Snapshots of Current Works in Progress

Here are a few updated 'snapshots' of what I'm currently working on. :)

Some of these you might have already seen early versions of, here or on my other (now defunct) blog.

All vectors, of course. I'm completely and utterly hooked.

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Unexpected DD

Now there's something I never expected to get! lol

This image got a Daily Deviation on DeviantArt. Came as a complete surprise as I certainly didn't see that particularly image as something deserving ^_^'

Freaked me out the first time I logged back into my DA account to find more than the handful of comments this time, I wasn't sure what was happening! lol (still kind of freaky watching the numbers change real time O_o)

Anyway, just thought I'd share since this made me ludicrously happy :3

It's funny, I was on my old DA account for over 8 years and never had a single DD, then 7 months into my new account with a completely different style and there you go. Not sure whether that annoys me or not yet lol.

Still, I'm grateful to the people that suggested and featured it for a DD, it brightened an otherwise pretty crappy Saturday.

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Some Books In The Shop

I recently put these little books up for purchase at the place I work on weekends.

It's a lovely little chocolate shop (Mayfield Chocolates, Tamborine) so they make nice gifts for the gifts display section and my boss is nice enough to let me put them there :D

Case bound book with purple washi spine and purple mulberry paper covers. The signatures are varying colours (greens and pinks and purples). My fav of the three. :3

Pamphlet bound book with hot pink and yellow paisley style covers. The paper is a gorgeous metallic, smooth stock. Unfortunately, the colour doesn't show up as nicely in the photos. Signatures are blank white.

This one sold recently :3

Soft cover blank book with cream indian handmade paper, screened in gold for the covers. Purple stitching and a little gold bead decoration. Pages are shades of yellow.

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Grad Invitations

These invitations were commissioned from a friend. I promised I'd post up a work in progress and here it is. :3

Epic workplace of epic mess. Epic.

Templates. The paper one died not long after the first 10 or so, so I moved onto a cardboard one.

After drawing in the tempate I added all the necessary measurement marks and scored the fold lines with a semi-dulled awl, then got to cutting the sleeves out.

Cutting. More cutting. o_O

One change of blade-tip later and all sleeves are done. :)

I have scraps coming out of my ears! Time to wash hands of green before starting on the next step. But first...

:3

All set and ready to assemble. The text part of the invitations themselves were designed, printed, sealed, cut and assembled by me earlier.

Envelopes were designed, cut and scored out of lovely metallic, patterned paper which I turned the pattern to the inside. The corresponding designs go on the outside to match up with the invites.

Envelopes where then separated into their designs, then matched up with their invites all ready and folded up.

DONE! Added some matching sticker seals made with my trusty sticker maker and packed them up neatly ready to be mailed. :D

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Some Cards Nov 2010

A few things I worked on over the course of last week and have now been put up for sale at the local chocolate shop I work at on weekends :3

Pamphlet bound square card with satin ribbon embelishment. The panel is handstamped with chalk inks.

Pamphlet stitched Christmas card with stickers and gold paper. Part of a matching set with a pamphlet stitched booklet (below).

All made with DCWV cardstock and bit's of lovely papers from my scraps boxes. A few stickers, stamps and even a bit of book binding thrown in for good measure. :)

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Whatchadoin? Vectors??

I was about to say, "not much" but in reality, I've been doing a fair bit of art things lately.

Unfortunately, I don't have very much to show for it as most things end up scrappy and/or permanent works in progress.

However, I've been going back to quite a few of those older WIP's from my failed days of "365" and finishing some of them up.

I've also been very interested in participating in competitions and such, I'd love to maybe get some of my work published some day, especially now that i'm starting to feel a little more comfortable in my chosen style... whether I continue in this new style or not is to be seen, but for the time being, I'm just going to go with it.

Erm... tangent.

ANYways, I'm aiming to get some work published (already have been accepted for a book coming out in 2011 some time), unfortunately, the software I am using may or may not be commercially legit (I may or may not have only the student version from uni), and thus I am having a crisis of conscience right there; I want to participate in published and commercial work etc but I need legit software.

Illustrator, the one I'm playing with at the moment, is out of the question. $2000+ dollars for the standalone program or $3000+ for the package. Yeah. Let me just pull that amount out of my richly bejewelled @$$.

