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.

Time passes, projects languish. Yet I return.

It's been over a year(!) since my last blog post.

I won't make excuses.

I re-started organizing my ever-needing-cluttercontrol craft room, which prompted me to find a few things I had been missing. Combine that with a couple of recent inquiries into products from my semi-defunct etsy shop...
and I decided to make a start at a return.

I did relist some items in the shop tonight. And will probably put up more soon and see what happens.

One for now is the Bromine Screen Print.
The news on that is that the original, along with its companion pieces by other artists who participated in the Periodic Table Printmaking project, is currently on display as part of the Elemental Matters: Artists Imagine Chemistry show at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. Go check it out if you're there.

Project creator azuregrackle has also put put a photo set, Bromine is the third one from the top, in this shot.

Stay tuned. Maybe I'll post again before another year goes by.

Where Are You, #733?

The other week I watched the 1000 Journals movie (now available on Netflix). I remember when I heard the book had come out and the film existed, but then I totally forgot about it.

I got involved with 1000journals, back in the old days when I was joining all sorts of random and to-be-stalled projects on nervousness.org. Those were the days when I was first getting an inkling how the internet could lead you in all these directions, and possibly even result in inspiration to do and make things in "real life."

I like seeing how one idea, site, fad... ends up morphing into so many other things. Now there's the 1001 Journals Project, which is apparently an offshoot made of personal journals of a possibly infinite number, going out in much the same way the 1000 Journals did.

* * *

So, part of a big question of the film was: what has happened to all of the 1000 journals besides the ones that someguy has received back or tracked down?

And I, in particular, wonder Where are You, #733?

Here's #733



For some reason I was on a mermaid kick at the time.

Journal #733 was one that I received in 2002, after it first traveled to Texas and I think France. I'm feeling some nostalgia and weirdness thinking back to those days. I had the book and some friends added some great one-of-a-kind stuff to it and then I think I got antsy and pestery for a bit, and then I sent it on.

Last seen in Hollywood, and the last tracking entry states "it was stolen in the spirit of..."

* * *

And... NEW, in Patches-approved linkage:
Babushka Jewellery Design recently posted a cute Kitsy kitsy post on cat related items, and included us.

マットサイエンティスト Maddosaienteisuto

A month or so ago I got a note from someone at etsy, saying the Japanese magazine Mono was asking for high res photos of some of my freakish animals. I sent on the goods and heard nothing until I got an email showing me pdfs of the published version.

Lots of etsy folk are included in the issue, as well as other online shops with mostly bizarro stuff.

It's Mono Magazine, issue 6/2/2009, (the translation "thing magazine" or "stuff magazine" works here as far as I can gather).





And here's my blurb, from page 72.

I was especially having trouble translating the long katakana word that was included, マットサイエンティスト, because I'm pretty bad with long katakana words, and easily give up because my brain just can't handle it. I was thinking it said something about "design taste", because I was reading "dosaien teisuto" out of it, but I knew that wasn't actually making any sense based on the characters. And also I'm not sure of the proper romanization with some little characters added to others.

So I emailed K-chan and here's her translation (she also she told me she bought 2 copies and will send me one, which is super cool):

The body is a spider, and the head is a cow(ox?).
Here comes an eccentric monster, which is probably
created by a mad scientist.

So, yeah, マットサイエンティスト　　Maddosaienteisuto = Mad Scientist. I guess I'm honored to essentially be referred to as a Mad Scientist in a Japanese magazine of which K says: "It's a very popular magazine, especially with men."

Now that I might get some Japanese customers to my etsy shop, I really ought to do some shopkeeping: lots of my stuff has expired and I've been totally neglecting everything. I haven't made a flipbook in months, (not sure I feel like doing it at all, production-wise) and am realizing more and more I'm liking the conceptual part a lot more than the labor-intensive part. What to do, what to do...?

* * *

In other news, related to mad scientists, or more like one furry mad genius....

Patches totally taught herself how to turn the knob on her automatic feeder. This is the feeder that actually came (off eBay) missing the part (dome over the timer) which now I realize was very valuable. I kept noticing the time was off, and was thinking the battery was being funky, but then one day I heard the knob gear turning (it's rather loud - click click click) and I went down there and there she was----turning it! I've been wondering how hard she thought this over (for months?) before figuring it out, and if at one point something happened and she was like "Aha! Now I get it." It's a little frightening.

