The Commute

HAIR TODAY GONE TOMORROW

 So my hair has been lazily growing for 6-7 years after I explored a shorter hair do, tbh, I identify most with wild long scruffy hair, but it had become scraggily and ridiculously long and I wanted a new start a fresh cut.

Hair has connotations of strength, power and femininity, I worried about the impact to myself and those who know me...I couldn't get the courage to do it.

Then my friend casually said, why not donate it, you could donate your hair.

The last time I cut my hair was because a boy said he preferred short hair.
The first time I shaved my head was because I was tired of being tied to the way I looked.

Hair is emotional, it frames our face, reflects our style, hobbies and habits.
We take it for granted that we have hair in all it's glory and not so great days, we take it for granted that we have had hair all our lives, all our days, all our childhood.


I couldn't imagine the emotional blow a child would feel to know they are to lose their hair, it must be terrifying.
It was like a light bulb went on, a final piece of the puzzle. My hair would be re-crafted into little wigs for poorly kids.
I did my research and found the Little Princess Trust

Measured my hair to see if it was long enough, they need minimum 6inches and mine is 14 inches, so yeah more than enough. And I booked the appointment.

Then I read through all the things I would need to do to get it ready and discovered that the Little Princess Trust is purely run on donations and though it does get a lot of the wigs for free and distributes them amongst those children in need, it can't always afford the extra demand.

It costs £2000 to make a wig from my hair and the charity manage to get the additional wigs discounted for £350, so I decided if I could also raise £350 that would at least pay for the wig from my hair or one like it. And so I set up a Just giving account and began my fundraising

http://www.justgiving.com/Hannah-Lee-Miller

I have had some wonderful support from work, family and friends, quickly within a week I reached my goal of £350.
I also bought badges to sell £1 each, all proceeds have gone to the charity (if you'd like to buy one donate to my just giving, send me your address and I'll pop one in the post)

So far I am at £435 for Little Princess Trust, and this has been the best haircut I have ever had!

So all you long haired hippies who fancy a change, chop for charity and make a difference to a little life.

Hands on London's Campaign: Wrap Up London

I had a great time volunteering with Hands on London this year for their Wrap-Up London campaign.

Every year they collect coats and distribute them to homeless shelters all across London.

I did 7-9am for two mornings then spend Sunday afternoon helping to sort the coats, excellent exercise and we sorted them in record time, great team :)

I love my raincoat

Windy Worries

True story, in the recent storm I found this in the garden, I was joking with my mum about it.
So this morning I sketched it out, dashed it through photoshop and flung it online.

Cartoon Letter to my Dad

Sisters

Gift for my friends The Leeks.

One More Photocopy for the Road

Paper version for sale in my Etsy Shop
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155080191/one-more-photocopy-for-the-road-mini?ref=shop_home_active

Cooking With My Brother

I'm not a great cook, AT ALL.
Mainly it's a confidence issue.
Recently I have been lucky enough to be fed by and had the company of foodie superstars,
People who make cooking an art form, my friends and inspiration
Chan and Sally

Another person in my life who is a big foodie, is my big brother. He makes his own sausages, grows his own veg, cure his own meat, makes his own cheese. He's incredibly creative with DIY and cookery.
So I suggested if he would be up for teaching me a thing or two about cookery.
Why not he said, and we both took to it like geese on a pond.
I had a wonderful 4 days which was jam packed with projects and foods and inspiration.

I promised to blog it up for my foodie friends to see.
I have still many more posts to write but this is day one so far.

Cooking with My Bruv

On more Photocopy for the Road- MiniComic/Arty Zine

Oh Yea! Oh Yea!..new zine! new zine!

On sale now in my Etsy Shop.
(I seriously need to do a new banner for my Etsy, give it some love...)

So this new little zine is a combination of drawings of photocopiers and text.
It's more arty than story but quite a fun little thing.

It's not superbly perfect, but neither am I.
In honesty, it's intentionally imperfect, much like me.

It's intentionally not expensive, so that if you like it you can have it, no sweat.

I shall post up more pictures from it soon.
I just wanted to start the ball rolling.

Some of my favourite Buses

Dementia Dad: The Printing Lesson

Who knew with making a comic that the printing would be just as challenging as the creating!
Funnily enough lots of people, except me.

So I am going to share with you guys my experiences as a noob of the printing world.

