About Me
Hello!
I'm a freelance propmaker working in London, and here you can find a record of all my work from my career so far, working at companies such as Aardman Animations, BBC, Bristol Old Vic, CodSteaks, Arch Model Studios and Propworks!
I didn't realise at the time what a golden era it was when I graduated and entered the stopmotion world in 1994 (the first Wallace and Gromit film 'The Wrong Trousers' had just been finished!), and many classic films and adverts were made at that time which I was very lucky to work on!
I also got to meet and chat to the Queen during her visit to Aardman in 1996! (See pic below).
I've had a wide variety of jobs from props and sets to sculpting and costume, for adverts, pantos and films. And I've included video clips of my work in action where possible, so you can see lots of these classics here on my site.
I've recently started back in the propmaking world after running a couple of fashion and home decor businesses (more info below!) and bringing up my kids, and I'll add new work here whenever I can.
I've also given lots of tips and info about the materials and methods I've used, on my Instagram page @jo_conrad_props, so please click below if you'd like to have a look.
Thanks!
Jo x
History:
After graduating from my BA (Hons) Illustration degree at the University of the West of England in 1994, I was very lucky to work in the animation and theatre scene in Bristol for the next 7 years, in a variety of jobs including prop-making, set-building/painting, costume-making and sculpting for adverts, pantos and films.
An opportunity arose for my partner and I to move to London at the end of 2000, so I continued to make props for adverts and films there for a few months, working at Clapham Road Studios.
However I’d recently spent some time in New York and had been really inspired by independent designers who had opened small pop-up shops on the East side, and I had some ideas for some bags that I wanted to make and sell.
As we were living in Camden I started to sell them on a stall there at weekends which suddenly took off much more than I expected! I named my brand 'Shirley Geek' (girly chic swapped around!), and within a few months I was selling 200 bags a week, so I gave up propmaking to give myself time to make enough stock!
I started to put my designs on T-shirts which attracted interest from boutiques and department stores, and one day received an order from House of Fraser for 100 T-shirts. I made them myself over about a week, then got a phone call saying they’d flown off the rails and asked if they could have 1000!
Luckily we’d just moved to an open-plan apartment in Shoreditch, so we went to Ikea and bought several tables, chairs, lamps, bins etc, and advertised for fashion/textile graduates to come and help! House of Fraser’s orders grew bigger as they put our T-shirts in all 35 of their stores in the UK, and we soon had a team of around 20 hand-sewers, all beavering away to create the orders!
We continued to make 2,500 T-shirts a week for a couple of years, then started to do trade fairs in London, Las Vegas, Berlin, and Barcelona, and soon had 300 stockists around the world including Europe, Japan and the States! We also won an award for Best UK Exporter (UK Trade and Investment) in 2005!
I managed to continue this business for 5 more years when I had my daughter in 2004, but when twin boys came along in 2009, I decided to take a break!
I tried to resurrect my previous business when the boys got older but it was harder than I'd expected with the time and space I had at the time.
But while playing with my kids I discovered the world of fuse beads, and got quite addicted to them, especially when I saw how many colours they came in!
In 2014 I started to collect different shades and use them in a painterly way to create framed images, jewellery and kits, and realised they had potential as a brand. I looked for a fun name and came up with 'Dotty Cuckoo' after seeing the words together in a list to define quirky!
I also had my designs made into transfers for T-shirts, and made a website with photos taken of my friends’ children wearing them.
I joined Instagram to promote the business, and had some items in a lovely kids’ boutique in South East London called The Mamahood.
However I still wasn't able to give a retail business the attention it needed, eg to do markets/craft fairs etc, as weekends were taken up with family activities!
I then started to see the potential in animating with the beads, and became very interested in autism and the soothing effect of repetitive videos, so I started spending more time making animations, and developed a new brand called 'Moloopi' (a made-up word found by merging 'Moving Loop Pictures'!).
This business started with animated fuse beads, but I was also increasingly inspired by animating children’s toys, mostly wooden ones in subtle colours, and I also introduced handmade-looking videos to my portfolio using a variety of media including drawings, papercraft and cross-stitch.
I started making 5-minute episodes of relaxing, sensory animations, and these can be found on my YouTube channel here.
I also wanted my animations to be accompanied by soothing music, and I'd really missed composing since doing Music A-level, so I learned to compose using Logic Pro X, and you can find these pieces here on Spotify and all major music platforms.
I decided to make an archive on Instagram of photos from my prop-making days, as they were all just sitting in a box in the loft!
I was then offered work in this area again, which became possible as my boys were nearly teenagers, and it was very exciting to pick up my career in this field, working on exciting projects at Arch Model Studios and Propworks. (Including making the giant rainbow parachute that came out of Jason Donovan's coat, when he sang as Joseph at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Party!)
I am now very happy to be working as a propmaker again, freelancing at stop-motion and theatre companies around London.
I also have a small business on the side as I still love making and selling hand-made products!
I wanted to make something sustainable so I had the idea of using the fabric from preloved garments to make plants, garlands and other gift ideas, so I created a new brand - 'Betsy Bohème'! You can see and shop from my current collection here.
You can see lots of tips and making-of images on my Instagram accounts for all of these businesses below:
www.instagram.com/jo_conrad_props
www.instagram.com/shirley_geek
www.instagram.com/dottycuckoo
www.instagram.com/betsy_boheme
Please contact me if you have any questions. (Details at the bottom of each page).
Thanks for reading!
Jo x
