Glass-Painting Private Commission – “Ritz”

Commission Work: ‘Ritz’ – Private Commission for Mark Barclay, London

I was contacted recently to do a Private Commission glass-painting for Mark Barclay in London. Mark had just bought a terraced house and wanted a glass-painting of his late Siamese cat ‘Ritz’ to sit above his front door. I designed the graphic below to show my initial idea.

Green light…

Mark gave the green light for the work to commence and I purchased the glass and printed out the template to sit underneath the new glass. The work is approximately 60cm by 90cm. It took 6 sheets of A3 paper to get the image to fit the dimensions!

To Air-Brush in the sky…

I blanked out all but the sky initially, only to find that my air brush was broken. I ordered a new one and then had to get on with doing something else instead, so I lifted the bottom section up and set to adding the green areas to get at least something done whilst I waited for the new air brush to arrive.

As soon as I’d slapped on some leading and paint…

Mark e-mailed at just the right moment. There was a slight change to the brief. It was no longer necessary to have the house number on the glass painting, so I altered the design slightly to take out the 22. Whilst I waited for my new air brush I made good progress on the green panels.

Some green and some blue…

Once the air brush had arrived I was able to get the sky sprayed in. I was really excited, not just because I was using my new super funky air brush, but also because I was using a special frosted blue glass paint to give a more interesting colour and texture.

With the sky in place…

Once the sky had been sprayed in I could remove all the masking tape and paper and start to see the glass-painting develop. I painted in the sun, had finished the sky and the green panels and then had to turn my attention to the main meow-man, ‘Ritz’.

‘Ritz’, your painting awaits you…

To get the right level of colour for Ritz I decided to air brush him in too. (OK, so secretly I just wanted to do some more air brushing because I had a new toy!). This is the first couple of coats to build up the light areas of his fur.

And, the meow-man starts to take is place…

So, I’ve reached the point where Ritz is in place, but by all accounts is still naked! Part of the brief included having his name in the picture. It was suggested that it could be on his collar, but even at 60 by 90 cm that was going to be a squeeze. I put my thinking cap on…

And this is what I came up with…

Although Ritz is only a 4-letter name, the width of the collar was not going to make his name stand out. I decided that as he is still a YouTube superstar (just search for Ritz on YouTube and you’ll find him) he needed a superstar collar. His name dangles from a pillar-box red collar, attached by solid silver!

A labour of love…

The final work was delivered to Mark on Saturday 17th April, 2010

I’m featuring this glass-painting on my blog, firstly because I’m delighted with the final work, but also because doing it has been a total labour of love. I’m a cat-lover myself, and having seen Ritz on YouTube, he truly deserves his role of welcoming visitors to the house, even posthumously. Thank You Mark for choosing the White Rose Craft Studio to do this Private Commission piece for you… It has been an honour and an absolute delight.

‘Ritz’ in situ…

Random acts of kindness…

When I first met my boyfriend at school back in the 1980′s I always knew that he was the sweetest kindest boy, although I must confess, that wasn’t always what I wanted in a boyfriend then!  (Girls hey, we are so difficult to please!)  Now however, his kindness is very much appreciated.

Today we (correction, I) needed to go to the post office to send off some eBay sales to their eager purchasers, and because it’s a beautiful sunny day, I thought it would be nice if we went together.  It also meant we could escape our cramped office for a while and soak up some rays.

Anyway, as soon as we turned out of the end of our road we came across an elderly couple parked on the opposite side of the road with car trouble.  Adrian asked if I thought we should help, and my reply was an instant ‘Yes’.  With the window down Adrian asked the elderly gentlemen if he needed any help and he seemed uncertain as to whether he should accept or decline, so we decided to give him no option.  We parked up and jumped out to find that they had a flat tyre.

