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Your choice of words in Scrabble Tiles.
I’ve been wanting to add some new ideas to my Etsy shop for a while and really fancied using words with my photos. I’ve made a few prints using quotations but that didn’t quite seem the way to go for me. I have used the old reliable Scrabble Tiles in the past for Valentine’s cards with some success so I began to ponder using them again. Such a versatile prop! To place the letters on the classic green board, to lay them on interesting backgrounds, pretty papers, maps, textures and so many more options. I decided to keep it simple and use some pretty origami papers which I bought back from Japan and here are the results. I hoping that the great art buying public will want to see their choice of words in Scrabble tiles!
It was fun to experiment with words in Scrabble tiles and the pretty papers in blue, pink, green and yellow. There was lovely natural light in my south west facing studio this morning despite it being a bit overcast which was perfect. In fact, I managed to do my test shots without my tripod as it’s on loan today, but I will use it in the future just to make sure that everything is pin sharp. You can fit a surprising number of lines and words on a small square piece of origami paper without it looking too crowded, so I hope that I have some interesting phrases to work with in this little project. The print size I am offering in my Etsy shop at this point is 7×7″ with a slim white border, it’s a nice size and keeps the postage costs low. I’ll see how these do before offering larger prints.
Love is in the air
I know that we’ve only just got over Christmas and my shop still has Christmas cards in it and my 2013 calendars are selling happily, but still, it’s nice to look forward to the next event in the festivities calendar.
Valentine’s day is that lucky day – I am personally a bit ambivalent about it and I think this is because I didn’t really get involved in all the Valentine’s ho-ha when I was a girl as I knew absolutely no boys whatsoever due to my formative potential boyfriend rich years being spent at an all girls boarding school. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my boyless time there and was generally much amused by the mild tone of hysteria which fell over the place every February 14th which increased in intensity as we moved on from being ten years old to world-weary and sophisticated 17 year olds in the late 80s. I always got a couple of cards penned in badly disguised writing by my very kind parents and one year even a lovely floral arrangement which I couldn’t have been more chuffed to receive had it been from some spotty public school boy (as all the young beaux of choice seemed to be). Valentine’s did get slightly more interesting once I departed the all female environs of St Margaret’s, but not much and thus it remains. Today as an old married woman (to mis-quote Mr Elton) Valentine’s is an excuse for a little gift exchange or some flowers and always some nicer than usual food and wine and I am quite happy with that. But as an active Etsy shopkeeper I feel that it is my duty to turn my thoughts towards the more actively Valentine minded and offer a range of tempting images for those in all stages of romance, from the tentative first steps to the long term partners and I hope that I have managed that. I have used my stock of images for the last couple of years but this time I really do want to offer some new designs and to whet my creative juices I started of gently by making a montage of some of my romantic graffiti which I have collected over the years and I rather like it! So far I have it listed as a card, but some prints will be following soon.
Also posted in etsy shop
Tagged boarding, cards, graffiti, romance, school, Valentine's Day
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You Can’t Cross the Sea….
I’ve been thinking about making a new line of prints using photos I have in my archive along with some quotations. I know it’s not exactly the most original idea in the world and neither is the idea to have the photo in circle format, but I think it looks nice and ‘now’ and may just tickle the fancy of the great art buying public. I have been trying to upload my first image to my Facebook page, but the picture won’t show in it’s entirety – the quote keeps being cropped! Another thought was that I could offer a couple of options for the quote to make use of the Etsy shop new feature which I’m testing of drop down menus which can be used to offer options. As I print to order, it’s nice and straightforward to pop an alternate text selection into the artwork.
Please leave a comment and let me know if you like my new plan for world domination!
Graffiti and Shopping Lists Calendars
The 2013 calendar season is hotting up in my studio and I have completed my next two designs. First a brand new and somewhat eccentric offering showcases twelve prime examples from my collection of found shopping lists. I’ve sold quite a few zines of these little beauties, so I decided that it wasn’t totally bonkers to make them into a monthly treat. So here it is!
The second new calendar is a tried and tested success, the Eyeshoot Graffiti Calendar – the pictures are almost all from this year with a couple from just last weekend. I’m really pleased with it, I think it’s a bit brighter and more colourful that last years. Both versions come with a mini wooden easel.
