we have a lot of catching up to do. since we last talked i've driven across the country. i have seen, oh, i have seen so much... but more on that later, for now let us celebrate the spring with a spring sale! this saturday, May 3rd is the RISD alumni sale & i will be there with teresa & a tablefull of delicious creatures.
there is nothing craft-related in this post. i just wanted to share with you the insanely adorable baby bunny i found shivering on the sidewalk this morning! i know i shouldn't pick up wild baby animals because it will smell like me, but it was on the sidewalk & i didn't want either:
a) a college student to try to keep it in their dorm room.
b) a high school student to mess with it.
so i took it over to the little lawn next to the library where i know a family of bunnies lives because i've seen them there before. actually, they live all over campus & i'm guessing this one wasn't far from home, but home had just been ruthlessly landscaped. oh, it's so cute! it didn't really move around when i picked it up & held it, but once i tucked it under the bushes it set about cleaning its face & hopped around a bit:
it was still there when i went for coffee, but i'll check on it again at lunch. i'm kind of worried about the little guy, but it is a wild bunny & seems big enough to fend for itself. i really didn't want to let it go, i wanted to hold it or take it home, but that didn't seem right... right?
update: by the end of the day the bunny had scampered off & i haven't seen it since. i did a little research & leaving it was the right thing to do. it wasn't an infant , it wasn't injured & it has only a 1% chance of survival if i brought it home! it was possibly old enough to be on its own or it's mother came looking for it in the night & i didn't move it very far from where i found it. i still keep an eye out for it every time i walk by.
i have a wonderful therapist: he understands that the things i sew are extensions of myself, they are a form of expression. i can show up to a session with a quilt or something like this & not only does he get it, but we can sit & talk about it in the context of everything else in my life. and, since he has his own private practice, he's very good at giving me business advice!
definitely inspired by the Capreolus Polycoros from Ulyssis Aldrovandi's Monstrorum Historia, this creature is about 14" tall with button eyes surrounded by felt, the body is some weird ultrasuede upholstery fabric & the horns & antlers are sculpey/fimo clay. i made a little button shank out of jewelry wire so they're sewn into place & then glued down. unfortunately i broke the antlers shortly after this photo was taken but i'll make a new set tonight. i guess i didn't have to tell you that part, you'd never know, but hey, it's part of the process!
what am i doing? i'm making creepy, but cute things... i stayed home from work today because i hurt my leg helping neighbor susan move from a 1/2 basement apt to the 2nd floor. it's just a pulled muscle, but it's cold & rainy outside, it would have taken me forever to hobble to work! creature making is probably not what i should be doing, but i'm really excited about the strange creatures i've making.
a funny thing happened earlier: i was looking for my spool
of pink thread, you know, the one i've been using all day? it suddenly
disappeared & i searched everywhere for it. is in on my table?
maybe it's under a piece of fabric or rolled off to the side. oh,
maybe it rolled onto the floor or into the trash! can you find it?
it's here somewhere...
Continue reading "thirty years from now someone will spill juice" »
i was having thread problems: tension & breakage with the ol' cotton covered polyester especially when sewing on vinyl. i noticed a difference when using some old thread my mother gave me, it was stronger & more tightly twisted than the cotton/poly i've bought. teresa suggested i try 100% cotton thread, i scrutinized the guterman spool & noticed that it, too, was more tightly twisted... well, several weeks later & i've switched! okay, i might use up some of the other spools when not sewing on vinyl, but the gutterman 100% cotton is stronger, smother & less linty.
enough technical talk, look - monsters! the furry monster on the left is intended for a friend of mine. (i swear i will mail it to you someday, ryan!) and the other one i made yesterday. ryan's monster has teeth & toes made out of felt from those Anthropologie snowflakes. the new one on the right is somewhat inspired by the 17th century illustrations of sea-life, hence the shark-head, unicorn horn & fins...
