Creating A Collection- That Old Time Feeling

You may have guessed already that I am obsessed with books and crafts and arty things so I thought I'd give you a glimpse into the methods and madness behind creating a collection.

I use two different methods. The first is to start with a stand alone painting/design, such as one of my lady heads, and then create illustrations around that one piece until it forms a cohesive group of designs.

The initial pencil sketch

The second is to start with a theme, in this case, a love of vintage, animals and tattoos, and plan the illustrations around that central theme.

I normally work with pen and ink on watercolour paper, sometimes adding elements or adjusting things digitally after the painting is complete. But this time I decided to do the whole collection digitally on my wacom tablet.

 

My inspiration board complete with maps, postcards and vintage bits and bobs...

This process involves doing a sketch of the design in pencil. Scanning it into the computer and creating a line drawing from that sketch. I then select the colour palette and add shading and fine details. 

The finished line work printed out. I decided to change some elements.

It sounds quick and easy when written in one sentence but the whole process takes a 1-3 days for each individual illustration.

 

  'Talk is Cheap' and Blue Butterfly illustration

Once the illustrations are finished we send the designs to our specialist metal factory who prints and die cuts the shape out of solid stainless steel.

Back in our studio we assemble the jewellery, adding chains and jump rings to pendants, attaching earring hooks and glueing cardigan clips.

Then we package the brooches, earrings and necklaces on our cute Jubly-Umph cards and they are ready to go! The whole process takes approximately 2-3 months to complete.

 

Got a question? Pop it in the comments below..

Xo Jubly-Umph XO