Paintbox

While wasting time doing "research" on Pinterest the other day, I came upon this picture of a homemade travel watercolor kit made from a mint tin, and remembered I never put up any pictures of the one that I made myself. The one above is from the blog One Golden Apple, and if I had it to do over again, I'd probably make the pans in a way more similar to the way she did hers. She pressed them into the polymer clay with the end of a tube of lip balm, while I layered thin strips of PC (with much trial and error) to make mine. And then I ended up carving out notches in mine anyway so I could fit my travel brush inside. It's always the way.

I covered the outside of mine with more PC, and fancied it up with stamped PC, faux silver leaf, and a little acrylic paint antiquing. It could use another coat of clear acrylic because the leaf is flaking in places, and I may even do that someday.

Seriously, I could look at pictures of paintboxes and other art supplies all day. That's why I always end up buying tons of crap I hardly ever use. At least I do keep my small collection of vintage paintboxes out for display, so I can see the colors.

Once, I Made a Good Choice

It's always refreshing (and novel) to realize that something you did in the past turned out to be a good idea. God knows it doesn't happen very often. But I've been editing photos from a batch of embroidered t-shirts I've been working on, and I'm finding it profoundly fucking tedious. Now I'm having the chance to be very grateful that I never decided to go into graphic design, as I've considered at several points in the past, usually when I was feeling conflicted and unsure about my abilities and inspiration. I can see that I'd be driven absolutely ship rat nuts if I had to spend my life "staring every morning at a hundred nearly identical photographs of moodily lit tubes of toothpaste", to quote Douglas Adams.

I still have to spend a certain amount of time staring at nearly identical photographs of moodily lit t-shirts and pieces of jewelry, but since I'm the one taking them, there are usually only a dozen or so, and I don't have to do it every day. Then there's the copy writing, which is whole different kettle of suck, and always leaves me feeling stupid and slightly unclean, though I'm finding it's getting easier. I'm learning to set aside my dignity and self-respect and compunctions, and just write some nonsensical blather so I can post the shit. If I could get away with labeling everything "Oh just buy it already, you know it's awesome", believe me, I would. (And I'm thinking that should be my tagline when I go global. Actually, I have gone global; my first sale was to someone in France, and I also had a sale to Australia.)

The actual making of stuff is the fun part, naturally, not at all like work. Embroidering or putting together something while listening to music or audiobooks and drinking tea, and then later getting real live money for what I've made is still pretty miraculous to me. Not a lot of money, but I've sold several things this month. I really dig the series of minimalist punk portraits I've been working on lately. Who knows if anybody else will like them, but I'm enjoying doing them. Above are the Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone shirts I've got completed. I've also finished a Richard Hell one for myself, though I don't know if I'll make one of those for general consumption, I'm not sure how popular it'd be. Yeah, in comparison to the unbounded popularity of everything else I've been making. (Well, the Mark Twain bacon embroidery actually was pretty popular. Gotta get another one made soonest.) It would be nice if these really did take off, because I have several other ideas for the designs. I think they'd be awesome on onesies, for a start.

Like this guy was. He's the one who went to France. (If I think about that too much it's mind-boggling.) I'm really just putting him up here to show off the sheer technical perfection of the french knot that makes his eye. I realize no one but me cares, but that is a textbook fucking example of a french knot and I think it should be noted. So it is.

Forever Now

Sunday night I went to see the Psychedelic Furs and the Tom Tom Club here in Lexington. It was a fantastic show, which made me wonder why I hadn't tried harder to see the Furs again since the first time I saw them all the way back in the Mesozoic Era, i.e. 1983. I will amend that in the future, if possible.

I was looking at my old concert shirt yesterday and realized that to me, it really is an incredibly complex symbol and not just a garment. For one thing, it may be the oldest piece of clothing I own that has belonged to me alone. It's been kicking around with me for 28 years, so it's a part of me and my "style", whatever that means. My friends and family are all familiar with it, so they know what I'm talking about when I reference it (which happens more than you might think). It's something I had in high school, and everything that entails and implies. Then too, it's a piece I've altered, so it showcases the kind of things I do, my art if you will. 

