tweaking the same old, same old

when not at my 9-5, my time has been spent on some projects i've been working on to bring a little transformation to my living space. mostly small details to things i already own. recently, i was finally able to acquire a set of linen sheets; which beyond the expected visual treat, makes going to sleep at night a delightful pleasure.

but then i needed to spruce up the sadly worn yellow striped bolster cover. with a linen one (of course), made of an antique flour sack i came across years ago and which has been languishing in my closet. it's soft to the touch, almost like flannel, but very thickly spun and woven. i had just enough material, with some creative patchwork and different linen endcaps, to recover the entire length.

which led to replacing the simple nightstand lamp with a cheeky edison steampunk concoction i was inspired to make after obsessing over an anthropologie version on pinterest. a bit of legwork to hardware, antique stores, and hobby shops combined with things i already had, and i was able to create something of the feel of the original. it's very nifty, and the delicate bits are safe from the kitties and dust.

after a little rearranging of the pictures above the lamp, i'm quite content with the feel of the space; still mine, just renewed.

most awesomest ever

i read about the handmade market at kamigamo shrine, on the fourth sunday of the month, and knew i would have to attend. i've seen photos of the amazing hand crafts of japan, and most definitely wanted to see them in person. i was not let down, in any way. point of fact, i was really blown away by all the very creative and beautiful pieces people are doing!

there was plenty of delicate jewellery, an amazing selection of pan, cookies, and cakes, really pretty accessories made from old kimono, and adorableness with hints of kookiness everywhere. i wish i had brought more money with me, but regardless, i did manage to decimate my o-miyage list down to three items remaining. when i return home and gift the prettiness out, i will post photos. something i've noticed, and not only here today, is the attention paid to packaging in kyoto is really amazing; it makes me want to set a higher standard for myself when it comes to my work.

i did not think that the artists would want you taking photos, or i would have taken more, but when i noticed my friend kyo-san taking photos and the artists happily allowing it, i started photographing some of the things that caught my eye.

well, a return to class tomorrow; dyeing of the kasuri yarn.

real life banner

i was asked a little while ago to be in a local trunk show. so, knowing i needed to be prepared i've been researching craft show photos and tips. one of the first things i realized was that one should have a banner to grab attention and identify your wares.

i got started by sketching out some ideas, creating a font, and choosing fabrics. i thought it would be nice to include a scalloped border in reference to this blogs header, as well as using fabric in the design as that is what the pincushions are about. luckily i bought some material at a basement sale that was exactly what i had in mind; a natural oatmeal colored linen.

so this week i've been drawing, cutting, ironing, cutting and ironing once more. i like how it turned out. now i have to figure out how to hang it on the table cloth. magnets, pins, velcro all come to mind. more thinking is necessary.

current books of interest

i tend to keep books that i look at frequently on my nightstand. they're within easy reach, and help me collect my thoughts when i'm exploring something new. i find that these books are also inspiring when one is in a slump. to list:

the cocktail: 200 fabulous drinks
(i love the illustrations by kat macleod)

urawaza: secret everyday tips and tricks from japan
(incredibly useful)

craft, inc.: turn your creative hobby into a business
(excellent resource)

the encyclopedia of embroidery techniques
(i've been using this for years, very good explanations)

mushrooms for dyes, paper, pigments & myco-stix
(mushroom dyes create extraordinary lightfast colors!)

printing by hand
(very clear instructions, great scandinavian designs)

the art of manipulating fabric
(just received the other day, the vast array of techniques is overwhelming and exciting!)

kay nielson
(the illustrations make me drool, such gorgeous details and patterns)

tricia guild pattern
(the colors! the variety of prints! a flocked velvet cover!)

not your average case

so, while viewing some fascinating textural images on flickr, i was inspired to weave something; not having a loom at the moment and never actually doing it before only being a small bump on the road. but, hey, i've read about the main technique somewhere before, and have seen it done.
grabbing my embroidery frame out of cold storage i proceeded to hammer straight pins into the dowel rods. moments later and voila! a frame on which to weave.

