Friday Feature - Une Petite Etoile (one little star)

A star is what blee feels like when she wears one of our many luxurious bibs by Etsy seller Une Petite Etoile. My love for her clothing started when one of my favorite customers sent me a gift package filled with bibs and onesies back when I was pregnant. Now I have everything from blankies to diaper covers.

But now is not the time for me to shop for myself. Now I have a friend who is expecting a little girl at the end of the month and I need to find her something special so here I find myself back drolling at little frilly yet hip dresses and more bibs than I could ever need even with my messy eater. The things that keep me going back are her flawless craftsmanship combined with a beautifully seductive array of fabrics. The hard part is choosing what to get!

I'm getting a fabric covered headband for myself because I can't resist.

Oh Look a Featured Artist! - Kylie Budge

wallflowers
Originally uploaded by kylie budge

I really want to start featuring other artists more often. I tried to do it as a regular Friday thing, but with my schedule that is hard.

But here is the perfect starting point for me to do better. I had the pleasure to meet woodblock printmaker Kylie Budge through Flickr last year at some point. 2007 was a bit of a blur with the pregnancy and all but she stood out as a great talent. I've blogged about her in the past, but I just have to do it again because this piece is so breathtaking.

I just love how the colors balance each other out and the delicate line work, I would love to see the blocks that make up this print. It is so breathy it would be perfect in my studio. I have a thing for abstracted nature.

Her style of printmaking is different from mine. We both use wood, the same kind even, but that is where the similarities end. While I go the western route at that point with oil based ink rolled up onto the woodblock she goes the eastern direction with watercolors or pure pigment mixed with rice paste brushed onto the block and then printed by hand with a barren instead of a press. This is moku-hanga. It is something I hope to learn myself someday when I can find a class that is being taught closer than Connecticut. It is a laborious process but is so worth it for the translucent colors. Both eastern and western have their own charm.

More of her work, including her current mixed-media pieces can be found here at her etsy shop.

I've been Featured!

Adhiambo (born in the evening after sunset)
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

On the Modish Trendwatch Africa blog entry! This is my second trendwatch feature in a row from them. Last month it was the Russian Doll Trendwatch. My work is covering the globe!

Thanks Modish! I love your blog and the feature is a huge honor. I've always had a soft spot for this piece and this series as a whole.

I've been kinda taking it easy today chilling out and feeling kinda almost euphoric in a chill kind of way. With people constantly asking about the baby and threads like this being started on Etsy every day or so how can I not feel good and loved? It is so cute! One person actually joked around and said something to the effect of; "you think you are anxious, how do you think we feel?". Classic. I've had so much support and she is going to be so loved not just by her family but by her extended family.

PS. Etsy might be running a tad slow right now since Showcase spots are on sale and everybody (except me) is rushing to go buy them. I expect it will clear up in about a half hour or so.

I really should be carving but I haven't been. Maybe I will go do that now.


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Now playing: Beat Happening - Teenage Caveman
via FoxyTunes

Upcycling in Action

5x7 picture frame
Originally uploaded by crowgirlb

Hello dear readers. This is not an easy post for me to get out this am due to the terrible acid filled night I had last night. Not the kind of acid that makes one see things but the kind that had me bending over the toilet to get the vile stuff out of my body at 3am. The cidar vinegar cure has failed me! Just as I was telling all how wonderful it is. It does still work 90% of the time, but sometimes nothing is going to help me. That is what I learned from last night. Sometimes I am just hosed and no pill or concoction is going to help me out and I had better just accept it.

Thankfully for your reading pleasure I had this blog post started and saved in an outside source so I was able to have something to start with. Good thing since my brain feels like absolute mush this morning. I reached for some iced tea in the fridge but it is roobious and dammit caffeine free. Let's see if I can actually get it together enough to make a pot of real tea after I finish this sucker. See how much I love you all?

Seeing this gorgeous frame on Etsy the other day that includes pieces from one of my earlier collage packs reminded me that I needed to list them again. I had one sell last week and I never got around to replacing it because I wasn't sure how much I had left. Even before I cleaned my studio I had enough papers for two of what might possibly be my best collage pack yet? It is certainly a good one with plenty of variety. And I still had plenty of pieces for stickers, magnets and buttons. After pretty much finishing cleaning yesterday I have even more, but since those come from other pieces those have a totally different feel. I just love upcycling and using every bit of art and extra paper except for the tiniest of scraps.

This morning I got the notice that my featured on the wonderful Indie/Pretty/Perfect blog is up! This is really quite an honor since she tends to chose such fabulous finds and is quite a talented artist herself. I drool over her letterpress. But I don't envy the task she just had of moving that dinosaur halfway across the country. Letterpresses make my press look like a paper weight. Back when they were making letterpresses there was no such thing as a lightweight press. While my newly designed press was designed to weigh as little as possible while maintaining its function and durability. It weighs 300lbs with the stand while most letterpresses that can print as big as it can weigh over a thousand pounds. Somehow I don't think getting one of those up into my second floor Boston walkup would have worked for me no matter how much I tipped the delivery man!

There you go, my blog post is done and now that I have written it I am feeling like less of a zombie. A very good thing because I would like to take advantage of my newly cleaned studio and do some carving today. But I won't let the woodchips that come from it destroy all the work I did because now I have the perfect broom and dustbin combo ever. The dustbin is on a long handle so there is no need for me to bend over. I love it as much as any reasonable human could love a dustbin. Jon picked it out, he isn't so bad after all!

I still need to write about the Rothko and Bernini episodes of the Power of Art. Getting there! Let's me just put it this way for now, those were the last two episodes of the series (I saw it totally out of order) and I am very sad that he didn't choose to focus on fifty artists!