Having come
into the world of technology, later, rather than sooner in life, we do embrace
new challenges. In our past life we have
travelled to Spain after being married for 25 years & staying for what
turned out to be the ‘Gap Year’ we couldn’t afford when we young, came back to
the UK to buy and run a village Post Office in a semi-rural village in Swansea
for four years – then going on to college to take both a business and Photoshop
course. We rapidly became interested in printing – but the world and his dog
are printers! So along with our dog, we wanted to work outside the boundaries
of paper, canvas, T shirts, mugs......
There had to
be a better way to express our designs.
‘Cavemen’
said David, Just as I thought his grey cells had finally gone AWOL he expounded
with ‘Art on stone’ - which prompted our name Artstonestudio - Art on stone at
our studio - and we just loved the way it sounded.
So we looked into various types of stone we could work with
and what might be best to print on. Having tested several options we found what
was best for what we needed, decided on the shapes we thought would be popular
and began testing the inks to find the best finish.
Once our perfect ingredients were joined together, we could
let loose our imaginations to create our unique handmade, alabaster stone
composite clocks and plaques. So along with David’s designs and my getting to
grips with Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc, we were ready to launch
Artstonestudio.
We always mention new followers on Twitter as soon as
possible and now have a few fellow 'tweeters' who regularly re-tweet us – and in
return we do the same for them. Facebook
likers also receive a message and/or shares and likes of their pages as
it’s the whole point to get your brand out there as much as you can without
being greedy.
We have taken inspiration for our unique & individual
artworks from various vintage sources. The Gua Tewet cave drawings were found
in a cave in Borneo, are thought to be
around 10,000 years old, we love this so much we chose it for our background,
quotes by amongst others (as well as ourselves) Aristotle and images from long
ago artists such as Franz Marc, whose abstract animals blended beautifully with
his use of colour.
To make our work totally unique we print onto an alabaster
composite stone, either framed in reclaimed timber as standalone pieces of art
or handmoulded as functional clocks.
Made with care and made to last, all our clocks are made from alabaster
stone composite, no MDF, vinyl letters, peeling transfers or fading paper
fronts. Our clocks are printed directly onto the stone with archival quality
fade resistant inks and then sealed for added protection.
On our clocks we use quartz mechanisms which are guaranteed for 12
months and require one AA battery, a backing material which is
made with a natural, calcium & carbonate mineral combination - resistant to
water and grease, giving a superb finish, which is particularly easy to
write on without any ink bleed, making it perfect for greetings, good wishes,
signing etc.
Due to the natural components, no toxic substances are used which helps
to protect our environment, also, we haven’t
forgotten about the packaging. Our cardboard & wrapping paper is re-cycled
and our bubble wrap is bio degradable and the most environmentally
friendly available.
As a taster of what our site has to offer, we decided on a
slideshow gallery on our homepage to showcase as many products as possible in a
short burst. We are thrilled & proud
to produce our website – something we’d previously thought was beyond our
mature years – as we are to discover printing on stone, with a little help from
the Cavemen - and women of course!
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