Inktober # 2

I've decided to join Inktober I don't know if I'll be doing any "drawing" drawings, but I will produce at least one doodle/zentangle per day.

Here is yesterday's entry, as I catch up

#inktober

Crystal Head Hack

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Crystal Head Vodka - especially if you've been through a liquor store at an airport.

Our bottle had been empty for a while and so Jp decided to have the top cut off to make it into a pen holder - he contacted a local glass company and found a guy there that is really skilled at hand cutting. In fact, he is so talented he is one of the main people in the city who custom cuts motorcycle windscreens. Jp wanted to see it happen, so the guy said come on in.
This is the end result:

There have been several really interesting things done in relation to this bottle - one is the forensic reconstruction and if you google "crystal head vodka crafts" you will see all sorts of painting techniques.

Stitchy Happiness!!!!

Have you ever had two of your favourite people come together? Well it just happened to me. I am so, so excited.

As you may know I have been a long time fan of Jenny Hart at Sublime Stitching. In fact, back when it was just her and an assistant, my husband wrote to her and asked to to include a personalized note in my package as a gift and she graciously complied with the cutest handwritten card.

And on the side of my blog, I have been following Andrees Illustration for a couple years, and have a framed print of hers outside my office door which I look at about 40 times a day.

So you can imagine my glee when I see a little image pop up on the side of my blog of a little house drawn by Andree. My first thought was "I'd love to embroider that". I follow the link to Andree's blog and that's when I find out she's collaborated with Sublime Stitching! Very excited. And yes, I have already placed an order for the patterns.

Art is a Way

Here's a site that I enjoy looking at for inspiration - check it out and let me know what you think.

Art is a Way 

My Personal Conundrum

I used to love conundrums when I was a kid - the one about the goldfish, or the hanged man without a chair beneath him, etc. Do you remember any? Here try to answer this one:

As I went across the bridge, I met a man with a load of wood which was neither straight nor crooked. What kind of wood was it?

I seem to be having a different kind of conundrum these days. I can't seem to get anything done -  I mean I can get the housework and the gardening done and even fit in some baking. But as far as creative projects  - they just don't seem to happen.

I struggle with figuring out why. Is it the weather? Because after work I want to go outside and enjoy the warmth and the sun? Or is there another reason? Am I scared to start? Do I have too many choices or not enough?

Of course then I spend time thinking maybe I'm spending too much time thinking and I should just start. But then I stand there scratching my head- what should I start? The next problem is putting my hands on my materials. Seems I've misplaced the folder with my Zentangle supplies. Seems I have my watercolours but not the paper and on and on.

Oh sure, there is always knitting and crocheting -but what project do I want to do? Nothing is calling me or inspiring me. I think what I might do is just pick some projects and put the supplies together - the pattern/yarn/hook or needle or the pattern/fabric/floss/needle or the paper/pen/paint/brush  - all together in a bag or box so the next time I don't know what to do or the next time a flicker of inspiration appears I can grab a project and just start. After sharpening an ax for a while, one must cut something, mustn't they?

I must introduce you - Edmund Thomas Clint

I just watched this mini documentary about this amazing artist who was only 7 years old when he died. He lived 2, 552 days and made over 25,000 drawings/paintings. His style is absolutely incredible for a young child. Meet Edmund Thomas Clint




I am amazed by his talent and wonder why it's taken so long to hear about him. Don't you find his style incredible?

Yarn Bombed

For years I've heard of,  and seen photos of, yarn bombing - sometimes in some very famous places, such as these:

And sometimes whole groups have put them together and you hear about a type of 'flash mob' descending upon a location to decorate a public place or space. A couple of times over the years, my sweet brother has clipped a photo from a newspaper and mailed it to me, showing me another inspiring knitting or crocheting story especially about yarn bombing and as a knitter and crocheter myself I've always enjoyed seeing them - mainly because they are usually so very colourful. Just google "yarn bombing" and see all the images that come up.

