10 Creative things to get onto

Since getting on the Twitter wagon I've found about loads of great creative projects, competitions and ways to showcase your work as an artist.
Initially when Twitter started to get big I was adamant that I wouldn't get embroiled in yet another social networking site/facility, especially given that i'm already having trouble just keeping up with posting regularly on the blog. However i like many others got sucked in and now as a Twitter convert I must admit that of all the social networking thingy-mi-jigs that I've got into, this has by far been the most useful in terms of finding out about cool projects and stuff.

Because i've discovered lots of great projects/opportunities for emerging artists (like me good self) lately I feel I should share these with you. So i'm writing this post and maybe some of you there arty folks who maybe reading this can get involved with too (if you so wish).
For all you list nuts theres no particular order so its not like a top 10 or anything. Here we go:

1. Wall Collective: http://www.wallcollective.com. This is great new way to showcase your work as an artist/designer/ photographer/illustrator/print maker etc. Its incredibly simple and effective. You just get on down there, upload your images and you've basically created your own online portfolio.
I really like this concept because its quick, isn't overwhelming and doesn't try to hook you into investing time on other things such as creating a circles of friends or joining other groups.

2. Art Waffle: http://www.artwaffle.com Another new site I've found is the art waffle
blog, which posts interviews with artists and the lovely AW peoples are currently looking for new artists to interview. Its a brilliant opportunity for new artists to get some exposure for their work. Of course you can also use it to learn about artists who you may not have discovered and get an insight into how they work and what they think about the arty world around them.

3. Craftsville: http://craftsville.co.uk/ I found out about this site sometime ago when the friendly inhabitants of said Ville interviewed lil ol me on their regular feature 'Hello My Name Is...'. This is a lovely looking blog and is a fantastic resource for artists and makers.
They also run a Craftsville Craft Club, so if you live in Leeds and love a good old making session then this is probably for you.

4. Cut Out and Keep: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/ Another awesome site I stumbled upon a while ago. If you're a craft God or Goddess then you'll love this one.
Not only does it have a million, billion, trillion (well perhaps not a trillion) free to use craft tutorials that have been uploaded by the Cut and Keep community, it also has forums, competitions and the wonderful Snippets magazine which I produced the 'Clangers' illustration for a while back. Definitely one of my favourite sites, with a wealth of crafty resources.

5. Illustration Friday: http://www.illustrationfriday.com An ongoing 'just for fun' challenge, where every Friday illustrator's are asked to submit an illustration in response to a specific topic. They then get until the following Friday to submit their image and have it shown on the blog, along with all the other weird and wonderful submissions. I've wanted to submit an illustration for ages, but (like so many things in life) I never seem to have the time. Still I love looking at all the lovely pics being the visual junkie that I am.
The site also runs artist interviews and some other ace stuff so go check it out.

6. Illlustration Rally: http://illustrationrally.blogspot.com Another fantastic site for illustrators and illustration lovers is the IR blog.
IR announce calls for submissions on Facebook and Twitter, with a specific theme. Illustrators can apply to take part in a rally and if selected you get your art showcased on their beautiful looking blog with a link to your site - yay!! I haven't had the chance yet as i've only discovered this one, but next rally - i'm there.

7. Mencap's Make with Me initiative: http://www.makewithme.org.uk The charity Mencap who support people with learning disabilities have recently launched their brand new craft based initiative Make With Me (there is also one for avid baking fans of a similar ilk called Bake With Me) This is something for all ages and abilities to get involved with to help raise money for a good cause.
They're asking crafty folks to organise their own fundraising 'Make Parties' and invite friends, family and members of the community to take part. I love this as its such an innovative fund raising idea and one which it'll also give artists/makers who are interested in running workshops & community engagement activities the chance to try out the field and hone their teaching skills.

8. https://www.greatbritons.ba.com/ Recently I've learnt about some ace competitions, which I would love to take part in but probably don't have the time. My sister Jennifer informed of a mega competition which is being run by British Airways as part of their Olympic 2012 advertising campaign. They're basically running a serious of contests - one for aspiring artists, one for aspiring writers and one for aspiring chefs.
The art comp invites applications from emerging talent to submit ideas & initial sketches for Olympic and Paralympic themed imagery which will adorn the sides of BA jumbo jets - wow imagine how flipping ace that would be. The winner gets coaching from the world renowned artist Tracy Emin.

