Quick update!

Ahh...happy January! I'm sad to admit that between a cold, then a sinus infection, and general winter blahs I'm having less than a stellar beginning to 2008. I am finding it difficult to muster the motivation for posting as well as creating! I did manage to pump out a bit of work for AVC, some of which are brand new designs. So, I have a few new necklace designs and a couple of new designers to share!

Nature vs Machine was also recently featured on its first blog! I like that I was recognized both for my art and the fact that a portion of my art is recycled. Unfortunately, metal work does not typically lend itself to "green art" because harsh chemicals are involved in production. I've not heard much along the lines of eco-friendly polishing compounds but if they exist, I will find them!

I hope 2008 finds you all happy and healthy! I will return with fun updates soon!

Crafting with cardboard

I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan. I'm also a pretty frequent "crafter". I find myself using cardboard, white glue, and hot glue in many of my projects. With that in mind, you can imagine how blown away I was when I stumbled across this tutorial on how to construct your own Boba Fett helmet out of cardboard!

This "crafter" takes cardboard construction into a whole other realm in this tutorial. Even though I've used similar methods to construct items of my own (check out my crown!), I had no idea cardboard could be so versatile and could be used in the creation of such complex shapes! I am inspired to utilize some of his tips and tricks in future designs. After seeing his technique, I feel anything can be created with cardboard and glue if you have plenty of patience and a sharp X-Acto blade!

The unfinished helmet

Drooling over new tools

I reluctantly went to Home Depot last night to pick up a few necessary items. (I much prefer to spend my money at a locally owned establishment but they close so early!) I needed rubber cement and carborundum paper-which I never found. What I did find was a new abrasive wheel for my Dremel that I later found gives silver a nice satin finish. I also looked for and found the newest Dremel Workstation. As soon as my eyes settled on the box I swooped down and picked it up. I cradled it in my arms as though it were a newborn kitten. I'm sure I made a few random high pitched noises and was probably talking to myself while gazing lovingly at the picture on the outside of the box. I want this workstation. Very badly. I also need it.

The workstation grips the Dremel motor in a vice to allow the user to wield the Dremel like a drill press. Thus far, I've proven to be pretty incapable of holding my Dremel perpendicular to my work. Though it seems relatively easy to drill straight downward, somehow my holes always end up angled-which becomes a problem when I rivet. Another attractive feature of the workstation: The vice that holds the Dremel can be tilted up to a full 90° which will allow me to use the Dremel hands-free for polishing and sanding!

A few observations leave me wondering how long this tool will last. It appears to be made entirely from plastic-which is awful! I really hate the throw-away mentality of companies and consumers today. I'd much rather pay extra for a solid piece of equipment. I have read reviews and my fears are confirmed. It is not the most stable piece of equipment-but it is stable enough for my needs, and it can be permanently secured to a workbench if extra stability is needed. It sells for about $45 in most places so it's not too expensive. I hope to pick one up soon-hopefully during an after Christmas sale!

Crafting for Halloween

Wow! I can't believe I've been M.I.A. for two weeks! Between Halloween, the recent time change, and the chilliness of autumn, I just can't seem to get motivated. I hope this is a temporary setback-my art show isn't getting any farther away! In my defense, I did spend a week and a half solid constructing my Halloween costume. Since that definitely fits into the "crafting" category, (do I have one of those?) here's what I accomplished, with the help of Mario and Luigi, of course. I present: Mario-Kart Princess Peach! The photo was taken with a cell phone so it is a bit grainy, but you can get the gist of the costume. It included a Kart, a pink ball gown, a bejeweled crown, and various props, such as stars (for an extra boost of energy and invincibility) and turtle shells (for knocking down the competition).

The cart was made from 1.5" foam insulation which we glued together using some industrial adhesive and dowels. The pieces of foam were all sanded down, glued together, and spray painted with a special latex paint that doesn't dissolve plastics/foam/etc.

I made the dress by making a pattern from another ball gown I happened to own already. You can't see the whole thing, but there's a 1' wide magenta stripe at the bottom and a huge magenta sash around the waist that ties in the back. The skirt poofed out about a foot from my body in all directions, which was great for "watching my step"; let's just say, I tripped more than once. It was labor intensive to make and caused me way more stress than I'd like to admit. The easiest part of the costume was the crown, which I made by gluing two pieces of poster board together with Elmer's glue and securing with a rubber band until dry and as solid as a rock. I spray painted it with gold spray paint, hot glued jewels onto it, punched a few holes at the bottom edge, and bobby pinned it to my wig.