This is like living with the rats of Nimh.

After one low-quality failed attempt to secure the situation with a rubber band and shoddy plastic basket, I got out the real tools (including the power drill, and it was serious business).



Materials/techniques include: half a plastic Christmas ornament thingy, drilled holes, eye screw (clipped and bent), wire, a washer.

I hope this holds up. If she gets into it now, she's getting nominated for some kind of cat intelligence prize.

Flip book debut

I finished the Catnip Cupid flip book. Just in time for Valentine's Day, I'd say. I really need to make some sort of calendar to keep up with thematic flip book possibilities. I consider my Mary Jane flip book to be Anti-Valentine's Day, which may end up being a more popular holiday in the long run. Besides that, I have the two Father's Day themed books. I think sticking with cats, robots and cavemen may end up being quite lucrative, as they rarely go out of style.

Next up I should start thinking about Easter, Mother's Day, maybe something more obscure or foreign... suggestions welcome.

In addition to finishing the book, I made a little Flash movie out of it. I'm not sure if I'm done yet, I'll plan to post it nearer to Valentine's Day once I decide whether or not to let Patches make a cameo appearance. I managed to do some motion tweening, but didn't figure out the motion path part yet. A lot of the tutorials I've watched are just sort of floating around in my head: sometimes it's difficult to remember how to do things without any hands-on experience. So here's to more hands-on experience. I just need to devote more time to these things.

catnip cupid flying off the back burner

I've been thinking about something to make. Maybe a new flip book with a Valentine/cat theme? All I've thought of so far is a cat cupid who shoots catnip arrows.

I've been procrastinating a lot lately and not updating this blog (obviously). I don't have a good excuse. Maybe I need some peer pressure to get back to business?

I got a new paper cutter I have yet to take out of the box. I think this week is looking promising to try out the new goods, as I will be doing another flip book side-by-side-Saturday at the Visual Arts Center.

Last month I attended a fabric swap at fleur fabrics and also the crafter's anonymous craft swap. I got rid of a lot of stuff in exchange for some choice goodies.

Time to start putting the choice goodies to use.

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.

* * *

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.

Little Cats in Space

I've crossed a couple of things of my weekend to-do list of projects.

One of these was starting a stencil sheet for a new version of cats in space. The original cats in space were painted on wood blocks, but I've decided to make a smaller and more simple style. If all goes well these will debut at the Bizarre Market holiday edition opening Friday, November 28th from 6-9 pm at Chop Suey Tuey. I have other things in the works so there'll be more on that later.



These are made of foam core spray painted black with outer space effects done in oil paint marbling.

So, I've stenciled some in white and plan to go and paint each one individually, of course each cat must have its own personality.



Then I'm thinking I will seal them and make them ready to hang. So essentially they will be smaller, lighter and less expensive versions of the originals.

* * *
Next up is a my attempt to make a new flip book. I've also completed my sardine can and polar bear related projects: I think I'll report on those in a day or two.

The Most Beautiful Mouse in the World

Quite a while ago, I had a grand master scheme in which I would solve my clutter and pack-rat problems by gluing everything I own together and pretending that made me a folk artist all of a sudden.

I keep revisiting that theme when I realize there are things I want to keep, but unless they are somehow clustered together in some mass object, I really can't justify all the little pieces.

So, I don't think my scheme will take on much momentum because it's really not all that practical... but I did finish one project. It's a vase topped with little animals and others of the glass menagerie variety. I had them glued on here for a while now, but it was just recently that I decided to white wash the vase and make it more of a winter wonderland.

As for these animals... I don't know how to describe it other than that they were such childhood treasures, it would be hard to part with them so I couldn't resist but to affix them somehow on an object less likely to fall through the cracks.



This mouse, for instance. Honestly, I not only thought this was the most beautiful mouse in the world... but maybe the most beautiful person in the world, if a mouse was competing in a beauty pageant with a person, she would surely win. I always thought all the other little animals were in love with this mouse.



I guess my big plan to pare down and clean up is partially dependent on my being able to somehow morph the thousands of tiny things into something manageable. This is one example where it actually worked. I'm not sure the glue bottle is safe yet, but there's only so much I can keep.

I have some other techniques in mind. But it's slow going.

