Author Archive for robayre

Birth-Day!

Published
by
robayre
on March 9, 2010
in General Update and life
. 3 Comments


This morning at 6:40 a.m. I received a phone call from my brother telling me that their baby was just born. A boy. It’s the first grandchild on both sides. Also, I’m an aunt for the very first time.
The whole family is so thrilled and excited. I walked around giddy and smiling all day long.

-The delivery was as perfect as one could ask for.
-We discussed nicknames. His initials are D.R.W. With the D and R it’s like Dr., my sister and Matt were saying it would be cute to call him Doc. My dad said that his father’s childhood nickname was also Doc.
-My dad was recalling the day I was born, he left the hospital and it was a foggy morning. Well, today was also a very foggy morning.

-I went over to my brother and SILs to take their dog out for a walk. When I was leaving I noticed a bright red cardinal fly right in front of me and land in the neighbor’s tree. I always like to think cardinals are a good luck sign.

I’m so happy for my brother and SIL, and I can’t wait to spend time with this new little person, watch him grow and see who he becomes.

some collages

Published
by
robayre
on March 8, 2010
in General Update and My Artwork
. 1 Comment

  

Just a couple collages I did recently. The left has a “postage stamp” I painted in watercolors, and the right one contains the CMYK color samples we printed at my work years ago and have provided miles and miles of material for my collage work.

Herb & Dorothy

Published
by
robayre
on March 5, 2010
in Cool Links
. 0 Comments

finally, finally, finally I got to see the documentary Herb & Dorothy. I remember when I first heard about this movie, I added it to my netflix queue, saving until it came out on dvd. Recently I saw someone mention that they had rented it and so I bumped it to the top of my queue.


I have to say, if you love art you you will like this movie; if you love abstract, contemporary and minimal art you will LOVE this movie. Piece after piece, I felt like I had to scribble down the artists names. It was one of those things (like the Gaiman talk) that made me want to rush to my studio and start producing artwork with passion. It also made me; want to collect artwork, sad that the local art gallery in town closed down and regretful that I didn’t purchase some pieces I really wanted in that gallery while I had the chance. Here is the wikipedia page on the couple.

Impressions left on me after seeing the movie:
-They love animals.
-Both Herb and Dorothy started out creating artwork of their own. Gradually, once they started collecting others’ work, they removed their own artwork from the walls to be replaced by other artists’ work, until they realized they enjoyed other people’s work and collecting it, more than they enjoyed making their own.
 -They bought what they loved, not as an investment or with the potential that they would sell it, but because they thought the pieces were beautiful and interesting and wanted to own them.
-They donated parts of their collection to the National Gallery specifically because; the work would be kept (never sold), that the National Gallery was owned by the government as they both held jobs working for the government (as a postal worker and librarian) and visitors to the gallery can go for free and would be accessible to anyone.
-It has taken the National Gallery (5) 40 ft. moving trucks to move all the artwork from their one bedroom, rent controlled apartment in Manhattan.
-The rest of their collection is to be/was donated, 50 pieces to 50 institutions in 50 states.

Inspiration Junkie Post

Published
by
robayre
on March 3, 2010
in Cool Links and etsy
. 2 Comments

(today’s 365 screen cap)

Oh Gosh. March has stormed in with a gust of inspiration. I have two pages of my full sized sketchbook just filled with ideas for things I want to do. It’s one of those time periods where the days are just not long enough
—
I love twitter, don’t get me wrong, but in the last couple of years since I’ve been using it I’m sad to realize that I post most of my cool link finds there, instead of sharing them here, like I used to do. Today I want to post a few things here that have caught my eye lately. If you follow my twitter, they might not all be new to you. Hopefully, I’ll do more inspiration posts occasionally.

—

Through my google alerts I found this tumblr that reposted a piece of mailart I created and sent to Germany years ago. Thanks to that, I discovered the Good Mail Day tumblr that posts beautiful mail images. I love me some snail mail so I had to subscribe to that right away.