i can see why weavers created patterns; it was monotonous at times but actually really relaxing. it put me in mind of a movie from my childhood, the three lives of thomasina.

taking the finished piece off of the frame was tricky and i'm sure there is a clean way to do this, but i forged ahead anyway. the poor little cloth (because that's what it was at this point, and really amazing too; that whole yarn to cloth part.) was kind of worse for wear but had me thinking about a pouch. several stitches later, a trip to the store for a zipper and a button, cutting, ironing, stitching, and sewing by hand and i had a cute little pouch to store my new business cards in. it's a little asymmetric, kind of wedge like, but really charming all in all; and i like it because i made it from scratch on a whim, which is pretty cool in my eyes.

ah, yes, the cards. they turned out very nice. eventually i want letterpress ones, but i really don't know of the design yet.

pincushion additions

i created another pincushion before work yesterday. i really enjoy blues and greens even though i have other colors to work with. i have to say that red is my least favorite color; but pinks and purples are very near the top of my favorite list. weird. maybe it has something to do with blood and raw meat. i get queasy when i see raw meat in the store.

this pincushion i called "algae bloom". the embroidery is reminiscent of kelp and sea plants and the greens remind me of algae against the watery blue. the olive velvet was a bit painful to work with, it kept moving even with pins in it. i think it has something to do with the length and fluidness of the velvet and its backing. so i had to hand sew it which was fine.

last week i made a pincushion from a variety of grays with a splash of icy blue and this lemony neon yellow silk. the color is just so luminescent and glowy. the herringbone wool and soft grays had me thinking "gramps" so i embroidered a mustache and pipe on the back side.

with every pincushion, i start by finding a fabric print that calls to me, and pair it with 7 - 10 pieces of harmonic fabrics. then i lay them out in a couple of patterns, put some fabrics aside, add others until i get a picture that i like. then cutting, piecing, sewing, and trimming. then i wait for an image or a word to pop into my head to embroider on the backside. i like doing some hand embroidery first, then some machine stitches. add a button tag, then assembly. the fun part.

i've gone to the etsy side

so, finally the day has dawned when i've taken that one small step to sell my artwork to the public. it's only been 6 years since i graduated college with a b.f.a.; procrastination is not the word for it. it's more like coming to a point where you have an idea and instead of running only halfway into it, you actually finish the race and make one thing, then another, and then there's three things. it's a gradual pace. will they sell? no clue. but i enjoy making them; and to me it's the creating of something precious from little bits of things that have so much potential that's the challenge and the goal.
please visit my new etsy store, the link is in the right hand side of the screen.

purple haze

i love purple; be it named mauve, lavender, lilac, violet, heliotrope, or any other. from the softest shade of purple tinged gray to the most intense color found in orchids, it is truly lovely to mine eyes. this is my pincushion ode to such an amazing hue.

and then it was may

where did april go? to work, with only three days off. it's like the little piggies, one went off to market, one stayed home, etc. except this one decided to work two jobs for a little bit. eh, not complaining, it was an interesting change of pace. but definitely one that would be hard to maintain.

well, in those three days off and over bits and pieces of evenings and mornings, i managed to create. i've been sewing, embroidering, stuffing, and pouring; those are the parts that were easy. deciding on which fabrics to put together was a little harder. the fruits of my enjoyable labor are two pincushions. they're from swatches i've been hoarding, along with hand and machine embroidery, bamboo and organic cotton batting, and glass beads. i wanted them to be as eco-friendly as i could.

