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

Markers

I think I mentioned before that I was using my prismacolor markers to make my spirograph notebooks, and that it was ruining the tips on the markers. I was bummed because prismacolor markers are a bit expensive, and so I was looking for some other way to achieve the same results. My first thought was just to get a few sets of Crayola markers and call it a day, but then I was thinking about the importance of the ink being waterproof. The covers of the notebooks are made of bristol board, which certainly is not waterproof (though it does stand up to water rather valiantly), but still I would want the design to remain unchanged it someone were to, say, get a drop of water on their notebook. So waterproof markers are a must. But which waterproof markers? The first answer is Sharpie.

We have here Sharpie retractable fine tip markers, which have the sort of tip I'm looking for, but a rather limited range of colors, and they still run about 2 bucks each.

Here's a classic, sharpie fine point. This may be the one, but I am a little concerned that tip is a bit to big for the spirograph. But these are only 99 cents if you buy them individually, and they come in about 30 colors. And you can get a set of 29 for $27.99. Sounds pretty tempting right now.

I've never heard of Artline, but their Twin Nib Markers come in a set of the above 8 colors for $7.99 The colors are a little blah though.

Ah, Pentel, the marker of my youth. When I was in elementary school you were so cool if you had a set of these in their yellow carrying case. I wanted them so bad! I've bought them a couple time as an adult, and they did not disappoint. Their nibs are about the perfect size for this project, they come in tons of colors and a 36 marker set is only $18.99. The drawback? Not waterproof, y'all.

And so we come back to prismacolor. Well, after my exhaustive research (ha ha) I think I'm going to try out some sharpies (since I've got some at home already), and test how the pentechs hold up to being dripped on. But I very well may stick to prismacolors...they're on sale right now anyway!
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