My good friend Jeb Loy Nichols has used my artwork on his new album. Jeb is a writer, musician AND an artist. Three things he does incredibly well! Click here read all about him and check out some of his music on youtube!
This really good new LP doesn't come out until March but its getting a few spins on the radio so I thought it might be worth a mention.
The water color on the inside of the sleeve 'I walked and I thought...' is a picture I did many years ago and Jeb owns.
I speak to jeb on the phone pretty much every day and we play soul records we've discovered down the phone to each other and talk about lots of good stuff, Werner Klempererer, Frank Gorshin's incredible impressions of burt lancaster and Rod steiger, my love of Howard Stern, his hatred of Howard Stern and loads more other good stuff !!!
This year we are bringing out a special edition of the album with stories on one side and Jeb's songs on the other !

I was asked by the publishers, Sceptre, to write a bit about 25 year-old self to celebrate their 25th birthday. They have published various writers' stories of being 25 in this little book. If its too small to read, here is what it says:

'I turned 25 in November 1987, when I was in my final year at the Royal College of Art. I got married to my wife Lorna who I had been going out with since I was 18 and we had been living together since we were 19. Since then our two daughters have been born, gone to school, university and left home and now it is 25 years later, and once more its just me and Lorna at home together - as the great Gilbert O'Sullivan sang, 'alone again naturally'

To welcome in 2012, we're doing a lucky dip at Ryantown shop, 126 Columbia Road!! If you spend £10 or more, you get a free lucky dip of one of the presents wrapped up here.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

In the new year, these mugs that I have designed for McLaggan Smith mugs will be available to buy from various shops. I am donating all of my royalties from the design to Maggies Cancer charity.

This is the last blog post of 2011. Thank you to everyone who reads about what I've been up to, its been a brilliant year and I'm looking forward to sharing some of my projects of 2012 on here. We hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!!!!

Luv Rob, Lorna, Hazel, Libby, Jackie and Michelle

This year I was asked by St Judes gallery to feature in a new publication called Random Spectacular. The book includes work by artists such as Angie Lewin, The Gentle Author and me along with many other brilliant artists. The first issue is an edition of 750 and the profits from the sales of the first issue are being donated to Maggie's cancer charity. You can get a copy here!!!

If you're coming into Charing Cross train station in London this winter, look out for (although you can't miss it!!!) the Coutts bank window on the other side of the road. I have created a Christmas window for them to raise money for Kids Company. Incorporated into the windows there is a stuffed Elephant, a Dolls House and a Rocking Horse which are being auctioned off with the proceeds going to Kids Company. You can also make a £5 donation to Kid's Company by texting KIDS HELP to 70700.
Thank you to Ltd Limited who did a beautiful job installing the display and Coley Porter Bell who made the whole thing happen!!!

Untitled from THE POPULAR SOCIETY on Vimeo.

For the last four years I have designed a Christmas card for the fantastic Modus. The very talented John Brown makes my design come to life and each year I look forward to seeing how John will animate it.

I will be doing my second Christmas fair this year at the annual Mangle Christmas sale. The Mangle is where I share a print studio with Dan Holliday and RAD skating company Lovenskate!!! I will be selling my Christmas wrapping paper, as well as slight seconds of ceramics and possibly some other bits too!!
A few of my other good friends will be selling bits and bobs, including Hazel Nicholls, Suzie Winsor, Lorna Ryan of Barbara Bearo, French, Kim Jenkins and Lilli Cowley-Wood & Jazmine Miles-Long and that's not even everyone!!!
The sale will be taking place at DreamBagsJaguarShoes this Saturday 10th December, 11am - 6pm.

Today is the first Christmas Wednesday on Columbia Road of 2011. Every year, the shops on Columbia road open their doors on Wednesday evenings (usually only open on weekends) throughout December.
For those of you who are close-by, its a lovely way to spend a cold winters evening. Shops open around 5pm and close at 9pm, including Ryantown.

