new print // hollyhocks

The hollyhocks have been amazing this year. I only had the one plant in the garden + over the years more + more have popped up. So tall + full of blooms. This summer there were so many to admire in all wonderful shades of pink, pale yellow + white. In the past even the deeper, dark shades appeared which I enjoyed plant-dyeing some cotton lengths with, using their purple petals. With some quiet time away from orders, I started to sketch + design a new print inspired by these beautiful flowers in the garden.

With the size + scale of block in mind, I decided to make a print to fit onto cards + smaller sized lampshades. I really enjoy printing notelet cards. This is where my hand-printing journey began back in 2009/10; making floral notelet bundles + selling them on Etsy + Folksy. Do you remember? I was called “Hanmade” back then. I even designed a hollyhock repeat print using 4 separate blocks. I’d stamp them onto a large sheet of recycled paper + mount them onto cardstock. The leftover paper strips were then turned into floral paperchains.

This was a sweet design to be working on/re-working on + look back on.

As it’s been a long period of dry weather, I actually noticed all the hollyhock seed pods after flowering. Normally the wet + windy weather would take them before I had chance to save any seeds.

With a bumper-crop this year, I have collected a large bag full which I’ll be sprinkling about the garden but also I’ll be popping a lot into little seed packets…

I handprinted some tiny pink envelopes to fill with seeds. I really enjoyed printing these too!

With each order I will be including a complementary seed packet because who wouldn’t love to receive a little envelope full of hollyhock seeds?! I hope these will be something for you to enjoy in your garden. They can grow in cracks of the pavement + will happily self-seed over the years. I can’t be certain of their colours but I’m sure it will be a joyful mix!

New // Hollyhocks - block printed floral bundles + little lampshade drums are now available from my website. Hand printed in Blush using recycled ivory-fleck cardstock + natural cotton.

I hope you like this new floral design.