Around christmas time I was approached by independent publisher Little Otsu based in Portland, Oregon, to produce a book for their living things series they launched this winter. Initially the words 'Living Things' circulated in my mind without finding meaning, the stumbling block being a mental block of the two words seemingly opposing each other; in my mind 'things' exclusively equalling inanimate objects, without life or 'living'.

On an icy walk with one of my family we were discussing this, and ideas in general, and I spoke of one idea that had appeared in my mind of a man walking around the city isolated from everything apart from his task at hand; head down he wanders the city observing the ground, the pavement, taking in that which is normally ignored, he collects objects from these walks and gathers them at his home; enclosed in some way- pinned to boards, arranged in collections and categories.

I have been planning a trip to New York as I've never been and its long been a place I have thought of, and so have been talking to people about the city. Someone suggested I read The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. It was surprising to read halfway through City of Glass of one of the characters Stillman traversing manhatten, secretly followed by the protagonist, Stillman looking only at the pavement and collecting objects; detritus and debris of citylife from his walks. How strange to read of something so parallel to my own consciousness. This correlation, my interest in this is only at the beginning it feels, but with time constraints, I produced a series of drawings exploring this minutiae of citylife, but there are many fragments of ideas, continuing from other constant fascinations seeping in. My dissertation at university on why we collect, and a V&A workshop I presented in 2009 about the objects we choose to surround ourselves with and how they reflect ourself and meanings and become another language in our lives. These drawings feel more like workings out, and processing of thoughts, rather than exercises in drawing, but was interesting and useful to work so quickly for a change.

In City of Glass, Stillman collects objects and names their forms. It makes me consider the origins of language and also visually of written language, how the object forms the words/marks that were chosen. Especially on recent wanderings round the British museum, seeing similar marks repeated across time and culture enforces a belief in the universality of human existence, something I also thought about when watching 'The cave of forgotten dreams' lately.

The original drawings from some of the spreads above, translated to colour for the publication.

Workbook, sketching out:

Still life of collected objects:

Some photos I took in Berlin last year of forms in isolation, perhaps when the idea began:

The book is now available to order through Little Otsu here. Thank you to Little Otsu for being so great to work with.

Recently I have been working with brilliant design studio Graphic Thought Facility on a wallpaper for Pizza Express, as part of a project looking at a new approach in the interiors and graphic design of Pizza Express, which was being led by interior architect Ab Rogers.

The basic black and white stripe synonymous with pizza express was the basic starting point for the wallpaper design, as well as an abstract landscape pattern I had previously designed. A reference point in terms of overall atmosphere, was the hotel of Gio Ponti's Parco die Principi in Sorrento, a feat in modernism; the attention to detail, and the functionality of his design is brilliant.

I was asked to explore creating a pattern that would develop a sense of an italian landscape, but the main emphasis was to be on forms and composition rather than figuration.

During the initial research stages, I looked a lot at the tuscan town of San Gimignano, which aside from being the birthplace of my grandma Luigia, is a incredible hilltop town with numerous towers punching the skies, a steep hill climbs to reach a square in its centre, and in every direction a pleasing jumble of architectural beauty. The challenge was breaking down the architecture I was seeing into the simplest forms I could, and trying to retain a balance of everything that was in mind. Trying to see the negative space as being of equal importance to the forms.

A site specific variation design can now be found at Pizza Express Fulham (see photos above), and then shortly the complete wallpaper design at new branch Brent Cross (I will post up soon), with possible other locations to follow.

It has been a wonderful project to work on, many thanks to Mike and Andy at GTF.

workbook with reference of San Gimignano:

One of the initial original drawings i made for the design:

The final composition of one of the panels of wallpaper:

Details from the design:

This week I cut my weaving off the 4 shaft table loom that I have been working on since the start if my weaving course which I began in September. The first month or so was getting to grips with knowledge of how to put the warp onto the loom which is quite an undertaking, but I imagine would get easier the more you do it. The close up photos above represent about 4 or 5 hours work in each section, to give you an idea of the time involved, if you are not familiar with the process of weaving. After listening to what I hoped to explore within the process of weaving, the course tutor directed me to try out various open work techniques such as leno, brooks bouquet, danish medallions, spanish lace within sections of plain weave, as well as twills (the diagonals), and I also tried double weave which allows you to create 2 layers of weaving simultaneously which provides strength in the fabric as well as possibilities of different faces on either side of the fabric. I tried to approach the weaving as I would normally approach making work, to find a spontaneity within a rigid structure.

