Feels like Monday...

After the dullest long weekend ever, I am feeling surprisingly upbeat.

Do you remember this?

It became this...

She is available as a print in my shop.

Its nice when a painting comes out easily. There was very little smudges, flubs, things I would remind myself to Photoshop out. The print is basically the same as the original, which is rare. I think knowing this wasy a pointless painting of a girl, with no rules, and no one to please, just made it more fun. I even left her eyes white the way I always want to, knowing most people feel differently than I do about it.

Haven't decided if I am going to sell the original yet. Probably. I think I would want to mat it myself.

So on this "Monday" after the long weekend, I am working on:
-my new silk screened tote bags! Canvas bags, some natural coloured, some dyed, some embellished....
-resizing prints to fit my new little mats (I hope will arrive today) I always want to control the mat. I would frame it and hang it up in your house if you let me.
-working on new business card design! I can't believe I blew through 1000 business cards already. Time for a change. A glossy, fancy change.
-eating a vegetable.
-trying not to ruin the season finale of House for my dude who hasn't seen it yet.

Let me be truthful.

I totally scrapped my silkscreen!!!! It sucked, it was making me insane, and it was super obvious I made my image too large. I can admit defeat. I restarted on a new little screen, and I know that will make my life less full of rage.

NOW. The weekend!

I traveled "home" for the weekend to see some of my friends wedding. I had an important delivery to make. The cake topper!!

The bride and groom were looking for a topper that was close to their hearts, and they are both huge rat lovers. So plans were made and I got started.

I actually made a little pink prototype first, to make myself a paper pattern. Then I made the white one shown here after learning from the mistakes. I had to back the wool felt with interfacing so it would stand up to being turned and stuffed.

Once I had both made I worked on posing them.

Then I made a base and attached them and their little tails. The most fun part was making the teeny tiny bouquet and other stuff.

And here they are on the cake! I had no idea what the cake was going to look like or how big it was or anything. I think it worked out great.

Here is the happy couple with the cake. I didn't get any fantastic pics of them with the cake, but I am not worried as there were about 200 digital cameras at this wedding and I am sure lots of great photos exist.

The bride gave me a super sweet and totally embarrassing shout out in her thank you speech, which was perfect. How many people get their website pimped out over a loudspeaker?

Here is me and the girls in the bathroom. I am going to pretend that tilt is intentional, and we hadn't drank for 10 hours. :-)

As if all the whole wedding thing wasn't ENOUGH, it was also Mothers day PLUS my dude's birthday! Fit all that into a weekend.

So we squeezed in a night of drinks and videogames until 4am. Ill advised before a wedding, but totally necessary.

So thats it. So much squeezed into three days, on basically no sleep. I am getting too old for this. ;-)

Urge to kill rising.

Ok, as stated in posts before I SUCK at silk screening.

I thought being truthful about it would somehow help me? Maybe I would prove myself wrong and everything would go great!

Nah.



My burn looked good, but then as I clumsily washed it out in my tub, it started to lighten around the edges! I guess this was water causing it to lift? Maybe I hadn't let it burn long enough, maybe my transparency wasn't tight enough to the screen...Anyway, I let it dry, fixed any pinholes, tried a bit of a patch up on some areas and gave it a shot.



ewwww.

I only got one print that wasn't a complete wash.

So I think it has to be redone. Half of the screen prints perfectly, and half is terrible. I think the key to my future success is the way I rinse it out. I was pretty rough and careless, and I think I learned something.

I can say this all calmly now because my insane anger at this screen has worn off and I no longer want to kick it into the sun like the Hulk.

So silk screened totes and tees will have to wait a bit longer.
In the meantime
-I have redesigned my dry erase boards to be WAY cheaper and they can be shipped way cheaper (Yayyy!)
-I have two completed separate wedding projects I can post later on in the week. Cutenesssss. I swear.
-I have some sketches waiting to be made into paintings.


-Oh, and listen to the new NIN album. FREE download! Its should be at the top of the To Do list. Thanks Mr.Reznor, you made my day.