Crazy Messy Here

So you remember my desk from last week right?



Well now it looks like this...



Sometimes you just have no choice but to pull out all the junk you have to encourage a creative energy and this was the case. I'm still tinkering away my assemblage pieces but I do have one that is close to being finished if not completely finished that I can share.



It's made of keys, a juice can top, paper, two coins, some embroidery floss, some stamp ink, and has 3 magnets on the back so it is essentially a big magnet. I feel like it might need one more element though...but then again my biggest challenge is that I always overdo it, so I'm sitting on my hands for this one for right now until I find the perfect thing.

I also pulled out some holiday patches I made a while back and finally finished making bags out of them, just in time too for the holiday season.

















Now available in my shop.

Crafty A.D.D.

There are times when I am so focused I can just go and go and go on one project forever. This hasn't been the case lately though. My screen printing obsession has quietly tucked itself away for a little while (I think I just burned myself out on it honestly, I'm sure the bug will come back soon). In its place I've been thinking a lot about assemblage art which I've always loved. Loved, but never really felt that good at doing. It's not just about throwing a bunch of crap together and gluing (that part I'm great at), it's about a balance...so I'm in the mood and I think I'll give it a go. I'm challenging myself not to buy anything new for this but only to work from stash. Here's my work table so far - not too crazy messy...yet.



I'm just starting out by rusting a bunch of little bits and bobs. I got a two part rusting wash from the craft store ages ago and never used it until now. It's way too easy and fun so I forsee lots of rusted things now. Side note: the tin I'm using as my rusting palate is also my painting palate haha. I should cut it apart and use it for something now that I think of it.



As a recap from my last post, I did finish the two items on my to-do list! Here's the final picture of the drawing for my uncle.



The background is actually a wash of watered-down red acrylic paint but I must have scanned it only in black and white, oops.

Ok off to work with me. Have a great day!

Weekly Post Do-Over

Ok so yesterday's post was pretty lame. I'll admit it. I didn't have anything to share and was a bit tired to yammer on. Anyway I think I'll make up for it today =) I love productive days. Can't share everything since a few things I worked on are for a personal swap with an awesome lady in England that does kick-ass screenprinting (check out her blog!) work as well but that'll come later.

Anyway, I made two more new drawings for my screens!



Not the greatest picture admittedly. Whatever. A small insight to the constant mess that is my crafting area. And somehow I'm still able to work, hm. Anyway, here they are printed.



The first one is just a little creepy guy that was inspired by an awesome art doll I saw on etsy (well crap, now I can't find the link). I'm a little frustrated though that using the drawing fluid/screen filler isn't giving me incredibly fine lines...I think I'm using the smallest paint brush I own..maybe I'll have to search Joanns for a smaller one to see if that does the trick. I am tempted to get some photo emulsion junk to try out on my screens. I worry that it won't work properly since I'm not really using proper screenprinting mesh, but I think...it might work. I'll splurge when the spirit moves me.

Here he is when I tried to combine him with my face print. The registration sucks =/ I'm not quite sure what's going to happen to this piece.



Anyway, here's the other print.



I'm pretty excited about this one =) I signed up for a swap on craftster where we will be making artwork to purposely abandon in public places, and since I've been so fixated on screenprinting lately I thought I'd incorporate that into my design. I also thought I was terribly clever and created all 3 layers of the eyeball on one screen. I. Am. A. Genius. hah. I will be making these into a sort of mini-fabric artwork that can be hung and abandoned.


Besides screenprinting (I'm sure you might appreciate the break) I finally got to work on a custom drawing I'm doing for my uncle who is a major bicycle enthusiast (for the time being I'm going to ignore the fact that he also requested some sort of "sculptural" art with a bike theme because I'm really not quite sure what I'm going to do about that yet...it should be an interesting challenge). He requested some sort of bicycle theme, which instantly frightened me because it sucks to have to draw all the fiddly bits of a bike and whatnot...so I decided to incorporate that with what I really enjoy which are fun portraits. I'm not the best drawer but I'm pretty happy with it so far. i took progress shots of it so far.

Super basic outlining. Not impressive I know.



Shading starting from the bottom up.



We have reached the nose now.



That's all I got so far. Obviously I've been kind of avoiding dealing with the bike itself, but I will bite that bullet at some point in the near future. I'm pleasantly surprised that having not really tried to draw something this in depth in many months I still have the knack.

Ok goals for this week:
1. Finish bike drawing
2. Work on/finish by the end of the weekend custom shop bag

Seriously that's it. I need to get these done!

Back from the South

Err so I know I said I was going to try to get a little drawing done on my road trip but that didn't end up happening. Figures. It's too hard to concentrate when you're too busy having fun. Anyway Mammoth Caves was incredible. Many sore muscles and maybe one small freakout about cave spiders near the end (I really just don't like them, can you blame me?). But I'm back, and working to catch up on projects that really need to be completed this month. ;)

The obsession Continues

So if it wasn't obvious from the last post, I was only mid-project in a new set of frames so of course I have more pictures of what I've been up to this past week.

Here's the test print of the mouth! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for the most part.



And a shirt I made using the image. I experimented with bleach for the first time, intentionally spraying a pattern on the shirt. I really like how it looks, a blazing ball of fire falling...I can't help feeling like it needs a little more detailing though. Another layer on the red. Hmm...also I'm not so fond of the mouth print on black. It's harder to make out what you're looking at...ah well, I like it and will wear it anyway.



I also couldn't help making another set of frames. I'm not sure why I have a morbid fascination with medical diagrams and such and when I came across the image of a jawbone I couldn't resist. I envision making a sort of chevron print with it =) Note: in the test print the black on the front-most teeth didn't print, boo, but I'll be sure to press down harder when printing that again, it was my own mistake.



Here's the test print. I admit I'm a little disappointed that the lines of black weren't a bit finer but I think it has to do with the type of mesh I'm using...I might try going back on that frame to make the lines finer if I can.



And to finish off the show, I played more with my flamingos. On shirts this time. I've been meaning to make one for myself forever - I used the shirt I messed up on when I was playing around with inkodye. I think it worked out well.





So this week I'll be gone on a road trip to Mammoth Caves! I'm excited as it'll be my first vacation in forever. I won't be able to bring much with me in the way of crafting but I plan to hopefully have a drawing started (and maybe completed!) that I'm doing for my Uncle. I'll see about sharing that next week.

Don't have too much fun while I'm away ;)