|
December
2003
Saturday,
December 27, 2003
Christmas
Presents!
Now that my mom and sister have opened their gifts and enjoy
them, I can show you what I made them.
For my mom, Bobbie, this collage:
Here's what I wrote about it when I made it - The first in a
series about hair, inspired from my mother's career as a hairdresser,
love of drawing hair and the beauty of the comb as an object.
When I finished the portrait of the woman, I knew I had to give
this piece to my mom - both because growing up around salons
was her doing and because the woman looks so much like her,
especially a portrait of her drawn when I was very young. Not
intentional, but appropriate. I knew I had to give her this
one for Christmas.
She said that she's got the perfect spot for her shop. And coincidentally,
it'll be very close to where she keeps the combs.
For my sister, Burgundy:
I knew I wanted to make something for Burgundy and Mike's new
home - but I haven't seen it yet. I called my sis and asked
her what rooms were what colors. She asked why I was asking,
and I said that I was thinking of making something for the house
and had some ideas. Burgundy wasn't concerned about the surprise
factor of the gift. I gave her my list of ideas. Surprisingly
her voice lit up when I got to "placemats." She's excited to
have dinner parties in her home.
Placemats it is. And some.
Given that they've got tomato red dishes, I started with that.
I went to Vogue Fabric in Evanston. Giant store with sorta odd
inventory. Perfect place if you don't have the answer in your
mind about what exactly you want.
I started in the remnants department, looking at some white
and offwhite raw silks. Nice stripes and tones. I thought I
could kind of go for the Burberry plaid red and tan color scheme.
I wandered off to the un-remnant silk section in the store to
find red silk.
On the way, I was stopped by a section of taffetas. All stripes.
I started putting together the black, silver, gunmetal and red
stripes. Woah. Sharp. Only one red stripe, but I thought that
would be good because then the mats would compliment the red
dishes, rather than compete with them.
Got 4 half yards of the silver, black and gunmetal ones, a yard
of the red and black combo. Remembered to get some black cotton
twill for the napkins.
I shit you not, all the fabric cost a mere 13 dollars! (Coincidentally
again, the day of the month of February that Burgundy was born
on.) Definitely a gift that was more of a labor of love that
I wallet-wounder.
Pre-Vogue I had already thought of the (uh, brilliant) idea
of making the napkin rings out of safety pins. I already had
a myriad of black, red and silver beads. Even some of the last
beads that I used to make my bridesmaid red safety pin bracelet
for sis's wedding this summer. Those came together, no sweat.
Beads on safety pins, safety pins strung on elastic cord. Gorgeous
against the black napkins.
Sewing was messy, but painless. Taffeta frays like a mofo -
so my carpet is still coated with taffeta hair everywhere. I
cut the fabrics in various width strips perpendicular to the
stripes on the fabric. Sewed them together. I had the longest
piece of remade fabric. I divided into 8 equal lengths. Doubled
those over and sewed them together. Surprisingly, I the placemats
came up short for a standard 12" x 20" size. I woulda/shoulda
added a 5 half yard of another stripe to the mix. No big deal
though.
My resilience to something like that reminds me how far I've
come in my blow-my-top-at-anything-less-than-perfect perfectionism.
Napkins were easy, just turned over and finished the edges.
Last part, the lil' placecard holders and place cards. I was
very pleased to make the cards out of the scraps of Burgundy
and Mike's guestbook, that I made in July! The holders are dark,
dark gray polymer clay (Preemo, specifically). Little lumps
with a slit to hold the cards.
Well, I threw in the first batch. Fifteen minutes later, I thought,
"Uh-oh! Something doesn't smell right!!" Polymer clay burning!!!
They had doubled in size and were big lump of bumpy, toxic,
toxicity. I unplugged the polymer-clay-only toaster oven, threw
open the windows, put a fan in one, and knocked the smoke detector
off of the ceiling with a broom handle before it went off! Choked
on awful smoke.
Ya see, I broke the toaster oven's polymer-clay-only rule once.
I cooked a Lean Cuisine late one night trying to remedy a skipped
dinner. So, the oven was still set at the higher, really-bad-for-polymer-clay
temperature.
Bad.
But, I've been working with polymer clay for over a decade now
and that's only the second time I've burnt it. Not bad odds.
After the smoke cleared, I reset the temp and tried again.
