Envelope #12

January 12, 2014

I should have left this alone and just colored the arcs with color pencil. I might do another variation of this without all of the wingdings.

Box Making Tutorial--Part 2 (Continued)

Sample

This is a simple demonstration of the concepts that I talked about yesterday.

After gluing all the boards in the correct places, I place them in the appropriate place next to one another.

All pieces glued and
ready for assembly

 First Short Wall.

Second Short Wall. You can see it leaning outward but that will be fixed when a long wall is attached.

First Long Wall.

Second Long Wall.

All assembled and ready to dry. 

When you have a tray with taller sides sometimes it helps to have large rubber bands available to hold it all in place.

Envelope #11

January 11, 2014

Box Making Tutorial--Part 2

Ultimate goal--For reference only

Today's discussion of the box making process is gluing the pieces of the box together. Before I continue, I must share with you some information. There are two ways to assembly the box. Whichever way you choose will affect the final dimensions of your cut pieces. One way is to glue the pieces to the SIDE of the base so that all of the side pieces rest flush against the surface. In this manner, the interior of your box is the dimension of your base (less the thickness of the covering materials). The second manner is to place the side pieces on top of the base so that they base is the part that rests flush against the surface. In this manner, the dimensions of the interior are diminished by the thickness of the walls and the covering materials; therefore, you have to account for those measurements when calculating the size of the base to begin.

There are numerous discussion about which is better, yada, yada, yada. I learned the first type of box making and those are the dimensions that I am sharing with you.

The finished assembly

In the picture above, you can see what I mean by the sides of the walls being adhered to the side of the base. To accomplish this, the width of the short walls (SW) are cut exactly to the measurements of the short side of the base. The width of the long walls (LW) are cut to the length of the side of the base plus two added thickness of the boards are added to this dimension before cutting. Once the short walls are attached to the sides of the base, you need this added length to cover the entire long side of the box.

Pieces ready to assembly with
glue guides

When assembling the box, you need to apply glue only to those surfaces that will be touching each other. When first starting, this can get confusing. I had a teacher who taught us to mark the surfaces with a pencil to use as a guideline to gluing. I have done the same for you above but used marker so that it would show up in the picture. The glue that I use to join boards to one another is PVA which is industrial strength Elmer's Glue (this PVA is not diluted).

For the sake of discussion I have labeled the pieces of the board as Side Edges (SE) and Front Edges (FE). SE are those surfaces that appear when you turn the board on it's side. The FE are those edges that appear when you look directly onto the board. When gluing, do not use an excess amount of glue. Keep in mind that both surfaces that touch will have glue. If glue squirts out when the two pieces are together it is best to try and remove all excess before it dries. If it dries you will have to sand it away which is more difficult. Dried glue could cause bumps when covering with paper or leather.

GLUING
Base: Place glue on all four SE.

Base Side Edge

 Short Wall: Place glue on the bottom FE and the two SE.

Short Wall FE

Short Wall SE

Long Wall: Place glue on the bottom FE and the right and left FE.

Long Wall FE

Assembling

Get a piece of clean newsprint and place on a hard surface. Take one Short Wall and place it against the corresponding side of the base. Make sure that it is perpendicular and flush against the base.

Take the second Short Wall and place it against the opposite end. Once again, make sure it is perpendicular and flush. Don't panic if they start to lean. They will become more secure once the long walls are in place.

Take one Long Wall and place it against the base and the two Short Walls. Here where precision is important. make sure that the long wall covers the entire length of the box (which includes the two Short Walls).

Take the second Long Wall and place it like the first Long Wall. Make sure all corners are perpendicular. Also press the corners on the inside of the box to make sure that the box is flat against the all surfaces. Turn the box over (it should be stuck to the newsprint). Feel along the bottom of the box (through the newsprint) to make sure that everything is flush. You will be able to feel if something is not flat or sticking out of place).

Place the box on a flat surface and let dry.

When the box is dry, tear off the newsprint and sand the bottom of the box to remove any extra newsprint remnants. Your box should look similar the the below picture.

