recent ATCs

i had the most wonderful day today. i got together with a very dear friend and we played. it had been quite a while since i'd seen her or her partner, and even longer since we'd had an art day, and it was so so good. we played around with gelatin monoprints, and talked art and queer politics and everything in between, and she showed me the various steps she took in making her wedding thank you cards (mine arrived while i was away - i'll definitely be posting it soon, it's so amazing!). we had a little show and tell, and oohed and awed over the amazing pieces i received in last year's chunky pages swap and tip in page swap.

i want to experiment a bit more with the gelatin prints before i post pictures, because today i mostly just started on the base layer of what i'd like to do. i was inspired by an article in the most recent issue of quilting arts magazine, and did a bunch of research online, and our results weren't quite as we expected, though still pretty damn fabulous!

however, in the meantime, i wanted to post the first ATCs i've made in months and months! on wednesday evening i went to the ATC trade group at the richmond art gallery. it was only my second time there and i hadn't made any more cards since i went in may, so i was busy for a few days before, working on some ATCs to take.

i'm feeling very scattered right now, and my supplies are all roaming about the house, so i basically sat myself down and told myself that i was ONLY allowed to use the stuff that was on the table. i pulled out ink pads and some stamps to go along with it, and got to work. i'm quite happy with them.


bluebirds

vintage sheet music, strip of pink tickets, strip of page from a vintage medical book, and blue birds scanned from a vintage card

snip

asian language paper with a blender marker transfer, stazon ink applied through punchinella and part of an invoice ticket.

music/language

stazon ink applied with a netting mask onto vintage sheet music, small pieces of the asian language paper tinted with stazon, pink coupon and vintage silver leaf

admit one

vintage sheet music with an overlay of a left over german/russian dictionary page, punchinella stamped invoice ticket, purple triangles inspired by the fabulous phizzychick, pink coupon

oedipus

the background for this one is from a very old medical book, the paper is extremely fragile until it's glued onto a sturdier surface. the particular page used is talking about the oedipus complex, so i chose postage stamps with a "father" type figure and a "daughter". it's over stamped with two different designs, in green and in blue stazon. vintage silver foil leaf in the centre, and a blue resister glued on using glossy accents.

constitution

the background is a dictionary page, punched out invoice tags, british postage stamp, a scrap of patterened paper, and vintage hole protector thingies (they have a very cool texture in person, they're fabricy!), finished off with blue ink

family strength

transparency image of my great grandmother overlaid on sheet music, b&w film strip along the edge, vintage dictionary snippet, and stazon detailing.

obsolete

vintage photo found on my most recent trip, scanned and printed out. sheet music and asian language page, vintage silver foil leaf, and an office supply stamp "obsolete"

royal command

sheet music stamped with red stazon polka dots, british stamps, cigar band, and vintage pharmacy label

queen 997

stazon inked over netting mask onto a page from a vintage german children's book, triangles cut from canada post labels, punchinella mask stamped invoice tag, and a british stamp

contempt and contemplation

dictionary page stamped with green flower design,asian language page cut with a fiskars scalloped punch and stamped with stazon, then the small praying hands cabachon was glued on with glossy accents. small bits of yellow paper, and part of a vintage card with sewing snaps.

15 cents

vintage sheet music, a vintage ticket, green strip and triangles cut from canada post mailing labels, and a stamp with a neat design.


what do you think? i was quite happy with them.

the group was fairly small, but it was fun. mostly people i hadn't met yet, and a neat mix of styles for trading. i had more cards than there were people at the meeting, so despite trading for 2 cards with a few people, i still have some left for next time. i'll slowly be building up my stock!

Craftster folks ROCK!!

oh, i am so so late posting this. so so late.

a little while ago i got an AWESOME surprise in the mail! the amazing twiztidblood organized a bunch of craftster members (all folks who've been in ATC swaps that i've organized) and they all got together and sent me ATCs and good wishes! it was SO INCREDIBLE of them. honestly, i was all teary eyed when i opened the envelope, it was such an amazing thing for twiz to organize, and for people to send me their love like that.

twiz sent me multiple goodies, and i actually missed two things in these pics - a note card and a sticker.

she sent me this pretty feathered bird card/page


and this gorgeous koi page/card


and fabulous ephemera, and the ribbon that everything was wrapped in (i was too impatient to take pics while it was all still wrapped!)


that alone would have been an awesome surprise!


but there was also this fabulous ATC from spookshowbaby

(i love that it's a woman LATCH HOOKING! how awesome is that?)

and this beautiful ATC from karin_, who also sent some awesome ephemera along

(aren't the colours fabulous? i love the pink!)

and a whole BUNCH of ATCs from audio-astrophysics!

