Who's Who: Laurie King

This month we have Laurie King over for a chat.  H first saw him over at The Lightbox Craft Fair and as he also learnt Screenprinting at the Ochre Print Studio (Local to Woking), it would have been rude not to show you what his work is all about.

Who are you?

I am Laurie King, thank you for asking me to be a part of your blog.

What do you do?

I draw a lot. I ride a bike. I run in the woods. I work as a Graphic Designer. I screen print for fun.

How did you start?

I very rarely write much down. Normally it’s illustrated, sometimes its photographed. Seeing ideas visually makes confusing stuff simple.

My degree is in Graphic design (my proper job) and interest in the arts, creativity and good old hand drawn illustrations.

I was very lucky to have won a competition entitled "Surrey in 2012". Surrey being home to Boxhill and the highlight of the Olympic Games and myself being a keen cyclist it was not to be missed. The short edition of 40 was hand printed by Julie and Annee at Ochre Print Studio in Guildford, and was shown at The Royal Albert Hall and sold out.

Now I had to learn how to hand screen print myself, I joined one of Ochre's workshops and made loads and loads of mistakes, mess-ups and the odd triumph. I still make plenty of mistakes but have learnt how to solve (most of them). Personally I believe it is important to make things with my hands, there are plenty of editioners out there but it’s not quite the same, if I put my name on the bottom I need to have done it, the proper way!

2013 was exciting. I had the opportunity to present Sir Bradley Wiggins with my print "Yellow Jersey". Seemed only appropriate the man in the picture should have one of himself.

I also launched a cycling accessory. The water bottle.

What's Next?

I was contacted by The Lightbox and asked to exhibit this year. 8 pieces being hung in their cafe gallery - Taste of Art.  A real honour and nice to share some space with some great artists.

Laurie has a Screenprinting workshop coming up in June at Gorgeous Gerties in Dorking, you can go to his website to find out more information.

Looking beyond that my goal would be to build laurieking.co portfolio.

Big goal: I've not got a clue.

What advice would you give yourself if you could go back to the beginning?

Be more confident. Don't worry what others think.

One of the great things about Laurie's work is that it appeals to both men and women, something which you rarely find at craft fairs.  There is alot out there for women, but not so much for men.  Laurie's work would make a great gift for the bike mad person in your life.

You can also find him at the below places.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/laurie_king

Screen Print: www.laurieking.co

Graphic Design: www.openhousecreative.co.uk

It's all fuelling H's printing obsession.
H & Sammy

Please Note: All pictures are owned by the interviewee and so should not be copied without permission.

Live it: The Lightbox Art & Craft Fair

 The Lightbox Christmas Tree, donated by Squire's Garden Centres.

Every year my work - The Lightbox, has an Art and Craft fair to showcase the designer/makers in the surrounding areas.  The shop already showcases some local artists work, but the Art and craft fair gives a great excuse to show more and so I thought it was only fair to go have a look see.

The Art & Craft fair takes over the corridors, the meeting space and my usual work room - the education studio, so there was plenty of space for lots of different designer/makers.

These beautiful silver jewellery pieces were made by Jen Smith from Silver Labyrinth and are all bespoke and so no two pieces are the same.

Julie Barham from Talking Pots had these lovely seed pods and pots.  The seed pods have chimes in them and you could also buy a vase in the same shape. 

I found this little stall of personlise your own tote bags or T-shirts by Vicky at Mrs Cards.  You get a chalk pen and the bag/t-shirt and you can write a shopping list or phrase on them, then wash it away.

One of The Lightbox Volunteers and a designer/Maker herself, Karen from Tilly's Magic Lantern mixes vintage with new for her Jewellery.  You can find her work in The Lightbox shop all year around, but it was lovely to see her beautiful display stands with all the pretty things.

I got to meet the lovely girls from biroRobot, who were there with their prints and if you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that I bought a cheeky little print! oops.

These lovely festive glass sculptures were by Joanna Lloyd Glass.  This Art and Craft fair was starting to get me in the festive spirit - watch out!

Sew Make Me had a lovely vintage style stall with their kits and accessories they sell.  Loved the snowman fabric that the sack was made out of.

Jane Cameron sells fused glass and hand painted silk.  I loved the cat coasters, but as I don't have a house of my own or really like pink, I left them for someone else to pick up.

Laurie King had some lovely bicycle inspired prints for sale, alongside some printed water bottles for those on the road moments.

As a Silver jewellery obsessive, I loved Caroline Thomson's work.  Her stall was set up so well with the stones and driftwood letting the silver jewellery shine, and it definitely shined!

So, all in all it was a day of very pretty things.  There was also mulled wine and mince pies on offer! Have you been to any Craft fairs yet?  or sold at any this year? Let us know in the comments below.

H