The Cat's Not Out of the Bag - The Cat is The Bag

Over three years ago, I recorded my bag-making adventures on my project for It's in The Bag. This was a vintage glove-themed bag for LINC's It's in The Bag event. As stated on their website, LINC eases the burden of cancer for patients and their families by providing assistance and referral to legal, financial and community resources.

Then, let's see... I think in 2009/10, I participated again, but don't think I ever updated this blog on that project. That was a small purse I decorated with a lot of yellow and pearly buttons, felt and hand-beading. It was named something Lemony. So there you go: old news, fresh for you. Here it is:

Flash forward, it's NOW, 2012, and in my first post for 2012 after a year of only one post, I present:
My new bag for LINC's 6th annual It's in The Bag event: The Cat-Lover's Bag. Or, as I would perhaps nickname it, The Cat/Bag Lady's Cat Bag. But really, it's neutral colors so anyone could use. Plus, it's a tote. I like the color scheme.

In an out-of-character move, I made this bag using a pattern. The pattern came with fabric, straps, thread and directions. I used most of this, but substituted in some cat fabric.

I'm not inclined to follow patterns. I don't like following directions/am stubborn/easily distracted/don't like to measure things. But it worked! I've followed patterns before and they haven't been too disastrous so I'm not sure why I still am constantly avoiding them.

So, "Large Tote" pattern worked out for the most part. I used the vintage "Meow" cat fabric for the bottom (previously seen here) and then appliqued on a large tapestry-style fabric cat and kittens. I noticed at the end that the cat fabric is upside down on the front - but HEY!, it's right side up on the back. That's the special part about the back of this bag.

Some of the LINC bags for the silent auction will be themed bags, stuffed with items for the bag winners. So the Cat-Lover's Bag has some cat-related goodies inside, including some catnip mice, kitty snacks, a kittens calendar, and a screenprinted "flip-cat" doll and other small goods by me. Who knows what else may end up in the bag... ?

Hopefully I'll get the bag to LINC soon, and hopefully somebody will like it and use it.

When I was thinking about making this bag, I was trying to remember when I made the others. I rarely blog any more, and wonder - nowadays - should I even bother (I am always getting spam comments, and everyone is on Tumblr or whatever the next new thing I don't know about because I'm out of all the loops is). But hey, if I didn't have this blog I could barely remember half the things I've done or made (when I remember to post them at all). So I should post more, so I can remember these things later.

For example, I had TOTALLY forgotten about the Polar Bear Tapestry bag I made. I would like to run into someone around town who is carrying that bag. Just as I hope someday I'll encounter someone using this cat bag.

I realize I forget about a lot of stuff I've done or enjoyed. Not just crafty stuff, but life in general, too. And I should think about it more and do more of it. Maybe I'll be back to post more old news, fresh for you, since there are other projects in the past few years I've neglected to record. I currently have a series of Mail-Order Brides in the Art*o*Mat at the Visual Arts Center. The show celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Art*o*Mat machine in Richmond. It's up until Jan. 22, so go check it out. I had a teeny cat-related piece that was up at Think Small6 at Artspace Gallery. Somebody bought that, so YAY! one less thing to sit in my house, collecting dust.

Or maybe I'll post new stuff.

Polar bears, sardine can, and good karma

Finally, here's the polar bear bag I made out of a polar bear "tapestry" from 1975. It's put together with a repurposed vintage fake blue fur coat. The lining is a slick/stripey upholstery type fabric. Straps and bottom in canvas. This thing is gigantic, though hopefully useful.



This is a donation for Art 180's very shortly upcoming Art Karma, which will be held on this Friday, THURSDAY! 12/4/08 from 7-10pm at Plant Zero, $10 admission. So, you can go get it, when you go. I can't go because I will be out of town.

Thanks to Suzanne from Silver Tree Art for gathering donations for a Richmond Etsy Street Team collection of items, including a couple of other small things I put in.

And now for the big announcement:

From this day hence, save me your sardine cans.

Yes, in addition to tape roll tubes, I have another random thing to collect in hopes of using it to make something in particular.