For another thing, the Psychedelic Furs were only the second concert I'd ever been to, so that was a BIG DEAL. It was here in Lexington, and we had come to visit my grandparents for Easter weekend. There was an article in the paper about them, (which I kept for years afterwards) and the tickets were only $7, so Mom and I went. I was 16, and so excited. 

Really I had to go. I had an obligation. I was living in a small town in southern Ohio, and everybody else (as far as I knew) except me and my best friend were into bands like Journey and REO Speedwagon. MTV had come to our county the previous August, so people had been exposed to New Wave, and talked about it, but if people were listening to it, they kept it to themselves. 

Of course I didn't. Everybody thought I was smart and weird anyway, which was fair enough, so my being into New Wave was no surprise to anybody. Now I was actually in the same town as a real live New Wave band, British guys who'd been on MTV, who spiked their hair, who wore eyeliner. Eyeliner! I had to represent. How could I hold my head up if I didn't go see them? I can guarantee you nobody else from Wheelersburg, OH, was spending their Easter weekend seeing the Psychedelic Furs.

So we went and it was awesome. I was fairly nervous about the whole thing. I'd only ever been to see Cheap Trick before (with Saxon & Krokus opening, WTF?), and that was an arena show, which is a whole different ballgame. Would there be a lot of punks there? Would there be slamdancing? For sure everyone else would be a lot cooler than me. 

But I had to go. I'd seen the videos for "Pretty In Pink" and "Love My Way", and even without the video, LMW would be enough reason to go see a band. Plus, eyeliner!

It was a great show. There were some people dressed in garbage bags. I saw a couple of Mohawks. There was a little slamdancing in the back. Richard Butler had a lot of product in his hair, and yes, he was wearing eyeliner. He was beautiful. I wanted to marry him, which not turns out not to have been such a pipe dream after all, since his brother Tim, the bass player, actually did marry a girl from Kentucky and now lives in Casey County. See, dreams can come true!

I had to have a shirt to commemorate the occasion. I couldn't wait to wear it to school, and show everybody how infinitely much cooler I was than they were. The reactions were all I could have hoped. "The What Furs?" " ' Psychedelic?' " "Whuut?" "Who're they?" "Whut?" Most gratifying. 

Funnily enough, I still get that today whenever I take the shirt out for an airing, or even mention the Furs. "Christ, I know you people have heard of 'Pretty In Pink'. That's them". I used to date a horrible boy who would say "the Psychedelic Furs" which such a sneer in his voice. You know what, fuck you, because you're a jerk with a bowl haircut and you're so stupid you buy whole cassettes and will only listen to the one song you heard on the radio. Besides, your musical tastes certainly don't hold up to scrutiny. Asshole. 

Therefore, my shirt represents not only the Psychedelic Furs, who I really do love (and Richard, I'm definitely still available), but also all the other bands I love and who people always gave me shit for listening to. It's old and has yellowed with time, and has permanent smoke stains from when the house burned. (It was pointed out to me that a concert t-shirt that's been through a house fire is in fact, punker than fuck.)  I had to paint the neck and sleeve bands so it wouldn't look quite so bad, but I still love it. 

It makes me think of high school, of my friends from then, of being 16, of concerts, of 27 year-old Richard Butler dancing around with big hair and eyeliner, of the Concrete Blonde show I wore it to when they broke up on stage right in front of us, of 55 year-old Richard Butler dancing around with smaller hair and no eyeliner. It's all good times.

So I wore my old shirt to the show, though since I'm not a young girl anymore, I wore it with pearls and Chanel #5. I was right up front and Tim Butler sang to me. It was awesome.

I Was Going To Call This "For The Birds" But That Would Be Stupid

Another thing I've done for public consumption, and of course agonized excessively about, is this birdhouse I did for the Lexington Arboretum yearly birdhouse display and auction. I'd wanted to do it last year, but couldn't come up with an idea in time. That sort of worked out well because it gave me a whole extra year to think of something.

I don't remember when it hit me, but it suddenly occurred to me to do something with an embroidered or cross-stitch design (since I think about embroidery a lot anyway). Then all I had to do was think of how to implement it. I considered using or making a traditional house-shaped birdhouse and drilling holes in it, and good Lord am I glad I didn't, because the one(s) I finally did build out of polymer clay were quite enough of a pain. (Note to self: maybe do a small mock-up first next time. Also you probably won't go wrong scaling up your design.) 

