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

#btnetsy blog hop!

​Another blog hop! This time it's a Brighton Etsy Team blog hop, if you want to see all the blog hop posts I'll be adding them to this bloglovin' collection. We were nominated by Yellow Bear Wares, thanks Claire!

What inspired you to start your business or Etsy shop?

We didn't really plan to start a business, Jacques was working at a laser cutters and had been asked to create some children's mirrors. He brought them home to show me and amongst the designs was a Brachiosaurus. I held it up to my chest and suggested that it would make a good necklace and that was that. We started selling in Porta, Brighton and then some genius suggested Etsy. I don't know who it was, but I wish I did, as we had never been on Etsy before and we've got some thanking to do!

Throw back of Jacques when we first started designosaur... what a babe... hehehe.
 Photo | Bob Prosser

We're looking at goals in the Brighton Etsy Team this month, can you share one of your goals for your shop for the next six months?

Blogging! You will have seen before on this here blog that I am threatening to blog every week. I've also promised to do 5 OOTD posts and 5 "behind the scenes" posts.

So far so good, let's see if I can keep it up once the summer gets here though!

What are you working on at the moment?

Some awesome crazy amazing new designs! Last week we released the now named Penelope the Plesiosaur and over the next few weeks we have lots of fun designs coming, a collaboration and a couple of products that aren't jewellery! I hope you are all as excited as we are!

If you could give other sellers or someone looking to start their own craft business one piece of advice what would you say?

Work hard and remember that building a business takes time! Everybody that started a craft business was in the same position as you at the beginning, they were choosing their name and listing their first products and it's been hard work and determination that has turned them into the successful business they are today! Oh and join an Etsy team, I hear the Brighton Etsy Team is awesome!

Blog hop complete, I nominate YUK FUN, hello DODO and i Like CATS.

I'm off to the Etsy UK office in London this week, to chat to some of the admins and wondered if you had any questions about the site or the Etsy community, if you do just pop them in the comments and I'll get as many answered as I can!

ROAR!

Karli

I've got mega talented friends - 4. Heather

I started a series of mega talented friends blog posts a while ago and I thought I'd bring it back. You can read about Bob, Matt and Hannah too if you like!

This is going to be a strange one, because my mate HBW is a grown-up now, she has a big city job being an 'Offline Editor', welllll that's the official line, I would say she's a 'TV Documentary Editor' because that makes more sense to me.

I have been stalking Heather on the internet to find some of her old uni work to show you, because it is awesome, and I thought you'd a appreciate it!

You might recognise Heather as she is also a designosaur model...

Heather collects vintage rulers, theatre binoculars and beer mats. Obviously if you ever go to Heather's house, don't use the beer mats, yes I know they are laid out like you should use them, but trust me, don't do it.

This is an awesome video, you should click through and watch it because I really enjoyed it!*

So what did you think of Heather's work? I'm quite excited as I think Heather and designosaur now have a little project we are working on, watch this space!

On a slightly different note this week we have been trying to think of a name for our followers you know how Lady Gaga has her Little Monsters, and TS has her Swifties and designosaur have their... (let us know in the comments)

ROAR!

Karli

*Heather said this video was from when she was "young and naive" when I showed it to her, I think she's trying to say her work has improved, but I'm sure you guessed that already!

brighton etsy pop up - part two

Last week I asked if you wanted to hear part two of the Pop Up adventure so here I am writing it! If you missed that you can check it out here.

We soft launched the pop up on Thursday 6th November. I don't think we were even open when the customers asked if they could come in and browse! We spent Thursday running around pricing the last bits, and preparing for the Private View!

If you managed to visit the shop, you'd know it wasn't very big, but we did manage to pack it full of the designers and their family and friends! We had some drinks to celebrate opening our very own shop and then it was time to start thinking about our next big party!

Toby from I Like CATS werking the cash desk

We had so many people that wanted to come to the Private View that we knew we wouldn't have space for the Press to really get a feel for what we had created. That's what Saturday, our all day launch party, was for! Tori [Jasmine and Hobbes] who works in Events at her day job, and was a vital part of the pop up committee, planned a fun day to draw lots of people down for the grand opening.

We had a decoration and badge making workshop with Cheska [mooshpie], the USSU stage choir, local buskers performing and spiced Christmas tea for every visitor!

mooshpie setting up her workshop table

some of the clothing, including dresses by Dig for Victory, T-Shirts by hello DODO and Likks and upcycled pieces by Bettina Nem

Lola Hoad working the cash desk and Moosphie buying a Mrs Lovedays Emporium hat for minipie!

We had created a few press packs, and obviously the shop was open to all. In the end it was a really busy day first day! I'd like to say that we then went home to relax for the rest of the month but it was a lot of hard work from all involved running the shop!

I hope you've enjoyed hearing a little about our Pop Up shop, if you have any questions let me know in the comments.

Today happens to be our "Etsy-versary", we are three! If you are reading this on Tuesday then you can use WOAHNOW for 30% off until midnight!

ROAR!

Karli

brighton etsy pop up - behind the scenes

I'm sure you have seen or heard by now that we ran a Brighton Etsy Pop Up Shop in Brighton this winter, oh and that I'm the Captain of the Brighton Etsy Team.

You will have seen photos like this

of the finished shop and all the items in it but you probably won't have seen much about what went on behind the scenes!