Envelope #10

January 10, 2014

Envelope #9

January 9, 2014

I still might add color to this but I really like the way that it turned out.

Box Making Tutorial--Part 1

Previous Sample

There are two major decisions you need to make prior to making a handmade box. Two of the biggest decisions to make occur at the very beginning: First, what do you want to put in the box and Second, what materials do you want to use.

The whole goal of making a box is to make something that will contain something else. Unless, you are a box making professional, most people make boxes to contain something. Using standard Bookbinding measurements, the width of the box needs to be longer than the width of your item. The height of your box needs to be longer than the height of your item. The depth of your box needs to contain the item you want to place in the box. Note: when citing measurements, I will use the terms associated with paper (think 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. The width of the paper is the short measure from left to right. The height measurement is the long measure from top to bottom).

For the sake of illustration, I will be making a box to hold some of my 4" by 6" postcards. I will be providing measurements for the top part of the box (top tray) and the bottom part of the box (bottom tray). The measurements for the bottom tray will be 4.25 " by 6.25" by 3". Usually you would make the bottom tray first and then measure the bottom tray to get the dimensions for the top tray. Since I have made these boxes before, I know that I can add 1/4" to the width and the height for the base. The depth dimension for the top tray is usually aesthetic. You need to determine how much reveal you want showing between the top tray and the bottom tray. Since I will be wrapping both trays with the same materials, the reveal really isn't that important so I made the depth of the top tray 1.5" which is half the depth of the bottom tray.

The second consideration you need to make is what materials you are going to use. Of course, you will need some kind of board (I use Davey Board) and something to wrap the board to make it look presentable. The reason that you need to keep this in mind because the thickness of the wrapping material will affect the final dimensions of your box. Leather is thick than paper and requires more of a clearance. Thinner paper requires less of a clearance than Japanese Washi. I will be using a thicker paper that simulates leather.

Note: The materials that you use will also affect the type of box that you make. For this demonstration, I will be making a box with an unattached lid (a typical box similar to a shirt box--one with two pieces, a top and bottom tray).

Individual Pieces--Bottom Tray

Bottom Tray ready for gluing

All the pieces ready for gluing

Envelope #8

January 8, 2014

Envelope #7

January 7, 2014

Project #1--2014

Gocco Printed Thank You Card

One of my resolutions this year was to use my Print Gocco more. For the uninitiated, the Print Gocco machine was a home based ink printing system that was immensely popular in Japan. The goal of the machine was to allow people to print nangajo at home. Nangajo are the yearly New Years cards that are sent out in Japan that are similar to Christmas cards. As the cost of bulk printing decreased and the materials for the machine became more scarce since the company discontinued the machine, the desire for the machine decreased in Japan but became very popular elsewhere.

Of course, I came onboard at the end of the frenzy and starting buying materials as they became more scarce. Because of this, I have been hoarding materials and not using them because I didn't really know if I was going to be able to get replacement supplies.

So this year, I have decided to reduce my stash of Gocco materials by using them and to let the chips fall where they may. I have three machines--two of the standard machines that produce post card sized prints and the PG for the Arts will allow much larger materials to be printed.

Another resolution that I wanted to try and accomplish this year is to reduce my supplies by using materials I already have before buying any new materials. I have always been that Good Samaritan when it came to craft supplies. I would scour Etsy, CraigsList and Ebay looking for raw materials that I could use for my card making business and book arts. I became very popular with home crafters, new stationery business owners, and brides: people who were going out of business, those who made bad purchases or DIY brides. I would help these people out by buying their mistakes or other supplies so they could move on. Don't get me wrong--I benefited from these transaction by getting low cost raw materials. Yet, many times, I have/had to create projects around these items rather than chose/purchase something else. I mean really, how many Astrobright Neon Orange envelopes do you really need? Well, I have 1000, in case you are wondering.

