Something original?

and not just one of the designs we've had to make up recently either - which I will post further down the page for you all to let me know what you think.

By original I am meaning a company called Hidden Originals; a local company that specialise in personalising photo frames. We currently have 1 of each size in the shop (they will be in the window display later on today too) and they are lovely. They are what I believe are called "box frames" in that the glass is raised an inch or so above the back of the frame (I have some at home that I use as display cases rather than just for a photograph - so they are pretty versatile and can be used in numerous ways).

In the shop we have a 6 x 6 natural wood; an 8 x 8 black and a 12 x 12 white frame, so if you wanted to pop along and have a look at them in the flesh you are more than welcome to.  Price wise you can see from the photo's I've posted how reasonably priced they are. 

If you want to check out the full range click this LINK and you will be taken straight to their website; alternatively if you are on facebook, you can check out their fb page HERE

Now back to our own originals. Last week I was asked to make some personal creations myself.  I was asked to make a motorbike (I've made several before) so getting the basis for that right wasn't so much of a challenge; the family had also given me a photograph of the exact one they wanted, so I did cheat a little. I enlarge the image and printed it out to use as a template (don't know why I've never thought to do that before - I always draw out all designs freehand). 

I will admit I was a little disappointed with the gaps not showing through as well as they should have done in the photograph, but in the flesh they showed ok, which is all that matters. 

I was also asked to make a helmet; now I was sure that company that make foam frames, made a helmet, but I scoured the internet and wholesaler websites for hours - all to no avail - so I had to take a couple of foam bricks, grab my knife and get carving. I was quite pleased with the shape I ended up with. 

I desperately wanted to put a proper a visor for it (well one made by me that resembled a proper visor) but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get anything to bend in the right way; everything I tried left a crease in it somewhere or other, so in the end I had to leave it off  but I was pleased with the shape and overall effect it created. 

The other item I was asked to make, was a pair of motorbike gloves. Now these would have presented a really big challenge, as to get the details needed without losing the shaping they would have had to be huge, so after explaining to the customer that they weren't really that practical to make it was decided an old fashioned style fruit machine would be a good choice. So that's what I made; again the photo really doesn't do it justice, but I was really pleased with the finished result.