I'm currently working on some projects, one of which involves a polar bear tapestry from 1975... the other is potentially going to be based on a sardine can... and there's more. So maybe there will be an update sooner than later this time.

* * *

On a side note, how about Dubai's the World? I read about it recently... I forget where, but at the time actually thought it was made up. But it's real. (Where have I been while this was going on?) It's kind of the opposite of what I'm trying to do in terms of clutter, if we're talking on a planetary scale. It's like some giants decided to make sand castles one day and then things went horribly awry. I still don't understand who the people must be who live in your typical rich-person suburban subdivisions, let alone who these people can be who want to live on a man made luxury chunk of sand scrap masquerading as a piece of Australia.

Push Pins for the Dentist's Office

I finished the set of 10 toothy push pins. The spray painting process makes sense, but masking off the tooth part from the gums is a hassle and gets gunky. With these I ended up doing touch up all over with another shade of pink which was more of a magenta than the original spray paint. I'm working on a set of beads which will hopefully make better use of the spray paint. And I'm going to look for more small push pins I can use for making more of these.

Entering the dental office supply business could probably be quite lucrative.

In other news, I've created a HALLOWEENY section of my etsy shop. I need to restock it with more of the spooky mask goods from last year and then make something else spooky if I have time.

(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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

Seed packets, purse, projects to pick

Today, courtesy of stumple upon, I present:

Weird horse quartet
Dirty Car Art Gallery
Hidden Airplane Factory

What are my updates?

Bizarre Market was nice. J. from Monkeydogstudio had saved some tape dispenser rolls for me, that was awfully sweet of her.



I met K., who found a great use for the seed packet books I made. They go wonderfully with the cool mini flower presses she made with kids at the William Byrd Community House. If only I had as many successful vegetable results as I have seed packets.



Now what? I still need to make the purse for the LINC project, but of course I got sidetracked. And then I have til 11:59 pm EST to enter Etsy's Handmade Kids Challenge. I guess that means I should get off the computer and make something now. I had cut out some squares to make blocks, but now I'm not sure where I put them. Maybe I'll see if I can get it together in the next 21 hours.

Photos hosted by flickr.

Bizarre Market Reminder

This is just a reminder about tomorrow (Saturday 8/9's) Bizarre Market which is part of Art 180's Jonny Z Festival to be held on the 200 block of N. Shields (not outside Chop Suey Books this time).

I totally meant to take some photos of stuff but I ran out of time. So, this is going to be short. If I wake up and attend you may find the following items:

Little notebooks made with old seed packets
Flip books and other mini books
Something screen printed
Maybe magnets
Flip cat dolls

Hmmmmm... what else. Ok well I'm out of time so I'll have to post a followup afer the fact.

goodbye to what I don't use and won't miss, if I can figure out what those things are

I always forget to use Stumple Upon, which I have had loaded in the toolbar for quite a while. But I'm thinking I will try to use it more often, just to see what random interesting things I find... isn't that the purpose anyway?

Tonight I found this animation, I love how it's set up on the web page.

En Tus Brazos

I'm having a dilemma concerning screenprinting. Well, I have found that I am not using the materials very efficiently. That is, I mixed up a batch of emulsion a while back and told myself to use it before it went bad (like last time) but now again I have no empty screens and I bet it went bad already. Plus, the one screen I prepared I hid to dry in a closet and one day came home and the closet door was wide open, letting the light in (Yes, I blamed Patches). Now I have no idea if that screen is ruined or not. Then, I was going to try it anyway, but now when I try to print out a stencil on transparencies they keep smudging. I think it is the printer I'm using since my last printer broke.

I've been thinking a lot about streamlining my categories of "techniques" (not saying I'm not going to screenprint), but I have too many potential projects and the materials end up squandered or lost in the mess and then I buy more stuff I don't need or I waste time trying to mess with some new process ONLY because I bought something thinking "Oh maybe I'll use this - oh wait, now I have to spend all this time trying to use this."

So, I'm going to go through my supplies and try again to separate them into categories, and get rid of some things, too, probably by "destashing" on etsy. Just because I haven't done something in years (like watercolors for instance) doesn't mean I'm getting rid of all my supplies, because I know I'm likely to want them as soon as they're gone. The trick is identifying those things that I don't use and won't miss.

