new commission - zombie class mascot

Gosh! I like a challenge, but this one is a doozie.

I've been commissioned by a Prep teacher to make her class a mascot. I've made a number of mascots in the past for classes, including a Ringmaster called Petey Barnam and a tree named Mr Barkly Tree (named by the kids in the class) but this time the teacher asked the kids what they wanted and they unanimously agreed that they want a zombie.

Cool! Cool kids (all aged 5-6) but tricky. You see, a zombie is an undead human or animal who's body is rotting and dropping off. How the green hell am I going to do that for kids, still give it enough details to make it look like a zombie but not too many gruesome details so that it scares the kids?

Research, my friends, research is the key.

I did a search on flickr for ZOMBIE SOFTIE... and these are some of the cool things I found

This cat zombie is from Flufftail and was found here. I like that it seems happy to be a zombie, which a lot of zombies don't seem to be. The green skin is certainly a zombie tell-tale sign and the scars are good, although also a bit pirate-y. The fangs and blood are cute but I don't know that they're ok for little kids. Even little kids who ask for zombies.

This guy is great too. He's by Freshmade and was found here. Again he's cute and not scary and doesn't look like he minds being dead and zombiefied.

You'll have to follow the link for this one, but I love the stitched circles around the eyes, which helps to show the zombieness of the guy. It does make him a look a little worried thou... http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivikasfeltcreatures/3170934138/

Then I stumbled across this guy, Herman2 from thEm doLLz. How great is he? The eyes pointing in slightly different directions and the size of the eyes relative to the size of his face makes him seem simple and happy rather than threatening and menacing. The heart also helps with his friendliness. The striped shirt also lends a Tim Burton feel to him, which is cool although I'm not sure that helps with the friendliness.

So that's what I need. A happy, friendly, unthreatening zombie who little kids wool deb happy to hug. And now I've figured out how to do it, with a little help from research.

Love it.

Research is such a pretty thing

I'm working on a new project, this time it's a solo photography exhibition. I wont say too much about the actual theme at this point, but so I'm doing a whole swathe of research on stuff from the 30s.

I want the photos to have an element of realism. Since they're sort of vaguely set in the 30s, I don't want to have something that's glaringly from the 60s in them. This stuff didn't used to matte to me so much, but now I'm a little older and I've worked on a few films and tv shows that the head of the art depaartment clearly know so much about the time being portrayed and search high and low for just the right thing, well ladies and gentlemen, I have been influenced.

This doesnt mean, however, that if I need a pair of shoes in the shot that they have to be from the 30s. More I'm interested in getting the right feel, so a pair that are 30s in style but modern will be jsut fine.

And since I'm researching lots of interesting things, I thought I should share some with you. Today I've been researching old pin cushions.

Usually I start by asking - did they use (insert whatever I'm researching) back then, or is it a more modern thing? Today I didn't need to ask that as I know that Nicole, the owner of the amazing Circa Vintage Clothing has a pin cushion dating back to Victorian times, we chatted about it last time I was in there. So I was ok with the item itself.

Next I do some research to see if I can find what they looked like back then. Google images and ebay are your friends for this. I don't have to BUY what I'm looking at, I can jsut as easily make it. And anyway, usually old things that are cheap enough that I can afford them look worn and faded, and that isn't great for convincing someone looking at a photo (or a set) that they're looking at a brand new thing and the era itself is old.

I didn't find any pincushions labeled from the 30s, but I did find a number of vintage ones in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I loved this one (above), found here, although I don't think the person who runs that website created/found/owns it. It's an old tin with a roll of paper in it that's been used as a pin cushion. The antique pins are great and the cushion itself is really unusual, I've never seen one like it. I decided that I might go with this one, until I came across the next one...

Then I found this, over at Little Paper Dog.

It's perfect! It's got that perfect homemade feel to it, but also that Depression era never-throw-anything-out, always-reuse-what-you-have feel to it. That 'make good, make do' sensibility. I was reading about the times when stockings were just simply too hard to get, that ladies drew their seems on with eyebrow pencils. Very clever, very thrifty. And that's what I like about this jar.


