#nofrillsfriday 05 - short and sweet

This week has been a bit of a short and odd one.  Kirsty hasn't been in Wednesday - Friday as she's been catching up with old friends (as mentioned last week) who are only in town until Monday.  The beginning of the week we were a hive of activity and productivity - but working on a SECRET PROJECT that we still can't quite reveal just yet!  We'll be photographing things like crazy as soon as we can though!  It DOES mean that this week is image-light, alas.  So here's Louis in a sailor outfit that he looks very unsure of.. (how very Jean Paul Gaultier?)

Louis is mostly unimpressed with the tshirt I unearthed! #bostonterrier

"Louis is mostly unimpressed with the tshirt I unearthed! #bostonterrier"

As solo team Frilly, I've been pootling along through emails and admin stuff - getting in new thicknesses of wood to test out some new design ideas we've had which will be exciting albeit tricky to figure out. (My brain is great at visualising things, but not so great at precision.  I prefer to do things by eye and find it normally works out (due to my 'super-vision'* - thanks eye doctors!) however our latest ideas will require a fine degree of precision.  May need to bust out a ruler and EVERYTHING!

We've also decided to finally start investing in some magazine subscriptions - partly because we buy them regularly, and partly because we plan on doing little magazine reviews on Mondays.  Obvious magazine choices include 'Making' and 'Mollie Makes'.. but we also want to include independent magazines and small print runs - so next week we'll be covering this little beauty which arrived yesterday! (SPOILER ALERT: it's like someone designed a magazine just for us!)

Speedy Gonzales delivery by #caboodlemag to @frillyind - exciting!! :)

"Speedy Gonzales delivery by #caboodlemag to @frillyind - exciting!! :)"

Today my friend Tim came to visit, which was good for two reasons: 1) we got to chat at length about a project We are Frilly are working on involving gaming and archives, and 2) I got to help Tim do his first ever laser cutting.  Whilst I still take childlike glee in the way Bertha works, nothing quite compares to the first thing you cut out - watching the teeny tiny red dot and beam magically zap away material leaving your work behind.  It was especially intriguing as Tim had designed his pieces in LibreCAD which is a program I've never used - we do our work almost entirely in Illustrator and Inkscape.  It took a bit of tweaking, but we managed to do a ninja star-esque model tool, a cube and a mini structure that resembled a boat.  

In other news, Frilly Photographer Extraordinaire Lee Allen was excited to be featured on Rock n Roll Bride this week - a very crazy wedding at Aynhoe Park, involving a LOT of taxidermy, dwarves and circus strong men.  

Lastly: weather has been hit and miss, but when it's been a hit it's been GREAT! Days like this one make me feel very glad we have our studio, and now I'm just eager to get out into the garden area and get it tidied up - and hopefully even install a bat box!

Excited for summer to finally arrive at the @frillyind studio!

"Excited for summer to finally arrive at the @frillyind studio!"


#nofrillsfriday 04 - a week of meetings and making

This week has been 50/50 between meetings and making.  We started the week off meeting some local makers who are part of our Etsy Team - Birmingham Originals - and as it was the first time we'd all met we made sure there was lots of coffee, tea and pastries.  Yum!  One maker also brought along her whippet puppy who was BEAUTIFUL albeit a little unsure of Louis who was terribly overexcited by everything.

We spent our time plotting what we want to do for our Etsy Craft Party which will be happening on June 6th 2015 - location TBC, which was part of what our meeting was about!  Lots of ideas, enthusiasm, suggestions and more ideas.  Excitingness! 

The remainder of the week has seen us doing a lot of frantic design work for a secret project which we can't yet reveal (but will be shouting about as soon as we can!) and taking the opportunity to add to our existing range...

Dogs in progress! All drawn up ready for digitisation and laser action! #folksywip #illustration #madeinbrum #jq

A photo posted by Ada & Kirsty (@frillyind) on

Louis is often looked after by our lovely friend Chloe, who has a sometimes-grumpy Beagle called Cassie, and an always-happy-to-see-you Bassett Hound called Molly.  Louis gets along with them both fabulously, and they proved to be perfect inspiration to begin developing our Frilly Menagerie range. [coming soon to an online shop near you soon.. eg. on here, as soon as they're photographed properly!]

Test! Our first one! #seamansayings #necklace #nautical #refusetosink #handmade #folksywip

A video posted by Ada & Kirsty (@frillyind) on

We also played around with the proper beginnings of our Frilly Feminists line which we plan on launching at the Bust Craftacular in London in May.  We've got a wonky Hermione hidden away upstairs, but before we get round to fixing her, Kirsty began work on a Joseph Gordon Levitt (renowned feminist!) and a Ryan Gosling (Hey Girl..) that just kind of looks a bit chunky in the neck region. We can't work out why, or how to fix him (if at all?!) just yet - but we know there's something not quite right about him.  He's a definite work-in-progress.   JGL is spot on though, and we're loving his dapper striped tie!

Kirsty also decided to expand her Instagramming to include a short video which is likely to make you feel slightly nauseous - especially if you're a passenger in a moving vehicle when you watch it.  SO.  MUCH.  SWAYING.  These will become additions to our Seaman Sayings BEFORE we do the Spring Market at the Bond in Birmingham.  Deadlines ahoy!

Other fun-ness this week:

  • Adrienne & Lee had a night off from looking after Louis and went to see Cirque Eloize do Cirkopolis at Birmingham Hippodrome which they both agreed was amazing. (Adrienne now wants a Cyr Wheel (despite being mostly unable to balance on a regular bicycle..) and Lee is convinced the world has no need for jugglers.)
  • Kirsty has her oldest bestest friend visiting from NYC so there has been much geeky chat (Miranda runs Clutter Magazine - who we <3!) and catching up as it's been awhile since they last hung out.
  • We finally managed to track down Karlos G Tailor so we could discuss UNIFORMS!  Shan't say any more about them, but they're going to be AMAZING!
  • And to round the week off, we briefly met Fly - a hand-painted signs guy with an amazing portfolio who we're going to get to paint our front door.  This is possibly the most exciting thing this week, though it's been a pretty exciting week overall anyway!