New LYS–hooray!
Mary Jane’s Attic, a friend of mine, is opening up a new local yarn shop in san francisco, just a couple blocks from my work. I am so excited! I’m going to host a little opening welcome for her one evening and bring together all the folks I know who like to knit, crochet and papercraft. Visit her website http://www.maryjanesattic.net/. I now have a guilt-free venue for my shopping urges. (I bought more yarn this weekend despite my attempts to stop!)
Funny because when we worked together, I wasn’t into all of these crafty activities. So I think it’s amazing how quickly I’ve become addicted to mixed media collage, altered books, knitting, and crocheting. I’m sure there will some more crafts to add to that list soon!
Add comment August 18, 2008
bookish girl
This was a project from the spring made during our monthly altered book swap workshop led by Diane B from alteredbookstudio.blogspot.com. She had pre-drilled the holes to make it easier (okay, her husband did…) and we used wire to tie on the embellishments. Her posting and instructions are here.
The book title made me think of something rustic, vintage and quaint. Diane had brought all sorts of objects from her stash and a red/gold tasseled brooch-like object inspired me. I strung it on top of a big wooden bead and used a button as a face and the tassels became pigtails and the brooch became a cute hat.
The arms are made from beaded wire wound around a couple drawer handles. I had a lot of fun making this and I’m quite proud of it…but what should I do with it now?
Add comment August 16, 2008
First art retreat coming up soon…
I’m looking forward to attending the ZNE Convention next week! I’ve gotten a couple comments on this blog from attendees and it seems that in many places I looked, there are people who are attending!
I need to start gathering “stuff” and ideas for my workshop which seems to have been one of the first to sell out. It’s Lisa Kaus’ class and here is the link to her blog which shows the project in some details.
I’ll try and photograph some materials I’m hoping to use next week!
Add comment August 16, 2008
Football and crafting season begins!
although it’s the second week of preseason, for me, this is my first kickoff for NFL!
To go with this momentous, long-awaited minute, I’ve picked a craft project to start. I like to do crafts while watching sports and so I’ve decided to give the recycled magazine bowl/vase project a try. You may have seen these for sale–and they are a bit pricey. But there is a very nice confidence-building set of instructions on Patricia Zapata’s blog. Seems simple enough and I have soooo many magazines!
Add comment August 16, 2008
Buy buy (altered book)
This was the second “Cliche” altered book spread which went with my “Bring Home the Bacon” one. In both, I explore the idea of women and economics–”Bacon” was about working women and this one is about shopping!
This one says “if the shoe fits…” and the flap says, “buy it” and the last page says “wear it.” When the middle flap is unturned, it just reads the original cliche “If the shoe fits…wear it!” As usual, I like to have something remaining of the original book and so the “if” is from the underlying recipe book.
And of course you recognize my signature habit of using magazine photos to reflect the contemporary nature of the message.
Add comment August 10, 2008
calamity altered book swap page 1 (1)
Another spread for my altered book swap Calamity book. In this case, I had some scrapbook paper that said “fin” which I always thought a bit strange…but in this case, it seemed that a big vintage “fin” (the end) fit for a book about calamities befalling a fictional family name “Calamity.” The “fin” was a flap which opened up with text underneath.
The photograph featured a man standing in front of a case which read “Lion Coff.” My background story was “He made a fortune selling Lion Coff Syrup until the unfortunate day he tried a taste of his own medicine!”
Add comment August 8, 2008
Kiva microloans
I’ve become more active posting on Ravelry–the knitting/crocheting on-line community website–and I found a group dedicated to knitters/crocheters who support Kiva. Kiva is all about making microloans (around $25) to people all over the world. These small loans can be added up to buy farm equipment, buildings, seeds, or other items to build economic security for families in developing countries. It is incredibly rewarding and I’ve been making loans for quite sometime now and am now able to reloan money which has already been repaid.
But what makes this post fit into this blog is realizing that there are some (not many but some) requests for loans come from craftspeople including knitters and weavers! I typically try to find and fun artists and medical causes. I’m sometimes unsure about agricultural loans because there are many unsustainable agricultural practices out there–and my ambivalence comes becomes I want to support individuals trying to make a living, but sometimes making a living comes at a price for wildlife and natural habitats. So I understand, but I don’t necessarily want to support it with my own loans.
But check it out! The microloans are just as rewarding as finishing a knitting project!
Add comment August 7, 2008
Calamity altered book pages
This was for my altered book swap for the “Calamity Family Album.” I picked a fictitious character who I imagined wanted to be like Charles Lindberg until he came to an untimely death!
I thought I made a lot of progress with this page in that there was a bit more texture and life to this page unlike some of my other works. But it still uses the magazine cutouts I like so much!
Add comment August 6, 2008
crochet beanie
Here’s the crochet beanie I made after I took a class at Knit One One in Berkeley. I loved making it and I’ll never knit a hat (I am scared of dpns). I also made a kid-sized one as mentioned previously.
The yarn is Cascade 220 wool and the flower was an embellishment put on by a 6 year old for fun — it’s not actually attached!
Can’t wait until it cools down enough for me to wear this!
1 comment August 4, 2008
AB: what i suck at
Here was my second page spread for the “What I suck at” Altered book.
Spoiler: the answer was “I suck at wearing white.”
My style is to incorporate magazine photos for a contemporary look and then add some interactive techniques. In this case, the orange blobs represent all the stains and drips which end up on my white clothes. They are cut out of transparencies and tied onto on strings so you can place the orange drips on the page and position them on different white outfits. It could’ve been executed a little better but I thought it was appropriate to my beginner status and I was proud of the idea anyway.
1 comment August 3, 2008