Little Paper Dog's Michelle has a tutorial here for these jars, but they are all over the craft-o-sphere (I guess I'm late to the party) so you can google "pincushion" and "mason jar" and find a number of people who have caught the fever already...

First Lady of Knitting

what a great title to hold! I was on the Historic Fibers blog and checking out the links on the right nav bar. There is a big pile of awesome knitting history links and I thought I would share them with you all.

Firstly is The Hook and The Book virtual exhibition. An awesome and comprehensive resource from what looks like a museum exhibition. Filled with pictures of historical examples of knitting and crochet, lots of explanations and links to other places. A great place to spend some time.

Next is the Victorian and Albert museum in London. They have a knitting section here where you can look at their knitted items and even submit photos of your own! I think that is kinda cool, submitting your stuff to become part of the V&As digital collection. They also have a range of 1940s patterns that are free to download here. The Essentials for the Forces booklet cover comes from that page. I love the look on the woman's face! Determined and thoughtful but also a little cross.

Speaking of old knitting patterns, Sarah's homework site is one lady's project of scanning in and uploading heaps of old patterns, i think from a book she inherited, but I could be way off there.

Another site that's doing much the same thing is Vintage Purls There's some gorgeous items you could make at home including my favourite, this little fairy toy. I think making a fairy that someone a few generations ago created to delight children back then would be joyous.

And to round things off, an essay about knitting during wartime called Knitting for Victory, which is where I got the title of the post from. I find it fascinating that at several points in history, it was considered a woman's patrotic duty to knit knit knit. It's just such a different society now, we're not really called upon to do that. However, having said that, the excellent Pip and the Handmade Help crew restashed crafters and encouraged the donation of handmade goodies for the bushfire victims, so maybe it's now more a grassroots urge of helping community rather than a governement spearheaded operation for troops at the front.

Which reminds me, that HBOs Pacific comes out soon, and there will be a scene of picnicking families and sweethearts and somewhere in those groups will be a lady knitting about 5 inches of olive drab ribbing for a jumper on tortoiseshell needles while she sits and watches children play. That, my friends, was my first ever war effort. Nowhere near the amount of effort that Anthea Chrome did knitting all the outfits for Coraline, but still, it's the second biggest piece of clothing I've ever knitted, and even then I didn't finish it. 


As the lady handed it back to me at the end of the day, she said "I'm sorry, I think I dropped some stitches. I've only done about 3 rows." She was dreadfully concerned. I smiled and said that it didn't matter. It was, after all, only a prop.

But still, I like to think about it as my first war effort!

Monsters are really the best

A couple of net finds while I finish off a few things...

Firstly, I came across these awesome guys from Silent Orchard I love them! I love the thought and detail that's gone into the charaterisation of each one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentorchid/4427577773/

She's got a number of great softies on her flickr, so do go check them out. 

And from the ArtDecadence blog,this. It's the oldest Alice in Wonderland film in exsistance, filmed in 1903. So beautiful and I love the sepia tone!

A beautiful thing.

The lovely and most marvelous Pip from Meet Me At Mikes had a little muse the other day as to how to help your little ones become avid readers. It's a lovely post filled with good ideas to help encourage reading in children. Along with that it has some great comments attached! If you haven't read it already, check it out here: http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-grow-book-worms.html

And I couldn't resist adding the image she used. Wild Things and books, some of my favourite things! I don't know where she got it, but it's clearly the wonderful Maurice Sendak and I love it :)

soul comforting beauty in North Melbourne

A friend of mine has just opened the most beautiful shop in the world with one of the most inspiring names I've ever heard.

Orlando and Ivy. It makes you think of Picnic at Hanging Rock kind of times, all white dresses and hints of green. It's such an evocative title! And the store itself is  so beautiful. You walk in the door, away from the noise and busy-ness of Victoria St into a quiet oasis of calm filled with gentle old world charm. 

