Kinected

My new old obsession - kinetic typography

Package Deal

Recently I've been thinking that it's about time I released some of my creative wankery upon the world, so I decided to start selling some shizz. Sales were at an all time low with my trademarked "Wait-until-someone-asks-you-to-make-them-something" approach so I decided I should probably make a fresh start by setting up shop somewhere. I have an Etsy shop although I've never done anything with it, but I'm not completely in love with the site. I feel it's gotten a bit big for it's boots and kinda lost it's initial charm, plus then I run the risk of something I make ending up on Regretsy though I'm not totally convinced that's a bad thing! A friend of mine uses Folksy, but I haven't properly taken the time to check that site out so if anyone could give me any info that'd be much appreciated :) also, a lot of people I know are doing the whole "Selling Your Shit On Facebook" thang, but that doesn't appeal hugely. I'd like to be a bit more professional than that.

So. To my point. Pardon my french, but I'm fucking obsessed with packaging. Obsessed. If you're gonna give me a gift the contents of the package are relatively inconsequential compared to the joys and delights of well-designed packaging.

One of my favourite boxes. It was like getting an enormous easter egg!!

When Woody handed me my gift bag for my birthday and I pulled out that little Tiffany-blue (cos it was, y'know, Tiffany) card bag I was already in raptures, but when I looked inside and saw two little rectangular boxes I was ecstatic. Not because I had two pieces of Tiffany jewellery, but because that meant there was two lots of packaging to squee over! And THEN, when I opened the boxes, there was *gasp* another layer of packaging!!! Each item was in a little drawstring bag which was (be still my beating heart) divided inside to keep the silver from rubbing. You could have chucked two cheap bangles from Claire's Accessories in them and I would still be in pig heaven just because of the presentation. I want other people to be as excited about my packaging as I was that day. I want to spread the happiness brought to me by layers of cardboard and tissue and paper and and and....

Ok, NOW I'll get to my point! I'm struggling to come up with a packaging design I like. I like colour but only when used sparingly. I'd normally go for classic black and white, but I'm not feeling it this time. So what's a girl to do? I think I might combine the three! Like, black and green with white accents, and vice versa. And then there's the dilemma of what KIND of packaging to use! Plastic pouches, paper wrapped, boxes?

SO MUCH CHOICE!!!

Methinks it's about time to put what graphic design knowledge I have to good use and try to come up with something. I'm doing Visual Communication at college this year so hopefully that'll get the old creative juices flowing properly! If any of you have ideas you care to share, feel free to leave me a note in the comments :)


Do YOU have any odd obsessions?

My Gas Heart

Is in a state of constant fluctuation...
One minute vapour-light
The next lead heavy
In the blink of an eye it goes from empty to full

And back again
But never is it in one fixed state, or still
Always either agonizingly tender
Or hollow and vacant
Longing to be filled at just the right level

To be content

Holy Graded Unit, Batman!

SO, I'm doing my Graded Unit in college right now. Basically it's a really intense unit where we're given a choice of briefs which we then have to complete in 3 sections: Planning, developing, and evaluation. We're given a mark for each and then given a grade, either A, B or C, at the end. The brief I chose is "Book and Box - The Human Body". Considering how interesting I find the human body and anatomy etc, I thought I'd find this not easy, but easIER than other subjects.

WROOOOOOOONG!!

Basically, I've drawn myself into a corner. My subject matter is body modification and what it has to do with the human body. My problem is I'm honestly struggling to think what to actually put in the book! As it is, my sketchbook is full of research on hand-bound books, what kind of book I want to make, research on the human body and soon it'll have my body mod research in it too. I'm just really not sure what to do WITH the research when I have it! I was thinking about putting in stuff about tribal modification, irreversible modification, amputations, that kinda thing. Not necessarily just piercings and tattoos! And I still have NO idea what to do about the box...and I need to have ALL THIS DONE BY WEDNESDAY MORNING.

Argh.

So yeah I have a favour to ask of all my lovely readers :) if you have ANY ideas what I could do about either the content of the book or the box, let me know! Also, another idea I had was putting in pictures of peoples tattoos and their reasons behind them (completely anonymously of course), so if any of you have a story you wish to share about your inkage, again let me know! You'd all be doing me a HUGE favour!

I also thought I'd share a few photos of what I've done so far, and a couple that are just me being a total artfag :D

Painty swirls

Stuff about "Coptic" book binding

Stuff about handmade books

Human anatomy on treated paper

Human body stuff on treated paper

Pages from a book that I "altered". Every element is from a story about Thomas Chippendale

Muscles of the face in coloured pencil on treated paper

Painted muscles of the arm


*phew* there we go!

Knitted brows

I'm an arty type. I like to experiment with different types of arty and crafty stuff, but find I get down pretty quickly if I don't pick something up as quickly as I'd like. A lot of the girls I know are very crafty and come up with the loveliest things, and I find myself quite envious at times, so I wanted to make more of an effort this year to get better at the things I struggle with.

