Challenges & Breakthroughs

Sorry things have been rather quiet around here lately. I've been working on the behind the scenes things and things are slowly coming together. It's always easy to plan and dream and brainstorm, but not always as easy to implement these notions. Let's start with the positives..

The breakthroughs: 

1) I have come up with a way to colourize my drawings to look as good as they can look. While this might seem trivial, it was devastating to create a lovely pencil crayon illustration, that when scanned looked like a bad wax crayon drawing with grey outlines. Now I draw my images in pencil, ink with a fine tipped pen, create a vector outline in Illustrator and colour in Photoshop. It's actually less work than it sounds, and I'm left with clean lines, beautiful textures, and truer colours. I'm very happy about this development. 

2) I've narrowed down the type of paper I like for the cards, and it is quite textured. I normally would have thought the texture would look too old fashioned and take away from the images, but it really sets things off. I'm looking for a bit thicker of a paper, I think. Nice sturdy cards appeal to me. 

3) I've completed Illustrator and Photoshop in school and am thrilled with what in able to do. I was working with a super old version of Corel photo paint... Like 1998... And it's so nice to be able to navigate its programs effectively. 

4) I'm edging closer to HTML and website building and can finally put my plans into action. I've sketched out menus, landing pages, shop layouts etc. and I'm so excited to actually make things work. I did my first HTML class on Tuesday, and I'm super excited to get started!

Stay tuned for the challenges!

Thanks for reading,

-Karen

Changes

Hello everyone.

I keep apologizing for being M.I.A, but this time there really is a reason. Taking my class, and re-reading the book "The Handmade Marketplace" has got me scheming, and planning and full of ideas.

While I've completed the Photoshop portion of my schooling and am starting on an overview of Illustrator.. the most important part of the course is

web design. 

I've dreamed up a website that encompasses this blog, galleries etc and ties in the illustration aspect of what I do, as well as the knitting. I've been in the rough stages of starting a card line and would like to share more of that here. I want to re-brand and rename and redesign everything as well.

When I started Blue Anchor.. it was more about crafts... and sea glass jewellery, and wine charms. Besides knitting, there's not a whole lot of crafting going on (at least not regularly). I'd like to emphasize my two loves: drawing and knitting, as well as share some of my (very amateur) photography, my thrift store and etsy finds, and a little behind the scenes getting my cards launched, learning web design and maybe the occasional craft fair.

I'm very "bipolar" when it comes to organization--- part of me always wants to classify things too closely and be super organized, while the other part wants to not feel pigeonholed by being too specific. I think that's what's going on here.. it feels disjointed having both

Blue Anchor Crafts

and

Dearest Doodles

... so hopefully tying them together will create a stronger, more unified image, and also encourage me to write a lot more!

 It' s a ton of work, and might be a long process (as I don't really know much about webdesign besides plugging generated html things into blogger and messing about.) I'll probably be using Wordpress too, as that's what my school is teaching.

Anyways, I'm just checking in to say that you will be seeing some exciting changes around here in the next (err... six months? year?), and the finished product (if it turns out to be anything like I've imagined) will be worth the wait. I might not blog on here as consistently in the meantime, but I am planning to share some of my steps in the right direction or any big news that comes my way (ie, planning a card-line, perhaps even selling something?!)

I thank you for reading and for your support. I'm excited to see what the future will bring, and will keep you updated on the new changes as they come.

Thanks so much for reading,

-Karen

Tuesday Treasures

Hello,

I know I've been a little MIA,  but I've been learning loads of things in Photoshop at school lately, so my time has been a little occupied. This weekend I fiddled around with the program, designed a blog mockup for a friend, and made a mother's day card. I'm really excited about the things I'm learning---- I feel like I can work towards some of my goals now that I can improve my images! Yay!

This week, I  tried out contacts. I can't decide about them, I have two trial pairs, and it's a little difficult to focus on my computer screen at work. I'll probably investigate further, but I've decided that I really don't mind myself in glasses--- I might actually prefer it!  You can wear more eye makeup without looking tacky, you don't have to wear as much jewellery, and there's always the sexy librarian/secretary thing, right? Haha. I went on Etsy and found the most flamboyant glasses I could find. Go big or go home, right?

Here they are:

I love the squareness of these beautiful cats-eye glasses

Arrows!?! So fun.

These are kind of spacey.... like retro-sci-fi

These baby blues are just toooo pretty.

It's like brooches for your eyes! (Okay, that's a gross simile... but you know what I mean!)

These are incredibly funky

These are extremely mod... Love!

Links: 

Thanks for reading! Do you wear glasses or contacts? Which do you prefer?

Tuesday Treasures

Hello, hope everyone had a great weekend!

Though I managed to find myself with a rather achy cold, I had a lovely weekend. Lots of movies, dachshund snuggles, spicy food, and organization (well, my computer, not my house unfortunately.) I'm still on the hunt for a decent jacket, but I've narrowed in on a shop that might carry what I'm looking for. I have teensy shoulders, so no jackets ever fit properly. I basically look like a line-backer.... or I raise my hands and the jacket goes up to my ribs.   It's pretty windy, and rains a lot in Victoria, so a jacket is kind of a year-round necessity (we didn't get a real summer until the end of August last year, either!) I've been spending a lot more time outside, and have been enjoying it! I have lots of pictures to post from various excursions... one day I'll have time to post them!

Work and school have made me a very busy bee. I've decided to only knit (when I can, that is, my wrist is still unhappy) dolls for the craft fair I want to attend this winter. Custom orders are lovely, but it's just not as spontaneous, there are deadlines, and sometimes I'm just not as excited about what I'm doing...  I'll definitely start up again once I have a better handle on life, but as it is, I just can't. It feels kind of good to come to this realization... when you have too many things on your plate (and I still do...) it gets overwhelming. I just need to putter along at my own pace with my side projects for now.

There isn't really a theme this week, just pretty things in lovely springy colours! Enjoy!