More bread and butterflies

Here are the bread and butterflies! The first one in pink, and the second is purple. The colours looked more distinct in person than in these photos. But I couldn't take side by side pics since I already gave Kat hers before I finished.

OK, well, for some really annoying reason blogger is being a bitch. I'm using Opera now because firefox was crashing constantly, and Opera doesn't seem to let me have any control over my cursor. What the hell? I'm cranky now. LOL.

Chris and I are going to Bunning's today to pick up some stuff for my project..... a shelf, paint stripper, and a couple cans of paint. I'm settling on a fuschia for the wall colour of my installation and I'm probaby going to paint the old desk blue. It just is going to look too strange and stand out too much if I leave it white as it is. I'll sand the blue down a bit though so it looks somewhat aged.

Then we're gonna go see Inglorious Basterds. I really hope this movie is good. Tarantino never fails to disappoint, so I'm hoping that "never" also extends to this movie. Otherwise I'm in for another disappointing day at the movies. LOL. I have no patience to sit and watch another terrible movie for 2 hours (*ahem* Public Enemies *ahem* LOL).

Oh my word....

It's 1.10 AM and Chris is actually awake, and has suddenly decided he wants to learn to play Master of Puppets on guitar. Ladies, he's taken!

Why Abraham Lincoln grew a beard

I came across this adorable set of letters between Abraham Lincoln and a little 11 year old girl named Grace Bedell. She had written to him and he had returned a reply. I really wanted to share this.

N Y
Westfield Chatauque Co
Oct 15. 1860

Hon A B Lincoln
Dear Sir

My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is a going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try and get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter dir[e]ct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chatauque County New York

I must not write any more answer this letter right off
Good bye
Grace Bedell

And here is Lincoln's response:

October 19, 1860
Springfield, Illinois

Miss. Grace Bedell
My dear little Miss.

Your very agreeable letter of the 15th. is received.

I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters. I have three sons -- one seventeen, one nine, and one seven, years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family.

As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now? Your very sincere well-wisher

A. Lincoln

Apparently on his presidential campaign tour, Lincoln stopped by the town where Grace lived in NY, and he met Grace :)

At Westfield, Mr. Lincoln greeted a large crowd of ladies, and several thousand of the sterner sex. Addressing the ladies, he said, "I am glad to see you; I suppose you are to see me; but I certainly think I have the best of the bargain. (Applause.) Some three months ago, I received a letter from a young lady here; it was a very pretty letter, and she advised me to let my whiskers grow, as it would improve my personal appearance; acting partly upon her suggestion, I have done so; and now, if she is here, I would like to see her; I think her name was Miss Barlly." A small boy, mounted on a post, with his mouth and eyes both wide open, cried out, "there she is, Mr. Lincoln," pointing to a beautiful girl, with black eyes, who was blushing all over her fair face. The President left the car, and the crowd making way for him, he reached her, and gave her several hearty kisses, and amid the yells of delight from the excited crowd, he bade her good-bye, and on we rushed.

I hope that made you smile. The more I learn about Lincoln, the more I adore him. I was reading about his love for animals and children. Apparently he especially loved kittens. And he was often seen playing in the town with his boys, some sort of game, and people would watch him running about all gangly and with the tails of his coat flying all over the place. <3

Little By Little

I had my review today and it went alright. Bernhard and Jo seemed pretty positive about the whole thing, and Bernhard thinks I should go a bit more perverse. I see what he means....make it a bit more larger-than-life and ridiculous. He said that by having things amplified and exaggerated, the precious little things will conversely enjoy more power.

They want me to start getting serious about the letters from Abe, and Jo actually is going to give me the contact info for a fellow artist who makes acrylic sticker lettering for gallery shows and such. Cause I can imagine actually sticking the words directly onto the wall.

I wish I had money right now...there are so many things I need. I need to buy curtains and wall paint and a bean bag, a couple shelves and larger paper. On top of that stuff for school, there are many things I need for Cuddletown, such as business cards and packaging supplies and more ribbon. Man. Haha.

The next step is buying some wall paint, then fiddling with the letters, printing some out, getting some printed onto transparencies and then using an overhead projector to see how the letters will look on the wall. I need the wall painted first so that I can see how it'll look. It's still going to be tough if I decide to get the vinyl stickers printed in a colour. But we'll see what happens I guess. LOL.

I gave Kat the bread and butterfly and she really loved it! She especially loved that it had only one eye, and I think the fact that I scented it really impressed her. Jack was happily shocked when I showed him, he kinda stepped back and said, "wow, that looks SO good. people would buy that" He was so positive and kind, it really gave me a huge morale boost.

I finished a bread and butterfly for Dannie as well. I made hers purple, but otherwise it's the same. I'll post pics tomorrow since it's evening here now.

