Archive for April, 2011

Mailart for the last week of April

Published
by
robayre
on April 30, 2011
in General Update, Mail Art, My Artwork and Projects
. 11 Comments

Instead of my standard postcards, I’ve come up with a new idea for some mailart365 project pieces. It started out when my best friend showed me a moleskine app she had on her iphone. Unfortunately, she has a newer phone and mine won’t let me download it. No harm because it got me thinking of the moleskine cahiers that I love so much.

4.30.11 Mailart little books7

I’ve been making my own little cahiers for quite a while now, and this whole thing spurred the idea to make some more but then turn them into mailart.

4.30.11 Mailart little books1

I’ll send them directly through the mail, where the addresses, and postage are stuck right on the cover. Each book is 4.25″x5.5″ closed. I collaged on some pressed board, and then coated them with a sealer.

4.30.11 Mailart little books2

These are the open faced covers. I stuck a rubberband inside each book so the owner can keep them closed like in the picture at the top. I haven’t yet put the recipients address on them in these pictures, so that I could share them.

4.30.11 Mailart little books3

I thought it would be a cool collaboration of sorts. My artwork is on the cover and the recipient can fill the blank pages inside with their own words or artwork. I think it will be cool with the cancelled stamps.

4.30.11 Mailart little books4

It’ll be a crapshoot to see if it makes it through the mail or not.

4.30.11 Mailart little books6

We print and mail booklets all the time at work, but those are through bulk mail and these are obviously not bulk. I’ve seen pictures of a banana and toast with postage and addresses being sent through the mail successfully, so I think it’s a good bet they will make it to their destinations.

4.30.11 Mailart little books5

I made wafer stickers to put on the edges to keep them closed through the mail. You can see that below.

4.30.11 Mailart little books all

I really love these books and this idea. I think it would be so much fun, and so unexpected to receive a little blank book in the mail. I hope the recipients like them and use them. I can’t wait to make some more.

Also, I wanted to thank you for the commiseration, tips on other sites and terms to search for regarding the Ikea frames in the last post. I’m a bit more hopeful that I will find a suitable and thrifty replacement.  I did hear back from Ikea officially, and it was pretty much the same thing the employee at a nearby store told me, the frames have been discontinued and that “IKEA products are not discontinued based on sales or consumer demand, but on product availability.” Bummer. Those frames were only $7 or $8, and other frames I’ve seen are closer to the $30 range. Ouch.

I’m crushed – discontinued frame :(

Published
by
robayre
on April 26, 2011
in life
. 6 Comments

reproduction available in my shop new style

Yo-Yo set reproduction available in my shop

When I was going to art school, one thing that was often stressed was to stay away from square format art. It’s very difficult to make a successfully balanced composition in a square format, while rectangular images can easily be off center and still retain equilibrium. Think the “fibonacci sequence” or “Rule of Thirds”. But rules are meant to be broken and I’ve long been pulled towards the square format. Along comes the Ikea Ribba frames in 9×9″ square and my heart sang. Add in the supreme quality, basic style (not to distract from the artwork you are framing) and very inexpensive price tag and you have a product made in heaven. I can’t say I was alone in this because if you have spent a moment on any home decor website, or visited any craft or art shows you will have seen these frames EVERYWHERE.

I’ve personally based so much of my own artwork to be formatted to these frames, as seen above. It wasn’t unusual for me to make an Ikea run and drop a couple hundred dollars to stock up on these frames. Earlier this year my sister went to Ikea and I asked to pick me up some of the frames, but when she got there she said they didn’t have any. No problem, they are probably just back ordered, it’s happened before. A month or so later I dropped into an Ikea and I found the same thing. They had the white and black shadowbox frames, but none of the wooden square ones. Fortunately I still had a bunch in stock. But sadly, this morning I had an order that used my last birch wood frame, so I finally had to break down and make the dreaded call to Ikea. As I feared I was informed that they don’t have any in stock. She said that most likely what has happened is that since they are such a popular frame the supplier who makes them couldn’t keep up with Ikea’s demand, and so Ikea discontinued them out of frustration for not being able to keep them in stock. Ugh. My heart sank. Immediately I had to go to my Etsy shop and put almost all of my framed yoyos, as well as original artwork and prints in “edit mode” because the productd were all pictured in those frames.

