Paddle

I'm having to sort all my screenprints out for the wholesale section of my website and this means giving them names and photographing them and having some sense of order to what I am making. My current screenprint process is a little haphazard and I need to Tim Gunn them all and make it work.

The print on the pouch shown here is called Paddle. It sounds much better than the unappealing name what I was previously calling it which was blobs at the end of lines.

This little pouch is listed over at Made It and the size came about a little by accident. It is long and thin, like a pencil case and the print suits it perfectly. I had not designed it that way but it seems some of my current prints are designed for a particular size of pouch but often end up working better when turned into something else, like a different shape pouch or coin purse.

Magic Jelly

I entered Magic Jelly's Haiku Poem Contest on her Super-Duper Mega April Giveaway and received an honourable mention for my poem. I got my prize in the mail today and it was great to open the envelope and see the surpise inside. I got a lovely little magnet with a bird and the limited edition gocco print Fox and Flowers. The ink in the print is beautiful and I can't wait to frame it and hang it up in the house. When I first joined Etsy, Magic Jelly was one of the shops I really looked up to and her artwork and design skills are outstanding. Her flickr page is also well worth looking at for this digital artwork alone.

Nine Bag Ladies

I drew these ladies to show how the straps on my bags work for the wholesale ordering system on my website. I thought I would share them on my blog as they look nice lined up together and they probably wont get a chance to be seen again. I've got a grey and red colour scheme for the site so I thought I would work with those coloured when colouring the images in. They look a little badge ladyesque with some interesting hairstyles, the lady with the biggest bag has some kind of mountain range going on.

I've started blogging on the Made It blog with Aussie Patches, which is an exciting opportunity and also a little intimidating. I have come up with a few ideas for things I can include starting with Sketchbook Sneakpeak, where the artists, designers and crafters on Made It share some pages from their sketchbooks. I'm looking forward to doing this as I love to see how ideas started and all the other little things that often just stay inside the journal and don't get seen. The first one will be going up tomorrow so pop over and take a look.

Georgie Georgie

Something very exciting happened today, I saw George from Seinfeld at the football. I went with my brother and he mentioned Jason Alexander going as a Collingwood guest and after spotting some Collingwood bigwigs we realised he would be in the area. As soon as I saw him I smsed Gareth and Jodie, the two people I knew would be excited. Both smsed back within the minute, Gareth suggesting I yell out Serenity Now and Jodie telling me to take a photo. My phone and my secret photo taking skills are not that great but in the second photo you can kind of make him out. I just put that first photo up because it shows how pathetic my skills are and the blurry sea of men in black suits is quite interesting.

Birds From The Sketchbook

This bird was a little drawing in my sketchbook that I coloured in with photoshop. I turned it into a print today using white on some red, blue and green fabric. I've almost turned one into a tote bag, but I have to change the bobbin over to blue thread and for some reason that extra little job seems to make me want to sit in front of the television and watch the three films we have out with the heater on high and a cup of tea and some needle and thread.

Drawing From Life

Waiting At The Station (Caulfield)

I was reading someones blog a month or so back and they mentioned the book Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art. I wish I could remember who it was, but I saw the book and went into a bit of a frenzy and ended up at Amazon buying it before I could remember who wrote about it in their blog. The book arrived a few days ago and I was reading through it the other night. My favourite stories so far is one about the 1000 journals project and Renato Umali's tracking system. I don't know why, but the idea of tracking things in your life then looking at the information on graphs excites me quite a bit. What I lack is the discipline to do this and would give myself 2 days and after that I would just stop.

Print Ideas

Looking inside sketchbooks is one of my most favourite things, I find the art a lot more interesting when it isn't refined and every idea and thought is in there. Have a look at Lara's blog for some lovely drawings from her sketchbook in her current post. I photographed a few drawings in my current sketchbook and put some up on Flickr with a couple in this post. My sketchbooks are a bit of a mess, lots of different ideas and not used as much as I would like.

Exciting But Boring

The last few weeks Gareth and I have been working on an ordering system called Stocklist for my wholesale accounts. While it is exciting behind the scenes it also a little boring as I can't share it with the rest of the world. It basically lets people design their own Anna Laura product so I don't have to tell people to look at my Flickr account to get an idea on what I am doing. If you are wanting a bag, you can select a print, a fabric colour, a lining colour and a strap colour with just a few clicks and I can upload it all very easily and change things with just a couple of clicks.

Gareth has finished all the coding and it is impressive. If you're looking for a man and you are thinking you want a musician or an artist try and refrain and go for a computer programmer instead. Sure they will turn you into a nerd who gets excited by a take away curry, a few beers and the X Files on DVD, but who are you kidding, that was all you ever wanted anyway.

Now it is up to me to get everything uploaded and looking pretty. Above is a bit of a sneak peak, but it is not anywhere near finished just yet. I have been photographing fabrics and uploading things to get it somewhere near completion and I am aiming for next week as the date to launch.

New Personalities

I spent some time on Saturday coming up with some new badge descriptions for the ladies. Henrietta isn't a new one, I came up with that one once before, inspired by someone I know. Speaking of reality television we have, after three whole months, finally got "normal" television. The house we shifted into had no aerial and the real estate advised us to get rabbits ears or pay for half the aerial installation.