I took some pictures in my studio again, with the three latest drawings on the wall, and the terrible desk Chris and I found on the side of the road (you can tell, too. hahahaha...it's got freaking wallpaper on the drawers!).

Such a glorious desk.


Closeup: Bernhard put that resin-cast penis on abe's nose because he's a nut.


A shot of the wall with the three latest drawings on the far right bottom. Jack told me that it's really starting to come together :) Yay!

Bread and Butterfly , Abe felt pillow

I've been trying to keep somewhat busy the last couple of days. Photos below...:)

Here is the Bread and Butterfly I made for Kat at Uni on Friday. She did me a big favour, so I'm giving it to her for free! I was talking about making these when she saw my little clay toasts in my studio, and she said she wanted one. I'm giving it to her tomorrow, so hopefully she won't mind that it's got one giant eye. LOL. I scented this little fella so he smells like sugar cookies! :)

He looks simple enough in design, but it was actually really difficult to get this to look right. I had a different placement for the wings originally but it was proving too difficult a feat of extreme engineering for what I wanted. So I opted for this head-on view instead. This is made of fimo, TLS, wire, one googly eye, scent, super glue, and necklace findings.


Now on to my Abe felt pillow.....

For some reason I wanted to make an Abe applique out of felt. I bought a $2 purple pillow cover at Arthur Daley's (where I buy everything, apparently...LOL) and already had boatloads of felt. This is all cut free-hand. He looks like Mr. Potato head!


I wasn;t sure how to create shadows, but I figured out to just layer different parts over a darker skin tone shade. I used fabric glue to put all the small pieces together.


This picture amuses me. It looks particularly evil! Working out the hair and the beard was tricky.


I love this view because you can see the planes and the texture. :)


I added sideburns that I glued underneath his face instead of on top, which made it so much easier to get a decent shape. I glued the ears on in this same manner. Sammy was a big help!


I ironed on some doubled-sided backing, but then ironing the whole shebang onto the pillow just wasn't working, and I wound up ironing the beautiful planes almost completely flat in the process. I'm pretty bummed about that. I wound up just using fabric glue for the entire thing. I like this pic though after he's been all glued together.


Working out placements for the smiley faces. The finished product pretty much looks like this. But I didn't take a photo of it. I will in my studio tomorrow :)

Please let me know what you think!! I'm thinking maybe I'll make more pillows like these to sell. LOL.

Works so far...

As promised, my post about the badges and previous drawings/things arranged on my studio wall. I'm also posting pictures of three drawings I made in the last few days, all nicely framed but not in my studio yet :)

A far back view....Ignore the sticks to the right and the crap to the left. The badges are in three seperate shadow-box-y frames above the rainbow drawing. This isn't how it will be displayed....this is just to get an idea of how things will look clustered together and to help decide which colour to paint the walls in my installation.

A closer view. Sory for the shitty photo. The clay toasts are the smallest ones...and to the far right is my felt tooth in a small plastic frame.


All my photos of the badges were pretty bad...especially the detail ones. Because of the high relfection of the glass. I won't post the closeups, but you get the point with this one.

A closer look at the combination of things.

And another... All the bright colours make me so happy......! and I love how the objects look together <3>

Here are some of the felt pals. :) You may recognize from earlier blogs.

Now here are my three latest drawings. These are meant to represent Ann Rutledge, who is widely known (no longer speculatively) as Abraham Lincoln's first love. They were informally engaged, but she was stricked with Typhoid and passed away suddenly at 22. On her deathbed, she called for Abe, and after her passing he, according to friends, seemed to completely fall apart. He lacked his former passion. This is not to undermine the woman he eventually married, Mary Todd, but first loves tend to be something a person never forgets.

I know that they're together now, so based on the descriptions I could find of her, I drew her.

These pictures are also not very great, and at weird angles, against because of the glare on the glass. They're all done in prismacolour pencil with a bit of marker and white goauche (on the pink-framed one).

First drawing....the one I like the least...but not bad. Note she's wearing an Abe badge!

Second, which I really like. The colours are like a Danish colour scheme. I'm really pleased with her features. I like to imagine here she's looking up at Abe since he was like 6785905 feet tall :)


The third drawing in this set. I really love this one. They're sitting on Abe's stovepipe hat watching the sunset. Abe's got a heart patch :) I also did a bit of research on what women wore in the early 1800s so I could put her in dresses that wouldve been possibly similar to what she actually wore. The stars are done with white goache. I did the sunset because, not only does it match nicely with the pink frame, I also imagined a drawing of them sitting together with their backs to the viewer. :)


And all of them together! The pink one really stands out...so I thought I'd put it in the middle so you're forced to look at the other two. I also want to include writing based on Abe's feelings about her. And I will probably include more drawings of her in another set. :) Please tell me what you think! Any comments/suggestions are so appreciated :)

And because you made it this far....a bonuc sketch of an idea for my next little framed series!

