laundry day

Yesterday was beautiful and somehow I found myself inside doing all my hand washing... trying not to create puddles in the bathroom as everything dripped dry.  The sun coming through the window made this dripping blouse look like a stained glass window.  Once I checked this chore off my list, I did get out into the sunshine and sat in the park working on jewelry sketches.  I'm excited to try out some of my new ideas.  

by the way

For those of you who are interested in seeing some of the work from the Chicago International Poster Biennial that I referenced in an earlier post, I now have a link to a slide show the winners' work.  Some of my favorites include the works by: Farhad Fozouni, Tomasz Boguslawski, Emek, Christian Helms, Mehdi Saeedi, and Iman Safael.

What's new in my world?  It's time to balance the scale.  Life is getting in the way of dishes.  I've got the whole rinse-and-stack method down pat... now they patiently wait in the sink for actual washing.  Mail sorting?  Not happening.  Phone calls returned?  Almost, but not quite.  I haven't watered the plants in a week.  Three of my last five dinners have centered around popcorn and pretzels.  The good news: I still have clean under ware.

Flying: feathers, planes, biscuits...

Last week I posted a few new necklaces to my shop, including the one shown above.  I recently acquired large spools of recycled leather and have had some fun playing with it.  I used it to make the little metallic tabs for this necklace, and plan on using it to make some bracelets as well.  I love the colors of this feather, and somehow found myself thinking of The Island of the Blue Dolphins when I made this necklace.  Anyone have this on their school reading list?  It's funny the things that stick in your mind... I read that book nearly 20 years ago, but I still remember how Karana makes a skirt out of cormorant feathers at the very end before she leaves the island.

I flew to Atlanta this past weekend for work.  The weather was beautiful and I was working in the Virginia Highland district, which is a really cool spot.  If you are ever in Atlanta, I recommend you visit this area.  While there, I wandered into a shop called Bella Cucina where they had old french magazine pages strung from the ceiling like banners.  I bought one that has a beautiful painting of geishas stringing calandars (?) to a tree.  I'll have to find out for sure.  Another thing I would recommend if you are going to be in Atlanta, is to go to The Flying Biscuit Cafe and order the fried green tomato BLT sandwich.  

  

Spicy Honey

Sadly, today is the last day of my vacation.  To punctuate the coming of an end, it is raining and gloomy outside after a week of perfect weather.  It was good while it lasted...  I got to enjoy the sun, see friends and family, work on some projects, and wander around town.  

The Hideout Block Party posters I mentioned in my last post led me to do a little online exploration, in which I ended up discovering the first Chicago International Poster Biennial was opening in Grant Park.  I went on Friday morning to take a look.  There are 127 posters up on display, representing artists from 22 different countries.  If you live in Chicago, I recommend taking a look.

Saturday morning, I got up early while it was still misty and cool and took a walk to the farmers market.  Since I got there early, there was still plenty of the freshly made donuts and coffee!  Everything was so beautiful, I filled my bag to the top with vegetables and flowers.  Probably, I was a little over zealous with my purchases... I have a lot of tomatoes to eat now.

So, what to do with these last few vacation hours?  I'm thinking with all this rain, it's time to put in a movie and curl up on the couch... and eat some tomatoes.

Stay-cation

I am on vacation!!  Or, what some may call "stay-cation".  This is what someone told me the other day when they found out I was going absolutely nowhere during my time off.  I have a lot of projects on my plate to keep me busy while I am home.  I started out on Monday by building a model for the set design I'm working on for The History of American Film.  Right now it's in it's more skeletal stages so I can plan the structure of the set, from there I'll start working on surface details.  I've also been working on painting and some new jewelry for my shop.

It hasn't been all work though - Sunday I went to the Hideout block party, which was a good way to kick things off.  The weather was beautiful, I ran into a few friends, had a really good black bean burger with mango salsa, and saw the New Pornographers and Ratatat perform.      

Here are some of the posters that were printed for the party.  Unfortunately, they were sold out by the time I arrived.  The bird poster is a print by Alana Bailey, the telephone pole poster is by Judgeworks.                                                                                   

 

up

This has been the week of 2 am.  Up until 2 am e-mailing, up until 2 am finishing my bracelet order, up until 2 am because I just can't sleep, up, up, up.  It felt good to get the bracelets done!  There they are above, snuggled in packing peanuts and ready for California.  I'm still working on the set design for The History of American Film, but that will be done by Monday.  My goal tonight: don't stay up until 2 am.

Sketch

A few weeks back, I stumbled across the blog, Book by its Cover.  It is the creation of Julia Rothman, who is an illustrator and pattern designer in New York.  She features art, design, illustration, comic books, and more... including a sketchbook series.  This is a photo of a sketchbook belonging to designer Isaac Tobin.  I realize that sketch books and journals seems to keep resurfacing over my last couple of posts!  Chris Bruch and Noriko Ambe's art both used, or constructed sketchbooks, and now I find myself peaking into other artists' sketchbooks as well.   I've really enjoyed looking through.

Here is a peak at some of my sketchbooks.