Since Peach hasn't had much of a make over in the past few decades, I updated her look for personal reasons. Gone is the Farrah Fawcett feathered mullet hair and high-necked poufy sleeved princess dress. I'm sure only die-hard fans would even have noticed of the changes I wrought. I thought it was much needed and it suited my style a lot better.

Creating your own Halloween costume is a great way to be creative and original for one of the best holidays of the year. Depending on your costume, it's also an excellent way to recycle and to support your local thrift stores.

New pendant: Sterling and vinyl lotus

Here's the new custom piece I just finished last week! I riveted hand pierced sterling silver sheets to vintage vinyl. There was a lot of precision cutting to do on this piece and I was skeptical that I would be able to recrate the vision I had for the design. I usually don't try to pierce areas that are too small for my file to fit into, but this particular design demanded it. I utilized my saw blade as a make-shift file and it worked really well to clean up those small areas. In the end, it turned out a lot nicer than I imagined it would. I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do!

Craft-Boom: A blog dedicated to small business

Lisa of U-Handbag (and U-Handblog) has been working on a fairly new blog called Craft-Boom that is devoted to helping people start and promote a small business. I was reading it today and stumbled upon a very informative tutorial on how to take professional looking photographs of your projects.

Taking great pictures is essential, and something I feel everyone can accomplish with a little practice. Of course, not everyone has the ability to artistically express themselves through photography but that isn't always necessary. What is necessary is clear photos where the background doesn't compete with the subject. White backgrounds tend to drown out silver so I prefer to use dark backgrounds when photographing my jewelry. I do use white backgrounds for photographing my handbags. I use a similar technique to Lisa's for my white background photos but i do see a few differences in her technique that might help speed up the process for me. I found an amendment to steps 2 and 3 in the comments section that explains, in greater detail, how to whiten the background of your photo.

Lisa blogs on everything from how to sew a clutch to effectively marketing your business.

Art vs Craft!

My friend and I got our Art vs Craft acceptance email last week! I am excited about being accepted but I am kind of freaked out. I know how much work goes into art fairs and it scares me a little. I think I put too much off until the last minute the last time around and it caused me a lot of stress. I hope I can learn from my past experience and get motivated to accomplish as much as possible early on so I don't have a hundred lose ends in December.

When: Dec 8th 10am-7pm
Where: Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center (click for a map)
790 N Van Buren St Milwaukee, WI

Moving beyond my color comfort zone

I'd like to get something out into the open: I'm a tanophobe. Yes, I said tan-o-phobe. I don't go near it. Ever. Or brown, for that matter. I only like very specific shades of chocolate, espresso, and sometimes taupe but that's where I draw the line. Tan gives me an uneasy feeling. It washes me out. It reminds me of a uniform. It screems DULL. I feel that, paired with the right accent colors, tan could be great. With help, I can work on my tan phobia, as long as I don't have to wear it.

Once, about a year ago, I was confronted with a huge dilemma. I was asked to make a custom handbag as a gift. When I met with my client I was floored. The neutral color pallet we discussed was like the sound of nails being dragged down a chalkboard. I could feel myself immediately shying away from the project. How on earth would I be able to plan a project around a pallet I knew so little about? I think this tutorial: Color Picking 101: It's easier than you think, by whoops-a-daisy would have made me feel much more confident in my planning. In the end, I got lucky. We scrapped the neutral pallet and went with a pallet of my choosing. (I have to say it was a success!) I'll definitely refer to this tutorial in the future whenever I'm forced to make neutral color based decisions.

My necklace: Flawed and I love it.

Here's the flawed necklace that I decided to keep for my own since I haven't found the time to make anything specifically for myself. I ended up making another unflawed version that now belongs to someone else.