Speaking of… I found a snail mail themed Etsy treasury featuring my stationery sets.

—

(image by littletjane)

I remember when I first started Etsy there was (and probably still is) a lot of talk about how the most successful shops specialize in one kind of item and offer that single thing in a variety of colors or styles. I was given advice that I might want to start up more than one shop for my variety of items. I really struggled with that, and worried that my shop wasn’t cohesive and I think that lack of confidence then created a lack of togetherness. I love so many different areas, and I didn’t want to have to split things apart, or only focus on one single area forever. It wasn’t until I became comfortable and recognized my style that I realized my shop was perfect the way it was, with a large variety of items. Yes, I carry paper products, fine art, handspun yarns, home decorations and jewelry all in one shop and I’m proud of it! When I come across other Etsy sellers who are also Jack-of-all-trades, I feel a kinship. One of these sellers is littletjane. I just had to add littletjane’s blog to my “current crush” list (see sidebar). I’ve been following her blog for a while, but more and more I’ve realized how awesome she is. I love all the things she shares on her blog, but also the things she creates and has in her shop. Check her out at her website, twitter and etsy shop.

—


and last but not least I have to share this cool video by Jenni Rope that I saw on the craft blog. It was one of those things pieces that creates jealousy in my heart because I wish I had created it. Beautiful!

Welcome March!

Published
by
robayre
on March 1, 2010
in General Update, My Artwork, etsy and shop update
. 2 Comments

 The countdown to spring is on! 19 days left. If the rest of those 19 days are as nice as today was, this should be a breeze. The snow was all melty and I was able to drive around with my window rolled down half way.

Today was one of my days where I have to go in to work at 2 a.m. so I had the daylight to myself. I got a lot done. Grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc., etc. I also finally got around to listing the rings I made last month for Thing-a-Day.

  

The circle Paper Wrapped Spiral Stratum Rings are a new offering for my shop. I love the pendants that I make like this so much that I had to make some as rings as well. Dare I say, these rings are even more beautiful than the pendants?

Other rings that have been added are more collage based, similar to other rings that have been in my shop previously. I love this abstract piece above. It is very much like something I could see myself wearing all the time.

Here is a ring dedicated to my love of Polaroid. When I was in college I used to incorporate a lot of the polaroid shape into my artwork, printmaking primarily. This was about 10 years ago now and before Polaroid was becoming extinct, so I don’t think my teacher understood or appreciated it very much.  It warms my heart now to see the Polaroid image in so much artwork nowadays. Each time I see it, it’s like me sticking out my tongue and giving a big raspberry to that teacher and saying “See, other people get it, why couldn’t you?”

 

And finally, here is the last ring. Picture it as a whisper of the spring to come. It looks like the underside of a leaf, but it’s actually a real leaf skeleton, with a green cardstock paper visible from behind, all encased and preserved in resin.

Day Twenty-Eight - Page Spread

Published
by
robayre
on February 28, 2010
in General Update, Projects and life
. 0 Comments

It’s the final day of Thing-A-Day. This month was just sooo busy, and I am glad to welcome March.  If you hear a loud sigh, that would my exhale, letting go of a lot of stress that has built up this winter. I am so excited for spring, and the month to come AND for the madness of February to be behind me. Good things are ahead. Very good things. I can feel it :D

I woke up this morning ready for March, and it wasn’t until the day was well on it’s way that I realized “oops, you are jumping the gun Robyn, you still have one more day left of February”. With that in mind, today I present to you another page from my mini book. The left page is cut out of the fabric paper I made a few days ago.

It’s been so mad these last few weeks that I honestly haven’t even been able to keep up with everyone else’s posts. I look forward to doing that this next week. I hope everyone had a very productive and inspired month! I had a great time contributing and completing my third Thing-A-Day.

See you again soon!