the stuffing took a moment to decide on. would it be best to use something organic in nature such as walnut shells, rice, or sawdust? no. all i could think of is the time we got a family of field mice in the sewing machine drawers; they ate and destroyed everything that wasn't metal. what would look tastier to a mouse than rice? so organic materials was out. how about sand? too fine, plus what if there were buggies waiting to hatch? i know you're supposed to bake it first, but, eh, no. some websites suggested fabric scraps, wool (for the lanolin), or fiber fill, but there just wouldn't be enough weight to them then. i like a heavy, dense cushion that i can really sink my pins into. another material mention i came across was emery. nice and weighty, sharpens pins, and is a traditional material you find in that little strawberry cushion that partners the tomato. great for way back yonder when pins were expensive, rusted and needed to be sharpened frequently. but now with modern machining, needles have a plating that protects them from rusting, and because of the steel they're now made of they also don't dull like they used to. so using emery would be a guaranteed way to destroy your pin collection and cause them to rust; it's just way too abrasive.

so all this thinking led me to ponder the beanie baby. you know, that toy craze from the 90's? what is actually in those things? well, short of hunting down my mother's massive collection and doing a dissection on one of them (she would not be pleased by this i'm sure), i searched google for a little bit and came across glass beads that one would use as toy filling. glass is ecologically sound, non active, not abrasive, won't hurt the land when the cushion decays (i hope), and won't aggravate anyone who has allergies. yay, problem solved, and the pincushions finally have some body to them!

empress lulu of the space bees

"one night performance only! be amazed at the refined ferocity of the empress of that fantastic and opulent race of beings; the space bees! be enthralled by the daring, the beauty, the ravishing of the senses that leads ones very being to the brink of utter ecstasy! get your tickets now! this artistic endeavor of only a few hours will not be repeated again in a lifetime, don't miss out!"

a skirt with pockets

've been on a nani iro fabric collecting rampage. two yards of each one i love. that would be enough to make something such as a shirt or skirt or tunic. i hope.
one in particular i've been eyeing is the saaaa saaa in pink from the basic line. alas, but my hopes of having two yards were dashed against the boulders of procrastination; there was only one yard remaining for sale. but it would be enough for a skirt, so i went ahead and bought that last lonely yard.
it's strange what you miss when you don't have, and only to come to this realization when presented with what it is. pockets in skirts is one of these things. you live your life for years wearing skirts and then one day you purchase one with pockets; and suddenly you know that this is one luxury you can't do without.
so i used the selvedge from one side of the width for the waistband, reinforcing it with a narrow grosgrain ribbon, created pockets, attached the lining, and installed the zipper. which took longer to attach properly then the time that was used to sew the rest of the skirt. one day zipper, one day i will conquer the likes of you! and in the end i have a light and airy new skirt to wear in the coming toasty months. one with pockets.

somewhere to sit and eat

the dolls in the dollhouse can finally sit down and have some breakfast. oatmeal, actually. the table hunt was successful; the cafe style table is a perfect size for the kitchen, not too big nor too small.
i also found a table for the living room, but i wasn't 100% sure of it at the time. i thought i was prepared to go to the dollhouse store, camera in hand, detailed list of needs and wants, in the vain hope of not becoming overwhelmed. i grabbed the above table right away, then saw one next to it that had real possibility for the main dining area. tables in hand, off i went to look for chairs to pair with it. and that, dear folks, is how one starts looking at the want list and adding things. but somehow after an hour and a half, i pulled through, two purchases poorer; purple flowers for the upstairs hallway and a table for the kitchen.

a 2 hour car trip later, upon arriving home and putting said table in it's new locale, i had second thoughts of the other table. about how the glimmer of that mirror, the shade of that frame would correspond fantastically against the table. about how dark the little nook is, how this one piece of furniture would brighten and draw attention. and i doubted my choice in not getting both tables. alas, good thing for telephones and the mail system.
the little table looked alone in the kitchen, so i pulled out my box of old furniture and placed two chairs from the previous dining set along side the sleek new marble top. looking at the pairing i thought, "this actually doesn't look that bad, i actually like the warmth of the wood in correspondence with the cool steel and glossy white." and so they stayed.

