It’s February 28th and I can mark one more thing off my yearly list. I’ve posted daily for Thing-A-Day.
I loved working on it, but I don’t remember last year taking so much time to complete something every day, photograph it and post it online. I’m a bit sad that I didn’t have enough time to go back and view everyone else’s posts and comment. The site will stay up, so I still plan on doing that, now that I’ll have a bit more free time.
I have two interviews I’d love to share.
My friend Erin, an Artist “of-all-trades”, was interviewed for the Printsy website. She has been focusing a lot on printmaking lately, and you can read the article here. It’s great to see her work evolve and yet stay so true to her own style.
The next interview is from my Everyday Create group. Bri, who has the wonderful and inspiring blog The Craft Begins, interviewed fellow Everyday Creator Tiffany, right here. Also, there was a follow up in the next post, that is also worth the read, where Tiffany sent in an additional response, very entertaining.
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I never mentioned how we went to see Coraline Valentine’s day weekend. I was so inspired by it. The movie, I think, is a combination of 3D diaramas and digital animation. I left the theater really wanting to do something 3D. I have really fallen in love with the detail and passion that goes into setting up stop-motion films ever since seeing Blood Tea and Red String. You might recall seeing my own little attempt at stop motion here. Seeing Coraline has lit a little fire under me to actually create a little world, not necessarily a movie, but maybe just a dimensional space with detail and character. Dioramas like this and this have also provided ample inspiration.
Another thing that inspired me about the movie was the outfit that Coraline’s Other Mother made for her. Immediately I thought how there will probably be so many kids going as Coraline come halloween this year. This thought was then followed with, heck, I want a Coraline outfit for myself, and not just for halloween, but for everyday. I was so excited about making my own Coraline sweater when my sister shared with me these links for patterns that are already going around on making that sweater, SWEET! I probably won’t be knitting my own, like in this pattern, but just picking one up a navy sweater at the Salvation Army and then sewing on patches. Also, mine won’t be as small as this one. And here is even a pattern for Coraline’s gloves.
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Things that have made me happy:
-Having some of the greatest online friends ever.
-Sending in my paintings finally and then putting together my video, finishing it and putting it on “the youtubes” (said in a grandparent voice)
-Eating the best sushi in the world. It was so good, after so much of the subpar local and mass marketed grocery store varieties, that we literally High Fived afterward. Yes, the sushi was so good it was high-five worthy.
Things that brought tears to my eyes:
-This video. David after the Dentist. I read there is a controversy about the dad putting it on the internet. I don’t see that it was done maliciously or meant to be damaging, so I don’t agree with the controversy. But, it’s not funny at all to me, it made me tear up at the end he says he feels funny and asked if it was going to be like that forever. How scary and confusing to a small child who doesn’t know what is going on, ya know?
-This post by HulaSeventy: it was the lost ring and the pink balloons that did it for me. Now I want to go out and buy some balloons to put in the house. Flowers are overdone, lets get some balloons to decorate the house with, k? Don’t we all root for balloons to hang high and hope that tomorrow they will droop no lower?
I have finished this little video. I’m very pleased to present it to you, please enjoy!
I finished this ring today.
The collage inside was fun because of the small size. I really think I am going to like working on more of these. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years and years.
On the first attempt I didn’t seal coat the papers well enough and once I poured the resin the doily became transparent.
Second attempt I had to thoroughly coat the doily, but because of that the texture of the paper flattened out and now I don’t think you can really tell that the paper doily is actually a doily.
I need to make a sample one first anyway, to wear and use myself, before making any to add to my shop.
It’s early for spring fever, but I think I can confidently say that it is in full swing here in Northern Illinois. Despite the several inches of new snowfall we had last night and the below freezing temperatures we’ve had this last week, people are in denial and think spring is here. Driving around shows proof.
It’s not just that one kid either. That one kid whose parent will drive past, and seeing their child without a coat on, pulls over and starts yelling “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, PUT YOUR COAT ON!” with the undertones of “OTHER PARENTS WILL SEE YOU AND THINK I AM A NEGLECTFUL PARENT“. It’s more than half of the kids I’ve seen daily this week, and we live situated between a K-5 and the high school. I, myself, was reprimanded by a coworker this week for not wearing a coat. I told him I save my coat for cold days. It was below freezing outside.
It doesn’t help that all the stores have broken out the spring and summer lines of clothing. Last night I saw a group of 6 kids roller-blading, not one of them wearing a coat. I’m seeing joggers out on the streets again. Last week I saw a woman at the grocery store wearing SHORTS! On campus yesterday I saw a young lady wearing sandals.
