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

First Steps

I got my gocco you guys! It finally came late last week, which is so exciting. But...it is currently still in the box. Part of that is that I have had a lot of other things on my plate since it arrived and also had to deal with a small crisis the other day, which means that I haven't been doing any creating (except for some extremely satisfying knitting). Also, I am a tiny bit scared of it, but I'm sure that feeling will fade once I crack open the instruction manual and track down some of the tutorials I know are floating around out there in the interwebs. But mostly, I am, wait for it, feeling uninspired! Yes, I'm sure if you've been reading this blog for a bit, you might have heard this from me before. But I really don't have a clear plan as to what I want my first exciting project to be, besides making a little design with my web address to print in the backs of all my books. I was heartened today when I saw an easy diy photoboard project on the paper and stitch blog, super cute and super super easy. Hello, obviously what I need is an inspiration board! I can't wait to get started on my research.

mel

PikaPackage: The time is now

We've already established that I've been neglecting my blogging duties lately, but it's even more aggrevious because I've had some very exciting news to share: I am participating in this month's PikaPackage! I can't believe I not only didn't share this with you a week ago like I should have, but that I also forgot to tell you about it yesterday! Oops. Anyway, I contributed original linoprints and some of linoprint buttons. I'm really excited to be in the company of some really wonderful artists like Elise of Argyle Whale, Shelby Healy, Julia Pott, and Gracia + Louise, among many others. There are 39 contributed artists this round! The driver of this whole thing is the lovely Amy, if you haven't had a chance to check out her blog PikaLand, do it right now! It's full of lovely art. Oh, and if you'd like to buy your own pikapackage, why you can do so by clicking right here. And guess what? Two dollars from every sale go to Amnesty International.

mel

Monday = Sad Day

I had such a wonderful long weekend, and I am not super happy that it is over. It was so much fun! I saw a bunch of movies at reperatory theaters and made my house all shiny and clean and worked and worked and worked and took a lovely walk in Golden Gate Park. Ah, if only it could last forever. But it can't, and, you know, that's really ok. If my whole life was a weekend, what would I have to look forward to?

I discovered this cool mosaic tool last week, and I've been having a bunch of fun with it. I used it to put together those two detail shots up there of a Surprise project I'm working on. I used it to make this cute montage of my cat Ava.

And this one of statues in Golden Gate Park.

Yep, fun stuff. That pretty much sums up my weekend. I have some cool stuff coming up for you this week, so stayed tuned.

Oh, also I was featured on this neat blog, Environmental Friendlies. The name is pretty self explanatory, it features products that are friendly to the earth. I am honored to have my books featured. You should check it out!

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

Coastal Envy

I love the West Coast, but I've lived in California my whole life and I often get jealous of those living on the East Coast. Sometimes it seems like nothing is happening here, while in New York or New England everybody is going to awesome events and having a great time. Yeah, the grass is always greener, right? I'll make it to the East Coast someday, but for now I'm trying to enjoy San Francisco and never take for granted what an awesome place it is.

Anyway! The other day I posted some pictures of a sheet of bristol that I had linoprinted that was destined to become book covers. Well, the books have been made and they are in the shop!

I am calling these notebooks and the pattern Petal, because it kind of reminds me of marigold petals. Previously I had called this pattern Jellybeans, but decided I wasn't super in love with that name. I'm not married to Petals yet either. I'd love to know your opinion! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Titles are probably the trickiest part for me with my art. I also need to come up with new titles for my series of Mosaic drawings, I think. Oh, also, I made some new Spirograph books last night, so look for those coming soon!

mel

printer's progress

carving a linoleum block, originally uploaded by wickedfreshie.

