Oh joy, it's screen burning day! I just love this part of screenprinting, it's so magical! I put pictures on a screen, put it under a light and then after 15 minutes I get to go rinse out the picture. I *know* how it works, but my inner child sure does love the magic of it. I just put the first screen under the light to burn and I have two more to go after this one, so within about an hour, if all goes well, I should have three screens ready to print!
I'm excited about these designs. I'm currently burning a re-designed "chicks dig vegans" design and a dandelion gone to seed. The other designs I'm burning today are a re-designed "queerdoe", an anatomical heart, a femme-ish person on a bike and some birds and hearts for background/second color for some of the other designs. I'm excited to see how everything turns out and I have to say, I just adore screen printing! It's just so fun and exciting to me, probably because the process is quick and not overly delicate. Also, I think I will try doing a reduction design at some point, I've never done that and I was thinking about it last night.
I have a new family member now, I just inherited Mable, a gumdrop shaped i-mac. She's fabulous, and now I have a computer that I can use for watching movies (yipee!), and burning CDs (and DVDs, high class!), and using illustrator and photoshop (glory be!), which should make my arting and crafting life much, much richer! I do love my old dinosaur of a laptop and she has served me well. I'll be keeping her, but she's being converted to linux, which should be interesting and she'll mainly be a back up/alternate to Mable, once Mable's all up and running proper like with all the latest downloads, red sequin decorations, etc. Now I will finally be able to justify getting a digital camera, because I will have a computer to put the photos on (yes my laptop is really that ancient/slow that I can't hook a digital camera up to it). And that will make selling my things so much easier; Etsy here I come! Well, once I manage to snag a decent camera that is.
Well screen number one washed out beautifully and now number two is under the light getting cooked. I accidentally flipped my anatomical heart design again when I was placing it, thinking I hadn't already flipped it, so it's going to end up being backwards when I print. It's not too big of a deal because there are no words, but it will bother me a little bit because of my anatomy nerd-ness. Oh well, it must just be my imperfect heart wanting to memorialized!
Hopefully by tonight I'll have tons of fagulous new prints!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Quilts, Transfer Letters, and Serendipity, Oh My!
I dropped my quilt for Barakah Life's Sew Giving Bee, (the deadline has been extended, by the way) in the mail today and I got John to snap a bad cell phone picture of it before I sealed up the box. This is the second quilt I've made and it turned out so adorably! The robots are on a really nice, soft flannel and the yellow squares are from a soft, old sheet that is yellow and white stripey-ish. 
While I was out I stopped by the craft store to get some black screen printing ink and I found a whole set of opaque, opalescent inks for fabric. Heaven! A bit pricey, but not unreasonable, so I got them. And glory of glories, right next to the screen printing supplies there were rub on transfer letters! I have been looking for these for quite some time now, I fell in love with them as a child and I simply adore them for embellishing crafts and mail! I was looking in the fabric/sewing/embroidery clearance section and I came across a cute design for embroidery. It was a map design and I've been obsessed with maps lately (probably all of the traveling I've done in the last 6 months or so), so I think I'm going to make my own map design to embroider. I'd rather use a real map that has some meaning to me, or maybe make a map of some of my favorite places and use that as an embroidery template. I'll keep you posted.
While I was there I also broke down and bought some quilt binding for the quilt I'm making for my sibling's child because it matched and now that means I have everything I need to complete the quilt! I'd really like to finish it before I pack up all my belongings (again) and ship my stuff to Oakland, so I can send it off from here before I leave instead of dragging it back to the west coast in pieces and finishing it there.
On my way back home I was having one of those moments of connection and extreme clarity with my intuition and guidance. I was thinking to myself "Am I going the wrong way?" about the road I was driving on, and I looked to the street sign to get my bearings. As I looked back up I had to stop short in order to avoid colliding with the car in front of me and their license plate said "POTTERY". I'm not kidding you!
After the way I was feeling when I got my massage on Saturday, it seems clear that it's important for me to get back into ceramics, because that's a pretty straightforward message, as far as I'm concerned.
While I was out I stopped by the craft store to get some black screen printing ink and I found a whole set of opaque, opalescent inks for fabric. Heaven! A bit pricey, but not unreasonable, so I got them. And glory of glories, right next to the screen printing supplies there were rub on transfer letters! I have been looking for these for quite some time now, I fell in love with them as a child and I simply adore them for embellishing crafts and mail! I was looking in the fabric/sewing/embroidery clearance section and I came across a cute design for embroidery. It was a map design and I've been obsessed with maps lately (probably all of the traveling I've done in the last 6 months or so), so I think I'm going to make my own map design to embroider. I'd rather use a real map that has some meaning to me, or maybe make a map of some of my favorite places and use that as an embroidery template. I'll keep you posted.
