Audio Vole!!!

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Today I'm plugging my awesome friend's website Audio Vole. The purpose of their site is not to rate musicians and albums, but to promote dialogue about what's going on and who's who. It's a democracy, of sorts. It's pretty awesome. 
Oh. And I might have designed the logo so this is also a shameless plug for myself. But that's totally secondary. It's been a while since attempting anything graphic design related, specifically logo centric. I forgot how hard it is. Seriously. There's so much to think about, and even more that I don't know. So I dub today, Graphic Designer Appreciation Day and if you know one, pat one on the head and say, "Thank you. I appreciate what you do, and it cannot be done by all."

From aunty, with love...

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I found an awesome loop hole in the "Best Aunt" category. From now on, I will ask my sister and brother what their kids want after Christmas. This has great results for both parties: the kids get things that they didn't get but that they really wanted and I end up being the best aunt ever because I got them those items. It's win-win. It's brilliant. And on top of it, it's so overwhelming to open presents on the 25th, that to get another gift - and a gift you want, mind you - around New Year's is... well, it's like having Christmas twice. 

This past holiday, the stars didn't align. I tried my hardest to hunt down a sewing machine guard for my sister's machine. Her girls have been begging her to teach them how to sew except that her machine might take off the 6-year-old's fingers. Yeah, that would not be cool. Anyway, I was not able to find one for her machine, nor could I find a generic one. As far as my brother's kids, well, he never got back to me about what they wanted. So, I guess it's their loss. Kids, if you grow up and wonder why Aunty Tara didn't get you any Christmas presents the year of 2011, now you know. And now it's February. 

My sister had a sweet thought: her kids would be ecstatic if they received Valentine's in the mail from your's truly. What a great idea! The first thing that popped into my head was making origami hearts. But instead of paper, make them out of fabric. But I totally dropped that idea when I came across this origami money tutorial. 

And I thought how great would it be to get a small chunck of money in the mail in the shape of a heart?!? Um, I'd love to get that now, let alone if I was 6 or 9 years old!


So I commandeered some blank kitten cards that were lying around. I have no clue where they came from and they are so 90's ridiculous, on par with Ann Geddes baby portraits. Anyway, how else would I possibly use them except for nieces and nephews who still think a kitten stuffed into a typewriter is adorable? Another win-win!

 Then I added a simple message with different colored embroidery floss and cut a slit in the center:

 Then inserted the cash:

 And of course added a few hearts to the front to make them feel more Valentine's appropriate:

Voila! Valentine's out of kitten cards. Not meant to be a belated Christmas present, but a happy surprise on Valentine's Day!

Learning Phase

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I am a acid dyer, through and through. I like to dye fiber that comes from animals - protein based fiber - and this is because of the brilliance of color that can be achieved and consistancy of how things are absorbed. I have control. (Issue? What issue?) And I've been doing it for a while, so I get it. I know how the fiber will react.
Recently, I had this crazy idea to get into cellulose dyeing - essentially dyeing plant based fibers like cotton and linen and such. I wanted to make quiltied pillows and even went so far as to model some things in Illustrator:
I know. This is serious. 
Anyway, I dip dyed a bunch of squares in some procion mx dye. Yes, that is a chopstick suspending the squares in the liquid. I couldn't hold them, since it takes a full hour for everything to steep and set properly.
Then when they were all dry and ironed, I sewed them together. None of the squares line up quite right due to the fact that all that water soaking loosened the fibers, the edges frayed a bunch and my neat squares became rectangles. I didn't realize this until mid-sew. Awesome. 

The fabric was left over from a quiling project I had a while ago. The fibers are blue in one direction and pink in the other giving the fabric an overall purple look. Due to this fiber alignment, it can look more blue or more pink depending on how it's oriented. I purposely aligned the fabric in opposite directions so that the color change would come through in quadrants. The effect is pretty amazing:

Blue fibers run horizontally in the upper right and lower left quadrants.
Overall, a great learning project. Need a little more practice on my quilting and cotton dyeing skills!