The elderly lady advised that her husband broke his back twenty years ago in Salisbury and that the job of changing a wheel was difficult as a result.  Now, I’m only 40, but if I’m 100% honest, I struggle with undoing the nuts on a wheel on any day of the week.  With them having been done up last by a garage using one of those pneumatic things, I could see that had we not stopped to help, this scenario at the side of the road could have gone on for quite some time.

Adrian had the wheel changed in around 5 minutes flat, I entertained the stranded couple with constant banter about their predicament and their German Shepherd dog, and the whole incident passed quickly and happily.  When the job was done the couple tried to offer Adrian and I some money.  I guess that’s a sign of the times!  We didn’t stop to make a quick buck, despite us both being business people, we stopped because the couple were in need and we could both stop and help.

Without insulting the couple we refused the cash offered and told them to spend it on some extra biscuits for their dog.  Our payment was the relief on their faces that the car was sorted and they could get on with their day.  The currency paid was the sense of satisfaction we both felt because we could sing to ourselves the M People song ‘What have you done today to make you feel good’.  A random act of kindness on a sunny day that made our day and the elderly couple’s day that bit better.

Is there anything better than that on a sunny day in life?

Craft activities for Children – Colouring in…

My boyfriend and I had a chat the other night about the things we did when we were children on bad weather days.  We dated at school 25 years ago and were both fitness freaks, so staying indoors on these days was like a punishment.  On those days we both enjoyed one activity in particular, colouring in!   In a world that now seems to be technologically based, colouring in seems to be an archaic activity, but, allowing 24 hour access to the Wii, the X-Box and becoming embroiled in our on-line world at such a young age, doesn’t appeal to me as a suitable activity to for the young mind either.

Any age can enjoy colouring in.  My 6 year old stepson enjoys colouring in cartoon characters.  My 10 year old stepson enjoys colouring in more boyish subjects like war themes and space pictures.  Most importantly, there is a ready supply of  a number of themes that can easily be printed off from the internet as and when required.  The best website I’ve found is http://www.familycorner.com/dir/Family/Kids/Coloring_Pages/.  They also have a number of colour-by-numbers pages and dot-to-dots you can print off too.

The only real expense involved is purchasing some felt-tip pens and pencils, both of which are available relatively cheaply from a variety of sources.  My boyfriend and I went to Hobby Craft yesterday and managed to get 36pc sets of both for less than a fiver!

I may sound like an old woman, but my view is that most children today will spend much of their time as adults sat in front of computer screens!  Saving them from this for at least some of the time now seems like a good idea to me.  Their young eyes are just developing and I worry that an endless stream of pixels in front of their eyes could cause some damage later in life.

If you agree with this, why not visit the familycorner.com today and get your kids some colouring in to do, if like me, it is another rainy/snowy day where you live.

Thanks for your time,

Di xxx

Arts & Crafts as a cure for the stresses of modern life…

Stress is ever present in our modern existence and it seems to me more important than ever to develop hobbies and past times that help to relieve that stress.  I advocate Arts and Crafts as a great way to deal with stress.  In my experience, and even at times of extreme stress, being able to sit down and allow your mind to become absorbed in creativity helps give some clarity and focus back to a mind that would otherwise be in a state of turmoil and confusion.

At such times in my life I have naturally gravitated towards a pencil and paper and either drawn or doodled.  When my parents moved me from a small rural town in Wiltshire to the heaving and busy metropolis of Hong Kong between my mock exams and O level’s, I found myself sketching a series of pictures that depicted me sitting contemplatively beneath the branch of a tree in a number of different locations.  I didn’t make a conscious decision to create these drawings, but I recognise with hindsight that they expressed my confusion and loneliness at that time, having been forced to leave everything that I knew and understood behind me in rural Wiltshire.  Without conscious thought they gave me an outlet to ease my mind of its torment and fear, and probably allowed me the space to come to terms with the huge changes in my life.

