Snazzie Designz

Design, And Everything Design Related

Category : Handmade

This is a completely one-off A5 Essential Oils journal case bound with hand marbled end papers, and with six oil blend recipe cards for quick reference.

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Journal by Snazzie Designz

Every page is fully illustrated and lined and the page edges have a decorative wave-cut edge to them.

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Journal by Snazzie Designz

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Journal by Snazzie Designz

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Recipe Cards by Snazzie Designz

Hand marbled end papers>

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Journal End paper by Snazzie Designz

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Journal Background by Snazzie Designz

Potion Bottle Design

Handmade Case Bound Essential Oils Book Journal Inside Page Design by Snazzie Designz

This is a pair of hand made hand bound (sewn) Isle of Skye inspired A5 journals with wooden covers and pyrographed(wood burned) artwork on the covers.

Coptic Bound Isle of Skye Loch Fada A5 Journal

Coptic Bound Isle of Skye Loch Fada A5 Journal

This is what the cover looked like with the pyrography (wood burning) complete before the colour was added.

Coptic Bound Isle of Skye Loch Fada A5 Journal

The first journal is inspired by a photo of Loch Fada on the Isle of Skye taken by the wonderful photographer Lawrence Cornell

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing his photos before I urge you to visit his gallerywhich is a treasure trove of breath-taking scenery and other gems.

The second journal is decorated with an olde map of the “Isle of Skie” as described in the “The Western Islands Of Scotland” 2nd Edition from 1716 an excerpt of which has been photographed by Lawrence Cornell.

Coptic Bound Isle of Skye Map A5 Journal

Coptic Bound Isle of Skye Map A5 Journal

The title and placenames using the Old English archaic long “s” “ſ” which looks like a letter “f” with no cross bar. I had to study carefully a very complex list of rules as to where and when the “long s” ſ should and should not be used. I should say “rules” loosely because even amongst printing houses of the 1700s and 1800s they all seem to have had their own rules to follow, which were only just shy of including things such as “except on a Tuesday if it’s been raining”.

Coptic Bound Isle of Skye Map A5 Journal

This fascinating article on the long s is a wonderful and informative read: http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2006/06/rules-for-long-s.html

Handmade Violin Shaped Coffee Table by Snazzie Designz

This table is of my own design. I purposefully designed the neck of the violin to bend downwards over the edge of the table in a melted fashion reminiscent of a Dali painting so that it wouldn’t stick out and catch in people walking by. The strings and f-curls are burned into the wood. The table is made from sapele wood and it shines like copper in the sunlight.

Violin Coffee Table

Violin Coffee Table

Violin Coffee Table

Handmade Clay Leaf Bowls

These are hand made and hand painted bowls made from paper clay.

My first clay leaf bowl was a small bowl (about 15cm diameter) inspired by a blackcurrant bush in the back garden.

Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl

This inspired me to make a bigger one suitable as a fruit bowl. The key thing about this bowl is that EACH MEMBER OF THE FAMILY MADE A LEAF for this bowl. I then made them into the bowl shape and hand painted them in autumnal colours.

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Family Clay Leaf Bowl by snazzie designz

Bear Carving Final - Pyrography Colour and Varnish Complete

A bear carved (about an inch deep in parts) into Canadian wood, and then shaded and outlined with pyrography (wood burning). Colour was then added to give the water and background a bit of variation. The bear shading is all done through pyrography (wood burning), but I added a very thin wood stain to tint it a slightly more reddish in colour to make it more realistic.

I’ve included work in progress photos of how the piece was done from start to finish below.

Blank Canadian Wood Before Carving

Blank Canadian Wood Before Carving

Bear carving - Beginning of the pyrographed outlines

Bear carving – Beginning of the pyrographed outlines.

Bear Carving - Pyrography outlines complete and waterfall carved

Bear Carving – Pyrography outlines complete and waterfall carved.

Bear Carving - Pyrograhphed (wood burned) outlines and shading

Bear Carving – Pyrographed (wood burned) outlines and shading of the bear.

Carving and pyrography completed

Carving and pyrography completed, except for the background mountains which I added in at the end.

Bear Carving - Carving pyrography and colour complete

Carving pyrography (wood burning) and colour complete, but not yet varnished.

Bear Carving Final - Pyrography Colour and Varnish Complete

Bear Carving Final – Pyrography Colour and Varnish Complete

 

 

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Handmade Frame and Fan decorated with a Japanese Ukiyo-e Birds in the Plum Tree pattern

Hand made frame and fan pyrograph by snazzie designz

This beautiful handmade walnut and American oak frame and Baltic Pine fan were made by by Harry Wells.