Having said that, I decided to make Thank You cards using my Print Gocco. I am using pre-made orange cards that I purchased from something going out of business. The card stock is the basic A2 size and will fit in the standard A2 Astrobright Neon Orange envelopes that I am using to coordinate. 

STEP ONE: Design the Screens

The Print Gocco printing process is similar to screen printing. You expose a screen to light where the image is burned onto the screen. You then apply ink to the top of the screen and press down onto the surface of the material you wish to print (unlike screen printing where you pull color across the screen with a squeegee). It is a unique system with interesting challenges.

You can print out the design on regular paper with your laser printer and then burn the images onto your screen. If there is too much toner on your paper, there can be light areas on the screen that won't allow the ink to pass. I knew that I wanted to do two printings on each card. The background would use various sizes of donuts (the wingdings name for them) that was printed in one color and the word "Thanks" overprinted. The problem with getting a solid thick line needed for the text was that the machine rarely allows such thick and dark lettering to burn properly. I would address that issue later.

Overall Design

I prepared the overall design on a single sheet of paper so I could burn only one screen with both images (thereby, using fewer materials).

STEP TWO: First Printing

I decided to use Navy Blue ink for the background color.

First Printing in Action

As you can see, I am using the left side of the machine to print the background. After each card is finished, I set the cards to dry on my over the door Elfa system (originally designed to hold CDs--does anyone buy CDs anymore?).

First Printing Drying

First Inking

STEP THREE: Second inking
As you can see in the above image, it can take some finesse to determine how much ink to use and how much pressure to use to get a clean imprint. To accommodate for the text screen, I decided to use a translucent metallic ink (in this case silver) for the second printing so that any inconsistencies in the text print would be much less noticeable. Also, before removing the card from the screen after printing, I would run a brayer along the back side of the card to give a little more direct contact with the ink.

After the cards where printed with silver, I put them back on the drying racks for 24 hours (in this case, they could be dried in a closed position).

All the pretty soldiers drying

The finished project

As the blue ink was drying out on the screen, I decided to replace the blue ink with red ink from a dying tube. I only needed to get another 30 prints so I decided to experiment with adding a different color to see how it would bleed through during each printing.

Theoretically, I simply could have wiped the screen clean with a baby wipe and reapplied color. Since I was trying to conserve materials I decided to use the last bit of ink from an already opened and finished tube of red. As you can see from the image below, there was plenty of blue ink still available on the screen. I will personally use these blue/red combinations for my personal use. I actually really like the way they turned out.

Blue-Red Background.

Blogging 2014

I mentioned my resolutions for 2014 in this post and so I wanted to share with you some of the changes that I wanted to implement in regards to blogging this year. Last year, I realized that it was easier to blog when I had recurring themes each week. This took off some of the pressure having to come up with new topics about which to blog. Also, I still want to keep this a unique blog with original posts rather than some of the other blogs that simply collect other topics and articles and re-blog them.

Not that I am adverse to sharing with you some of the projects that other people are doing (which I will continue to do), the goal of my blog has always been showing you what I am creating. This year, I want to continue to blog but more importantly, I want to create more and blog less. Although, it won't seem to be so after you see all of the blog entries accumulate over the year.

First, I want to continue to create and post one envelope front each day. I will simply post them to the blog (many times without any narration unless there was something interesting about that particular entry) here, on Pinterest and Flikr.

Second, I will be continuing with Iron Craft 2014 and will post every two weeks on the Reveal Tuesday  when that a project is due.

Third, I hope to create one project per week to share with you (during the Iron Craft reveal week, this will be the same project). During this posting, I hope to share with you a step-by-step description of the project for that week. I anticipate that this will be the only extensive posting for that week.

Other times, I hope to share with you (in a somewhat random fashion), other topics of interest--in process projects, completed projects, the From My Stash segments, and Book Reviews.

By limiting the scope of the blogging, I hope to get many of my resolutions accomplished this year.

Envelope #6

January 6, 2014

The scan of this is a little off but the background is blended color pencil in shades of red, orange, and yellow. This is a new style of doodle and it was wobbly because I was watching the first round of the NFL wild playoffs.

