Iron Craft Week Thirteen

This week's challenge was titled "Best in Show" and featured crafts based on animals (roundup1 and roundup2). I love animals and wish that I wasn't so busy so I could have a pet at home. I'm allergic to cats (but love them) and I am very partial to dogs--of all sizes. In terms of favorite animals--one would have to be elephants. I was very lucky to have a friend that worked at an elephant pen at a local zoo. I actually got to pet, feed and oil the elephants. When elephant's skin starts to dry out, you have to spray oil on them to keep them moisturized. You get this big tank and a spray nozzle (like those spray wax machines for your cars) and stray them with oil. My favorite time was when I got to play with twin baby elephants. A baby elephant reminds me of a balloon with ears. My second favorite animal is the panda. I have been infatuated with pandas since I was little. I decided to do this cutout because I think it's cool to see a parent with their child (rather it is in the animal or human world). I was really please with the way that this turned out and will be more pleased when I do it in a larger format. This is a hand painted watercolor background and measures 5.5" by 6.25" and appears in my art journal.

Iron Craft Week Twelve

This week's challenge was devoted to "Luck." I was truly inspired by some of the terrariums that were built for last week's "Green" challenge. As I was walking to the local bodega to get a Coke Zero, I rounded the corner and saw this vendor that was selling bamboo stalks. In NYC, we call it Lucky Bamboo and you must buy three stalks for it to be lucky--actually, I think the vendors make that up in order to sell more bamboo. I bought the bamboo for $2. I already had the river rocks from another project and I retrieved the vase from the trash as it was being thrown away by one of the actors at the theater. Even though I spent money, I think that it is a good project (roundup1 and roundup2).

Iron Craft Week Eleven

This week's challenged was based on the color "green" in honor of St. Patty's Day. I have to say that I had to revert to my old craft days and design some cards because I really don't "do" green. I hate green--I always have. I don't have very many green clothes. I really don't have green anything--especially in craft supplies.

We were instructed not to do any "Green" as in recycling, etc. We had to use the color "green." This placed me in a very difficult situation because--I didn't even have any green card stock to do a cutout. Other crafters didn't have as many problems as I did (roundup1 and roundup2).

I started searching my stash of supplies and found some old pressed leaves and flowers that I had used in a previous project. I decided to mount them in my oval designed tri-fold cards. One was in a pale green/yellow card stock and the other was a desert colored brown card stock. The papers used were petal infused handmade paper from Kate's Paperie that I had on hand. Overall, I was pleased with how they turned out.

Iron Craft Week Ten

This week's challenge was called "Fat Tuesday in the Quarter." I had no idea what the challenge was going to be. We were required to make something out of a "fat quarter" of fabric. First of all, I had no idea what a fat quarter was. More importantly, I had no idea if I had any fabric hanging around the apartment or studio.

It was explained to me that a quarter yard of fabric is usually 9" by 44" when cut off the bolt. A fat quarter is cut differently and measures 18" by 22" which gives you more options on how to use the material. A general guideline is the shape and size of a bandanna. I was amazed at the projects that were created with such a small piece of fabric (roundup1 and roundup2).

I was really stumped on this challenge because I had vowed not to spend any money on these projects. I was looking for old T-shirts or old shirts that I could use. I had a couple of options in clothing. I was also looking at old bedding that could be used and had a couple of options there as well. I decided to look in my sewing storage container and found this beautiful piece of fabric that I had used several years ago. The fabric was left over from a bulletin board project that I had made for a friend of mine. It featured large poppy flowers in oranges, yellows and browns.

I decided to make a large storage box with brown book cloth and used a piece of the fabric as the inset in the top of the box. I had to back the fabric with paper so that the glue wouldn't seep through the fabric. I used a heat bond adhesive and backed the fabric with Japanese tissue.

Iron Craft Week Nine

This week's challenge was called "And the Oscar Goes to . . ." and we were supposed to a project inspired by the movies (roundup1 and roundup2). This was an easy challenge for me as I already had a project planned but I never got around to actually completing it.

I had found a book called "100 Faces of Hollywood" at an old bookstore. Many of the pages were damaged and waterlogged but there were many good pages that could be used for something. I had already separated the pages for using in a project but just hadn't pull the trigger to make it happen. I decided to make envelopes out of the pictures.

The envelopes are A6 sized which fits a 4" by 6" card. Each of the envelopes featured an Oscar award winning actor/actress/director. The envelopes are lined on the inside for added strength. The liners are made from Abercrombie and Fitch catalog pages.

