Alright, this weekend was a weekend of success! I've started making a new prototype, which is of a cat. It's pretty cute! I'm actually pretty excited about it. It's similar in shape to Rillakuma, which is sort of what I was going for. I drafted the pattern on Sunday morning. I'm still using fleece, at least for now, but I'll be making hand dyed fabric (cotton velvet) in the future for the production model. I also think I'll be making the body differently; for example, I'll be integrating the legs into the body rather than using the same pattern for the arms and legs.
Next weekend I'm hoping to make the little radish hood to go with my cat pattern. I did do a drawing of what I would like it to look like, however, the pattern I came up with actually looks a bit better than my drawing. Well, anyway, it would appear that I'm rambling. Here's some pictures of the work in progress. I should have photos of the completed model at least by tomorrow.



Headless plushies are so disturbing. Never mind the bad cell phone images, I was too lazy to go downstairs and get my camera, haha. D:

Also, why YES, that IS an AKAI MPC 60II in the background, thank you!

Well, I wasn't nearly productive as I thought I would be this weekend! Poured my first resin radish pendant - the color looks great, but it has a very dull appearance on the side where the mould was.  I'm not sure if I like that or not... makes it look sort of like candy, which could be a good thing, actually. I also had to do a lot of carving and sanding to get the back looking good - I've modified the mould so that won't happen again.  Live and learn!

Most of my weekend was purchasing/getting the boxes in the house/building what I have dubbed the 'IKEA spaceship' i.e., it seriously was the most complicated thing I have ever built from IKEA ever in my life.  I'm a usually a very technical person, and I'm good at figuring things, out, but this thing was seriously a monstrosity. 

Damn you, IKEA! Foiled again.

Hi there! Welcome to the first official post of the Radish Mart blog. I intend this to be a sort of ‘development’ blog ; that is, a ongoing log of all the various projects and products I’m working on. With any luck, it’ll be of interest to someone!

With that out of the way, I’d like to mention a few things I have going on for Radish Mart. Firstly, I have purchased a fairly large amount of 100% cotton velvet. I will hopefully start dying it this weekend. I also ordered an assortment of dyes. I can’t wait to get started! I will have every color of fabric I’ve ever wanted at my fingertips. It’s also a much higher quality fabric than the fleece I was using before. The velvet is not quite as stretchy as the fleece, so it will be interesting to see how it holds a shape. 

Secondly, much to the chagrin my poor, enduring husband, I purchased a Yudu. I’ll be screenprintin’ away. I already have several products in mind – handbags, wallets, pillows, stationary – the possibilities are endless. I ‘m not particularly interested in doing t-shirts, as I’d have to purchase a lot of stock beforehand. The last time I screenprinted was back in high school, so we’ll see how that goes. After my failures with block printing earlier this year, I’m a little apprehensive, but screenprinting has a tendency to be slightly more forgiving.

I also made a silicone mould for little resin radish pendants about two weeks ago. They’re round with little radish faces on them – I’ll be using red-tinted resin to make them, then painting the bumped-out features. Making the face was pretty difficult! I made a polymer clay master for the mould… I’m honestly not the greatest sculptor, so I’m pretty proud of myself.

I’ll be posting photos of my various exploits this weekend!

Also, about the layout - just want to get this out there - this layout, while obviously done by me, it's actually a recreation of Bloggerstyles' Wooden Fence. As such,  I've kept the links intact at the bottom of the page.  I suggest you check them out; pretty cool stuff! I came  across it while trying to think of cute ideas for my blog layout.  So yes, it's a bit of a rip. Just gettin' that out there.