Envelope #5

January 5, 2014

Envelope #4

January 4, 2014

Today's envelope was an experiment in using watercolor crayons on the envelope along with Sharpie markers. The big lesson that I learned was that they work together. The Sharpie did not bleed as I expected. I also realized that I needed to place a water barrier inside of the envelope when drying. More importantly, I realized that sometimes less is more. I was planning on adding lines inside each puzzle segment but decided that it did not need it on this particular envelope.

Envelope #3

January 3, 2014

Resolutions for 2014

I am sorry for the delay in making this post but I had to do some deep soul searching before I wanted to put this out to the world. Here are my resolutions--in no particular order (and with some explanation):

1. Similar to doing the 31 days of Halloween, this year I want to do a 31 Days of Christmas. I don't quite know how I will organize it but will work out those logistics later.
2. Several years ago, I designed a Advent project for Kat's Advent project. Of course, life and commissions got in the way. This year, I would like to complete that project.
3. I would like to continue to post craft entries Monday through Friday, without fail.
4. I would like to complete a craft a day project and share it with people. I have chosen to complete a decorated envelope per day and to post it to my Flikr account (DrRuss2011) and my blog. Here is the summary of challenge that I completed last year. This year, I will continue the challenge but only decorate the front side of the envelope.
5. I have chosen to participate in Iron Craft 2014. I postponed my decision to participate because for the 2013 Challenge, I was able to complete all 26 challenges. I just don't want to feel like a failure if I don't complete all of the challenges for 2014. There is no pressure other than the pressure that I put on myself. I have really enjoyed getting to know the people that have participated and that was the factor that tipped the balance to continue in 2014.
6. Take more art classes. I enjoy taking classes at The Center for Book Arts in NYC and will try and save up some money to add a couple of weekend classes.
7. Take a dance class. I never really took dance classes when I was growing up and felt too awkward to take them when I was an adult. This year, I finally realized my reticence--I could not stand to look in the mirror at myself. I might actually take a HipHop class at the Broadway Dance Center.
8. Print more. I want to use my Print Gocco more this year or at least screen printing or letterpress.
9. I want to make more postcards this year. These could be doodle cards like the envelopes or printed postcards. I have always loved sending a quick postcard to people.
10. I want to write more letters/postcards. I want to be primarily responsible for the recover of the USPS financial woes by sending out more mail. 
11. I want to take steps this year to becoming proficient in a foreign language. I have languished too much regarding this matter. I have always romanticized about learning Japanese but didn't want to take the steps to do so because I would have too few people to practice conversation. I might just learn Spanish because I have a basic understanding of how the language works and there are plenty of people to help me learn in NYC.
12. I want to be a little more selfish and take time off for myself.
13. I also want to take more road trips. Just rent a car and go.
14. I want to start and make larger projects--probably mixed media projects involving paint, transfers, paper and collage.
15. I want to continue making my paper tissue flowers and transform them in shadow box art.
16. I also want to continue my tissue paper painting.
17. I want to sell more items in my Etsy shop but first I must populate it.
18. I want to dedicate 2014 to making boxes. I get such enjoyment out of making them. Maybe this will correspond with resolutions # 2 and #17. I would like to average two boxes per month.
19. I want to collaborate with other artists.
20. I would like to make one book per month.
21. I want to attend Penland/PBI or a craft vacation this year.
22. I want to get to 10% Body Fat
23. I want to get my sewing machine serviced and sew more. Maybe even take a sewing class.
24. I want to watch less porn--there, I said it--OUT LOUD.
25. I want to watch less TV.
26. I want to save more money--maybe participate in the 52 week challenge that has been on the internet.
27. I want to purchase fewer materials and use the materials that I have before buying anything new or duplicated. I want to use up my stash materials.
28. I want to better organize my studio.
29. I want to donate more unused materials
30. I want to sell/donate cutoffs of paper and card stock.

Now that I have put these out in the universe, I will see just how successful I am at the beginning of 2015.