I'm so taken with her shop, I want to live there! And I'm also dreadfully honoured that one of the photos she's put on her blog (http://orlandoandivy.wordpress.com/) to celebrate the opening has my products in it! The granny bunting draped across those beautiful handmade boxes are mine. Shucks :)

So come, support brand new local businesses and introduce into your space some incredibly beautiful things. I'll copy the text from the website because it's more eloquent than I can be at this time in the morning...

ORLANDO AND IVY is a creative emporium located at 424 Victoria Street, North Melbourne.

Purveyors of locally sourced art objects, wearable art, journaling supplies, creative tools, books, and other high-quality publications.

More incredibly beautiful images can be found at the website: www.orlandoandivy.com

craft yourself some army surplus

I was just researching some less plans for political stuff and I came across this craft activity. Yes, it's how to make your own gas masks by the John Curtin Prime Ministerial library. There's a number of lesson plans on the site which include 'craft activites'. Naturally I clicked on it, and clearly this fun gas mask was the only one they'd thought of stemming from Curtin's time in office.

http://john.curtin.edu.au/education/gasmask/index.html

People think of the weirdest things to teach children.

crocheting is an addiction

Becclebee, from marjoryjane, invited me toone of her regular crafternoons last weekend. While there, she was crocheting very interesting things. So interesting, infact, that I abandoned the pre-prepared craft I had bought along and jumped instead on the crocheting band wagon.

She, and now I, have been busy crocheting stars using the wonderful Royal Sisters star pattern.

(All images kindly nicked from Becclebee's blog)

The tighter, smaller ones are Becclebee's. Just like knitting, I crochet looser than she does. At the top of the photo is the pretty 70s crafting dress I was wearing at the time. I'm such a fan of the blue-and-white colour scheme in clothing.

Bec also had these amazing crochet pieces completed
How cute are they! I'm not really a huge fan of christmas decorations but this has made me aware that I'm rather keen on homemade christmas decorations. I've already crocheted myself a line of 7 yellow stars, a friend a red, green and white set and a friend with kids a rainbow set of 17 stars. Damn human fraility that I need to rest my wrists now! There's so many more stars I want to make...

If you haven't been over to The Royal Sisters, do pop along to bathe in some of her cheerful granny goodness.

I am in love with both of these artists

I was thinking about things I could do with my classes today, and I remembered somewhere on Craftster (I think) a girl was translating her childhood drawings into dolls. They looked incredible! So I decided to find some children's drawings on the net so I could start thinking about doing it as well.

I discovered Lizette Greco who creates softies from her children's drawings. Check these out:

images from CultCase

How wonderful are they? I'm so sold on this as an idea. There's this great resource called Build Your Wild Self where you can make an almalgum animal from elements from heaps of different animals, it's really cool. So you could do that with the class and then make one of them, but then there's issues of jealousy as to whose gets made, so maybe building it all with the class is a better idea.

I also found Yeondoo Jung, who used to be a kindergarten teacher and he collected something like 1700 drawings over the years. He then analyzed them all, and decided on which ones he was going to recreate. He got teenagers from the local high school to be in them, got fashion designers to make the costumes and created all the sets himself.

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty
(images from Yeondoo's site)

How awesome are they?
I love children's drawings, and I'm really looking forward to being in the classroom. I'm really looking forward to being inspired by them, and learning from them as much as they're learning from me!

Gosh, a winner

Last week Cate from the wonderful Polka Dot Rabbit had a give away on her blog to win these ace embroidered kitten mittens. I entered it, and won!

How nice is that? They arrived today in the mail, with gift card and the cutest little badge out of retro looking material.

Such a wonderfully warming package. Thank you again Cate!

This is an imagination I admire

This is wonderful, one of the best softies I've seen in a long time. Welcome to chouette treehouse network, a collaboration between Cat Rabbit and Ghostpatrol.

I've always loved Ghostpatrol's work, he seems to envisage a world that no one else had seen before, populated with children with horns and huge beasts, drawn delicately on pasties around the town. I've only recently discovered Cat Rabbit and I love her softies. There are a variety of softies out there, but somehow she captures a mix of weirdness and innocence, they seem to inhabit their own inner world, looking peaceful and open in their oddness, rather than the uncomfortable softies out there. You know the ones I mean, they end up looking furtive or unhappy that they've been called into exsistance by artists who don't care that their softies are awkward in their ill fitting skins.