(such an awesome picture, i love her! she looks so proud of her somewhat creepy muscles!)


(two amazing amazing and truthful quotes!)


(at first glace, it's a pretty card, but when you read the words... ha! i love the contrast!)


(lookit how sassy she is! and those gloves are incredible, i totally want them!)

and a fabulous acrylic card from SewHelpMe

(i love her acrylic cards! and rhinestones always make me happy!)

such an awesome get well/thinking of you package, and it honestly meant so much to me. i have the ATCs in my binder, all on their very own page so that i can look at them all together.

i haven't been on craftster very much lately, and i've been missing it and all the swappers and my mod girls, but i just haven't been able to handle it. i'm having a really hard time focusing and getting things accomplished in general, always feeling like i'm so behind that i'll never catch up, and as much as i love it, craftster's the worst for it. i'm at the point now where i can have ONE focus per day, that's it, whether it's posting here, making a phone call, going to the grocery store, whatever, just ONE thing, or else i get all flustered and overwhelmed and anxious. there are too many aspects to craftster - i get all stressed out about swaps, about mod duties, about keeping up with my swap friends and the mod girls, about actually posting things that i've made, etc, etc. so really the fact that i'm so late posting this is a prime example of why i can't handle craftster right now! it was so so amazing to receive this package full of love, and being told that i'm missed as much as i miss everyone myself.

i'm really glad that i'm finally posting these, i've been feeling really bad about the delay.



in other new, tomorrow is HANDMADE NATION!!!!!!!

i am so so so excited!

i was DETERMINED to make myself something new for it, because it's been oh so long since i've sewn for MYSELF! in addition, i realized that in all the years i've been working with vinyl, i've never made myself a purse. isn't that ridiculous? i've always just received them in swaps, or even, the horror, BOUGHT purses. but i did it!! i made myself a purse! i'll try to get pics up of it soon. and then, because i still had time before my sister came over for help with wedding skirts, i made myself a skirt! two, actually! (i'll only wear one at a time!). i have a huge stack of skirts and dresses waiting to be altered into skirts that fit me, and i managed to make/alter TWO of them today! one was very simple, just chopping off the top and adding elastic, but the other was more complicated and turned out super cute! obviously, sewing was today's focus! i definitely pushed too much, my back is currently screaming at me, but it was really nice to feel like i accomplished something. and now i have a non-boring purse and skirt to wear to the screening!

have i mentioned that i'm really really really excited about the handmade nation screening?!

i'm also really excited that the venue changed, because i was NOT looking forward to driving to the yuppie west side, i'm so happy that it's in east van, which is totally my comfort zone. that worked out really well, now i just need to find my copy of the book!

Call for Entries - ATC Exhibit!!!

The RAG’s 4th Annual Artist Trading Card Exhibition is a display of Artist Trading
Cards (ATCs) from local, national, and international participants. Everyone is invited to participate, and all techniques and mediums are welcome. ATCs must be original artworks, and may be in a series, edition or multiple. Please “sign” the back, and contact information may also appear on the back of each card if desired. ATCs will be traded on the closing night of the exhibition. (Please note that photocopied works will not be traded.)

What Are ATCs? Artist Trading Cards are miniature works of original art measuring 2.5x3.5" that are made to trade. This international art movement is intended to be a noncommercial, non-hierarchical, non-judgemental avenue for artistic exchange.
ATCs will be on display in the Gallery’s Hope-Smith Art Lounge. This exhibition will run concurrently with the exhibition Migration/Immigrant Stories by Elizabeth Russell, and the group exhibition Black Hole is Also Supernova.

The deadline to enter is September 4, 2009 (postmarked) and the show that runs Sept 18 - Oct 30, 2009. Here's the entry form

ATC Trades!

on wednesday night i went to the ATC trading session at Richmond Art Gallery (RAG). it was really neat to actually trade in person, not just through the mail!

it was a small group, though other months it is apparently larger. the small group was good though, as i only had a few cards to trade!

i never seem to find the time to make ATCs just for the hell of it anymore, i only get around to making them for for specific swaps. RAG has monthly themes, which is great, cause i love having themes to use as a jumping off point. the past month's theme was patterns, due to the exhibits that were at the gallery for the last month. (they always try to tie the ATC themes in).

