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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-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
. 3 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.

I was featured…

Published
by
robayre
on February 16, 2010
in Cool Links, Coverage, General Update and etsy
. 1 Comment

on the blog CreatureComfortsBlog with my white on white Paper Wrapped Spiral Pendant. It’s a collection of work that was inspired by her brother’s drawing. What a wonderful article to be included in because I am in love OBSESSED with childrens’ artwork.

Check it out, and others like it at my Etsy shop!

Day four - Collage

Published
by
robayre
on February 4, 2010
in My Artwork and Projects
. 1 Comment

Day four from Thing-a-Day.

Today I did these 4 quick collages, in my sketchbook, which will be used later for painting references.

-Robyn

My previous Thing-a-day 2010 posts: Day One, Day Two, Day Three,

Recycled Kusadama Paper Ornament

Published
by
robayre
on December 2, 2009
in General Update and Projects
. 7 Comments

Recycled Kusadama Ornament, originally uploaded by robayre.

Tonight Matt and I sat down to make our annual Christmas ornament. And eeep, if last year’s ornament was too big to hang on a tree well, check out this year’s (the larger of the two). My original vision last year was to make a whole bunch of these and cover a tree with them and white Christmas lights.

I followed this 2 stage pattern. Make sure you have lots of time, it takes about 3 hours with two people working at it. AND we use translucent double faced tape. I can’t imagine how long it would take if you used glue like the instruction say. This year I followed the directions for size and the instructions call for 60 7 inch square pieces of paper. It wasn’t until afterward I reread my post from last year and saw that I stated I used 4 inch square papers. Basically this year’s ornament is equal to a good sized globe in diameter.

Once again I cut apart an old art magazine with a good weight, luster and variety of colors. Next year I hope I return to this post and read it before creating the third ornament. Robyn, cut the paper down to 3 inch squares please. Not that it will make the process any faster, but perhaps one year we might actually make an ornament that can fit on the tree.

still in it

Published
by
robayre
on November 23, 2009
in General Update and etsy
. 2 Comments

My studio is still in a flurry of paper. The piles of paper are mounds of randomosity AND awesomosity. This summer I acquired a cigar box of old stamps and was organizing them a bit to add some to each paper kit. I had to capture this picture, well, because you can see, pretty-pretty.

 

I was excited to see today that my grass journal made it to Etsy’s front page early this morning. I think Cal Patch put it perfectly when she said “In the world of Etsy, being featured on the front page is one of the highest honors” and when it turns out that it was an Etsy curated front page, well, that is enough to gush over.

Paper Kit of Randomosity

Published
by
robayre
on November 20, 2009
in General Update
. 1 Comment

Today was a very productive day. I barely sat down for five minutes. It was nothing creative, just busywork, like cleaning and errands, but it felt good all the same.

This evening I finally had some time in the studio. Earlier this month I sold my last Paper Kit of Randomosity and have been wanting to put together some new paper packs. The picture above is actually an old shot from a swap I did years back. Assembling the paper packs can look sort of similar, only all the papers are piled up and there are 8 identical piles. The floor of my studio is currently a paper stacking warehouse. This product is pretty fun to assemble as I am a paper fiend. Paper, paper everywhere!

This time around I’d like to get a bit more creative. I am going to get my Randomosity-ization on. I want to include papers with my own patterns I’ve created, and maybe some stickers I’ll make.

Here’s some eye candy from the last collection. I’ll be sure to post again once I start adding them to my shop.

matchbook tutorial

Published
by
robayre
on November 13, 2009
in Artomat, General Update and Projects
. 2 Comments

Today I assembled these little matchbook styled scrap-pads to add to my purchase packs that go out with every order. I used to have these quarter sized recycled scratch pads, but when I ran out I got the idea to revamp the plan and make matchbook styled scrap pads. And you know me, whenever there is an option, always go miniature!

While I was making them I thought it would be pretty easy to take a few snapshots and put together a little tutorial on making these easy-peasy pads. They are still made from recycled, hence the “scrap-pads”.

The materials are basic things everyone has in their home. Scrap paper, scissors or paper cutter, and stapler. If you’re feeling like getting tricked out, grab a ruler, glue stick and bone folder.

The paper size is 1/16th of an 8.5×11, meaning I halved, halved, halved and halved again, if you can keep that straight. Otherwise it’s 1.0625″ x 1.375″. That’s not based on real matchbooks, but just in the ease in halving over and over again. For the cover I just grabbed some 12×12 scrapbook paper, but you could also use any pretty paper you have lying around. I think I’ll use paper from old books for my next batch, then they will be truly recycled (aside from the new staple). I cut the scrapaper down to strips roughly the same width as the halved paper (1.0625″).

1. I used the halved paper in stacks of 10 since that seemed to be how much my stapler could handle. Placed my stack of paper face up with the decorative paper face down and stapled them together like shown in picture 1.

2. Slightly above the staple, I fold the paper back down. You should be able to see the decorative side of the paper now, like in picture 2. This way you can hide the staple.

3. Continue wrapping the paper around the back, creasing the folds, like in picture 3.

4. Now fold over the top, from behind to front, like in picture 4.

5. Carefully trim the decorative paper so that once trimmed the edge fits under the flap from the bottom as seen in picture 5.

6. Voila! You have a handy-dandy snazzy easy-peasy pretty scrap pad.

Use the bone folder to crease and fold and the glue stick to glue the back page to the back cover, if you like.

Throw a couple in your purse so that when your frantically riffling through your purse looking for a piece of paper to write down a phone number on, or to throw away the gum you’ve been chewing on for eternity, you are golden. I took mine a tiny step further and put my personal stamp on the inside cover, as seen in the first image. You could go to whatever lengths you want to gussy them up. They are fun to make, quick, cute AND functional.

Making these I was reminded that the Artomat machine at KCH has a “matchbook” slot, where a book would have dropped with every pack of cigarettes. I wonder if books like these would work in that machine. It would be a cool project for the students there to make their own “art matchbooks” that would drop with each Artomat sale.

 

paper stash

Published
by
robayre
on April 21, 2009
in General Update and My Artwork
. 0 Comments

  • I have a drawer filled with large pieces of scrapbooking papers, fine art papers, book making papers, origami papers, etc.
  • I have one drawer filled with stickers (purchased and handmade), and all sorts of papers with adhesive backs, etc.
  • There is another drawer filled with fun things like coin holders, slide viewers, doilys, tags, die-cuts, etc.
  • One drawer is filled with pads and books of decorative papers, etc.
  • Yet another drawer is filled with vintage papers, clip art pages, book pages, etc.
  • But the best drawer is the one filled with only the tiniest bits and bobs of etc. This drawer is brimming with scraps/treasures from all the other drawers. No piece of paper too small.sorry the crummy camera phone pic
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