A seemingly good idea that turned out not to be was using colored wire for the stitching. I wanted to use it for durability's sake, but it got too kinked and bent and broken (o, the story of my life, especially the men in it), so I just used plain old DMC embroidery floss and a needle and coated it with matte acrylic varnish when I had the whole thing done and baked. One lucky idea that panned out was using a large ceramic flower pot for the base, which was exactly the size and shape I had in mind.

The whole thing turned out OK, though I wish I knew how to get my polymer clay smoother when I'm joining seams in it. I don't know if it's a matter of practice or if there's a magical trick to it. I hope the latter, but I doubt it. Naturally I had my usual bout of panicky self-doubt while I was driving over to the arboretum to drop the birdhouse off, thinking, "Oh my God this is crap, I should just set it on fire except the fumes would probably kill me, and anyway I paid $10 for the entry fee so maybe I'll just set it on the doorstep and ring the bell and run away like I'm dropping off an abandoned baby." Which would have looked really stupid since the visitor's center is primarily made of glass and the dozen or so people inside would see me doing that and maybe call the cops because they thought I was dropping off a bomb or a bag of anthrax or something.

So I didn't do that, I took it inside, nervously, and the lady there was very nice and said, "Ooh, that's so pretty!" and "Did you cross-stitch that by hand?". (In my head, "No.") And I saw the other birdhouses, though not closely, since they were all shoved together on tables prior to display. They were very nice, but they weren't all a million times better than mine as I had feared, and of course nobody's stuff ever looks like mine, (why am I still always surprised?) so I left feeling pretty cool. Now I can get on with worrying that the roof and base are going to come apart, or birds will hate it and peck out all the stitching, or the arboretum staff will hate it and set it on fire, or it will just spontaneously combust, which would be kind of awesome.

In other news, I've gotten a lot of "favorites" on Etsy for my Carolina wren wall hanging  that I showed in my last post, which is of course nice, though I would gladly send it off to a new home in exchange for a little cash. But a very cool thing is that a couple of other Etsy sellers whose embroidery work I've admired for a while now favorited it also. That makes me happy.

Feel Free to Hate Me

All right, it did turn out to be spring after all.  Today is sunny and hot, so I spent the morning in the little nook I've carved out under some big, twisted old honeysuckle bushes. I took my embroidery - a birthday present for my sister and a laundry bag I'm making for my Etsy shop - and sat in the shade and listened to the birds while I worked. Oh yeah.

The view from inside the nook. It really is lovely, cool and shady, and when the wind blows honeysuckle blossoms shower down on you. I'm still picking them out of my hair. Yes, you may hate me.

Some rings I just made, epoxying things onto ring forms. The bee is made from a brass stamping I've had for ages, and the heart locket was directly stolen inspired by one I saw on Pinterest. (Oh Pinterest, you are my very favorite time-suck.)

The cameo one is made from a button I didn't even know I had. Last week I spent a day rummaging around in our old barn, going through a lot of boxes I had stored for years, and it was well worth my time. I found so much stuff I'd forgotten about, like my high school class ring, which I thought I'd lost ages ago. There were two fruitcake tins full of buttons, with a twin sewing machine needle in one. Very nice, since I'd been planning to buy a new one.

I'd also been planning to buy some batiste to make summer slips with, and I found several pieces just the right length, and in peach, cream, and mint green, just the colors I'd wanted. Then a whole box of linen blends and linen weaves and 2 or 3 yards of what I believe is 100% percent linen in black. Such a score! And that's not even counting all the other things I needed/wanted and found, like pillow forms, that rubber-dotted stuff you use on the bottoms of slippers and feety pajamas, still more fabric.... And I didn't even get spider bit.

Postcards Are Mailed!

I actually finished my postcards for iHannah's postcard swap a couple of days ago (when it was still March, amazingly), but didn't get them sent out until this morning. Still, I'm nearly a week early for the deadline, and they're off into the world, 2 to the Netherlands, 1 to Sweden, 1 to Norway, 1 to Canada, and the rest to various places in the US. I've posted pictures of the individual cards at the DIY Postcard Swap Pool on Flickr.