I haven't done any printing in almost a year, but I was inspired by the Lotta Jansdotter book launch party that I attended with the amazing Erin last weekend, and last night I pulled out some linoleum blocks and my cutting tool and got down to business. Above is my work in progress, and here is the result:

I'm pretty happy with it. I need to clean it up a bit and work on my printing technique (I'm thinking a different kind of ink, this one is a little chalkier than I'd like), but then I think this would make a great notebook cover. In my mind, I see it in pastel pink, yellow and maybe green. The design is actually taken from a drawing I did the first time I attempted to take a drawing class at the local city college. We were doing a negative space exercise with eucalyptus leaves; it was probably my most positive experience in that class, the rest of which was taken up with drawing portraits of other students.

More printing from last night:

This is a linoleum stamp that I carved a long time ago, I used it to make a tote bag for my sister, and also the buttons that I use as free gifts in my shop. This time I printed a sheet of bristol board, colored it in with marker, and next I will be cutting it up and turning it into notebook covers. I'll be sure to keep you updated with all the printing happenings.
mel

ps - also, be sure to check the current etsy featured seller interview with rubyslounge. her shop is so neat.

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

Not Too Late

It's now been officially over a month since I've posted here. Oops. I guess I've been sidetracked by street fashion blogs lately. Since I started working in an office and going out less, my wardrobe has become totally sleep inducing and lazy, so I like to look at blogs like fashioni.st (because it is San Francisco based) and The Sartorialist (because it is basically The Godfather of street fashion blogs) and imagine that I'm going to start dressing awesome again. But that never happens. Because I'm lazy. But I like to dream.

I've also been sidetracked by Baby-Sitters' Club blogs, which is a teensy bit embarrassing, but not that embarrassing because, judging by the way What Claudia Wore blew up in my blogosphere this week, I am not the only gal who just ate up the BSC series. Which is kind of obvious because, if I were, it's doubtful that Ann M. Martin and ghostwriters would have written hundreds of entries to the series. Or that Ann M. Martin would have ghostwriters at all. Anyway, blogs, yes, What Claudia Wore is a good one, and there is also BSC Headquarters, the first BSC blog I started reading. That one is a little snarkier. Really though, it's crazy how nearly every blog that I check on a daily basis mentioned What Claudia Wore within the last four days. It's a display of connectivity, I think. Or not. I don't really know what connectivity means. Dictionary, a little help please?

The quality or condition of being connected or connective.
The ability to make and maintain a connection between two or more points in a telecommunications system: a phone company that offers excellent Internet connectivity.

Well, I guess that's kind of what I meant. It'll do. Please leave me a comment if you have a suggestion for a word that would work better.

So, on the creative front...nothing much is happening. I'm trying to get together some drawings that I'm happy with to post on Etsy, and I've also been contemplating doing some linoleum cut prints...maybe on fabric. I'm feeling very indecisive at the moment. I'll try to post some pictures of things I've been working on soon.

mel

boo hoo pt. 2

I hope things work out better today! I don't know what happened yesterday, my post just kept getting deleted. I guess, technically, I've now failed at NaBloPoMo. Boo. It shouldn't really count though, because I was trying to get a blog post up yesterday! It wasn't my fault! I guess I should have tried to post earlier. I think weekends are going to be the hardest because on weekdays I'm at my computer all day, so it's not so hard. On weekends though I'm usually out all day. This is definitely going to be a challenge.
Anyway, this was another unproductive weekend. I don't know why I've been so uninspired to work lately. I hope my passion will reignite soon and I'll get some cool new books made. I am excited about my art class, we're doing photo collages and then blowing them up and drawing them. I already made my collages, they're pretty neat, but it's going to be hard to decide which one to use in my final project. If anyone is thinking of taking a drawing or printing class at CCSF I would definitely recommend taking one with Robin Kaneshiro, he is really really great teacher. I love this class so much.
Along with the NaBloPoMo, this month I am also trying to cut down on the amount of times I eat out. Right now, we eat dinner out almost every night, and I eat lunch out at least half the time. It's really bad! So, we're really going to try hard to cook more. I cooked tonight and last night. Both times it was super delicious. Last night we had a kind of tamale pie/taco casserole thing and tonight we had miso chicken and mashed potatoes. Yummy. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can sustain!

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