Inspired by my trip to Spacecraft in Brooklyn, I made some paper-mâché lamps. The lamps turned out great, using tissue paper, “Chinese New Year” metallic paper and printed vellum. The light shines through the paper and creates awesome ambiance! We will be creating a class based on our super-duper technique! Be on the lookout for it!
New York has the best and most interesting street art around, hands down. Just walking to the corner and back you get an eyeful of interesting paste ups, graffiti, and stencil art. My favorite piece was a little dog painted on a colorful wall, he was ready for anything. I love New York street art. Heck, I just love New York!
Located in the heart of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY, the Brooklyn Art Library acts as a creative dwelling place for thousands of artist journals. I loved being able to sit down and peruse through the vast amount of creative material. But what they have for sale in their little shop was worth the trek… Check it out if you are ever in the area. Have fun.
This shop was high on my list of things to do when I visited New York City. Printed Matter maintains a public reading room where over 15,000 titles by 5,000 international artists are on display. It’s a zine wonderland, where you can buy cheap, hard to find books from around the globe. Walking in the space you are almost overwhelmed with the amount of great books on display… I found this great FREE publication that Peter was gifted… darn, I should have gotten an extra for myself!
Spacecraft is a totally unique craft-making and supply boutique located on the south side of Williamsburg, NY. Dying to check this place out, I squeezed in a block printing class while I was in Brooklyn over the weekend. It was very easy to get creative in the unique storefront studio. Check out the great paper-mâché lamps… you know what I will be doing when I get home.
On a little trip to Anthropologie I saw some great hoop earrings for $45. I decided to make a pair of my own after finding a hammered silver hoop belt with similar size hoops at the local thrift store. Beautiful!
In the middle of nowhere out in the green rolling hills of Vista, CA sits a little run down cottage with spectacular views! You can hear the roosters all day and if you listen carefully, and the sounds of little piglets squealing and goats maaing! This is how we spent Sunday… me… Peter… Tim and Marc. Tim and Marc were rummaging through all the metal type out in the shed while Peter and I rummaged upstairs. Treasures! I didn’t get a shot of the great vase Marc found or the any of the stuff we salvaged (although, you’ll be seeing it in the days and months to come!) but everyone left tired, dirty and happy! Quite a day!
I love finding inspiration in unexpected places. The book “The Tulip“-by Anna Pavrod has lovely detailed images of tulips amidst the text. I used this book as reference to create delicate hand painted water color flowers. Someday I may read it, instead of just looking at all the great illustrations.
Last week I decided to a little experimenting with printing. Using spray paint, speedball and screen-printing ink I came up with some interesting projects. Here is a look at one of them… a cotton ribbon that I printed, using a potato block print, sponge stamps and lino block print. Very cool!
I stumbled upon this book at the library and had to buy it right away, “Print Workshop” by Christine Schmidt. I have many printmaking books, but this one is EXCELLENT. The book gives you a clear understanding of print techniques, materials needed, and ideas for projects. I am so anxious to try out all the techniques in the book, not just one or two.
