New Horns and a (sort of) Holiday

"Winds in the east, mist coming in…”

Ok, so I’ve only had one misty morning here recently, but the wind has picked up this past couple of days. I’m not sure I’ll see a magic nanny flying in via brolly, but the breeze is cooler and there is a change in the air.

I can hear ringing in the distance as alarms for Code Orange begin to sound. Pumpkins begin to swell ready for next month.

The ‘ber months are here to close out the year and I’m pretty happy about trading in my sunscreen and ice creams for hot chocolate and cosy blankets. I can feel my fellow weirdos coming out of hiding, ready to embrace spooky season.

Maybe I’m being a little flippant, but you get the idea. Summer is bowing out and Autumn is coming.

I’m not quite in my full “back to school” feels yet though as technically I’m currently on holiday. However, some costly repairs to my car have meant our planned long weekend away has been postponed until next year and my artist’s coffers have been replenished. Instead, I’m enjoying a mix of gentle work (such as writing this blog) and time relaxing with Phil. We’ve been enjoying the various coffee houses, independent shops and wonderful galleries of Lincoln. I got to see a Lowry close up today, right next to a Banksy! We swerved the crowds for the Tour of Britain but did catch a little of the Asylum Steampunk festival earlier this week. The costumes we saw were fantastic and fit perfectly against the city’s historic quarter. Perhaps next year I’ll even dress up.

As promised, I’m reporting back from my visit to the For the Love of Fantasy & SciFi convention although a little later than I had planned as I missed last week’s blog. I had a blast with D and K and forgot to take photos for most of the day.

The Q&A panels we caught were great and I had a fun time checking out all the brilliant exhibitors and stallholders. It was a lovely way to spend part of a weekend back home.

Oh, I also have new horns!

My favourite drawing challenge of the year returns next month! I'm excited to be able to start planning and sketching up ideas for my contributions to this year's Mab Graves Drawlloween Club. I'm also very grateful that the prompt list is released so early as you can almost guarantee I'll still not finish most of them, despite my best efforts.

In a change from the past few years that I’ve taken part the first prompt is not a variation on the theme of “Spooky Self Portrait” and I’m letting my imagination linger over “Moth Maiden” for my first drawing this year.

There is just over a month to go before my next in-person event of the year. My only spooky pop-up this season will be the Out Of The Ordinary Halloween Market in Grimsby, once again being held at The Yardbirds Rock Club. It’s one of my favourite events of the year at a great venue alongside fantastic fellow creatives and I always meet such lovely people there.

I’m currently prepping my final batch of Familiar Frames for the year and I hope to take them along with me.

Work on the Rebrand is continuing in the background, mainly with terribly tedious administrative tasks, although I am working on my new icon and logo design.

Most noticeable to you will be the addition of a “Last Chance & Samples” section to my Etsy shop. I am working through my existing inventory and deciding what I’d like to keep and which designs will be leaving. Those products that I’m saying goodbye to will be added to this section, probably at a slightly reduced price. I also still plan to have one or two Studio Sales of original artwork in order to make space for what’s coming. Keep your eyes peeled for additions to the new shop section and those sales as they happen.

You may remember that back in June I shared that the printer we use to produce our T-shirts in-house was kaputt. At the time I was still weighing up other options for continuing the Hannah Kate Makes T-shirt range; would other production techniques be viable in-house or would outsourcing be better. After a few months’ deliberation, I’ve decided to stop producing Tees for the foreseeable future.

In the future I may resurrect some of my more popular designs, or new designs, on T-shirts but they will not be printed in-house and will likely be of limited run sizes.

This means that the stock I currently have is ALL I have and can still be found in my Etsy shop. I’ll also be listing samples of designs printed on vest tops and T-shirt styles that I sampled but chose not to sell at the time. You can also find a select few of my T-shirt designs on sale from Lincs Dark Side, until their stocks are exhausted.

That’s it for this journal instalment. If you’d like to keep up with all things Hannah Kate Makes and everything coming next, sign up to The Spooky List and I’ll send the latest art, shop and event updates straight to your inbox. You’ll find the form below.

Stay spooky,

HK x