double gauze and nani iro

of all of the fabric in my stash, i must say that my absolute favorites would be the ones from nani iro. they're soft, pretty in a most delicate way, cool, and make the best clothes. i want to collect as many yards as possible. i keep telling myself, "you need 2 yards to make an article of clothing, so figure that said article of clothing store-bought would be more than the cost of fabric, so suck it up and buy it already.", and then i put that on repeat in ones head.
at first i only bought quarter yards, then i bought half yards, now i'm at the full yard cut, so i'm hoping that the next time i purchase some i'll finally be able to get the needed two yards. as far as the rest of my collection? i really can't see wearing any of them as clothes. so that leaves one possible alternative, anyone up for some quilting?

yellow sparkles

yesterday i drew out a pattern, cut out fabric, sewed pieces together, added buttons, then glued everything to a frame. at the end of the day i had myself a cute little clutch. the glue was a little stinky; but as chemical bonding often times goes, the smell is fading as it works through the curing process. there weren't any major snafus, perhaps the interfacing could be a little stiffer. i could not have done it so quickly without the helpful aid of u-handblog, and her excellent tutorial.
sometimes it hurts to use a favorite fabric, but then you get something pretty out of it, so it becomes ok. i'm really liking the soft lavender of the lining, it's similar to the wallpaper i made for the bathroom.

sewing with da machine

i've had my eye on a certain sewing machine since december, and finally was able to get it. the pretty thing came last week and i've been playing with it ever since; i have dubbed it "lola". first i took in and took up my work pants, then i widened a nautical blouse for my brother's fiance, and earlier today i was sewing together a kiss-lock purse i've been thinking of doing since november.
so, as usual in my demented quest for more creative skills, i've been wandering through blog land in search of other sew happy types. there are so many blogs out there with lots of wonderful things; if i can find clothing fabric that's pretty i'm going to start making my own clothes. one book i have, stylish dress book, has lots of simple and pretty patterns that can be changed up by using this sleeve over that one, or shortened to make a tunic into a blouse.
well, i'm off to find a kitchen table for the dollhouse. here's to a successful hunt!

soft and strange

i try to not visit yarn stores. i seem to collect single skeins of lovely spun cotton, wool, and silk. which means i never seem to knit outside of the occasional scarf, there being only one ball of yarn; great for christmas time, not so much for when you see a scrumptious cardigan or a delectable pillow. i'd love to knit a tea cozy, but have yet to find a teapot with which to grace one. so, with some reticence i entered the doors of a local yarn store, wild fibre, and found myself not five minutes later walking towards the register with a ball of something soft, something colorful, and something i haven't a clue what to do with.

this is the something of which i speak.
if i were to spin it, what would happen to the delicate rivers of color? what would transpire if one were to felt with such insubstantial fluffiness? alas, i feel this one ball of silkworm essence will stay in its current form. to be admired with the eyes and patted from time to time to regal in the magic of touch.

organization...

...is key to living in a small space. i use the same two colors, various shades derived from them, and lots of white. the white acts like a resting stop for your eyes. the second thing that i find helps small spaces is organization. i'm usually drawn to organizing multiples of things in the same scale container, be it a bookcase or jars. also by arranging them in the pattern of the visible spectrum, with whites, browns, and blacks at the end.
my bookcase was getting crazy, and as it's a rather large portion of one wall something had to be done. i have a massive collection of national geographic books that are a wealth of photos that i can't bare to get rid of even though i may look at them once every ten years. luckily they're mostly white spines, and the same size. the top left square is my illustration, painting, and bookmaking reference books. the top right square is my knitting, embroidery, pattern making, general crafting, herbs, and essential oil reference books. along the bottom are books covering everything else. originally they were organized based on content, but i grew tired of that as i continued to stuff new books in any available slot, and that soon lost its function. so here's the photo of my newly organized shelves.

