last week or so...it actually feels like summer, right? For the first time in ages. How long it will last, who knows but for now it's G L O R I O U S!

I have been busy designing more new things and playing with a new textile design featuring those swans I have been so obsessed with of late. It's going to be available on two different coloured scarves very soon and I am looking at making new home wares with some of the existing print designs of horses, birds, big cats and now the swans. I am thinking cushions and more tea towels to start with...watch this space peeps, watch this space...

Here is a peek at the new design pictured while drying in the sunshine!

For the Love of a Swan...

I've slowly been going a bit swan crazy recently...In fact it started way back before Ruby was born, pencil and pad in hand and I was wondering what to draw and off the top of my head drew a swan. Then I painted a Christmas swan which you may remember from THIS POST, and they have been inhabiting a little corner of my mind and sketchbook ever since.

Well, I have finally figured out how I wanted to use them! My last post here showed a plan coming together and now all the pieces are in place, I am pleased to announce the latest pieces of Bonbi Forest jewellery are now available and feature quite heavily those gorgeous swans...

I have wanted to play with perspex for a while and after receiving some samples a couple of months ago have been conjuring ways to use it. I settled on etched mirror and clear, fantastically sparkly glitter and a vintage looking cream for the images. I love it!

So these are the new swan pieces: Large pendants, a dainty necklace, cute stud earrings teamed with brass and a sparkling bracelet that has a secret etched detail on the back!

ALSO! Sparkling Mirror Leaf Earrings!

See them all in the jewels section of the shop...

I'd love to know what you think!

I love it when a plan comes together...

Here's a peek at a piece from the new collection of jewellery I am working on and which will be available soon!

SOON!

Pegasus in Hereford...

My resolution of blogging more often is going well isn't it? Erm...

Lots of things have been going on lately not least the Seconds and Samples sale which launched with a HUGE bang a few weeks ago with nearly everything selling over the first weekend. You guys are amazing, thank you for that! If you didn't get the newsletter or see the launch on Twitter or Facebook be sure to have a look as there are still some pieces left, a smattering of lockets, tees and sweaters in the Seconds sale and some limited and one off pieces in the Samples sale including hand etched rings, cushions, and jewellery...See HERE!

The wonderful Girls Who Draw 'Mythical Creatures' exhibition has toured itself (with brilliant co-ordination by Karoline Rerrie) to Hereford College of Arts, so if you are in the area be sure to check it out. I created a brand new Pegasus especially for this show and he hangs alongside the original Pegasus from the book and a weird and wonderful menagerie of imagined beings from the other girls until May 28th.

Lastly here is a token picture of my bed hogging baby. Four months next week. Where is this year going?!

Thank God I'm Alive...

Finally! I have got around to getting a batch of the new From Small Seeds Lockets made and they are now available in the shop: Have a look see HERE!

It is the Brit Awards tonight and my wonderful and ever inspiring friend Natasha is up for Best Female Solo artist. Here is the video for her song 'Lilies'. It's beautiful:

That line, 'Thank god I'm alive', is just so joyous!

She's here!

It's a little late a coming but I have Bonbi baba news...She's here! Ruby Evelyn Wilson arrived not long before midnight on the 17th January and I know I am biased, but she's just gorgeous. She was 7lbs 15oz at birth and 3 and a half weeks on she has grown so much already but is still a tiny bean, I'm taking time to enjoy her as much as I can. We love her so much.

^^Tiny little ginger biscuit!^^

In other news on a completely different note, I have some work in the Girls Who Draw 'Mythical Creatures' exhibition at the Here Gallery in Bristol which runs all the way through to the 6th April. You can see original gouache on paper versions of my Mermaid and Pegasus that I created for the Mythical Creatures postcard book (purchase HERE!) as well as work by all the other illustrators involved...If you are in the area be sure to pay a visit!

From Small Seeds...