While I was there I also broke down and bought some quilt binding for the quilt I'm making for my sibling's child because it matched and now that means I have everything I need to complete the quilt! I'd really like to finish it before I pack up all my belongings (again) and ship my stuff to Oakland, so I can send it off from here before I leave instead of dragging it back to the west coast in pieces and finishing it there.
On my way back home I was having one of those moments of connection and extreme clarity with my intuition and guidance. I was thinking to myself "Am I going the wrong way?" about the road I was driving on, and I looked to the street sign to get my bearings. As I looked back up I had to stop short in order to avoid colliding with the car in front of me and their license plate said "POTTERY". I'm not kidding you!
After the way I was feeling when I got my massage on Saturday, it seems clear that it's important for me to get back into ceramics, because that's a pretty straightforward message, as far as I'm concerned.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Old screens, New prints
I've been screenprinting since last night, patches mostly. Although I've gathered supplies for it, I have actually put off printing the entire time I've been in Georgia, mostly because I don't have simple access to a printer/copier type set-up and it's apparently very hard to motivate myself to go to a copy center for whatever reason. Last night I got inspired to see what designs where still on my screens from the last time I printed (almost 2 years ago, yikes!) and I was happy to find the banana seat bike design and promptly printed up a few patches and a couple of shirts too. Today I printed a bunch of the 'gendernaught' design in patch size and I realized that I had never actually used that screen before. I really love the process of screen printing, it's so enjoyable to me. I wish I were better able to make astonishing graphics, but a ladyman can't be good at everything, I suppose.
I'm printing most of the patches on this amazing fabric that I found a while back at the Depot for Creative Reuse (in north Oakland). It's shiny and so luxe, and from the designs the had I think it must be scraps from some sort of industrial neck tie making process, surprise surprise I got the spotted designs, anyway I love it and gold ink is printing on it like a dream! Now I'm just inspired to print everything and fortunately I bought two packages of panties a while back, but I don't like the way they fit without some waistband surgery so most of them have just been sitting in the package for a month or two. I've decided that I will print on them tomorrow (as well as the few I claimed and bothered to perform surgery on), I've got 4 patch sized designs, all of which will fit very nicely on said panties, hurray! I think doing some actual printing was exactly what I needed to inspire me to reclaim the screens and burn some new designs. I may try to do that before I head down to Florida, because it's always good to take plenty of merch. on travels, but we'll see how my time and energy looks.
I got a massage earlier today and it was amazingly nice, I've been holding onto a lot of stuff around my heart for quite some time now and the massage really coincided nicely with my feeling ready (and able) to release some of it that I have wanted to let go of for a while, but just didn't know how to. What a relief. Having made this commitment to myself to maintain a certain level of self-care has really already made such a huge positive impact.
Also, I though it was interesting that at one point when I was on the table I was getting a really strong, distinct feeling that what I truly wanted to be doing with my life was to live out in the mountains of North Carolina and be a potter with my own, tiny ceramics studio. It's funny because I haven't worked with clay in many, many years or even given it much though at all, for that matter. Maybe I need to make a point to get myself into a ceramics studio when I get back to the bay area? At this point I'm probably actually centered enough in myself to be able to more effectively center clay, at the very least. Hmmmmmm.
I'm printing most of the patches on this amazing fabric that I found a while back at the Depot for Creative Reuse (in north Oakland). It's shiny and so luxe, and from the designs the had I think it must be scraps from some sort of industrial neck tie making process, surprise surprise I got the spotted designs, anyway I love it and gold ink is printing on it like a dream! Now I'm just inspired to print everything and fortunately I bought two packages of panties a while back, but I don't like the way they fit without some waistband surgery so most of them have just been sitting in the package for a month or two. I've decided that I will print on them tomorrow (as well as the few I claimed and bothered to perform surgery on), I've got 4 patch sized designs, all of which will fit very nicely on said panties, hurray! I think doing some actual printing was exactly what I needed to inspire me to reclaim the screens and burn some new designs. I may try to do that before I head down to Florida, because it's always good to take plenty of merch. on travels, but we'll see how my time and energy looks.