Cat Rabbit, on the other hand, captures amazing experessions with a skill that others should envy.

Below is one of my current obsessions, an owl, veiwed through Cat Rabbit's eyes


I'm so glad I found her work! All images found on Cat Rabbit's website, here

A fleeting second of Knitta Please

Becclebee of Marjoryjane went to the National Gallery in Canberra this weekend and wandered around an exhibition of Knitta Please.

Knitta Please, for those of you who haven't come across them before, are a group of American crafty guys who looked in dispare at all their unfinished knitting projects laying around and wondered if there wasn't a good thing they could do with them. So they went out late at night and started sewing them around trees, to door handles, around street signs and public art, anywhere they could find.
From street tagging, they now exhibit in National Galleries around the world:
How incredible is that work? If you click on it to see it bigger, you'll see that each stripe is about scarf width. Mind boggling amount of knitting, even if they did knit in on a machine. It's awe inspiring!

More of Becclebee's photos can be found in her original post here and Knitta Please's website is here

shucks

The guys over at Fandomania have found via craftster and showcased my K9 tissue box holder along with three other Dr who related tissue box covers at Fandomestic: Time Lord-Approved Tissue Boxes. Thank you guys!

Pop on over and check out the other ones listed, there's some beautiful work going on there...

busy knittin' up a storm

I know people flock to Ravelry, and I have considered it, but my understanding is that you log in and list all your wool and all the patterns you want to knit.

My problem is that I don't work that way. I have 6 clear plastic tubs of wool and yarn organised according to colour, but there's only ever one or two balls of each and I never know what brand they are. This is because I buy most of my yarn from op shops, at 50c or so a ball.

On the up side, it's cheap and I always find interesting wool you can't find in shops, but on the down side you can't knit whole jumpers or anything because there's really only ever one or two balls of the same type. But since I really only knit little dolls, 1 ball of wool will do anywhere from one doll to many, depending on what I'm knitting. So really, that's another up side.

It's all coming up Milhouse...

Plus, I never knit patterns. This is partly because my ability to read patterns is only slightly better than my ability to read music. Playing anything on piano via reading music comes out all stilted and the musical equivalent of SEE JANE, SEE JANE RUN, RUN JANE RUN. But mostly it's because I think of something to knit and then knit it. I don't need a pattern to know how to knit a burlesque girl, and I think I'd be hard pressed to find one. I just make it up as I go along, and then I keep bowling along.

I'm telling you all this for a reason. Which appears to be that I've jsut finished knitting a number of doll prototypes for this semester's Knitting Club workshop which I'm quite happy with, but more details of that soon. I then ran out of things to knit breifly, so I'm now halfway through knitting a little pirate (currently he's naked and sans his rowboat, so I can't put photos up yet. This is a family show after all.) and I'm also finally finishing off the Vampira and the Medusa I knitted a while ago.

Again, no photos at this stage due to the highly technical reason that I've misplaced my camera cord. But soon my pretties, soon.

Until then, check out about the cutest thing I've seen in a while, which I found through a google image search of MEDUSA to check her regular facial expression for the doll.

I present to you How to have mythological children:

I found it here, but no details as to who did it or anything. But how cool is that! And such a serious expression on the child's face.

Rockin thing to go out on tonight, don't you think?

Is there nothing knitters can't do? Part 2

So I firstly stumbled across this image when I was searching for mummies. As in the monsters. As in The Curse Of... and other such classic movies, let alone Brendan Fraser in between his Encino Man and Scrubs period. So no, I have no idea how this one came up, but I'm glad it did.

A knitted house. How ace is that? The website that it's on only has this to say about it: This home was created by a group of women who enlisted the help of friends and family.

Not a lot of information, but that's sometimes the way it goes. There's a couple more photos on the site, including a close up of the flowers on the window by the door. Again, no details as to HOW they did it - is it around the mother of all cardboard boxes? is it wrapped around a small house? Peering at it closely I can see that some of it is see-through, and it appears that there's a scaffold underneath it. Well, that's the most logical way to do it in my mind.