I take this as a testament to the thick skin of chicagoland area people. This same weather (what we would call a warm spell after January’s month of below zero degrees Fahrenheit) would shut down another city south of the mason dixon line.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the winter, but I gauge the success of the seasons on if I am ready for them to end or not. There were several scary years where I felt we didn’t even have a proper winter before spring arrive. It went from warm to moderately cool to warm to sweltering heat. You know it’s not a real winter unless you’ve had the fear of freezing pipes and the roof collapsing under the weight of snow. This winter has been a success! Time to close the book on it :)
This weekend I was able to get a few things crossed off my yearly list. We took the car for a little mini road trip. We went to Matt’s favorite restaurant Bierstube. Actually it was a different one, but same great food, different atmosphere. AND the item off the list that I’m most proud of so far…I finally sent in my artomat paintings. Good grief, it was years in the making. I wanted to take a picture of me handing the package to the postal worker, but was to embarrassed. But sending them off is not the end of the story, I still have a few things up my sleeve regarding this series and artomat yet.
Unfortunately I am very sad to say that I also let one of my yearly list goals slip me away. Today is the due date for me to send in my moleskin for the arthouse group project. I’m so mad at myself that I wasted this opportunity. I really debated spending money to participate, committed, and then just let other things prioritize over it. The journal arrived in January and I was working on NaBloPoMo for my blog, and had several big projects I was working on, but told myself once february came I’d get it done. Then February came with Thing-A-Day and next thing I knew I had less than a week to even formulate any ideas and complete the whole book. Then of course every day when I need to work my regular day job and then come home to create something for thing-a-day, it just didn’t happen. Okay, I have to stop thinking about it, it actually makes me physically sick to my stomach that I didn’t get this done.
Now, on to things that I have been doing:
I made some small circle collages to base paintings off of. Below is the semi finished results.
I can’t tell you how much I love these pendants. They are only (I think) 1.25-1.5″ inches in diameter and took a very “widuw” brush to paint with. The final steps with these pieces before posting them for sale in my shop will be coating the image area in a thin layer of resin and tying on a strap necklace.
Then the other night in a last minute brainstorm attempt to finish my moleskine arthouse book I got the idea to execute an idea that I’ve had in my head for over half my life. Do you remember those stores in the malls called Arcadia? They carried designer notebooks, folders, pens, pencils and all sorts of awesome paper products. It was my favorite store to go to and I had a dream to create my own line of notebooks with covers of all sorts of textures including this astroturf-like indoor outdoor carpeting. It had not occurred to me until the other night as I was drifting off to sleep to use a moleskine, rather than a spiral-bound notebook. I always have some of the indoor/outdoor carpeting on hand because well, I love everything grass or grass-like, and I use it all the time for different kinds of projects. I also love moleskine and had an unopened package of the cahiers. Viola! They are available in my shop.
Oh, gotta go, I’m already super late for work.
Hello Friends! It’s Friday the 13th, but so far it seems to be a pretty lucky day for me. I’ve been very productive, had two sales in my shop and had a great conversation with “THE Clark Whittington”! Currently, believe it not, I am blogging while in transit. Matt and I are driving to the Quad-Cities for a fun Valentine’s day weekend. Beirstube and Coraline here we come!
Yesterday Rosa was able to secure a treasury, titled Artists of Etsy. She has a great eye and I think this treasury is absolutely front page material. It will be around for another day or two so please visit it and the other featured artists and leave comments.
Last week I got to watch a demonstration by PMC artist Hattie Sanderson at the local art league meeting. Erin and I got VERY EXCITED TO begin using precious metals clay. Before the demo I had no idea that you could just use a small hand torch to fire the clay, and thought you had to have your own kiln. Last night Erin, elinor and I met in Erin’s studio to play for our first time with the clay. Well, as it turns out, Hattie with her 10 years experience, had made using PMC look so much easy than it actually is. I decided to stay very basic and simple and rolled a little ball into a blob shape and simply carved a coffee/tea cup into it. I’m still excited to learn more, but it is something I can tell will take a bit more practice.
Happy weekend everyone!
I have had the above picture in my mind for a long time now, years maybe. I love jewelry, and my taste leads toward the atypical and unconventional. Please visit the flickr page for this picture, and move your cursor over the image to see the artists. Most are handmade and all of them are treasured. There is one missing, a necklace from queenthings, but I have hopes it will turn up again.
It was 50 degrees today, can you believe it? We took the car out for a spin and actually opened up the sun roof.
Above is today’s “thing-a-day”, more collages. Yesterday I finally finished a yarn I’ve been working on for a couple days (below). I’ve made a vow that I will use all the fiber I already have before buying any more. It won’t be too hard because I don’t have too much. I am just trying to head off the problem before it gets to be like my yarn stash, that unfortunately never seems to get touched ever since I took up spinning. Click the image of the yarn to see it larger.
