IKEA Magazine files

More surface design fun. This is one of the IKEA "Flyt"Magazine Files I decorated. They don't come any cheaper and less glamorous. (Five for $2.99 - you can't go wrong.) I will be making more. Really enjoying my markers again, by the way!






Tombow Brush Pens, metallic pens, Prismacolor markers

A couple of words of caution: First, the surface is slightly glossy. So it was a little bit challenging. But actually, after it was completely dry, I REALLY liked the effect. It almost looks printed. They come flat packed so it was quite easy to draw on them when flat, and it was fun to assemble at the end.

Second, they are a little flimsy. Not the thing to store your chunky Vogue magazines. Either that or stuff it entirely so the weight at the base AND the top is evenly distributed. Heavy things leaning to one side inside of it might topple it. It hasn't popped off the shelf yet, but I don't have it anywhere where it can bean me on the head either.

Mystery Science Theater

Would you believe, I had never seen or heard of Mystery Science Theater before? That's what my husband called this fish board painting I made recently. Something about the black silhouettes, I guess.


Acrylic Gouache, gel pens on cedar

Then I looked up Mystery Science Theater on the Interwebs and it was the funniest darn thing I've seen in a long time. Pure entertainment. (Mature content, NSFW)

And yes. I see a resemblance.

Alleluja! An Etsy Treasure

Dear friends,

I have been wanting to share the following gift...no, make that wonderful "experience" I received for my birthday from my sweet husband. I know you will love this as much as I do.

This little curious envelope from Japan arrived one day last month, addressed to my husband. Okay, I won't lie and say I didn't know what it was. My husband is good, but he's not telepathic about gifts (even with my dropping major hints on Twitter). The envelope contained the little porcelain ceramic octopus pincushion that I had been eying on Etsy by Alleluja (aka Sawako Hayakawa). The unwrapping process was so beautiful, it felt almost ceremonial. I won't spoil it by showing it all here, because I really hope you will be so enchanted and buy one for yourself! (You deserve it!) I truly felt like I just received a treasure...


Inside was a lovely note written to my husband from Sawako in which she hoped it made us happy.

(Pincusion with it's accompanying pin along with some common millinery items for scale)

So she hoped it made me happy. I am ECSTATIC! Just look!


Here are some more (and frankly much better) photos from her Flickr photostream.


and she has other very lovely designs...

I simply adore these bobbin spools:


I also ran across this interview of Sawako on Lou Lou & Oscar, a beautiful blog. I enjoyed reading about how she named her shop and her love of movies.

(Thank you Sawako for allowing me to mention your beautiful and very original work here. Yes, you certainly made me happy.)

Magnetic pin-up board spruce (in 15 minutes)

Left over from the studio renovation was this rather plain magnetic pin board that had more of an industrial look to it that didn't fit the new decor. So, I recovered it.

This is the original Umbra pinboard. If you click on the link you can see it was not cheap and is really too nice to not find some new use for.

So, I took out some fabric remnants and chose a cheery polka dot. Added some trim, all done with my hot glue gun...



And we have a totally new look! And it can always be removed since the glue was applied to the back where no one can see anything. The fabric can be cut away.

I like the magnetic aspect of this board the best.

Punch the Clock

A simple enameled black clock from IKEA. Inexpensive and completely impervious to my attempts to take it apart to paint or otherwise decorate it. What to do.



So, I had some paper flowers that I drew with my Prismacolor markers and had cut out for a defunct project and some Positional Mounting Adhesive (PMA).


Follow the instructions provided with the PMA regarding positioning and application.




Sticking the flowers to the clock. That's it! They are permanent.





Time to feed the kitties!

Studio Renovation - about bleepin' time!

Hi there, all.

So without much initial fanfare, here are some photos of the room in general. In future posts, I can go into more detail on some of the crafty projects that we did and even some yet to come. (Studio Reno 2.0).

First and foremost, the whole effort was born out of the need to get rid of the nasty carpet in here. I mean, that just made no sense. So here is that nasty rug (before):

(Thankfully blurry.)

And here was the finished, naked floor. BTW, this is BALK veneer flooring from IKEA. (You're gonna see alot of IKEA in these photos):

Just beautiful maple!

More "befores":

(Hi, husband!)

Sad to say that the kitty beds were a casualty of the renovation.
They were fired from the firm. But it is cleaner in here without the fur.
I thought I would miss that light fixture. It was bright, but the bulbs
burned out constantly.

Check the mess that surrounded my roll-out drawing table! And
the closet with those file cabs showed way back in there like that.
Horrible.

White standard construction grade closet doors. When open,
they jut 6 inches into the space. And those were my tiny narrow
shelves that held my art supplies.

Another problem was this huge L-shaped desk that
took up that half of the room.

Those silly shutters for the cut-out overlooking the living room.
And that huge black cabinet above the desk which I banged my
head on several times during the renovation. Both are gone.