And of course, all the experts tell us that we should match our decor. If you have a knitted house, the next item on the shopping list would be Some kind of knitted transport. Teresa Honeywell has knitted this motorbike, it's a cover around a real bike. If you're not a bikin' kind of person, how about a knitted ferrari? Lauren Porter and 20 of her family and friends knittted this in honour of Lauren graduating from Uni. It's created on a steel frame Lauren welded herself.

If you prefer a more enviromentally friendly way to travel, how about a bicycle? Ok, I realise this is a little cheaty, cause I think it's a little bike (check out the size of the stitches vs the size of the bike and that it appears to be sitting on a table cloth) but I figured it fit nicely in with todays topic, which is:

IS THERE NOTHING KNITTERS CANNOT DO?

I can't read the website the bike came from, but here is the link in case you can

On a side note, one of the sentances I copied into this post from the other websites had an odd piece of code in it, which means that if I look in the HTML part of this post, there's heaps of these:
< / knitting > Which I think is only fitting, seeing as the knitting part of this post is now done.

In other news, my marionette has been featured in a treasury about puppets called Strings, which is lovely, and I'm getting some ace comments about my Lucky Rocketship Underpants Tee.

And yesterday I finished off 4 artworks (and half finished a 5th) which have been sitting on my desk (read 'entirly covering') for a couple of months now. So there's a nice sence of achievement there. And last night I started knitting a mummy, trailing bandages and all. Its almost done, I figure it'll be finished by tonight. When we were young, we had a tape of the entire Monster Mash album (which you can find all of the songs here... erm, only if you're in America, apparently), which included a bunch of other songs by the same band, including one between Dracula and his girlfriend Vampira, one abut Drac wanting to go to a blood bank, one about Igor wanting to quit his job with Boris and work with Drac (with one of my favourite quotes (to be read out loud in a slightly accented and kind of a little slowly) "But master, I want to work niiiiights, with Count Dracularrrrr") One where the Wolfman is jealous of Boris's sucess with the song Monster Mash and tried to start his own band, but halfway through a song turns into a werewolf and rips up the stage, and of course, the ever beautiful ballad Me and My Mummy, which ran:
it happened in Egypt on the banks of the Nile,
at the base of her pyramid she gave me a smile
her bandage unravelled, decayed flesh I did see,
Now it's me and my mummy, my mummy and me

the chorus ran Me and my mummy and me and my mummy and me and my mummy and me...

I can't remember the whole song, but the last verse is:

We married, in Cairo, the very next day
and outside our crypt, the inscription does say
here lies two mummies, wrapped close as can be
it's jsut me and my mummy, my mummy and me...

Bizarre and weird album, and as a kid I loved it. We played the tape to death as I recall.

Anyway, I'll photograph the mummy when it's finished, but thinking about that song and staring at the mummy sitting on my bed makes me wonder if the mummy I'm knitting is her or him.

a discussion of monsters, breasts, dresses and moral dilemmas

Mid last year, as you might well know, I curated and organised an exhibition encouraging artists to create self portrait dolls of how they view themselves inside. My doll is at your right, a 4 foot high little green monster built in a similar style to the muppets.

Recently I knitted a version of her as a present, and I've only jsut got the photo. I've got to stop giving the guys away before I photograph them. But anyway, I just wanted to share her with you. The only difference really is the little one has blue eyes and the big one has brown eyes. That wasn't intentional, the little one was totally created out of my stash and I only had blue eyes that size. The photo of the actual Totem doll was taken before she had feet (the publicity deadline came faster than I expected) but rest assured she has dreadfuly cute 3 toed feet, which is why the knitted version has feet too... and I love her little knitted belly!

It's like looking at one of those spot the difference cartoons in the paper really, isn't it!

