Wizard Time

Due to the recent recession, my Dad has been out of work for a couple of months now, but has just started up his own gardening business.

He has named his business (ignoring everyone in my family's constant mickey taking) 'Wizards of Wisbech'. Laugh NOW. I know. I know. I hope he gets people ring him up trying to book him for a child's party (though, that is NOT an invitation for you to do it haha)

He has asked/paid me to design the logo, some leaflets and a business card and I will also probably be helping him out with his website too.

I wouldn't say I like the work I've done, but thought I should record it on the blog so that I can look back to now in a couple of years and hopefully laugh... or cry haha

Oh, before you see them... I didn't like the idea of using a wizard for the logo. I designed 8 ideas which were more garden themed (leaves etc) and presented them to my Dad and he wanted tacky and a wizard, so that is what he got! He seems happy enough with it anyway...

Above, the logo

Below, the poster/leaflet

All I can say is... I'm getting paid and it wasn't worth the hassle to just refuse to do it for him!

Ice: Twice As Nice In Letterform

This is in relation to Typeface by Tasha, however I decided to give it a post of its own :)

This afternoon it was kind of sunny so... any excuse for an ice lolly or two :)


(It turned out that it wasn't really all that sunny OR warm so hoody was a must and my excuse for my facial expression is that the lolly was lemon flavoured and a bit sour!)

After experimenting with the wax letters (which are photoshopping quite well so far!) and going to the trouble of making all the molds, I thought it would be nice to make some actual ice lollies!

My mum pointed 2 things out:
1. I was filling her freezer up with some dirty, smelly (the mold stuff stinks), weird things and she didn't like it
and 2. they would melt - she's really observant if you hadn't guessed :)

But I think that half of the beauty/fun of doing the ice version was so see them melt...who agrees? Type is usually something permenant and so the limited time of the ice lolly existance makes it special, or so I think.




I think it's really nice how the light shines through the translucent parts where the food colouring isn't so strong :)

After messing about with them for a while I left them to melt on the grass...



... 30 mins later ...



.... 1 hour 30 mins later...



...Too late! haha :(

O.k. so I kinda forgot about them, Ooops!
I think my dog might have ate the C (he had been eyeing it up all afternoon) and the S still remains! I will pay more attention tomorrow when I do the other letters!

Whilst I had been waiting for the letters to melt I took some pictures of the wax letters on the grass because I think it makes a nice 'scene' - I think it makes it look as if a little girl has dropped them on the floor and left it to melt. I can just imagine the tantrum now... stomping of the feet took place for sure! :)





My lollies are obviously just SO great, even my dog Dylan wanted to get involved :)


UPDATE 10.05.09 - DAY/ATTEMPT TWO :)

I cleared more room in my freezer so I could try and do all my letters at once today!

It was a lot sunnier and warmer than yesterday :) ...

Mmmm red, tasty lollies :)

Oh, the S and the C are hollow because I put the other letters in my freezer overnight and then decided to re-do them also. I under-estimated how solid they were and so when I was taking them out of the mold, they cracked and all the liquid came out.



BUT I think the S looks really nice because the front was missing from the middle section and so you can see inside :)



The melting! (Click to enlarge it and see the whole thing)
It took 1 hour 30 mins today because it was a lot warmer :)



Above and below, comparisson between the wax and the real ice lollies



:)

UPDATE 14.05.09

Finito! I have edited all my letters and handed in my work (a week early!) before I go on holiday tomorrow...

P is for Passed :)

FINALLY! Haha

Revenge is Sweet cont.

Revenge is Sweet continued...

16.03.09 - Week 5

Say hello to my Mum's candles...

Say goodbye to my Mum's candles :) - She still hasn't noticed they're missing haha





23.03.09 - Week 6

The reveal..

Week 7 & 8

It doesn't look like a lot for 2 weeks work, but it took me ages to cut out... because I was trying to b as precise as possible, and also because I had to use the archemedian drill to cut out the counters (holes in the e etc) - and I have a massive blister on my right thumb from it :(

The plan is to somehow press/melt these into the surface of the apple.... I might colour them first though??

We only have 2 hours for the next lesson because Emma has a meeting to go to, so I'm not sure how much I will get done - I'm aiming to do quite a bit of the arrow (curl/bend etc) hopefully

BOARD UPDATE -

My dad thinks he's really funny. He is not. The yoghurt wasn't moulding so I figured I hadn't put enough on it SO i covered it in a whole yoghurt:

and I went back the next day to find no yoghurt left, but 2 small lumps of moss had been placed onto it. Har de har. I'm NOT stupid :) (I forgot to take a picture as I was a bit annoyed).

So I've given up on the yoghurt idea and have just left it down the side of my house to rot covered partially by a plastic bag... it's getting quite dirty *thumbs up*



UPDATE 27.04.09

Emma's 2 hour lesson - I got annoyed with soldering basically.

UPDATE 27.05.09

Not long to go before hand-in date (8th June! Eeek!) and I have been putting the final touches to my back board...

It has been sitting in the damp and dirt for just over 2 months now and so is a bit mankey :) and the nails have been rusting away quite nicely. Yesterday I got the chisel and hammer out to take off some of the square edges and roughen it up!

I added this vine I found in my hedge but no doubt it will be all dead by now so I guess I will have to get some out of my garden fresh for on the day!

I also added some dead grass which is wedged in underneath a section that I chiseled out but did not break off the board.