Ironing Board Cover Love

My mother commissioned me to make her a pillow to give to her sister for her birthday. Easy enough! Although my cable and pattern scaling abilities are a little on the novice side. Blocking was definitely needed for this one.

Can we talk about the pattern on my ironing board in the above picture? Let's just say that not only do I love using my ironing board and don't mind leaving it out to store (not that there's anywhere to store it in this apartment), but I use it for everything. Especially wet blocking. I needed an ironing board cover replacement and everything commercial was so boring and commodified. But I finally found and purchased it at City Chick Country Mouse. They have a fun selection. I hope I don't sound like a 1950's housewife.

Anyway, I really enjoy this cable pattern. It's just so interesting and textured. I modified it from a coffee cozy pattern of all things, although I can't find the original link.

Sock Yarn Soak Up

I bought this sock yarn last year. It's a wool/nylon blend and I just found out is great for dying. Well, it's great because it soaks up everything you put into the pot. And that's wonderful because I hate wasting dye. But when I say soaks up everything, I mean that it soaked it up within seconds and I had to dye this particular warp twice just to get the amount of yarn coverage I wanted. It was insane.  

What's also insane is that this particular color is called 'mouse gray'. I don't see anything about it that says mouse. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a purple-ish mouse, right? Maybe that's what they're like out in the country, but all the mice and rats I've ever seen in this rat-infested city are more of a gray-brown.

How gorgeous is that? I love the affect when it gets warped onto the loom, with all of its variation. The hope is that this will eventually become pillows. Cross your fingers and stay tuned!

Foray into Screen Printing

Last week, I took a screen printing 101 class at the Gowanus Print Lab. I have wanted to get into screen printing for a while, and low and behold - a Groupon of all things presented itself last June. 
Yes, I took an art class because of Groupon. And I hadn't taken the class 6 months after I purchased the damn thing. (I know, they're expecting you to let those things expire so they can cash in on you, but I'm so anal about my money I was able to take the last class before it expired.) 
Everyone in this particular session was a graphic designer (no surprise) and everyone had brought something to print. I was the only person, out of 10 or so who hadn't brought anything and didn't even have anything in mind. Ha! Talk about funny. Who goes to a print class unprepared, without an idea of what to print? This girl!

They gave me transparencies and black paint markers and said have fun! I had to think quickly. I looked through the transparency to the oak table it was lying on. Ah-ha! Texture from the wood table. Can't get much better than that. 

I was going to There's something that's reminiscent of Charlie Brown in this shirt.

I wanted to see what would happen around the collar. There's a little bit of ghosting, but I found it interesting.

I would highly suggest this class for any beginner and novice. My teacher, Zeb, was especially cool and soooooo laid back. Everyone was so helpful and knowledgeable. The main reason I wanted to take this is to learn how to print on my weavings, and when I asked about that he had several different tactics as to how I to go about it. Very knowledgeable people.

And as for my next printing project, I think I might try hand towels!

Weekend walk

This weekend, the boyf and I with our friend JL went to our friend's country home in PA. They live on a bajillion acres of land with a lovely stream that passes through and eventually feeds into the Delaware.

Besides it being only in the single digits, it was a lovely weekend!

Produce Bags!

I shop at farmer's markets and certain grocery stores that are make me feel genrally good about the food I'm purchasing. One thing I have been aching for are produce bags. I loath using plastic bags because they are so wasteful and make me feel generally icky. (I have a complicated love-hate relationship with plastic.) I've been looking for some that are light enough that they don't add money to my bill, but aren't completely boring. The latter being surprisingly hard to find.
Since I went on a supply buying binge, I found these ready-to-dye produce bags.
Via my supply site

I can not wait for them to come in the mail. And one more package to help solidify befriending the UPS Ground guy.