Thursday, January 31, 2008

"My Town In My Home"






I ran across these flights of fancy by designer Yoshikazu Yamagata in collaboration with knit artist Mafuyu in Selvedge Magazine's Issue 21. I love the conceptualization of this project and feel their actualization met and possibly exceeded expectations. This aspect never ceases to thrill in the creative process. And if I were to analyze what type of arts & crafter I am, it might be seeing my ideas come to fruition.......putting thought into practice.

-Carolyn

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Art Journaling-How to do it, and why

So I shared the art journalists that I love and some of their amazing work, but I have to confess that when I have gone to art journal for myself, I quickly spiral into a conversation in my head that goes something like this:

"What should I do.....? Hmmm.....maybe I'll work with the idea of motherhood. Wow, motherhood is a big concept. And all the pictures I am finding (in my big book of art that I bought 2 copies of so I can cut one up) are of very Christ-ish babies. And the moms all look bored. Or mad. Well...I guess that's accurate. Ok, I'll pick one. This one. You've spent too much time on this already, just glue it down and get going. Well now that looks stupid-it's just sitting there. Here, I'll throw on some paint, oh! It gooped! Well, I guess that's part of it. This isn't working the way I thought it would. And now I only have another 20 minutes if I'm lucky. Words, I need to add words. Love-no that's way too stupid. Giving-that sounds, um, dorky. Ennui-that makes me sound cultured (I think it means bored) but I hope the kids don't find this in 10 years and ask me why I was bored. Frick it, just do it already. There. Bored. Right across her forehead, now some more paint, DAMN IT, the baby's awake."

It's never looks like I thought it would. And I never have time to "finish it". I think my problem is that I look at these amazing artists and their expressions of themselves, and I think that there is a right way to do it. And mine doesn't match.

Then I think about the stories I've heard about early museums and how in the beginning, since they actually showed art made by people who were still alive, they would sometimes come across some poor tortured soul adding things to their paintings! They didn't see their art as finished at all. So I am taking a new approach. My art journal is a work in progress, and instead of trying to think of something relevant in my life to document, I am instead choosing a song to work from. I am just going to add images that the song makes me think of, and may end up relating to my life in some way (I think the songs that get caught in my head are always related to what's bugging me anyway).

The song I am starting with is Hey You from The Wall. And here is where I am so far:


No, not far, but I am being gentle with myself. And I invite you to try it out. No unreasonable expectations of perfection here (anymore) and I find that rather than writing in a diary, art journaling gets me thinking about bigger pictures (ha-punny). I start thinking about what I was going to journal about in terms of the images I find to use. It broadens my understanding, both of myself and I how I relate to the world in my head. It gets deeper. Sometimes. And sometimes it just looks like a bunch of prom dress pictures glued in the shape of a fan with the words I really wanted one of these scrawled across the top. And that's ok.

Angharad

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Gocco Cupids for Valentine's Day

cupid t-shirt

cupid wrapping paper
cupid valentine's day card
cupid paper


I had a lot of fun making these all-purpose cupids.

-Carolyn

Monday, January 28, 2008

Other things I want!


I am so visually inspired this Valentine's Day. Everything I am looking at from red and pink tiles, to oozing pink cake, to these faux ivory earrings, has me so excited!



At first I thought this was fake food. I have a serious thing for fake food and this cake just looks so unearthly that I didn't think it could be real - I need this recipe!

-Carolyn

Saturday, January 26, 2008

I want these!!!!!!!!!

Judy Snow handcuts these mosaic tiles from vintage china, pottery, and glass.
I want 'em, I want 'em, I want 'em.
-Carolyn



Friday, January 25, 2008

Who would have guessed cake could be sew wonderful!

.
My first reaction is wow, there is some amazing stuff that you can do with fondant! Then, Carolyn came over and said "I don't know if I would eat that." I couldn't help but laugh and think, I don't think I would eat that either! [Via]. Link.




-Jamie

Pink Thingy


Check out this amazing sculpture by Jennifer Maestre. She constructed it out of sharpened colored pencil tips. I love it. I think we can hold off for now from the wood shop idea and use our crafty brains to come up with a Sculpture: Found Object class. Coming soon....

- Carolyn


An uncanny likeness:



Thursday, January 24, 2008

Valentine's Day draws nigh...........



My mother is an artist and my father a history buff. Their love was meant to be it seems. My brother and I were thus carted all over the world for history tidbits and museum destinations.

Perhaps as a result of such an upbringing, I find myself drawn repeatedly back to the old and the antique. Everything was just made better then, right? Quality.

I found these charming images on etsy.com. I love to cut up such images for use in my collages. Especially of late, as I am working on a series of Valentine's Day cards...to be shared soon...

- Carolyn

Anda's insanely cute appliqued slippers

These wonderful slippers are by etsy admin Anda (she has two talents!) and they just sew darn cute! It inspires me to craft craft craft! [via] Link.

-Jamie



Tuesday, January 22, 2008

More Mushrooms

Ok-We need to get a wood shop going in here next. This is just too darn cute:

-Carolyn

Monday, January 21, 2008

I felt that mushrooms would be good

I felted these two sets of mushrooms last Thursday, Friday and MLK day. I got a lot of wonderful compliments for the small bird and little lady bug. Angharad taught me how to embroider some colored floss so I will add that under the mushroom caps as a little detail. Also, just to let you know, the little bird and lady bug were the hardest parts and the most likely to get your fingers poked by the needle.

We will be teaching how to felt mushrooms this Friday, all day, starting at 10am so sign up to let us know that you are interested! You can look on our website theurbancraftcenter.com

- Jamie









Fiber Reactive Dye Workshop w/ John Pitblado

Thanks for another incredible workshop, John! We always have the best time when you come to teach here! - Carolyn



Saturday, January 19, 2008

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

We had a lot of fun celebrating your birthday needlefelting with you and your friends!

You gals are pros already!

- Carolyn



Tuesday, January 15, 2008

From our recycled Christmas card class

I'm in love with what was created in our recycled Christmas card class!















Here we have itty bitty boxes


















And here we have refrigerator magnets





















And here we have coasters being made.... - Jamie

Monday, January 14, 2008

Clutch Madness

I love clutches - knitted, felted, or sewn. I love the idea of them , I must admit, more than I actually use them. They are special occasion accessories for me...or, they make an occasion special...

-Carolyn

Art Journaling-part one-what is it?

I first came across the concept of art journaling while looking for "alternative" rubber stamp images. I had enough flowers and trees and leaf images and wanted something edgier. I found Teesha Moore.











Not only were her stamps amazing, but she was using them to express herself in a way that made me green with envy.










Her journals were so different, and so expressive and so....well...pretty, that I immediately wanted to DO THAT! Since then the altered art community has exploded and art journaling, some times called visual journaling, is more and more popular and easy to find. Here are some of the more well known artists.

Misty Mawn










Ingrid Dijkers









Eliza Metz

















Now we know what it is, stay tuned for art journaling-part 2-why do it?? With a little bit of how thrown in.

Angharad