More Brains, Vicar?

It's been a while... let's paper-mache stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:12:00 +0000

Ok so I know that my business cards and suchlike have the blog address on them, but recently I haven’t had much to write about so have just been putting smaller updates on my Facebook page. However, I do actually have something to blog about for a change today!!

One of the things I like about selling my own designs is the physical stall aspect and trying to think of cool ways to display my products, on a small budget! For instance, the ‘gravestones’ that I use to display necklaces and bracelets are pieces of leftover plywood found in my Dad’s shed, which he trimmed down for me so that I could paint and varnish them. And my ring display box is a plastic photo frame from a pound shop, sprayed glossy black and then stuffed with rolls of leopard print fabric (leftover from skirt that I made!).

I was pretty pleased with my most recent crafty display piece so thought I’d post a little how-to in case anyone was interested in trying something similar. I needed a space-saving way of displaying my embroidered coasters and patches – so coffin shaped boxes were the obvious choice!

I started with a small card box (this lasagne box was the perfect size for the items that I wanted to display), opened it out and drew out the shape of the coffin base in the middle.

I cut this shape out, leaving a couple of inches from the sides of the box to fold up to create the new sides.

Next, I re-attached the sides with masking tape, using quite a lot so that it wasn’t too flimsy.

Then got busy with some newspaper paper-mache! For the paste I used PVA glue thinned down with a little water. I put on a fair few layers on the inside and outside of the box to help it stay rigid once dry. And added a set of little handles for decoration.

Once the papermache was dry, I gave it a paint and a varnish and voila – shiny new coffin display boxes for my stall. I made them in two different sizes so that one can be neatly packed away inside the other.

Looking forward to my next adventures in paper-mache now... I feel some 3D gravestones coming on :)

Finally Facebooked!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:35:00 +0000

It's about time, I know, but I've finally made a facebook page for More Brains, Vicar? Please go like me here :)

In other news I've added a few more items to the Etsy page, and had a fabulous weekend at the Dandy Lion Market followed by the Hot Rod Rumble. The latter was somewhat soggy, but way less damp inside our gazebo of goodness...

Events and more events! (and some coasters)

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:46:00 +0000

Hooray getting busy with some more events over the next couple of weeks! :D

First up, tomorrow is the Dandy Lion Market in Highgate... it's a new crafty market and looks nice and eclectic so excited about that!

Next up the following day, i'll be hitting the road (or actually just getting on a train as we don't drive. boo.) with the London Lowbrow & Kustom Ko-op gang once more and pitching our gazebo at the Hot Rod Rumble in Kent. We have more arty participants this time so the gazebo will be crammed with creativity and booze! :)

This is our little stall at the Deadbeats Car Club Weekend Frenzy on the 28th May. The weather was a bit dodgy but we got there intact on public transport, drank our way through the drizzly spell and saw the awesome Devil Wrays and managed to catch a bit of the Daytonnas before having to catch the last tube back.

Next event on the list is the Haunted Tattoos tiki birthday party in Holloway next saturday the 18th, they've got bands, DJs and a special spooky cocktail to celebrate their 2nd anniversary, so I'm looking forward to it already! Here's the flyer:

And last but not least - I've put a few more items on the Etsy shop, including my hand embroidered coaster sets. Check the shop out here.

If there was a prize for laziest blogger ever I might just win it!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:47:00 +0000

Whoops I was too lazy to update the blog again! But there has been news and lots of shiny new things so here's what's been going on recently...

I've had my little stall of spooky goodness at a bunch of events recently, yet never get bored of repeatedly taking photos of it... so here's a few pictures from the recent ones...

The first photo is from the London Lowbrow & Kustom Ko-op event, the Kustom Klub, which I helped to organise... it went really well and we all had a great day, except for the slight hiccup of MojoKings not being able to make it due to illness, but our support band Drowning Sorrows stepped up and did a great job entertaining everyone along with our DJs. Here's some more pics of the rest of the event...

