“DIY or die Kev, DIY or die!” That’s what a friend of mine always used to proclaim whenever my band played at punk festivals. More often than not, it was this same man who had organised said gigs so he knew what he was talking about. Well, I took it to heart…

It wasn’t only him who helped instill the DIY mentality in me, my parents are and have always been coming up with inventive and creative ways of getting things done and I grew up realising that the best way to do something is to just DO IT.

I’ve been wanting to get my artwork on badges for ages but any printers who offer this service always have the same requirements – a minimum order and limited number of designs. That’s no good, what if I want just one of a particular design? I woke up one morning a few weeks ago with a thought – I’ll make my own. I started researching straight away and found I could get everything I needed for the job. After a bit of practice, my wife and I were firing them out left, right and centre!

Speaking of my wife, she took things one step further by suggesting I print my own mugs while I was at it. One steep learning curve later and we’re sitting over a new machine watching my artwork getting sublimated into the glaze of blank mugs! I’m ridiculously excited about these and how well they’ve turned out. I can’t wait to get loads of my illustrations on them and drink tea nonstop with my feet up and the fire lit.

So all in all there’s never a dull moment in the Pumpkin Patch Studio and I’m loving becoming more and more self sufficient as time goes on. I still get a kick out of seeing my art appear in different forms and it spurs me on to keep painting. Actually, most things spur me on to keep painting – I love painting!

Making our own mugs

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