Tinkering

I'm thinking about changing the look of this blog. I like the gray, but I'm not sure about the other colors. And I'd really like a more lovely header up there for the title. What I have now is so blah and kind of low budge, right? So, I'll be adding that to my long long list of things to do. Yay! Actually, I did get a good piece of work done last night, I cut a whole slew of covers and now they are just waiting to be made into notebooks. My hopeful schedule for completion is construction Saturday night, then photo taking on Sunday, provided it doesn't rain. I've been thinking for a while that I would love to try taking some product pictures outdoors, so I'll try to work that in too. Chances are there will be lots of new notebooks popping up in the shop next week! Fancy that, it's been a long time since there was any fresh blood in there.

Well, scratch that, I believe it was just last week that I listed my latest drawing, Nesting. It's been seen here before; I've had it kicking around for quite some time, but for some reason only just got the impetus to list it. So, it's for sale now over at Etsy. I like it a lot, I hope you will too.

mel

Cathy Cahill

Andre by Cathy Cahill

Cathy Cahill is a pretty new shop on etsy (she opened in August), but I am still surprised that she has anything left in her shop because I think her drawings are super wonderful! Right now her shop is full of lovely rabbits like Andre up there, beautifully rendered in pastels and pencil. The colors are just perfect, and I especially love the dreaminess of these little drawings. And they are so so affordable, which is like a dream come true. As soon as I can choose which is my favorite I will be ordering it straightaway, so you should probably get over to her shop fast so you can swoop on your fave! And if you are wanting more of the most adorable drawings you have ever seen in your life, click on over to cathycahill.com.

mel

Cool Down, Rev Up

January 11th, originally uploaded by Lili's One-a-Day.

Yes, it finally cooled down! Only 69 degrees today.
So...production has been at a standstill at Roska Handmade headquarters. That means there have been no new notebooks to drool over. I'm sorry. Things have been pretty busy lately. I am a little bit tired out from my classes already, but I am really glad I'm taking them, they are both going great. I can tell I am going to learn so much in my bookmaking class, the professor is really great, she is super passionate about bookmaking; plus she is fun and goofy to boot, so the six hour class just flies by. And my design class, while not quite as exciting, is really helping the way I look at my processes, especially how and from where I draw inspiration. I am rediscovering my love for collage! So now I have all kinds of ideas swirling around in my head for new projects! The one I am most excited about is a calendar. I would love to do one because I really love calendars, they're a practical way to have a rotating display of art. Way cool. I did some searching on flickr today for inspiration and am getting really amped. I'm thinking about doing a printed one, either gocco or linoprint or some combination of those, so I can do a limited run of those, and then also doing some with original collages. Yeah, I'm being a little ambitious. But I have a tendency to do that. Man, I can't wait to get started!

mel

Mums

I'm excited because I'll be listing a drawing here for the first time in a long time in just a few moments.

update: right-o, here it is - click!

mel

Globe Thistle

, originally uploaded by gregw.

Let me tell you, last night I was a crazy book making machine. I have a bunch of totally awesome new books now, I am so excited and I can't wait to share them. It's strange when inspiration strikes, I don't know what causes me to be stuck in a not caring rut all weekend then suddenly be unable to stop creating on a monday night. And now I am super bummed to have to be at work because I want to be at Goodwill scouting out more awesome records and looking for supplies for a new project I came up with last night (which will be a secret for now because I am not sure that it will happen). Such is life I guess. Well, my life anyway.

Oh, and about the globe thistle, one of my awesome birthday presents from Steve is a gocco (!) which hasn't arrived yet, but I am trying to be prepared for when it does so I am thinking about what I want to print with this amazing machine. I was reminded of a drawing I did some time ago of a flower I thought was a globe thistle, but google and flickr searches are turning up images which, while very lovely, are not the flower I drew. I'll try to get a scan of the drawing to post, then maybe y'all can help me identify it. Thanks!

mel

New Drawings

Nesting

Sky Phenomenon

mel

Shop Updates As Well

I have some new books listed in the shop, including the two seen here, the Herons Notebook and I Love Text Number 4. There will be more coming this weekend, in addition to some new original drawings that I am pretty excited about! At least, I hope they will be coming this weekend; it is starting to get pretty smoky here (there are all kinds of crazy fires burning in Northern California right now), so I'm not sure if I'll have sufficient light to get good pictures. But hey, that might be a great excuse to finally get the scanner up and running! Anyway, be sure to check the shop this weekend!

mel

Labelz: Ur doin it wrong

Eucalyptus Stencil Print, originally uploaded by wickedfreshie.