Today, when I feel stress creeping up on me, I make a fast exit to my easel or crafts box and allow my mind to disappear into some creative activity.  You don’t have to be Van Gogh, or re-create the Bayeux Tapestry, to feel the benefit of allowing your mind to be absorbed by a creative activity.  Just allowing your mind the space to concentrate on something else can be a benefit in itself.  These activities can be anything that forces you to concentrate on something other than your reason for stress.  I’ve used drawing, painting, glass-painting, mosaics, and macramé to relieve my stress!

I find humour in these types of stress relieve too!  If I’m in a state of angry stress I often chose mosaics as my outlet.  There is nothing more satisfying than breaking up some tiles with a hammer in a bucket when you just want to get the frustrations out of your body!  Just remember to put some safety glasses on before you get happy with the whacking!  Macramé is fun to me as I think about how I’m tying the string into knots instead of myself!  For easier periods of stress relief I tend to chose glass-painting, as I have to keep a steady hand and keen eye in order to complete the job.

The most important thing is that you enjoy the activity and the break from your daily toil.  My biggest problem is not that I forget what the stress was in the first place, that’s the bonus, but that a whole day can disappear in what seems like just an hour before I realise that I haven’t done any of the important things that I should have been doing, like eating, drinking and working for a living!

Make your life’s stress fun too by getting creative xxx

Free Craft ideas to entertain the kids whilst waiting for the credit card statement to hit the doormat!

As the Christmas period ending often means tightening the purse strings whilst we all wait for our credit card statements to land on the doormat at the end of the month, I thought it might be a good idea to come up with a few ideas over the next few weeks to help entertain the children that won’t cost the earth!

Obviously, up here in the north there is still a great abundance of snow to keep us all entertained, but as I return to my southern home at the end of this week, I’m aware that it is our weekend to have the boys (ages 6 and 10) and that the snow that is falling in Yorkshire is more likely to be rain down in Hampshire, so I’ve been trying to come up with new ideas to keep everyone occupied and off the Wii for a while!

There are ‘paints in your pantry’ that you might not have tried before and I am promoting the idea of painting with coffee today!

Painting with coffee is easy and great fun.  Instant coffee is the easiest to use and requires only some coffee granules and hot water to create your colours.  To create a light paint effect just add more hot water and for a darker paint effect just add less hot water!  I would say that 3 to 4 different shades of coffee paint should be enough to produce some great pictures.  These can be mixed in either coffee mugs or paint pots if you have them.  Coffee works well with any paint brushes and these also wash out easily with just water.

Obviously, the other thing you are going to need is some paper to paint on.  I would recommend using a watercolour type paper, but if you don’t have any just use an ordinary paper and have some tissues or cotton wool available to blot the coffee paint and prevent the paper becoming saturated!

Your subject matter can be anything you like.  I find cartoon characters are great fun with younger children, although older children may want to create an image of their own.  Use the different shades of coffee to create the effect of different depths of colour.  For example, if an area of the picture would normally be yellow use the lighter shade of coffee paint.  If an area of the picture would normally be navy blue or black use the darker coffee paint.  This will create the illusion of the colours by exaggerating the light and dark.

Most importantly of all though, just remember that art has NO rulebook, and therefore, whatever you create is great just as long as you have fun doing it!

Enjoy xxx

Hats off to my boyfriend…

I’m a proud Leeds United Football Club fan and feel no shame whatsoever in my delight at our result at Old Trafford last weekend (03/01/2010), dumping Stretford United (Man Utd) out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round.  It had been 5 years since we last visited Old Trafford  and 29 years since we had visited and come away with a victory.  Man United had declared us as ‘Minnows’ on hearing that they would meet either Kettering Town or Leeds United, a reference to our fall from the Premiership, through the Championship and presently sitting at the top of the League One table.

My boyfriend is a Liverpool fan (well, someone has to be!).  He enjoys reminding me of my teams lowly status these days in the world of football.  I enjoy reminding him that his favoured Liverpool team struggled to beat us at Elland Road in September 2009 in the League Cup.  It’s a healthy rivalry that exists between us, honest!

