I’ve been asked what I’m doing in the Lockdown, so here’s the story so far.

There’s been lots going on here, as I prepared to launch four more designs in my luxury scarf collection. This would usually have involved a photoshoot with models, which was all organised, – yes you’ve guessed it, for March 31^st

Well it became quickly obvious that the shoot couldn’t happen, so that left me with a dilemma. How could I best arrange to show off my four gorgeous new scarves. I could clearly do the product photography with no problems so that was done, but how to do the substitute model shots. I tried drawing the models, with limited success. There’s a reason I didn’t learn to paint like my parents – lack of patience, and just possibly lack of skill!

I did enjoy myself though so I may get ‘into’ drawing on photoshop, the beauty of which is that you can erase your mistakes so easily!

In the end it came down to selfies. What’s the big deal you might be thinking, selfies are easy! Yes, I agree they are, but I hadn’t had much experience of this as I don’t like my own picture.

I also wanted to create a lovely catalogue for the scarves, so it seemed rather likely that iPhone pictures, good though they are, wouldn’t be sufficiently high resolution.

My dilemma was then how to do selfies with my high-end camera.

I’m sure you have figured it out, the timer!

Imagine though, how funny it must have looked to anyone peering in through the window to see the photographer apparently focussing on a mainly empty space, then running from behind the camera to position herself, and more importantly the scarf in the optimal position for the photo 12 seconds later. The Reykjavik Reflections scarf is a lovely floaty silk Georgette and was quite tricky to manage with getting into position correctly, as it tended to float away from the way I had it arranged before I had to scurry into position! You can see it quite well on the drawing above though if you disregard the drawing itself!

The worst thing for me is trying to take it seriously, so in controlling my giggles I think most of the images were a bit ‘po-faced’ and had to be rejected.

In the end a few images worked out sufficiently well for the purpose at least in the interim. Fortunately a severe crop allows the scarf to be shown in some without the actual face!

Sunglasses helped too.

I will certainly want models for a proper shoot when we can be released from lockdown. Any volunteers considered, just phone or email me!

New website

The other main task I have been occupied with is creating a new website.

This again is something people may think very simple, but I have never done one myself before.

I wanted to set up a proper website for the sale of my Greetings cards. I have often sold cards and small prints at RWHS but these days it seemed that people might possibly want to send a card to someone they are thinking of, especially if the recipient is elderly and may not be a s tech savvy as the sender.

So, I captured the domain name  www.horsecardsparade.co.uk and set to work.

I am fairly pleased with the results, and you can have a look for yourselves and see what you think.