For some reason, my RSS feed is picking up content which is supposed to be ‘tests’ for working with my redesign. I have no idea why this is, but for the time being, just ignore any post which doesn’t seem like it’s for anything or is a repeat of old content.

(This is a good time to point out that RSS readers also won’t see all the stuff that’s being moved to the SOP site, since it’s backdated. I’ve been moving and updating quite a lot of stuff, so if you want to keep up with it all, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/puppetryschool. Each time I migrate something, I tweet it)

In the continuing efforts to redesign the Puppets in Melbourne site, I’ve finished the ‘about me’ page. (Also, upgraded the blog software finally) I’ve done considerable work to shorten the content down to the bare essentials, with a little background about my work, some useful stats (memberships with puppetry organisations, awards, etc.), plus a separate ‘page’ describing other things that I do and the School of Puppetry site.

See the old design here; compare it to the new page here.

A couple of things that I left out but wanted to add/might add later: top five reasons I like shadow puppets; and a link for a downloadable CV. Frankly, since losing my job in 2008, there hasn’t been much to show on my CV other than this website, so I don’t feel comfortable adding it online. That and I’d rather not have my more personal info on the net given last year’s debacle with online harassment. I’ve tried to keep a lighter tone to the text too, and was tempted to add to the ‘memberships’ list - “Unofficial member of the Chocoholics club". A number of web designers list their ‘tools’, so I was tempted with a variation on the same, with the normal tools for shadow puppetry, plus lots of chocolate.

One thing I have done is the continued use of the shadow puppets as featured elements on the page. Instead of using it to link to an ad for the puppet itself - as with the home page - I’ve used the images as navigational links between the different sections of content. (And those playing at home may not realise that it’s the exact same css trick I described here for the School of Puppetry site) Because of the background of the new design, I was sorely tempted to make the site horizontally scrolling (instead of vertical), but couldn’t think of how to make it work with the background image. It doesn’t easily fade into itself horizontally, but works better vertically - it ends up looking like the ’shelf’ at the bottom fades into very long steps vertically. Anyway, instead of fiddling around with the background, I thought why not use this css trick? Instead of doubling the space used on the page, you use the same amount of space twice. It’s far better this way I think. (Although I have no idea yet how I’m going to design the blog page to fit in with the new look)

Part of what’s missing though is something I’ll look into adding another time: scrolling or fading smoothly between each section of content. What happens now is that you ‘jump’ to the next section and ‘jump’ back. I’d like to do smooth fading, but alas haven’t found, a) a code that works in combination with the css trick, and b) a code I understand how to use. Maybe this will be added, but for now, the page is good enough to work - that and I’m going to have to get moving on the more important, and most tricky part of the site, the actual product pages… Anyway, the ‘about’ page is done and I can move on.

… Oh, and if you missed it: my mermaid shadow puppet was featured in an Etsy treasury. She sure does get around!

EDIT: Oh, f*ing… I see now that the ‘about me’ texts have managed to get into the RSS feed. Sigh, please ignore.

I’ve finally finished organising everything. Here’s the before photo, with the after photo on the right (more text after the pics):

As you can see, everything’s much much better. There’s still stuff in bags and boxes to sort out, but for the most part it’s pretty tidy.

Clockwise from bottom left of the right pic: my plastic drawers, which house various bits and pieces, including threads and scrap fabrics. The black thing on the left is a piece of MDF (wood), which sits ontop of four of my storage boxes. The MDF is secured to the desk with gaffa tape, but it’s pretty sturdy and even if knocked, shouldn’t do much damage. On it sits my boxes of scrap papers and cardboards. Then there’s the desk against the wall, which has my shadow puppet patterns; pens, scissors, etc; an autographed pic of Rygel from Farscape (for ‘morale’); my glues and rods; pins and other small tools. On the wall I’ve put up a couple of shadow puppets, one of which is a dud for a commission; the thing that is gleaming from the light is actually a laminated print-out of my logo.

Under that desk, it looks pretty chaotic, but actually it’s all about angles. To the left, hidden by the MDF, is some drawers, and to the right, a cupboard. In the alcove of the desk, I’ve set another storage box, and ontop of it rests some foam and a bag of fabric. It only looks chaotic. And yay, you can see my brand new stool! It’s a swivel chair, but the chair itself won’t move on the floor, something I didn’t want in case I rammed into something on the tiled floor.

To the right, and mostly out of shot: a little alcove between the two desks houses a whole bunch of ’stuff’ - ie. things I need to sort out. Ontop of the desk is a whole bunch of puppets, toys, stands, and other things that just need to be kept out of the way. The shelf below that is storage area for tools and machinery, including my sewing machine, laminating machine, hand-drill, etc. Below that is a shelf full of more stuff to sort out.