I set two of the rivets and was drilling the rest of the holes for the remaining rivets when the drill bit snapped off inside one of the holes! I tried ripping it out but it was stuck. I ended up having to widen that hole which was really hard to do since the new drill bit was reluctant to drill into another bit. After finishing the riveting I sanded the face and rest of the bit down as far as possible. In my attempt to sand the flaws away I ended up exposing the rivets a bit too which is something I've been trying to get under control lately. The original flaw is barely a speck now...but the finish is still marred . All flaws aside, I'm happy I eventually decided to finish the pendent completely rather than destroying it (as I tend to do) because now I have one too!

R.I.P.

AAH!

I have a very valid excuse for the lack of posts in the past week(s). My computer died! I don't know what's wrong with it but I have a suspicion it may be the motherboard which will cost at least a hundred bucks to fix. I anticipated something like this happening soon so I bought an external hard drive a few months ago. At least all of my important information is still accessible to me on other computers. I have plenty of friends who love working with computers and have offered to lend me a hand. Soon...very soon I will be back up and running from the NVM Headquarters, aka, HOME. Luckily I have finally managed to find a way to post on Blogger from a location that I was previously unable to log on from. So, more posts to come! HOORAY!

The fruits of my labor and a softbox tutorial!

Guess what I did tonight? I stayed home and made this:

It's a softbox! And it literally cost me $10 thanks to a very easy to follow (and funny) tutorial on Strobist that I found today. I have a box of about 15 pieces of jewelry just collecting dust because I've lacked the ability to take high quality photos of them for my portfolio. I knew I needed a solution; I've been meaning to make one of these for a long time. It was ridiculously easy to create, even if it was a bit time consuming.

Here's a before and after photo of the earrings above. The after photo only has alterations to the brightness/contrast and I rotated the canvas since my camera was at an angle.

For my first go at it I'd say it was a success! The original photos are still turning out pretty dark so I'll need to tweak the lighting. Though, with a little help from PS everything looks beautiful. With some practice, I hope this light box will eliminate hours spent in front of the computer removing backgrounds from photos. How exhausting!

AVC time already?

I just got word that the applications for the holiday AVC are due in within the next month (AAAH!) and that they have considerably less space than last year. Why do they have less room, do you ask? Because they have a spiffy NEW VENUE!!!! And it's GORGEOUS!

It's basically a thousand times better than the last venue. Also, it's smaller. A lot smaller. I can tell already that I wouldn't need to wear my brimmed hat again to shade my sensitive eyes from the fluorescent lighting. Now, onto the hard part of getting accepted...

Nature vs Machine: back in action? Not yet.

I tried forcing myself to be creative today. There's nothing quite like it in the world. OK, well, forcing yourself to eat brussels sprouts at 25 may come close (that is, if you hate brussels sprouts-but then why would you be forcing yourself to them in the first place?). I decided, instead, to work on a custom pendent that was put on hiatus during my move since I apparently have an aversion to forced creativity. I should have finished it today. Except that my only small drill bit broke in half in the middle of the first of six holes. And that bit would have created a hole that was too small for my 20g wire to pass through. Even if the bit hadn't broke, my reamer, and half of my other tools, are still packed away. Their exact location being in one or more of the dozen boxes still partially unpacked in different rooms of my house. Yes-I completely jumped the gun. I guess I should have finished unpacking first...which is exactly what I was trying to avoid by forcing my creativity in the first place. Back to square one. Tomorrow: unpacking. Ugh.

BACK UP!

PHEW!

You never realize just how much you depend on something until it's gone. The internet is finally hooked up at my new apartment. Our service request was misplaced so it's been three long weeks without internet here at home. I feel as though I can breathe again, and that frightens me a little!

One of my favorite things to do to "kill time" is answer questions others have in regards to crafting, art, tools, etc., so I've decided to start showcasing some of those answers in upcoming posts. In the past I've mostly linked to tutorials from other sites so I'd like to get some of my personal knowledge in here just to shake things up a bit. Because, and let me be modest here for a minute, I like to think that I have the skills to pay the bills.

Altered Cloth

I stumbled across a new how-to site courtesy of Craft Magazine called Altered Cloth. There are great posts such as: How to fix bleach spots on fabric (which a friend of mine could have used about two weeks ago-OUCH!), 5 tutorials on how to make different headbands , and 7 tutorials on making shopping totes. There is a wealth of great crafting information on Altered Cloth that I'm sure to take advantage of in the future...as soon as I can find the time.