Enough. I love my husband and it's fortunate we get along so well in a work envirnoment, but I can't believe we were crammed in here together like sardines for 4 years.

Here are the "afters":

New lighting...

His desk.

My desk! La!
And tons of shelving.

I made the curtains and fell in love all over again
with my sewing machine.

Will ya look at those closet standards??? There's space back
there that I may discover a year from now. And the lateral
file cabinet which we salvaged from a place in Portland. It
locks and everything.

I love those antique fishing lures. My husband pulled them
out of a box in the garage and I had to have them.

-----------------------
Well, there you have it. Thanks for putting up with blurry photos. We're still hoping for that DSLR camera someday. And these photos are hopefully incentive for me to blog with a bit more regularity going forward. I'm still rather new at it. I also need to work again, and have projects backed up "Like planes at Kennedy". We started the renovation in April and it took alot longer than I thought. I'm ready to make stuff!

Why yes, I AM sill alive...

I thought I'd check in and leave a note telling you what has been going on here over at our studio. It's all exciting, but time consuming. We've been working on renovating, starting with ripping the carpet out (good grief, that was weeks ago already) and laying down IKEA wood veneer flooring. Already an improvement, right? Anyway, since the labor for this studio is being done by us, and since I have a tough time recovering physically from things like aching backs and angry little abused shoulders and crimped necks, some of it has been a SLOG. Also, this is a working studio, so we have been sitting in here basically up to our eyeballs in junk and chaos and renovation detritus doing nothing but paid work. No wonder I have a headache this evening as I write this. (Or it's the fumes of machined engineered wood and glue getting to me.)

We got most of the storage system installed in the closet today and I need to sew a curtain to put up over the closet where we use to have bifold doors. Right now, the focus is on getting the supplies out of the other parts of the house (I swear, there isn't a horizontal surface in this house that isn't completely covered with stuff) and storing it in its newly designated storage place. And I am really looking forward to tossing and recycling alot of stuff. It looks like a lot of empty storage now, but I know we will fill it somehow. We gotta purge (she types as she looks over her shoulder at her husband)!

Also, the weather has been fabulous here in Portland and, well, the sun is my Boss. And when the Boss says get out there and re-charge, I do what the Boss says. So there you have it: delays, and more delays, but alot of fun and hopefully pictures soon to come.

And I really want to find a way to work one of these snazzy giant Martha Stewart pom poms in the design somehow:


Thanks for putting up with me tweeting on Twitter in lieu of posting formally here. It has helped me feel like I am staying linked. I look forward to returning and posting more regularly. And getting back to some of my languishing projects!!!

3/50 Project

While I am getting the studio reno done (and it's taking foreva!), I thought I would touch base, break in (whateva!) and tell you about a great cause that I know you can easily commit to and tell others about.

The 3/50 Project asks that you to pick 3 of your favorite independently owned, local bricks and mortar stores and if you can swing it, give them $50 of your business a month. Let's face it, when this recession is over we don't want to be left with only the Walmarts, Targets, and Kmarts of the world.

I'm thinking of my three...

In rainbow order...

Dried paint in my little dishes. I'm working in fairly close to primary colors for my current project.

An older drawing

Here is a painting in the studio, more or less permanently stuck to the wall. I had to take the picture in situ. (Okay, I merely wanted to say "in situ".)

I was obsessing on sea invertebrates last year. And paisley. Sometimes in the same drawing. I could go back to that obsession at the slightest provocation, flowers being a distraction at the moment.


I can't even remember what I used. Markers and paint pens. As I recall, it took forever to dry because the surface was not the correct one to use. An educational project that worked out.

I am also hesitating to show anything in the studio at this time because I plan to do a before / after once we put in the wood laminate flooring next month.

More stuff...

Here is another simple motif. This one was lots of fun. Why aren't gel pens more legitimate to artists? Scrapbookers don't seem to be embarrassed to use them.


gouache, gel pens, on smooth cardboard
---------------------------------------------------

Here is the finished drawing of the Hawaiian red ginger plant in the moleskine. This was done with colored pencils in a more traditional style.



P.S. Man! Does this family need a DSLR camera! I swear, that ginger bud is NOT as overworked as it looks in that photo. However, I do think I need to remove the "wax bloom" and apply some fixative at this point. (I just forgot.)

New flowers motif

I guess I'm trying to start a new Decorative Arts movement.

Or I am channeling Spring. Whatever, here it is:


colored pencil, gel pens

Oh Nine

Here we are, just on the other side of the threshold of a new year. I find resolutions very hard to resist making at New Years. I am a sucker for new beginnings and personal reinventions. All occurring in one annual event, it's a compulsive person's dream come true! However, I can see why failing resolutions make people wary of ever making them in the first place, but I tend to make resolutions with the idea in mind that I have a year to accomplish them or I reach a point where they are no longer useful for me to keep, or I discover that I need to resolve to do the baby steps first.