I hope the recipients like them, because I'm actually pretty pleased with the way they turned out. It was an unusually painless process for me, since I usually stress and obsess way more than necessary over anything I do that people are going to see.

Plus, I finally got to experiment with the rub-on film I bought lord knows how long ago. It can be run through a printer or stamped or drawn on, then used as a regular rub-on. The little flourish above was drawn with a metallic gold colored pencil, which didn't turn out as metallic once it was applied, but otherwise came out well.

The eggs on the card above were done with a stamp I carved, then stamped onto the film and applied. I carved the wren stamp, too, but just stamped it directly on the card. You can see how the film changed the color of the ink slightly, which is fine.

I could have stamped or drawn the eggs and the flourish directly on the cards, but it's good to see how the rub-on film worked, which was really very well. I think it would be better to use for computer images, or on non-flat surfaces where you couldn't conveniently draw or stamp. I don't know how well it would hold up on hard surfaces like glass or ceramics. Maybe if it were sealed with some sort of topcoat.... Fun stuff to play with, though.

St. Patrick's Day, etc.

Irish soda bread, natch, because you have to make something Irish on St. Patrick's Day and I don't like corned beef. I think it's a law or something. At least I remembered the soda this time. Once I didn't and the result was very...dense. It was a lot like Terry Pratchett's dwarf bread, though it wasn't too bad if you toasted it.

This batch turned out pretty well, I think. It doesn't look like much, but it's one of those things that's impossible to photograph well. I take comfort in the fact that I've never seen a picture of soda bread that looked much better.

Today's thing I've made, my upcycled suede skirt turned purse. 3 of your earth dollars for a brand-new, tags-still-on skirt in the softest chocolate-brown suede from Goodwill, plus another $3 for a pack of leather needles. Cut off the bottom, sew it up, sew up the lining (which was already there), make straps from the cut-off, and sew some pockets to the lining. It took maybe an hour, and that was mainly because there were a lot of layers to sew through when I attached the straps. I think I got the idea from ReadyMade , but I can't seem to find it on there now.

The inside, with the pockets I made from leftovers from my first quilt. I think I should have made them deeper, or something, because they have a tendency to come open and dump everything into the bottom of the purse. It could just be that it's a big ol' squashy bag without much shaping and it kind of collapses onto itself when I set it down. Anyway, it's about time to retire it and bring out or make something a little springier. I'm thinking linen, but then I usually am. It's occurred to me that a child's skirt would also make a good and less enormous bag. I need to get back to Goodwill and see what I can find there.

I realize none of those other photos are actually very photogenic, if you will, so here's something pretty. An empty glass bulb from the Bath & Bodyworks Wallflowers thingy I got for Christmas, washed out and with a ribbon tied around the neck, plus snowdrops from the yard.

Oh, why not?

Right, going to try to start this thing up again. It's just about what I'm capable of after this bout of the Amazonian Death Flu, which seems to have decided to linger on forever. Plus I have a lot of pictures of crap I've made for myself or others & wanted to post somewhere besides Etsy. And then there's always things to complain about.

• Like bloggers in California bemoaning their bumper crops of Meyer lemons. Oh really? What a pity, because to my knowledge I've never even been in the same building with a Meyer lemon. Make some damn marmalade or preserved lemons already. Or send a big box to lemon-starved little children in Kentucky, i.e. me. I'll send you a bushel of mint or some zucchini in a few months.
  

• 
  And there's this, which is useful, because I can never remember which of these symbols is bleach and which is dry clean. But I just noticed the next-to-last symbol in the "dry" column. "Do not dry"? What? Do I have to keep whatever it is wet at all times? I don't think any of my garments say "Store under water". I'm very confused.
  
  

• The latest thing I've been working on. Inspired by this post at ihanna's blog, I decided to do the embroidered squares as a border on a white linen-blend scarf. I've been feeling the pink lately, as you can see from the new background, since it's been so chilly and dreary and grey. Now I just have to get up the gumption to actually finish the scarf, which should really only take about 15 minutes.

