Which is really not new (see this post from September last year), but I finally got to make some decent pictures of it, so it is now finally officially 'launched' and for sale in my webshop. It's a 3D printed ceramic egg cup that functions as a candlestick when you turn it upside down. Hence the Day/Night name: it can be put on the table for both breakfast/lunch (egg) ánd dinner (candle). Well look at me being clever and all. Anyway, the pictures:
Now I still need to make decent pictures of another item, my business card stand - which is, by the way, my absolute favourite design - but this is rather difficult so it might take some time (it holds white business cards, and shooting this with a white background is really not easy). And scenic pictures of a business card stand? I still have to figure out how to set that up.
After these and a few portrait pictures are done, I can finally close this chapter - I'm kind of stressing out about all of it but it has to be done (actually, it should have been done weeks ago, I'll explain why in the future). I'll finally be able to work on some other things after that, yay!
In the mean time I'd like to share this link with you: it is a breakdown of the process of creating a stunning watercolour (mainly) fantasy illustration by artist Jenny Dolfen (also known as Gold-Seven). Very inspiring, it makes me want to run to the art store immediately to get a watercolour set and start experimenting!
The majority of the product photographing is done.
Done. Finished. Closed. Thank. Gód...
Over time I had become a bitquitevery extremely stressed out about the product pictures. I guess that's what you get for being an impossible perfectionist while at the same time being not that stress-resistant ánd of the avoidant type. Procrastination, self-doubt and stress galore. Really, any longer and I would've gotten some serious wrinkles.
Which is why I shot these pictures with a plain white background. Much easier, faster, and less stress. I will create the "scenic" pictures with props when I have the time and feel like it later.
So the action plan for my next designs is to decide on the product description and product photo setting right after ordering the design and shooting the pictures immediately after receiving the products. Which is, by the way, also the advise that I got from one of the more experienced designers/sellers on Shapeways.
Right now I only have to make the scenic pictures, tweak the product descriptions and markups in my webshop and integrating everything in my personal website. Oh, and not to forget doing the whole social media & marketing thing. After all the stressing out, I'm now in a state of not really caring anymore. Luckily, I know from experience that this is the perfect state of mind to finish tasks like this. Prevents me from over-thinking again: enough is enough!
The 6th of december is the deadline for ordering things at Shapeways (where I have my webshop) for those who want to receive their order before Christmas. For me, that means that until that date I'll continue to market my designs. And at the 6th of December, midnight: radio silence. I'M DONE! Well, then my 2012 jewelry collection will be done at least and I'll give myself a few days off. And after that I'll continue with the next phase of my plans: focusing on product design! Hopefully with a slightly less demanding schedule...
But before I forget: here are the photo's of my 2012 jewelry collection!
"Drawing skills", my coach in university once said, "are the most useful tools a designer could ever have". And he added that during his education, he would have drawing practise for at least one-and-a-half day per week, for several years.
Well, than it stands to reason that my drawing skills are not on par with those of traditionally educated designers. My education was more of the "define you own curriculum" kind and I've always considered function to be highly superior over form. Therefore, spending an eternity on practising how to make 'pretty' drawings was not very high on my list of priorities.
Until now.
It started when, after graduating, I started to use more sketches and doodles during brainstorms. After a while, I noticed that the ones with the better-looking sketches were far more pleasurable to go through again and again, and that browsing through those sketches would give me lots of enthusiasm and motivation to continue working on the concept.
Now, I highly prefer working on paper compared to making digital drawings (or worse: only descriptions with no pictures at all). Even though digital drawings or renderings can be much more precise and beautiful (and not to mention, there is an 'undo' function that paper sadly lacks), when it comes to brainstorming and concept development, drawing on a sheet of paper gives so much more freedom. On paper it is so much easier (at least for me) to put down your train of thoughts, ponder, compare, take it with you, make some minor adaptations etcetera.
There is just something about a drawing that cannot be captured in words. Even though words are often needed to emphasize or explain aspects of the design, a drawing communicates so more about the idea or concept. That is, as long as the drawing is accurate.
And there's the challenge: making drawings that are both accurate, aesthetically pleasing and not to mention drawn quickly. That calls for quite some skill... Maybe the extensive drawing practise was not such a bad idea after all!
During my "Sleek & Futuristic" challenge, originally meant to discover the form language of sleek/futuristic looking items, I rediscovered and tried out new drawing techniques. I learned a lot, although I cannot say I already have a good grasp on how to make something look futuristic or sleek, but my understanding definitely improved and that's what I was aiming for. The rest will come over time, I'm sure.
The first days, I was really lost on how to start, but after studying reference pictures it became easier. I used 3D software (1 and 4), pencil sketch on paper (2) and digital drawing software (3).
Two more 3D modeling software renderings (5 and 7), and pencil sketches (6 and 8).
After that, the challenge turned more into a drawing training assignment. I even started to use markers (day 10 to 14), which I hated during my education. And I liked it! I also discovered the awesome effect of drawing on colored pape, using a sharpie (Dutch: fineliner), grey markers and a white chalk pencil (day 10 and 11). Whoa!
