Here at 22 Derby Road we are preparing for another sunny weekend of Open Studios. Last weekend was a great success and we had a chance to meet lots of lovely people who said awfully nice things about our work – brilliant! If you are about over the weekend then do come and find us; myself, Nicola Killen, Ian Farrell and Neil Warmsley will be here at the studio from 11am to 6pm both Saturday and Sunday.
22 Derby Road is a hive of activity at the moment as myself and my studiomates Nicola, Ian and Neil prepare to open our studio to the world this weekend. Pictures are being framed ready to go up on the walls and books are still arriving – it’s all everso exciting and we are really hoping people will come along and have a look! We will be open from 11am – 6pm the 19th & 20th, and the 26th & 27th July, our address is: 22 Derby Road, Cambridge, CB1 7BU.
My brand new Grubbies scarves have just arrived and look gorgeous! Have a sneak peek below at the new scarves and head on over to Grubbies website to take advantage of the last couple of days of their summer sale.
Despite worryingly wild weather that threatened to frighten away our tent, Saturday’s pop-up dragon workshop was a great success! It was a super day at the Histon and Impington Feast and we had lots of children and parents coming by to see what we were doing. Pop-up-genius Nicola Killen and myself spent the afternoon helping the children to cut, fold and stick their various wonderful creations. Here are just a few examples of the brilliant pop-ups they made:
Today is the day of the Histon and Impington Feast Book Jam and I will be joining forces with Nicola Killen to run a pop-up dragon-making children’s workshop! After independently doing workshops involving pop-ups and collaged dragons we decided to join forces and create a super-workshop that does the lot! If you would like to join in then come and find us at Histon Junior school later today. We will be running three sessions over the course of the afternoon, starting at 12.15pm, 1.45pm and 3pm. Here is my first attempt at a pop-up dragon…
Open Studios is coming around fast and here at 22 Derby Road preparations have started getting underway! We are opening our studio on the 19th/20th July and the 26th/27th July so if you live in or around Cambridge then do come and have a look. Myself, Nicola Killen, Neil Warmsley and Ian Farrell all share a studio and we will be showing illustrations, paintings, photographs and prints. You will also be able to buy copies of some of our books, my Grubbies scarves and Ian will be taking photographs for a live exhibition of portraits throughout both weekends!
I was asked recently to do some writing for a rather lovely blog called Wonderous Reads which is all about books! Wonderous Reads were interested to know what goes into making a Maisie Hitchins cover, so I put together my thoughts as well as a couple of early sketches for The Case of the Feathered Mask and made a post. It you would like to read about how the Maisie Hitchins covers come into being then have a look here: Marion Lindsay Talks Covers It is a super blog and well worth keeping an eye on if you are a book-lover like me!
Saturday is fast approaching which means I’ll soon be off to St Ives for the Bookjam to make dragons at the library! Here is a sample of the kind of thing myself and the children are going to be making – this particular beastie is rather cute but I’m hoping for fire-breathing, toothy, spiky, scaly and generally fearsome additions… Do come and join in, the event runs from 11am – 11.45am which should be plenty of time to create some fabulous dragons!
On the 7th June I am going to be taking part in the St Ives Book Jam for the third year running. The theme for this year’s summer reading challenge is “Mythical Maze” which has inspired me to want to make DRAGONS! This year I will be holding a collage and drawing workshop at 11am at the St Ives Library and the children who come along will be making dragons from all sorts of collage materials including glittery stuff and anything suitably dragony that we can make stick.
I will be writing a bit more about this before the event but for now here is a little dragony inspiration to be going on with from my book Ready, Steady, Ghost!
I’ll be taking part in Cambridge Open Studios this year and today my work is being featured on the Open Studios Facebook page! My studio will be opening its doors to the world on the last two weekends in July and we are all quite excited about it, that is to say me and my studio pals Nicola Killen, Neil Warmsley and Ian Farrell.
Here is my guide image and below some of my other work featured on the Open Studios Website:
I have new Maisie Hitchins books to report!
Holly Webb has been doing lots of writing and I have been doing lots of drawing and the result can be seen in the form of The Phantom Cat, The Feathered Mask and The Secret Tunnel which are all out now. As well as scampering all over London in her adventures, Maisie’s stories are heading over to America where the first book in the series “The Case of the Stolen Sixpence” is going to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in September. The Case of the Spilled Ink will be coming out in the UK in August too, but I can’t show you any pictures yet I’m afraid! For now here are the new covers:
marion lindsay 