This is the sardine can art, which is more or less a variation on my "chunko-scenes" from art*o*mat days. Though now that I did an internet search, I've learned of course I'm not the only one who's thought of using these. In this case I used an empty (clean, clean!) sardine can and set a relief collage inside, then topped with magnifying sheet (still need to find a decent source for these since I've never seen them at the dollar store since 2001). The fun part was turning the can into a "frame" by using a nut and bolt to affix the tab as the hanging mechanism.







So there you have it. This sardine can art, titled They won't find another earth, was also sent off as a donation to Art Karma.

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In flip book news, I took a trip to Kinkos and their laser printing is really pretty nice for the election flip book. However, they couldn't do a bleed so part of Obama's arm kept getting cut off. I am currently reformatting the book to allow for a margin and then hopefully I'll invest in getting the nice prints. Then I'll have to do some calculations and actually sell some to recoup the printing costs, because full color on cardstock is a pretty penny. Once I get back from my mini vacation, I'll have to set about getting that in order, tying up some other loose ends and then tackling some major, though not particularly crafty, projects.

(g)lovely clutch

Well, I finished the project and named it (g)lovely clutch. The auction is taking place Oct. 16th.



I actually ended up abandoning the inner form which was the salvaged clutch... it turned out to function as more of a "dress form" really, and enabled me to structure the shape of the clutch without having to actually create a second skin for it. (That means I still have the "form" clutch, not that I'm sure I ever want to attempt making such a thing again).

It's very multi-technique and multi-textural, which I guess is typical of my style, especially when experimenting. Techniques include applique, embroidery, various stitches, quilting... Materials include vintage gloves, one dotted swiss shirt, rough silk-type fabric, felt, batting, a fabric covered button, beads, floss.





There is also a pair of matching dyed vintage gloves included.

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Next up I'm attempting to make some toothy pushpins for a dentist's wife.



Right now they are unpainted sculpy and look grossly fleshy. I have some white spray paint and I think tomorrow I'll go buy some pink. Usually I paint toothy items by hand, but one of my ongoing goals is for better time management so I think I'm going to try out spray paint for a change. We'll see.

Oh Wouldn't It Be Gloverly...

glov·er·ly /gˈlʌvərli/ [gluhv-er-lee] Pronunciation Key
–adjective, adverb

the characteristic of being a proponent of glove-wearing; one who loves gloves.

slang: The characteristics of one who is prone to act like Crispin Glover.

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I don't know what my problem is. For some reason everytime I start to write a blog, I end up having Audrey Hepburn musical numbers on the brain.

But back to gloves. Earlier I mentioned I had been playing with a box of RIT dye.



That was back when I deluded myself into thinking I could take apart a purse with a top closure "kiss clasp" and reuse it... but then I mangled it. So, after some amount of thought, I abandoned that idea.

Oh yeah, and this is the continued purse topic related to the purse fundraiser project It's in the Bag for LINC (Legal Information Network for Cancer).

My idea all along was that I would be using vintage gloves in constructing the purse. Maybe I should have gone with wearing vintage gloves while constructing the purse? Perhaps when Method Crafting really takes off, I'll start wearing period costume depending on my project.

So.... I have quite a few of the vintage gloves from Fannie Rose Vintage left over from long ago when I worked with her, windshine, and bubblecup on our Seven Exquisite Sins wall hanging for the etsy collaboration contest.

I had some white gloves with some discoloration, so I decided to dye everything with the coral RIT.



I threw in a vintage purse while I was at it. Light over the kitchen sink is reflected in my dye bucket.



So, the wet gloves remind me of raw salmon and tuna, and should be sliced up and put on top of sushi rice. No. They're totally dry now, because I took these photos a while ago. Actually, at this point I've started finishing up the "shaping" of this purse, which is turning out to be a clutch. I did find a thrift purse to use as the innards for this, and there's no clasp involved, though I'm thinking of using magnets for closure. It's going to have a lot of different textures and gloverliness, so I'll post photos when it's done.

P.S. Speaking of photos: my free flickr account is almost full, and I'm considering upgrading to their unlimited pay account. Anyone reading this have any advice or suggestion of an alternative? Thanks.

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.



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-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.