At 1pm on the 3rd January 2010 we were united in our support of my team against a shared bitter rival, Manchester United!  OK, so in truth, I was allowed to watch my team on the TV with the company of his youngest son, whilst his eldest son elected to support Man United from the kitchen and my boyfriend decided to cook soup for the final whistle, probably in an attempt to ease my depression after a bad result.  Instead of the expected depression I was almost too giddy to eat the soup and joined my boys at the table a full 10 minutes after they had started to eat as I was busy jumping around in the garden shouting and cheering with my best friend, and fellow Leeds fan, at the result.

This weekend I was due back up in Leeds to collect some more of my belongings as I leave my beloved Home County of Yorkshire to be with my childhood sweetheart again.  My boyfriend was also making the trip north to lend me the boot of his car to fill for his journey south again, meet my cousin, and visit a client on the outskirts of Leeds.  It was an opportunity to good to be missed, so I got straight on to the Leeds United website and booked two seats for the home game against Wycombe Wanderers.  I was looking forward to welcoming the boys back to Elland Road with a loud cheer and a hearty rendition of ‘Marching on Together’ with the rest of the Leeds fans.

I took my boyfriend with me to the match at Elland Road to punish him for deciding to cook soup whilst Leeds scored their amazing victory at Old Trafford.  I knew that there was no escape from the terraces.  I booked seats directly behind the goal in the South Stand and just four rows back from the net.  We had a great view of the game!

Why the ‘Hats off’ to my boyfriend then?  Well, several reasons actually.  These are the main ones though:

• Despite wearing a red and white coat that screamed Liverpool Football Club without actually saying it, he did wear a yellow and white hat to protect his head from the cold that allowed him to blend in as a Leeds fan.
• He stood up in all the right places during the match, including ‘stand up if you hate Man U’ and ‘stand up and sing for Leeds’, and whenever the Leeds attack came to the South Stand.
• He’s been to Elland Road twice now, yet never been to Anfield, so I’m sure it is only a matter of time before he adds the extra ‘U’ to make LFC read LUFC!
• He stated that as long as Leeds aren’t playing Liverpool he will support Leeds as his second team! (This could be a problem more frequently in the next couple of years as we return to the higher echelons of English football!)
• Despite it being -3 and snowing in Leeds he hardly complained at all.

In my mind,  that is love… and I love him for it!  Thanks babe xxx

Launch of the Long Term Care Insurance website

I am pleased to have finally been able to launch the latest of my web design development today.  www.longtermcareinsurance.org.uk

The brief was simple really.  To make a heavily content-based website both user friendly and attractive to the end user.  Due to the nature of the clients business, the site also had to be fully compliant with the rules of the FSA and this final approval has been granted today.

The cost of the website design to the client, with the 50% new client discount, makes this a very cost effective website and should see a return on the initial investment very quickly.  A strong web presence is an absolute must for all businesses in this modern era of on-line searches and should be an integral part of any business marketing strategy and budget.

At function5 Web Design it is important that the client gets the website they want, and, that this site is also going to be a benefit to their overall business goals, whilst being easy for the end-user to navigate and enjoy looking at.  My client has expressed his delight with the site, I would love to know what you think too.

Di Winn

Web Design Consultant and business owner

The rules of Art… there are no rules!

One of the things that I love most about art is that it doesn’t come with a rule book.  It is a great way to express yourself without having to work within any rules, guidelines or limitations other than those placed on you by you.

I’ve run workshops for community groups of both the young and the old and the first session is always largely the same.  A fair number of the attendees are nervous at the prospect of expressing themselves in such a visual way.  The first bit of advice I give in this situation is to reassure them that they have nothing to fear, that there is no right and wrong way to draw something, and that there is no such thing as a mistake in art.

If you can remove fear from art, then you open it up to people so that they can relax into it and the pencil or brush becomes a friend as opposed to the enemy.  By the time of the final session most of the people that have attended my workshops go on to try different art mediums in the safe knowledge that they can literally do as they please.  If you approach painting, drawing or any other art medium safe in the knowledge that there are no right and wrong ways of doing things, then you create an image that is unique to you.

