Meet the Artist: Jelly Armchair Pt. 1
Q1: Fairy lights…. multi-coloured, or warm white?
Multicoloured always! I’ve never been good at being neat - I’m a magpie for colour and sparkle - Cat
Always multicoloured - the louder the better. Points for outdoor trees with big multi coloured bauble lights. My favourite - Liz
Q2: Favourite Christmas film?
For both of us, I think it’s got to be Muppets' Christmas Carol. A yearly Christmas Eve tradition for us. Liz even made me a Rizzo the rat birthday cake one year with moulded chocolate. Where I had to “Light the (birthday candle), not the rat!” - Cat
Q3: Brussels sprouts - love ‘em or hate ‘em?
They’ve grown on me. Part of the evolution into adulthood is learning to accept sprouts I reckon. - C
Q4: As a family-run business, with a name inspired by your Grandpa, and sisters working together, with Dad joke input from Dad, what are your most treasured festive family traditions?
There always has to be Pandoro - our Dad’s mum was Italian and although we never knew her, we did inherit this tradition via our Dad and Grandad. The perfect Christmas 4 pm snack. With copious amounts of vanilla sugar. This and the Muppet Christmas Carol are non-negotiable traditions. - L
Q5: How different was creating playing cards for Flick from your normal hilarious greeting cards?
Tricky in some ways because the majority of our cards find their humour in puns and wordplay so playing with just the characters and trying to keep the same level of silly was a fun challenge. But also really fun in getting to put our spin on something so classic. I loved the experience of seeing them become something you can play with and they sparkle and spin! It’s very satisfying. - C
Q6: Who would you love to collaborate with next?
I’d quite like to work with an ethical clothing brand and make some more repeating pattern designs. I liked making the worktop for the cards a repeat design so this could be fun. - C
I harbour secret biscuit-based desires and hope we’ll one day be able to work to put some puns on some iced biscuits because the puns would be even sweeter if they were edible. - L
Q7: Please tell us about your beautiful hand-drawn designs on the playing cards in Deck the Halls.
I drew them all with ink, watercolour and coloured pencils. It’s a very therapeutic process using these materials and making silly characters come to life. It was a chance to play with some of the characters I have drawn before for our cards and get them to have even more fun! - C
Q8: What is your favourite suit and why?
I like hearts. I really love drawing Santa, he is a very satisfying character to draw. I think the King and Queen of Hearts cards are my favourites. - C
Q9: Do you enjoy card games, if so which is your favourite?
I have to admit since working on this project I’ve become a bit hooked on spider solitaire! I remember playing it when it was on our 90s computer growing up so it’s been all coming back to me. - C
Q10: Who is your biggest inspiration?
Oh man, I feel so inspired by so many different illustrators. I love those who show enjoyment of ink humour and character. A few names that can come to my brain at the moment….W. Heath Robinson, Églantine Ceulemans, Ronald Searle, Quentin Blake, Charles M. Schulz, Mattias Adolfsson, Beatrix Potter, Shirley Hughes, Posy Simmonds, Nick Butterworth, Freya Hartas, Emma Ruth Brook, Janet Ahlberg but there’s many more! I don’t know if any are the biggest. My biggest inspirations tend to be people in my life who are doing the things that make them happy and making things happen. - C