etsy video filming | behind the scenes

​Now you may remember a few months back we were doing so top secret filming!

We can now tell you that we were filming with Etsy to create this little video!

It's part of a series of four videos Etsy has made to help sellers to improve their Etsy shops. You can find the whole series here.

I wanted to do a little behind the scenes post so you can see what it takes to make a little video like this...

Amanda the producer, Danny the cameraman and Parker, Etsy Admin and presenter for the day, arrived at our home studio at 8am, half an hour before scheduled so I arrived at the front door with half my make up done! Luckily they needed to grab a few extra bits from the car so that gave me a bit longer to get my face on!

We started to chat about what a regular day looks like and went through the list of shots they had planned. It was a hot sunny day hence the shorts and tee, and we filmed all morning until we started to get hungry and wilt a little.

Lunch time and we headed down to Iydea for some delish grub! It was only a short break and dip into the North Laine, before heading back to work.

We did some shots outside the front of designosaur HQ where we were constantly stopped by passers by jumping into the shot before heading to the laser cutting studio to get some shots of Jacques working on the laser cutter.

Finally we finished down by the Pier, Jacques and I looking out to sea, we hadn't seen each other all day, and were catching up, but this got us in trouble with the director for talking too much!

It was a long day and we were finished around 8pm. Filming is tiring but we hope you love the end result as much as we do.

If you want to find out more about the project, you can have a read on the Brighton Etsy Team blog.

ROAR!

Karli and Jacques

PS It's impossible to take photos whilst you're being filmed ;)

designosaur collections | toby from i Like CATS

MEOW! It’s Toby here from I like CATS! A few months ago Karli guest blogged for me (RIP blog, soz) and it was really good and funny, so when she asked me to return the favour I couldn’t say no I jumped at the chance! So I’m going to be talking about my own designosaur collection which has grown pretty big over the last few years!

I remember the first time I saw a piece of designosaur jewellery, long before I met Karli and Jacques IRL. Having moved recently to Brighton we spent a lot of time sloping around the North Lanes, and it was here that I spotted one of their skeleton dino creations hanging in the window of Porta. Being already familiar with a few other laser cut jewellery brands I was super impressed by the quality and design of their necklaces, PLUS I have always LOVED dinosaurs and so instantly I was smitten. Funny to think that a few years later I would be such good friends with the people who made this necklace of my dreams…

My first designosaur piece

This photo makes me laugh everytime. Me (Karli) and Toby at Craftaganza a few years back, I think Jacques was at a stag do this weekend so Toby had to deal with me all weekend ;)  Photo Credit | Rockcakes

I have to admit that looking through my collection I found it difficult to remember which piece came first, but I’m pretty sure it was my tiny Allosaurus necklace in gold acrylic. It remains probably my most worn piece as it goes with everything. Also (because I’m an awkward customer) I got Karli to change the length of the chain to make it long enough to throw over my head without undoing the clasp. I’d like to award myself ten lazy points for this decision! 

My favourite designosaur piece

My favourite designosaur piece is quite a new addition to my collection. Although I LOVE all of their non-prehistoric pieces, I think their dinosaurs will always be my faves. Karli gave me (I know, I’m jammy) the plesiosaur when we went to the Jurassic Seas exhibition together at Sea Life. I find the shape and weight so pleasing and it hangs just right on me. I have to mention (otherwise I get in trouble) that my necklace is actually one of the prototypes and is slightly different to the one you’ll find in their shop as he’s in ‘racing position’ (how cute is that?), and I think that’s also why I like it extra cos it makes me feel special.

My fanciest designosaur piece

Late last year designosaur added some sterling silver pieces to their collection and (I know this will make you think I’m a massive spoilt brat) Karli and Jaq gifted me one as a late birthday present, much to my delight! I feel like this is the fanciest piece of jewellery I own since most of my necklaces and rings are made from the kind of metal that makes your skin green. I always like subtle contradictions in life and having a silver dinosaur feels like a good one.

My special designosaur piece

I actually have TWO special designosaur pieces that I’d like to talk about. The first is extra special because I don’t think you can buy it anywhere anymore. Two years ago we had a tropical party, and Karli and Jacques brought along these AMAZING googly eye pineapple brooches for everyone. I would like to point out that this was like a year or more before the tropical fruit trend happened and you saw pineapples everywhere; yup, designosaur were first (and still the best). 

My second special piece is my custom MEOW ring! You can still get these personalised rings from their shop for your name or favourite word. I wear mine at every market I ever do and get about a million compliments which makes me feel like Rihanna at the Met gala.