Moving destroys my creativity.

I've been taking some time off from creating because I burned myself out preparing for and attending AVC. Now that I'm ready to get back into the swing of things I have to move! I have a few pieces of jewelry and at least one bag that are completed and ready for a photo shoot, I have the pieces for at least 4 bags completely cut out and ready to be assembled, and I have two vinyl pendants and about twice that many earrings ready for their finishing touches. I fear it will be weeks before I'm settled enough again in my new home to let the creative juices flow. For the time being I'll have to be content with imagining my next new project...

I've been thinking a lot, as usual, about printing my own fabric. I already screen print designs on some of the fabric for my bags but I want to do more full-on fabric design; multiple colors and/or prints on a much larger scale. I have several ideas in mind-some done by me, and some done by "my artist". My artist and I have been preoccupied with our own art while trying to collaborate on prints. Perhaps once I've managed to catch up on all of my current projects I'll have the chance to dive into my latest fascination.

New bag!

Here's another framed clutch I created for AVC that is currently housed at Niche.

The patterned fabric contains all of my favorite colors and even has a bit of sparkle! I got the fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics; it sold out in about 2 weeks! I bought two yards and have already cut out the pieces from it for my next project. I found out about the new fabric store on Pattern Review. Pattern Review is a great resource for anything having to do with sewing. I found Gorgeous Fabrics there (the shop was reviewed by a member of PR) and I found great reviews on a "how to sew knits" book I bought for $2.50 online (that I have yet to crack).

Simultaneous Inspiration?

I notice, sometimes, before things become trends, that a few people will become inspired around the same time to do similar things. For instance, I've been infatuated with gears for a very long time and have been designing some riveted gear jewelry over the past year or two but I just haven't had time to put the designs into production. Sometime earlier this year I stumbled across Katrinabird's shop where she is sells her gear inspired jewelry. My designs are a bit different than hers but one fact remains clear: it's basically the same idea. I also have designs drawn up for gear screen prints; weeks later I stumble across Moxiemadness' shop where she sells a neon pink gear shirt. Weird; she's doing it, too. Prior to seeing gear stuff being produced I truely don't recall seeing it done elsewhere. Granted, I'm probably wrong. Gears certainly aren't new and I'm sure they've been repurposed a hundred times. Maybe I never noticed those designs before since I wasn't looking out for them. Maybe they weren't there after all. I can't help but feel it's a case of simultaneous inspiration. Another example: a clothing designer friend of mine once saw a design in a fashion show nearly identical to something she had recently made. Neither of those designs had seen the light of day prior to the Fashion show. Neither of them ever accused the other of thieving the idea; they were simply in awe over the fact that they both were feeling the same stuff at the same time.

Kyo Hashimoto Jewelry

I have a weakness for acrylic, especially when paired with metal. It's a wonderful juxtaposition of materials that don't really belong together, especially in jewelry, yet they look brilliant when combined. The acrylic looks lace-like and delicate, with a translucent quality when worked properly- which is lovely considering it's simply plastic. These earrings are some examples of a few of my favorites out of Kyo Hashimoto's newest collection.

AVC craziness over. PHEW!

Wow. Not only is it by far the hottest and most humid weekend of the year but it was also one of the busiest (for me, at least). I'd say the Art vs Craft show was a minor success; our table did pretty well as a group and individually. The crowd was a little different than last year's Christmas crowd. Most of the things sold at our table are geared toward young adults and have a definite street vibe. I think our stuff was a bit too much geared toward that genre-which I feel is good-except when that genre doesn't show up to the fair. Regardless, we had an exhausting but good time; and I'll be applying for the next show, along with Niche and Flux, as well.

I think the most disappointing part of AVC is the venue. It is held in an empty school building
and is very institutional. The ceilings are low and have extremely bright florescent lighting so you end up feeling drained after an hour or two; a feeling that dissipates immediately upon leaving the building. The bathrooms are dark, dreary, smelly, and rarely clean. I feel the venue is a poor contrast to the work that is showcased within. However, it was very well promoted and there was a good turn out because of it. I don't find that level of dedication from Madison independent artist fairs. I can't decide if the lack of interest lies with the promoter or the artists...