plumb bobs...

As part of the uppercase Magazine assignment we were also given a brief to design the cover of the Surface Pattern Design Guide...  The brief was very open and we could use anything we wanted for inspiration.  My mother had just given me her grandfathers plumb bob {I love old men's tools}.

So I decided to use plumb bob's as my inspiration... they have wonderful shapes and I did a lot of drawings of plumb bobs and a bit of internet research on shapes.  Some of them like the one below were so beautiful!
 

I used the same technique as in the pyrex dish brief to get the plumb bob shapes.  After I started to decorate them I was horrified to realise they looked like Christmas decorations!!!

 {Christmas plumb bobs}!!!

I decided to try putting feathers onto the top of the plumb bobs to maybe make them look less like Christmas decorations and more whimsical... Ben {my son} said I have just made plumb bobs look silly.  

 {final design for the Surface Pattern Design Guide brief}

I picked some colours that were not traditionally Christmassy, but then again they could be used as a modern Christmas look if need be?  I arranged them into a repeat pattern and added strings...