So, I've had to leave Illustrator aside for now

*sob* when it comes to commercial work, and I've started experimenting with freeware and more wallet friendly programs.

So far, I've only found one I've felt relatively comfortable with and that allows me to create in a similar way than in Illustrator: Xara.

I like it enough to take the time to learn it so here's hoping I'm not so pigheaded as to be unable to adapt.

This is what I've managed so far, it's taken me probably 3 times as long to get to this point in the drawing but it's a start. :3

Sorry, it's only a scrap and blogger compression is evil on vector images.

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Sketch Dump - 25th Oct 2010

A few sketches floating around my computer.

urgh, mouth caused me more trouble than it was worth :/

Yay! Quidel! Hasn't been drawn in a very long time :3

And a very hurting Moonstone :'(

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Of the Amphibious Kind

Not an art post but this little guy totally stole my heart!

Not sure how he got into the house but a monumental chase ensued to try to get him out.

He's actually a lot smaller than he seems, he was able to stand on the tip of my finger and wasn't really much larger than that.

What got me was the amazing colour; a gorgeous, intense green with a gradation to yellow on his little legs and belly, so beautiful!

A little bit of scale to show how tiny he was; those are my sister's hands in the upper right corner :3

We did try to take some other photos with a camera phone but unfortunately they were just way too overexposed to salvage :(

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Moved... for now.

Have successfully moved into a new place off Tamborine Mountain (thankGOD for that!). This is, however, only a temporary move as I shall be moving into the city in early January-ish with the fantabulous Dr Nayu. I'm highly looking forward to moving to the big smoke! :D

Here's an arts in the meantime. :3

Cyber Blue - Vectors.

Available as a print on RedBubble and DeviantArt.

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Moving House + Arts

We're moving in about 3 days time so things are hectic and crazy and nerve-wracking, especially since we only found out TODAY that our application was accepted.

This, of course, leaves me with little time to work on my art or bookbinding projects (as most of my binding supplies are packed away anyway) and I'm sleep deprived and low on art motivation.

However, I have been working on a new vector illustration lately which will probably be finished after the move.

Hoorey! no more crazy long drives up and down the mountain!! :D

Here's a peek at what I'm working on:

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Some July Works-In-Progress

We're currently in the middle of a major renovation of our current home while looking for a new place to live. My life is currently a mess of rather large proportions with packing, painting, house hunting and constant CONSTANT driving which is, frankly, driving me a little nuts!

I thought, with the untimely demise of my day job, I'd have more time to pursue my creative passions... this is infuriatingly not so :(

Ah well, I'm still managing to chip away at a few current art and binding projects, here's a peek.

Book binding:

Arts:

(vector work for now, as I only had photoshop open and it doesn't open painter files :/ )

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Hand Stamped Gift

Recently it was N's mother's birthday and, for the occasion, I made her a gift:




The paper is a lovely pearlescent cream colour. The images are hand stamped with chalk inks. All the elements were cut to size, folded and glued by hand.
My hand does not thank me for this lol.
I punched a few little blue stickers as envelope seals then added some pretty ribbon to finish it off. :)
The final size of the little note-papers is 12.3 x 10.5cm
The envelopes are 9 x 6cm
I've been on a crafting binge since my job finished last week. :)



Almost two months since my last post here... I am ashamed. :(

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Printable - Cardigan Dolly Stationary

Printable JPG.
A cute little stationary sheet to jot down cute little notes. ^_^


Feel free to save to your computer or print for personal use. :)
p.s. If you'd like a higher resolution, lemme know here.

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Obi Book

I made this for a friend's birthday recently.
The cover is a vintage silk obi, the signatures sewn into the fabric with waxed thread. Red silk ribbon around it and two types of paper for the signatures; a delicate, mottled parchment paper and a lovely smooth, cream, 160gsm, archival paper.
She loved it :)




I've got a few of these made in various sizes and fabrics and am still making more, the problem is, sewing the signatures into the silk is a time consuming process as I don't want to leave any marks on the silk (so no pen/pencil marks), just the pages and the thick, sturdy silk obi. I use a small template for each one, but it still becomes a somewhat trial and error to get the needle through in the right spot, sort of thing.
Maybe one day, i'll come up with an easier, faster way. ^_^
I'm planning on selling these on either Etsy or Artfire in the near future (or when I have more stock).


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