I got a massage earlier today and it was amazingly nice, I've been holding onto a lot of stuff around my heart for quite some time now and the massage really coincided nicely with my feeling ready (and able) to release some of it that I have wanted to let go of for a while, but just didn't know how to. What a relief. Having made this commitment to myself to maintain a certain level of self-care has really already made such a huge positive impact.
Also, I though it was interesting that at one point when I was on the table I was getting a really strong, distinct feeling that what I truly wanted to be doing with my life was to live out in the mountains of North Carolina and be a potter with my own, tiny ceramics studio. It's funny because I haven't worked with clay in many, many years or even given it much though at all, for that matter. Maybe I need to make a point to get myself into a ceramics studio when I get back to the bay area? At this point I'm probably actually centered enough in myself to be able to more effectively center clay, at the very least. Hmmmmmm.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Mini Art Quilt
Today I am working on a mini art quilt. I was piecing some fabric together to make a doll, but I decided that the combo wasn't what I wanted for that project, so there I had rectangle of a very interesting mix of polka dot fabrics. What to do with it? A mini art quilt, that's what! So now there is a flannel robot, a fancy lady and a polka dotted bird, along with two trees. I glued everything on and I'm waiting for the glue to dry before I throw in some decorative and functional stitches. I'm interested to see how it turns out, I've never made anything quite like this before. Sorry about the horrible picture quality, I'll try to get better pictures up when I'm finished.
I have been considering coming up with a years worth of weekly projects and posting them here, either as a tutorial or as contest/craft-a-long sort of thing. I think either way it would be a good way to motivate myself to make a new project each week, which will certainly help to keep my aires heart happy.
Next week I'm going to Florida for one last visit to friends and family before heading back to the west coast at the end of next month. I'm going to to have to start packing up my things after my Florida jaunt, and I must say I don't feel entirely ready to leave my sanctuary in the woods and return to the world of city living and working. I am, however, looking forward to seeing the folks I miss, The Princess, and having more resources available to me again (transit! free weekly yoga! vegan pizza delivery!). Ending this convalescence will certainly be bittersweet to say the least, but at least I still have about a month left.
I have been considering coming up with a years worth of weekly projects and posting them here, either as a tutorial or as contest/craft-a-long sort of thing. I think either way it would be a good way to motivate myself to make a new project each week, which will certainly help to keep my aires heart happy.
Next week I'm going to Florida for one last visit to friends and family before heading back to the west coast at the end of next month. I'm going to to have to start packing up my things after my Florida jaunt, and I must say I don't feel entirely ready to leave my sanctuary in the woods and return to the world of city living and working. I am, however, looking forward to seeing the folks I miss, The Princess, and having more resources available to me again (transit! free weekly yoga! vegan pizza delivery!). Ending this convalescence will certainly be bittersweet to say the least, but at least I still have about a month left.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Snow and paper dolls
It's snowing outside right now, just little flurries, nothing's sticking so far, but it's the second time it's snowed since I've been in GA. Today was an errand running day for me; I took a package of crafty fun to the post office, went to an office supply store and stopped by the bank and a fabric store.
I am in the process of making little dancing paper dolls and I needed some brads (paper fasteners) for the joints on them. When I'm done posting this I'm going to get back to work on them, so far they are so, so cute!
At the fabric store I finally bought the batting and the backing for the quilt I'm making for my sibling's child, and it was half off for all of the fleeces so I decided to go with a fleece backing for it. I made the quilt out of a bunch of different fabrics, but two of them are reproductions of old tattoo flash from reprodepot.com and it's turning out adorably, I have finished all of the piecework and now that I have the batting and the backing I just need to finish the bias tape so I can get it all together.
When I was making my last quilt (for the sew giving blanket drive), I found an amazing tutorial for continual bias tape here, which is really helpful. I'm horrible at math but I was still able to to use the tutorial really effectively, so even if you are also math challenged, don't be scared of this tutorial, it's do-able.
I wandered around the fabric store for a while because it was the last day of a sale (happy to have stumbled upon that!) and I found the most adorable fabric. It's a retro/repro sort of print with little fabulous femme people (many of whom are wearing bloomers and we all know how I simply adore bloomers!) on it all making baked goods on/in old, cast iron, wood stoves. It's simply amazing and it came in my two favorite colors- pink and red. The one with the pink background even had the stoves a darker shade of pink, it's just so cute. I don't know specifically what I want to make out of it, but I simply had to buy it, really. I think it will probably end up being in the quilt that I'm going to make for myself (at some point). I've got a very old quilt that was a hand-me-down from my mom, I think my great grandmother made it, anyway, I love it and unfortunately it's falling apart beyond the point of repair, but I think I will just use the whole quilt as batting for another quilt, and this one I'm making just for myself! Has anyone tried that before? Did it work?
