This month has been pretty major. So much has happened and it's all very grown up and scary. Forewarning, this is a very short blog! although lots has happened, a lot of things this month are still processing and not a lot to write home about. Its all about the beginning of new chapters, which is all very exciting. So first of all design wise, I now have over 100 wedding designs. I still haven't managed to get them all printed, so I took a few crappy photos of some of my designs on my screen in work. So as you can see crappy images of my screen, I am hoping to get these all printed off soon and take even better images of them all. The website is to launch next month which is exciting and crazy soon! So I am hoping a lot more to show next month.
It's pretty crap that everything has been delayed, unfortunately my work was hit with the computer virus that had also hit the NHS, We are still recovering and but have just more or less gotten back to normal. So hopefully this won't delay the launch of the website. In other news, which has more or less taken over my life at the moment. My partner and I have just got a sale agreed on a house and are now going through process of buying it! Hopefully next month will have more developments and more to show and tell!
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So a fair bit has gone on this month. My eldest brother turned 30, which is terrifying! So happy belated birthday again! The rest of this month has been a bit all over the place! My work got hit by the big computer virus that hit the NHS and hit probably a good few people you may know too. So for the past two weeks I havent been able to design due to this. At the moment I have over 30 wedding designs although at the moment only some have been put onto paper As you can see some are clearly better than others. I will hopefully have even more to show next month, especially when I am able to get back into the swing of things. Minus design and arty farty things. I havent really been up to much (story of my life). I have just been house hunting This was a little guy we bumped into while waiting on the estate agent to show. Meet Neill.
So yea, I cant really think of anything else that has happened this month..... please enjoy some photos of my fuzzy furball babies So, as I said in Febuary i was very unlikely to make a post in March. Due to being in Sand stormy Las Vegas!.... whooooo The above picture was from our hotel room. Totally amazing place, I would go back. Of course when we were there, as i breifly mentioned earlier. Las vegas experianced the worst sand storm they had seen in 15 years..... our timing was great. We were in Walmart when it first hit, lights and everything cut off... just as we were scanning our beer through too.... tipical. By the time this picture was taken, the back up generators had literally just kicked it. So, imagen this photo a lot darker lol. We of course did all the touristy stuff. Grand canyon, hoover dam, Zion and of course the casions and the strip. AND.... the gun range. Have to admit I had never shot a gun before, even broke a nail on the recoil from the first gun I shot. Didnt stop me though, was surprisingly a lot of fun. so enough about my holiday. I have also just been super busy! I was commissioned to make up a hilarious poster. Fart club. The above image is my final design. I had a lot of fun making this, I am a huge fan of the movie! So this was just great to do something related. Even if it is a parody. I had also been asked to redesign my works website. I have to admit, i hate web design. I gave it my best shot. With to be honest not much details on the way the design of the website was wanted. Sometimes it can be a blessing or a curse. However I did find it very difficult, got there in the end. However at the moment I dont have any permission to share the screen shots. Possibly next month. I have also been getting stuck into my wedding stationery. A little more so now that one of my best friends has just gotten engaged. Congrats to Johnny and Megan!
I have also been continuing on my venture of house hunting with my partner. That to be honest has taken up most of my time these days. Anyways, until next time.... Happy Pancake Day! and belated valentines day! So a hell of a lot of stuff has happened in this short little month, all good and I'd even go as far to say great things! Yep, I said it! and it is all a little scary too. So first of all, I got a promotion in work to starting to design some wedding stationary. I am having an absolute blast! I was a little worried about getting back into things but I have been designing a few things such as order of services, RSVP's, wedding invitations. I even have my first wedding customers. It's all very slow at the moment, the usual you get with clients.... they give you such little information on what they want. So you do your best. Then when you go back to them, they want something completely different. It's all part of the job. Here is what I designed. The top three designs are in order, wedding day invite, RSVP, and order of service. the bottom three are basically the inside or the other side of these. I even got a new computer with my promotion and everything! before and after It's so pretty! I also had a pretty good Valentines day. If you follow me on instagram you probably already saw it. Came home and my partner just told me we were going to bake. So we made stone age Nordic bread and brownies. I have to admit the Nordic bread was my absolute favorite. So tasty! I think pete has to work on his brownie making skills though :P Lush! As most of you probably already know, I have started to house hunt with my partner, we've even started to shop for our invisible house. Our little Ikea starter kit. House hunting has been so stressful! but things are definitely looking up, and keeping me super busy! That's really all from me for this month, next month my post may be a little late due to going on Holiday to none other than.... HAPPY PANCAKE DAY!!