9. http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designbrief/protest-placard-poster-competition Here is another competition based opportunity. The super slick Don't Panic e-magazine is running 'Design The Poster' competition in association with fashion label Diesel who have been running various design based competitions on and off for some years now.
The idea behind this one is to design a political slogan it's a great idea for a contest and one which you can have a lot of fun with. If you think you're a slogan whizz and have a spare moment you should give this one a go.
The deadline is soon so don't miss out!

10. http://www.whiteboxcontest.com Ok last one, but as the old adage goes 'by no means the least'. This is another one with an imminent deadline. Run by the Belgium chocolatiers Guylian this a contest for aspiring designers to get their teeth into....hahaha get it, get it (a crap pun sorry) .
Named ‘The White Box Contest' applicants are asked to submit designs for a new look box for their famous chocolate praline shells. A great competition with a $5000 prize for the winner.

Well if all this isn't enough to keep you busy for a while, i'm flipped if i know what will.

BYEEE!

End of an era (well a short era)

Tuesday saw the closure of the Made In Newcastle shop. Some of you may already know that this is an empty shop project which i have been heavily involved in over the last 10 months.
It began in July last year when a lady called Rachael Streather set up the first incarnation. After its premature closure in October 2010 due to a paid tenancy offer, I went about sorting us out another premises and on 14th December (or abouts) the shop at 79 Grainger Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne opened. We managed to hold this shop for the full intended 6 months and on the 31st May our time there was complete.

I won't bore you with all the ins and outs of the set up and how it came to be, as it is a long story. However if you want to know more about the project you can read the Made In Newcastle (MiN) blog and you may want to read the post 'A tale of two MiNs' which I wrote when the 1st shop closed in July and attempts to sum up events in a more interesting way.

The shop was hard work, but i feel a bit lost now its gone. It was a great place to network meet like-minded makers and artists and also a fantastic opportunity to showcase & sell my work. Still its not all over, the MiN project is still going to continue but i think we'll be doing it in a different form net time - possibly a more community engagement type project, where we have a studio space which we can offer workshops from.

Now that the shop is no more i am looking for new places to stock my prints and cards in, so if you have any suggestions please let me know as i would love to find some new lovely stockists. I've just finished an illustration which i am going to put on the wall of a very cute little coffee shop called Piccolo Coffee in the Grainger Market soon and hope to add it to my Folksy shop too. Here its is hope you like it:

This week i have mostly...

Yay its Friday!!! Not that i have anything special planned for this weekend but it'll just be nice not to be at my computer 24/7. Although i'm sure i won't be able to resist doing some work and checking my inbox for emails - seeing as i've apparently developed on obsession with doing this lately.
Anyway this week i have mostly been designing logos. Two logos to be precise and i would lie to share them with you.

I was given the brief to produce a logo for a start-up business based in Florida called 'I Hope You Never Need It.com'. It will be a sister company to an already well established business there called 'Florida Flame'.
It is still under development but the basis of the company is a bag which contains everything you may need in an emergency situation - such as a mobile phone, water bottle, a bit of money - that kind of thing. The idea is that if you need to get out of the house fast and you don't have time to pack anything, such as in the event of an earthquake, tornado, fire, etc you can just grab this bag by the door and go. Its mainly for places in the world which suffer from a lot of natural disasters. Seeing as these seem to be occurring a lot lately they'll be a very welcome new product.

So with the business plan in mind i came up with the idea of basing my design around the fire exit 'running man' icon to get the message of across of an emergency situation across. It was quite tough coming up with a design which would be visually interesting and convey the message, but i think this works well.

Next up is a logo for a new handmade jewellery business called 'Forever After...' offering gorgeous vintage inspired pieces by Hollie Cable.
Hollie was very clear on the design she wanted - a blue bird on a crooked branch with a necklace hanging from it.










You can visit Forever After... jewellery on Facebook .
Hollie is currently in the process of setting up an Etsy shop so soon you'll be able to buy her lovely products from there too. I also created an Etsy banner from the logo design:





Well have a happy Friday everyone. I'm off to work on an illustration that has been bursting to get out of my head and onto paper for ages.

New illustrations

It occurred to me that i haven't posted any of my most recent work up on the old blog so i thought I better get onto it.

Tree House Retreat. This first image was in my head for ages before i finally had the chance to get it onto paper. There are two versions with different colour schemes, one representing Spring/Summer and one Autumn. This is basically because i couldn't decide which i liked best. The spring one was 1st (how appropriate), then i started messing about with the colours and came up with the Autumn version. Anyway i'll stop wittering... here they are:


My second new illustration is the Home Sweet Home image. This wasn't an idea i had in my head for ages, instead it just popped in there one day and said 'let me out!'. Although part of me was reluctant to give it an airing, as it was an image which would (or should) by its very nature include birds and i'm sorry, but i for one am sick to death of seeing and producing illustrations/designs featuring birds as they're ten to the dozen. I love birds and yes the designs almost always look fab, but i strive to create images that are totally out of the ordinary.