As you can see, I still have a LOT to learn and train when it comes to perspective, shading or even just setting straight lines. That's fine. I'll just need to keep on practising and experimenting, and then maybe, maybe after a looong time, I'll even reach the level of a classically educated industrial designer!
For those of you who are interested in using markers for drawing, here is a nice tutorial on how to use them. The website idcreatures.com (I'm a fan) has many more of those, very convenient if you want to learn more about making product drawings.
My next challenge will be drawing people in interaction with objects - talk about challenges!
...My 2012 jewelry collection is done! The designing part of it, at least. Most of the items are already in my possession (and boy, am I wowed by the results), only a few items still need to be produced. If everything goes well, the whole collection is complete and ready to sell (including decent pictures, updated website, web shop and all that stuff) halfway around November. Lots of work to do of which I can't wait to start with.
To celebrate, I bought myself a few 'congratulations!' presents. Okay, I'll admit it was just an excuse to buy some of the new products in the shop where I work, really. The place has been remodelled recently and the collection has expanded with loads of awesome goodies, I just want all of them! Life ain't easy working there, way too much temptation ;).
A tiny baking tin for pies: because everything I bake has to be eaten by only two people and I want to bake quite often, normal pie tins are often too big. Even the best apple pie or cake gets boring after eating it for several days in a row... So this size is perfect!
Le Creuset (you probably know them from their cast iron cookware) has some fantastic (oven-resistant) ceramic mugs. I already have two big mugs and two espresso mugs in my possession, but since a few weeks we also have mid-size mugs in the store. I couldn't resist!
I made some apple sauce, so easy to make and so incredibly tasty!
And I've been walking around again hunting for mushrooms. And I found them...
...even though most had already been destroyed unfortunately.
...except for this humongous fungus! (yes, I just hád to say that).
- 250 gr flour
- 175 gr butter
- 80 gr sugar
- 2 eggs (1 1/2 for the dough, 1/2 egg for on the pie)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- a pinch of salt might be a good addition
The dough is made by mixing everything by hand (less dish washing to worry about) and letting it chill in the fridge for half an hour while you peel and prepare the apples. Apparently, the cooling is necessary because the butter in the dough needs to be cold when you put it in the oven. The warmer it is, the earlier it will melt during baking, resulting in a less crisp crust. At least, that's what I read and I think it makes sense ;).
For the pie filling, you'll need to mix:
- 1 kg apples, peeled and cut in parts or slices
- 50 gr sugar
- 70 gr raisins (I usually leave those out because J. is not a big fan of them)
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
Put the 2/3 of the dough in the baking tin, put the apple mixture in, then use the remaining dough to make small, diagonally crossing stripes on top of the pie. Brush the remaining egg over the stripes, and bake the pie in a preheated oven for about an hour on 170 degrees Celsius. Yum!
For the apple sauce, peel and cut several apples in pieces, put them in a pan with a layer of water (I fill the pan with water up to about halfway the apples, but usually less water is used). Add sugar and cinnamon (for 1 kg of apples: 100 gr sugar, one big teaspoon cinnamon), let the apples boil until they have become soft (usually about 20 minutes). Use a masher (Dutch: pureestamper of stamppotstamper) to make the apple sauce less lumpy -that is, if you want it to be.
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 almost done with my collection for this year! It is going really fast now. This batch of designed products consisted of pendants and one business card holder, making the total count of finished items (assuming they will all come out the way I planned) at 11 jewelry designs and 2 product designs. That means I've already hit my target collection for this year, which was 10 to 12 jewelry designs. Ánd I still have time to design maybe one or two extra items in my fourth and final batch this year. Whoohoo!
Aaaaaand... my business cards arrived! I designed them myself and am quite happy with the result, especially because I'm not that big on graphic design. Meaning I usually hate designing graphic things, and that I'm just no good at it. But the cards came out nicely so I'm really glad. Like the pics of my second batch of designs, I'll post a picture of them soon, I promise ;).
These days I've been grossly neglecting my challenges, because I was just too busy with my product designs. They were already late and I had to order them before the weekend, or my whole year schedule would fall apart. I want to order a fourth batch right after I've received the third batch, but the fourth batch has to arrive at least a month before the holiday season, so, considering that it takes 3 to 4 weeks before an ordered batch arrives, my schedule is quite tight.
But I made up a bit of the neglect by going to a falconry show at Falconcrest and shooting some niiiiice pics. Not that it was difficult with that kind of models. Those birds are so beautiful!
I also loved the interaction between the birds and the falconers.
It's too bad the birds were moving too fast for me to capture them mid-flight. I'm not that good a photographer yet, trying to take pics of their flight resulted in these kind of pictures.
See the white blur? Yes, that's a bird :p. Speedsters, I tell you.
This weekend, there has been a small-scale Tuna festival, Noche de Tuna (not "tuna" as in fish, but "Tuna" as in Spanish student troubadour music group) in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Several groups were here from Spain and Mexico, together with the Eindhoven groups (one male and one female group). Since I'm in the female group, La Tuniña, of course I participated as well, and right now I'm still recovering from fatigue. It was a lot of fun, and there will be another 'Noche de Tuna' next year. But now, back to work!