I'm presently trying to rustle up some things for this Saturday's Bizarre Market which is part of Art 180's Jonny Z Festival to be held on the 200 block of N. Shields (not outside Chop Suey Books this time). So... I'm currently in a muddle deciding what I should concentrate on getting ready now that my screenprinting plans keep getting ruined. I'm working on a few things, but I don't have much time. There'll be an update later this week.

P.s. I feel I should include a photo, since I usually do, so here's one of a bouquet of carrots I took a while back, with Patches lounging in the background.

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.

Patches Shows Her Skills

Slightly bigger version here.

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

Insect or cat fabric? If you had to pick one to wear...

These fabrics would be horrifically clashing if used to make one item:


bug fabric


cat fabric

But used separately, I think they will be great. Yes, I went to the fabric store yesterday. I had my reasons, but I will not go through the motions of justifying all my purchases at this time.

So the question is: Insect or cat fabric? If you had to pick one to wear...

* * *

In other news, a customer in New Zealand wants to order 36 (thirty-six) of my flip books, so I am hard at work assembling those. The probability of x-acto injury resulting from making 36 flip books in a relatively short period of time seems quite high. So I sought out what up until recently I had not really even been aware of: that is the rotary paper trimmer. Thanks, S., for the idea.

I got one of these little cutting platforms with a rotary cutter built in. So far the cutting is pretty good, very even, but the only thing I didn't expect was the way I have to pull up and click down the bar every time I want to reposition the paper. And I need to reposition the paper a lot, so I need to minimize the number of repositionings, because lifting the bar up and clicking it down wastes a few seconds, and is a little loud.

You also need to push down and slide the rotary blade carriage with some strength behind it, so it's not something I can do for hours at a time (it's tiring to the wrist, though not nearly as bad as equivalent X-acto use would be). I'm interested in getting the scoring blade, then I can expand my envelope-making and box-making capacities. There is also a perforating blade, decorative blades, and who knows what else.

if your father's a robot or a caveman, now's your chance

I'm trying to cater my goods towards holiday shopping hordes and groups who want to buy stuff. I guess that's called marketing?

My newest attempt is to make two (so far) themed flip books for Father's Day gift options.



This one is called Father-Daughter Robot Dance. This is the first time I made a flip book primarily using Illustrator, and the program practically had a heart attack because of all the 3-d effects I was using to make the robot bodies. Luckily it saved without crashing.



And here's Cave Dad and Son, my second cave man themed flip book.





I sliced off a little bit of my finger when I was making this one. I'm having a challenge dealing with the cutting portion of the flip book assembly procedures. It's what slows me down the most. That, and drilling. I use an x-acto knife to cut, and a drill with a really thick needle as the bit, and so far there haven't been any catastrophes, but it's slow going. Considering the first flip books I started out with I poked the binding holes by hand, this is faster and more efficient by leaps and bounds. I guess I just need to refine my techniques and perhaps figure out a quicker and safer way to cut out the sheets. I know die cutting exists but I don't really understand those machines or their templates or if such things are customizable.

So, I'll keep doing what I'm doing until I find a better way.

Alchemy Success Part 2: Jackalope Taxidermy

Yesterday I reported on alchemy success from the consumer's perspective. It was about my new favorite raccoon shirt.

Today's episode deals with alchemy success from the maker's perspective. And that maker is me.


I couldn't resist bidding on the challenge to make a mounted jackalope "taxidermy" made of non-animal materials. I won the bid but didn't really have a plan other than ideas floating in my head.

Lucky for me the ideas in my head floated out pretty much exactly how I hoped they would. That's always nice. (Because believe me, most of the time it doesn't work out that way).





The process:
First I went to the hardware store and experienced the usual awkward situation of looking for unknown materials and not wanting to explain what I'm looking for... since I'm rarely quite sure. I bought chicken wire and screening. That was the base for the jackalope embryo:


This was built up with wire and screen and then covered with this foam carpet padding stuff. Then I made brown corduroy antlers. A lot of the sewing of padding and "skin/fur" was done using a curved needle. Actually, without the curved needle, it might have been impossible to get the "pelt" on the innards.


I like the profile.

The eyes were made using these glass globules I had for a long time. I had no idea what I was ever going to use these for, but now I know I can use them for jackalope eyes.



* * * *

Meanwhile, in unrelated news I must report, Patches is bemused by a camel cricket.