I’ve just sent an “email” to corporate Ikea inquiring about the frames, hoping I might get better news from the top, but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime I will have to start the hunt for a replacement product. Square frames are almost impossible to come by, and when you do see them, they are usually gaudy and/or decorative. I’m so sad right now.

Weekly Dump

Published
by
robayre
on April 22, 2011
in Mail Art and My Artwork
. 0 Comments

Once again, my weekly dump for the mailart365 project

4.22 postcard 48 Things on my wishlist
Postcard #48/365, and the list on back reads Things on my wishlist
4.22 postcard 49 Guilty Pleasures
Postcard 49/365, Guilty Pleasures
4.22 postcard 50 Best things to put on a sandwich
Postcard #50/365, Best things to put on a sandwich
4.22 postcard 51 Books I'd like to read this year
Postcard #51/365, Books I’d like to read this year
4.22 postcard 52 Today's to-do list
Postcard #52/365, Today’s to-do list
4.22 postcard 53 DIYs I want to try out
Postcard #53/365, DIYs I want to try out
4.22 postcard 54 What I'd like to do over the next week
Postcard #54/365, What I’d like to do over the next week

Antique Shopping and Penny Rug

Published
by
robayre
on April 19, 2011
in Cool Links, fiber, Fun, General Update, life and Projects
. 6 Comments

Entrance to Josie's
My sister-in-law Dacia and I love garage sale, estate sale and thrift store shopping. A couple weeks ago we visited a local-ish antique shop called Josie’s. A coworker had tipped me off about this antique shop located on an old farm off of historic route 38 (the lincoln hwy.), about 10 minutes away from where we live. Although my coworker told me about all the various farm buildings full of antiques, we were still blown away by room after room in building after building full of antiques. We were there for 3 hours roughly and could have easily spent more time, but Dacia had to get to an appointment.

Immediately upon arriving I had to take out my iphone and take pictures of some of the amazing goodies that were there and others that would have to come home with me.
cluck cluck Sebastion look alike
bah ram ewe peacock
You can see it really was a working farm with chickens and miniature horses, sheep and even peacocks.
LUFF

glass jars
another shelving unit that I want
Dear Gertrude

the kitchen
This Polaroid Landcamera in it’s lovely leather case, as well as one of these wooden bowls came home with me.

When I saw this little piece that was marked “penny rug” I was immediately drawn in. I had never heard of it before, but right away it reminded me of my yoyos and I knew that I’d have to take a crack at this craft myself.

I found these tutorials online

a storybook life

penny rugs and more

As simple as it looks, it was a lot more time consuming than one of my yoyo sets. I wanted my circles to be irregular and organic. I handcut each circle free hand, no templates. I basically spent ALL DAY Sunday making this below:
4.19 penny quilt
and here is the same thing with a white background
4.19 penny quilt

I still need to attach it to the background and was trying to decide, white or black. Unlike the dark more earthy colors that I’ve seen of penny rugs online, my initial inspiration was this photograph by Sandra Juto of granny squares on a white floor. I liked the white background of the floor, white edges of the squares and bursts of color in the center. But, according to comments on flickr, people like the darker background because it makes the pieces pop out, which is completely understandable.

I love how this came out, and can see myself working on these just as often as making yoyos. Busy work, perfect for doing while watching netflix with my honey. I plan on framing the one above, similar to my yoyo pieces. Once it is complete, I’ll return with another picture.