am also into collecting fat quarters. quarter yards of fabric that are squared rather than long rectangles. so after awhile of being stored in a tubberware, where they were mostly forgotten about until i acquired new additions, i decided they needed to be displayed. this would serve multiple purposes; so that i would be consciously aware of them, as a reminder of my sewing machine saving goal, and also hoping that this would lend itself to inspiring me to use them. i repurposed a wine shelf insert that was being tossed, spray painted it white and stacked my fat quartz by color.

some would say this organizing is neurotic, but hey, it calms the mind and the space. or that whole virgo thing i discussed earlier.

time doing what?!

well december and january have been a little busy. i think so anyway. it feels like they were. i took some time to go to las vegas to visit my 96 year old aunt. while there, i watched a whole lot of price is right, wheel of fortune, and jeopardy; of the three i would fare best at price is right even though i don't purchase 98% of what they price.

with some of the time from the last month i've been knitting my second ever sweater which i hope to actually finish, unlike the first. i came across an awesome sweater from a danish company "lolly's laundry" while visiting blogs, fell in love with it, then found out i couldn't order it. so, i began to think that "hey , i'm pretty sure i know how this thing was put together", bought some malabrigo organic cotton yarn, a size 6 circular needle, and started knitting. the front panels, back panel, and collar are about finished, and then the sleeves and pockets shouldn't take long. another month perhaps, with time taken from here and there. i'll post photos when i'm done.

another time sponge has been this awesome game i got second hand for christmas. it's called "katamari damacy". pure eye-candy, absolute fun, hilarious, and definitely good for multiple replays. the games' main character, "the king of all cosmos", is eclectic, weird, kooky, metrosexual, and every conversation is primed for the loony bin; but i love him, it's hard not to. i've finished 85% of the game, mostly i just have two presents to wrap up, some items to collect, and i want a bigger taurus. luckily for me they made a sequel, "we love katamari".
i'm saving $ for my long-term-won't-have-to-buy-another-before-i-die sewing machine, a pfaff select 3.0. dual feed, multiple hemming feet, pleating, and it handles like a dream.

a sketchbook of my very own

when you say "artist", your brain sees "sketchbook". or at least it should. well, anyway, i have always had a difficult time keeping sketchbooks. the idea of applying pencil to such clean pristine snowy white pages freaks me out. what if i mess up? am i stuck with a permanent reminder of something ugly? this is suppose to be an inspiration and idea book. and i know that at times you get really good ideas from something that could be classified as a "mistake". but come on. really?
a long time ago in my student days i purchased a mini portfolio for postcards. it has been occupying a space on my bookshelf for um, let's see, 5 years? yeah. one day while chopping up scrap paper to keep on hand for idea noting, i had a brain storm. what if i made a sketchbook but kept the pages loose? that way if i draw something i hate, i can simply throw it away without destroying the spine of my precious book. also there's something unethical to me about ripping pages out of books. ouch, it hurts my literary soul.

getting back to the mini portfolio comment, from this i drew great inspiration (i.e. i copied my general idea from). so dusting off my bookbinding skills, i set out to create my sketchbook. i am in absolute love with natural undyed linen. all those varying shifts in value, that texture, the smell! i need to get more of this stuff. then chose a lovely green paper that reminds me of weeping willow trees. then to keep it all nice and tidy, a lovely blue edged elastic detailed with a bone button from my ever-growing collection. et voila! my sketchbook!

a kitty bed!

on a recent visit, my sister made a suggestion for the master bedroom; that it needed something that was low to the ground to fill a space by the fireplace. she suggested a dog bed or cat tree. as there aren't any dogs in this house, a kitty bed would be nice. a chance to get those little hairballs off of the main bed.
i had a scrap of nani iro fabric that was too big to toss, and the color scheme worked well enough; little pink roses on a white background. so with some thread, a couple of cotton balls and a little bow, i made a nifty little bed. i like it, i think kitty does too. now if she only had a ball of yarn or a mouse toy.