While She Naps

handmade gifts

Gift crafting is in full force here now.  First, for my nearly two-year-old niece, Emerson, a package of homemade playdough.

This will be accompanied by lots of cookie cutters and a rolling pin and hair maker.  Here is the playdough recipe, in case you'd like to make some.  It lasts for a long long time and is really fun to play with and totally non-toxic.

Playdough

Ingredients:

3 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 cup salt
6 teaspoons cream of tartar
3 1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons oil
food coloring (I use the gel kind)

Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a large pot until no lumps remain.  Whisk in the wet ingredients (except for the food coloring) and stir until no lumps remain.  Cook on high for 3-4 minutes until a dough forms. Separate into several portions and add food coloring, kneading until uniform in color.  Store in airtight containers. 

For my sister-in-law Jen, a sewing kit.  She mentioned to me recently that she has no sewing materials except for a tiny hotel sewing kit.  This cannot be allowed!  I made her a custard cup pincushion and a set of shrinky dink pins

I also made her a wool felt needle book. I am putting in a few other goodies - some vintage buttons and fabric scraps and trims.  I hope this will inspire some creative projects for her.

And finally for today, two princess crowns for my three-year-old twin nieces, Jordan and Ellis.  These are made of wool felt and plastic gems.  They fasten with Velcro.  I made little name tags from white shrinky dinks that I affixed to each one. 

Lots more to come.  Happy crafting!

shop update today!

I am trying to buy handmade this holiday. I took the pledge and I'm really trying to give it a go.  This means lots of shopping on Etsy (thank god for Etsy!) and hopefully even more at the Boston  Bizarre Bazaar on December 9, and perhaps even a visit to Magpie.

It also means lots of crafting and sewing on my  part. I have finished nine pocket tissue holders  and ordered nine lovely mirrors to give to all of Roxanne's nursery school teachers as well as her physical and occupational therapists. And I have a giant list of things to make for family and friends. 

I think all of this is what got me into production mode this morning and thus, I have made a little shop update today.  I added some new snails and a sweet little bear as well as some of the sculptural pieces. I hope you'll find something that appeals to you. 

Also, I have the information now about the Pocket Utopia show in Brooklyn. Here it is:

Pocket Utopia presents Etsy!: December 2- 23, Opening Dec. 2nd 4:00 - 6:00 pm

A selection of artists from the hand-made artworld from the online site by the same name (http://www.etsy.com):

Susan Angebranndt
Megan Bogonovich
Tiina Burton
Peter Cunicelli
Abby Glassenberg
Dan Grzeca
Hal Hahn
Janice Lagard
Cathy Nichols
Erin Partridge
Corey Ramsey
Shannon Rankin
Irene Suchocki
Karen Switzer
Kim Westad
Xusah

December 2 - December 23, 2007

OPENING, Sunday December 2 4:00 - 6:00 pm
POCKET UTOPIA
1037 Flushing Avenue
(L Train to Morgan Ave., Bushwick)
Open Saturdays and Sundays 12-6 and by appointment
Call: 917-400-3869

Pocket Utopia is pleased to present a selection of artists from Etsy, an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade.  Etsy was launched in 2005 with the vision of building a new economy and presenting a better choice:

Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.

owl

I have been working on an owl for over a week and a half.  He is a great-horned owl inspired by this drawing in Sibley's.

Here is my initial sketch. 

I drew the face mask first.  I think that in all softie making, and perhaps especially in soft sculpture, the eyes either make or break the finished project.  I also drew the owl in profile because the way my bird patterns are designed I have to have a good sense of what I want the finished bird to look like from the side before I can begin.

The prototype pattern had several structural flaws that I then corrected.  Owls are narrower at the base and have broad shoulders which meant this pattern needed not only an under gusset, but a back gusset, too.  And owls are cool because they can turn their heads all the way around.  I cut the pattern into pieces to allow for as much head turning as I'd like. The finished owl has his head only slightly turned.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to make another one with a fully turned head.

I wanted the legs and feet to have some heft so I wrapped them in fabric strips that I then bound in black thread.  Each talon is wrapped in floral tape and then painted black.

 

And just to prove to you that I do indeed have some sort of soft sculpture psychosis, here are the scraps from making the wing feathers.

I fused some body fabric to black Kona cotton with double sided fusible web (I love that stuff!) and then punched many many many petal-shaped pieces with my Sizzix paddle punch.  This is the only part of the process that was loud.  I sew when my children are sleeping so quiet is really imperative.  Therefore I spent several evenings out in the garage hammering away, listening to Sister Diane on the iPod. 

And several more evenings hand-sewing the feathers to the wings.

So here he is.  My new owl.

 

"Beyond the Book" opening

We went to the opening of "Beyond the Book" at the Honan-Allston branch of the Boston Public Library today. The opening was from 12-2 and I would have posted about it in advance, but I somehow missed the information about it until the day before. 

Here I am with a grumpy-looking Stella in front of two of my three pieces on display. Stella is checking out the chips on the snack table.

