Photo set up

I thought I'd document what my photo set up looks like so I don't forget the next time I take pictures.:)

My studio is in a bit of chaos right now with all of the photo equipment out and up.

I went to the hardware store and bought a sheet of bead board and I sawed it with a handsaw (yay fun!) and used the front as the wall and the back side as the ground for my pictures. The planter I am using as a prop is actually a mug I bought on Etsy last year. It was a little too big to use for coffee but makes a beautiful planter!

The white board I am using as the ground in this picture is actually a shelf  I borrowed from my book case.   The sides are from a lightbox I purchased on ebay last year...it was a small and boring but the material is good for diffusing the light on the objects.  The prop is a planter my aunt gave me and is about the size of a regular mug.

Front Page!

I just went on to Etsy and saw my clutch on the front page!

I am so excited that my new pictures are getting more views!  I am still in the process of photographing but I have quite a bit done so far. : )

Almost Spring!

Time to dust off the photo equipment and take pictures! 

Here is a sneak peek at some of the new goodies I'll be adding to my Etsy store in the next few weeks! :)

Dream weaving

Butterfly: "Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name."  The Last Unicorn

I was thinking about a story I wrote for a class in elementary school.  The assignment was to write a story and illustrate it and I wrote mine about a dream I had about two men who were in charge of the dream world.  One was very old and one was young. The younger one was named Schmendrick because in my dream he looked like the silly magician from my favorite movie at the time, The Last Unicorn.  During the day while we were awake, the two men would knit a large sack which they would fill with the sand from their garden and it would turn into dream dust at night.  When night fell, they would travel around the world and sprinkle dream dust over every sleeping person and then go back to their little cottage and begin knitting a new dream sack.  As they knit, they would be so tired and weary from their journey that they would unknowingly skip stitches or make little mistakes.  They didn't know it but every particle of dream dust that touched these mistakes would turn into bad dreams and nightmares.

That is all I remember about the story.  This says a few things about me...I was a strange child and had a wacko imagination...yikes!  This was probably around the time when my aunt was teaching me how to knit.  It must have been, because I really had a hard time with it and I suppose that my knitting struggles were actually causing me weird dreams instead of bad ones!  : )  Anyway,  I have now come to find that the nuances that happen when I am doing something which requires repetition of an action tells a story.  The thing I am working on becomes a continuous recording of my current emotion or thought and I believe that is what gives something handmade its character and makes it beautiful. 

I was thinking about all of this because after years of searching, I found that Peter S. Beagle (the author of  The Last Unicorn) just narrated and released his book on audio!  I can't wait to listen to the book I have read countless times growing up and one whose images combined with the animation from the movie, formed the basis for my artistic aesthetic! : )  Yes, I am a dork!

Etsy Front Page

I turned on my computer this morning and to my surprise, I was on the front page of Etsy! :)
What a wonderful way to start the day!  This very cool treasury was made by emmarts !

Template Tips

I have come to learn that I am a very visual and tactile person.  I need to see a material or object in order to completely understand its size  and proportions.

This became a problem for me last year when I started receiving orders for custom cases.  I  knew technically how big to make my cases so that an item would fit but I really couldn't be sure that it was going to be perfect.  I of course couldn't afford to purchase every gadget out there, although in a moment of desperation I seriously pondered it.  I even went as far as purchasing a broken iPod nano just so I could be sure it would fit my cases!  Once I came to my senses, I came up with a great idea that incorporated a way for me to recycle my magazine stash and  have perfect reproductions of the latest and greatest gadget!

I cut the magazines into the dimensions of each device and then completely cover them with packing tape.  This allows me to insert the templates into the cases and iron them so that the cases are perfectly formed in the shape of their intended device.

One year later, my collection has grown!  Now I know that my custom orders will be perfect!  These templates have saved me so much time and trouble!

They reside on the shelf next to my ironing board in a pretty box.

Ack!  I see from the picture that the water level for my iron is low and needs to be re-filled!  Also, as you can see, I am not good at hanging anything straight. :)

All of the pictures on the wall are ones I have purchased from various talented Etsy sellers.  I love looking at them and being inspired by them while I am working!

I hope that my crazy magazine templates idea will be useful to someone else sometime! :)

Dyeing in the Kitchen

Hi everyone!
It has been a while since I last posted on my blog because I have been very (thankfully) busy!
2010 has started with a big bang for me and I am so excited to be working on new projects which I will unveil soon and lots of custom orders!

One custom order this week required me to dye a piece of fabric for an iPod case.  I decided to take advantage of the situation and dye a whole bunch of fabric at the same time and then take pictures so I could share the process with all of you!

I love to dye fabric and I love to cook and I have figured out that I dye fabric like I cook food.  This just means that I don't generally follow any rules or recipes.  I love the excitement and mystery of mixing a little of this and a little of that to end up with something delightfully unexpected and wonderful!  This method of working, whether it is for cooking or dyeing, only works as long as you know and understand the basic principles of what you are doing. This process also doesn't guarantee repeatable results but it is so much fun to be inventive and it definitely keeps me from getting bored with what I do!

I started out with fabric that I thought was pretty boring in black and white.

Then I covered all of my kitchen counter space with old towels so I wouldn't ruin anything and get in trouble.  Then I prepared all of my utensils and dyes etc.

After that, I had to decide which fabric I wanted to dye in a particular color.

Next I mixed the colors and immersed the fabric.  Each dye bath needed to be stirred constantly to ensure even dyeing and no splotching.

I use fiber reactive dyes which are permanent and color fast.  You can find them here and directions for their use here.  These dyes are specifically made for cotton, rayon and silk.  I dyed both cotton and silk in this group of fabrics.

After this step is the washing...it takes a loooooong time to wash the dyes out of the fabric. (So, no pictures!)

Besides finding out how my crazy color experimentation turned out...my absolute favorite part is discovering how each fabric takes the dye. (I know, I am such a dork for getting so excited about dyeing fabric!)

All fibers take dye differently.  I won't get technical but you'll see from the pictures below that I have grouped the fabrics by the color I dyed them in and some of the results are drastically different!

This is the dark green dye bath.  As you can see, the fabric on the left is silk and it didn't feel like taking any of the blue in the dye at all!  The train fabric is pretty neat because certain parts dyed darker than others and that makes the print really interesting...what a lucky discovery!

This is the blue dye bath.  You can see that some of the stripes in the plaid fabric dyed lighter than the other ones...also a very neat discovery!

Didn't they turn out great! :)

Another reason that I will over-dye a fabric is if the original color is just awful. (according to me)

For example, the red on this fabric was way too bright and light and I hadn't been able to use it because it just looked garish to me.  So I placed it in the same red dye bath as the fabric in the previous picture and I think the new shade of red makes all the difference in the world.  It doesn't hurt my eyes to look at it anymore! :)

So, there it is!  This week I dyed in the kitchen!  Till next time!