This year’s Felt Christmas Gift Guide has caught everyone’s eye with its beautiful kōwhai and vibrant colours, and we have Whanganui-based artist and graphic designer Helene Hall to thank for it. The native foliage and New Zealand butterflies adorning the Gift Guide are Helene’s stunning handpainted illustrations, artfully arranged to complement the fabulous array of beautiful products by Kiwi makers that features in the collections.
Creative since childhood, Helene’s career as a graphic designer led her to start creating unique illustrated Christmas gifts for her clients – an idea which naturally turned into a second business. Her shop on Felt, heysmartypants, is stocked with calendars, wrapping papers, notebooks, cards, posters, gift tags, and bookmarks that feature her distinctive illustrations and reveal her love of paper as a material and creative outlet.
She approaches her work with structure, creating her illustrations around a strong theme and building sets of 6, 12, or 24, to make up an annual calendar as well as developing into a range of prints and paper-based products. Inspiration comes from her own nature observations and photography of native plants, trees, flowers, and butterflies, as well as research visits to libraries and museums.
“Being surrounded by New Zealand’s flora and fauna gives me so much joy, and to be able to express that through my art and share it is pretty special. I love taking photos and using them as my source of inspiration for painting and illustrating. My photography evolves into drawings so I have a strong style to paint and illustrate from.”
It’s this iconic style that has lent itself so brilliantly to working with the Felt team to design this year’s Christmas Gift Guide, and to represent the Felt community of which Helene herself has been part for nearly ten years.
“I love to support other creators and artists because I know what that feels like to be supported. It’s such a warm validation. And purchasing from someone who has put their heart and soul into something makes it feel so much more special.”
Visit Helene’s Felt shop, heysmartypants, to find gorgeous prints, stationery, and pohutukawa wrapping paper! You’ll also see her products featured in the Christmas Gift Guide, among more than 2000 hand-picked gift ideas from makers, designers, and craftspeople across Aotearoa, for everyone on your Christmas shopping list.