Iron Craft Week Eight

For this week of Iron Craft, we were challenged to craft something dedicated to our hometown (roundup1 and roundup2). I was on the fence about what I wanted to do. I could have done my hometown of Houston, Texas which would have been easy. I could have done West Lafayette, Indiana which was were I went to school. Or, I could do my current hometown of New York City. While I have only lived in NYC since 2002, I believe that NYC really is my hometown because I truly believe that it the place that I was meant to live.

I was walking down Broadway on my way to the theater, and I was overwhelemed by the street vendors handing out brochures for theater ticket discounts. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to do an homage to Broadway theater. I designed a two page spread in my art journal. The paper is Arches cold pressed watercolor paper. On one page, I used my handmade alcohol inks to lay down a background and did the paper cutout of the Statue of Liberty. The other pages uses a NYC subway map printed paper on which I cutout images from some of my favorite Broadway shows--Mary Poppins, West Side Story and the Lion King.

Iron Craft Week Seven

This week's challenge was called "Midas Touch." I thought about doing something with gold leaf as was suggested. I also considered doing something with gold spray paint or embossing powders, etc. I woke up one morning with this idea--a paper cut of a silhouette fingerprint that was then backed with gold paper.

I tried to fingerprint myself and after thirty minutes and a dried out ink pad, I finally came up with several prints to choose from. For some reason, I was attracted to this thumb print. After spending way too many hours cut, I decided to mount it on a piece of gold textured card stock.

I am rather happy to say that I am very pleased with the outcome.

Valentine's Day Mystery Cards

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but Valentine's Day crept up on me and I was unprepared. I made several one of a kind cards that I will be sharing with you soon (of course, I can't post them here until after the big day as not to ruin the surprise for the lucky recipients).

I do want to share with you a project that I have been working on which has really been taking up my time. After reading the blog of one of my favorite art bloggers (Dude Craft), I came across this entry and wanted to do an anonymous, feel good project for Valentine's Day. I came up with mini-valentine's cards that people could leave for those they love. They are small mini-envelope sized cards that are empty on the inside so that an inscription can be left for any occasion. I used to leave them for other people and I called them "just because" cards.

For this project, I bundled up five different cards with envelopes in white tissue paper with the explanation sticker showing and left them throughout NYC. I left them at my theater, at grocery stores, at the library, and at several bookstores--all anonymously. There are over 120 Love Note packages (that's 600 individual cards) floating around for people to find and use.

I just want people to share the love--whenever--not just for Valentine's Day.

Iron Craft Week 5

This week on Iron Craft, we were tasked with designing and making a Valentine's card. I was happy to say that this was an easy challenge for me especially since I make cards every day. I decided to return to my roots and paint some new backgrounds and make some quote cards.

To make the backgrounds, I take a single sheet of watercolor paper and paint, stipple, scrape, paste, cover, manipulate and layer it. Then, I cut the paper into individual pieces that I use to make the card. Each card is an original card since it can't be re-created because the single sheet of watercolor paper can never be duplicated. The background for the top card above was made with a watercolor wash, mulberry paper and gel medium. The bottom card was made with a watercolor wash, alcohol ink splashes, mulberry paper, and gel medium.

The top card above was made with a watercolor wash, re-inker splashes, and salt placed on the wet watercolor. Gel Medium was not used so that a matte finish could result.

The image on the bottom card was made with permanent ink and a rubber stamp. I then used colored pencils and Gamsol to tint the image. The image just makes me smile. I will be making these cards to give away for the Meals on Wheels card program.

Broadway Boxes #3

As mentioned yesterday, this past weekend was full of making Broadway boxes. For the week of February 1 through February 6, Melissa Etheridge will be performing in the musical American Idiot. She will be making her Broadway debut with this show. To commemorate her performance, there will be a special Playbill/program that will feature her picture--for this week only. To congratulate her on this accomplishment, I was asked to make a presentation box to hold her commemorative Playbill.

The case of the box is covered in a red Japanese iridescent book cloth. When tilted, there is a purple sheen to the fabric. On the cover of the box, I have debossed the same heart grenade and the title of the show--American (running vertically) and Idiot (running horizontally). The tray is covered in a French Marbled paper in colors of red, black and gold.

The interior of the box is covered in black Prestige paper. The tray on the right is filled with a platform so that there is height to the Playbill. The platform is covered in black Prestige paper as well. The structure of the box is a classic drop-spine box.

Broadway Boxes #2

The weekend was full of making more boxes to give away as members of the cast left the Broadway musical American Idiot. The actor that left on Sunday was a featured actor who did not have any program inserts. Therefore, a new style of box was necessary. The above sample uses reversible Unryu paper from Thailand. The lid of the box is debossed with a symbol from the show--a heart grenade. The interior of the box is capable of holding 4 x 6 photos or postcards. The interior is lined with black Prestige paper.

