BBC Bitesize History Infographics

Hey ho New Year buddies! Another blog post within a week? Its a Christmas miracle!

Over the summer, Splinter Design was bus-ay creating infographics for BBC Bitesize. I was part of a team of illustrators working on this project (including Kochi Kochi, Stephen Chan and Doodilicious). We've recently been informed that our completed infographics are now on the BBC Bitesize website! So you can go check them out HERE or over THERE! I worked on a number of the infographics that feature in most of the topics on that page I've sent you to, so you can go have a search and see if you can find mine! (I think it might be a little tricky!)

Incase you can't spot mine, you can just stay right here and take a gander at some of my illustrations here:

I'll hopefully be putting this project on my website in the next couple of months, so there shall be more to see then!

Now, I hope everyone has a jolly New Year and I shall see you on the other siiiiiide!

Secret Scarf

Heeey, a belated Merry Christmas to all out there! I hope everyone had a good day and had full bellies by the end of it!
I thought I would do a quick post to share what I've been working on this December (hence why there hasn't been as many blog posts this month!). As the little project I set myself this year was to knit a scarf for my boyfriend. Now, before starting this scarf I had no idea how to knit, so there was a lot of practice to be undertaken before I even started. I relied heavily upon a book called 'Knit Step by Step' by Vikki Haffenden & Frederica Patmore, very useful videos and blogs from the internet, and most important of all, my Mum!
So yes, after weeks of slogging, these are the results of my efforts:

I really enjoyed making this scarf - although I had a few problems along the way! (Such as discovering half way through making it that a stocking stitch for a scarf is not the best stitch as the whole piece will just curl in on itself!)
But overall I'm happy with my scarf; I really like the tweed effect wool I used, although I had some difficulty obtaining a nice wool to knit with; the nearest shop for wool for me is John Lewis, and I didn't think the choice was spectacular!
Knitting this scarf has made me think about hand-making a lot more presents for people in the future, as I found it very rewarding to make something practical for somebody! Unfortunately in these busy days, its finding some free time to do such things, but I'm definitely going to try harder next year! Surely somebody would appreciate something hand-made rather than a cheap piece of useless plastic - like a pair of novelty glasses or something?

Woah, sorry, I got a bit ranty there, so moving on...

I asked my sister to make me a Pokemon-themed necklace for Crimbo, and she delivered the goods!

How awesome is that? A little Clefairy sitting on a hoop! I like it very much! Hopefully, my sister will make more in the future for others to enjoy! Whoop!

So theres another long-awaited dose of waffle! There should be another post before New Year, so heres wishing everyone a relaxing time during 'The Bit between Crimbo & New Year!'

Play

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Nottingham to see a wee exhibition curated by my friends Jennifer Ross and Clare Harris (aka. The Cutting Room)
The exhibition is called 'Play' and features a selection of artists that explore humour in their work! The exhibition is on from 30th November - 25th Janaury, so you've got plenty of time after your Christmas break to go see it!
So without further ao, here are my pictures of the night! (And apologies for any blurriness!)

This piece was quite fun, entitled 'MWAHAHA', artists Thomas Hall and Graham Elstone created an evil throne with an evil red button which wreaks havoc on the world when pressed! Watch the TV as people in restaurants are turned into gummi bears, gnomes, or blasted away all together! I very much enjoyed sitting in a high-backed chair, I truly felt rather evil and extravagant - I will need to get me one of those for my house!

The remainder of the exhibition showcases many artist's films exploring various aspects of humour. There were quite a few animated pieces, which of course I loved, and its also quite interesting to note that when we look at humour in art, cartoons are a large aspect to it - which is awesome! Here are a few of the pieces I particularly liked:

Slim Picking Fat Chances, created by David de Rooij & Jelle Brunt.

Falling for You by Khali & Potsch Boyd.

Mr Reapers Really Bad Morning by Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher.

And there were a whole bunch of others there that I ain't even mentioning! I've never been the Nottingham Playhouse before, but it was pretty suave and they have loads of different events on!

I very much enjoyed the opening evening, plus I got recorded/filmed by some very nice people and I even got a chocolate button for my trouble!

And to round the evening off, we all went to an Indian restaurant for tea, where I ordered the largest Biriyani I've seen in my life (although Jen informs me the day after that she ordered extra rice for my dish!) PLUS it had a boiled egg in it! Wowzer!

Unfortunately, due to the rather large amount of wine I had consumed at this point I was unable to eat barely a quarter of it! Oh wello!

So there we go! That was my little trip to Nottingham! I fully recommend going to see 'Play', I found it very interesting and I can now add a few more artists to my 'Like' list! Wa-hey!