Envelope #2

January 2, 2014

Envelope #1

Envelope in Vellum Sleeve

I have always been infatuated with the concept presented in the book 365: A Daily Creative Journal--Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life by Noah Scalin. The book provides you with prompts to create something every day. The process is supposed to get your creative juices flowing.

Granted, it is a large project and if you aren't in the league of creating every day then he suggest that smaller commitments could be tackled--one a week, twice a month, once a month, etc. I took this to heart and in 2013, I decided to commit to blogging Monday through Friday for the entire year. I was very happy to complete that task. Also, I committed to making one handmade greeting card per week and completed all 52 projects. Finally, I committed to participating in the Iron Craft Challenges for 2013 and completed all 26 projects.

I am now ready to take the next step and complete something every day for 365 days. I have chosen to continue my envelope decorating project. Rather than cover each envelope on the front and back like I did here, I have decided to decorate the front of the envelope only. I will then place the envelope in a handmade vellum sleeve so I can mail the envelope without ruining the decorated envelope. The recipient can then use the envelope for their own purposes by addressing the back of the envelope and place postage or they can collect it (and mount it) as art.

I made this decision after a few of friends called me to complain about receiving one of my decorated envelopes in the mail (without the vellum sleeve). They complained that they couldn't decide which side they like best and that the postage/label that I used ruined the looks of the envelope. By sending out the envelopes in these vellum sleeves, the recipient can decide how they want to use their decorated envelope.

January 1, 2014

In the future, these posts will appear on my Flikr account (DrRuss2011) and will be posted here with little/no commentary.

I hope that you will following along and provide support when the creativity gets a little ellusive and time gets a little short.

What I am Thankful for

As I reflect on the happenings of 2013, I have many things for which to offer thanks:

I am so grateful for many of the blogs that I have been able to follow: Kat and Susi at Just Crafty Enough and their Iron Craft Challenges; Lisa over at Bunny Log who introduced me to SwapBot and Iron Craft but more importantly for sharing her doodling; also to Leslie over at Comfortable Shoes Studios for her technique videos and product reviews. It has been nice to connect to these online friends and families through our craft/art adventures.

I have been grateful for my teachers: Shanna Spradlin Yarbrough, Barbara Mauriello and Carolyn Chadwick from The Center for Book Arts in New York City. Every day I create something in paper, I remember rules, techniques, jokes and all sorts of other tidbits to make me a better artist (or at least something to make me giggle in those times of paper crafting stress).

I have been grateful for those friends who have supported me in my paper endeavors: thoughtful gifts of art supplies when you had no idea on what to buy me for the holidays; those special commissions; purchasing those handmade items that you pretended to really, really need.

Even though, I haven't been able to work at the theater in a while, I am grateful that I have been able to fill my time with creative endeavors. While my bank account suffered, my imagination and creative spirit soared.

Finally, I am grateful for my health. I have things under control but more importantly, my eyesight, hearing and onset arthritis have all been kept to nuisances rather than concerns.

Tomorrow, I will share with you my resolutions for 2014 and my decisions regarding artwork, crafting, and blogging for the New Year.

Happy 2014

Welcome to 2014. I will have to say that 2013 was a great year for me regarding crafting, creating, and blogging. As for the successes, I am the most proud that:

(1) I finished the sketchbook project (click on the NYJournal link below to see all of those posts);

(2) I finished all 26 Iron Craft 2013 projects (click on the IronCraft13 link below to see all of those posts);

(3) I shared 52 handmade greeting cards throughout the year (one per week--click on the WeeklyCard link to see all of these posts);

(4) I shared my collection of craft books (click on the BookReview link to see all of these posts);

(3) I blogged every weekday for the entire year;

(4) I blogged all 31 days of October for the Halloween Challenge;

(5) I started linking my posts to Facebook and Pinterest

I will share some of my 2014 resolutions with you tomorrow. Happy New Year and I send you wishes for a great, fabulous and prosperous New Year.