Cosmo Cards

New Work. At last...

2009-07-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some new designs to go alongside the cards, something a bit more arty, and today managed to use the laser cutter to do a first test cut. I wanted to see how far I could push it in terms of complexity and see which papers worked best with the cutter. I think it went pretty well and you can definitely see the potential for the project in the future.

My summer hols start in under a fortnight so will be producing a lot more real soon.

New Materials

2009-05-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

The thing is I've made some gifts for people and obviously I don't want to put pictures online before I give the presents away and spoil the surprise. So I'm just going to tell you about the materials I'm using for now and I'll put some pics up in the near future.

One thing I've used in the past and really enjoy playing with is Milliput. This is a two part epoxy putty that cures at room temperature and will even harden under water (not that I've ever tested it). It comes in grey, balck, terracota and superfine white. It is commercially used for fridge and pipe repair but also by artists and crafters as a sculpting medium. Once you knead equal amounts of the two parts together until the colours are blended without streaks, you are left with a very squidgy, soft putty. It fully hardens in about 6hrs (depending on thickness), and goes through various stages that you can take advantage of and work the material in different ways. You can use water to smooth the surface of the piece and remove fingerprints, and I also use it when tooling, even with silicone clay shapers. You do have to get use to the way it dries out but once you've figured it out it's pretty easy and nice to work. When Miiliput is fully hard you can treat it like plastic pretty much and file, drill, saw, and finish with wet/dry paper with plenty of water. I use three grades, 400, 600, 800. I'm looking into buying some 1200 for an even smoother finish and found out 3M make soft superfine abrasive cloths which sound pretty exciting too.

Recently I also bought some Super Sculpey. This is basically high-grade fimo for grown ups. Technically it is a polymer clay and bakes in a domestic oven so is perfect for home-based crafters. Doll and bead makers use this and other Sculpey clays. Super Sculpey is flesh pink and very soft after very little kneading, it will not harden until cured. Like Milliput, once hard you can work much like plastic. It recieves tools amazingly well with no spring back whatsoever. I found working it quite hard because it is just a bit too soft, it only just seems to hold it's own weight. Maybe an armature would help but I haven't given up on it because the ease of oven baking is great and the finish is nice after some wet/dry action.

You can then paint/decorate these hardened clays as you see fit.

Just to whet your appetite a little, I've been researching this really new material called Precious Metal Clay (PLC). It's a clay that when you kiln or blowtorch fire comes out as REAL fine silver. You can even go and get it hallmarked. A binder burns away during firing to leave only REAL silver particles. You can then burnish at pattina etc. Obviously jewellery is the biggest usage and it isn't cheap but I think the potential is pretty high. Might splash out on some and associated tools and see what happens, although I might make some rings too.

I shall let you know how it goes and get some pics of the clay stuff as soon as I've distributed them.

Coming along

2009-04-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

For the opening of Cherry Cherry I tried to get some business cards together, they were a development of a previous design and used this new Murano paper that has a slight texture on it, I think they came out pretty smooth. Might be using the same paper in some card projects soon, it comes in over 30 colours and is really nice quality so plenty of scope.

I've also been beavering away at the official Cosmo Cards website, and although there are still a few changes to make it is at a stage that people can go and look, and buy stuff if you so choose. Anyway, it's at www.cosmocards.co.uk, take a gander...

Cosmo Cards hit the shops.

2009-04-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy old week. On Thursday I went to the fine city of Norwich to see the grand opening of Cherry Cherry, possibly the coolest shop in Norwich, and definitely the first shop ever to stock my cards. It was really good to catch up with my chum and one of the co-founders Miss Kate Seaward, and cool yet a little weird to see my wares in an actual shop, but fingers crossed on the start of something good. If you're ever in the fine city, drop in and see the place, it's within the Perfect Pad on Lower Goat Lane...
Then on Friday I went down to Devon to spend some time with some school mates. It was a well deserved break and was awesome to see everyone. One of my mates has just had his second baby, so met her for the first time, and saw how far along his barn conversion had come along. Really needed some fresh air and even got sunburnt on a spectacularly sunny day... I miss the countryside quite a bit, so feel pretty refreshed by my little trip.
And to top it all off, I still have the rest of the week off, so gonna hit my website pretty hard and am aiming to finish it off by the end of the week, will put an update up when it's done...

Pictures

2009-03-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Nobody told me how hard taking pictures of cards could be. To get them right, and there's still plenty of room for improvement, has taken ages. But I'm a little happier with them now. It's not only taking them, but then optimizing them and uploading them to so many different places. I think they look good though. Have a proper look in the DaWanda or Etsy shops (click the boxes in the top right...).

Cosmo Cards now available online

2009-03-27T03:35:00.000-07:00

I just opened my first online shop at DaWanda, click on the box in the top right of the page to go there and peruse my wares at your pleasure. It was actually much easier than I thought, and an Etsy shop will be up and running over the weekend. I'm hopefully fixing up my own website with my geek mate Sam over the weekend also, so there should be a variety of ways to get your hands on my stuff very soon indeed...

School Trip to Kew Gardens

2009-03-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

Occasionally my job has some great perks, and on Tuesday I got to go to Kew Gardens with just 5 kids and a very nice teacher. The kids weren't nearly as excited as I was by all the cool flowers and plants, but we had a good day all the same. Went on the treetop walkway, and pretty much all the main glass houses. Was testing out some cheap macro filters I got of ebay for my camera and think the pics came out pretty well. Here's a few of the best, check out the rest on my flickr photostream...

Vey Excitin...

2009-03-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Went on a start-up business course the other day which was really positive and I'm feeling pretty motivated and raring to get going, if only I didn't have a full-time job...

So, I've been busy beavering away on fixing up new and old designs so they are suitable for sale... This is gonna officially begin on April 9th at the Cherry Cherry launch in Norwich (check out their fan page in my favourite pages box). If anyone is connected to any other shops that might be interested in stocking them please let them or me know, I will obviously be doing this myself too but if someone has a link it could be easier.

The Cosmo Cards website will be up and running before then, so they will all be available there too, and etsy and dawanda shops will appear shortly also, but I will update you as and when that happens...

Mother's Day designs

2009-03-09T03:47:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a busy week at my day job as we had a school production of "The Wiz" which I built the Emarald City for, out of polystyrene sheets and plastic bottles, and we have an impending Ofstead inspection starting tomorrow so it's been all hands on deck. But also had some time to work on a Mother's Day design as it is now under two weeks away and my mum would not be pleased if I forgot as usual. Hoping to shift a few to friends and family also...

Cosmo Cards is on the blog... It must be that time of the month.

2009-02-27T11:07:00.000-08:00

So, thanks for looking, I am in the very early stages of trying to establish Cosmo Cards and make it a viable enterprise, and online promotion is gonna be a big part of that, this is the start... I plan to update at least once a week, keeping the world up to date with what I'm up to and making, and if I see any other cool stuff I might stick some links up too.

Just to give you the 411 on what I do I thought I'd mention a few projects and things that I have done and what I'm currently working on, will get some pics up asap too. Whist studying Fine Art at NTU I mostly worked with folding paper, this ranged from repeat process folding of a single sheet to create geometric patterns, to building machines from card. I also dabbled in elastic band weaving, coin tossing, model making, and a few other bits and bobs. I have made cards for my friends and family for as long as I can remember, why buy something when you can make it yourself? I work as an Art Technician in a north London secondary school, but am hoping to go full-time into creative pursuits at the end of the school year.

As well as designing and making new cards at the moment, I recently made the decision to start learning leatherwork. So far I've done a few belts and am gonna start work on a case for my iPod touch over the weekend. Very excited.