Rabbit. Bunny. Hare.

Feeling Rabbitish today, itching to make one of these little cuddlies again:

The Power of Penmanship

As I sit here as of late, I have been pondering the lost art of penmanship. I have a nephew on the way and while doodling his name in my book (because its so unique and beautiful) I thought, "Why gosh, kids nowadays aren't even learning cursive writing anymore in school. Such a shame."

Well thats if your child is in public school.

The Government should be ashamed of itself.

Puh.

Writing is the most basic form of communication, and cursive writing is the angelic flourish of humanity turned civilized.

Its evolved over the years and through culture changes, but still we shouldn't forget to teach our children sophistication and showmanship of intelligence.

I envy the calligraphers who are able to eek out a living reminding society how beautiful proper communication looks and feels.

I love to write.

Doodle Therapy

I haven't committed to a super-serious post lately due to: a) laziness b) writer's bloc c) anxiety

You choose.

I'm a fine artist at heart, and I have not drawn or painted anything in forever and a day which makes me sad. So. So. Sad.

I love graphic design and illustrating on the computer. But I'm seriously developing some major carpal tunnel which is my body's alarm telling me I need a break.

I've been doodling a lot lately, and today I have found myself drawing organic things using almost all circles and arcs. It's been fun and interesting to see how these little critters I've made turn out using only circular elements.

I challenge you to doodle using one specific graphic element: circle, square, rectangle... drawing organic things using the abstract shapes will surely come out more dynamic than my simple circles.

Maybe I will return to my doodles and make a series depicting each critter with different shapes.

Equipped with my circles stencil here are a few doodles I've made:

You may recognize this diva from my Silk Screen debacle.

It's a cloud! It's a tree! No! It's a sheep ready for shearing.

These lovebirds are still under construction.

Back to the grind to clean up my doodles.... I need to re-stock my art supplies. I have one pencil left. My paints are stocked but no papers. I think these critters are asking to be made in marker.

Show me your stuff! I want to see what you have made! Leave a link in the comments....

****Disclaimer**** I hate to be a stickler, but these are my drawings and are my intellectual property. Because they have been published within this medium they are copyrighted and you may not sell them. I am flattered if you deem my doodles worthy to copy- which you can privately, but do not pass them off as your own. Give credit to where credit is due. Always conduct yourself in a dignified manner, because if you don't believe in God's Judgement Day, you best believe in Karma because she is a total bitch and doesn't wait around for that Judgement Day to come.

Silk Screening #Fail

It seems I have been fasting the online community lately, and so I have for various reasons, I will post an OHTY re-brand update this week...

But in the meantime I've been desperately searching for a quick and easy AND cost-effective way to do silk screening. I think I may end up doing some sort of stamping instead.

Let me start by clearly stating this process is just for DIY hobbyists and not meant for commercial printing. By no means. Ha!

I was using this How-To guide from eHow to start off and it seems simple enough.

Well not so much.

Instead of using embroidery hoops I used canvas stretcher strips and stapled the fabric to it much like stretching canvas.

This did not work because the fabric I bought was too sheer and lightweight. Because of this I was not able to get a nice tight fit around the strips. An embroidery hoop probably would have worked better.

Furthermore, the fabric was not woven tightly enough, too many large spaces. I thought it would make it easier to pass the paint through, but it ended up looking like a 64-bit image than a nice smooth image.

I drew the image on the reverse side, hard to see, eh?

I drew my image on the "silk screen" with a pencil, which was not successful. It was hard to see the pencil lines. I used too soft of a pencil and not a stiff enough fabric.

I used mod-podge to fill in the negative space where the paint should not come through. That was messy and tedious making sure the holes were properly filled up.

Upon closer inspection, it looks like a rough pixellated image. I forgot her tail too. Oops.

Clean up was also difficult. The fabric of course became heavy, it will probably stretch out because of it...

Anywho...

The lessons I've learned:

I would probably use thin, solid pieces of wood with no rounded curves (as the stretcher strips do) and stiffer fabric that is still sheer enough for paint to pass through, maybe tulle would work great.

I also would use some form of a squeegee and not a foam roller like I used for this experiment. The foam roller just soaked up the paint and it was hard making the paint pass through the fabric.

Also make sure that the apparel you are silk screening is properly tied down and stretched tight. My experiment was hastily done and things will work better when you follow this rule.

And if you don't know or haven't figured it out- you cannot use regular paint. No acrylics, tempera, oils, watercolors (heavens to betsie! *rolls eyes*) FABRIC paint.

Silk screening can be a lot of fun! But like scrapbooking the supplies are ridiculously expensive. Its funny how capitalism makes everyday found materials so expensive when put all together.... its all just wood, plastic, rubber, textiles, paint... Oh well.

