One of my favourite 'recovery' activities, activities I have when I feel I need to take it slow for a day, would be baking. And since I really needed to take it slow after the 'Noche de Tuna' this weekend, I started baking some mini chocolate cakes. With extra chocolate on top. And sprinkles. I love sprinkles. They make me happy.
The recipe: Mix 100 g butter with 100 g sugar. Add 2 eggs and mix everything. Mix 100 g of flower and 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder through, don't mix for too long.
Pour into muffin tins or papers, bake in an oven at 170 degrees Celsius until done (you can check this with a knitting needle or something like that: when it comes out clean, the cake is done). When they had cooled off, I dipped the cakes in molten chocolate and then in chocolate sprinkles. And voila!
Oh yeah, and as promised: pics of my second batch of designs and my business cards!
This item is called 'Day & Night'. An egg cup at day and a candlestick at night if you turn it upside down. Not yet for sale, because I managed to send in the wrong file for my second batch, which was a version that wasn't exactly round.
Whoops... I sent the right file with the third batch, so hopefully that one will turn out right. And the 'wrong' egg cup/candlestick can still be used in the product pictures, to show both functions (egg cup and candlestick) in the same picture without having to resort to Photoshop.
This ring is called Sydney. I make it a habit of giving my jewelry designs names that are personal names, and at the same time have a connection (sometimes somewhat cryptic) about how the design looks or what it is based on. Can you guess the link between this design and it's name? I ordered it in stainless steel for my third batch, but since it doesn't meet the design requirements 100% I just hope it'll turn out all right! I also made a little ceramic cake-mold of my logo. It's not for sale and I'm not going to use it just yet, but I plan to make some cakes with it later on this year, just for fun.
And here, they are, my business cards. Whaddayathink?
And the last pictures of this week: the tomato soup I ate for lunch. I don't like store-bought tomato soup, it tastes too artificial. But making it yourself is actually pretty easy. It can be much healthier as well, since you can add plenty of veggies. I played around a bit with Photoshop (well, the open source alternative GIMP) to create the absolutely white background. A bit difficult because some settings also made the bowl dissappear, since it was almost white as well. I ended up altering some parts manually. These are the results:
And.... I'm done with the crazy for batch no. 2. Whew. The list of items to design went quickly from twelve to six by eliminating all new rings and improved versions of batch no. 1 for now. They give me too much work since rings need to be designed in different sizes, and wanting to print them in stainless steel makes them a bit on the chunky size due to material design requirements.
And after that the number went down from six to five, to four, to three, to two completed items and two proof of concepts. Ah, deadlines and priority shifts. Luckily I am my own boss in this, so I can just decide I need to spend more time on an item before I want it ordered. No need to waste money. And I'm cheating on my own schedule anyway... I already started working on daily use products instead of just jewelry, while those take up more time because they need to fit into their context of use (apart from just looking pretty, like jewelry).
Next batch will probably be a big one, since I now I already have several items near completion. Now all I need to do is stay on track and DO NOT DIVERGE. One of my more serious challenges, ugh.
Talking about challenges: for creating aesthetically pleasing shapes, I started using a more iterative process. For me, coming up with 'function' is never a problem, but 'form' usually is. I somehow managed to get through my Industrial Design education without gaining much experience in the field of aesthetics, which is a big handicap now as I just don't feel like I'm really having a grasp on the process. J. suggested I use a more iterative process by just making dozens of versions of the same item, all with minor changes, in one file; then pick one or more, and again make several versions. Instead of trying to adapt and perfect one version, which I was doing before. I did, and see:
Man, so much work. But it does progress faster than when I'm just looking at the screen, sighing because I don't know what else to make of it.
Other projects this week: I baked a 'vlaai', a type of local pie from Limburg (in the south of the Netherlands). Because I needed to do some, uh, 'design research'. Yeah, that's what is was. And I liked the taste of that research, sure do.
A leftover egg white was quickly turned into 'kokosmakronen', a sort of coconut macaroons. Jummy.
And whenever I remembered my evening computer curfew, I worked on embroidering this book travel bag. I love me some not having to think in the evenings while keeping my hands busy.
Oh, and I almost forgot to add a photo of my first batch of products! Voila!
With many thanks to J., the resident photographer with his eternal patience with me and his awesome skills with camera's and flashlights ;).
If you want to see the items in more detail, you can take a look at my website!
I made it! My first order at Shapeways (the custom 3D printing company) has been done. I sent 3 ring designs and one design for a small ceramic dish. That last one was just because I wanted a reference piece for future ceramic designs, so it was whipped up in about an hour and a half. In sharp contrast to some of the ring designs... Even more, the ring design I showed earlier (okay, a small part of it) has yet to be completed, it still needed so much work that I decided to focus on the easier designs for now. But, I'll have it finished with the next batch.
Or the one after that. Or after that...
This week is going to be extremely busy at my part-time job, and after that I'm free for two whole weeks (yay!). If everything goes well, I'll receive my products the week after that (I'm very curious), and from then on I'll have loads of work to do: making good product photos, doing some promotion, setting up my own website, working on the next designs and such.
But, my two holiday weeks are for the well-needed fun and relaxation. I've promised myself that I'm only allowed to do some simple tasks to prepare for the arrival of 'the goods', if, and only if, I really feel like doing so. Sounds safe, huh?
To help the holiday feeling kick in at my first day off, I've assembled a little holiday kickstarter pack for myself. A collection of goodies and little presents to bring out that summer feeling. It think assembling it must have been at least as much fun as unpacking it will be...
