Christmas post

I'm finally feeling Christmasy after a tough week or so. Christmas cake always makes me feel better so here's the first real cake post on here. I'm afraid I can't promise to keep you a piece!



More cake posts will follow in the new year and I'll keep my fingers crossed that they don't end up on cake wrecks - if you haven't seen this blog already you should check it out as it's seriously funny.

We haven't had time to put up any decorations so I hope all our presents are small enough to fit under this Christmas tree book that I've made (beautiful handmade cards from friends in the background).


Happy Christmas everyone!

It'll be lonely this Christmas

After the length of time it took me to make my brooch I was really excited to complete both a pair of earrings and a necklace at my class this week. In fact I was so excited I wore them all to work. But sadly on a lunchtime excursion (for kuchen) I lost one of the earrings. There wasn't even enough time to photograph the pair so here's the one lonely earring and necklace.


On the bright side the necklace on its own is very wearable.

Are we nearly there yet?

The brooch is finally finished. After a long saga of failed oxidation and scrubbing and yet more scrubbing the copper eventually turned black. And then it took just a matter of minutes to put it all together et voila:-


So now what? Well, I guess I'll have to try wearing it!

An excellent example of a displacement reaction

The aim was to turn the copper black. It worked but then sadly the 'black' rubbed off under water - not a good look on a rainy day. So I spent most of the class scrubbing the blackness off to the point where it now looks exactly the same as it did last week!

On a happier note I did manage to turn the small central bit (or carpel, if like Elanor you majored in biology) black using another dodgy looking solution. The addition of a pin is also critical to the effectiveness of the piece.

Next week I'll be putting the leaves in the dodgy solution (wish I could remember all that chemistry I did at school) and hopefully finishing off...

Spot the difference

After 3 more hours of work this is how the brooch is looking:


For those not sure how this is different from the last post there have been several steps to get here. I've soldered on a tube on the front to hold the flower in place and a tiny tube and a hook on the back for the brooch pin.

After all that soldering the copper was extremely flexible so I had to hit it with a hammer. The really important lesson I learned is that it is definitely not a good idea to hit the tiny tube with the hammer otherwise it's back to the blow torch!

See saw

The votes are in and counted so the once bag is soon to be a brooch. It took me 3 hours to saw these three bits of copper. I'll leave you to puzzle over what they're all for while I do my homework.

Kilts for Kids day

I was really pleased to learn that Kilts for Kids day has won the Institute of Fundraising (Scotland) Partnership Fundraising Award. I'm looking forward to this year's big day on 27th November and wondering what everyone's doing for it?

designjr is in business

I've finally sorted myself out with some business cards for designjr. Why is it always so hard doing your own marketing? It's taken me all year to come up with my own but for others it can be done in a few hours!

From bags to brooches?

If you've been following my blog you'll know that I've been doing a non-precious metals jewellery class. Well it certainly is non-precious - I took a simple plastic bag to class and turned it into this:
Now the question is should it be (a) a brooch (b) a bracelet or (c) a ring?

A perfect weekend

Last weekend I had the loveliest time...book binding at the Edinburgh Printmakers. It was so relaxing and yet we created so many books including a hard back note book in a short space of time. The results are amazing and I think I may have to continue to make books. Thanks to Alice Melvin who is a great teacher and fab illustrator - check out her website here www.alicemelvin.com

I felt inspired...

so here's this weeks creations from my jewellery class:



As you can image (if you know me at all) I had lots of fun creating things out of felt fibres. Maybe with a bit of imagination I can see where these might go jewellery wise but I think there may have to be a bit more experimentation first. Did I mention that this is a non-precious metals jewellery class?

Big lips, little bird!

As a Friday treat I decided to go into Stampers Grove at Tollcross on my way home. I've been in lots of times but never actually bought any stamps. Today I bought 2 totally randomly. Walking to the station I realised what they are...big lips, little bird!

Little bird

This is a little bird illustration I did a while ago. It's drawn and then stitched onto canvas. I'd really like to make some more like this but this one took me ages!

Jewellery?

So maybe I was a bit over ambitious when I said look out for interesting and unusual jewellery from my class. My first attempts have been interesting...




...and you can maybe see how they are the beginnings of something unusual. Watch this blog to see if they miraculously transform into some jewellery!

istockphoto

Some lovely members of istockphoto have given me some excellent ratings for my Heather Ball leaflet in the Designer Spotlight section. Check it out here
Also see here for a fundraising poster I did for Children 1st which has also been given some pretty good ratings. :-)

Heather Ball leaflet

Flyer to advertise the Children 1st annual fundraising Heather Ball. This year it has the theme of Rouge et Noir. I think the red feather border gives the leaflet a certain je ne sais quoi!

Started my jewelery evening course tonight. Looks like I'm going to be learning some fun techniques including using my favourite material...felt! Watch this space for some strange and unusual jewelery.

Gingerbread bride & groom

People have been asking me about what my wedding favours were so here they are...
For the top table I made gingerbread people in the likeness of everyone in their wedding get up. Sadly I only have a photo of the bride and groom. I had a very relaxing time in the days before the wedding baking biscuits and rolling icing!

Kilts for Kids day adverts are now out and about on buses in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen so I'm on full bus advert alert!

Kilts for Kids day

I worked on the design concept for Kilts for Kids with the Blue Room design agency for Children 1ST. This year we wanted it to be much more fun and to try to attract more people to join in the fundraiser. The posters use close up images of the models and I've used scribbles in the pack to highlight bits.

Leaflet for the Children 1st bfriends service. So that we didn't have to get different versions of the leaflet printed for each of four offices we printed and stuck on labels in-house.

Yummy magazine

Student project to design and layout a front cover and four double page spreads for a magazine of our choosing.

Healthy Hub

Student project to design an identity for The Healthy Hub. A Community Interest Company running a wholefoods retail facility, café restaurant, small business and research facilities. The facilities are aimed at thirty something mums, students, people who care and people who have a disposable income.

Design included logo, stationery, promotional materials, website, packaging and menus.

Final Design Brief (of my HND)

My final HND brief was to design an identity for the Healthy Hub which among other things was a cafe. These are the front cover and double page spreads from Wholesome magazine, a publication by the Healthy Hub as part of that identity.

Parisienne Graffiti

Photograph of graffiti on a wall taken on a trip to in Paris December '08

Carefree Californian Wine

College project to design a wine bottle label for Carefree Californian Wine. Design used illustrations by Alan Fletcher and a scrunched up piece of paper around the bottle.

Galaxy Chocolate

College project to design posters including a limited edition logo to advertise a special edition Galaxy chocolate bar called Happiness. Melted galaxy chocolate was used to write the words happy and chocolate.

German poster

Typography idea based on posters seen in Munich in May '09

Randon illustration

A random illustration that was the result of playing with illustrator.

first post

hello! Welcome to my new blog.