i started a small series of pattern themed cards on monday, and JUST finished them in time for wednesday night, and had a few cards left over from experimenting last week, so i ended up with 4 cards to trade.

one definite positive about trading in person is that i can post pictures a lot sooner, no waiting on the mail!

this first bunch are the ones made using my ribbon experiments from last week. i picked up a few bags of spool ends and such from the fabric store for $1 each, and they were so bright and cheerful that i had to play with them immediately!

i used some scraps of wash away stabilizer (machine embroidery is so wasteful!) and stitched them together to create a larger surface, and then i started sewing trims onto it, layering them and alternating between various machine stitches.




layering them this way created great texture


the top is all done with purple embroidery thread, but i used the bottom as an opportunity to use up a bunch of half full bobbins.

i've seen things made with way using two layers of stabilizer and spray ahesive to temporarily hold the trims in place. that way would take way less thread, i imagine! this way was totally fun and chill to do though, definitely worth it for the enjoyment factor alone!

after rinsing the stabilizer out and leaving it to dry, i cut ATC sized pieces out of it. i stitched them onto white cardstock, to add some support, and to give me something to write on.

i can't decide if the pics are better with or without flash, so i'll post both! just click the picture if you'd like to see it bigger.











as you can see, i ended up with 5 ATCs, with very little waste, actually. two of them were sent out last week, and i saved one for my own collection, which left 2 for trading. i titled the series "cheerful abandon".

the other series were based on an interesting fabric that i found at a thrift ore the other day. it's a cotton, but the polka dots are raised and have slightly rubbery texture to them. i used hand embroidery to create patterns around the pre-existing polkda dot pattern. the patterns aren't all immediately clear, they actually look better from a distance, and i like that about them.




i kept this one for myself, irritated that my rushing to finish them made me adhere the back on crooked!




i finished these RIGHT before i left for RAG, and i didn't have time to do more than scan them. that left me attempting to photograph them on my thigh at stop lights!

i didn't take my atc binder with me, because i had so few atcs to trade, but i will in the future. i got all inspired the other day to edit my pictures of past atcs. i've been wanting to print them all out like i did for my chunky book and my tip in book, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. after a run to buy yet another ink cartridge tonight, they're finally all printed. along those same lines, i also uploaded all of my past atcs to flickr and put them all in a set of their own. it's kinda cool to get coments on atcs that i made over a year ago!

i'm definitely hoping to go back to future trading sessions at RAG. next month's theme is "girl", which should be interesting. my initial impulse definitely has a political bent, because gender is such a near and dear topic to me. i immediately started thinking of ATCs about binary gender and that sort of thing! i'm not sure how well those will go over though... i'm also attracted to the idea of doing a series of cards all illustrating society's version of girl. you know, sugar and spice, and everything nice! lots of pinks and ruffles and hearts would be fun to do. we'll see!


i also heard a bit more about the vancouver trading sessions, which are one sunday a month. they're held at the grind on main, and are apparently much bigger. i'm tempted to go, once i have a chance to make more atcs. i'll have to be more careful though, as main street is horrendous for parking. wednesday night was bad enough, i was determined to go, but wasn't feeling well, so i took pain meds before i left. richmond luckily has parking, including accessible spots, but even so, i was very weak and hurting a lot by the time i got home.

the Art of Brenna Maag: Doilies and Science

i went to the Richmond Art Gallery sunday afternoon specifically to the see the current exhibits Navigating the Uncertainty Principle and Observation of Wonder, since sunday was the last day. the exhibits showed the work of two artists, Brenna Maag and Ingrid Koenig, but it was Brenna Maag's Observation of Wonder that i was determined to see.

she uses DOILIES! if you've been around long enough to see some of of my past doily projects, you'll know about my love of doilies! there was the pink doily purse, which was the first one, and totally started the obsession, as well as multiple doily skirts (oddly enough, very similar ones appeared in Crochet Today after i made my first few!). i have several large doily projects planned, and i've been collecting them for it. i love them for a multitude of reasons, but the main one is the amount of work and love that went into the creation of each one. it makes me so sad to see doilies in the thrift store being sold for $1, when i think of the huge amount of time it took to make it.

it was really really cool to see someone else using them in such an interesting way.

she intertwined art and science in a really fascinating way, categorizing doilies into "families" based on their design, much how scientists categorize plant life into "families" using the principle of "taxonomy".

to continue with the scientific theme, she made cyanotype prints of the doilies, a technique used to illustrate plant life by an early scientist, Anna Atkins.