Well, I'm going to get back to crafting in my nice warm room while the snow falls outside. Stay warm!
*addendum*
I had to post some pictures because the dancing deer turned out so adorably; you pull on the string hanging down and the legs go out, making it look like its leaping! The first one is pink, sparkly, and fabulous
It's hard to see in these low quality pictures, but the second one is cut out of a map (with cardboard sandwiched in between.
And the third one is made from an old veterinary xray, which doesn't really show in the picture, but looks amazing in a window.
These turned out so cute, I think I will use them for my "thanks for your hospitality" gifts during my Florida visit.
I am in the process of making little dancing paper dolls and I needed some brads (paper fasteners) for the joints on them. When I'm done posting this I'm going to get back to work on them, so far they are so, so cute!
At the fabric store I finally bought the batting and the backing for the quilt I'm making for my sibling's child, and it was half off for all of the fleeces so I decided to go with a fleece backing for it. I made the quilt out of a bunch of different fabrics, but two of them are reproductions of old tattoo flash from reprodepot.com and it's turning out adorably, I have finished all of the piecework and now that I have the batting and the backing I just need to finish the bias tape so I can get it all together.
When I was making my last quilt (for the sew giving blanket drive), I found an amazing tutorial for continual bias tape here, which is really helpful. I'm horrible at math but I was still able to to use the tutorial really effectively, so even if you are also math challenged, don't be scared of this tutorial, it's do-able.
I wandered around the fabric store for a while because it was the last day of a sale (happy to have stumbled upon that!) and I found the most adorable fabric. It's a retro/repro sort of print with little fabulous femme people (many of whom are wearing bloomers and we all know how I simply adore bloomers!) on it all making baked goods on/in old, cast iron, wood stoves. It's simply amazing and it came in my two favorite colors- pink and red. The one with the pink background even had the stoves a darker shade of pink, it's just so cute. I don't know specifically what I want to make out of it, but I simply had to buy it, really. I think it will probably end up being in the quilt that I'm going to make for myself (at some point). I've got a very old quilt that was a hand-me-down from my mom, I think my great grandmother made it, anyway, I love it and unfortunately it's falling apart beyond the point of repair, but I think I will just use the whole quilt as batting for another quilt, and this one I'm making just for myself! Has anyone tried that before? Did it work?
Well, I'm going to get back to crafting in my nice warm room while the snow falls outside. Stay warm!
*addendum*
I had to post some pictures because the dancing deer turned out so adorably; you pull on the string hanging down and the legs go out, making it look like its leaping! The first one is pink, sparkly, and fabulous
It's hard to see in these low quality pictures, but the second one is cut out of a map (with cardboard sandwiched in between.
And the third one is made from an old veterinary xray, which doesn't really show in the picture, but looks amazing in a window.
These turned out so cute, I think I will use them for my "thanks for your hospitality" gifts during my Florida visit.
A New, Crafty Blog
I've decided to start a new craft/sewing/art/spirituality blog this year. 2008 is a year where my creativity and my spirituality are going to be at the forefront of my life and at the top of my list of priorities.
I learned a hell of a lot in 2007, much of it excruciating and painful, and I am going in to 2008 with these lessons under my belt and a renewed sense of the importance of creativity and spirituality as a part of my self care. I will be updating this blog somewhat regularly with projects I'm currently working on, things I want to focus on in the future and hopefully some tutorials from time to time. I'd like to customize it more, but my knowledge of web design stuff is severely limited. If anyone wants to trade blog design (or their own crafty things) for some of the crafty things you will find on here just let me know.
May we all learn to stand up for the things we believe in, help to alleviate the suffering of others, find compassion in our hearts and have an abundant and peaceful 2008.
I learned a hell of a lot in 2007, much of it excruciating and painful, and I am going in to 2008 with these lessons under my belt and a renewed sense of the importance of creativity and spirituality as a part of my self care. I will be updating this blog somewhat regularly with projects I'm currently working on, things I want to focus on in the future and hopefully some tutorials from time to time. I'd like to customize it more, but my knowledge of web design stuff is severely limited. If anyone wants to trade blog design (or their own crafty things) for some of the crafty things you will find on here just let me know.
May we all learn to stand up for the things we believe in, help to alleviate the suffering of others, find compassion in our hearts and have an abundant and peaceful 2008.
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