Myself and Clumsy Kate will be bring the LLKK goodness to the Deadbeats Car Club Weekend Frenzy in Rickmansworth this Saturday 28th May. I'll be selling my usual array of dodgy horror shiny things, and Kate will have some of her awesome 'Tattooed Wood' artwork and Jewellery. It's also BOTH of our birthdays on the day, so come check out our stall and buy things from us so we can fund our celebratory boozing!! ;)

Next on the list of news is that I've gone and got myself a stockist! The lovely folks at Haunted Tattoos on Holloway Road (North London) are now stocking a nice array of More Brains, Vicar? accessories which makes me very happy because they do beautiful work including lots of horror stuff so their customers clearly have good taste! I'm an idiot and forgot to take a picture of the MBV stuff in situ in the shop so you'll just have to go look for yourself!

I've also got loads of new jewellery to put on the Etsy shop, so expect to see that updated sometime this week. I'll post pictures of some of my favourite new additions on here while I'm at it too, honest! ;)

An update that's actually about jewellery!!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:23:00 +0000

Hell yeah! There's jewellery based news for once! :)

So, the shop-within-a-blog thing is a bit of a pain in the neck, so I've ditched that for the moment in favour of an Etsy shop. I've put a bunch of stuff on there so it's mostly up to date, just a few more things to be added depending on what I sell at the weekend. Click here to get to the shop, or the banner at the top of the page.

This weekend is our highly-anticipated second London Lowbrow & Kustom Ko-op art and craft fair. As an organiser I'm probably a smidge biased, but I'm really looking forward to it and think it's going to be a belter :) Click on the flyer image for more details about the event:

And in the mean time, here's a couple of pics from my stall at Bedlam Breakout a few weeks back...

Happy Mother's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:52:00 +0000

To celebrate mothers day I got crafting and made both my Mum and Step Mum floral (non-gory!) embroidered stuffs! My Mum got a hand made and embroidered purple leopard tote bag with rose and web motif...

And my Step Mum got a hand made and embroidered magnetic picture frame to stick on the fridge... :)

Right, enough of the flowers now back to the blood, guts and dead stuff...!

Punk 4 Japan

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:12:00 +0000

Hurrah! The 83-band monster compilation that is 'Punk 4 Japan' is complete! You can buy it here: http://punk4japan.com/

100% of the money you paid for this collection will be going to the British Red Cross disaster relief fund to aid those people in Japan affected by the recent, and very tragic, earthquake there.

Mega kudos to Dan @ the ICM for this idea and all the work that went in to making it happen so quickly. Good work boss.

Easily distracted

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:39:00 +0000

Ok, so I was going to sort the shop out when I got back from Bedlam Breakout, but have been distracted by do-gooding and am helping out with a Punk 4 Japan donate-to-download compilation... it's looking like it'll be ready to go soon, with the addition of a print-your-own CD sleeve courtesy of moi for those wanting to burn their compilation after downloading.

This is what the front cover'll look like:

I'll post the download details when we have em :) Then i'll do the shop!!

The Kustom Klub

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:53:00 +0000

Hooray we've finalised the details and designed the poster/flyer for our next London Lowbrow & Kustom Ko-op event... 'The Kustom Klub' is going to be on Saturday 9th April at The Horatia on Holloway Road, N7 8JE from 4pm til late.

Clumsy Kate did the pretty illustration for the poster and I slapped some text and bamboo on it. We're pretty pleased with the result:

Expect lots amazing art and craft stalls, live painting & pinstriping, copious amounts of home made cake, excellent music from MojoKings, and a healthy dose of drunkness by the end of the night :) For more info visit our event page on facebook.

Ta da!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:24:00 +0000

Here's some of the recent flyers I've designed for Watford punk promoters, the ICM. Click on the lil flyers to see a bigger version.

Also the time is soon approaching when I will upload pics of all the jewellery I've been working on and actually sort the shop out. Oh yes! :)

Thought I should probably update this really!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:17:00 +0000

So, Kustom Kristmas went swimmingly, we had a good number of people throughout the day, drank far too much and had a great time watching the bands before staggering home. Here's some piccies...

Also veeeeery excited to announce that I'm going to have a stall at the Bedlam Breakout Psychobilly Festival in in March. Click on the flyer for more info:

And more news to follow about our next upcoming London Lowbrow & Kustom Ko-op event in April :)

Update mash-up!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:19:00 +0000

So, I'm not bad at making things out of fimo, but pretty crap at updating my blog!

Here's a general round-up of what's been going on recently...

