Linocut!

That’s my daughter who wanted to be in the photo!  Behind her cuteness is a wall of linocut prints Jarrett made.  Linocut is new to both of us, and we love it!  We spend all Thanksgiving weekend, in our pj’s, working on art.  It was the best. The carving is arduous but such satisfying work.  We pretty much followed LizzyHouse‘s Tutorial, which I highly recommend.  Here are some pics of our process…

This is mine… I’m going to fix up the carving a bit, but I still like it.

More views of Jarrett’s…

A close-up so you can see the hatching.

 

Meet Your Maker

I designed this poster for Meet Your Maker, an indie craft show here in Eugene, Oregon, run by my friend Amy and her friend Megan.  I did the show last week and am also doing the December show, so if you live in Eugene, swing by and say hi!

Sketchbook/Journal

Isn’t this cute?  I love the green ribbon and blue binding.  While I was making the planner, I realized that I could make some blank books with nice paper for journaling or sketching purposes.  These are filled with high-quality acid-free paper and tie with a ribbon closure.  The cover is handcut marine vinyl.  These are also available on Etsy.

2010 Planners

I’ve also designed a 2010 Planner, which includes color-coded monthly views and weekly views.  This took a VERRRY long time to design.  It makes me think I should learn InDesign.  This however was all done in Photoshop, and hard to coordinate the fronts/backs of all the pages!  Then I printed the pages out, handstitched them into a cut marine vinyl cover, and there are a couple different closure designs.

These are available in Etsy.

Printing by hand

I’ve discovered the joy of printing – linocut, rubber stamps, stencils, etc.  Here are some cards I’ve made…

A “Where the Wild Things Are” -inspired linocut,

a hand-carved rubber stamp print..

a stencil I designed to be kinda Christmas-y but not quite..

…and some groovy girls (as Jarrett likes to call them) wearing legwarmers!

All are available in sets of 4 on etsy.

delish yarns!

I think I’m getting better, what do you think? 

These are both supersoft merino wool, handspun 2-ply skeins.  I’m still getting the hang of measuring and such, but I’ve learned how to wash and set the twist.  I love these!  Here’s a pic of the blue/white just plied on my Ashford spinning wheel.

First Skeins

I’ve been learning to spin yarn on my new old spinning wheel.  I was lucky to score a beautifully kept Ashford Traditional – one caring owner for 30 years!  I’m interested in experiments with color and texture.  It is so meditative to spin yarn from wool – and the result is very satisfying.  I’m going to knit these babies up into something, just to get the experience.

orange arrow bags

I’ve been making bags again and I have them available on Etsy.  It’s amazing how quickly things come back to you even after taking a long hiatus — I used to make and sell bags at the Saturday Market.  This bag is pretty sweet with a simple design, but already I’m moving on to new and exciting designs…I’m thinking sculptural, romantic, and feminine.  I also have some great Fall vintage finds.  More to come soon!

Flying Men

I’m working on an animation for one of my songs, “The Flying Man”, with an artist friend, Rachel Matagora.  We will be using stop motion, and the main character is this Flying Man, who will actually be a wooden puppet, painted, movable head, paper arms and scarf.  I drew/watercolored these to experiment with color palette, and I think I will go more for the white with just a hint of yellow mixed in.

I’ve actually made lots of puppets and/or dolls for previous projects; I’ll post them here next.

Flyer art

For my band, Susurri, I’ve made 2 flyers. I really want to keep them artsy and not just straight up photos with some text. Here are 2, the watercolor being the one I just finished today. I’m not very experienced at any kind of painting, that’s Jarrett’s forte. But I do love drawing and color.

Susurri @ Turtles Flyer

Our next show is on Halloween, at the Eugene Saturday Market.  It should be great fun, and I plan on making masks that don’t cover the face, but more like the forehead, for all of us.  My plan for that flyer is to try a linocut, which so far I’ve never tried.  Jarrett and I went and bought a bunch of linocut supplies and I’ll try one on the smaller block first.  Also, I’ll be designing a silkscreen for band T-shirts, another thing I’ve never tried before.  My friend Amy will be helping me do this…she has a shop on Etsy (Loopd) and sells cute silkscreened shirts for adults and kids, and also clothing and knit items.