oh how i have neglected you, little journal! i am still dreadfully camera-less: a whole holiday of fun & visiting & not a single photo to show for it. and i'm going to see abby this weekend & won't be able to take photos! erg. that above shot was taken by my sweet ibook - i'm playing with my new toy, a nintendo DS lite, which i have been rather attached to since receiving it for christmas. it was gifted to me along with Super Mario Bros and Mariokart, but that wasn't enough! oh no, i just had to go out & buy Animal Crossing! needless to say there is ZERO crafting going on in my studio, with the exception of whipping up a vinyl case to carry my dear DS around in with it's tiny games.
here, at least, is a little montage of photos i don't think i've shared: 
my friend jim & his adorable little daughter emma,
tasty local purple potato 
monster i made for my friend ryan,
paul & i at the Harmonix holiday party 
if i can find the card i'll tell you what amazing little
china shop that is (it's somewhere near Purl Soho) 
the inside of the Time Warner building where we had breakfast,
my sister & jo at our thanksgiving dinner.
since my camera is broken & i haven't had a chance to take it somewhere to be repaired, you get drawings of my bazaar purchases! i assuaged my guilt about not selling with a sickly green crocheted zombie by Pepperberry & a sweet little fern animal by ashley brown. i also bought a small print & some jewelry, both of which might be presents so you can't see them yet... not having my camera feels like i'm missing a hand or something! it's awful. i've been over at the other library doing book repair while my friend Jim is away & i wish i could show you what i've done. i'm really proud of the work & it feels so wonderful to just sit & repair an entire book, taking it all apart & putting it back together...
also last weekend was the end of the Foundry sale - i think it went
quite well for my first time & i hope they'll let me back in next
year. i leave for my holiday adventure this saturday, there will be flying & driving & visiting of families involved. i'm pretty excited about it, only a little nervous. if i don't see you before then: happy holidays!
it's quite possible that we don't share the same sense of humor... i
think my newest pincushion is awesome, but it's okay if you don't want
to have a dead one-winged raven to stick pins in! i'll just keep it
for myself:
i meant to post this the other day, but i was struck down by some random allergy attack & then, well, the rest of the week got away from me. that keeps happening, although every day lately feels like it must be monday, somehow it is already friday... and tonight is the opening for Wunderground at the RISD Museum, i'm going with my friend Paul Lyons. the show spans 1995-2005, which i guess is kind of my era in providence, it's a little weird & i'm not sure i'm ready to see it spread across the walls of a museum! i'm both excited & a little freaked out about it - i am curious to
see how many of the posters i've stolen are in it & if i have any
that aren't. just to the right of her shoulder is one of my favorites, a long skinny BSR 88.1FM poster:
(photo from projo.com by Gretchen Ertl, click it to go to the article)
artbeat on saturday was fun, there was no need to leave my booth since i was surrounded by the lovely crafty ladies of new england. i didn't really take any photos, teresa has some over here, including one strange one of me, i think i was trying to look coy? i have no idea. it was hot. and i was wearing a dress! gasp! this whole skirt thing seems to have infected my brain, i actually wore a cute little dress. crazy. 
when we returned from somerville my dad was here! we escaped the unhealthy hazy/hot/humid city via his air-conditioned car & spent a day down in Bristol, Newport, Narragansett, Pt. Judith, the whole gorgeous loop. the weather down by the water was completely different & completely perfect. 
we ate too many delicious clamcakes at Aunt Carrie's in Pt. Judith, picked up rocks, got a little sun-burnt & drove around Newport in leisurely circles. coming up next: photos of coffee & pie from last night's dessert!
look out! they're multiplying & they've been
spotted running around town! those three
little legs can really move fast... i've been
busy herding them together so hopefully
you can catch one for yourself at ArtBeat!
i will have some vinyl cuffs & purses with me tomorrow, but i have been having way too much fun sewing & embroidering these little guys. i think they need names, even stories, eventually i'd like to make each one their own box, too...
