Design This – Earrings to Match Costume

The perfect accessories for a costume are like the icing on a cake. They should complement the costume while supporting the theme and not detract from it. Whether your costume is for a play, Halloween, a party, a convention or other fun event, I’m always happy to brainstorm a solution to your needs.

A general Etsy alchemy request for “Earrings To Match Harlequin Jester Costume” caught my eye. There was a sketch of the costume and it suggested to me some materials that I had on hand. The request also included a need for hypoallergenic ear wires. I stock a variety of colors of niobium ear wires for people with sensitive ears so I was off to my supply room to put together a mock up for the request.

The basic pattern of the costume was an angular, geometric one in black and white. I had some square, white shell beads as well as some black gemstone cubes that I thought would lend themselves to this project. I included a gray pair of niobium ear wires in the photo of my initial design idea. (photo #1)

The person that placed the request liked the basic design but wondered if I could add some of the blue accent color in the sketch. I had just picked up some awesome blue sponge coral beads that seemed to be the perfect color and had some that were small rounded cubes that I suggested adding as a dangle from my original design. I also suggested a dark blue pair of niobium ear wires as an option. (photo #2) After looking at a photo of my other available blue sponge coral beads, my customer decided to go with the dangling cubes and the dark blue ear wires that I had suggested.

All that was left now was to make up the earrings (photo #3) and get them shipped to my customer. I think the shapes and colors of the materials of the earrings will be a good fit for the design of the costume and the niobium ear wires will both add a bit of color and provide a hypoallergenic solution for comfortable wearing for sensitive ears.

If you would like for me to brainstorm a solution to your accessory needs, please click on the “request custom item” or “contact EDCCollective” button in my shop.

Design This – Product Brochure

Getting the word out is an important part of a successful business. You can achieve this by handing out business cards, placing ads online or in print, displaying a banner at a craft fair or your can distribute brochures as SweetnSassyBaby, wanted to do. She turned to Etsy's alchemy feature for help.

I saw the request and my bid was accepted. After agreeing on a scope and price for the SweetnSassyBaby brochure project, I gathered information from my customer about what she envisioned on the different sections of her tri-fold brochure. She sent me a copy of her logo and a list of contact information, photos, etc. that she wanted included. I started laying out the basic design, including some different font choices that I thought complemented her shop.

I find an important part of a successful graphic design job is to keep the customer up to date with the design process. As with all of my custom graphics work, I sent my customer the basic layout design so that she could choose the fonts she wanted me to use and give me feedback on the current layout. Once I had a clear direction to go in, I imported, sized and touched up each of the product photos as needed. A few more intermediate designs were sent to my customer and any feedback that I got was discussed and incorporated into the final design.

This same process can be used to create your custom graphics design project. Whether you need a business card, flyer, logo, banner, ad or brochure design, I’d be happy to discuss these or other projects with you. You can find more examples of my graphics design work in Eclectic Design Choices' Facebook Custom Graphic Design photo album.

Design This – Feathers for My Hat

An alchemy request on Etsy caught my attention because it involved working with feathers and I had some that I thought would complement the fabric of the hat in need of new adornment. It seems that the previous feathers used to adorn this gentleman’s fedora had fallen apart and new ones were being requested.

The first thing that I did was to pull together a few feathers and mock up an idea for my prospective customer to look at. After seeing my original design, he asked if I could address 5 specific thoughts that he had about it. I felt that I could address them and went back to my feather stash to come up with an improvement on the original design. It was a hit, so I got to work.

The feathers had to be trimmed to size and stitched together. Then floral tape was to be wrapped around the base to make it easier to attach the feathers to the hat band. The stitching turned out to be more challenging than usual in order to keep the feathers oriented correctly. I had to stitch some additional quill material into the base area to keep the feathers in place. I have found that feathers seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to securing them together. You have to work with their natural tendencies and even then, some shifting is likely to occur. This feather grouping stayed put very well when I stitched them up, however when I added the floral tape the spotted feather in the back decided it wanted to be on the right instead of the left of the blue feather. Luckily this was in keeping with one of the 5 design thoughts (a sweep to the right design) that my customer had originally had, so I didn’t fight with it.

My customer was nice enough to share a photo of his newly installed hat feathers so that I could see how well they complemented the fedora. I was very pleased with the outcome. I hope you agree. (Note: You will find this custom sold listing in my second shop, EclecticSkeptic, because I forgot that I was signed in there instead of EDCCollective when I bid.)

Design This – Carnelian n Pearl Bracelet

A couple of months ago, in another “Design This” post, I mentioned that my customer also had a bracelet project for herself in mind after I finished with her daughter’s jade and pearl necklace. During our discussions about the necklace, a few directions emerged for the custom bracelet order. My customer liked the tigers’ eye beads that she had seen, wanted to use some of her leftover pearls, liked carnelian and wanted the bracelet to be double stranded with an ornate clasp and gold plated findings.

Before I began a design, I took a photo of some of my carnelian and tigers' eye beads with a couple of pearls for size comparison so that my customer could let me know which ones she liked or disliked. (see photo #1) Next, I put together three different patterns with the beads that made the cut, along with the tigers’ eye beads and leftover pearls. (see photo #2)

While we were exchanging design ideas, I needed to locate a clasp and spacers for a double strand bracelet. Since I hadn’t made one before, I didn’t have these supplies on hand. I appreciate my customer having faith in my ability to tackle a new form. (I found the double strand bracelet to be a little more challenging to finish off than a single strand, due to the proximity of the second strand. I also had to be careful as the natural components had to be matched for size to keep both strands the same length. Other than that the process was essentially the same.)

When my supply order arrived, I strung up a design based on my customer’s feedback and sent a photo of it before finishing off the other end in case any adjustments to the design or length were needed. (see photo #3) The reply I received back was, “I really love it, can't wait to wear it.” With that, I finished off the other end so that I could get the finished bracelet off to my customer as soon as possible. (see photo #4)

Custom work is really gratifying when my customers are so thrilled with their orders. I also have to admit that this was the first custom piece that I was sorry that I hadn’t designed for myself, so I’m glad it was well received. Contact me if you are interested in discussing a custom design project.