I haven't really done anything this month... I have more or less just been planning. I have been working away on my dinosaur wedding invitations that I spoke about last month. At the moment I am just having a geek moment, playing with typography. I have also been looking into the more specifics of the wording used and I came across this beauty; I'm sure this is an oldy, but I honestly laughed my head off when I saw this. As my wedding invitations are just novelty. You can expect a simiar tone of whimsicalness. Minus my dinosaur novelty wedding invitations. I have also redesigned some business cards and made a gift voucher. I have to admit I have never made a gift voucher before, which wasn't difficult. However due to my client wanting the design to match her business card, I found it a bit challenging. I however think I got this to work. The business cards I created are a lot plainer. Having a simple white background with my client’s logo on the side. As shown below (I have removed clients information, hence why there is so much white) This also just the back of the new cards. My client wanted some space to actually write details on the card. The gift voucher also has a back with simply "To" and "From". This pretty much all I have done this month. I am planning on buying a new toy to help with creating more art on the go. My christmas present to me, from me. The Surface Pro 4, I hopefully will get this toy before christmas. SO EXCITED!!!!!! I'd also like to take this moment to congratulate Morgan and Ashleigh on the birth of their baby boy today Jacques.
That's all from me, I guess we start getting christmasie Little bit late with this months blog. I blame Halloween being way too awesome! So I have actually been up to a lot of stuff this month, not only designing new random things, but...... yea you know what that is basically all I have been doing. So first thing, I am a huge fan of Rock n Roll Bride. and after seeing a photo from their facebook page. I decided to create something a little different. You may or may not have seen this clue on my Instagram. (little bit of back story) I'm currently working at a printing company, we print a lot of designs for wedding stationery designers soooooooooooooo I thought I'd try my hand at it and after seeing the below picture from the Rock n Roll Bride magazine. So you've probably guessed it by now. I made dinosaur themed wedding invitations. Now I haven't yet finished it entirely but you get the idea SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN MAKING THIS!!! So yea hoping this month I will be able to get this finished as well as a few other designs I noticed I started and just due to life I haven't managed to get back to finish. So that is my goal for this month. So for Halloween I did a few different things. I went to the Crumblin Road Gaol paranormal tour in Belfast. I have to say I didn't see any ghosties, but it was.... interesting, but I have to admit it made me really want to do the actual tour. The most eerie thing that happened on the tour, and also turned out to be the funniest thing. We were standing in the hanging room where they had hung 15 of the 17 men to have been executed at the Gaol (I hope I remembered my numbers right) and when the tour guide began to call upon the last man who had been executed, the whole room fell silent waiting for any noise, any chance of a sign from beyond the grave. All we could hear was an ice cream truck's cheery music about a mile away from the gaol. Of course there was also pumpkins to be had...... many many pumpkins I basically sat the rest of Halloween carving pumpkins and watching scary movies. Speaking of scary movies, I even went to see John Carpenter's The Fog in the Barge in Belfast last night. I had never actually seen the movie before, I though it was pretty good. I think I more enjoyed going with my mates though and the atmosphere that was carefully created. Back to Dinosaurs! I unfortunately I was unable to make it to a baby shower this month due to going to see Alien Ant Farm in the Empire in Belfast and pretending to be 15 again..... oops. However I was still asked to design a baby bib.... So I created a dinosaur wearing ox blood red DM boots, with the world ending and aliens coming down to save the dinosaurs........ I'm totally sane........ kinda.