I rubbed it in some soil to make it a bit more dirty but when my dad was hammering another nail in it all came off! Haha... so I will have to rub it about again I spose. But I'm hoping my apple will look nice, clean and shiny in contrast to the (fake)old, tatty and filthy backboard. All I have to figure out now is how to attach it... oh I DO like to make things hard for myself :(

UPDATE 01.06.09

It was the last practical session today AND I have pretty much finished :) I even had a bit of time left to collect some samples

I basically had all the components of my panel, it was just putting them altogether... which is what I was most worried about. I had soldered the words onto some wire so that I could press it into the apple and the first word I did (sweet) I ended up getting a crack in the apple!

To attach it to my backboard I drilled 2 holes in my board(quite deep), inserted some wire (sharpening the ends to points) and then slowly pressed the apple into place. I was SO worried I was going to press too hard or something and my apple would just split in two halves, but it didn't thankfully.



Finishing touches!
I cut a leaf and stalk out of some green acrylic plastic and inserted it into the top of the apple.



Finished Panel!

Ta-da! It's finished!
I'm quite pleased with how its turned out... apart from how the words are stuck into the apple... it looks a bit pants from some angles... would want to try and press them in further but don't want to split my apple this late!

Now to press on with the written work/sketchbook...!

Typeface by Tasha cont.

Typeface by Tasha continued... (The other post was getting a bit long)

Yesterday I spent about 5 hours in the 3D workshop working on molds and letter stuff



Making the walls around M,C and V



Cut out the stencils for letters F and S



Extruded and cut F... into some interesting shapes. The curved F (above) looked really nice :)





The end section of the extruded S...



F and S in clay



Pouring the vinyl mold stuff in :)
I had to get on tip toes at one point hah

On Monday I plan to fill all the molds with wax so that I will have every letter in wax by the end of the day.... then I can start to photoshop the alphabet together :)

UPDATE 27.04.09

First thing Monday morning I went to the 3D workshop and filled the molds with wax :)



We had a slight timetable change which meant that I had a lesson from 10-12 instead of 1-4 so I left the wax to set and then went back to the 3D workshop later on.....



Mmmmm! How tasty do they look!? :)

Then began the task of melting the wax to fit in lollypop sticks..... I am so rubbish at it - Ben is the expert!!

To Be Continued.....

Appearances can be deceiving - Easter Special

So it was Easter Sunday yesterday, meaning easter egg time! :) (I also discovered I can't remember much of the Easter story... and I don't know why we have easter eggs, other than for an excuse for card shops and supermarkets to make money!?)

My mum says I'm too old for easter eggs now (although, she still bought me one hmn) but my Grandad has a different view thankfully :)

He is also known as Chocolate Grandad, not because he is made from chocolate (duh), but because when I was younger he used to take my brother, sister and I out every weekend and buy us 50ps worth of sweets (it used to buy a lot of sweets back then!).

So my Grandad asked me what kind of easter egg I would like, and I went for Creme Egg - a Cadbury classic! HOWEVER, yesterday I was presented with a different egg (dun, dun, duuuuun)!!

Now, who am I to complain? I'm trying not to be a spoilt brat, afterall, he still bought me an easter egg. 'You're older now so I didn't want to get you a kiddies one. This one looks more grown up', is what he said.

So this is the view I had when I first walked into the room and saw it...



Oooh, looks like posh packaging doesn't it?? (thats what he thought too) I was thinking 'oooh maybe it's a Thorntons egg?' because they sell them in Asda now don't they? and also.. 'Oooh I bet this will be nice, creamy, milky chocolate!'

Well..... No.

My grandad bought me a dairy free, nut free, gluten free, egg free(what the hell, an egg free egg?) egg.



I know, I shouldn't be upset or disappointed... but I kinda am. I haven't tasted it yet but what is the point of dark chocolate? 'To be healthy' you say? Easter is ALL about being unhealthy!

The box says: 'made with special care and free from cross-contamination' - I like a bit of risk with my chocolate! It's no fun if you can't get salmonella hah

My grandad said he didn't realise it was meant for someone with allergies, and said that he just thought it looked nice - DAMN YOU, PACKAGING DESIGNERS AT KINNERTON!

The moral of this story? .... don't put nasty, allergy free chocolate in nice packaging! Thankfully mum knows the way to a girls heart is Dairy Milk :) Very nice.

Happy Easter btw. I'm gonna be reading up on why we have easter eggs just to satisfy my mind.

Oh, and happy non-year anniversary to me...

Photoshoot: Went Without a Glitch :P

Yesterday (Friday), I did my photoshoot :) Yay

We used the Photography studio and the infinitive curve thingy :)

We had lots of fun... I think Tom has discovered a new talent; he took some really good shots :)

I will upload the best ones soon, after I have had a bit of a tweak :)

Ooooh well excited for the end results!

Here's my fave pic of me...



It's not really anything to do with the shoot, but a nice random one taken by Tom :)

Update 13/04/09 - I have finally got around to uploading the pics!

--->

^^ The guitar transformation!


^^ Bobbins the Geek



^^ Sophie the pretty fitty



^^ Me: the girl with the killer guitar



^^ Doing our thing with the guy


^^ Awwww aren't they cute :)







A bit of messing about :)

Final set of glitch packaging etc



I managed to get everything ready to hand in before half term... it did involve staying up til 3, but was worth it :)

I got a Distinction btw :) Wooop