One of the things I loved about the big doll was that (although you can't see it well because of the dress) she actually has boobs. This lady ain't flat chested, she has little boobs befitting her size and statue. I think boobs on grown up versions of things are important, especially when it's not a sexual thing. Here I put my hand up and say yes, I have knitted topless burlesque dolls with boobs, which was, amongst other things, exploring what you can do to make the subject of dolls more grown up, but leaping to the other side of the fence, I feel that most dolls are made flat chested and for the vast majority, the only time dolls are made with boobs is for when they're all pimped out, dressed in their underwear and generally slutted out. So one of the themes I'm working on at the moment is dolls with breasts. Of course, the last three dolls I've made were all flat chested. But one was for a child and the other two were portrait dolls. I think there's something a little odd about giving someone a portrait doll of themselves with lovingly handcrafted breasts.

Ovbiously I'm still working through this one... I'll get back to you when I've figured it out.

In other, unrelated news, check this out! it's a dress designed and HAND KNITTED by Knitwear Designer Jemma Sykes.

I love the texture of the loops, as well as the beautiful shape it's taken. The text tells us that it's called The Elizabeth, and it's created from 100% organic wool dyed a soft pink. I wish it said just how much wool it took.

You can find it here.

Ladies and gentlemen, is there nothing a knitter can't do?

discoveries of a hauntingly beautiful kind

I love wandering around the net, seeing what people out there are making. For those of you who don't know, I'm a photographer and a digital artist as well as a crafty lady. I have a presence on Redbubble, a worldwide community of photography that can be purchased as cards, prints, tshirts and more. A 2d etsy, if you like. Today while wandering around there I came across Laurenrabbit, an incredible photographer from the States. She does all of her black and white photography straight - no digital at all. Any editing is in camera or in the darkroom. I love this sort of photography, and I wish I had a darkroom to do it in!
This image comes straight from her blog, and I think it's beautiful. I love the sepia tone she gives many of her images, as well as the dark, gritty, dirty feel to both subject matter and photograph. She's certainly one of the most interesting photographers I've seen in a long time, and it makes me happy that there are such creative people in the world.



Other things I've fond in the past 24 hours is A Slip Of A Girl, who runs a beautiful blog about vintage undergarments, mostly of the feminine kind. I found her because she posted about my burlesque dolls, which I thought was lovely.



Through that blog, I have discovered White Lies Design, an incredibly talented lady named Joan who has created numerous knitting patterns in a vintage style.

And if you don't want to knit your own beautiful underthings, you could always purchase them from Under The Root, who creates vintage inspired underwear for both men and women inspired by circus and burlesque.

I love the net. And I love adventuring around it. I love the community it fosters, allowing like minded people to connect who might never find each other any other way. One of the best inventions in the world. After knitting needles and cake.

an interesting topic

On Facebook yesterday, Cate of polka dot rabbit posted this photo:


and the question - what do you think?

It's by Johnny Ryan and Jenny Ryan and called Soft 9/11. I saw it here on Extreme Craft, however the original post is here on Boing Boing.

It's stirred heaps of controversy, you only need to look at the hundred of comments on the Boing Boing post. Predictably, there are people calling it disgusting, and other people supporting it, pointing out it's nowhere near as repulsive as the 'official' commemorative products, including a coin and weirdly enough, an official 911 commemorative SCRUNCHIE.

So since I'd two cents-ed all over Cate's Facebook wall, I figured I'd put it here too.

I think it's certainly about time 911 was held up to the art microscope. Every chapter in history is scrutinized, internalized and regurgitated as art. Its something humans do. It's in our world, it's part of our history and thus it comes out in our art. The Tienanmen Square photo of the man and the tank has been repeated over and over in art, advertising and more. Art reflects the world we live in.

someone replied to this saying I'm sorry. That is NOT art. That is to art what a ringtone is to the 1812 overture.

I liked the analogy of the ringtone. And because I'm currently researching this sort of thing, and I like discussions of this nature, I waded in again

I guess that does totally depend on what your definition of art is. It's certainly a legitimate reaction to the event.

It was Dechamp that first invented the idea that art is anything an artist decrees as such, by exhibiting the urinal as Art in 1917. This act pretty much sparked off the Modern Art movement, one that Dechamp decried on his deathbed and said that had he known what floodgates he was opening at the time, he never would have done it.