Special mention to…

My triceratops ring that I wear practically daily, my magical unicorn ring that I like to think I could use as a weapon and my cockatoo necklace gets lots of good attention! Can’t wait to see what designosaur come up with next, I still have a million things on my list that I want!

Toby xoxo

jurassic seas

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Press launch of the Jurassic Seas at the Sea Life Centre in Brighton.

Hasn't envoled in millions of years, good going mate... what do you even do!

Not only did I learn that Brighton's aquarium is the oldest in the world at 143 years old but also that sea creatures that live deep in the ocean are red because red cannot be seen past a certain depth!

We visited the turtles too as they were being fed when we arrived and we climbed into every children's cubby hole too...

I missed the turtle kiss by a millisecond

Toby training the terrapins to follow his finger

Anyways that was all before we got into the exhibition!

Turtles are actually prehistoric and haven't changed much since the Jurassic period, well this is where things get awkward. It's called Jurassic Seas because it is about prehistoric animals including the plesiosaur but actually, plesiosaurs are Triassic and the megladon is Cenozoic but we'll let that lie -because it's a really cool exhibition!

Hearing dinosaur ROAR, followed by discovering crustaceans that have literally not evolved in any way since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Then leads you to a brand new interactive games section where you can feed a plesiosaur, remove a megladon's tooth and race an Olympic swimmer against Percival the plesiosaur!

You can feed the Plesiosaur! All the fun!

This is my favourite bit about the aquarium, how can you not love the rainbow lighting?

We were having so much fun we were asked to stop playing with it... Ooopps.

If you're already a fan of the Sea Life Centre or you have sprogs you need to entertain then you've going to love it!

Oh and that's why we designed our very own Penelope to come along for the ride!

Penelope is available in our Etsy shop!

Have you been to the exhibiton yet? Are you a fan of the sealife centre? Let us know in the comments below!

ROAR!

Karli

to say "i'd like to remove your heart and feed it to a dinosaur"

Looking for something for your boyf, girlf, intended or POSSLQ (look it up) for that time of the year that is swiftly approaching, isn't their birthday, or Jesus' birthday or even your anniversary. Yup, you guessed it it's Valentine's Day!

We've created this little guy for the big occasion!

He's laser engraved from cherry wood and backed onto black plastic with a silver plated barrel brooch back. Hanging from his jaws is a shiny red acrylic heart making him quite the showstopper!

Hand drawn by the designosaur, laser cut and assembled by ourselves in sunny Brighton and sent to you in a designosaur branded gift box.

Not too big you can pin him to your coat, bag, dress or shirt. 

So if you want to tell your loverrr that y̶̶̶̶̶̶̶o̶̶̶̶̶̶̶u̶̶̶̶̶̶̶'̶̶̶̶̶̶̶d̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶l̶̶̶̶̶̶̶i̶̶̶̶̶̶̶k̶̶̶̶̶̶̶e̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶t̶̶̶̶̶̶̶o̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶h̶̶̶̶̶̶̶a̶̶̶̶̶̶̶r̶̶̶̶̶̶̶v̶̶̶̶̶̶̶e̶̶̶̶̶̶̶s̶̶̶̶̶̶̶t̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶t̶̶̶̶̶̶̶h̶̶̶̶̶̶̶e̶̶̶̶̶̶̶i̶̶̶̶̶̶̶r̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶h̶̶̶e̶̶̶a̶̶̶r̶̶̶t̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶a̶̶̶̶̶̶̶n̶̶̶̶̶̶̶d̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶f̶̶̶̶̶̶̶e̶̶̶̶̶̶̶e̶̶̶̶̶̶̶d̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶a̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ ̶̶̶̶̶̶̶d̶̶̶̶̶̶̶i̶̶̶̶̶̶̶n̶̶̶̶̶̶̶o̶̶̶̶̶̶̶s̶̶̶̶̶̶̶a̶̶̶̶̶̶̶u̶̶̶̶̶̶̶r̶̶̶̶̶̶̶?̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ you love them, this is it!

You're meant to be giving, but if you've already fallen in love with this little fella, why not gift him to yourself!

ROAR!

Karli (and Jacques)

ROAR! Meet our new Raptor!

A few weeks ago we released our little Velciraptor, he is our most requested dinosaur EVER so we had to bring him to life! The raptor is the most well known dinosaur as they feature in Jurassic Park. However in the films they were shown with anatomical inaccuracies, including being much larger than they were in reality and without feathers (but we all know that everybody prefers dinosaurs with scales, they're just scarier right!)

