WHATS UP YO

...And we're out, until 12-2013.

ebay shapes

1964 vintage LARGE 14" FOLK ART BIRDS~scherenschnitte PAPER CUT made in poland

Table Stories 13" Deco Plate RED by Tord Boontje NEW

VTG Russian Soviet pin badge Buttons brooch - SAMOVAR FLY METAL Kettle old rare

MISSION MAHOGANY TILE TABLE ARTS & CRAFTS CALIFORNIA @@

Vintage 1919 PIT World's Liveliest Party Card Game 100% Complete Parker Brothers

Some shapes I am drawn to this week. Ebay titles are getting so long!

cubic glove

"What can an artist do at the factory on the basis of industry?"

These might look familiar from yesterday. Process of production is so interesting from a design point of view. Old industry and craft reinvented through art and design. Like it's stated on the label, "cubic glove has infinite possibility!"

They were a lovely gift (thank you Xtina!) that's already so popular that it's made it to pre-school share twice.... safe to say this has been an item that is working on many levels!

http://www.artistinfactory.jp/tf/

http://www.enuenu.com/tebukuro_en.html 

mottainai and the crayon box

I hate waste. Or rather, I feel really happy and super satisfied for myself (and the object!) when something is used up completely. Just this week I learned there is a word for this : mottainai. 

From Wikipedia: Mottainai (もったいない, 勿体無い^?) is a Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized". 

OMG! There is a *word* for this strong desire to save that basically fine but too small and even a little bit ugly shirt with the raspberry stains, because you know it could be used for something. And which also encompasses that odd sense of defeat, when the basically fine but too small, a little bit ugly shirt goes into the Goodwill box. (Which the Goodwill will hopefully recycle to a rags dealer, and not trash, which I can never bear to do.) There is a word for taking the time to cut up failed paintings and printing over the little rectangles to make business cards, because the paper is just too nice. There is word for enjoying seeing Anna wear holes in the play-shoes Sam once wore. I have been a bit of a mottainai nerd my whole life it seems, without really knowing it.

So that brings us to the anti-mottainai: birthday party goody bags. For Anna's birthday goody bags this year I was determined to come up with something (anything) that wasn't plastic and ends up in the trash by the end of the afternoon. So the kids and I made recycled crayons from the overflowing supply we had, as well as harvesting the ones at the bottom of my purse, the book bag, the car seats, etc. etc. etc. The kids loved spending time hunting wayward crayons, sorting the colors, and tearing the paper off. It was a trip down memory lane of every kids' meal ordered out over the last eight years. All put back to good use!

The trick is to not heat them for too long or too high. Wax separates from pigment and floats to the top very quickly, which is what makes most recycled crayons look a little vomit-y, instead of cute. I pulled them from the oven one second before they looked melted and flat. Twelve minutes in the toaster oven, 170 degrees max for these ones.

Star shape is great for gripping, and if you carefully separate a different hue in each arm, it's five-crayons-in-one. Add a little pad of paper, some candy and stickers, and the goody bag done!

Mottainai VICTORY! So satisfying.

finn and pb 4T

I notice the seasonal costumes shops are open around town, and Halloween time is coming...! As promised, here are links/ tips/ pointers on the Finn and Princess Bubblegum costumes I made this year for Comicon. This is not quite a tutorial. I didn't make actual patterns or explanatory photos along the course of this process. It was pretty impromptu. But if you're an adequate sewer and comfortable at being craftily impromptu yourself, these items can be created pretty easily.

Finn Costume:

First thing's first, sewing the hat. There are a few tutorials out there, but I think this one from Frederator is the most clear, cute, and simple by far. Sometimes you can buy the hat, but if you can't find one, or need one child-sized, this simple pattern is good place to start. I think ill-fitting head gear kind of blows the whole look, so I shaved a few centimeters off the standard dimensions, which is adult size, and it fit my 8 year-old much better. You could also try sizing down on the copier or computer, say 85%? Use the paper pattern to measure. Once the hat is done, it's super easy from there because the rest of the costume can be pretty much store bought. (Aqua tee, thank you H&M!) I went to the trouble to make my own royal blue shorts, just because I could make them super-plain and thusly more cartoon-like, but if you are more practical, any plain dark blue shorts will do. I also had the idea to buy a pair of women's black ankle socks and slip them over the sneakers to get the effect of Finn's black shoe. I thought they would shred to ribbons in half an hour, but they held up all day at Comicon with enough life left over for this Halloween. Finn's white socks are my husband's long crew socks rolled over thick to get that donut-y look.

If you are game for the backpack, there are a few tutorials out there. I wasn't a fan of most of the shapes, so I designed my own in the moments during summer swim lessons.