Everything’s so much easier to get to now, and I’m looking forward to breaking it all in. I haven’t yet, but now that it’s all tidy I can get started on the many (many) video tutorials that I’ve been meaning to do. All I have to figure out is where to put the camera, and I’ve got a few ideas of how to go about it. I’m also happy to say that the way the MDF is set up, I can easily remove and replace storage boxes when necessary; meaning everything is useable and no area is permanently defined.

… Not entirely related, our pets have some random sleep habits. Not unusual at all, but it’s fun to see how things transpire over time. We have one dog and one cat (the cat is older and has been with us longer), with about 4 or 5 official animal beds around the house. We have one fairly large bed for the dog, then a smaller one (I’ll explain that in a minute), plus two cat beds. A beanbag that my sister had ended up in the lounge and the cat worked out how to sleep on it, so that’s one too. The large dog bed ends up being taken over by the cat, and hence the other smaller dog bed. - There’s also a dog mat. Half of the beds are in the lounge, whilst the other half recently moved into our back ‘family’ room, due to them being in the way of a family dinner in the lounge.

What’s curious is the game of musical chairs being played. Since we moved my work area, we had to shift a futon couch that was in the way. That has ended up in the lounge, and the cat loves it. It’s a new bed! But the dog, not one to be left out, has been using it that way too. But the fun doesn’t end there: the dog, after several years of watching the cat climb onto the bean bag, has now figured out how to sleep there himself. (Without adding any paw print indentations I might add!) Naturally, the dog fits tightly into the cat beds, and the cat curls into the large dog beds.

There are a number of mats and old blankets too, which continue to make musical cat beds interesting. If the dog’s not moved it, the cat’s under it. At night, before I go to sleep, I always take a gander at where they’ve ended up and snap a shot or two of some funny faces or placements.

My favourite new thing though, is that I ended up getting rid of an old tiny couch - a secondhand item from a local theatre company - that had been cluttering up my room. We were about to ‘tip’ it, but seeing that the animals like it, I donated it to their collection and dumped it outside where there’s hardly a comfortable thing for them to sit on. This new addition joins my horrid orange chair - believe it or not, but an actual puppet from a show in 2003 - and the animals now take turns with that too. … Er, well, just the couch, but you get the idea.

Anyway, it all leads up to this: I’m not the only crazy one around here. … I’d share all of my pics, but I’m sure they’re not as enjoyable to anyone else but my family and I. Let’s face it, what’s new or interesting about pets being weird? … But it does make me smile, and now the pets can sit with me whilst I work in my new workshop area.

Yep, I’ve actually redesigned the contact form/page. I know I said I would wait and do other stuff first, but actually fixing the contact page is probably a better priority so I can at least leave that up and know people can still get in touch easier whilst I work on the rest of the design.

You can see the old design here, and you can check out the updated page here.

One of the first things you might notice is that the contact info is much more clearly delineated. I used to have my snail mail details buried on the Shop terms and conditions page, which doesn’t make much sense. Now everything is right there: phone number, snail mail, my email address, plus a webmail form for quick messaging. The other improvement is a sign-up form for my RSS feed (for those less technical about RSS - which is probably every person buying my puppets - it makes signing up a bit easier), and the fact that the contact page is actually a ‘page’. Before I was just using the standard blog contact form, which is dynamic to whatever page you’re looking at. (Ie. on the linked image above, you can see the contact form has appeared based on the ‘blog’, hence the categories for the blog on the right hand side. If you clicked on the contact link on the shop page, it would have brought up the form with the shop categories on the right. Etc etc.) The downside to this is it’s harder for me to track where and when visitors send emails to me if they use the form; the benefit is that I can directly control the design and layout without interfering with other pages.

Lastly, I’ve added icons for various social networks I’m on: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Youtube. I’ll most likely add some of these icons to the redesigned blog page when I get to it, but for now, the only way you’ll find them is via the contact page. (Actually, the Youtube one might end up on the ’shop’ page where relevant).

And, one little fun thing with the business card image. I’ll let you play with the new contact page and see how it works.

One thing that bugs me still is the fact that I wanted to be consistent over the default black background. The white version (click the light switch at top right of the page) is much much prettier. But I discovered that if I changed the default colour just for one page, it screws up how you view the rest of the site. For instance, if you go to the home page of the site, which is black, and then go to the contact page, which would have been white, and then press your back button, the home page is suddenly white too. I kind of liked the idea of doing alternating colours, but in the end, the confusion that would have resulted induced me to keep the default style as it is. A pity. It really does look good in white. Either way though, I’m liking the way the new design is forcing me to rethink how and what I display.

… Now that I’ve finished this page, I will definitely be leaving the rest for next week or longer.