Well there's still been no arrival of our lil Bonbino (as Claire from Miso Funky so nicely termed her on Twitter a few weeks ago!) Patiently we wait...

In the meantime I have been dreaming up new jewels and print ideas and have a new locket design just about good to go...Meet 'From Small Seeds':

With everything going on at the moment it seemed right to take a moment to ponder on growth, of beings and nature and ideas. This newest design indulges my ongoing obsession with tree silhouettes and gave me an excuse to buy a bucket load of these super cute acorn charms! I also like to think of it as a reminder of what can be achieved by sowing the smallest seed...

So, this is happening...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas time and plans are looking good for the coming new year felicitations!

Christmas at Bonbi Forest was a super busy affair (I think the busiest yet!) so thank you to everyone who bought and gave Bonbi goodies this Christmas, your support is always very much appreciated indeed by independent businesses like Bonbi Forest. I always finish the last of the Christmas posting feeling eternally grateful that I am able to spend each and every day making things and earning my living doing what I love!

One of my new years resolutions this year is to post here more often. There's a few reasons I haven't been posting as much lately, the main one being that as well as beginning Christmas preparations waaaay earlier than I can usually get myself organised for (who wants to hear about Christmas in August, really?) I have had quite a lot of non-art/Bonbi related things on my mind of late because of this:

Yep, due VERY soon in early January and it is all very exciting! The last few months have seen Mark and I painting the nursery, getting confused by the myriad of baby paraphernalia available, squealing (mostly me, occasionally Mark) at tiny outfits and wondering if my ever expanding belly can actually expand much more...finally though, now Christmas is out of the way, we are ready to meet the little bean. Hopefully she won't keep us waiting too long!

Much organising is taking place now while we wait for the baba so that the Bonbi shop can stay open (hurrah!) and in the meantime watch this space for news on Valentines goodies, artwork I have been meaning to show you for AGES and other bits and pieces...

2013 looks to be an exciting time here!

Hello Winter (almost)

It's very nearly December (can you believe?!) which for me heralds the start of Winter. Cue cozy nights by the fire, big knits and crisp mornings, ahh!

I have been making a brand new limited edition batch of wintery snowflake lockets for 2012, a wearable slice of the winter for you that is becoming a bit of a Bonbi tradition! This years snowflakes have a scattering of ice hued Swarovski crystals, glass pearls and raw brass leaves and leaping deer. Have a look in the shop HERE!

Over the Mountain...

There is more newness in the shop, new lockets no less!

They have been a bit of a long time coming, ideas came and went and I finally settled on some that I love...The first is a little soaring bird amongst the stars with a pair of feathers on the chain. I love drawing birds, all the patterns in their wings and their universal appeal make them a wonderful subject matter.

The second features a snow capped mountain range with little pine trees and (another) bird charm on the chain as if in flight over the mountain. I called this one Always Over the Mountain. It is inspired by the Iron and Wine track Upward Over the Mountain which is a beautiful song that sound tracked a 4 week American road trip Mark and I took back in 2004 through California, Arizona, New Mexico & Nevada...It also makes me think of my mother in law and her two sons. Have a listen:

See all of the lockets, new and old, HERE!

All the birds...

Hasn't it got cold all of a sudden? On Saturday when I drove up to the stables to see Miss Pia and Little B the car thermometer read 2˚...it's a little too early in the year for it to be that chilly, blue hands and cooold ears were not what I expected on Saturday morning!

With the chills of winter fast approaching it seemed as good a time as any to add the new Bird Scarf to the shop today...it's the same print as the Cream Birds Scarf that launched in the shop a month ago (which I neglected to mention here...) but in more Autumnal hues of violet, pretty mauve and snowy white. These scarves are so lovely and big, great for wrapping around and around and keeping warm!

Violet Bird Scarf, available HERE!

This is the cream version, available HERE!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the scarves too, they are all in stock now for the winter time and Christmas gift giving --> HERE!