Anyway i succumbed and to be semi true to myself i avoided putting a bird in the main part of the image and instead concentrated my energies on making the bird house as perfect as possible. So here it is:

It struck me after finishing this illustration that much of my work of late has trees in. Its really strange as this isn't something i've set out to do purposefully its just kind of snuck in there.
Its fair to say i do like trees a lot and maybe feel i was somehow deprived in my childhood by not having a treehouse. So much so that I've been making suggestions to my other 1/2 that we should make a trip to Kyloe woods in Northumberland, pick a tucked away tree and start getting to work on building a treehouse. I'm sure no one would ever care. But he's not convinced and neither am i after he told me about this story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2117951/Boy-ordered-to-tear-down-treehouse-over-planning-permission-row.html

I guess its just not meant to be, so i'll just continue to make treehomes in my head :)
I've another couple of ideas for illustrations brewing in my teapot of a head. I can't guarantee that they won't have trees in but i can say that there will be many more to come as i've now gone full-time as a freelance illustrator, so i'll have more time to let my imagination run wild.

Thanks for listening.

Sorry for being crap

This is just a little note to say sorry for not blogging for ages.
I am doing sooo much stuff at the moment its hard to keep up with everything and the blog has just gone by the wayside a bit, so apols.

At the moment i'm working hard with the empty shop project Made in Newcastle (MiN) which i blogged about last year. Its now at a new home 79 Grainger Street. We got in there before Christmas after i slogged my guts out for 2 months trying to get the lease sorted. Check out the feature MiN has in the Spring edition of UK handmade magazine: here I was interviewed over the phone for it - wow i feel famous, ha ha!
There is tons of stuff coming up which the shop is involved including Newcastle Fashion week from 14th - 21st May.

Also i am doing a logo for the lovely Brigid of Irish Granny Originals. She creates lovely hand knitted hats, hoods and head bands in beautiful quality wool, alpaca, and lambswool. You can visit her Etsy shop here
Here's a sneak preview of the logo so far:


I'm also in the process (slow process) of moving my website shop on www.lucyshappyplace.com over to Folksy so that i just sell from there, as its apparent that people prefer to buy from somewhere which is more established...and who can blame them.

Lastly i'm now part of the Newcastle Craft Mafia so i'm getting ready for the Maker Faire which i'm taking part in this Saturday at The Centre For life. I'll be there from 12pm to get making with the lovely folks who come to visit and i'll be selling some little colour, cut and stick kits which i've just made.

Right i'm off to make lunch ^_^
Thanks for not abandoning me, despite being a crap blogger.

Little Miss Delicious

Yes it certainly is about time I wrote a new post.
Well this is just a mini one to direct you to another blog, that of the wonderful Maxine aka Little Miss Delicious who makes the cutest jewellery i've seen.
This lovely lady has not only modeled my t-shirts for me, which shamefully i've not yet managed to find the time to put them on Folksy (will soon), but she has also written this lovely post about my work and i feel honored.
Please check out the post by clicking here and take a look at Little Miss D's super cute food inspired creations here: http://www.littlemissdelicious.com/

I will be writing a new post soon which will explain all about the adventures i've had and will be having with the empty shop project Made In Newcastle.
Its been an amazing time but very, very busy and its slowly but surely taking over my life. Will update you soon i promise.

I'm still here

Howdy friends.
I've been slacking off in my blogging activities recently as i'm in the process of making up a big wholesale order of stock for a craft shop.
Which is great, but if i have to make another glasses case i think i may lose the will to live!
Ha ha, no its not all that bad really, but i needed a break from the making so decided to create some party invitations for some respite. Yeah i know, its not exactly a break from the making, but its not sewing.
Sew, (puns ahoy)... here they are (front & back):


I'll be selling these little babies at the Made In Newcastle Shop, 22 Nun, City Centre, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Only £4.50 for ten invitations with envelopes, that's only 45p each - BARGAIN!

So if you're having a birthday bash, a summer garden party or celebrating your new home, these are for you. No one will be able to resist your invitation when you send out one of these little babies.

Hopefully once i've finished slaving away at my sewing machine and got the order finished, i'll get a chance to make up a couple more packs for my website or Folksy shop. I the mean time though if you want to grab a pack please feel free to request by email - lucyfarfort@yahoo.com

Bye for now!