The dinosaur skeleton necklace is our signature piece and it's great to add another dinosaur to the collection!

Milena, resident raptor girl, modelled with this little dino (in the rain) so that you can get an idea of how big he is and how awesomely he hangs around your neck. Want to get your hands on your very own raptor? You can get him here.

ROAR!

SPARKLES AND GLITTER!

Everybody loves sparkles and glitter, no?

WELL I DO!

and our latest products are made of the most sparkly stuff ever!

Our little dinosaur brooches have been vamped up and are ready to rave in five awesome glittery colours

Black with Gold Glitter

Red with Red Glitter

Black with Silver Glitter

Turquoise with Turquoise Glitter

Clear with Silver/Holographic/Rainbow Glitter
(yeah you can see the colour but I don't know what to call it officially)

You can get each dinosaur in any of the five colours, just select from the drop down boxes on Etsy.

So you're wondering what can I match this glittery goodness with?

I've done that fashion blogger thing of finding other glittery things for you, no need to thank me.

...well I started to do that, and then I got bored, so I found three glittery pairs of shoes instead. Let me know what you think of the shoes, and obvs the brooches.

Glittery Converse

Glittery Lazy Oaf x Kickers

Glittery-and-I-own-these JuJu Jelly Shoes

ROAR!

Karli

I don't wear trousers.

It's true, I don't wear trousers... most of the time. I wear dresses and skirts and shorts because it means you can get two items onto your bottom half, which means LOADS MORE COLOUR!

I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a lot of tights. I post them on instagram, and I started doing this because I wanted to record all the tights I'd had. Some pairs are a one wear only before they get a ladder!

I never wear tights with ladders - infact I totally hated that trend where people were pulling holes in their tights on purpose. Those poor defenceless tights! I also don't wear plain black tights. I hate them, they remind me of school and it defeats the object of adding colour to an outfit.

I hope that nobody takes offence to anything I'm saying, I really don't mind what you wear.

Anyway, I was going to do a bit of a round up of my tight collection so far as I realised I have over 70 pairs of tights currently in circulation...

So there they are, that isn't all the pairs, or even most of them, but just some of them, and if you enjoyed that you should follow me on instagram... if you didn't enjoy it then still follow me on instagram so I can show you sneak peeks of new designosaur products and the awesome commissions we do!

ROAR!

Karli

LUCKY DIP!

Our LUCKY DIP boxes are back and better than ever!

You may remember that a few months back we sold a limited number of lucky dip boxes full of designosaur goodies! This time round, they are still limited but they now only contain DINOSAUR items!

YAY!

You can get your designosaur dinosaur lucky dip box here!

ROAR!

Karli

SS13 from designosaur!

The new SS13 from designosaur is here! If you follow us on Twitter or have liked us on facebook then I am sure you have seen all of these pieces already. If you have however been living under a pile of dinosaur bones then here you go!

Natural History Pieces

Darwin the Dodo is a very happy chappy

Then there is Matilda the Mammoth

and finally Quentin the Pachycephalosaurus, yes we know that's a bit of a mouthful!

Lichtenstein Inspired Pieces

 We love Pop Art, and with the Retrospect at the Tate currently on show, we thought it was the perfect time to give a nod towards an artist we love.

Yellow Heart Necklace

If you haven't been to the exhibition yet, you should go, it is AMAZING! There are so many pieces that I have never seen before, and I went to the last huge exhibition in the Hayward Gallery and have seen his pieces in the MoMA and all over the world... (big fan). Some of his Art Deco influenced sculptures are simply beautiful and it is from these that the structure of our pieces come.

Art deco Inspired Mirror Sculpture

Red Heart Necklace

Lichtenstein is most famous for his Benday dot designs so we have incorporated these into the Collar as well as the brooch and ring of the same design. The red heart is also inspired by these tiny hand painted dots too.

Lichtenstein Collar

Lichtenstein used to copy from comic books, and in some cases painted direct copies of work onto HUGE canvases. This is the true essence of Pop Art to me, taking something everyday (POPular culture) and making it art. I am fascinated by tiny replicas of everyday objects and huge bright paintings of famous people. Hopefully this comes through in our jewellery... well it does in this collection!

Lichtenstein inspired Brooch, Ring of the same design

Green Heart mainly inspired by Lichtenstein's Mirror Paintings

Let us know what you think of the collection, and what your favourite pieces are!

ROAR!

Karli