Desk Life ♥

hello chums, just thought i'd throw together a quick blog post before I head off on my annual travels through the UK to France and on to Andorra and Spain. I don't leave until Thursday but i'll be super busy tomorrow packing and stuff (or more likely reading all night and then packing at the last minute!) so I'll do a blog tonight instead.

i've mentioned it before on here a few times but last year I FINALLY bought myself a proper desk so that I have a place to work and also to display some of the random colourful junk i've collected over the years. You might be thinking 'who cares about a stupid desk' but it's my blog and I really like my desk so I'm gonna talk about it a bit and post some photos so if you're dead inside and hate anything fun, then you don't have to stay here...

 

So back to the desk. As an artist i'm quite a visual person (wow there's a surprise!) and I like to have lots of inspiring things near or around me when I work to help give me ideas or just to brighten things up a bit. I'm fortunate enough to have a retired painter and decorator for a dad which means the wallpaper in my room is utterly hideous and won't be replaced any time soon. So I long ago resolved to cover every available inch of it with as much random crap as I can muster. Hence the walls full of stuff!

 

I tend to keep a mix of items around my desk, you'll notice quite a bit of my own work pinned up along with designs from other artists I admire or just general bits n' bobs people have sent me or i've collected on my travels. Although I have a separate space to paint in (which sadly has walls i'm NOT allowed to decorate with cool stuff!) my desk is where I come up with most of my ideas for designs and products. It is for all intents and purposes, precisely where the magic happens.



I know i'm not the only artist that works this way, in fact most of my arty/illustrator/designer friends have similar desks or studio spaces chock full of items they've acquired over the years. I'm not sure about them but I know that I find it really helpful to have a heap of cool stuff in front of me while i'm working on a design or making something.



I'm lucky enough to have some very generous creative friends who've sent me all sorts of nice stuff like fun prints, postcards and groovy stickers! I stick most of this stuff up next to my desk to help with colour palettes and you know, because it looks pretty! And if YOU had hideous skin disease wallpaper then you'd probably slather pictures all over your walls as well.

I'm a big kid at heart and i'll probably never really grow up, so you'll also spot plenty of daft toys on my desk, like my trio of Monster High girls and my mini popobe bear collection. There's quite a lot of Geeky stuff as well, like fanart and other homages to various fandoms. I also keep my 'thinking crown' handy for those times when creative block strikes, I pop on the glitter crown and issues usually resolve themselves. And if they don't, who cares, i'm wearing a crown, nothing matters.

The desk is also home to my beloved Pullip doll and a whole host of other critters including Catbug, Puppycat, Paddy the gnome, my Lego Ghostbusters set, Moomin family, Sailor Moon, Toothless the dragon, Maurice the monkey, Arale, Jack the giant Popobe bear, Tofu Dolls, Dunny figures, oh and a Tardis because why not?!

it might look like a cluttered nightmare but it's surprisingly well organized (for me!) and I have quick access to all of the bits I need to create stuff and if I can't find something then I just shuffle through it all and swear profusely until I can. It's a very successful if entirely inelegant system of organization, typical to most artists. 



you might also spot Tom Hiddleston's face lurking on the desk as well, this was a recent gift from my friend Lorna as sadly the real Tom Hiddleston wasn't available, apparently. You might ask 'but Jade, why so much stuff everywhere?' and all I can say is that as far as i'm concerned, if it's not teeming with stacks of random stuff then it's not a real desk!

you might also think that i'm not left with much space after all that junk, and i'd like to take a moment to ask why on earth you're so judgmental but instead I will tell you that despite the clutter I manage just fine...

Now onto the other reason I wanted to do a post tonight, yes that's right, I lured you here under false pretences only to ambush you with something else entirely! As I mentioned at the start, i'm off on my holibobs this week which means i'll be closing the shop for a bit. However, i'm going to the post office in the morning so if you've been hankering for a treat or need to buy a present for someone, this is your last chance until the end of the month!

And as a special sweetener, i'm throwing in a FREE Girl Gang sticker with every order + EVERY purchase gets a 20% off voucher for their next order!So i'm not sure what you're waiting for, go buy something cute! SHOP NOW

and on that happy and colourful note i'll say goodbye, I won't have proper internet access while i'm away but i'll do my best to post stuff over on my Instagram page so if you want to see what I get up to on my holiday, then maybe you should follow me on there!

so until next time, that's all folks! speak to you all again soon...

Owls and Stuff ★

so this afternoon i got home after a quick trip to 'Sweet Ginger' (to say hi to my 2 fave shop owners Julie and Ciara) i got home to find a little parcel waiting for me in the garden shed!

but. . . this was no ordinary parcel!

last week my friend Kyren from college suggested a sort of 'art swap' type thing

we were talking about 'Kidrobot' stuff and Kyren offered to send me 2 duplicate blindboxed Dunny art toys he had, he offered to send them as a gift since i'm such a big fan of kidrobot stuff yet i have NOTHING from their site!

but i felt bad not sending anything in return so he asked me to make him a little owl plush since he's a big fan of all things owl related (he is quite possibly a bigger fan of Owls than i am!)

so of course i said yes!

this little fella was the result . . .

his name is Kyrowl McHooterton and he's 100% unique (but you can call him hooters for short. . .)

i've never attempted an owl plush quite like this before but he was soooo much fun to make! he's crazy coloured, a little bit Bauhaus and very very awesome 

i hope Kyren likes him!!!!

anyway here's the first Dunny out of the box, an awesome little cowboy/indian Michelle Valigura dude

the next one was also epically awesome, it's a Shelterbank one and i LOVE IT!

check out the back of it too

but the piéce de resistance was this guy

Kyren's custom painted Munny!!!

i still can't believe he's just given it to me! i imagine it will be worth quite a lot one day when Kyren is terribly rich and famous so i shall hold onto it!

similarly Kyren should look after his new owl because who knows. . . one day even that might be worth a few quid!

they're such awesome figures though, they've all been immediately added to 'the shelf' along with my momji dolls, popobe bears and other various bits and bobs i've accumulated over the years

massive thanks to Kyren!!!

by way of thanks i'm not going to shamelessly plug his work on here! ah that's the fun of having your own blog folks!

his art is actually super epic by the way, i'm fortunate enough to have been in college with a whole bunch of really talented people and Kyren is one hell of a talented animator/graphic designer/doodler

his work has this crazy quirky vibe to it, he draws wacky stuff and it's always fun and usually rather ruddy funny

last year for FMP at college he made all this amazing merch type stuff for his website DMND and i was lucky enough to snag a load of it for my 'wall of stuff'

check out the awesome little badges

+ poster

super duper stuff right!

of course it is . . .

for more awesomeness check out Kyren's blog - Symkytz

check out his 'Wall' on - Wall Collective

follow him on twitter here - @ksimkiss

or keep up to date with his work via his facebook page - DMND

he's currently drawing on a load of postcards creating unique designs that he's willing to send out to people for free so if you want to get your hands on a piece of original doodle artwork get yourself over to his blog/twitter/facebook NOW!!!

* * *

in other news. . .

planning a quiet weekend in ahead of my Birthday on Tuesday

absolutely DREADING Tuesday to be honest!

 Birthdays aren't really my thing i guess, more of a 'Christmas' kind of girl!!!

ah well, it's unavoidable and inevitable so why moan!

have a great weekend wherever you are + whatever you're up to

that's all folks . . . ◕‿◕ ★ xX 

Ps - i'm not going to keep reminding you so just get your bum over to the giveaway post and enter it already! come on guys. . . i'm giving away free stuff what's not to love here! - Giveaway