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)

cyanotype is a super fascinating, yet also super easy, technique, something i've wanted to play with for quite some time. i've also seen cyanotype quilts, which are SO amazing, and super inspiring! (there's a great tutorial on instructables for making cyanotype prints using negatives as well)


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)

after categorizing the doilies, she made the prints of them, including the names that she had given them, based on latin, and then categorized them into species and families. (check out her website for pictures of her process)


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)

isn't that amazing? what a fabulous combination of science, art, and traditional doilies!

that alone would have been worth the trip, but there was more! in addition to the cyanotypes, she also created a 9ft tall dome of doilies.


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)

it was amazing to walk inside it and be surrounded by doilies on all sides.


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)

the doilies are all adhered to white cotton on the inside of the dome, creating a really neat texture on the outside of the dome as well.

she uses only white and cream doilies, unlike my brightly coloured ones, and they create a very tranquil space.


(photo from http://www.brennamaag.ca)

it reminded me so much of watching the northern lights when i was in the Yukon years ago. Northern lights are very very rare here, but i remember them vividly from my childhood on the prairies, spreading across the sky. in the Yukon, because you are so far north, the northern lights seem to be in a dome around you, like a cathedral. it's incredibly beautiful, and almost spiritual.



the Richmond Art Gallery has a ATC trading group that meets once a month. they have monthly themes that relate to the art gallery's current exhibitions, though they are not required. the theme for may is patterns, and the last few days i've been playing with some fabric ATCs that show patterns. tonight is the trading session for May, and i'm going to go and take my pattern ATCs. i'm excited, actually, i've never traded ATCs in person before!



(note that all photos are from http://www.brennamaag.ca they wouldn't allow me to take pictures in the gallery itself.)

hello blog land!

bit of a break there, huh?

i want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my post about the embroidery drama. i know it was controversial, and i really appreciate that everyone who commented was respectful and intelligent. i unfortunately posted it at a bad time for me (blegh!), and wasn't able to respond as much as i would have liked to. the last few weeks have been pretty craptastic, to tell the truth.

however, i've been missing blog land, so i thought i'd do a bit of an update post.

what have i been up to, other than being craptastic?

i made my mom a nightgown for mother's day, out of a sweet jersey knit with tuxedo kitties all over it, like my sofie bean. i try to buy her a new nightie every year or so, and always with cats on it, but i've been searching everywhere and haven't found any lately. then i found the fabric, and it was perfect!

i've been sewing for Caring Hearts, i dropped of 16 pairs of pj pants/shorts last week when i went in to volunteer.


i totally fell in love with the vintage cotton that i made one of the pairs out of.

it was donated fabric. about 5 of the pairs were made of donated fabric, the rest came out of my stash. it's nice to clear out some of the stuff i'll never use!

i have at least 10 more pairs still at home, in varying degrees of completion. i made 4 toddler size hoodies, and have two more cut out and ready to sew. they're super cute, two shades of blue with mickey mouse heads on them. my sister got me the zippers i needed (7" separating zippers, so hard to find!), so i'll finish them up soon.

i did some fabric ATCs to angel for the Fabric ATC Swap Round 4 that i organized on craftster, unfortunately we had a flaker. one has been received, but the other 2 were mailed later, and are still on their way.

here's the one that's been received -

the recipient loves rainbows, so i found this design on emblibrary.com and stitched it out on blue felt. the plane button was hand stitched on afterwards.

speaking of fabric atcs, sheepblue posted a much better picture of the robot atc that i sent her, the colours are MUCH more accurate!


the other day i played around with some ribbons and lace, just experimenting a bit.


i joined a swap on flickr, in the Phat Quarter embroidery community, so i've been working on that the last few days. i finished up the embroidery portion tonight, but the piece needs to be finished. i rinsed it out, so it'll dry overnight and i'll finish it tomorrow, only a day or so late! the theme is anatomy, i can't wait to see what everyone else did!

i got an amazing package from the incredible phizzy, i have to take pictures and post them. she spoiled me!

and the fabulous jean sent me action shots of some of the bibs i made for her son, camden!

the first is actually a set of bibs that i made for camden and his cousin, i made them way back in november. this pic was taken in february, so they've both grown so much since then!


the second is an action shot of this bib, which i made when i first got my Brother SE 350. i posted the bib on craftster, along with a few others, but i do'nt think i ever posted them here.




isn't he a cutie?!

i still haven't posted pictures of the pendants i made for the pendant swap, or of all the wristlets i made in my etsy. those are all coming soon!