Em..... I think that's really it for this month. literally a lot of dinosaur things and pumpkin carving. Hoping to keep this month just as mad, and as I said earlier hoping to slightly back track and have another look at designs I started a little while ago and just finish them off. Also want to wish my partner another Happy Birthday :D So this month I actually did stuff, not as much as I would have liked but I have definitely done more. So I have been trying to really get back into my design, have actually been revisiting old work. I have also been experimenting a little bit So not too sure if you will recognize any of the above. These are from my British classic design project from university a variation of originals shown below and you can also find them in my store: Annnnnnnnd..... speaking of store, I added 4 of my multi coloured images to my shop, mainly cause I'm still not too happy with 2 of them here is a little snap of what I have added: I also looked back a little to my think happy thoughts t-shirt. I tweaked it a little bit, I changed some of the colours round, I'm still not happy with it. I may even just re-draw the whole thing. Before and After, I wanted to make it a little more warmer and I don't know why, but the moutashe colour was annoying me. I felt it had to be a closer colour to the unicorns natural hair colour. Yup. As I said though I am still not too happy with it, I want to go back and play more with highlights and shadows, or as I said previously just start the drawing again from scratch. I also went on holiday this month to Portugal. Literally the first time I have been out of the UK and Ireland in 9 years. It was stunning. I had a fantastic time, cool beer, hot weather and blue skies. I couldn't ask for anything more. I only wish I had gotten more photos.
My partner and I are even starting to plan our next holiday to Vegas baby! which should be good. This month I plan on just continuing to design more things, I have realised my portfolio is seriously lacking in so many elements. So I am planning to fix that. I also have more work lined up in the form of labels for some local products. All negotiations are still on going so I can't really talk much about it at the moment, but I am very excited. That's all from me for this month. Small summary of this month, I have a new job, new stuff in my shop, I have made more jewelry and I've just turned another year older. So very briefly, I have started a new job, so far everything is going really well I am currently working in a local printing company and learning how everything works. The company print things from flyers, posters, cards, calendars, etc. You name it they'll probably do it.. We get a lot of wedding planner stuff come through on a daily basis as well as some estate agency stuff from all over the UK. So it's been really nice having a nosy at all the designs that come through the door. I already feel like I am learning a fair bit. I have only been there two weeks so far but yea, we'll see how it goes. New stuff in zee shop, remember my bug designs? well i have put them on my red bubble account. Now I haven't finished with the insect designs, I have just been so busy/lazy recently with everything going on I haven't yet finished the whole insect series, but I have uploaded the ones that our finished to my shop. below is some of the items you can buy my patterns on. you can get these printed and just about anything check out my shop by going to the store section on the menu. Jewelry wise I haven't done as much this month as I would have liked but I have now got my own workshop at home. If you follow me on Instagram you'll already know all the fun stuff. So I have created my own workshop, I have started making things here and there and to be honest I have been doing more research and buying tools. First 3 images are just of my workshop it's self, the view from my window and me working away on a few things. last three are the creatures I have been making. none of these are finished as of yet. The birds I and still trying to decide if I should solder the birds together to make a pendent or to link them together to make them three separate pendents. The 3rd image is of the rabbit being prepared for some enameling. I also got some jewelry stuff for my birthday like engraving tools so I am going to try my best and get a bit more work done in the studio/workshop this month. I've also had a little bit of trouble with the enameling but I got some metal work books too so hopefully I'll be able to educate myself a little more. Talking of birthday... Here is an embarrassing photo of me cutting my birthday cake. I have to admit I am also very much into the new Pokemon Go game, so much so that I have renamed my caterpillar cake, caterpie. Here are a few photos of some of my gifts: (thought I had more photos) 4 colouring in books, which to be honest I have been using and it's actually great fun! I also just gave my partner a list of just some stuff I wanted. He liked one of the T-shirts I asked for so much that he bought one for himself.... so I guess we now have to make a schedule on what days we can wear them so we don't clash. I also got some homemade elder-flower champagne which you can see in the above image of me cutting my cake. I ended just doing a Pokemon Go pub crawl in Belfast. it was..... interesting LOL anyways... I think that's everything I have gotten up to this month.
