Live Owl and Me!

I got to hold a live Eagle Owl at the Leeds Owl Trail anniversary party yesterday evening... a little nerve wrecking as close up you realise what powerful animals they can be.

She came (with her handler) from the Royal Armouries in Leeds as our guest of honour!

This fella is less intimidating though, a little Leeds Owl Trail mascot with a t-shirt made-to-measure very kindly and expertly by Karen at Blueberry Park then I added my Leeds Owl Trail logo.Looks quite good I think!

We had a great full-page write up in the Yorkshire Evening Post, a smaller version is online here; which was a great follow up to the one on the BBC website.

The article in the paper followed a week of school and Art Gallery workshops devised and delivered by the Owl Team, culminating in an exhibition of little owls placed on the map in Leeds Museum.

(picture of clay owls by Nick Moss Films)

On top of my busy time with the Leeds Owl Trail I'm also working on Christmas greetings designs for 2011 and bespoke Halloween invitations for October.

Variety makes makes my job such fun!

Make an Owl workshop

Last week some of the Owl Trail Team ran a make an owl workshop in Leeds' St John's Shopping Center. We had a very fun, busy, glittery and feathery time! Over 150 owls were made and the kids (and adults!) had a great time!We loved our snazzy t-shirts too!

More Leeds Owls!

I've been really busy with lots of Owl Trail Business this last month. I've been working flat out on the new Leeds Owl Trail A3 map which will feature a trail of 25 owls taking you round Leeds City Center. It's now at the printer and I'm really excited to see the finished product.

There is a fab write up and great pictures on the bbc web site...Some of my favourites...The original A4 version is still on the website available to download for free and once the extended version is launched it will also be online to download along with the chinese version I mentioned back in March.

You must do the trail if you are in the area!

Chinese Owl Maps!

Due to a little disruption from builders this week, I've struggled to keep up with posting, and also with work in general too! I've managed to catch up this weekend, which is good as we're away for a few days next week so I'll be deserting you then too!

I have been transforming the Leeds Owl Trail map into Chinese this week! No, I don't speak a work of Chinese, the lovely Wanlin has done that part; I've just been fitting it all in to the map:

It's great that the Leeds Owl Trail has officially become an international tourist attraction. The map will soon be ready to download from the web site.

I have made wedding stationery before that the bride wanted translated into French and Italian (of course she provided the translated text!).

It's so strange doing something so alien to me that I can't check for mistakes myself.

This says "Leeds Owl Trail logo and leaflet design by Rosalind Wilson". I hope!

Now we are nine

Well, the birthday weekend is over and I think it was a success. We had a swimming party (did you guess that already?). I made the cake. Icing is not a medium I'm totally comfortable with and I don't find it at all relaxing, but I get a request each birthday and I can't refuse a creative challenge! The cake sponge for my daughter is always pink!

The notebook I made Sadie has already started being customised, so I guess she liked it! She also recieved one of these beautiful colour in posters by Scandi from her friend Ruby, which will look great framed on her bedroom wall, I just have to try not to be too precious about letting my nine year old colour it in!

The pens she used to colour in the notebook were another gift; Berol Felt Tips. I love them anyway (school/stationery nostalgia!) but they will now for ever be associated in my mind with John Thorpe MBE (Leeds Civic Architect) and my recent visit to his studio in a Leeds Owl Trail capacity. He colours in his amazing maps with his trusty berol pens, mapping and planning places and spaces in Leeds.