Man Badges

After an exhausting two weeks I now have a two week break to spend on my art and my business. I finally had the time to put up pictures of the first two man badges I made. It is very hard to get the colouring correct so it doesn't look like a woman or look really angry.




This man I feel was the most sucessfull. I like the big beard, although it got a little thin on the right hand side. I need a good sharp pair of small scissors to cut the felt out without it looking like a big gash.

This guy is an example of when the man badges can look angry. I think it is because the stitching can end up quite angular that causes the problem. The black thread is also an issue because it looks too harsh, but I think that is because I make the eyebrows thicker.

Night Song

I have not updated my blog in a week due to a busy week marking work and writing reports. With that all over and holidays in a week I will be able to get back into making things. I made some new badges on the weekend, this time man badges. They are interesting to make because if I put red lips on them, they look very ladylike. Hopefully I will get some pictures for my next update.

I also made this artwork on the weekend. It was a screen print I did on a piece of sheet music that was then sliced up with my new guillotine I got from my brother and sister for my birthday. I used the sewing machine to place it onto the paper.

Spoil a surprise

I drew this artwork last night for my friend Peter. He purchased some artwork from me last year and it got lost in the mail, so I decided to make a few extra things for him. If you're reading this Peter then the surprise is spoilt.

Madagascar

I took the plunge and listed some artwork on Etsy. I decided at least if I start listing stuff then I can get more confidence in my work. Someone hearted it already which was nice. I love using the sewing machine as a drawing tool. Particularly colours like red thread on white paper. Something which I find happens a lot in my artwork (especially the ones with stitching) is the back is often more interesting than the actual artwork. It got to the stage at University where I would just paint on the back of my canvas but it never ended up working in reverse and never looked any better.

Red Bag

I listed the new bag I made today on Etsy and this one shows the print in full. I was unsure if the print would work on this fabric due to the pattern because I was expecting to bleed everywhere. There are tiny dots around the outside, and the next print I did on cotton drill had tiny dots around the edge. I did two prints on this fabric and after doing only 6 prints the paper stencil started to disintegrate and lots of fluff ended up in the ink. My sister got the fabric for me and it has a retro/vintage look to it.

New prints

This is a new print I created on the weekend. I decided to go with a simple design because I have not created a new print in quite a white. I printed with black on orange, emerald and red fabric. Unfortunately I lost the stencil so this print is a very limited edition with only a pouch, two bags and a wallet made using the print. The orange and black combination works well and I think I will use it again as I still have a lot more orange fabric. The print here is cropped from the original as the top and bottom of the print didn't turn out perfect. I will post the images of the bag tomorrow with the full print.

Kitten Boy

What a pet the kitten boy would be! I drew this last night with my grey ink then coloured it in with a paintbrush. Normally this paper is super absorbent and sucks the ink in and looks yuck, but if you keep it very watery it sits on top and dried much better.

I got my birthday present from my Grandma on the weekend, a cat clock from the Innovations catalogue. It meows on the hour and the numbers are represented as cats. It is worrying when then cat meows for each hour because sometimes it feels like only 15 minutes has past since the last "meow! meow! meow!"

That woman you know

After looking at this picture on the computer I realised her ears are too small and in the wrong place. I used Indian ink with a brush and also a quill pen. It was nice creating lots of layers and building it all up to create some depth.

I got some new scissors today. They are actually shears, the difference between the two being how many fingers you can fit into the handle. I learnt this when Gareth told me a few weeks ago and as soon as he told me I knew what he got me for my birthday. I got them a day early because I needed to do some cutting and when I opened the box (deliver from the USA via Japan) I could not stop laughing because they are HUGE. They are a good 2-3 inches bigger than my "normal" scissors. I am a little scared of them because they are so sharp and told Gareth not to touch them because it is unnerving when someone else is holding them. He also cut his finger on them.

White dot on red

This is a bag I made in January, which I have not yet listed on Etsy. The fabric is interesting, because although it is red it has been made with a white thread as well, which looks like tiny white dots on the red. The print is my old faithful 22 birds flying. I've been reusing a lot of my prints and have not made a new one in a while. I think it's time to make some new prints up for autumn.

Objects

My new computer addiction is Flash. I'm teaching my students how to use it, and now I love making little animations to use as examples. The sillier, the better. I love making funny voices and recording them, it works best if you hold your nose while talking. When the kids watch them they always ask who did the voice. They are always shocked when I say it is mine.

I got a fantastic present of my Nanna, a $50 gift voucher for Spotlight. When I saw it I thought perfect. I made her a little gift because her birthday is 4 days after mine including one of my little badges, so I hope she likes it.

I saw Harold and Maude during the week, which came about through recommendations in the Etsy forums. It was an interesting film and I discovered that the woman who played Maude lived until she was 99 years old, and Bud Cort, who played Harold was in the 1980 TV adaptation of Brave New World. It was released on my date of birth and he played Bernard Marx. I'm reading the book at the moment and although I had not heard of it being a film, I knew it had to have been adapted into a film at some stage. I think the 1980 version would be pretty hard to come by though.


Now for some arty talk, I did some drawings this weekend using a quill and some watered down Indian ink. I watered it down because I didn't have enough to fully dip the pen into and because it created a light grey colour, which almost looked like a grainy photocopy.