Day Twenty-Seven - Quilt Pieces

Published
by
robayre
on February 27, 2010
in General Update and Projects
. 3 Comments

Today my sister, mom and I went to my aunt’s house where she taught us how to do a quilt pattern called “scrappy nine”.

This is how far I got today.

Each block is a foot square, so 3′x3′ in total right now.  You start with one square of 9 different fabrics and end up with 9 completely different squares. They look pretty random, but everything is actually very organized and calculated. I have more fabric and more colors that I plan to incorporate. I want to make a whole huge quilt eventually.

After finishing our blocks, my aunt took us to Quilter’s Heaven. It was an Ahhhmazing quilt shop with more beautiful fabrics. It was so hard to resist going crazy and buying a little bit of everything. I will definitely be back.

Day Twenty-Six - Zippered Pouch

Published
by
robayre
on February 26, 2010
in General Update and Projects
. 3 Comments

Today’s Thing-A-Day project is exactly 6 months overdo.

I have Fridays off, so I spent more time working on today’s project than I have on a lot of the projects this month. In fact, I made the pouch once, decided it might be a good time to finally look up a “logical” way to sew a zipper in, and then remade it. I am soooo pleased, and so glad I decided to try it again. I used this tutorial and it was a breeze. It worked out perfectly and I have no ugly seams showing like when I’ve made zipper pouches before. Now, I’m going to want to make a bunch more.

The first one I made was solid red with the stripes for the lining, but when I remade it I decided, why does the fun fabric always have to be hidden, so I put the stripes on the outside.

The image is from a crab drawing that my best friend draws and the pouch is for her birthday, which was six months ago. Tada! Happy Birthday Erica!

Day Twenty-Five - More Pages

Published
by
robayre
on February 25, 2010
in My Artwork
. 0 Comments

One thing I’ve been thinking about this month is how I wish that Thing-a-Day was in the summer, when there was plenty of sunlight and hours to work in daylight after I get home from work.

Day Twenty-Four - On rings and how we spent our evening yesterday

Published
by
robayre
on February 24, 2010
in General Update, My Artwork, Projects and life
. 2 Comments

Today I received some new ring blanks I purchased recently. I was very excited to make some paper wrapped spiral rings, like the pendants I’ve made and had success with before. They will take about 24 hours to harden and then if everything goes well, I’ll be adding them to my Etsy shop.

Once they were all assembled, I was so thrilled with the circle ones that I almost gasped at how beautiful they were.

Onto last night. (Mim and Rachel, you might want to brace yourself)

(picture by roll_initiative on flickr)

My brother, sister and I went to go see Neil Gaiman speak at a nearby high school.  If you are not familiar with Neil, he is the author of Stardust and Coraline, as well as many other books, graphic novels, his blog and even twitter. I love seeing and hearing creative people talk. It always inspires me to much that I just want to rush home to my studio and start working madly at my own art. Listening to him talk filled my inspiration well.

He first read from Stardust (which I read some years ago) and then Anansi Boys (which I want to read now after hearing him). Then he did a Q&A with the audience. I just want to share a couple things from last night.

(Let me preface this by saying that it might not have really played out like this, but it sure sounded like it to me)
Audience Member: What is your favorite thing?
Neil Gaiman: What is my favorite thing or theme?
AM: Thing
NG: I’d have to say my favorite thing is Amanda Palmer
Audience: Erupts, goes wild
AM: Actually, I said theme
NG: Oh, I really liked that question, what’s your favorite thing
hehe, I just found a twitter referencing it :)

He spoke of how, growing up, people like to do things until they are informed by others that they can’t do those things. It’s a topic close to my heart. One of my favorite quotes is “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Pablo Picasso. Neil shared an anecdote that each child is born with the ability to be a tight rope walker, and it isn’t until people tell them that they can’t, they wouldn’t be able to do it.

I could have listened to Q&A with him forever. Girls, now I can understand your crushes. Plus, I just read he’s a bee keeper. sigh.

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