Handmade walnut and American oak frame by Aldwarke

I had the very great pleasure of decorating the fan with a Japanese ukiyo-e inspired pyrograph (wood burning). The specific ukiyo-e is the Toshi Yoshida woodblock print “Spring”. “Hakubai ni Mau” translates as “Flying around the Plum Tree”.

I experimented on both sides of the fan. On the second side I experimented with distorting the outlines to match the fan folds to give it a more 3D look. I’m not sure if it succeeded entirely but was an interesting challenge nonetheless.

Handmade Framed Fan Pyrograph both side by snazzie designz

 

To see more of Harry’s remarkable craft work check out his gallery on deviantArt here.

 

WellSnazzie Collaborations Logo by snazzie-designz

For a full list of all of the WellSnazzie Collaborations please click here.

This is a handmade framed pyrograph (wood burning) of “The Lady of Shallott” based on the Alfred Lord Tennyson Poem (1842 Version Part IV).

The Lady of Shalott  Handmade Frame and Pyrograph Animated by snazzie designz

This stunning handmade frame is made by Aldwarke. Loosely inspired by Kit Williams pieces, Aldwarke took an idea and created something truly spectacular with it. The combination of American oak and meranti are such a complimentary pairing, and show off the Baltic pine background beautifully. Baltic pine is ideal for wood burning also, so that makes my job so much easier. The frame was made so seamlessly that the Baltic pine background sloted in snugly. This had great significance when it came to the woodburning, as any slippage would have resulted in misalignment and disaster. Details that people often overlook in such things are the finish and the surface. The frame arrived clean, and sanded so smoothly that it looked polished. Working with this type of piece makes my part so much easier.

Starting with a stunning frame hand made by :iconaldwarke: aldwarke my initial thoughts were Wow! It’s beautiful… please don’t let me mess it up! My second thought was that I needed to turn it upside down!

The Lady of Shalott  Handmade Frame and Pyrograph  by snazzie designz

The Lady of Shalott  Handmade Frame and Pyrograph Inside Panel by snazzie designz

The inside backing piece on it’s own. Made of Baltic pine it was a lovely surface to burn, and Adwarke’s precision in sizing it meant that it fitted snugly into the frame with no slipping, allowing me to align this with the extension of the picture onto the frame itself.

As soon as I saw the curve I knew I wanted to make that curved edge represent the edge of the boat, and have her hair and robes flow over the edge as described in the poem. How to achieve that was a new challenge. Meranti wood is a beautiful rich colour for the frame, but it would be too dark to represent the white robes described in the poem. I decided to give marquetry a go for the first time.

It was not an easy decision for me to try it, even after a reasonably successful test piece. I took it down and put it back on the shelf again for several months thinking about it. Even after months, I couldn’t see the frame in any other way than as part of the boat though, so in the end I just had to hope for the best, and to be very grateful for Aldwarke’s understanding and blind faith in me!

The Lady of Shalott Handmade Frame and Pyrograph Test Pieces by snazzie designz

The scrollwork, the lady’s gown and hair on the frame were all done with marquetry. I penciled onto maple veneer, burned, shaded and then cut out each piece individually. This was a tricky business with veneer having a tendency to split. I used masking tape on one side to reduce the likelihood of splitting.

Once cut out, I had to size and position the veneers very precisely on the frame. Unlike usual marquetry where the outside design is also veneer, I didn’t want to hide Aldwarke’s beautiful frame, so I had to carve directly into the frame itself, knowing that any slip ups were not going to be able to be undone, and the frame would be destroyed. Once in place, I traced around the cut out veneers, and then chiselled out a hole the exact size into which the veneer would slot. For the most part I got it right in the end I think. I just did the robes and hair freehand as they had to align precisely with the inner picture, and with the horizontal pieces.

I wasn’t sure what option I would go for for the boat’s prow so I did a few different ones to try them out. I opted for the swan design in the end, as I thought it was more reflective of the Lady of Shallot. The boat on the inner picture had to line up precisely with the frame or the whole thing would be a mess. Thankfully Aldwarke’s absolute precision came to the fore here, and his excellent skills meant that the backing fitted so snugly that it didn’t move at all. Such skill is to be envied.

The Lady of Shalott  Handmade Frame and Pyrograph  by snazzie designz

The Lady of Shalott  Handmade Frame and Pyrograph Bottom by snazzie designz

The Lady of Shalott  Handmade Frame and Pyrograph Vert-WM by snazzie-designz by snazzie designz

WellSnazzie Collaborations Logo by snazzie-designz

For a full list of all of the WellSnazzie Collaborations please click here.