My advice to anyone that is looking to step in to art and try it for the first time is to just relax and let your imagination run riot.  Don’t think that you have to create something that can be considered as a work of one of the grand masters.  Think more like Salvador Dali.  His use of twisting perspectives and elongating shapes is an analogy that I use often to show that art is so much more than purely replicating an image.

So, grab your sketch pad and some pencils and draw something you love.  My most recent works have included my favourite place in Yorkshire (Scar House Reservoir), a cheetah running across the plains of Africa, a Kingfisher perched on a branch and I’m currently working on a roaring tiger, all things that I totally love.  Invite passion into your life through painting things that you love and your dedication to the job at hand will be ten fold that of painting a tree just because that is where most ‘teach yourself’ art books encourage you to start.

Most important of all, be bold, relax, show no fear and have fun with your art.  You will then find that you have a new form of relaxation, as well as a new best friend to spend some quality time with.  I’ve had days when I’ve been painting and 8 hours have passed me by in what felt like nothing more than an hour.

Dispelling some of the myths around Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Many people build a website and then think about its Search Engine Optimisation.  There are a number of company’s that offer SEO services to help out in just such a situation and you may well be tempted to employ their services to get your website up in the page rankings.  As a web design consultant managing a company that lives and breathes by its high levels of openness and honesty to its clients, I want to dispel some of the myths used by some of these company’s in their sales pitch to you.

Number 1: Guaranteed #1 ranking on Google.

This is perhaps the most important myth to dispel, and that is why it is my Number 1 pet hate, as well as number 1 on my myths to dispel.  I’ll even use Google’s exact words:  No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Many SEO companies will try to convince you they have a special relationship with Google, or have a priority submit facility.  This is simply not true.  The only way to submit your site to Google is to use their Add URL tool, or by submitting a sitemap.

Number 2: We are a subsidiary/affiliate of Google!

The latest scam I’ve heard about on this ‘we are affiliated or a subsidiary of Google’ nonsense has come via a fellow web designer.  One of their clients received a call offering a deal to get to the top of the Google search rankings by paying the small amount of £125 per month (small to some of the larger businesses, and potentially money well spent if the claim were true).  The company suggested it was a subsidiary of Google called Chrome (now let me think, isn’t that the name of Google’s new web browser!!).  Using the latest name for a latest product from Google gave them a certain level of authenticity; most regular internet user’s would have heard of the word Chrome in relation to Google and may have had an instant reaction to trust their very word.  Thankfully, this particular client was quite SEO/internet savvy and requested details to view whilst considering the offer being made.  The company then stated that they couldn’t send out details and that the offer was a ‘one-off’ over the phone kind of deal.  I’ll repeat Google’s own words once more at this point, and to counter any other company that rings or e-mails you to make similar claims:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google!

Number 3: Unsolicited e-mails regarding your position on the search pages!

It may be a surprise to you, but I get these e-mails too!  As well as there being a host of search engine robots that index your websites and offer them up in various search result pages, there are also robots that harvest e-mail addresses from websites and sell these lists to companies looking for e-mail addresses to send their mail shots too.  In many cases these e-mails suggest they have done a search and not found your website in any of the results.  They must have more hours in a day than I have!  It may also be that they have done a search, but used keyword phrases that are of little or no use to your company.  My advice is to treat such e-mails with caution.

Number 4: It’s all about the keywords!

I can’t honestly believe that some companies are still touting for business to manage your keywords, but based on the feedback of some of my clients, they clearly are.  Important fact: For some time now Google has not taken any notice of the keywords listed in your sites Meta tags.  Google is more interested in good and relevant site content than keywords.  If your content is well written and includes key search phrases, your site is much more likely to show up in the organic search results on Google.   Having more pages of well written content can also help as it gives Google much more from your site to index.  Keywords are still useful to attract some of the lesser search engines, so don’t completely disregard them, just don’t get stung by a ‘we’ll manage your keywords’ sales pitch.