First I puzzled out the general pattern in these sketches. Basically, it is just an oval-shaped color blocked pillow with flat straps attached, and a painted button from our Aunt Roberta's vintage stash. (ps, bonus: post-Halloween, it makes awesome throw pillow!)

I used the model sheet drawing for Finn that I found on Art Team Go and adapted it to a template to get the right proportion:

And I printed this shape out so it measured 14.5" inches square. (I did this by changing "image size" in Photoshop before printing.) This is the extent of my pattern making abilities, so there you have it. The straps were just rectangles and measured about 14" long and 1.75" wide when finished. In this picture you can see how it wore:

I chose to stuff the backpack with polyfill, but not the straps. They wear better flat. Don't forget to leave a hole to stuff the filling, by the way!

pssst, hello!

Sam also requested at the last minute to have the snail, so the night before Comicon, I felted one out of wool roving, doing that thing where you poke the wool with a needle about a thousand times to make felt. I took a shortcut on the eyes by painting the heads of some pins I had and snipping off the sharp ends with a wire cutter. For doll eyes it's possible to embroider a french knot but I'm horrible at that; you can buy doll eyes too, but there was no time. This way I could paint the pins the right shade of brown, they stayed in fine, and looked nice and crisp. I basted the completed snail on the backpack, so he is sturdy but removable.

And viola! That's Finn.

*****
Princess Bubblegum (4T version):

With PB, there are a few key ingredients, which are usually not to be found in stores. She's a little more work than Finn, but nothing too crazy, and I took a lot shortcuts. For PB 4T, I adapted an internet pattern that we have used for other non-Adventure Time themed clothing. It is the Sweet Dress from Leila and Ben. With a few tweaks, it's the perfect blank canvas for a PB transformation and it is quick and easy to sew. Basically follow instructions but add desired longer length to hemline. And to add PB's purple sash, I sewed on some Wright's Satin Blanket Binding across front and back dress panels before stitching sides together.

smoke, mirrors, and velcro.

I also wanted a little PB collar, so to get that without a pattern, I simply cut a collar shape out of the binding, edge stitched to help head off fraying, and affixed in place with sticky back Velcro tabs (with the bias tape fold opened and sandwiched over the neck line. Does that make sense?? See photo! It kind of floats, but the velcro holds it in place.)

For the crown, I started with this pattern from San Smith. In addition to adjusting the head width measurement, I also moved the circle with the jewel down a bit, for better child-proportion.  If you don't want to sew, use paper and staples like San's, or you could make one out of felt for a more sturdy look. For our crown I stacked a sheet of heavy weight Pellon between two sheets of sticky-back yellow felt from the craft store. Then I traced the pattern on top and cut the whole thing out using scissors, but a utility knife or exacto would probably work even better. The felt usually comes only in small sheets, so you will have areas where the felt sheets tile up against each other. That's ok when it's flat, but when it curves around the head, the edges will want to pull away from the Pellon. A zigzag stitch along the seams will hold it in place. I used sticky back velcro again as the closure for the crown. If you are feeling confident in your head measurement and desire a more permanent fastening, I say go ahead and zigzag it.

For the crown's jewel, I found another button from Aunt Roberta's stash, painted it PB-jewel blue, and glued it to the crown. (I used a shank button- no holes.)

At last, the hair! The hat is to FInn as the pink hair is to PB, so we had to do it. I was recommended to try hair-chalking, and there are a lot of tutorials out there on how to do it, but usually they focus on strands of color, instead of the whole head. And we need the whole head to be glorious pink. Even in the last few months, I have noticed the products for temporary pink hair have really exploded, but back in July, we improvised.... In design school my husband had a little car rendering trick where they used to make pastel washes out of ground NuPastel and baby power. Then they used Webril pads to sweep the pastel on to the paper. So since that was what was readily available in our garage, and looks so lovely on paper after all, that is what we tried on hair.

And it works! So, to do this, get a stick of good quality quality chalk pastel (not oil!!), crush finely (I did mine with a mortar and pestle), and mix with some baby power. Then sweep some chalk grounds on the Webril pad, and "wipe" it on flat panels of hair from scalp to ends. It takes a little while, but you can get a whole head of vibrant yet temporary pink hair this way. Webrils are nice because they are large and ultra smooth. If Webrils are hard to find though, I don't see why you couldn't try other kinds of dry cotton wipes, like for makeup removal, etc. By the way, it's not a bad idea to drape a towel over shoulders to catch any rogue chalk dust. ...I should mention it helps to have a natural towhead to start with. The pink shows up great on light hair. I didn't know if it would fade or smudge during the day, but it stayed put, and after 2 or 3 washings was completely gone.