I have been reading a lot about weaving, about weavers of the past, and weaving in different cultures, looking mainly at pre-columbian south american techniques and what often overwhelms me in learning about weaving is the amount of pre-planning needed to make a weaving, which is something I don't feel I have a great capacity for. When making work I like to take a starting point and then explore it as I go. I don't find much joy in the idea of mapping everything out and then fleshing it out. I get very bored easily and hope to always be discovering and experimenting. So I am happy to learn that there is a way of weaving where you can just see where it takes you.

Hanging in the window, the light shining through the fabric, to reveal the open work.

Yesterday I visited The Handweavers Studio in Finsbury Park, which is a treasure trove for weaving with yarns and unspun fibres of every kind and beautiful hand crafted tools as well as looms, and books and basically everything you could ever think of for weaving. I spent a good few hours there, and chose some new yarns for my next sample. What I want to explore next is the surface texture of the fabric, as well as the balance between strength and fragility, bold and intricate, open and compact within the construction. I chose linen for its strength, and numerous samples of yarns containing plastics and metals, which is something I will think about using in the future.

Other than weaving, I am currently undertaking a wall commission for pizza express with Graphic Thought Facility, and working on a short artists book for Little Otsu. More about those projects soon.

The second edition of my book 'Rain Day' is now printed and available to buy direct from the Duke Press website. The new edition is printed in one colour at a slightly smaller format with a 2 colour wrap around cover in an edition of 1000. We are also giving away a limited edition A5 risograph print inspired by a spread from the book with each of the first 50 copies bought online.

To find out more about the book, visit Duke Press.

Its been a really enjoyable process working with Ryan and Jess at Duke to translate the limited edition of 50 books in the first press, to this much larger run. Many thanks to them for everything.

In my online shop you can also see that there are limited edition risograph prints for sale as well as the miniature versions we are giving away with the first 50 copies. They are A3 in size and available for £15. A big thank you to Hugh from Landfill Editions for printing them.

The Poundshop created their third event, for the christmas season, on the weekend of the December 10-12th within the Super Christmas Market at Somerset House. Having created wrapping papers for their previous two pop up shops, I decided to make it a third and look at making a pattern that was relevant to a christmas theme as a challenge to myself. I took reference from a set of candles that has always been a part of my christmas, particularly to its sounds, kinetics and the flickering shapes amidst silence.

I also wanted to make particular use of the process of screen printing for this paper, and translate the qualities of the object to the paper. The benefits of screen printing for this project are that I can create at low cost special textures, colours and surface quality. This passage of writing by Anni Albers, taken from her book 'On Weaving' was particularly in my mind when working out the design. I hoped to create a hand printed paper that was tactile, where attention would be drawn to the surface texture as well as surface 'matiere'. I always think one of the benefits of screen printing is the way it feels when you run your fingers along its edges, and recent print making work where I have been using relief/embossing, different textured ink (glow in the dark inks) and linework is paying more attention to this quality of the process.

I have a new poster in the editions section of my site, which brings together all the shapes I have been drawing thoughout the last year, where I have been experimenting with new mark making within the confines of a simple task. It is screenprinted in an open edition (artists stamp on reverse) on 100 gsm cartridge paper at A1 size and available for just £20.

I have also recently finished another weaving experiment on my rigid heddle loom, this time exploring a technique called the soumak technique which allows one to integrate line work into the structure. I am looking forward to returning to my weaving course next week where I will continue to learn the many different techniques involved, next I will explore twills, leno and creating structured patterns.

Lastly, I received lately the Fenchurch t-shirt using my graphic I posted about recently and a tote bag I designed for Psychology Press which you can also see on my website now.

Happy 2011