The finished pack!

The mugs came out looking great!

This is my setup at the editions fair. I brought all fifteen of my packs, but only sold 3. :(

I think that had I have been able to sell the components of the pack separately at low prices, it would have been more successful, as £10 was a relatively high price compared to other works at the fair. I also think my packaging let the product down and if I were to revise the edition, I would redesign the packaging to make it more appealing and inviting instead of just a brown cardboard box. However I am still happy with the contents of the box! I hope that I at least brought joy to my audience (the people at the fair) even if I didn't sell many - I saw lots of people stopping to read the zine as they walked past.

The pack in progress + cost breakdown

I have bought countless supplies for this project! For the artwork, I am inking everything by hand, and digitally arranging and colouring the images (this way I can ink different components of the pages separately if needed), printing the magnets onto shrink plastic, the zine/poster onto matt printing paper (medium thickness for an easy fold), the mug design onto decal paper, and the stickers onto sticker paper.

Some inking - 

Printing and folding the zines - 

Tom cameos in the print! 

Magnets, all nicely shrunk.

Testing the decal on a spare mug - not looking good... will cut out the letters individually to avoid a cheap plasticy effect.

Packaged box with sticker logo - I don't like. I don't think that solid cardboard boxes are ideal for the packaging as you can't see inside, but they're what I have so I will have to make do. Instead of using the sticker paper, I will hand paint the logo on the boxes as I don't like the white.

All that I am waiting for now is to get the mugs - I am going to the reject pot shop in Kentish town as they sell a great variety of quality but affordable mugs.

I've also made a project cost breakdown with two figures, one based on the overall cost of materials, and one based on the cost of only the materials used (and not leftovers). Based on this I have decided to sell my pack for £10.  

£16 zine paper

£15 decal paper

£6 acrylic spray

£2.70 sticker paper

£7.50 boxes

£8 inks

£12.80 shrink inkjet paper

=£68

using…

one third of zine paper £5.33

half decal paper £7.50

sixth acrylic spray £1

half sticker paper £1.35

all boxes £7.50

all inks £8

half shrink paper £6.40

= £37.08

mugs - £28

total £65.08

each £4.33, so 100% profit - £5 per piece or £75 total

or ALL materials taken into account (£96) - £6.40 each

retail £10 - £3.60 profit per piece, or £54 total (over 1/3 profit)

The Crazy Cat Lady Starter Pack

For my edition project, I knew I wanted to do something cat related and linking to the website/business I have been trying to start up, but I don't think that cat mugs alone are ambitious enough, especially as this is something I've done before, so I decided to make a kind of 'starter pack'.

The pack will include...

• A mug (of course)
• An instructional zine/how to guide
• A poster/print
• Other goodies - potentially badges, brooches, stickers and/or magnets!

I enjoy the idea of making a satirical 'cat lady' guide, as I myself am known to be a cat lady, which makes it quite an ironic subject choice. I want the pack to have a playful, humorous theme. My audience would be cat lovers, or people who have cat lovers as friends - the package format makes it a great gift idea. (the exact form of the packaging I have yet to work out)

Finally cats!!!

Just moved into a CAT HOUSE (regular house, but with cats) and I'm excited for my new roomies to serve as inspiration for the project! (making cat related editions of course)

I also got to go and visit my own fluffs, they're big cats with big (silly) personalities

^ studies on the language of Tom - he makes weird noises

Edition project primary research + artist interview

To further my edition project research I went into Shoreditch for the day to see as many inspiring editions as I could! I recorded work that I enjoyed personally so as to gather useful material/a kind of inspiration bank for creating my own edition.

My first stop was Lik + Neon:

Then went to Allpress (coffee as edition? oh yeah)

The book art book shop:

Other places along the way:

And my most highly anticipated stop, the "jimbobart shop":

The shop is owned by artist and illustrator James Ward, who makes mostly ceramic sets with animals printed on them. He is a direct influence on my practice and my own small business in the making! 

His studio is at the back of the shop, so I got to see some art in the making and ask a few questions!

He said he started out by using marabu porcelain pens directly onto products, had painting each one, but nowadays he uses the pens to paint onto ceramic tile, then digitises this and has giclée prints made on decal paper (by a printing company), which are then transferred onto the product. The scale of the production varies from each design.

It was great to get to talk to the man behind the art and learn about his process, especially given my similar work. His shop served as an example of 'how it's done'.