This week, I went to see the musical 'Wicked' with the in-laws (thanks guys!), and had a short walk on the beach before it started. Of course, I hád to take off my shoes and jump in the water!
The musical was awesome, I loved the story, the songs, decors, costumes and especially the lead actress: Willemijn Verkaik (she played Elpheba, the wicked witch of the west). Here is my favorite song of the muscial (without Willemijn unfortunately, since it is in English):
Apart from enjoying the good life, all I seem to be doing is work, work and work. This week I have two whole days for working on my designs, and next week I'll have an extra day off from my part-time job, so three more days available for my three rings designs. So... if they're still not done by then, I think I'll just quit as a product designer altogether... Just kidding though. I finished the six different versions of ring no.2, which had been lying around for weeks now, and now it's just working on ring no.1 and no.3, so I've made progress. A little sneak peek of ring no.3:
No, I don't have to alter ALL these points manually, just the ones around the edges and corners. Still waaay too much work for comfort though. Luckily, no.1 is much simpler.
I whipped up a little pizza bread for lunch, because working hard should be accompanied by eating well. Just a little homemade pesto (basil leaves, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, salt, Dutch: basilicum, pijnboompitten, olijfolie, knoflook, zout) with tomato paste, spread on some bread. I mixed a bit of scallion through and sprinkled Gouda on top, in the oven for 5 minutes and you have yourself a fairly decent lunch.
I've also found a new recipe for cookies. After taking a mouthwatering stroll through our local 'organic/healthy stuff' store, I came home with a bag of wholemeal spelt flour. I wanted to try out baking cookies with some more health-friendly ingredients. Well, it worked! They're not overly sweet, but if you enjoy cookies from organic sugar-free brands, you'll definitely enjoy these as well!
Recipe: sugar-free spelt cookies
For about 12 cookies:
100 grams spelt flour
40 grams rice syrup
10 grams honey
50 grams butter
a bit of salt
Extra: a few dates (Dutch: dadels), chopped in small pieces and mixed through, and/or coconut shavings on top.
Mix everything, bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, let it cool: enjoy!
Okay, let's kick off! (or even better, 'forward with the goat!' to translate one of the quirky Dutch sayings -literally)
Lately I'm busy with working on two designs for rings, to be 3D printed (it's like how you print on paper, but instead of one layer of ink, thousands of layers of for instance stainless steel or plastic are stacked); parttime work in the cooking supplies store; tying up loose ends on a small webdesign job that keeps dragging on a bit (come on people, move it! I really want to be done with it); nourishing my ongoing thoughts about my professional website-to-be and new business name (not completely decided on yet); baking cakes (it's birthday season for my boyfriend and me); cleaning and tidying up the house (again, birthday season) and, most important, eating lots of ice cream because it is really freaking hot at the moment and I still need to get used to it.
Because of the heat, I was craving for a healthy salad for lunch, and my chives plant had started to bloom, which negatively affects the taste. Fortunately, the flowers are edible (quite juicy actually), a perfect way to get rid of them! So I whipped up a little salad:
Cucumber-tomato salad with chive flowers and a yoghurt dressing (in Dutch: komkommer-tomaat met bieslookbloemen).
For one person I used: - 1/3 cucumber, in small pieces - 1 tomato (without the seeds, cuz it's so much more healthy that way), in small pieces - a handful of chives and chive flowers - a few basil leaves, chopped into small pieces - some bacon, chopped - half a handful of dry roasted pumpkin seeds
For the dressing, I mixed: - a few tablespoons yoghurt - one teaspoon honey - paprika powder - pepper
Mix the salad, mix the dressing and pour it over the salad: enjoy! I ate it with some baguette with homemade herb butter (unsalted butter, crushed garlic, chives, parsly, some thyme, salt and pepper, best made a day before use) and was quite satisfied with the taste. The pumpkin seads were just added because I need to remind myself to eat more of them (y'know, healthy and stuff), however I was pleasantly surprised with the earthy element it added to the salad.
Also, a little snapshot of our table (we use it for our personal projects):
Really really really fanatic followers of my previous blog might recognise the fabric from here, I bought it some time ago at a Quilter's shop. Before, I had absolutely no idea those even existed in the Netherlands, but turns out there is even one in my home town. As I felt that I needed something simple and stress-free to unwind in the evenings lately, I picked it up to make a small patchwork spread, to be used as a pillowcase or something. Naturally, I managed to mess up during the making of the templates (with only two to make, you'd think I'd manage at least that), only to find out the error when trying to connect the second row of pieces and seeing they were too small. Turns out I made the triangles half the size they were supposed to be...
Now I'll have to try and cut out double the amount of triangles while having very small scraps of fabric left, I hope it'll be enough!
Oh yeah, I came across this brilliant song that I just don't want to keep from you: enjoy!
P.S. Can't yet show any pictures of the rings I'm working on though, I definitely will when they are finished. I hope to be able to send them to the printer in two weeks, yay! Planning might be a bit optimistic, but it helps me speed things up a bit. Or helps me to start working on it althogether, whatever you want to call it.
This ring is called Sydney. I make it a habit of giving my jewelry designs names that are personal names, and at the same time have a connection (sometimes somewhat cryptic) about how the design looks or what it is based on. Can you guess the link between this design and it's name? I ordered it in stainless steel for my third batch, but since it doesn't meet the design requirements 100% I just hope it'll turn out all right!
I also made a little ceramic cake-mold of my logo. It's not for sale and I'm not going to use it just yet, but I plan to make some cakes with it later on this year, just for fun.