I'm not sure the Ryans are labeling this art, that was my interpretation. But now this is out in the world it's for it's audience to label and interpret as they see fit.

I think it's a totally legitimate reaction to an event. It seems to be humanising it, breaking it down from a huge and horrific event to something small and easily manageable. I think just as Serrano's Piss Christ was bringing Jesus back down to human, that these plushies are taking a huge and terrifying event and re-presenting it to us in a comical form, to allow us to come out from under it's terror shadow and move on.

However, I also understand that everyone is going to view it differently.

A couple of other people waded in, defending the artist's right to make this, but the Not Art man hasn't said anything more as yet, which is a shame. I was just getting into this one.

I think humans need to process events, break them down and try to understand them in personal terms, so they can figure them out and move on. And I think that 911 was such a huge and frightening event that it's very difficult to process it. A year after it happened, The theatre company I worked for at the time, theatre in decay, wanted children drawings of a destroyed city for the background of a play they were working on at the time called All Of Which Are American Dreams. The producer went to her old primary school and over a few weeks got the children to draw destroyed and broken cities. Every single one of those children drew planes flying into buildings. This event has been burned into our psyche, and even more so for people in America.

But to understand such an event, and process it, we need to take it apart and rebuild it for ourselves. And that's where art such as this comes in. in a way it's cathartic, taking an event that is treated with such reverence and injecting a little gentle humour into it, as if to say - see? it's ok, it's not as scary anymore.

I like it for those reasons. But more than that, I think it's a really important step to take, and I applaud the Ryans for doing it.

While She Naps

I've just discovered a beautiful soft sculpture artist, Abby of While She Naps, who makes, amongst other things, incredibly beautiful birds. She's just posted a really interesting photography journey of making a peacock which you should check out.

But I found her for her beautiful teacup pin cushions.
She buys antique teacup and saucer sets and turns them into pin cushions like the one on the left. How beautiful are they? I love the idea of rescuing things that other people have thrown out and make them into something beautiful and useful. And I'm always a fan of old world items and crafts. Abby is selling her beautiful work at her etsy store, whileshenaps.etsy.com which has some heart achingly beautiful things on it!
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It occurs to me that I used the term 'beautiful' quite a lot in that post. But I comfort myself that I am an artist, so I call them how I see them. Plus, my thesaurus is all the way over the other side of the room. Of course, I could look it up on the net, but I think that what I think is what I think. And I find a lot of things beautiful.

Spreadin' the Love

Being a self employed artist is many things. Sometimes it's wonderful, when you sit down and realise that you're being paid for things you love to do anyway, and sometimes it's painful, when you're doing something that you've done so often that it's no longer quite as fun as it once was, and sometimes it's pinching because for some reason most contracted artist jobs pay half upfront and half at the end. And nothing is ever said about the middle.

So I've been waiting for ages to be paid, and it's all been a bit tight. But I keep finding things on Etsy that I want to buy. So I swore that next time I got paid, I'd go on Etsy and buy some stuff, thus spreading the art-pay love around. Plus, in times like these, I figure that if there is spare cash, it's nice to be able to help other people out.

I've been cruising around the DUST TEAM website - all the Down Under Etsy Sellers, because I'm also a huge fan of buying local. And yesterday I got paid from a job. So I happily jogged over to etsy to see what I could see.

I had marked Inner Earth Soaps a while ago, I love handmade, chemical free soaps and these really fit the bill! They look incredible and I'm sure they smell great. I can't wait to receive them!

Something else I'd marked a while ago was Conscientia's Cameos. I'm a big sucker for cameos and old time things, but also I have this weird new obsession with Babushka dolls. So check these out! How cute are they? I've bought the one third from the left with the lace apron.

I feel good about these purchases for a couple of reasons. One is that it's always nice to buy handmade stuff, plus it's always lovely to recieve gifts in the mail, but one of the best things about this is I'm really glad that in this time of trouble that I had some spare cash and was able to help.

And anyway, I'm a big believer in what goes around comes around :)

I've also bought a present for a family member that they're going to love like nothing else! But I can't put it up here for obvious reasons. That one'll just have to wait!