We didn't do either and were not that bothered as we had plenty of other shows to watch on DVD. I think if I went back in time to December or early January and told myself that no television will result in me liking Star Trek I might have done something about it, but that would be going against the temporal prime directive. (I just felt the past me kicking me for mentioning such dorky things in my blog).



The Screened exhibition at Bamakko was great, although I didn't stay for long due to going to the worst football match ever. I got to see Bianca and Lara and also meet Kylie from Mizu Designs and the see some new works and smell some nice coffee.

Are Mushrooms Popular in the Country?

Some new little ladies I photographed this afternoon, these were the ones I fancied the most out of the bunch. I like the pink haired ladied face the best but there is something about the mint green hairstyle that appeals to me. I've done it before, but that little extra line seems to work for me.

I was in East Gippsland for a couple of days and went to Spotlight in Bairnsdale. Now what I am going to say MAY boost Bairnsdale tourism quite a bit, but the Japanese Cosmo Textile Mushroom fabrics were all $6 a metre (Reduced from $20). I thought maybe they were all on sale across all Spotlights but I checked out Spotlight in Sale and it wasn't on special. I'm guessing the Japanese Fabric craze has not hit the country yet or what is going on, but I purchased a nice chuck of it and have to admit I've not seen it in any of the city stores.

If anyone is wondering what to do tomorrow night in Melbourne, a quick reminder that the Bamakko screened exhibition is on. The opening is from 6-9pm at 358 Victoria St, North Melbourne.

Bamakko Screen Exhibition

I'm going to be participating in the Bamakko Screened Exhibition opening this Saturday, along with Lara Cameron from KirinCo and Bianca Van Meeuwen from Hollabee. I'm going to take the screenprints I've been doing on the brown cotton fabric with the white weave. The designs are quite simple but hopefully it will look cohesive and not a mishmash of different prints I have done as that is most likely what I would normally do. Below is an example of some of the items I will be taking.

Esta Tagged Me...

Some new ladies, all with the lovely low bun available in my three online shops.

Deidre

Majorie

Thora

So the lovely EstaSketch tagged me and I thougth I would change the style and do the 4 answers thing I've seen other people do. Seems a little easier than thinking of seven facts.

Four jobs I've had:
Vegetable Packer
Customer Service for a phone company
Art Teacher
Waitress

Four places I have lived:
Meerlieu (East Gippsland, Victoria)
Melbourne
Cape Town (South Africa)
Gent (Belgium)

Four TV shows I love:
The Office
30Rock
Survivor
Voyager

Four places I have been on holiday:
Warsaw (Poland)
Lakes Entrance (East Gippsland)
Port Patrick (Scotland)
Inverness (Scotland)

Four of my favourite dishes:
Japanese Curry
Lasange
Bobotie with Mrs. Balls Chutney
Homemade pasta

Four websites I visit daily:
Bloglines
Flickr
DaWanda
Madeit Forums

Four bloggers I am tagging:
EmmaRose, Cat, Snailblazer and odds and blobs.

All About The Badge Ladies - Descriptions

People often ask me about the badge ladies descriptions and where the ideas came from. They started out as adverts from personal columns as I thought this would be an interested way of introducing them with the packaging. After running out of personal columns to gleen ideas from (there is only so many GSOH, LDR, SWF, LTR and SPARK to go through before you run out!) I started making little bios for them. I use a lot of things as inspiration and would put them into five catagories. Based on me, based on people I know, inspired by the name, inspired by the look and totally random. I also have Gareth and my Mum helping me as well. Two of my best descriptions are by them.

Here a few examples of each catagory.

Based on me:
Anna is looking for a man
who is dorky enough
to chat to her on the
computer when they are
still sitting side by side.


Based on people I know:
Kathy only just realised
Picasso was an artist.
She always thought
it was a style of work


Inspired by the name:
Whenever Cecelia has dumped
a lover they always play her
the Simon and Garfunkle song.
It always makes her glad she ended it.


Inspired by the look:
What is Alex hiding in
that hair of hers?
All her life savings?
A bowling ball?
Another brain?
Lizards?


Totally Random:
Alicia wants to run away
and join the circus.
She thinks she could walk
a tightrope but has only ever
practiced on the end of her bed.


Writen by Gareth:
Mavis enjoys collecting antique
porcelain teapots and wants to
travel to Nimbin because she
hears they have great pot.


Writen by Mum:
Cheryl was going to drop the
YL from her name until she saw
herself in the mirror in her underwear.
If only she could turn back time.

Chica Magazine

The lovely Undine from Daily Obsession sent me an email with some press my badges received in Germany. I have not fully translated it, but the last line says something about the badges being your new busom buddy. Speaking of Badges, I've got some new ladies to go up over the next few days on Etsy, Dawanda and Madeit.

Kittens and Graffiti

I discovered this today when I was using it as a prop to take photographs of my badges. It is from one of the books I scored from the RMIT library called Soil Mechanics and Foundations. I love graffiti in books and public toilets and any other place people feel they have to share something with the world than isn't the normal place. I know it is wrong but sometimes people say the funniest things and this one here ticks all the boxes.