My friend Susie has kindly offered to teach me how to knit properly! I know how to KNIT, if that makes sense...but that's about it! I'm rubbish at reading charts and counting stitches, so I can knit a mean square, hell I could probably knit a whole scarf or blanket! But a hat to go with them? Not so much. And what the hell is felting? I thought I knew but after checking out Loraines blog I realised I don't have a freakin' clue! THIS is the sort of thing I want to do!!

So I have loads of needles (plastic unfortunately) and wool and I'm gonna see when she has time. I've been seeing some of the stuff friends have been making and it's making me itch to get something going. I hae 2 awesome knitting books so I'll see if she'll take me through some of those patterns to get me going.

There's a LOT of stuff I'm interested in improving on, but for some reason knitting is stuck in my head ATM, so I might as well grab it and run with it. It'll probably be yet another of my flash-in-the-pan interests (again. This isn't the first time I've tried to take it up!) but meh. If it keeps me occupied and gets me spending more time with friends then it can only be a good thing :)

A quick pictorial round-up

Crafty nut

FINALLY finished the cross-stitch I've been working on for a day or so. It's not very big but I'm out of practice!

It says "if you would be loved, love and be loveable". The other 3 have little mottos as well. Just can't decide what to do with it now...I was going to make them into aperture cards, but then I thought I might attach 2 back to back and fill to make a pin cushion or wall hanging. But then the lovely hubby suggested making them into Biscornus, so I can't make up my mind! Decisions decisions : )

To DON'T list

Ok, my to-do list has gotten soooo far away from me. It's not even funny! I'm a bit behind on college work cos I find it hard to work with certain lecturers so I prefer to do their work at home. Unfortunately the XBOX is at home, as is the interwebs, so procrastination is the name of the game most of the time! So I have college work to catch up on, I have a diary to keep for one class, and I'm falling over stuff with tattoos. I have pin-up girls to draw, crosses to measure, flowers to design, and Larry Burns and Rover (yes Rover) Dangerfield to work with! Oh, and I have an arts and crafts table at a cheese and wine night lol  in 2 weeks so I need to make a lot of stuff to go to that with.

It's all gogogo but unfortunately I'm lacking in motivation right now. Instead of working on any of this, I spend most of my free time on the internet, because the idea of picking up a pen/pencil/paintbrush is a complete anathema to me right now. Sometimes I think I'm taking on too much, but if I don't have enough to keep me occupied then it just feels worse. Plus the busier my hands are, the less they are to wander to the cookie jar or crisp bag! I know a few people right now who are trying to lose weight so I'd rather try my hardest along with them. It's not going to be easy!

But, anyway, the mother-in-law will be in soon, which means I can borrow her embroidery thread and get to work on a couple of things I want to make. I'll just have to hide my sketchbook tomorrow and hope my lecturer doesn't notice!!

Mercy Me

So. For my "Creative Process" class, we were told to choose a song and examine the lyrics and their content, take either part of the song or the whole thing, and produce a final illustration inspired by it. I wasn't keen on any of the tracks my lecturer had given us, except "Birdhouse In Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants, but my sister got to that one first. So I chose "Mercy Me" by Alkaline Trio, as I really identify with the song the sentiments of the lyrics. This makes me sound soooo emo, but hey, I'm emo without mean-o!

But my problem is I have nooooo idea what to do! So far all I've done is write out the lyrics on stained paper in my sketchbook, then write some reasons on why I chose the song, and do a painting of the front cover of the single. I can't think of anything else!!

Help!!

xo

Pomegranate punishment

Pomegranate drawn on pomegranate-stained paper

Stained paper

Tattoo Post 0002

Had a few more bookings this week, both with friends. K again for her angel memorial tattoo, and L for her Gingerbread Man idea. Have to say I'm very pleased with the results!

Some of my readers will know the story behind this one. If you don't, then it's not important :)

I still panic a bit when I do black and grey shading... I know these things take time and practice, but I've never been the most patient of people. I want to be like Chris Garver NOW!!! Soon, young padawan. A good tattooist is not built in a day!

Next, we have Ls gingerbread men! She's pretty much obsessed with them, and had been harping on about wanting a tattoo of one for ages. She originally wanted this idea around her wrist but unfortunately we couldn't make them small enough without losing the detail, so we kept them a little bigger and put them inside her forearm. She wants to add a wee glass of milk on her wrist when they're healed XD

xo

Tattoo Post 0001

Ok, so for the first in a series of me showcasing (LOL) some of my tattoo work, I thought I'd post this one. Tis one of my most recent, and although it's only small and simple I really like how it turned out. That and it's one of the only ones I have an available photo of right now yes I'm lazy, leave me alone!

It is on my friend K. She has a very close relationship with her mother, and is a mum of 3 herself, so she wanted something to symbolise this. She wanted an old-school design in a new-school style, so I like to think I got this right!

She loves it anyway!


xo