Tartan vs Plaid vs Gingham (Part 2)

In terms of paper weaving, I wanted to illustrate the differences between Gingham, Plaid and Tartan. Using solid colored strips of cardstock, I set out to show the difference between these three designs.

Gingham is two colors of stripes, usually the same width. One color is usually white. Think of picnic tablecloths. Below is an example of a gingham with the strips being 1/2" wide.



A plaid is usually two colors and the width of the stripes can be the same or not. Below is my example of a Buffalo plaid (think flannel shirts) using the traditional red and black. Notice that the widths of the stripes vary--the wider stripes are actually two widths of the same color. All of the stripes are 1/2" but are combined in different patterns to make them wider.




A tartan is usually more than two colors on a solid background. The widths of the stripes change. In this case, I used 1/4" and 1/2" strips in both directions to give the tartan look. Also, I used four different colors to mimic the tartan look. The base color is the dark purple.




Next week, I will discuss using patterned strips and uses for your weaved paper. Have a great weekend.

Tartan vs Plaid vs Gingham

I opened a total can of worms when I mentioned in my last post that I was trying to mimic a tartan design with my paper weaving. First, I must designate that the terms that I am using are based in America and have a totally different meaning in the UK. In the UK, tartan is the pattern and plaid is a piece of tartan fabric that is worn over the shoulder.


In the United States, I was told that plaid is a pattern that uses two colors usually in consistent perpendicular patterns. Sometimes, the patterns can be different of different widths. When I think of plaid, I think of the buffalo plaid that is common in flannel. Below, is an example of a plaid.




In this case, the widths of the stripes are consistent. When the stripes are the same color and when they appear on a white base (sometimes the base will be a color other than white), I was told that this was classified as a gingham. Usually, the stripes in both directions are the same width, although the widths can be different.



(l) small weave gingham pattern.
(r) large weave gingham pattern.


Tartan, on the other hand, are more than two colored stripes that appear on a solid background. The widths of the stripes are different widths. When we think of tartan, we think of kilts. The patterns below are examples of tartans.



Tartan images courtesy of Wikipedia.com. Plaids and Gingham images courtesy of warmbiscuit.com

Iron Craft--Week Four

This week on Iron Craft, we were supposed to make our own coffee cozy. I don't drink coffee or tea but have randomly stopped by the overpriced coffee store that appears on every other Manhattan street corner in order to get some hot chocolate.

Of course, I knew that I wanted to do something out of paper. So I stopped by the overpriced coffee store that appears on every other Manhattan street corner and acquired (stole) a couple of cardboard cozies to use as templates. I really started to admire the engineering involved with making the cozy because you have to take into consideration the many angles, slopes and tabs.

I have been toying with the idea of trying to use more of my scraps on a project. I decided to do a paper weave with some of my scraps. I used a palette of yellow and red and used two different sizes of strips--1/8th" and 1/2". I was trying for a tartan look and should have used more colors rather than more patterns. All in all, I am pleased with the way that it turned out.

BTW, the cup shown above was thrown away by a co-worker and is acting as a model before rejoining the trash can.

Projects-in-Progress

There are several projects that I continually work on--some with and some without a closure date. I have been commissioned by Penguin books to create 10 cutouts that will be used to illustrate a children's story of my choosing. The collection of stories will be illustrated by 10 different artists using 10 different media. My medium will be silhouette cutouts. I have until the end of next week to decide which fairy tale that I will choose. I am leaning towards Jack and the Beanstalk. After viewing this silhouette movie by Lotte Reiniger, I also am intrigued by doing Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs.

I am also working on designing a special Broadway box for Billie Joe Armstrong when he leaves the cast of American Idiot. I hope to cover the box in green leather and feature a logo from the show.

Another project that is in its design stages is a pentagon box with lid. I want to work out the angles and master the logistics of covering the box.

Finally, I need to finish my Iron Craft project this week. This week we are supposed to make a cozy/belly band for a cup of coffee. Of course, mine will be made out of paper but figuring it out will take a little bit more time.

New Year's Resolution #5

This year, I hope to be better organized with my materials. As I have been designing products for sale in my Etsy store, I have been deficient in labeling the materials being used. In the product descriptions on my items, I would like to be able to say the type of book cloth, or the type/weight of the paper that I am using, etc.

The problem that I have is that I get so excited about the creating, I just move forward and make things. Once I have the prototype/example, I file the details regarding the making of the item. In other words, I notate the dimensions etc. but never annotate the materials themselves.