I actually like Hanna's better, her colors seem warmer somehow, though maybe it's the pale pink linen she used for her background. It might also be that most of her squares are done in similar stitching. Doing a lot of different stitches seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm a little lukewarm about the finished product. Still, it'll probably look different once I have the whole thing assembled.

I do like a couple of the squares, though. These were just supposed to be sort of spirals, but they ended up looking like little abstract roses.

This one makes me think of a chrysanthemum or zinnia. Little zinnias in bright pinks and oranges would be very cute on something or other.

Noel, Noel

It's amazing, but I've actually finished all my Christmas projects except for cutting out and baking one batch of cookies (but the dough is already made), and packing for a couple of weeks in West Kentucky (but I have everything laid out on my bed). In fact, I had all my presents bought and/or made and wrapped by 10:00 AM yesterday. This is completely unheard of, let me tell you. I don't know what I'm supposed to do at 1:00 AM tonight. Maybe get some sleep.

I've been a busy girl these last few weeks. I made all my Christmas cards, in several different styles (I'm not bragging, I'm just sayin'...), and as usual lots of my presents. I have a sore shoulder from embroidering my niece's monogram on a comforter for her, and I burned my arm in two places making miniature mince pies. Of course the oven rack burn on the wrist is understandable, but I managed to slightly blister my right upper arm with the corner of the cookie sheet (and I'm right-handed). That takes talent, folks. Not just anybody can pull that off.

I also made a batch of ornaments for the Cake and Pie and Freshly Blended ornament swap. I got some really cool stuff back, too. Thanks, everybody in my swap group. Here are the ones I made:

The bodies are painted wooden balls (doll heads, actually), and the heads and wings are polymer clay, molded off a porcelain angel head and a rose petal respectively. The legs are twigs from the yard wrapped with brass wire and held in place with hot glue. I just hope the wings survived shipping.

I decorated my little bedroom Christmas tree with my swap ornaments and these clothespin ornaments I made based on these Martha Stewart instructions. I made them 3 or 4 years ago so the photos aren't the greatest, but you get the idea. I especially like the Regency ones.

Now I can relax and enjoy the day. I'm very excited about seeing all my family and Bowling Green friends, and I can't wait for Bokkon Family Christmas. But those cookies aren't baking themselves, so Merry Hannukwanzmas to everyone and be safe and happy.

Procrastination is a Great Motivator

I've been busy making things, but since they're mainly for Christmas I can't post anything yet, lest it be seen. And because I'm perverse like that, I've also been inspired to do some sketching and painting as well. I always feel like making "fine" art when I should be doing something else.

I won't post any of my paintings, since they may turn out to be presents for someone or other, but here are a few pen and ink sketches I made in my Moleskine (yes, I'm one of those dorks.) I kind of like the one of Sally.

Yikes.

I'm freaking out a little right now. I signed up for the freshly blended and cake and pie Holiday Ornament Swap and I'm having serious self-doubts. I expected it, of course. It's what I do. I am actually excited about it at the same time.

My anxiety has two parts:

1. When the other people in my swap group open my ornaments, they'll say WTF is this? and throw it straight in the trash and


2. This doesn't matter because I can't figure out the last part of the ornament I'm designing.

I basically know what I'm making. I considered and discarded several ideas as being too ordinary, before settling on one of my polymer clay + other things creatures. At first I thought it would be too weird, but then I realized it was really the only thing I could do. It won't be too strange, but still me. I just haven't hit on just the right thing to finish it off. Well, I have a month before I have to send them out.

I also am absolutely forbidding myself from looking at any of the blogs or websites or Etsy shops of the other people in my group, because that would definitely precipitate a grand mal freakout. Plenty of time for that after I've sent out my ornaments and can't do anything about it.

Lovely and Amazing

Via Polymerclaydaily.com, unbelievable polymer clay and stone jewelry by Kotomi Yamamura:

So gorgeous and inspirational. I need to go get to work on some stuff of my own. I wonder where she gets her stones? Her things can also been found at Syoko Mode. Most of the site is in Japanese, but there are lots of pretty pictures.

Walking On Broken Glass

Finally here are the glass pendants I've finished. I particularly like the large aqua-colored one at the top. The long narrow pendant with the text on the right is the first of these I made, about 2 years ago or so. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it, including one from the mad hot boy librarian at the branch library, which was nice.