If you are unable to get to any of the evenings, I have put some of my screenprinted Christmas cards on etsy today, which you can see here, along with lots of other handmade products from Ryantown.

Tomorrow I am off to JAPAN for ELEVEN days !!!! I'm pretty excited about it and I am going to blog about my trip as it unfolds on my personal blog.

youcanstilldoalotwithasmallbrain.blogspot.com/

We're still a little way off from 2012 yet, but not long to go now!!! The new design for our desk calendars have just arrived and will be in Ryantown this weekend!

This year, I'm taking part in Bust magazine's Craftacular sale and have produced this (cheap!!!) Christmas wrapping paper for the sale!!! Its printed on newsprint and will be available in blue, red and green.
I'm going to be selling these, alongside brilliant artists and designers such as Hazel Nicholls, Lilli Cowley-Wood and Jasmine Miles Long, Kim Jenkins and Tatty Devine

I was asked by Graham and Green along with 15 other artists and designers to customise a plain white resin stags head.

The heads will be auctioned off with all of the proceeds going to the homeless charity, Centrepoint. You can bid by going to the website here
They will also be selling the plain white stags heads from their website, with 16% of the sale also going to Centrepoint.

My good friend and brilliant handbag designer, Mimi Berry is celebrating the 10 year birthday of her company by having a wall of her handbags in the Tatty Devine shop on Brick Lane throughout November and December. She asked me to design a birthday card on which a Tatty designed leather brooch (based on a silhouette of Mimi and her beautiful dog Dora) sits.

Happy Birthday Mimi!!!!

We're currently in the process of printing a version of the papercut I did for the Mapping show (see below). It is called 'The Map of My Entire Life' and is a three colour print.
Unfortunately it won't be available to buy on Etsy as it is too big for us to post out but it will be available at Ryantown or from TAG Fine Arts.


The print reads:

'I used to live in one of those little houses down there and I still remember every road and every field and every brick and stone. Everything you can see was the map of my entire life. The raging battleground of all my victories and defeats, from up here just looks like a pretty pattern. Every single minute was a struggle but not a second goes by when I don't wish I was back down there... mixing it up again on good old planet earth.'

TAG Fine Arts (who sell my work for me) are having a map related art exhibition quite soon, it looks pretty interesting and I have made a small piece that will be in the show too !

The exhibition runs from 14th - 26th November at The Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1S 4NE.

A couple of weeks ago, I went up to Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a book signing. It was such a brilliant day and so good to meet so many people who want to read my book!!!

As an exclusive to my shop and YSP, I've done a limited edition screenprint of one of my favourite pages from the A Sky Full of Kindness.


Available from Ryantown, YSP and online at etsy

You may know that I have an online shop on the handmade marketplace Etsy. Every so often, etsy make a brilliant film about one particular seller, there have been some amazing insights into the work that goes into each sellers' products and this time they came to film me!!!

You can see more videos on etsy's blog here

My new book 'A Sky Full Of Kindness' has its official release date this Thursday, 13th October and to celebrate, we've produced this limited edition lasercut which is an adaption of one of the pages in the book.

The lasercut measures approx 59cm wide x 39cm high so is our biggest one to date!! It is in edition of 250, signed and reads:


"We promise by the spirits of all the birds that have ever been, that are and ever will be, that we will care for this child. Every feather, every bone and beak is precious to us and every bird in our small community and to the greater family of all the birds. We promise to keep the egg safe. We promise to keep the child safe. We promise to help this small, small bird in this big, big world."

Available from TAG Fine Arts

Those of you who read the brilliant 'Stylist' magazine may already have read the lovely article they have written about my new book 'A Sky Full Of Kindness'. For the unlucky people who didn't manage to get a copy, you can read the article here.
Also a MASSIVE thank you to everyone at Stylist for the cake they sent us along with a copy of the magazine!!! It truly was incredible - have a look!!!