So, Burgundy got: 8 placemats, 8 napkins, 8 napkin rings, 8
placecard holders and a bunch of place cards.
I was really proud of those two gifts and it sounds like they
were well-received!
I hope everyone had creative Christmasses, for those who Christmas.
posted
on 12/27/2003 01:26:29 AM
July
A day at the beach for this midyear month of sun and sand.
posted
on 12/27/2003 12:28:51 AM
Friday,
December 26, 2003
October
The October collage started strong with the masked woman, pumpkin
and spider. Then I paused for quite awhile. Tonight, the rest
fell into place.
posted
on 12/26/2003 11:09:00 PM
Thursday,
December 25, 2003
March
May
I woke up this Christmas morning sorta stumped by the calendar.
I had several months started. This morning I was just sorta
shuffling around boards and paper and not doing much of anything.
Happily, I tapped into a vein of ideas and was rolling up until
now, off to a Christmas party tonight. Two completely, May and
March. Flowers for May, cooking in March. Off to the party,
and back to the collages tomorrow.
posted
on 12/25/2003 09:39:06 PM
Tuesday,
December 23, 2003
Impromptu Button Crafts!
Inspired by this,
I pulled out my stash of Christmassy buttons and made these
wire and button tree ornaments. And it took less than the length
of a sitcom! I'm feeling spontaneous and accomplished.
Earlier this holiday season, I got the idea to start a new tradition,
but it came too late to begin this year. Kent's aunt makes ornaments
each year and sends them in her Christmas card. I thought, "Now
there's a rockin' idea. I love ornaments much more than I do
cards. What a cool annual craft/mini-gift for family and friends."
Between that and the fact that I didn't make any new ornaments
for the open houses this year, I've got an ornament-making bee
in my bonnet. Gotta get back to the calendar and pick it up
in about 10 months...
posted
on 12/23/2003 10:54:51 PM
Monday,
December 22, 2003
January
After much working on top-secret Christmas projects and holiday
designs, I'm working on something new - a 2004 CafePress calendar.
Yep, it's sort of 11th hour and I may have missed most folks'
window for their calendar shopping, but I persist. Honestly,
I'll very likely keep the same images for a 2005 calendar. I'll
put the inidividual months on cards and journals and such is
one in particular strikes your fancy. I'm testing to see how
these orginal 9" x 12" collages work for mini-posters.
CafePress gives it's shopkeepers the option of creating a true
calendar with 12 different designs plus a cover. I'm excited
to create 12 new collages to adorn your wall for the upcoming
year. Here is January. I'm a January baby and love hunkering
down in winter, so it was easy to work on the a theme of snow,
stars, cold and quiet.
I'll post the months as I get them done this week. I've got
a good chunk of February done and jumped over to October. Halloween's
motifs are so much fun. Easy Peasy. The biggest challenge is
making a celebration filled but nondenominational December -
and generally trying to pick common themes that don't always
fall into the obvious (ex. shamrocks in March).
Back to work...
posted
on 12/22/2003 11:22:04 AM
Friday,
December 19, 2003
Musta
Been a Good Girl All Year
My grandma, mom and sis, in cahoots with Santa no doubt, gave
me just want I wanted this year! This morning in mail
was a bright and shiny new Print Gooco machine from Think Ink
along with the The New Gocco Guide! Hooray! Thank you!! I can't
wait to get crackin'. First project - thank you notes.
posted
on 12/19/2003 11:49:25 AM
Tuesday,
December 16, 2003
Progress
Report
I am currently working on my sis's supercool Christmas gift.
Trying to get in done in time to get it sent! She knows basically
what it is in concept, but doesn't know what it is in reality.
I am SUPER excited about how well the concept is coming on in
execution. I am documenting the process and it'll become a project
page after 12/25. Just can't let the cat out of the bag now.
And after the holidays, the next big projects are making things
for pregnant friends! Making a baby quilt for Gwen and Dan and
making cloth dolls/animals for Diane and Peter. I'm looking
forward to both, but I don't get to think about it yet!
posted
on 12/16/2003 12:05:33 PM
Tuesday,
December 02, 2003
Quiltariffic! Part II
Here is Jim using his new quilt while we watch Queer Eye. Rufus
is dubious.
posted
on 12/2/2003 11:30:56 PM
|