So this month a lot has been going on, I have finished my flyers for M Mahood Music, I've done a few more buggy designs, I've finished my silversmiths course, I've just come back from Glastonbury, and I've even accepted a new job offer.......yep! So this year at Glastonbury was my 3rd year in a row. Between sleeping under tables on the ferry, the traffic getting into Glastonbury and the mud. I have admit, I am thinking of going elsewhere next year. I have always loved going to Glastonbury, but this year I just wasn't feeling it. Talk about a work out just going to the toilet or even getting food. It was a bit of a nightmare..... DAMN YOU MUD! Music was however fantastic as always! here's a few other pics from the festival. So here's the two main designs I created for M Mahood Music: I'm proud of these and I do feel they reflect and flow in with the logo that I had previously created. Plus I have a very happy client. Please visit and like their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MMahoodMusic/?fref=ts I have also continued on with making some bug patterns, last month they were winged, this month I have been doing more beetles. I am continuing on with these designs and I am hoping to have these all finished and added to my red bubble shop by the end of July. shop: http://www.redbubble.com/people/kerriestuff I also mentioned that my silversmithing course has ended. I have decided that this is definitely an art form I am wanting to continue with and experiment with. In my last few weeks I began to experiment with enameling copper. So using greens, browns and even blacks we experimented with the leaf shaped copper. Although the kiln wasn't hot enough, giving the enamel this bumpy bubbly effect. I feel it really works with the piece and definitely adds texture to the piece. 2nd image here was actually the first pieces I enameled, I put Rose Pink on both pieces and due to the position in the kiln, I managed to get the top one the lightest and the bottom a lot darker. I really love how this worked out, I am planning to turn this into a necklace. The 3rd and 4th images are of an only bit of scrap metal I had been experimenting with. I had talked about it in a previous blog, I just threaded wire through, and then put silver enamel on the copper. It gave the copper this really amazing look, again planning on turning this into a necklace. Here is the original piece before threading copper and brass wire through: On my last night of my course, I started to make little rabbits. I have to admit it was mainly due to finding other little copper rabbits in my scrap box and getting this song stuck in my head: My little scrap bunny. So I started making my own little bunnies in hope of enameling them white: these also really make me laugh, I made a skinny rabbit and a curvy one, keeping up with beauty standards. So yea, didn't get these quite finished but I am thinking about doing a bit more with the white rabbit theme. That's it really when it comes to the metal work stuff I have been doing lately. I am still experimenting away with other things. Although at the moment the workshop space that I use is being moved. So it's putting a little bit of a pause on things.
I also mentioned I have accepted a new job offer, I will be working with a graphic design company, starting in July. I've incredibly nervous about the whole thing but, it's a new venture, so we'll see how it goes. Catch you guys next time. A LOT HAS HAPPENED THIS MONTH! So, where to start. Logo design for M Mahood Music is done, currently still designing flyers but I am incredibly happy with the outcome, even my client is over the moon with it! Which is the most important thing! Hopefully my watermark isn't too over powering. But yea, this is what we came up with in the end. Very impressed it I don't say so myself ;) created using Illustrator and Photoshop. Here's a few of the logos that I played around with, before coming to the final: As you can see some a lot better than others. But there are many different stages that you go through when designing a logo. I had a lot of fun doing this! My Silversmithing course, has been very off and on, as I am getting to the stage where, to be honest I don't feel like I'm learning. I have noticed there is a huge difference from being at university and doing a part time course. If you basically showed interest in learning a technique and asked tutors in university, or if it was a tutors specialism. They got super excited and were pretty much awesome with showing you how it worked. So yea, I am getting to the point that YouTube is probably a better educator that any college or university, as well as cheaper! Which is a bit of a shame, but at the same time, it has made me hungry for knowledge! I've recently been experimenting with copper. Actually been very impressed with all the amazing colours and although I'm kind of doing it to waste time, I’m actually learning a lot from it: The above is just little pieces I have been experimenting with. Still lots of other stuff I want to experiment with but I have to admit, even experimenting with the different colours that come from the copper. Is amazing, and all I am doing is applying heat in different areas and even experimenting by heating the metal through other pieces of metals. It’s all still very small stuff, but I am starting to think about making sculptures, so who knows my next course could be a wielding course, or my YouTube will be full of wielding videos. I've also been doing more patterns, I have already started my 2nd in the series. I haven't yet put these up on my red bubble, as I am wanting to have at least 3-4 different series of patterns before I do, so here's the first it all it's different variations of glory! So that's basically what I've been up to this month, I have to admit June may be a bit slow as I am mainly just finishing off work and continuing to experiment with metal work. But I am also off to Glastonbury! So I shall also be putting up lots of pictures of that when I get back, But I think I will do my June blog before I leave for Glastonbury, we will see.
Thanks guys for stopping by, keep your eyes peeled for more pattern designs coming soon and more experiments. Please follow me on Instagram, as I am aiming to try and start posting more things on there! |