I was looking for a fun way to make apparel since everyone I know is having/has had babies and was wanting to make things that were more personable. I have used the iron-on transfers before but those come out stiff and crinkle after they are washed. I will try again, but this time I'm thinking about making a large stamp instead- lithography if you will. I've done it before with wood blocks and a material that for the life of me I cannot remember what it was.... it was like a rubber stamp, but wasn't... when I figure it out I will let you know! Or if by any chance your brain wavelength is riding the same wave as mine- please tell me what it is because I'm going crazy trying to remember...

If you're on Twitter come follow me! I in like will do the same- I'm only following two real people, everyone else is a company. Wow.

Name Inspirations

This is a post in conjunction with the Our Home To Yours re-brand series about names and my never ending dissatisfaction!

I keep mulling Yankee Burrow over and over inside my head and I just want to be sure that this is the best representation of what we stand for.

Home.

Comfort.

Happiness.

Warmth.

And all that jazz.

The old adage is true: all the good names are taken. So we need to improvise! Desperately.

I like the concept of "cloud nine", you know, being on cloud nine, your happy place. But the name "Cloud Nine" or "9" is used so much across the board its ridiculous. And I'm having difficulty incorporating the word "cloud" within the name. Nothing sounds quite right.

Then "On A Cloud" popped in my mind.

Hmm.

Not bad I think. I kind of like it. I believe I'm going to add a little somethin'-somethin' at the end, you know, a flourish to tie it all in. On A Cloud crafters.... hmmm.... not to thrilled with the whole "crafters" or "craft" thing. I'm going to keep working on it.

Comments are welcome. Be tactful in your criticisms.



OH. And I guess I should organize my archived blogs a little better eh? Yeah I'll get right on that.

After I eat lunch.


Hey! I'm on Tehnorati now... go check it out!

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What's in a Name

Our Home To Yours Re-brand Series

What’s in a Name…

Well I chose Tuesdays to write posts on branding, but today is Wednesday. What’s up with that? My apologies folks! The customers at Wallyworld wait for no one. Ugh.

Let me tell you, I sure am getting tired of teaching people to use a scanner. Or their smartphone. If you have hundreds of dollars to spend on a piece of technology you better learn how to use it! Life is so unfair.

I could go on about retail life, however that whole debacle is for another blog entirely!

Back to the task at hand…

I’m still brainstorming names for the Our Home To Yours re-brand. And I tell ya it ain’t easy. Every handcraft shop out there has some cutesy-fartsy name that ties in some element of the crafting process. And every website is filled with pastel colors and elements that imply sewed characteristics.

Now hold on there. I’m not necessarily dissing this stuff. I have good friends who have utilized these very traits and have successful brands. But I’m not here to be a copycat. That stuff has been done. It’s almost expected for a handcraft shop to look all frilly and pastely with vintagy labels and other adjectives that end in “y” (which may or may not be real words).

And printables!

Everyone gives out free printables.

I hate that word.

Printable.

It just sounds odd.

Moving forward!

Names!

What’s in a name? Yes we all know a rose called by any other name would smell just as sweet.

But not in the business world.

A name tells customers exactly who you are without even looking at the logo yet or taking a gander inside the store.

It needs to be different yet tell us “who” the business is.

Our names given to us at birth tell a story of whom we are. I’m a total believer that a person’s name is important to their character. It should be well thought out and on-purpose. For instance the name Addison (the proper spelling thankyouverymuch) means “son of Adam” but is more popularly being given to girls. Why? Did you know “Shannon” is traditionally a boy’s name? It’s a name free for all these days. And don’t bother getting all defensive, for if you are offended by these simple musings then surely you are simple minded.

So in light of all that I’m taking thoughtful care into brainstorming names. And I’m not satisfied with the list I came up with. We (my mother and I) are proud to hail from Western New York and would like to blend our Northern roots with our Southern habitation. I thought of the name Southern Yankee, but its already taken. Drats.

Sure it’s stereotypical to include “Yankee” in our name (especially considering the whole world considers every American to be a “Yankee”, not just pigeon holed to the Northern states), but I can’t seem to escape it. I also want to include something to imply “home”, as in a cozy home or nest. “Burrow” came up in the thesaurus and I enjoy the definition, “2. (n.) a place of retreat; shelter or refuge.” I want this business to be someplace where you can find your “happy place”. So the name Yankee Burrow went on my list. What do you think of it?

Yankee Burrow.

The Yankee Burrow.

Hmmm.

The jury is still out on that one. I’m still brainstorming.

One month left to save up some $$ for the early bird registration to the HOW Design Conference!!

Who’s going with me??

Casual Friday

I know I'm fairly new to the blogging world and I'm terrible at posting regularly. I'm working on a "blogging schedule" so I can keep you all informed- or at least amused- with tutorials, essays, and how about free downloads? Doesn't that pique your interest? Everyone loves free stuff! If you want some free crafty items you can check out my Etsy shop's blog (authored by my partner/mother) at Our Home To Yours.

In the meantime why don't you get your fill of design-goodness at Creative Hot List or The Designer's Couch.

Cheers Big Ears!