Lately there has been this 25 things meme sweeping facebook and all of the internet. I’ve really been enjoying reading everyone’s and learning just a little bit more about my online and IRL friends. Since I did this a week or two ago, some of the things are outdated. I thought I’d share my slightly adjusted 25 things list here and if anyone else would like to post one on their blog, leave a link for me to check it out.
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.
1. I’m remedial when it comes to facebook. I’ve avoided doing this “25 things” for quite a while now because I couldn’t figure out how to do my own. Then I read the instructions.
2. I got my very own, first ever, P.O. box address today. Did you know it’s only a little over $3 a month for one?
3. The only time I can really seem to get things done, is when I should be doing something else. For example,it’s 10:43 p.m. I should be composing my NaBloPoMo for the day, but instead I am writing 25 things about myself on facebook.
4. When I was a kid I was afraid of adults. Sometimes I think I never grew out of it.
5. When I was in middle school I had a paper route and was bitten by a 13 year old, blind, three legged, toothless dog. I had to go to the emergency room.
6. I don’t like pop, and hate carbonation.
7. Because of that I drink mostly water and am really lazy about keeping track of my cups and glasses of water. I liken myself to that little girl in the movie Signs who keeps refusing all her cups of water and keeps leaving them all over the house. If there is ever an alien attack, my house will be a sure safe zone.
8. I’m down to working only 4 days a week. It’s weird because for around 11 years I worked at least 6 days a week, but I’m getting adjusted EASILY.
9. I’ve been to Alaska.
10. I’ve kissed the blarney stone.
11. Nothing kills my inspiration quite like clutter, thus I have not worked in my studio for a couple weeks. Sad, I know.
12. I haven’t updated my phone in almost 3.5 years.
13. I can spin my own yarn. I have a lendrum spinning wheel and I love it. It’s real yarn too, not some cruddy, barely-stays-together yarn either: http://www.flickr.com/phot
Now, if only I could get people to buy my yarn.
14. I am middle child and am the black sheep of my family. I don’t get excited about politics, startrek or investments.
15. When I was a kid I thought I would grow up and be interested in those things and would talk to other adults about them with passion and care, like the rest of my family, but I didn’t and I don’t.
16. Instead I’m interested in art and leaving/releasing/sharing it in unexpected ways.
17. I had my first email address in 1992/1993 and had to share the account with my brother. It was G Robair, G for Geoff and Robair for me. We had several variations on that and finally when I got my own account, Robair, I goofed that one up somehow and had to settle on creative spelling, thus Robayre. I’ve had this same email address for over 10 years now. Wow. That’s crazy.
18. It drives me nuts when people my same age don’t have email accounts. It’s enough to lose a friend over, but really it probably means they are more interested in living IRL, rather than virtually. Still, why can’t they just check their email occasionally?
19. I have this weird memory of the easter bunny leaving me a note saying my mom’s car accident wasn’t my fault. I should probably talk to my parents about that one, lol.
20. Last night I woke myself up from laughing in my sleep. A few hours later matt woke me up, from laughing in his sleep.
21. I’m a bed hog and hate sharing a bed. My preferred position to sleep in is diagonally, spread eagle.
22. I have my own website that desperately needs a redesign. Robayre.com
23. It’s sad because I am a designer, but the thing is I’m a print designer, not a web designer.
24. When I first began in graphic design I started out in paste-up. I honestly miss those days. I knew my way around a ruler, knife and wax machine, like nobody’s business. What happened to those days of finding line tape stuck to your elbow when you get home at night?
25. I’m 31 years old, but catch myself thinking I’m still in my mid 20s all the time.
Super Special Bonus Round, exclusive to my blog ;)
26. I keep a sketchbook, which is filled with fewer sketches and more ideas and concepts for projects that rarely get executed. If I don’t write them down they will be forgotten, but I come up with so many ideas, by the time I have a chance to get around to them, I’ve usually moved onto a new project.
27. (the next two fun facts came to me after IMing with Sheas the other night) I’ve been backstage Wilco concerts. I’ve eaten their M&Ms, pita and humus in their backstage room. I also have an original silk screen poster for Wilco that all the guys in the band signed, it’s framed and hangs in my living room.
28. I play a little “skit” in my head often after saying or doing something stupid (think, foot in mouth situations). I picture myself talking “blah, blah, duh, blah, blah” and then out of nowhere a brick comes flying and hits me up-side the head, knocking me out in a funny and over-dramatic manner. I’m one of those people who can still dwell on something stupid I said years ago.
Okay, that’s it for now.
Today has been eventful. sad news, great news, and an educational demonstration.
Hello, my name is Robyn and I hatched from a Kinder Surprise Egg. Print Designer by day, Inspiration Junkie by night.www.flickr.com
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