So that's what I'm here to tell you, well some of it anyway...

6 months to go...
We started planning the Pop Up back in April, yup really. Cheska (Mooshpie) and I attended a We Are Pop Up meeting (along with a few other familiar #btnetsy faces) and then Cheska set us up on the website as seeking space.

3 months to go...
In August we asked members of the Brighton Etsy Team to apply to be part of the Pop Up and we whittled the list of over 60 down to just 25 with the help of Claire and Amy at Super + Super.

Alongside the Team Leaders, (Toby, Ali and Jam, Vicky, Claire and Ellen) we asked for others to help form the Pop Up Committee. Some awesome people came to our attention including Tori (Jasmine and Hobbes), Claire (In the Making), Elizabeth (ean jewellery) and Dario and Bea (Sebastian Bolivar)

2 months to go...
We applied for a bursary from Etsy to help towards the costs, which we were awarded after creating a budget of everything we were going to need including, rent, business rates, paint, the whole shop fit, vinyls for the window, insurance and more!

1 month to go...
The hunt was on for a space and as we approached our deadline, the 1st November, with no venue. I started to panic.

Claire had a plan for the decor, the branding by hello DODO, was done, Vicky had sorted the insurance, bank account, and set up the accounting system, we had all of the participants and we were poised and ready to go social media crazy!

1 week to go....
We called every landlord and agency in Brighton, with the help of Abi from We Are Pop Up, and walked all of Brighton to find empty properties. In the end we realised we couldn't afford anything except the space subsidised by the council in the South Lanes and the help of We Are Pop Up we secured 16 Brighton Square.

Our shop - as you can see it used to be a Dog Cafe so it didn't smell too pleasant when we moved in!

Claire measuring up so that she could  design the shop fit!

Toby in our Pop Up space before the project (nightmare) began!

What it looked like before we started plus our delivery from IKEA! We had to clean for an entire day, the back room was full of maggots (YUK) that Claire M and I fought off. We had to wash the floors and the walls several times, and after painting the walls and the ceiling white, we all smelt like dog...

Masking and Painting the trees. Marking out and masking took nearly a whole day, and then the painting took Claire and I another day to complete!

Team 2, we split the Pop Up Committee between Saturday and Sunday to get all of the cleaning and painting done.

Some of the furniture from Retro Station in place, and the trees which Jacques laser cut, oh and the awesome cash desk/display unit that was gifted to us from ink_d Galley!

Putting up the card shelves, I think we had been there nearly 13 hours straight at this point, hence the beers and grumpy faces. We were also asked not to drill about 10 minutes after we had started drilling which wasn't a good start

- 1 week to go...

One week from the committee of 13, my family and baby Ezra helping plus an awesome design by Claire Knill, meant we opened on the 6th November with our soft launch and private view.

Don't underestimate how long it takes to unpack 25 designers work, price it and display it, this took us nearly 2 whole days with four of us doing it! Also we all spent the whole 7 days which we rented the space before we opened to pop in and do the different jobs! It's a long hard slog opening a Pop Up shop!

The private view was packed and we hadn't even invited any press! We celebrated and continued to prepare for the big press launch on Saturday...

Want to see all of this in a time lapse by Bettina Nem?

Yeah so that's all I'm telling you this week, if you enjoyed hearing behind the scenes let me know in the comments and I'll finish off next week, if you didn't then I won't! There is quite a bit missing from this and I'm not sure if I have really conveyed how much work it is to open a Pop Up shop, but hopefully you get the idea! Did you come and visit our shop? Let us know in the comments!

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)

a day trip to London

HOLLA HOLLA!

January is a bleak month. All of the sparkle from Christmas is gone and everyone is walking around with a face on because they've run out of money and only want to wear pajamas for the next month.

We needed some inspiration so headed to London for the day. We were actually going to go to the Tate to the Sigmar Polke exhibition but that didn't happen and we went to the Saatchi Gallery instead. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Jacques doing the "where are all the people" pose, as we suddenly found ourselves alone!

Our brains were then buzzing with ideas so we went to Carnaby Street to 'The Diner' had coke floats, milkshakes and burgers and scribbled for a couple of hours, getting down all our ideas, sketching and planning. It was great. We came up with so many new ideas and also reimagined some old ideas that never went into production. You'll see the results in the next few weeks!

After we'd filled our bloodstreams with sugar we headed to Lights of Soho Presents God's Own Junkyard. Chris Bracey, the King of Neon with the largest collection of Neon outside of the USA sadly passed away this year, and some of his pieces have been brought to Soho for your viewing pleasure.

"I did 99 percent of every sex establishment in Soho for 20 years, for me, it was an artistic endeavour." 

- Chris Bracey 2013

Bracey was a graphic designer who went into the family neon business. Anything in London you see that is made of Neon is probably his work and it's just such an awesome medium you can't help but get sucked in... 

As you can see it's blooming marvelous, and if you can, you should go. They encourage photographs so you can instagram to your hearts content! 

I am obsessed with neon, you will see in my previous post that Jacques commissioned me my own Neon light (which I adore) as he has worked with Andy Doig of Fishtale Neon in Brighton creating some of the laser cut back boards and boxes.

Fully cured of feeling uninspired and January-ish we are now raring to go on new awesome designs! What gets you inspired? Let us know!

ROAR!

Karli (and Jacques... kinda)