Watson's Toffee

Not many people know this but I have been perfecting a sea salt caramel toffee recipe over the last few years. I first made a batch in 2011 which I found in some dog eared back issue of Good Food magazine. 

Never ever to this day have I ever produced a batch that looked remotely like the picture in the magazine but what I did discover was that sugar, butter, cream and golden syrup are made to be together. Add a pinch of Malden sea salt and ...

                           BINGO!
                                      #confectionary heaven.


I've had many orders and filled armfuls of kilner jars and this Christmas, sorry to spoil the surprise friends/family, I'll be giving out my 2013 vintage. This year, I discovered edible glitter - YAY! 

But as well as creating a toffeetastic taste sensation I'm enjoying creating the brand. Its still in the early stages but my christmas batch is going to looking something like this.

a bit retro with a hint of pop art. 

Fancy trying a festive toffee for yourself? Drop me an email and I can pop a pack in the post.

Happy Christmas!

Two things...

I've been a bit busy. Um. But I have two things to share.

One:

The Serpentine Pavillion. 

Designed, this year, by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. It's inspiring and fun and clever and moving and I liked it. Go and sit in it and walk over it and run through it. It's only there till Oct 20th.

Two:

Did another quick iPad scrawl. Not finished but has shades of Mr McGregors garden.

More iPad sketches

I'm really enjoying this iPad app and I am back sketching regularly. Well, much more than I was. This is the result of a trip to Borough Market.

Love the way the transparency of the glass seemed to work. Now that I have a stylus I could experiment with type. There is quite a bit of work being carried out at the market at the moment and I hope they don't get rid of this classic old entrance sign.

A bit further down the street is one of my favourite shops...

 So I really wanted to get that iconic logo recognisable and the joy of iPad sketchbook is ...undo...undo...undo...etc. To be honest it took about 5 goes and its not perfect but its close enough. Not finished yet and I'll get back to it shortly.

I wonder if there is a market for an iPad easel??

*click>google>click*

yup

iPad on easel

Oh, now this gives me an idea...back soon...

iPad as a sketchbook?

One of my new year resolutions was to start an iPad sketchbook. Back in the day I may have said I would fill a sketchbook but a digital sketchbook is...well...endless.

First task was to find the right app.

The first one I downloaded was Art Set. It was free although now seems to be £0.69. I  wasn't expecting much and started using it for playing hangman with my friends on the plane to Mykonos last summer. However, I did take it a bit more seriously when I used it to paint my first picture. I was pretty impressed. It takes a bit of time getting used to the brushes, the finger pressure and the clever/odd way the colours mix but I really started to enjoy it and the result wasn't too dreadful. In fact it was far better than had I been using oils on canvas. And a lot less messy.

Being able to 'undo' a brush stroke is just genius although in the end I did that less and less as I saw how the colours mixed and merged to create some interesting results.

On the downside, the app design is pretty drab and clunky. Trying to find a new bit of paper, change colour, texture is a bit of an ordeal but there is lots to choose from. 

I would certainly recommend this app for a beginner iPad painter.

But what I was really looking for was to turn my iPad into a sketchbook. Recently I've noticed a couple of very neat apps popping up and my favourite by far is Paper. First off, its beautifully designed and bases its sketchbook visuals on the Moleskin design. Very user friendly, simple tools (only one comes free with the app - the others you need to buy) really satisfying watercolour textures, the pens write beautifully so you actually can use this in a sketchbook style. I took it to work and sketched a few logo ideas:

And I really started to put it too the test with some sketches from photos that I took of London over the last couple of weeks.

This one of the Gherkin was done just with my finger and although it lacks quite a bit of detail it was quick and it still manages to get the essential detail of the buildings. 

Then I thought...its time for a stylus. So I bought a Bamboo pocket stylus and so far, I'm loving it. Here's the Millennium bridge

I can now get much more detail in the image but it doesn't loose its fluidity. I have now also taken the final plunge and bought the full colour mixer so future sketchbook posts should be a bit more colourful.

More coming soon...

Today I made a dog

Her name is Fifi. And she is a little bit fabulous. She's going to be the star attraction (or at least she thinks she will be) of a new book I'm designing. Superbly illustrated by Sophie Joyce. Fifi will be strutting her stuff along with Scoot the Daschund, at the Bologna Children's Book Fair later this month. 

Photographing The Shard is easy. Taking a unique and interesting photograph however, is a challenge and it's a challenge that I'm quite willing to take on over the coming year. 
I'm starting with this:

It's got humour which I like. It's dramatic which is a mandatory requirement, and a smattering of architectural juxtaposition not to be sniffed at.

This reminded me of a competition I read about in Time Out recently that has been rattling around my head ever since. It was asking readers to submit a cover image that defined London for them. Well, this does it for me. When once it was Big Ben, it's now The Shard.

So, I did this and sent it off to them...

Worried that they would think I did some simple Photoshop jiggerypokery, I also attached the Googlemap street view of the exact location. How different things looked in 2008.

Yesterday I took the day off work. Not working on a Monday is a luxury beyond words. Not that I spent it in bed, oh no. 

First stop: The Shard. I think its one of the most impressive buildings to have pierced the London skyline in recent time. It's £25 well spent in my view. And what a view. Not just from building but IN it.   

UP

DOWN

OUT

If you can't beat 'em. Join 'em. Its taken a while but here's my Blog.

It's going to be more visual than my written drivel.

It'll contain my observations about London predominantly, accidental visuals, and my own sketches.

Some key words that will become the backbone structure of my posts are:

LONDON

BICYCLE 

GRAPHIC DESIGN

TYPOGRAPHY

COLOUR

ARCHITECTURE

FASHION

Intro over. Let's get started. 

Oh, and feel free to add your comments. Might make it worth reading!