Okay, that was my first attempt at LOLcat language, what do you think? Oh LOLcats, so addicting. Well, when I've been able to tear myself away from I Can Has Cheezburger I've been working on adding labels and tags to all my blog entries and flickr photos. It takes a really long time. And I'm not sure I'm doing it effectively. But it is time consuming! Which is often a good thing for me.
Last night and the night before I was sooo productive! On Tuesday I made five new books then last night I took photos of them (two of them are now in the shop) and worked more on my printing. I finally got a print that I'm happy with from that Eucalyptus drawing that I was working with before. The linocut wasn't working so I made a stencil...actually, I made a couple stencils and finally got one that I could work with! Yay! I'm excited for when I can actually get a completed notebook out of all this work, but for now I'm happy I got any result.
I also worked on a new mosaic drawing last night, which I haven't done in a while. I'm happy with how it's turning out so far. Here's a pretty terrible picture of it in progress.

It's kind of seventies inspired. I like it so far.

Don't forget to visit the shop and see the new books!

mel

Etsy Find of the Day: Lucy Player

68, originally uploaded by lucy rose.

So, I have a neat Etsy find today, which I originally found through her flickr page, which is so awesome. I was really taken with her sweet line drawings, so of course I was really excited when she opened an etsy shop. The name is Lucy Player, and it features the aforementioned line drawings as well as screenprints and linocuts, many on nice, totally reasonably priced greeting card sets. I think her shop is really going to take off! My personal favorites are featured below.
No. 1 - Geranium Greetings Card
No. 2 - My Cat Likes to Sleep Like This - Greeting Card
No. 3 - Triangles Screenprint on Grey
mel

I Only Like It If It's Brand New

Well, all right then. New items in the shop:

Spirograph Notebook No 1

Spirograph Notebook No. 2

Spirograph Notebook No. 3

And here's that preview from the other day, now it can be yours!

Be My Light - Original Drawing on Vintage Sheet Music

Thanks!

Mel

Lotta

This was the scene yesterday evening at Craft Gym. My lovely and amazing pal Erin and I dropped in for the launch party for Lotta Jansdotter's new book, and I meant to take a bunch more pictures but I got overwhelmed by all the folks who were also there. It was super crowded! But it was fun; it was kind of a crafting party, they had a long table set up with inks and brushes and stamps and stencils. I enjoyed watching the other people there making lovely designs on their muslin swatches while I waited for a seat to open up. We got to talk to Lotta for just a second, she came over for a bit to give us some pointers on printing. She was really lovely and I was smitten with her accent (she's Scandanavian) and her outfit (she had the cutest sandals). Overall it was a very neat experience and I'm glad I was able to go. Here are some pictures of my printing that I took when I got home.
This was my first try, it's a little muddled.
And this is my second, it's more minimalistic, which was more keeping in the spirit of Lotta's work, I think. I like both of them though. I know Erin took more pictures than I did, so maybe she'll share some with me so you can have some better examples of what was coming out of the party. Erin's swatch in particular turned out quite lovely.

Actually, Erin and I had quite the full day yesterday; we hit up three of my favorite SF spots: SCRAP, Mission Pie Shop and Philz Coffee, and we eventually ended up at Target, where I was able to purchase a Spirograph! So exciting! I've been thinking about getting one for a little while now. Here are some of my first tries with it:

Aren't they purty? I did these with my PrismaColor markers and I love how the colors came out, but the process really ruins the tips of the markers, which is such a bummer. I tried some with colored pencil, and those turned out nice too, I just don't have very nice colors of colored pencil right now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the spirograph, but it's fun just playing around with it for now.
All right, I'm going to leave you today with a sneak peak of something that will be popping up in the ol' store soon. Enjoy!
mel

Lessons Learned

Circles are a gazillion times easier to draw than squares.