And the winner is…

Published
by
robayre
on April 18, 2011
in Fun and life
. 4 Comments

But wait, before I announce who won the mixtape bag, let’s talk a bit about music and what I did this weekend. Some of you might have heard that Saturday was Record Store Day. Sadly the closest music store is about 25 miles away. It’s sad because I live in a university town where culture and the support of our local economy should be thriving. We used to have a whole handful of record stores, but then Borders and Barnes and Noble moved into town and not only did we lose our local bookstores, but we lost all of our music stores too.

On Saturday Matt, Tom and I drove to downtown Geneva, and went to Kiss the Sky in support of Record Store day. Around the corner from the shop there was a trash bin covered in CD labels. When I still lived with my parents I had a dresser that had one side completely covered in CD labels, but they were more organized than this. Still, I liked it.

CD Labels

The store was hopping. It was quite crowded and hard to maneuver your way through the narrow isles with so many other customers.Record Store Day

Despite going with two music enthusiasts I was saddened by their lack of support. Tom said “When was the last time you actually bought a CD, I can’t even remember myself.” I responded “last month” and he was shocked. I have only once ever PURCHASED and downloaded an entire album online and that was because I thought the artist was only doing digital and later I found out they had CDs and I was fairly disappointed that I had done that. This does not account for a rare download ahem, of music online, ahem, without financial transactions. More frequently, I’ll buy a track here and a track there online for guilty pleasure songs, when I know I won’t ever buy the rest of the album. But for an album I love, I want to hold it in my hands and open it up and smell the printing of the booklet and the ogle the design, artwork and notes.

Yes, I still buy CDs

After our trip I have come to the sad conclusion that I think I’m in the minority of people who still buy CDs. It makes me so sad that someday there will no such thing as album artwork and liner notes. Truthfully, I don’t buy CDs as frequently as I did when I was in high school and college. This reminds me of something my friend Margaret told me when I was just a young thing. She said there will come a time when you look at your music collection and the majority of it will be from a certain era, specifically, a time when you were young and had tons of money to burn frivolously.  I thought that was the worst thing imaginable. So here I am 10-15 years later, still listening and buying music so that I never become that person. Coming home on Saturday I was inspired to create the above image. Do you still buy CDs? Feel free to gank the image and use it anywhere you like. Wave your CD-buying-flag HIGH!

The mixed tape is an obsolete art, replaced by mixed CDs, only to be replaced now by playlists.

giveaway announced
Okay, drumrolllllllllll. The winner of the mix tape bag is Mindy Heindl. Congratulations Mindy, I sent you a facebook message. Send me your address and the bag will be on its way to you soon. If Mindy decides to opt out for any reason, I will draw another name and post it here. I liked this giveaway and think I’ll do more over at the facebook page.

Weekly Dump

Published
by
robayre
on April 16, 2011
in My Artwork and Projects
. 1 Comment

I was super busy and stressed this week. By Thursday I was pretty panicked that I didn’t have any postcards done for the following week yet, AND I had no ideas for pieces to make. Then I remembered how I have a huge stack of old cards in various states of completion. Some of these cards are years old, but I never sent out. I’m so glad for them, then all I had to do was write on the backs and send them out. Now, I think I need to start tons of new cards to have a cache like this for weeks exactly like this.

If you missed it, don’t forget to check out this post for a free giveaway! To enter, all you have to do is like my facebook page :)

41/365 things I'd love to carry with me everywhere
Postcard 41/365 Things I’d love to carry with me everywhere
42/365 favorite online searches to buy things
Postcard 42/365 Favorite online searches to buy things
4.15 postcard 43 things in my studio
Postcard 43/365 Things in my studio
4.15 postcard 44 This I'd like to grow in my garden this summer
Postcard 44/365 Things I’d like to grow in my garden this summer
4.15 postcard 45 Superhero pours I wish I had
Postcard 45/365 Superhero powers I wish I had
4.15 postcard 46 Things I make and sell on Etsy
Postcard 46/365 Things I make and sell on Etsy
4.15 postcard 47 Things to do when it's raining outside
Postcard 47/365 Things to do when it’s raining outside

mini catch up dump and an award

Published
by
robayre
on April 15, 2011
in Artists, Cool Links, General Update and Projects
. 1 Comment

I never got around to posting the last 3 postcards from last weeks mailart365, so I’m doing a little mini dump today. I’ll post this weeks cards tomorrow.