So then you can imagine my surprise that I came down a side street in my residential neighbourhood, in a little suburb outside of Vancouver to discover this walkway fence had been yarnbombed with multi-coloured hearts! So neatly done, in three little rows :

I love it - SQUEE! Isn't it fun?

            well I thought it was.

(ha! I didn't realize that Eco was in this photo too--she's probably 

wondering why I was standing there facing that fence) 

How Rude!

I find this really disgusting - read this article. She'll explain it in her blog post but basically a women in England is on a TV show talking about needing money about her 'thriving dog portrait business". The problem is, she's stolen the dog portraits, and all she's doing is removing the original artist's signature and adding some her name and some  'jewels' and then charging a large sum of money for each piece.

I've been following Lili Chin's blog and portraits for a while and feel quite bad for her. It's always a risk when you have something unique isn't it? And sure competition is always out there, and should be. But this women isn't creating the portrait herself. She's just talking someone else's work and adding to it - without permission of the creator. Lili Chin has contacted a lawyer and is in pursuit of this cheeky woman but as any small business owner knows - not only does pursuing this type of thing take up your valuable time, time away from creating and expanding your business, but also takes away cash flow. It's a terrible situation to be in.

You'll notice that people in the YouTube comments have been telling her that she's ripping off another artist's work, there's more of a flurry on Facebook and other places as well. From what I've heard, the Brit doesn't seem to care much. I hope enough people make a stink and that Lili Chin is able to win her lawsuit and stop this thief from doing what she's doing.

Halloween Paper Cuts

UK horror movie fan Marc Hagen-Guirey creates dimensional versions of his favourite haunted houses (here) from a single sheet of paper as well as presents them in equally spooky coloured lighting. Check out his site and featurette to get you in the mood for Halloween, or if you're in London anytime between November 1 and 14 you can see his exhibit of 13 famous horror movie houses at Gallery One-And-A-Half. Very creative! I love the calm, serine feeling of these presentations, how about you?

Fashion Drawing

If you like fashion and you like drawing - check out this website by New York artist Richard Haines. Very inspiring.

This is a thing of beauty

Even if you don't consider yourself a handyman, or handyperson, I'm sure you can appreciate the beauty in this tool chest. The organizational skills are amazing and the craftsmanship is stunning. I am absolutely in awe of the creator's ability to produce such a stunning piece of functional, practical, art. It really is very creative.

Rain Picnic

When I was a kid we used to have rain picnics. They started when my brother broke his leg the last days of the school year  - doesn't that suck? 6 weeks of the summer he was in a full leg cast and bored out of his tree - this was before VCRs and video games (well before we could afford them). One day, to ease the boredom, my mom had the idea of a picnic in the rain - in those days, we practically had the whole of Stanley Park to ourselves - and we all took turns hauling him around in a wagon with a garbage bag on his cast (oh those were the days!)

But that's not what happened this weekend. We had been planning a get together since June and the weather was fabulous almost the whole month of July, but then the date got bumped and wouldn't you know it - it rained on our new day! Everyone was a real good sport about it though and we decided to go ahead with it.Cynthia, Carol and I had planned to go to Minnekhada Park but upon arriving, we found the gates were locked and it was closed for a private function, so we had to look for another lunch location fast as my stomach was rumbling! We tried a couple other parks and ended up sitting under a big cedar tree at a nearby recreation centre and the rain sort of held off so we were able to enjoy an afternoon of terrific food, good conversation and laughter. Everyone brought yummy food - Cynthia made perfect pitas and Carol had an excellent selection of homemade cookies. I'm so lucky to have such talented friends. Because of the rain, I left my purse in the car, and so I didn't take a photo of our lovely spread.

We all had our birthdays in July so at the end of lunch we exchanged birthday presents - yay! Cynthia gave me one of her famous 'little houses' paintings (plus some other little goodies - thank you!) and Carol gave me a beautiful jar of jam - thank you too! Carol, I need more of that jam, as most of it was consumed that same night at dinner! See? It is very, very good

Watch out urban photographers

Oh, oh, what's this world coming to? This is from Boing Boing "photo sued for shooting a street that contained publicly funded art"

Can you believe this?