The trials and tribulations of being freelance: a lowdown.
I thought perhaps I was doing the world’s stupidest thing doing my work experience as a freelance designer, as I felt maybe it wasn’t me pushing myself, or it would be seen as lazy or not adventurous...Now I feel like it’s the world’s stupidest thing because it is SO HARD TO DO.
I have so far, worked way past my 72 hours experience. Yes that has also included the freelance poster work I have undertaken for people, as well as the experience with silly girl club, but I now almost work twenty hours a week on top of course work to perfect my skill.
Here’s a little run down how I go about what I do and why.
I first was inspired to set up a shop when I worked with Nikki of the silly girl club - she had seen some jewellery I had been messing around with as a side project and convinced me to sell some bits to help me make some money.
Normally, I would procrastinate this to death and um and ahh for a few months...work experience however, decided to push me and give me the confidence to take a risk, almost giving me the perfect excuse to blame it on if it all went wrong!
In all honesty though freelance has appealed to me for various reasons, mainly being I am unpredictably ill and having the opportunity to work for myself as well as various people from the safety of my home gives me a great deal of comfort.
My idea came from people acknowledging my art style and me thinking perhaps they would like to wear it. It all starts off with a design from a postcard or vintage ornament - much alike most of most work - which I perfect and then transfer onto paper or tracing paper. I use a thick clear shrink plastic that is easy to place over my illustration, making it easy for me to take my sharpies (ALWAYS USE SHARPIES) and colour in the colourful parts first, before lining it all using a really decent hard wearing pen.
I normally use one side of an A4 piece of plastic to one design, this shrinks to around 3 inches across and makes a really good sized brooch.
After it is cut out (another nightmare part, as they bend and snap a lot and the plastic tears very easily), it goes into the oven for 2 minutes on gas mark 3. I have played around with this several times and it is still very unpredictable so now my work has taken off a bit I will be buying a heat gun which will give me more control. I find work tends to smudge or curl onto itself and then smudge more.
This is demonstrated here:
notice at the side of the player, there’s little white gaps and smudges? it may not seem much, but to me it is a failure I would be ashamed to sell, and so goes straight into the bin. As wasteful as it seems, I refuse to sell anything I am not happy with and a smudge is a flaw.
Each piece takes me around ten minutes to draw so you can imagine how much time gets wasted!
Once out of the oven I use a heavy tray and greaseproof paper to flatten them out, and then when cooled I use mod podge to paint and seal the drawn on side of the plastic, which I then coat in glitter and leave to set. This process is repeated layer by layer until it forms a thick, sparkly coating on the back of the brooch. I have found mod podge is my best friend, unlike other craft glues which can crack and then break all your glitter.
example! I was a little bit heart broken,
Once layered and opaque, I sand the brooch all over using a sanding tool and sand paper. I then wipe it clean and seal with a mod podge gloss. Once dry, I add my brooch back using the best glue in the world e6000.
They then get a good wipe down and are ready for new owners!
After launching my site last week, I sold out within an hour. I have since opened my own Instagram for it @thebigbadbuns and having sent out my first orders, watched the feedback come in!
So far all has been positive. Here’s a custom order on a jacket.
I have had requests for several more brooches now too, which I will be making in the spare time I get at the moment.
I have enjoyed this experience so much and it is bizarre how life works sometimes. If I hadn't done the posters, I would never have met Nikki, and then would never have had the guts to start my own shop!
My next plan is to open an etsy store with my new berets I have been working on...I’m confident this will keep me going over the summer!