This photo isn't as good, but you can see the colors and detail better on the brown pendant.

I've got several others in various states of completion, which I'm hoping to finish now that I'm back home.

Halloween Isn't A Holiday, It's A State Of Mind

Keeping with the theme, here are some pictures of costumes and things I've made for Halloween, though first I want to state here and now my views on Halloween costumes. Sexy costumes are absolutely out. No sexy nurse or French maid will ever darken my door. In the first place there's nothing less original, and in the second, I've never seen a really good, clever costume that was sexy or even particularly attractive. Besides, it's very liberating to be something hideous, because you don't have to worry anymore about looking good, you can just relax and enjoy yourself. I wish I had some pictures of the year I was a West Virginia snake-handler, as a case in point. I still have all the pieces; I may have to dress up in them again and take a picture. Anyway, down off the soapbox.

Heat Miser and Cold Miser, I think this was in about '99 or 2000. It was totally last minute, held together with Stitch Witchery and safety pins:

From the next year, Willie Wonka and the Oompa Loompas. I had more time for this one, and made "Willie's" coat, vest, and bow tie. For the Oompas, all I had to do was paint stripes on the socks and safety-pin elastic on the pants and pom-poms on the shoes.

This is a doll/sculpture I made of "Cinderella Skeleton" from the book by Robert San Souci. Last year I made her consort Prince Charnel but I couldn't find a picture of him. They're polymer clay over a wire armature, with painted faces and acrylic fake fur hair. Cinderella's dress is made of vintage dress scraps, though Prince Charnel's clothes were new fabrics. I'm especially proud of her shoes, which I also made of polymer clay and which are removable. I really like the book and I loved making the characters. I'm thinking I may eventually have to do the stepmother and stepsisters, and especially the skeleton dog.

Here are this year's jack o'lanterns. Mine's on the left and Dad's is on the right. I like the nose on his. Maybe it's coincidence, but the cows across the road started making a huge ruckus when we set them out.

Halloween Things

Everybody else is doing it, so why not me? Here are some cool things I've found lately.

I love these mummy cookies from Baking Bites and the skeleton ones are nice too:

Extreme Pumpkins is always a classic. His "Candy Traps" make me very, very happy.

The ever-popular Cylon jack o'lantern at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories:

For anything you could possibly ever want to know about costumes and make-up, The Costumer's Manifesto. This site is just fantastic.

What better Halloween accessory for a child than a pimped-out Munsters-style Cozy Coupe (courtesy of Craftster):


Oh god, it's Frank:
If I saw anyone in this costume, I'd pee my pants. (Also from Craftster.)

Thou Shalt Not Covet

I got the new Dick Blick holiday catalog today and was consumed by an intense longing for everything in it, RIGHT NOW. Never mind that I don't need a whole $600 set of pastels, I only need a few select ones and anyway I don't use the ones I have, look at the colors. And they come in such a nice box. Never mind that I don't and have no intention of starting to practice sumi-e, the set is so pretty.

After I stopped hyperventilating I came to my senses and realized that what was really cool was the tree-topper on the cover, a 5-pointed star made of gold metallic Prismacolor pencils and tinsel.


I think this is very doable for Christmas this year. I'd use multicolored pencils since they'd be more festive and also much cheaper since I can find sets at the Dollar Tree or Big Lots. Then just cut them in half, sharpen both ends, use a dab of hot glue to hold them together and wrap the joins with tinsel or brass wire for strength. There you go!

Three Posts! Golly.

I went for a walk today and came back with a pocket full of broken glass. And I was happy about it!

The previous occupants of our (former) farm had their garbage dump along a fence a quarter mile or so from the house. Most of it's long since gone, but if you poke around you can find some treasures. I think we've already found most of the unbroken bottles and jars, but I keep and eye out for pieces of colored or textured glass. Even some plain glass develops an interesting iridescence if it's been in the ground long enough. Today was a particularly good haul, with several bits of blue and green, and even a piece of Depression glass (the large triangle on the left, though you can't see the design in the photo.) I intend, though I've only completed one piece so far, to use these bits for jewelry-making.

It's the little things that make us happy. Hey, yesterday I came back with a pocket full of snail shells.