Wednesday 14 December 2011

Rollercoaster few days but.....Hand in day finally arrived! :)

The last few days have been very hectic, to say the least. I have been finalising the final stages of manufacturing my USB and packaging. I have had a few hiccups but I finally handed in the finished product today. I must say, I am satisfied with the final outcome. The USB and packaging box are cohesive and appealing, as a collection.


I had an accident in the spray booth yesterday, when I accidentally sprayed red paint onto the gold main body. I was mortified but Tim kindly gave me some rubbing compund to remove the stains.


Once that had been cleaned up, I applied a final coat of clear vinyl lacquer to give it a shine and protect the paint underneath.
Yesterday in the workshops, I laser cut and assembled my packaging box, which I was happy with. The patterned card was a good choice.

Monday 12 December 2011

Gold.......!!!

Spent quite some time in the spray booth today, applying the top coat. I decided to spray the whole main body gold, even the lipstick part. I have left that 24 hours to dry overnight. There are still a few imperfections and some dust particles have settled on the paint :(


Tomorrow, I will mask off the main body so I can spray the lipstick red. I will have to be very careful when I do this, as I don't want to ruin the paint work. I thought it would be easier to spray the whole body one colour, then I can mask off the relevant area and spray the red part.

Also, I haven't had a chance to check whether the lid fits onto the main USB, as the primer has been drying over the last few days. Previously, sanding it down had made the lid a bit too loose...

I have just drawn out my box template on Corel Draw, ready for laser cutting tomorrow. I couldn't just do a 'quick trace', as I only want the outline of the template to cut, not all the sides & flaps etc. (see below image)

Making good progress......finally!

Last night I was so frustrated with my packaging box template, it just wasn't working out. Lipstick boxes are slightly different as they have these small flaps- a bit like a toothpaste box (see image below)  
I wanted to make my own template from scratch, to fit my USB model in, as I had my own dimensions. I made 4 card mock-ups and still no result!



Before I went to bed, I found this really good lipstick box template on the internet.

 
Image taken from http://www.wrapcandy.com 

This morning, I imported it into Corel Draw and resized it according to my USB dimensions. I then printed it out and assembled it. It works! I'm really pleased. Now I need to organise the design to hairline in Corel draw, so it can be laser cut.

Also, this morning I have sanded my USB & sprayed another final coat of primer on; in order to gain a smooth finish. I think that, that is the best as I can get it. I'll be ready to spray my top coat on today. I just need to mask the top section off, as that will be a different colour. Fingers crossed!

Saturday 10 December 2011

Art deco style for packaging....

I've decided for my packaging box, I won't use imagery or use Photoshop to create the set-up. This is because the Clothes Show Live brand is very simple. They don't have a graphic logo, the logo is the brand name. All the images which are associated with the exhibition event are photographs. Therefore, I have decided to use either textured, patterned or glittery paper. I want the pattern to be abstract and quite simple.

I went shopping today to look for some craft paper. I found some very nice, unique card at an art shop called Gadsby's in Leicester. It is ruby pink and gold with a flowery decorative design, very art deco (See below image). I feel it fits in very well with the design of my lipstick.