Exciting Studio Tour

OK so, I went to class yesterday (shock! haha) and took my badges with me. I also had an appointment with my dear counselor Darryl who is cooler than any of my teachers.

But yesss I rearranged my drawings and things in my studio and included the framed badges. I tried to take decent photos of the badges but they still look crap cause of the glass. I'm thinking of taking the glass off and displaying them that way. But. Eh. It looks fancier this way. I'll post those pics later.

I thought I'd take a bunch of photos of my studio as well, which I never use, but has alot of my dodgy crap inside. So Here we go, take my hand darling children, and come with me....!

Walking in, the VCA 3rd year studios intrigue and entice you further....


Hellcat peers at you over the partition, warning you that what you are about to see will change your world forever. Are you ready to take that risk? (Hellcat, $15 Party supply shop....amount it creeps Chris out, Priceless).


If you wish to use a map, a handy one is presented to you as you walk in.


The VCA is so classy it offers a fine tea and bikkie experience in the form you see above. The fact that the water boiler hasn't been washed since production in 1963 gives the tea an extra nutty flavour.


As you make your way further in, you wonder if you maybe arrived at a bomb shelter.


Turning the left corner, the glorious studio of Jelena beckons you to have a look at the many splendorous wares.


Can you spot the foam boobs?


Alternate view.....I know you're excited now! You're in too deep!!


How many Fritzls can you spot?


BRB - Basement


And because you haven't seen my shitty locker enough, here's a closer look!


I give you more Fritzl for your buck.
(I realise I completely dropped the tour talk but eh, I've got a headache)


Resin cast Fritzl coasters. I wonder if I should sell these?


Prerequisite studio porn for those lonely nights.


Sex Mermaid No. 1. Look closely....


Sex Mermaid No. 2. Look closely.


Sex Mermaid No. 3. Look too close and you'll poke your eye out.


And the famous mold cake, the talk of the VCA. It looks like a beautiful snowy hill in the country. Or a moldy chocolate cake.

Little Dreamer

I am obsessed with "Little Dreamer" by Van Halen. It fills my heart with stars and bursts of rainbows like how Jimi's "Little Wing" does. Ah. Deep breath.

Badges

I've been meaning to learn how to make ribbon badges. And yesterday I accidentaly began making some.

I started off by cutting out tons of shapes out of super sculpey...small squares, small circles, ovals, larger squares, circles, and sugar cookie-ruffled circles, as well as three wonky looking frames.

Last nite I was sanding and etc, and then realised that the ruffled circles would look great with ribbon behind him.....so a bit of tweaking, and then later a polymer clay top hat added....and voila...I had a pretty cool patriotic-looking ribbon badge! Like one that would be worn by a presidential candidate of yesteryore (I know that's wrong but I like it). So Today I'll be finishing those up and hopefully posting pictures.

I can definitely see these badges being a big part of cuddletown. I think they're pretty unique and very cute, and I can see all sorts of different images on them....Abe....Sammy, clay charms, etc. <3 I am excited about them.

I'm not sure about the frames. I mean, I made basic rectangular small frames from clay but I thought, what's the point? I could buy frames that look better than this. The clay does nothing for it. So I was thinking maybe I'll try some more unconventional shapes for my clay frames. That way I won't have to worry as much about making everything symmetrical.

I was imagining a drawing last nite....one of Abe and Ann Rutledge at the sewing/quilting bee. He's leaning in twords her and whispering in her ear and she's blushing, just like the "story" says....but there will be other elements involved. What, I'm not sure yet. I do need more drawings though. Honest...

Hopefully picture updates later, and if not today, then tomorrow :)

Felt Toast Attack!

Hello hello!

I've had a nice relaxing and home-bound weekend. We had plans, Chris and I, oh yes we did, but it cannot be helped that we would rather relax at home than go see the Dali exhibition at the NGV. But next weekend...oh yes, next weekend!! I just remembered, I should take money to buy the catalog as well......

The last couple of days have not been entirely wasted with tv and crumpets, however. I did make several larger felt toasts for my Abraham Lincoln works, which is turning out to be more of an installation. I had a tute with Andrea and she had these grand designs for me, and well, her ideas weren't all that bad....and now I can actually envision parts of the installation.

So yes, toasts. I also made a couple things for my dear friend Janyce! BUT I won't post pictures of those ^_^

There are only four so far....and many clay toasts....I've got lotsa ideas for these little fellows.

Chris told me that I got a package in the mail today....Could it be....


