Archive for the 'Projects' Category

Day Twenty-Eight - Page Spread

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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

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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-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.

Day Twenty-Two - CD and Fabric Paper

Published
by
robayre
on February 22, 2010
in Fun, My Artwork and Projects
. 3 Comments

Today for Thing-A-Day I finished a mix CD I’ve been working on, tweaking and refining for a long time. I burned the first copy and listened to it to make sure there were no skips and the music all flowed properly from song to song. I am still brainstorming for ideas on the album artwork. I sat down at my drawing table to begin working on the artwork when I remembered a post I saw earlier today.

I saw this tutorial post on iHanna’s blog about making fabric paper and it seemed like fun.

The first one I made I really liked, but then I wanted to “tint” it and added some acrylic paints and I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome. That is more than a light tint, wouldn’t you say? I wanted it to be light yellow with “barely there” touches of green and orange, and instead it became red and green. Go figure.

I had fun though, so I decided to do another one. This one (all the more “white” images above) I left alone. I chose more neutral colored paper bits and I think I might come back over it later with a very watered down wash of white.

What will I end up doing with these? Who knows, but I thought I might scan them in and do some digital work over it for the album artwork.

Day Fifteen - More Pages

Published
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robayre
on February 15, 2010
in General Update, Projects and life
. 1 Comment

Today I did a couple more pages in my little book. The left page is covered in metallic blue star stickers and the right is watercolored, then sprinkled with salt for texture. On top of that was silvery glitter pen and pastels in swirls.

When I went to take the picture at first the camera didn’t focus. I retook it, but when I saw the blurry one I actually liked it because it kind of went with the dreaminess of the image, so I put them together for a diptych.

For the first time in my life I have laryngitis. I’ve always thought it would be cool to lose my voice, just to see what that was like. It’s kind of funny and it doesn’t hurt so no harm done. Matt says he enjoys it because now he can get a word in, lol.

I just realized it’s the second half of the month of February. Halfway through the Thing-a-Day challenge.

Day Thirteen - Teaching a 7-year-old how to knit

Published
by
robayre
on February 13, 2010
in General Update, My Artwork, Projects and etsy
. 3 Comments

Today for my Thing-A-Day I taught my 7 year old niece to knit. She’s been wanting to learn so I brought along needles and yarn. It’s the second time I’ve taught a 7 year old to knit, but honestly, I think 8 would be ideal. Although she took it up pretty easily she also got lost just as easily and was hoping that what she was working on would be able to turn into a sweater, lol. cute.

I also finally got around to listing the three new paper wrapped spiral pendants to my Etsy shop.

 

Also, I got a message that I’m featured in this Etsy Treasury with one of my Quilted and Framed Yoyo Sets. It will be up until Monday so please head over and check out the links :)

Day Twelve - New Bag

Published
by
robayre
on February 12, 2010
in General Update and Projects
. 2 Comments

Today, for my thing-a-day, I sewed a bag for myself. The colors on this first pic are all wonky because I took the picture late at night. I am not very skilled on the sewing machine and it is pretty obvious from looking at the bag closely, but I am proud of myself. I was able to whip that up in an hour or less.

I require all my bags to be big enough to hold my sketchbooks.

And below you can see the colors more acurately.

Day Eleven - I Want A Pony

Published
by
robayre
on February 11, 2010
in My Artwork, Projects and etsy
. 1 Comment

Today for my Thing-a-Day post I made this mixed media wearable art pendant. It’s your birthday and here’s confetti and the horse you’ve always wanted.

Robyn fun fact: I’ve never wanted a pony or a horse. I love animals, and I had my share of My Little Ponys when I was little, but I’ve never understood the whole wanting a horse thing. In fact this silhouette is traced from a zebra. Now, zebras are animal I can understand. Having a pet zebra would be a fashionable accessory to me = I love black and white stripes.

If you’ve always yearned for a horse, well, now is your chance. I’ve listed this pendant in my Etsy shop.

Day 10 - Buttons

Published
by
robayre
on February 10, 2010
in Projects and life
. 6 Comments

Today I made all sorts of fabric covered pinback buttons for thing-a-day. Just for fun, I will send a button to the first three people who leave a comment here and tell me which button they like best.

I woke up this morning to my bed shaking. I laid there while I wondered what was going on, turned over and watched the rattling windows then contemplated if I should run to the doorway, the bathroom or downstairs. Decided to just lay there. After everything stopped shaking I went downstairs to see if we had an earthquake. At first I couldn’t find anything, but as I refreshed the pages then it finally popped up. Sure enough, we had a 3.8 earthquake which very close to my city. On the radio this morning they were talking to some “expert of something or other” and she put it this way: “As long as it’s just a small earthquake and no damage was done, the result is just a little bit of excitement.” I was sad because Matt was playing video games late last night and ended up falling asleep on the couch in the basement. He’s a deep sleeper so he missed the whole thing. If he had been in bed you better believe I would have woken him up.  Today the most frequently heard thing was “It sounded like a snow plow ran into the house”.

Okay, off to bed.

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