One Last Thing…

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see my sister in a play called ‘WithinTent’ in our little village. It was an hilarious play, that all of the cast have been working so hard on for weeks now. Lasting just 40 Minutes, there was clever scenery, including fold out prison cells and an amazingly designed box with a little door to house a newspaper and fold out stool, also a fold out corner shop and hidden people inside?! With a story line based on the mystery of whodunnit and whodonewhat, the play sees flash backs and flash forwards to and from a comical news station called w.e.t, which shows Scotland’s weather as sunny and the rest of the british isles to be rainy and cold. With convicts, hippies and VERY small shorts, this play had me laughing all of the way through. What made me laugh the most is the line: “you look like you’ve been run over” a new insult that I love and haven’t had the chance to use just yet, fortunately! They were in Edinburgh all of last week, performing this comedy and I just want to show off really because I’m so proud of all of them, including my sister, the happy camper, who has been stuck on the camp site for far too long. I just hope we see more of the Little Barn Company and they get the opportunity to go to Edinburgh again.

This is what the Edinburgh Fringe website says about the play:

Can the wings of a butterfly effect the weather enough to create tornados? How much camping equipment can fit in one tent? Aided and abetted by convicts and a fantastical fold-out set, ‘WithinTent’ explores at least one of these questions. Little Barn Theatre started in… a Barn. This theatre company, born out of a love of creating new theatre and comedy, features budding new talent including our very own Liam Gallagher. Specialising in dynamic, diverse and downright disturbing characters, with a cast whose enthusiasm never falters and directed by ex co-founder of the Village Idiots. What more could you want?

WithinTent on Fringe website

Review in the Scotsman Newspaper.

…I never thought those three things would be put in the same sentence! Well, Isle of Wight and Osbourne House, maybe. But not Information Graphics? I’m not sure, but all will become clear.

So, I went to the Isle of Wight last week and went to visit Osbourne House. The Private home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I’ve always been really interested in Queen Victoria as a person and the Victorian era. A lot of what we do now is based on traditions that came about during Queen Victoria’s reign. For Example: The tradition of having grand tiered wedding cakes are based around Queen Victoria’s wedding cake which was 12 feet in circumference and her daughter’s wedding cake was more of an architectural piece and looked like more of a tiered cake, apart from it being 7 feet tall and extremely intricate in detail, it’s no different to present wedding cakes. I digress. You’re thinking, where does the Information Graphics come in? Well here it is.

This piece, called Columns of Reign – Kings and Queens of England by Max Lindemann, was right at the beginning of the tour of Osbourne House. It shows columns, like those you’d see at the entrance of a grand palace, the height is determined by how long each King or Queen reigned. Each column is beautifully drawn and painted. The title of the whole piece is beautiful. It was created for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and Queen Victoria’s column is by far the most ornate of the columns. We couldn’t take photos inside the house, not only is it apparently bad for the restoration of it all but wouldn’t be good for the queues either. I was pleased to find that there was a print of this particular piece in the gift shop. I really want to frame it and put it up somewhere but until I have space, I’ll keep it in it’s tube. Call me old fashioned, but I really love this style, it’s the fact that a lot of care and attention has gone into it and it’s still being appreciated by people 113 years later, and it wasn’t just me appreciating it, there was a crowd around it. I couldn’t help but think about my timeline when looking at this, although they are about completely different things, this is still a timeline and it would have been really good if I’d known about this piece whilst working on my timeline. Oh and I haven’t found images of this anywhere on the internet so if you want a copy of mine, send me an email OR a visit to Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight is highly recommended where you can see the piece in the flesh and buy it from the gift shop at £4.

I’ve been asked to create new designs for my greeting card collection. People have asked for New Home cards, It’s a Girl or It’s a boy and cards for those getting married. I’ve had the requests pouring in from family and friends and hope I find the time to complete them all, other new requests include: Sorry you’re leaving and Thank You cards for a bride to be to give to her guests. I better get painting! Don’t forget that my cards are also for sale at my Etsy store, and if you have any special requests, don’t hesitate to contact me with details of what you want, details are now on my website too.

The new baby and new home cards are the same sort of style as the rest of the designs. But the Wedding cards are different, something simple but a bit more special for someone’s special day.

I would really like to buy a copy of this magazine when I have some pennies but right now, I can keep up with the blog, keep looking at the website and thinking about how nice it would be to own a copy. There is lots of great stuff on their blog too so take a look. It’s one of the many new blogs I am following.

I went to see Toy Story 3 last week (who didn’t?) and it was absolutely amazing. I’ve been a big fan of Toy Story since the first one in 1995, which was the first fully computer-generated full-length feature film and even the original was amazing. The third and last addition to the Toy Story adventures sees Andy going to college and we witness the emotions and trials the Andy’s toys go through when there is a misunderstanding. The movie is filled with entertainment and humour for everyone and is well worth the extortionate prices that the cinemas are charging at the moment. And for me it was well worth the wait. I’ve been looking forward to this film for a long time now. I cannot review this movie properly without giving too much away but I will say that I highly recommend you go and see it if you haven’t already.

A paper cut, inspired by my Mum’s Gerberas. I wanted to experiment with cutting paper as it always looks so nice done by other people, this was my first attempt. I cut the white paper and put orange behind it if the picture isn’t clear, I must take a photo of it next time rather than scan it.

Talking of paper cuts, I got a paper cut from my diary on the train yesterday, it was very sore!

{What I’m doing, is a new feature where I display what I’ve been doing, simples!}

ps. Hello to everyone who has found this from my Twitter or Facebook.

Over the last few days/weeks I’ve been signing up to Creative Networking sites, Some sites allow you to show your portfolio and connect with other creatives. To get the most out of this, I’ve joined up to all of them! If you are reading this and are also a member of any of these sites, please send me a message to say hello. I’d love to hear from you.

Flickr

Society6

Central Station

Ideas Tap

5oup

*I forgot one – LinkedIn

Good Design is:

1. Innovative
2. makes a product useful
3. is aesthetic
4. makes a product understandable
5. is unobtrusive
6. is honest
7. is long lasting
8. is thorough down to the last detail
9. is environmentally friendly
10. as little as possible

In my last post, I told you all about my Greeting Cards and well, I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that I went up to a local shop and asked if they could sell my cards, they loved the cards but wanted to buy them for much too little so we agreed it wouldn’t be best. The good news is that I’m now selling them on Etsy.com. It’s all very exciting! My little shop is called: ‘Designed with Love by Sian-Louise’ and I am very looking forward to all of this taking off. The A6 size cards are up for sale at $3.26 and there are cards for most situations. By the end of today, you will be able to buy A5 size cards from my little shop and in the very near future I hope to sell other products.