Well

I still haven’t done the pendant. Shucks.
Did this instead:

I’ll be printing up a couple of proofs today to make sure that its all set before listing on Etsy.

Quickie

I’ve gotten all into pen and ink again. And guess what? I actually listed art on Etsy!!

Seriously!

Go look.

So this is something called Zentangle. Basically its a system of doodling within some sort of confinement. I like circles.. so.. there ya go. The idea is to let your mind wander and create patterns, within that confined space by breaking it up into smaller spaces. this is great in theory, but it didn’t quite work for me. I’m not a mind wanderer when I’m working on art. Fortunately I am also not one of those hunched over nitpicky people. I’m sort of somewhere in between.
At any rate this was done on a 6x6 piece of paper, and then I cut it down further. Pretty small for all that detail. And yes it did take about forever. So I have a bunch listed on Etsy, and a small stack to bring to North Of The Falls this week. Hopefully by then I will have some more art to scan in and print out, but for now I think this one card is a good start.
My goal is to have several images on cards, and then see what this printer can do with photo quality for some prints that way. The bonus to this is that because it is pen and ink it would be pretty hard to screw it up unless I scan it at too low of a quality.
I am also thinking about taking it to the copy machine so that I can do some experiments with transferring portions of the art onto poly-clay for pendants and earrings.

Only other news is that I’m seriously late in sending out my tatted pendant for a swap over at InTatters. Late late late. I wanted to have this sucker done two weeks ago. So that is the project for tomorrow. I’m thinking that I might borrow a pendant idea from one of my favorite needle tatters. I’ll post pics tomorrow.

So…

I haven’t posted in a while because I haven’t finished anything. I’m stuck in a bit of a rut you see. I have a ton of projects going on at the same time, and only last night did I finally finish any of them…

Part of it is that I am trying to learn a few things (shuttle tatting being one of them), and another is that my space is a wreck. I can never find anything, and it seems that as soon as I get everything organized, I have to pull everything out to find something that I need for whatever project I’m working on… and then have to pull everything back out for the next little piece of whatever. It’s getting frustrating to say the least.

The main reason that I haven’t actually posted is that I’m afraid that I will go on some kind of rant, which I am trying very hard to school myself not to do. There are some goings on in tat-land that bother me a lot… And that is all I will say on it.

Some good news though. I got a ton of thread, shuttles and a book from Handy Hands, and I also snagged what seems to be just about the last of the Midnight Oil from Yarnplayer on Etsy, so that is pretty fun. Also I managed to win a birthday giveaway from this awesome lady. I have no idea what is going to be in the package, but I’m super excited to find out.
One other cool, but dangerous for me, thing. Our neighbors are moving out, not that I dislike them… but… a woman who does HDY is moving in. I checked out her stuff, and I think one of my first missions will be to get her to do some lace-weight yarn for me. You can see her awesome yarn at Fiberphile and instantly you will know how dangerous this is for me.

So what project have I finished? Upcycled Steam-punk Fascinators. Basically mini top hats with tons of lace and feathers and watch parts. I have one done, and about 4 or 5 more halfway finished. I made a mistake on the first two by making the cardstock base, and then attempting to attach fabric to that. After the second one I realized that it is much easier to attach the fabric to the pieces, and then stitch and glue it all together at the end.  The best part is that I am able to finally use all those little odds and ends of fabric and ribbon that I have saved (read: hoarded) over the years, and it combines everything that I love. A bit of sewing, painting, lace, glue, feathers…
The project in the works that I cant seem to get quite right? Tatted pasties. Yeah. You read that right. I have a great love for all things burlesque, so I thought… why not go with it? And I think that this morning I finally figured out what my problem has been with them, and it seems to be a pretty basic structure flaw that should be easily fixable. Hopefully one little adjustment will fix it and I can have a set completed today.

You see the theme here right? Combinations of things that I love into making things that I love. Lets hope it starts working!