Number 5:  It’s all about your PageRank number!

OK… so this one is interesting.  There are differing opinions on PageRank within the industry, but I can only offer you my take on this.  In days of old a high PageRank number would have affected your position on Google’s search listings pages.  These days it is possible to have a PageRank of 8/10, yet not show up on the search listings until page 60 or 70.  It is also possible to have a PageRank of 3/10 and show up on the first page of the search results.  Therefore, I wouldn’t get too carried away when it comes to PageRank numbers, the more important ranking is where you feature on the search listings, not what an icon on a toolbar suggests your pages score is.  The most important thing to remember is what Google themselves says about Search Engine Optimisation, and because it is so important, I am going to put it in again.

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Some of the less scrupulous SEO companies will use unfair practices to raise your websites ranking within the search pages, which may initially see your website get somewhere near the top of the listings, but ultimately, is more likely to see your sites submission removed from Google.  This is not a result that you want to be paying good money for.

My advice on SEO is to always check out a company if you are thinking of engaging their services to promote your website.  Ask to see testimonials and success stories!  My web clients benefit from having SEO as a standard service within their build and design package.  In my opinion, it is not an after thought or add-on to the service.  My clients also benefit from ongoing optimisation as an integral part of their hosting package when they elect to host their website with me.

The best time to engage the services of a SEO company is as a site is redesigned or first being built, then it can be built effectively from the ground up.  Good SEO companies can help sites that are already built, but beware and ask lots of questions to see testimonials and success stories for your self.  Otherwise you could be paying good money for nothing more than hot air.

The possible pitfalls of domain name registration…

Sorry in advance… this might turn into a bit of a rant, but it is important and reading it could well save you money and help you avoid a similar issue as you seek to create your own web presence.

I have a new web client that has purchased his chosen web domains prior to engaging a web designer to build and host his websites.  This is not the basis of my rant.  The issue comes from where you elect to purchase and register your domains.  There are many companies out there that offer such services and each one is different in what it offers the customer.  Some are better value than others.

Let me explain the position that my client now finds himself in:

Having purchased his domain names from a company based in the UK and having engaged my company to design, build, and host and manage his websites; he is using a registration/hosting company that charges for everything as hidden extras.  In order to host his sites on my server, he will potentially face annual charges from his chosen company just to let me manage his DNS settings (being able to alter these allows you to point the domain name to another hosting location).  The additional charge is £16.99 per domain that you want hosted elsewhere.

These are some of their other additional charges:

• £9.99 per annum per site to show you the website statistics (these are essential viewing to be able to do effective search engine optimisation).
• Web diversion to point at another domain name is £11.99 per annum per site.
• Spam-filtering on your POP3 e-mail account is £7.99 per annum per e-mail address.

It is true to say that having a website designed, developed and hosted is not necessarily cheap.  But choosing the wrong company from the start can make it much more expensive in the long term than it truly needs to be.  My advice is to fully research the options available before making your purchase.  My client has, unfortunately, made a poor choice.  I have a remedy for him that will cost him some more money initially, but ironically, will actually end up saving him quite a sum of money in the longer term than if he were to stay with the company he is with now.

If you are looking to purchase and register a web domain, I would highly recommend consulting a web design company, who should also help by making suggestions for domain names that will give you a stronger web presence.  If you still want to go it alone and just buy domain names I would recommend using http://www.123-reg.co.uk/ .  They include the essentials as standard and are relatively cheap for the annual and two yearly registration fees.  What is more, they don’t try to hide extra costs that could potentially jump up and bite you as you start to progress your domain name to an actual website.

Those are my thoughts, and as the director of a company that values honesty and openness with its clients, I want to share these thoughts with as many people as possible to protect them from some of the more unscrupulous companies out there.