Tuesday, October 23, 2007

real bee, fake bee


I was going to entitle this "Drawing from Death" because the topic is a dead bee I found a while ago and had been saving (for this?).  But that seemed a little too morbid.  However, I have realized in the past that drawing from "life" is usually the only way I can buckle down and try to do something realistically.  Otherwise things turn out all made up, goofy looking or accidentally cutesy.  I need to spend more time drawing from life and/or death.  I'm usually too impatient.

Back to dead bee: it's so incredibly lightweight, and so delicate.  I'm surprised it doesn't float.  The intricacies are almost shocking: unfortunately the photo doesn't do this bee justice. 

And I'm embarrassed to admit that I've dropped this bee quite a few times.  There even had to be some glue-based surgery.



So, I drew the dead bee and ended up using gouache, mica, etc. on top of the drawing. It has some texture because I tend towards chunky application of materials.  I'm going to incorporate this bee into a slightly bigger project I'm working on... to be cont.

image hosting by flickr.


Wednesday, October 10, 2007

to market, to market...



If you didn't know already, this Saturday, Oct 13th from 12-4 it's Bizarre Market at Chop Suey Books.  Benefiting Art 180.

Visit chopsueybooks for more info/address.

If all goes as planned, I will be there with Halloween-themed items and the usual assortment.  Check out my
etsy shop for a preview of some of my goods, including the Halloweeny pouches as shown above.


... Gotta go... more later...

Saturday, October 6, 2007

the shared culture of work place drudgery

This is a sample etsy treasury layout I made for a themed challenge.   This one is themed for co-worker empathy and the culture of shared work-place drudgery.  It wasn't chosen, but I found some cool stuff while digging around.
Links to items:

www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6199123
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6150432
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5924754
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6588966
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6622849
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7309828
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6829857
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6963374
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6757208
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7277056
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6760322
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6305436
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6903819
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6411524
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5976225
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=194954


Alternates:
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5950734
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5850147
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6986975
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6324709

I've been really really busy being inexplicably busy and also just making some stuff.  Stay tuned this week for Halloweenish items and etceteras.

photo hosting by flickr.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

unregistered cats



I'm not totally sure what the next step will be.  But I have a bunch of fabric screenprinted with Patches as flip cat.  I'm not sure if I want to deal with the mess which has resulted from my crafting frenzy.
Next time I need to think ahead of time about registering colors. 

photo hosted by flickr


Sunday, September 9, 2007

pretending fabric is a habitat



This is the continuation of a previous "I love moss" and mushroom related post.

A while back I finished decorating that violin I had posted some tidbits from earlier.  It's for the 50th Anniversary of Richmond Symphony Orchestra.  This is another of those "decorating random objects" fundraiser projects that seem to be going around various cities.  From what I've heard, it'll be on display until October at SunTrust bank HQ (Main & 9th sts.).

Anyway, I enjoyed working on it.  I guess that's it.

multiple views:


Photos hosted by flickr

Sunday, August 26, 2007

cats who have pouches

No, this is not a rude comment about Patches' weight. Nor is it about the discovery of the amazing marsupial feline (that would be great).

It's about the newest gear in flip cat product line.

It's a zippy pouch made of "meow" cat fabric.



Which also can be used as a boat.




I found my directions for making lined zippy pouches. But it's still very time consuming. Plus, I don't have a zipper foot for the sewing machine. And if I did I don't know how to use one anyway. I keep planning to make a lot of zippy pouches of various sorts, but I can't seem to find the time. I need to operate in assembly line mode if I want to get more than one done in one sitting.

The background fabric is a bedspread I got at Urban Outfitters. I really love that fabric. It has turtles, snails, birds, leopards, deer and other stuff on it. Animal fabric is great, but I'd probably feel silly if I try to wear something made out of it.

photo hosting by flickr

Sunday, August 19, 2007

tea inside a lemon slice, lemon slice inside a bird

bird_lemon


There's something I really really like about this combination of items.
One is a lemon slice tea strainer (often seen in "tea ball" form).
The other is a bird shaped lemon slice squeezer. A little confusing, but it's true.

Call it silly, but I somehow find it comforting that these things can exist in the same universe.

This is the type of parallel relationship between items which I seem to seek out.

I can't wait to make tea with lemon and use both of these fine utensils in one go.

In other news, thanks to some rave reviews, I joined facebook and am already losing my mind with the possibilities. Maybe now the kazillion fragments of my online tinkerings will be united in one mass of coagulated nonsense and show and tell.