The show was really lovely.  Lots of great work, including an awesome book that is a beehive made from cut paper.  The wall where my work is hanging is painted dark purple and I like the way it makes the colors in the collages and on the birds really stand out.

I think it was really exciting for Roxanne to see mommy's work on the wall of a gallery. She did, however, get a bit goofy.

On Monday I will be shipping the first Nest of Thread off to a show at Pocket Utopia in Brooklyn that opens December 2. The show will focus on Etsy, the diversity and talents of its sellers.  Sounds like a fun one! 

new elephants

These three elephants, along with two more yet to be made, will go to Pajama Squid, a new children's store opening up in Takoma Park, Maryland, in March.  (See photos of each one individually here.)

I grew up in Potomac, Maryland, and it is nice to have a little representation there.  I have some more plans for the elephant pattern so more elephants are sure to be made down the line. 

I must confess, though, that I have grown to really hate making toys!  What's happened to me?  They just make me so grumpy.   Ack. 

last day at the farm

Monday was the last day at the farm.  It was so sad!  I can't tell you how much we have enjoyed having a CSA at Land's Sake in Weston this summer.  I feel so much more in touch with what can be grown in New England successfully, with what produce are actually in season as the summer progresses, with the bounty that each crop brings (when there are a lot of beets, there are A LOT of beets). Now I see why women spent so much time canning and pickling and preserving fruits and vegetables once they were picked - there is no possible way anyone could eat all of that!

And right now I feel especially in touch with what the end of the summer means.  There was a time, not long ago, when the end of the summer meant that you couldn't get a red pepper or a fresh tomato whenever you wanted one. People ate what was stored in the root cellar or what has been put up for winter now.  Of course, I don't live in that time. Whenever I want whatever I want I just walk down the street to Roche Bros. grocery store and pick it up, even in the dead of winter.  But I think for the first time this summer I have caught a little glimpse of a  time gone by.

And Roxanne has grown so much by going to the farm.  In June, at our first CSA pick-ups, she would cry and whine about her feet being dirty and having to walk too far.  She never wanted to pick anything from the pick-your-own options, preferring to get back in the car and go back home as quickly as possible.  The last few pick-ups of the season she ran out of the car to hug the scarecrows and admire the pumpkins, she helped me put the tat soi and mustard greens in the bag, and asked if there were anymore edamame, or anything at all, left to pick.  She ate vegetables she normally totally rejects because she was eating them off the vine.

And she, and I, learned about vegetables we'd never hear of before, like garlic scapes and whatever this green thing she's holding is - cauliflower?

And she and Stella ran around every Monday afternoon in such a beautiful, relaxing setting.  They climbed on the the tractors and watched a group of Brandeis students and their professor cider apples.  They saw the women farmers drive the tractor. 

So now we wait until mid-June when the first crops will be ready and we can go back.  I knew I would like having a CSA - the Iron Chef component of having to cook what was available immediately appealed to me.  I am so glad that I wasn't the only one to enjoy it so much.

"The Tailor"

11" x 14" assemblage
soft sculpture bird with wire legs wrapped in floral tape and painted gold, flour sack, paper ephemera, acrylic paint, vintage wooden spool, red leather

I named this piece "The Tailor" at the suggest of Mijk. Thanks!

I got some gold paint for the birds legs and they are so pretty now.  I like metallic paint.I planned this piece on a rectangular grid and it was pretty fun to figure out what would be in each space.

I'm really happy with this piece - not so much with the one that came before it, though. Often I think it is this way, the most successful ones follow the least successful. 

"Beyond the Book" - a juried show

I just got word late this afternoon that these three bird collages have been accepted into a juried show, "Beyond the Book: 2nd Annual Book Arts and Collage Exhibit," that will be going up at the Honan-Allston Branch of the Boston Public Library.   The show opens November 14 and runs through January 5. 

I'm really pleased to be part of this show because it is in Allston.  We used to live in Brookline and many of our friends still live there or in surrounding towns. I'm also excited that they took all three pieces.  The show was judged by area collage art faculty.  I'm not sure whom, exactly, but I would like to find out.

All work will be for sale through the artist once the show hangs.  I am not sure yet when the opening reception will be, but I will post about it here when I know.  Yeah!

It was a lovely day

We had the best fall weather for Halloween this year - warm enough to go trick-or-treating without a coat over your costume, but still fall-like.  We went to a little Halloween party at Tot Time at the Recreation Center in the morning and then off to the neighborhood block party and parade in the afternoon.  My little cow and bumble bee were seriously adorable.  I would have posted a picture of Roxanne with her larva necklace, but at the last minute she refused to wear it.  Three-year-olds - they're a mysterious bunch.  Poor thing, too, she is fighting a cold and her lips were severely chapped and started bleeding during the party. 

Because my babes go to bed at 6:15 pm we were the earliest of the trick-or-treaters, but that was fine with us.  And today it seems that the Halloween candy has been forgotten!  Wow.  I think this is most likely the last year that they'll forget and not ask for more candy the next day.