Thursday, July 24, 2008

Kitty vs. Insect prints (part two)

The last time I shared my fabric store purchases, I presented the quandary of choosing between kitty and insect prints. I've now made one flip cat of each.

Look at me!


No, me!


and here's this extra cat who just showed up:
I'm better than kitties or insects!


The gang's all here.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Don't try this at home/why I shouldn't have access to pliers

So, thanks to the tip from Andrea at Artwork by Andrea, I'm going to be participating in the make a purse fundraiser project It's in the Bag for LINC (Legal Information Network for Cancer). I have an idea but have only just started assembling my materials.

I've made "bags" before, but not exactly any kind of structured purse, so I was going to consult with some old purses for inspiration. I learned from friend M. that the certain kind of clasp I had in mind is called Kiss Clasp. So I took apart an old purse to see what I could learn about this strange apparatus.

mangled kiss clasp

I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking when I took to this thing with pliers, but it was not a pretty process. And from other accounts I found online, I am certainly not the first to make this mistake.

Kiss clasp reminding me of a shark mouth
Kiss clasp reminding me of a shark-skeleton mouth.

After this debacle (and yes, I'm still considering I may be able to salvage this), I came across this very helpful lesson from u handbag. Now, I'm not one for following patterns (short attention span?), but in this case I'm going to at least follow the general directions. I will certainly be back to tell more about this project ... it also involves an ancient package of coral RIT dye I got out of my thrift store treasure box.

Once again, I must report on other news, and that is that the return of my pincushions after their summer camp at Interweave Press. They came back with many stories to tell, but sadly no prizes. Congratulations to their rivals and comrades, all of whom are quite striking and wonderful. All said and done the pincushions admit bashfully that they were more conceptual than technique-based, but they're looking forward to the next adventure, probably including an upcoming appearance in the etsy shop.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Goodbye Cilantro, Hello Coriander... (plus custom flipcats)

coriander
I'm not sure when and how I learned that cilantro and coriander are the same thing... well, from the same plant anyway. So all the green cilantro dried up and I attempted to harvest the seeds. I think it's pretty straightforward, I got them off the stems and sorted and washed them. I tried some crushed with mortar and pestle and mixed in with rice and they were quite nice.

coriander

In other news, I completed two custom flip cats for an etsy customer.
Patches said she doesn't mind. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all.

custom catscustom cats

I have some other post topics at the ready, so stay tuned.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Patches Shows Her Skills



Slightly bigger version here.

Patches shared her flip book expertise with the readers of the etsy storque in this article.