Buttons, buttons, buttons, eyes and pints and some crochet badges.

Okay, but you probably do feel like - you made drawings and some clay figures, you made stupid washing machine, but what the hell did you sell on Be Ur Shelf Art Market?

Buttons.
(and badges but they are of much lesser importance - I'm not proud of them and they did not sell. Oh, I wonder why)


There was completely shallow, personal reason behind that - I friggin' love buttons.
And the shapes they took - well, I just really love them too! Also, they are tokens from my Micro/Macro sketchbook. It felt right to find inspiration them.
Maybe apart from the eye shape. Eyes are something which I always draw unconsciously while one the phone or talking to someone else and I finally wanted them to give some more attention.

It was a simple process. I had a plastics and 3D resources induction. I saw what a laser-cut machine is capable of. And what you could possibly use it for - and I thought - HOW ABOUT BUTTONS THEY ARE LIKE FLAT RIGHT AND THEN THEY CAN HAVE LIKE FUNNY SHAPES RIGHT - so I booked an appointment, learned how to use Adobe Illustrator (THE HORROR) and cut lots of them.

Here are some pictures of the result.

eyes and pints (I work in a pub and I like ales)

teardrops! They go well with the eyes. Buy in bulk. 

And the process of rubbing the paint into the engravings - giving a quality of a drawing into a smooth surface of a plastic - what a genius I am. Like no one ever did that before.

Below I am posting the pictures of how I delivered them to the Market itself - they needed a flat background in order to got as much attention as possible (I had an idea with pink teardrops in the back, but I've been told to it's distracting) and in the back I was selling myself - which got me a place on the Camberwell Arts Market - so I did manage to sell myself! 

Oh, and the badges, right. 

I'll post some pictures of them too.

white eyes! 

An alternative to plastic sleeves. A needle with a string included.

(badges, meh)

And that was on the back of the sleeve packaging. 

Mostly, with this project it was relieving to produce a piece, which is nice and simple, but quite attractive in visuals, therefore I am happy to announce that I sold 12 packets out of 18 - while I was so sure I am not going to sell a single button.

There was a lot of planning too - when to cut them, how to get the material, how much of each design I should have, in which colour, what should I put them in, how the packaging is supposed to look like, and how much should I charge them for. 

It was essential for me to understand that if I keep myself organised I don't suffer as much as before every deadline. 

And that I should keep records of my expenses, because I lost track somewhere after the second purchase of the materials needed and I most certainly spend more on that project that I've earned. OH WELL, JONC, THERE YOU GO, a lesson through the failure. 

Oh, and also - coming back to those useless badges - if you're not good at something (e.g. crocheting) - know that you need to practice more before you present the outcomes to the World. I sold one badge. To a friend. Doesn't count then! 

Boop. 

Clay Day!

I have almost forgot about the Clay Day with Charlotte Mei (she is kinda a ceramic super-star) - which was quick, fun, a bit hectic and a bit too unfocused - but it started my fascination with ceramics, which is still going on - as I not long ago, glazed the sculpturines (just made-up that word) I produced on the workshop and
they
are
so
shiny!

So I want to come back to ceramics and be productive.

See the result of me getting my hands dirty below:

We had to interpret three themes - a person, an object and a landscape. This is Tilda Swinton. I guess.

This is landscape of Ustron. You should go there sometime.

And a button. Yes, I'm obsessed.

Tilda Swinton with some make up-on.

And this is Tilda's companion.

And we finished the day with - a #clayselfie 

It was fun - although I didn't want to produce ceramics for the Be Ur Shelf Market, I learned a bunch. For example, that I used have my romance with clay - but no one ever provided me with an opportunity to bake them and cover them with shiny glaze, so they look PRETTY. 

I am being purely a magpie here, as I really do shiny things. 

Boop!

Washing machine and a couple of words on failures.

Washing machine was my contribute to build something more interesting than a shelf for my butt-ons. Ha-ha. I will show the buttons in the next post.
Well, coming back to the subject - I had a dream idea of building my own launderette. With drying-racks, fake plants, soap dispenser and the sign - JONC'S LAUNDRETTE - because, I just remembered now - firstly, I wanted to make socks and socks look great on drying rope. Then the launderette idea followed.
But then I learned, that making socks without HOURS of stitching, embroidering or sewing on patches and somehow achieving a result in which they would look at least as good as Primark socks for the ridiculous prize of hand-sewn socks (or knitted! I failed at accomplishing that too) is only possible via professional 'printing' company specialising at delivering socks designed by you.
Yes, I contacted them.