I created 3 little stamps for the background pattern. BTW, is there a name for that scallop-like pattern? Anyway, I stamped the background of all three postcards at once.

I gave this first one a very light gesso wash to make the background more pale. It looked very Eastery, so I painted an egg shape in the center and then drew a girl with bunny ears inside that. I love drawing on gesso. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it.

It’s card #38/365 and the list that was written on this postcard is something like My favorite people.

4.8 postcard 39 things I hope to happen in the next year

The next card I put the mixed stamp stamp over it and called it a day.  The card is #39/365 and the list on the back is things I hope happen in the next year.

4.8 postcard 40 things that hsould happen on road trips

Postcard #40/365, I did a dry horizontal brush in gesso and then another vertical to give it a hopefully textile like texture, then I stamped my polaroid hand carved stamp on it. The list on back is a list I really liked that I came up with, Things that should happen on road trips. I wish all lists were so easy to come up with.

This morning I was awarded the Stylish Blogger Award by Joyce at Young By Design. Thank you Joyce! I will return soon to share my fun facts and share the award with some of my favorite stylish bloggers.

Giveaway Post – Mix Tape Bag

Published
by
robayre
on April 11, 2011
in Fun
. 5 Comments

giveaway announced
As promised, it is Monday and I am back with the giveaway post. Using my handcarved cassette tape stamp, I covered this canvas bag with mini mixtapes. I liked it so much, I want to give one away for free. It is prewashed and the stamps have an almost silk screened feel to them and I like that about it. The bag is 13 inches wide by 11 inches tall, has 6 inch tall handles, and is big enough to hold various necessities as seen above, or maybe you’d rather use it as a recyclable grocery bag, the choice is yours. I’ll also throw in two fabric covered, striped buttons like pictured above.

giveaway announced

To Enter, all you need to do is like my facebook page, located here. Next Monday evening I will pick one random follower to the page. Thanks goes out to Hanna for pointing out that my settings on the facebook page were wonky, not allowing people outside of the US to follow. The problem is fixed and entries from across the world will be accepted :)

I hope you like the bag, and good luck!

Postcards and a giveaway announcement

Published
by
robayre
on April 8, 2011
in Cool Links, Fun, General Update, My Artwork and Projects
. 2 Comments

I only have 4 postcards done as of today. I’ll probably pop in later this weekend with the other three.
4.8 #34 halloween costumes
postcard #34 – The list on the back reads Halloween costumes
4.8 #35 things I can cook or prepare
postcard #35 – Things I can cook or prepare
4.8 #36 things that inspire my artwork
postcard #36 – Things that inspire my artwork.
4.8 #37 Most important people in my life
postcard #37 – Most important people in my life

Now onto the giveaway. Last night when I went into my studio to try and finish this weeks postcards I got distracted by another impromptu project. I really liked how it came out and have decided to offer it as a giveaway. I will publish the official giveaway post on Monday, April 11th 2011, but the idea is going to be that I will be giving the item away to one random follower on my facebook fan page. So, if you’re already there, then you have already entered. If you’d like a jump on entering the giveaway, “like” my facebook page. I’ll give you a couple of hints as to what the item is – 1. It has to do with music, and 2. You can put stuff inside of it.

Bow Tie Rings

Published
by
robayre
on April 7, 2011
in etsy and shop update
. 0 Comments

my rings

Back in February, during Thing-a-Day, I designed a bow tie ring made from fabric. I’ve finally come back to those and created some specifically for my shop. They are now available here in a variety of colors and sizes. If you see one you like, but not in your size, just send me a message and I’ll create a custom listing for you.

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