2013 Cuba Calendar
I am well aware that it seems as if summer has only just started in the UK but my thoughts have turned to Xmas. Or more precisely, New Year with the timely arrival of the first of my 2013 Calenders in my online shops.
This very first offering is choc full of bright, sunny and vibrant photos which I took in Cuba at the start of the year, it’s of a loose leaf style which means that once the month is over, you can just chop off the dates at the bottom of the page and be left with a picture to do with as you wish.
Available here for a very modest price – comes with a teeny weeny little wooden easel which makes a really cute stand for your desk, shelf, window ledge, wherever.
Smile, You Are Beatuful!
This is my best find from Jubilee Monday in Manchester. I know it’s not actually celebrating Her Majesty’s glorious sixty years, but pictures of crowds and jollity really aren’t my thing! (I may pick a couple of those to post later just to show willing!).
Memories of Crete
It’s been scorching hot here in the UK for the last few days and I’ve been thinking about my trip to Crete which is coming up in a week or so and how nice it will be for the heat to feel familiar rather than a total shock! While pondering such niceties I was looking back through photos I took a couple of years ago at one of my favorite places to visit when there – the beautiful Arkadi Monastery on one of the sticky out bits of the North West coast. It’s a warren of honey coloured stone paths, courtyards and steps, bougainvillea floats on the breeze in a wonderful range of colours, cats laze in shady corners and mysterious looking monks glide by in their black robes (they must get very hot!). Here’s a happy memory of a beautiful spot. (Available as a 10×8″ print in my Etsy shop)
Two New Montage Prints
I started playing around with the idea of combining related images into montages a while ago but wasn’t totally happy with the result. Today I went back to the montage idea and was, I think, much more successful.
It’s still done in Lightroom’s Print Module but I changed the layout a bit and made it 20×20 inches in size which is a great size for a print and here’s the result which is now a bone-fide print available to buy in both my shops!
While I was still in the mood, I decided to make another montage based on the same layout to show off some of the street art I’ve collected over the years. Some of the images I’ve used previously for prints and they have been seen in my shop, but some of the others are making their first appearance as a print. Available in my Etsy shop and right here on my website!
New Style Photo Blocks
I’ve been happily selling photo blocks in my Etsy Shop for a while now but have been fancying a change to the look of them and improving the quality of the image. Finally I’ve got myself sorted out!
My friend Phil has been giving my some beautiful pieces of plywood leftover from his workshop, pieces of perfectly good wood which were destined for the bin, so I am saving them from doom….
The current batch is 12cm square with 13 layers of lovely wood which looks beautiful when it’s lightly varnished. I’ve made just a few so far and am very happy with the result. The images are printed on the same paper which I use for my prints, so the colours are gorgeous, I stick them to the plywood block and give them several coats of non toxic varnish and the final result is a lovely lightly textured finish with a very slight sheen. The varnish on the edges of the blocks brings out the colour variations in the layers of plywood. The blocks are thick enough to be free standing and when I’ve worked out how to, I’ll drill a hole in the back so they can easily be hung up!
Here’s a taster of what I’ve done so far – all available to buy in my Etsy shop for the modest price of £13.00 each.
I Can Feel Your Smile Photo Block
Blue Wall, Green Curtain Photo Block
One Hipstamatic Photo, Three Uses
I took a nice little Hipsta snap on Waterloo Bridge in London about a month ago and have only just got around to doing anything with it. I’ve actually done three things with it and here they are!
Here’s the first one where I’ve just tidied it up a bit, removed cigarette butts and other unsavoury London street stuff. Nice and simple.
Pavement Love by Sarah Franklin
Number two is following on from my Above us Only Sky print which uses the John Lennon lyric, I have kept it in the musical family and used All You Need is Love, which is a nice sentiment really.
All You Need is Love by Sarah Franklin
Finally a bit of customisation with this one, I thought it would be fun to add a couple of names, one either side of the heart, they way you used to draw hearts when you were a kid. I’ve added a date at the bottom and thought they could be nice for a wedding or engagement event.
Custom Names on Heart by Sarah Franklin
Tagged graffiti, Hipstamatic
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