I failed - I simply do not have enough money and unfortunately time-machines haven't been invented yet. The cost of one pair was manageable from the quantities of 400 - that means, I would pay around £1000 for the service - and then still I would have to wait around 2 months, what was way past my deadline. Such a shame, I got really excited about selling socks.

I really want to have them done one day. Especially the birdy-one and eye-one - as you will see, eyes are my obsession.

But I had a back-up idea (thanks God for being negative and overthinking, actually), so the laser-cut buttons took place of the socks and the knitting failure turned into crocheting poor skills (I made badges. I do not like them and I won't post them!).
But I was so sure about the launderette. I even wanted to dress myself in pure white clothes and smell like a fabric conditioner from a mile to be recognised.

However, the day has only 24 hrs and the venue was tiny - and I didn't want to be a DIVA and took a lot of space - so, first the sign was cropped out, then the whole experience of washing soap dispenser and putting tokens into a washing machine, so did the fake plants went to the bin, and the drying racks (since the socks sustained to be only one of my dreams) definitely became useless.

So, the only thing which was left is... The washing machine. Tiny one, due to The Nines giving us a cupboard sized venue to sell our goodies. But it had the door and an AWESOME salad-spinner hand-powered device - and it really did look like it's washing clothes.

TAKE A LOOK AT MY SNAPCHAT VIDEOS - they are the best describing the fun I had and how the process of mastering my washing machine looked like. Some images might be harmful if you are not used to my face. Enjoy.

I genuinely forgot, how much I like 3D forms - and I managed to combine illustration and my past 3D focused practice at my upper secondary art school in this playful thing. I learned a lot and I would use that experience again. You'll see!

My drawing became a poster for Be Ur Shelf exhibition! Designed by lovely Mathilda Della Torre.

So, remember the kid drawing? It became our main poster for the Be Ur Shelf event.
I'm honoured, I really am! The poster design is great - and I'm glad that my drawing somehow complement it.


Also, out of pure narcissism - it was great to see my illustration poking around uni and Peckham and Camberwell.

See the result below!

Yay.

Micro/Macro!

Micro/Macro was an amazing project - and I felt like I'm both being super causal, drawing whatever my mind wants to draw and fulfilling the brief, therefore top scoring my uni work - at the same time.

It was good to learn about consistency - drawing everyday (well, almost - I'm not a perfect human being!) as per to brief, brought me into good pace of working - so for the rest of Selling Yourself Project I was careful and planful. No, wait, this word doesn't exist - well, but I did managed to plan my steps carefully. Yes, that sounds better.

Let me present you some of my favourite pages from Micro/Macro sketchbook - which is possibly my most favourite sketchbook from all of I wasted (poor trees) for my uni adventure.

Geoff (my mentor and my tutor) and Skrillex (a DJ, a love of my life) are judging each other. 

'BERDS' in Silesian. SILESIAN IS AWESOME.

I do have this opportunity around 2 times in a month. Now you know the reason behind my horrible outfits. Like my dad says - Even King Solomon is not able to pee from an empty bladder - or something like that.

A kid eating a flower. True story, mate. Seen it with my own eyes.

Streatham Common and Peckham Rye Station. 

GUESS WHO? MIKA. YES, HIM. 

(and I have too much of it towards certain people)

collage - boop! 

With that sketchbook, my illustrations became a bit more coherent - I was indeed surprised to notice that. And my love for primary colour began. Now I'm overusing it a bit too much - but I will probably get bored soon and find another obsession. I will notify you.

Competition.

I'm done with this blog - I am done with my stupid writing as well, I feel like I stopped making sense two posts ago. Therefore, this post will be made out of pictures!
Maybe I'll come back later and fill it out with fake philosophy.

Shortly. Competition was set by Royal Opera House - 'Please, make people of age 20-30 come to the opera or to the ballet. Make us exciting, relevant and accessible.'

Sure! I couldn't deal with that on a level which probably works best and sells itself easily - that is a good, witty idea presented by nicely photoshopped picture - for examples, go to the tube.
No, I wanted to present that in a illustration, colourful and exciting, bold and catching an eye, an illustration which speaks with no words. Let me show you, how I tried to achieve that.

STAGE ONE: inspiration!

Bauhaus everywhere in my life.

Dance and colour! Polish matchbox label. 

Probably this painting had the biggest impact on me - it's Electric Prisms by Sonia Delaunay - simply, I think this painting looks exciting, like it's dancing - without no obvious depiction of objects. 

And funnily, this one became my greatest inspiration - just the cut out shape. You'll see.

STAGE TWO: collage try outs!

STAGE THREE: having fun with linocuts!

STAGE FOUR: linocuts make love with pencils!

I love this pose so much!

STAGE FIVE: linocuts made love with pencils and they had threesome with Photoshop! (maybe they shouldn't have had it)