The best part of this experience was twofold: the costumes survived Comicon and now we are ready for Halloween four weeks ahead of schedule, and, when another kid asks yours, "Hey, where'd you get that costume?" you will hear your child say, "My mom made it!" So if someone has not already released a store-bought version of these costumes by now, give it a try, and good luck!

dear pellon

Dear Pellon, yes you are great for printing 8.5' x 11" on inkjet. Now wouldn't it make sense to start manufacturing sheets this way? I'd be happy to test-market. The new digital patterns from Oliver + S are waiting....

dress-up is the original cosplay

Whoa, great museum + favorite cartoon + the city nerding out all at once = awesome. Costume links, patterns, and adventures in hair-chalking here....

old habits die hard

      

"Everybody can memorize the old laced or crocheted tablecloths, which were used as interior decoration at your grandparent's house. The decorations are beautiful hand made design, but do not represent today's style anymore. The knowledge about handcraft techniques vanishes. JONGHLABEL regrets that these old artistic techniques disappear.

In order to renew interest in old handcraft techniques, JONGHLABEL started Jongh Geleerd Oud Gedaan. Together with women from different cultural backgrounds and from different parts of the city of Amsterdam, JONGHLABEL started a co-production project. These women still know how to practice Dantel (Turkish handcraft technique), tatting, lace and crochet. JONGHLABEL transfers the beautiful handmade fabrics into modern jewelry. By turning them into modern jewelry, JONGHLABEL hopes to renew people's interest in these beautiful old handcrafts."

bravo!

via JONGHLABEL and Frozen Fountain.

inkodye

This year for Sam's school fundraiser art auction, we decided to create a class project using Inkodye. It's a photo-sensitive dye that I've been curious about for a while (thanks to among others Cisco Home and How About Orange). Class was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Inkodye is a dye that develops color when exposed to sunlight. It's like liquid sun-print in a bottle and can be applied to any natural surface to make a print. In our case, we used it to make custom fabric for a hand-sewn art tote. Each student made several cut-outs from paper, and chose their favorite one to use as a stencil on our bag. When the stencils were ready, they were placed on prepared canvas panels and taken outside. Under sunlight, the ink-coated fabric turns blue, and the places shaded by the stencils stay white. Add a little sewing and viola, class-designed textile tote.

alien and/or robot

Teacher set-up: I prepared two canvas panels (the front and back of our bag) by coating them each on one side with Inkodye. For fabric I chose Organic Canvas Deluxe in PFD Bleach White by Robert Kaufman (available at Sew Mama Sew.) It's a great weight, has a nice texture, and takes dye beautifully. After a little trial and error, I found a 50/50 dilution of Inkodye worked best to coat the fabric. It seemed to flow easier, last longer, and had no noticeable difference in color strength after exposure. A small, smooth paint roller worked best for even coverage. Bonus tip! : If you are using a roller, dye will soak through, so lay canvas on a non-porous, clean work surface. I used a sheet of plexiglass underneath mine. And since Inkodye is UV sensitive, all of this was done after dark under safe incandescents and left to hang-dry overnight in a dark room.

An empty hydrogen peroxide bottle makes a great light-safe container.

Step two involved creating cut-out stencils designed by the students. Each student made several cut-outs from paper, practicing concepts of symmetry and silhouette, and chose their favorite one to use as a stencil on our fabric.

Here is a photo of a demo canvas prepped for the class. Indoors we laid each stencil on a pre-coated piece of canvas. Then we laid a plexiglass guide on top to hold the shapes flat against the fabric. Time for exposure to sunlight! Here you can see it is just starting to turn blue. The students were very excited to watch the transformation. Like magic!

Since it was cloudy, we left the canvas out for 30-40 minutes. After Inkodye is exposed, the remaining unexposed dye needs to be washed out or it will slowly turn color under UV too. I found that the hotter the water, the better for washing out dye so I used the "sanitize" cycle in my washer and it worked great. After running it through the cycle, just for good measure, I scrubbed the panels by hand under hot water with detergent and a stiff brush. Results below! You can see that the relative transparency of the thin white paper allows some light to leak through during a long exposure.

On my own, during a properly sunny day, I exposed two final panels with the students' stencils, using same method as above. I let the full sun burn the panels a good 15-20 minutes to get a deep blue. You can see how some interesting edge quality happens when you get strong exposure and a stencil that's letting a little light leak in.

We are lucky to have another art volunteer that sews. Ta daa...! Panels transformed to bag.

The students were very proud of their personal contribution to the fundraiser and had fun learning a new process too. What is fun about sun-printing is that it is so simple-- even a piece of cheap construction paper will fade nicely in the sun to reveal shapes of items placed on it, no dyes required. But that is a post for another time.... As for Inkodye, I cannot wait to experiment with more colors and materials!