Discovery no.1
Trying to print double-sided on a domestic printer, don't work, well they just won't line up. You get this huge white gap at the bottom. If I had my own printer I would seriously mess about with the settings. This would only be good for a short run or good for doing a double-sided template to take to the printers.

Discovery no.2
Most photocopy machines will put a big fat white border round your image and chop into it, boooo I say boooo! 
Apparently they can't turn it off, darn it, I bet I could get it working if I had one.
If it weren't so damned mahoosive I would steal it.
So this is what a bleed is all about, and every copy shop will tell you they need a different sized bleed and/crop marks.
The nice chap at Copy Express in Holborn said it's because every machine has it's own personality.

Ok I'm gonna stop this Discovery listing thing cause it has not been that simple.
My first print was with my Chondalamalcia Patalae knee comic that I did. I had a lovely chap at the local print shop work really hard to get it to print right, lining up etc. I tried not to gripe too much when it chopped my image *wince*
I wasn't too precious about this project as it was an experiment.

But my next one was more important to me.
Dementia Dad

So I tried a different copyshop, who chopped into it, barely batting an eyelid *inside tears*
I decided I better try a proffesional printing shop.

Shop 1- "oh we need it digital, yes you always get a white border" - oh they're rubbish
Shop 2- "oh we need a PDF or Indesign file" *huh?*

Stumpted again
I start emailing peoples, one company proper talks me through what they need via their website, ExWhyZed
And I discovered the beginnings of a magical formula, which is:

CMYK, 300dpi, 3-5mm bleed, crop marks (sometimes) PDF

I got myself a trial version of Indesign, taught myself the basics, pumped out PDF
As every copy shop has different specs they like. I have, to date, pumped out 12 different versions, with crop marks, without crop marks, bleed 3,4 and 5 mm, with cover, without cover.

Not all copy shops have everything you want.
I really want a grey cover in matt, but a lot of people don't stock it, but one copy shop said I could supply the paper and they'd print on it (one place outright won't do other's peoples paper)
It is important to stay true to what you imagine as otherwise you'll get lost in their can's and can-not dos

I have spoken to at least 10 different copy shops now and have whittled it down to two I am working with, a small business Copy Express and a big chain, ProntaPrint.
Both mainly because they were helpful, informative, friendly and accommodating.

So fellow noobs of print!
1st scan your image, make sure it is 300dpi and to the size you want it finally (A4-A5)
Make sure it is CMYK with a bleed of between 3-5mm.

As your order gets larger the costing decreases. So an order of 100 will individually cost less than an order of 30... of course you need the collateral up front and some way to sell it.

I settled for a costly order of 20 at Pronta Print
and a run of 10 at Copy Express in Holborn.
Pronta print let me use my own coloured paper for the cover, which unfortunately didn't suit a black and white print and smudged in the trial so I had to do the cover on a colour print which cost more....lesson learnt.
1. Source suitable printable paper
2. or if your gonna pay colour, make it colour!

So far I have sold 12 to friends and family- woot!

The real dream come true though is GOSH, my all-time long-time favourite comic shop in the world, took three of my comics to sell, wooo!
I didn't get much back (mainly because my errors pushed the cost up of the make) BUT I am selling in GOSH that is one wish box ticked.

I have showed this book to mum and dad as I wored on it to make sure they were ok with it. They both thought it was very funny and emotional and I have their approval which is important to me.
My mum told my Dad about selling in GOSH and even he was impressed, he took me there in the first place, back when I was an early teen, hey it only took me 20 years Dad ;)

I have put a few on Etsy:
Dementia Dad selling at £5 inc p&p, you can either go through Etsy or me at hannahleemiller@gmail.com.

This has been such a fantastic learning curve and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
I have now got the task of putting it out there. If all goes well I shall print a larger run hopefully at a cheaper cost.

I now have a taste for print and am working on about 4 other projects which include murals, space porn, buses and photocopiers. I am also writing the follow ups to Dementia Dad and as you can see on other posts I am doing the occasion one pager for my own amusement.

I have a real taste for print now, wish me luck!

I also, as an additional touch, hand-printed the back with a self portrait in linocut and my hand print letter set. I love stamps and hand printing.

Day Out

Dementia Dad

I shall be getting this printed and stapled together to be distributed soon.

Chondromalacia Patella- The Comic

If you would like a paper version drop me a line and I'll post you one.
This is a true story, I have crap knees.