My package from the lovely Etsy seller Acrylicana? I hope I hope! Her stuff is so cute, it makes me laugh :D

On Saturday I managed to cut my wrist pretty good. I was washing a spoon rest that I got for $2.50 with Emeril's face on it, printed badly, and the handle broke off the spoon-resting part, and went straight into my wrist. Where it made a gash about an inch by a quarter of an inch wide. My eyes boggled and I freaked and thought, "GREAT. Don't tell me I'm gonna have to get stitches!" It was GROSS. I could even see a bit of bluish spot, like my vein or something. Chris slapped about 43 bandaids on it cause my bandaids are inferior. I peeked at it yesterday and it still looks gross, and it's pink like ham, but Chris said it's healing pretty good. It went pretty deep. So I know I'll have a good scar from it.

My plans for today include drawing drawing drawing. My mid semester review is next Monday, and I need more work cause I haven't done any drawings really since my abe chocolate one. I want to make several small drawings of a mini abe performing a dance, and make small polymer clay frames for them possibly with jewels. If I get the chance I'll also start another big drawing, maybe of abe peeking out of a shopping bag. I'm not sure.

I think I'm gonna use goauche (sp) for the small dancing drawings.or maybe not. hahaha. I rule.

Off I go! I LOVE Rocket Summer, by the way. Woah woah! They made me happy.

Is that a cookie, or the moon?

Without further delay (Chris will flip if I don't post these pictures already), here is the giant birthday cookie Chris made for me!

Consisting of approximately 2 tubes of chocolate cookie dough in a pizza pan, it was glorious and easy to make! Not that I helped. PSH. It was my birthday!

Naturally, it was Sammy's birthday as well, so he got decked out in his "bearthday" shirt and demanded to pose with the cookie....

...and proceeded to eat it of course.

I've got my Undead/zombies/vampires class tonite. I wonder what terrible movie we'll be watching. Probably something french and confusing enough to warrant extreme over-alanyzation next week.

I've finally managed to design my Cuddletown business card a couple nights ago, and I'm really happy with the design :) I also made a design for a small self-inking stamp (you never know when those are gonna come in handy....and for $22 it is a pretty good deal). Now I need to work on the hang tag design, which I've figured out how to do in my head this morning (it's such an easy solution it's pretty lame I hadn't thought of it sooner...but I was headstrong in thinking it had to be achieved in a certain way.).

So, slowly but surely chugging along :)

Gift Boxes!

As I've mentioned earlier (at least I think I did...haha!), Chris took me on my birthday to my new official gift box supplier! Since he had my birthday off, Thursday, and their showroom is only open on weekdays, and I figured it's my birthday and he should be extra nice to me (! :D).

It took me a while to find good colour combinations when I got there, but actually going was such a good idea as opposed to ordering them through the mail. This way I learned that I could opt for a smaller box size, and I also learned that the ribbons I planned on buying didn't look very nice with my boxes. So much drama!

On top of it, as I went to pay, I realised I lost my debit card (!), and had to ask Chris to bail me out. Luckily I found my card at the chemist's I went to the night before. LOL.

So without further delay, here are photos of the gift boxes! :)

Here's the original test version...Using a ribbon I bought at Arthur Daley's for like $7. It's a bit rough but it gave me an idea of which direction to go to. And how the smiley pin would look!

Here's the small box, with yellow tissue paper. I took photos in the steps of packing the box to have a more cohesive view :)

Here's the ribbon I settled on with the huge help of Chris. Very different from the first ribbon. It's got more of a neon colour. It's got wire in it to help hold the bow's shape, as well. I wanted to be sure that these gift boxes were cute, stuck to my theme, but also weren't TOO girly and cutesty. So that if someone wanted to buy something I made for a male, it wouldn't look too feminine.

And with the smiley! Tada!! Hehe...it really comes together I think :) And when you see a smiley, you can't help but smile as well. At least I can't! The great thing about the smiley is that it's easy to make out of clay and also, to help entice people into purchasing giftwrap, it's got a pinback on the back so that you can pin it to things or wear it! So it's like a bonus gift. It is actually pinned to the ribbon on top.

Now the bigger box. I have two box options because the smaller one is great for one or several charms or small things, and this one is better for the bobbleheads I eventually want to make as well. The bigger box I was interested in was way too big and also kind of ugly compared to this one. Also, using a more inexpensive option helps me keep the gift wrapping reasonably priced without sacrificing the overall look :D so being able to actually see the boxes was great in this respect.


Chris helped me to chose this ribbon as well. It's the same style of ribbon as the greebn, but in a lovely yellow. There was no blue option in this ribbon, but I think these colours really look nice together. I cut this ribbon a bit shorter than I will in the end, so it looks a bit funky.


Tada! I was worried about how the yellow would look on the yellow, but it's not too bad. However, since clouds are a bit of a theme as well, I thought I'd try making a cloud pin with a tiny smiley face on it. I'm not sure how the white will look though, so I'll make a test and post pics later :)


And the two together!! I think they look really nice, and I'm happy with them. Im curious to know what others will think though? I'm a bit biased.