Another problem that I have is that I have loads of materials that simply aren't marked. I have rolls of book cloth that I have no idea (1) where I bought it, (2) how much it cost, or (3) its name. I got so excited and folded hundreds of sheets of paper so I could put it in the book press but then forgot to label it so that I could remember the name/weight of the paper. I can still use the paper but I only feel comfortable selling those journals in person because I can't fill out the details in my online store.

Oh well, this is the way one learns the ins and outs of owning your own business.

Paper Fridays--Butterflies, Fans and Cranes, Oh My. . .

More of my paper stash for you to love. Have a great weekend.

Broadway Boxes

Left: Japanese lift top box
Right: Japanese lift top box with inserts

On Broadway, there are several traditions that happen when one of the actors leaves the production. On the final performance, the cast usually sings the song Happy Trails before the curtain raises on the final performance of the leaving actor. Another tradition, especially if the actor is an understudying a role in the show, is to give the actor copies of the program inserts (stuffers) as a memento of their participation in the show.

One of the problems with receiving the inserts is that they are usually loose pieces of paper. Many Broadway shows simply recycle the inserts when the actor leaves the show. For our production, I used to make notepads by using padding solution to glue all of the loose pieces of paper into one solid notepad. We would hand a couple of the notepads to the exiting actor for their own personal use.

For our current production, I have been making handmade boxes to hold the inserts so that actors could have a nicer way to keep their inserts as they use them for scratch paper. This past weekend, I made a prototype for one size of the inserts. It is simple a lift top box to hold the loose inserts inside.

Notice the dimension of the boxes--there is a 1/8th inch reveal of the bottom tray

Here are the two prototypes of boxes that I made for one type of inserts. I am a little partial to the blue box. Both boxes use papers from a marbler in Germany that I will be featuring next week. I am still waiting for his permission to feature him online.

The top and bottom trays are covered in bookcloth and the decorative paper is cut to size.

These boxes are based on a Japanese design that I discovered on my last trip to Japan. I will detail the differences between Western style boxes and Japanese style boxes in a later post. Right now, I just want to bask in their beauty.

Iron Craft Week Three

I was so excited when I saw the title for this week's challenge on Iron Craft--Just bunt. I was thinking baseball and you know how fanatical I am about baseball. My world came to a crushing halt when I read the description--bunting and garland.

I have to say--I am not a big bunting fan. When I think of bunting, I think 4th of July and those red, white and blue streamers and swags, etc. When I think of garland, I automatically think about Christmas and stringing popcorn and/or cranberries and then the ants that get attracted to such live edible decorations (at least in Texas where I grew up).

I was actually going to skip this week due to a lack of imagination and a backlog of custom orders. Then, I got a shout-out and then boasted that Thing1, Thing2 and I were going to represent the male crafters of the world--I felt a little pressure to come up with something.

I decided to revisit the tradition of 1000 cranes. In Japanese culture, it is good luck to receive 1000 folded origami cranes. Usually, 40 cranes are tied on a single string and you give out 25 strings. Most people add a few extra cranes just in case someone miscounted. A newer tradition is for families to give new parents 100 cranes to hang over a baby's crib. In this tradition, 9 strings of 11 cranes are suspended from a larger crane.

(Here you can see the detail of three of the different strings of cranes. Glass beads are used to keep the cranes from sliding down the string. Traditionally, three separate types of beads are used on a 100 crane project--pewter, brass, and pearl. Each signify a traditional wish for the child).

Here are my cranes hanging around my bulletin board.

I apologize for the spooky lighting for these pictures. It looks like an Alfred Hitchcock movie but I couldn't get a good picture without the shadows.

Pamphlet Stitch Hard Bound Book

I wanted to work on some bookbinding projects this past weekend. I have a supply of Khadi handmade watercolor paper that I wanted to use for a project. The paper is handmade in India and is 100% cotton rag. The size is A4 which folds in half to a size of 4" x 6". I wanted to create something simple and fast so I decided to create a hard bound pamphlet stitch book.

The book consists of two signatures of 5 sheets of paper each. I could have stitched all ten sheets together into one signature but because the paper is so thick, the swell would have caused the usable space on the page to diminish too much. Instead, I sewed two signatures onto a piece of book cloth to act as the spine. The casing-in process is the same for any hardbound book with the exception that there is no actual spine board. Instead, a gap is left between the front cover and the back cover. I glued the text block into place and then pasted down the end sheets. I used some of the marbled papers from my Rhonda Miller stash.

The end result is a small watercolor/sketch book that fits comfortably in a pocket or handbag and is ready for quick and ready use. The book cloth cover is very durable and the book lies flat for easy access while sketching, writing or painting. I hope to sell these at my store in a couple of different sizes.