I've been making a few puffy badges after drawing some little kittens in my sketchbook. This one is like our cat on the farm called Pupmkin, although I gave him and two other grey ones superpowers over on Flickr. This guy has super sonic bad breath, a power most cats usually have anyway.

I've made a few more Mother's Day Cards. I've done some repeats of the same design concept, but they look different. I thought this one would be a good one to give and I love the angry look on the faces of the women who came second and third. I was planning on making them look happy for the number one, but they ended up looking jealous. Oops.

Mother's Day Cards

I thought I might make a set of Mother's Day Cards similar to the Valentine's Day Cards I made in February. I've been writing a few ideas down and made some of them up last night. I thought they would make a nice alternative to the usual floral arrangements. I got some help from Gareth, he reworded the "Thanks For The Lift" card as my original idea was a little bit dull. I've listed that one up on Etsy and I will also put them up on MadeIt and Etsy over the next few days as well as taking them to Rose Street.

Old Leaf

I got these blue cards ages ago but never really used them, except for when I needed to make cards for people myself. I thought I would make a set to take to Rose Street this Saturday, along with some Mothers Day cards I plan on making, similar to my Valentine's Day cards.

When I make the little collages I like to set a limit on what I use and only have for or five different elements. The designs end up stronger when you have less to work with. For these collages I used some old dried leaves I found at Lincraft a while back and although I've used them a couple of times in some artworks they seem to work much better with the red + blue combo. Also used is a page from a french dictionary, lace paper and a page from an old book with blue ink over it from art school days. They have been attached with my sewing machine and white thread. I don't think I could go back to using glue with a collage, the machine is king and there is no going back.

Some New Little Ladies!

I loved the pale blue and pale pink colour combo and thought I might try the pale blue in the eyes. It looked a little full on so I added some darker blue around the edges. I think they are rather unique!

This one has a pretty hairstyle, it is a high ponytail and bun combo. If only I could do that without professional help!

This one was an 80s inspired hairstyle with some new wave pink stripes. She is right into Siouxsie Sioux I think.

This little lady looks quite preppy, the watermelon pink and brown hair would go perfect with a pale blue polo shirt and a nice set of pearls.

Fancy A Swim?

I had some lofty plans for my brothers graduation cake which revolved around the idea of a jelly dam on a farm. I think as soon as green icing enters the scene everything just comes tumbling down. These close up scenes look okay, but have a look at the whole thing and you might never want to eat cake again.





Here is the next pouch I did with another red screenprint. A simple design which was just going to be lines, but I added the little blobs at the end. I've listed this one over at DaWanda.

Mini Tote

This is one of the two bags I made using the red circle print. I think grey + red is a great colour combination and I found it by accident after finding a scrap of grey fabric and deciding to use it. I thought that I would find it hard to find some grey cotton drill but when I was in Lincraft on Tuesday I found some and wondered why I had never noticed it before. I've been making a few mini totes, this one is wider than my normal designs which would work for me as I can never find anything at the bottom of my bag and I would imagine this would make the job easier. I've got a new red print from yesterday made into pouches today on the brown and grey and I will post pictures soon.

Brown + Red

I purchased this fabric last week and decided it was some of the best fabrics I've found in ages, the colour, texture and weight is my ideal fabric. My plan was to print onto it with red ink and I created some design ideas on the way home on the train yesterday afternoon. The design is simple circles, like the inside of a tree and I printed it onto some grey fabric as well. I'm going to list this in my Etsy shop and put some others up in the next few days. I've put a photo of the stencil I used on my flickr account.

Lacy Legs - Part Two

Print One
As you can see it is over inked at the bottom of the print. It seems the lace sucked the ink up a lot, so what I thought was a large amount of ink didn't seem to want to print across the whole screen, so more was added. The top of the right leg looks good, this is what I was hoping for when I started. The lace also creates an interesting texture, the print feels much rougher than normal.

Print Two
This time I didn't put as much ink through and when I lifted the screen there wasn't enough, so I put it down again. You can see the double registration on the left side of the right leg. When I did this print, I put new lace down down as the last one was too ink on the other side.

New Techniques
Rather than stop I thought I would start trying different things. This print was created by placing the inky lace directly onto the fabric and pressing down. The results are far more pleasing, but I realised if I wanted to use it an add applique shoes I didn't give myself enough room. I then though I could stitch more fabric onto the bottom, so it looks like the ground. I have some great grey fabric which will work for this.

New Artwork
This artwork was created with the inked lace. I stitched it onto a blank 30cm by 30 cm canvas frame with little red felt shoes and some buttons. This is what the print should have looked like from the start, although I think the red and red might be a little bit too much, but with the stark white it looks okay.




Some things for next time:
1. Use a thicker plastic lace for the print
2. Use the lace I have already printed with. The inky layer might work at repelling the ink a little more so it prints even and doesn't absorb all the ink.
3. Thanks to Emma Rose for the spray paint suggestion, although I'm not sure if you can get fabric spray paint but I like the idea of it and will keep a look out for something like that.