Occurrences of Note

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I have put a few new items up in my shop, including my very first original drawing! Well, the first one to be sold in my shop I mean. Not the first original drawing I've ever done. Anyhow. Yay!
Also, I am really really excited that this weekend I am getting my very own little desk! I can't wait to set up my new workspace. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as possible (if it isn't a total disaster). I'm so excited! Also.....I love dinosaurs. Ok, thanks for tuning in for these updates.
mel

For Erin

THIS is so so awesome. Everyone is strongly encouraged to click over. It is like my 20 year old sister's habit of shopping at the Limited Too, but to the power of a thousand. I wish I were so genius-y.

Well, I have some other things to share with you:

(oops, my toes are in there) Look for these soon in my shop.

mel

Native American Summer

I've been a bad blogger! It's this hot weather, it makes me lazy! Not only have I not been blogging, I haven't been doing as much crafting either. I've really slacked off on my books. I've made some buttons, because those are a little less time consuming, and more knitting. Actually, I'm more excited about knitting than I have been in a long time. While I was in Sacramento, my mom showed me real quick how to crochet, which is something I've been meaning to learn forever. I love granny squares! I think I might also be ready to try to learn to knit in the round again. I want to make tote bags, and I really want to make a crazy quilt, to use up my stash. The other thing I would like to do is make hats and blankets for charity. If that is something that interests you, here is a link to some programs in the San Francisco area http://www.imagiknit.com/charity.html from one of my favorite yarn shops in the city.

I went to the art store today, which was actually kind of embarrassing because I had just been there yesterday and I saw the same people working there, and I don't really know why that is embarrasing, but it is. I was picking up some drawing fluid and screen filler. I had read about tusche in this really cool old screenprinting book that Steve got me for my birthday, and I thought it sounded like a clean, easy way to make screenprinting screens. Unfortunately, tusche is hard to find, and when you can find it, it's pretty expensive. Today I was looking at the Make It! blog and she was talking about drawing fluid, which I had never heard of before. I looked it up and wikipedia and, ta da! it is like an even cleaner, more modern type of tusche! I am really excited to try it out. My adventures in screenprinting so far have been more like misadventures.

I have to work on my homework before it's time for pub quiz. I have to draw one room in my house in partial blind contour. Ugh. I hope it takes less than an hour.

mel

SCRAP

If you'll recall, I mentioned SCRAP a while ago. SCRAP is pretty much my very favorite place in the city at this time. From their website:
SCRAP is a creative reuse center, store and workshop space founded in 1976 in San Francisco, California. Donations of re-usable materials such as textiles, paper, jewelry findings, wood, buttons and plastics are collected from businesses, institutions and individuals and distributed to art and educational groups.
By breathing new life into old objects, SCRAP reduces the amount of waste going to crowded landfills. By offering low cost art and re-use workshops and providing schools and organizations with badly needed art supplies, SCRAP stimulates creativity and environmental awareness.

What that means is, you go to SCRAP, which is a giant warehouse in an industrial area, and there is aisle after aisle of stuff. Pretty much anything you could dream of in your wildest crafting dreams. The other day when I was there they had about 20 bowling balls (unfortunately, none of them fit my big fingers.). They have a whole aisle devoted to papers; colored paper, lined paper, letterhead, weird cloth paper, rice paper, vellum, carbon paper...the list goes on. I spend most of my time in the paper area when I'm there. Last time, I picked up some letterhead for the San Francisco Chinese Bowling League! They also have tons of fabric, found photos, rubber stamps, National Geographics, wooden dowels, art supplies, greeting cards; I could go on and on. I just think it is the most amazing place, and I am really in awe of the people who run it. While SCRAP is a really awesome place for me to go for my bookmaking supplies, I think it is way cooler that it is an awesome resource for teachers. Hey though, keep it hush hush. I don't want too many people to know about SCRAP!

Anyway, here are some pictures from my walk last week from my sewing class to SCRAP:

It's pretty, right? I know, I was surprised. It actually kind of reminded me of Sacramento; flat, dusty and dry. It was much more pleasant than I had expected. I love discovering new areas in San Francisco, I'm always coming upon some neighborhood I never knew existed.