I have expectations, for sure. For one thing, after wars end (which hopefully we are on the brink of), there have historically been periods of resurgence of handmade or hand crafted goods. Certainly, we are already in a Handmade Hey Day. But my hope is that art takes on a new value to comfort and heal whereas the recent period of delusion and consumerism could not. I feel so fortunate to be living in a time when technology is so helpful in "getting the message out", whatever the message is. But my sincere hope is that more people will find themselves reaching for things that truly satisfy their inner bliss rather than searching amongst all the stuff we've been collecting (and as it turns out could never afford). My belief is that bliss is only achieved in one's personal expression of creativity, however that manifests. I predict many people will be having their own little Recession Renaissance. I would love to hear about yours.

As for resolutions, my personal ones are to try one large scale project this year, and to get really good at Adobe Illustrator. If I have the time, I may pick up crocheting again (which will be like learning it all over again, it's been so long). Resolutions I will never make are to "finish" anything. Some projects are not meant to be finished. It's make or break time with me and that painted wicker trunk that's been sitting under plastic in my living room. Husband, time to throw that wooden canoe form you were constructing in our garage.

In summary, I really don't need any more stuff or gadgets. (I admit, won't be sad when my iPod Touch battery finally goes and I need to buy a bigger one. More GB is always appreciated.)
I simply need to put ass-in-chair and connect with the larger universe that is trying to infiltrate art in a resistant and needy world. If it's your hope as well, then you must resolve to do it. There has seldom been a greater need.

Finally, I promised to report back on the Japanese Embroidery light. It arrived. I did as instructed and installed a 40 watt bulb and it turned out to be so hot, it warped my self-healing cutting pad. I replaced it with a 40 watt warm fluorescent and it's fantastic! I can draw at night again! It's HUGE.


Happy New Year, friends and family. MAKE IT a good one.

What I want for Christmas... next year

I have imposed a moratorium on art and crafting supplies for all of 2009.

I have enough.

I don't need any more stuff. I have ideas and supplies enough to make everything. I don't need paper. I don't need ink. I don't need pens or pencils. Nothing. Done with the shopping and collecting.

But next Christmas, I want this:
My husband wanted to buy it for me this afternoon, but I stopped him. I feel overwhelmed by what I need to be working on in 2009. It's on my Amazon wishlist for that momentous occasion when I am ready and have time to work with it.

Besides, there is always my birthday!

What art and craft projects are you planning on working on next year?

I miss my eyesight!

Since I seem to be more prone to drawing in the evening (which also has not changed since I used to hole up in my bedroom as a teenager), I have been struggling with being able to see and trying to avoid the frustration of dealing with shadows, to no avail. My work is also very up-close and detailed which means I am usually hunched over without my glasses, for no pair seems to work for me. It's naked eye, close-up stuff. Plus, I'm just getting damn old.

Anyway, I recalled seeing this little doo-hickey (pictured below) months and months ago while perusing the web and looking at Japanese Embroidery.


It's sold in two pieces; the lamp itself and the cardboard house. You supply the 40 watt bulb. Anyway, all together it was $22 plus shipping and I will let you know if this is a help or a hindrance once it arrives. Certainly, one could make such a thing. But I did enjoy giving the Japanese Embroidery site some business in order to support what looks to be an arcane and rare art form. (One which exceeds my ability to see.)

By the way, the store site has a great quote in its banner: "The hands are the exit of the spirit."

Where it all started

In the summer of 2007, I drew something for the first time in 20 years. It was on my desk surface. Well, it wasn't really a desk. And it wasn't even my desk at the time. It was a slab of particle board that my husband hauled up from the garage in order to give one of our subcontractors a place to sit and work. I can say little about what possessed me to start doodling all over it one night when my the husband was out of town. But it started with a simple expression of my feelings toward the current blithering idiot who lives in the White House. That phrase remained on its own for a few days, in stark black marker pen. And then the doodling...



In any case, Daniel's Desk turned into a silly mini obsession that took a few hours of my time. My style here is exactly as it was when I was 16. Seriously, the graffiti, the angst, the flower-power. All is as I knew it.

So why did I ever stop drawing? And why does it seem like it is happening again? This time it feels like a blockage. But when I was 17, it was crisis of confidence and endlessly playing mental tapes in my head by people who liked to caution me about artists who "starve", and questioning what I was "really" going to do with my life. And since you can't stifle creativity, it next bubbled up and took the form of building doll houses. After that, I made all the little doodads that go inside the doll houses, which took me to polymer clay. Polymer clay morphed into making little figures. Little figures took me to beading and jewelry making which in turn made me think of making money. When that didn't happen, it was the end of the road. The sad thing about it all is through yard sales, gifting, and losing stuff during many moves throughout my life, I have nothing to really show for it. No body of work. And I stopped drawing. Until one night when I decorated a desk and expressed how much I hated Bush. It was cathartic and is proving itself to be very hard to recapture.