Firstly there was the camping fun of Kustom Kulture Blastoff. Dolly Cool Clare, Clumsy Kate and I had a super time on our stall-of-plenty, and excessive rum consumption kept the cold at bay at night in the tent! Here's our stall and a close up of my lil MBV? display:

In other news, I've been kept pretty busy with graphic design stuff recently. Dan at the ICM has kindly let me loose on more flyers, including this one for their upcoming halloween extravaganza:

... and I also did the design for Side Effect Records first ever compilation CD, illustrated by the talented Hannah [SPAN]:

The CD is a bumper collection of up and coming punk, indie, ska, rock and hardcore bands - which you can buy here.

And lastly is the exciting news that I am helping to organise the Kustom Kristmas alternative craft fair on Sunday 5th December. We've just finished the poster, which was a collaborative effort between myself, Clumsy Kate and Von Leadfot Pinstriping:

For more information about the event, stalholders or to join our merry band of artists and crafters, find us here: www.facebook.com/LondonKoOp

Fun times with Paypal buttons

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:57:00 +0000

Oh my good gawd I have an online shop! It's only got a small selection on there at the moment, but i'll be putting more items up next week. Click on the link on the right to get to it. I may even attempt to get random people to actually look at my blog soon too. Woo!

In the meantime, I will be here:

This spring I have been mostly...

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:01:00 +0000

… designing shedloads of gig flyers! And moving house, and having various crises...

Below is a selection of flyers and a logo that I've made for local punk/ska/rock/psychobilly/indie promoter the Independent Creative Movement. If you just so happen to put on gigs and need some nice flyers designed (you never know!), then email me here.

Summer has been spooky jewellery shaped so far, I'll have lots of new designs and information about how I plan to achieve world domination (well, upcoming fairs and a little web shop) to post soon!

Attack of the 6ft Table!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:08:00 +0000

... and Curse of the Sunny Weekend... and stuff...

Last weekend I embarked on another craft fair adventure with a stall at the Stour Space Designers Market. My table was a massive 6ft wide and I just about managed to make enough goodies to fill it. The market was a bit on the quiet side again, probably due to the lush weather, but I sold a few bits and bobs and all the stall-holders were selling lovely stuff so it was a good day.

My next crafty outing is booked already, i'll be at the monthly Jumble at Bar Music Hall in Shoreditch on Sunday 9th May:

Click here for the facebook event page.

My first craft fair...

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:49:00 +0000

This weekend saw lots of time sat at stalls, which was surprisingly quite fun. Unfortunately the lovely sunny weather on Sunday made the basement fair at Bloomsbury Lanes a bit on the quiet side, but those of us there had a lovely time and my miniature stall looked really cute with all my new items including eyeball and spiderweb make-up bags.

Hannah and Laura were kind enough to model one of my more subtle accessories ;)

New stuff - on backing cards!!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:06:00 +0000

This is the first batch of new jewellery that I've been making over the last couple of weeks to sell (earrings, hairclips and brooches). I think they look strangely professional - how did that happen?!

I'll be sharing a little stall at a couple of upcoming events:

Live Music vs Live Art @ The Flag, Watford

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=375613916857&index=1

Unsigned Sunday - Spring Fair @ Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113154075361276

Nothing says Happy Easter like...

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:13:00 +0000

... a dead bunny in a felt basket of chocolate eggs! Probably :/

Then I made some cake, which was much cheerier.

Zombear!

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:24:00 +0000

Valentines Day took an undead turn this year! I made a sized-up version of this teddy pattern (http://www.funkyfriendsfactory.com/MembersArea/toy-making-information/teddy-bear-making-tips/free-teddy-bear-pattern.aspx), sprayed some fur a bit greeny and added a severed arm and blood spillage. He now takes pride of place on Dan's zombie shelf.

Unzipped

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:19:00 +0000

Here's a couple of make-up bags I finished recently - embroidered swallow and eyeball.

A bit of an introduction...

noreply@blogger.com (morebrainsvicar?) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:02:00 +0000

So, welcome to my new blog... I want to use it to show off various bits and bobs that I've made and am proud of, whatever they may be. I've always got a project or two on the go, so hopefully should be able to update this with new creations relatively often - please check back for more :) I like sewing, baking, embroidery and occasionally a bit of clay modelling. Here's a few cake pics to get the pride of a finely iced sponge out of my system before moving on to the sewing...