Oh, and here are a few really crappy photos of the album cover notebook I made for my friend's birthday:

Really, it looked way cooler in real life. The middle picture is the inside cover.

Finally, here are some elephants that Sarah and I drew:

And for those of you waiting on this with bated breath (oh, I know you're out there) the new digital camera is scheduled to arrive fedex on the 30th of this month. Until then, I am busily churning out the crafty goodness, so expect my etsy shops grand opening to follow soon after.
mel

i'm a Cutter

Well, the digital camera is still broken in that it will not take pictures, but not broken in that I was able to upload all the pictures that were on it! I was so relieved. I was already thinking about getting a new digital camera, and now I guess my mind has been made up for me. All suggestions are welcome, since I have little to no experience or know how. Let me know what has worked for you.

I went to IKEA today (I don't know why exactly I'm writing IKEA in all caps), and I got the cute little red cart drawer thingee, and I also got this which is really cool (and cheap!), you buy little bins to put in it (it holds 12), I think it will be perfect for storing paints and brushes and other supplies. Now though I'm tired from driving around in the East Bay heat (Steve's car doesn't have air conditioning) so I am blogging instead of putting my new stuff together. Organization may have to wait 'til next weekend.


Anyway, like I said last night, I was crafting all night long, so I wanted to share some pictures of that with you. Here is one notebook I made:

Note the clutter. I really like how this book turned out, I used all the same lined paper, it's about 100 pages. The paper is really thin, I was writing on it last night and it's really nice, especially for pencil. It's really smooth.

Also last night I tried out my Crayola Cutter that I got for my birthday. As soon as I saw the Cutter I knew I had to have one, my craft knife skills are so mentally challenged. With this you use it like a pen or pencil, it feels very natural. Here is a picture of me working on a cute little tag I made, and a picture of the completed tag:

The picture doesn't really do justice to how cute it is. Finally, I made another book as well, I don't have any pictures of the final product because it was completed after the camera was broken, but here is a picture of it in process:


There were a couple neat things about this notebook, one was that I used my corner rounder on it, which I've had for ever but hadn't tried until last night. At first I was having some trouble with it, but I got the hang of it after a while and it really made for a neat look. Secondly I used this vintage Laura Ashley wall paper as the binding (the pattern is the first picture at the beginning of this post). I am really excited about that wallpaper because I saw it at SCRAP (more about SCRAP later) a week or two ago and wanted to get it but I already had soooo much stuff that I passed, but I when I went yesterday and it was still there I had to snatch it up. It was only four dollars for the whole roll! I can't wait to use it more, it's so pretty.
The last thing from last night, I tried making a felt magnet because I had a bunch of felt and a bunch of magnets, so ... why not?



I'm not sure how I feel about it...it's kind of nice, but I'm not in love with it. I'm not really that into flowers, but I wanted to do something quick and easy while I was still experimenting. Maybe dinosaurs would be better...

Well, I feel pretty refreshed now so I think I'm going to go work on putting my IKEA stuff together. I have to hurry though because I'm seeing Superbad tonight! I am so excited. Oh, speaking of Michael Cera, if you haven't already seen this, seriously, you have to. It is genius.
mel

Classy

Last night was the first class of the drawing course I'm taking at City College. I'm excited! We're going to be using India Ink! This class is mostly so I can take a printmaking class next semester, but I'm hoping it will inspire me.

I made a cool notebook for my friend for his birthday. It was my first try using a record sleeve as the cover, and it turned out ok. The paper block turned out kind of wavy, and there were a few loose pages. I'm going to try again tonight, with book tape. The problem that I didn't think of before is what to do with records after I use their sleeves. My mom sent me this, which is pretty cool. I think I could take this basic idea and really run with it. When I was in Occidental last weekend I came upon Renga, and they had neat coasters made of just the label of old records. If you live in the North Bay Area, or are visiting there, I definitely recommend stopping by Renga, it is the cutest little shop in a really unexpected place.

I am hoping to have some pictures up on this blog soon. I need to get in some more practice with my digital camera, but by the weekend (I hope) you will be able to see examples of my work on this page.

mel