This and That and the Other...

The Kenton Street Fair was Sunday, I shared a booth with Bike Cozy!  It was my first outdoor fair!  Sorry I cut off some of both of our booths in the photo! 

New kitchen floor to replace the one scratched up by the cops after the burglary! Cat not included. The tape is to hold the seems in place.  It's gone and I have baseboards now too!

looks like a melted crayola box! I love it! and the kitty!

 I also received some lovely mail art from Jessica at Natures my Friend!  Thank you!!! Fun stuff for sure!!

why can't i rotate this!?

Happy pre 3 day weekend week!

To Blog or not to Blog...

Another weirdo face.

Bad photo! Expression and all! haha

That is the question!  The last couple of weeks have been a black hole of time sucking activities that have nothing to do with art and very little to do with unemployment.  I'm the VP of Fundraising and Sponsorship for IIDA's Oregon Chapter.  Last Thursday night was the annual fundraiser!  Phew! Am I glad that is over!  It's our only fundraiser and it always involves a theme and awesome raffle prizes!  This years theme was High School "Clicks".  I went as myself, in circa 1987.  Died black hair and all.  My ears still hurt from all those earrings and my feet still hate those dyed to match pumps. I'm also pretty sure this black hair is making me look old.  Oh 1987.  I won the below light in the raffle!  It's going to look great over my table! Yay!

Louis Poulsen PH 5

Sunday I looked at a studio space share potential with a letter press gal!  The space is perfectly located for me with a small store front and workshop space.  The trouble is money of course.  There is a potential to make some there, but you know the old saying "you have to spend money to make money" . Sad but mostly true.

Recently I also visited Atelier Meridian!  Now, they have some presses!  Their Friday Ink and Drink seems to be well attended and a good time!  I'd like to visit again! 

Last Monday was Valentines day. Previously I had made a linocut of a box of chocolates for the occasion but also wanted to finish a drypoint I sketched. I got as far as getting it on the plate!  Better than still being on paper I suppose.  I'm planning to print it Sunday at the workshop I'm running.

I'm hoping to get back on track creating! I have a couple of projects up my sleeve, but more about them later. 

Thanks for taking the time to spend with me here in my virtual world! :)

Leftovers!

Amy at Wingtip Press came up with a great idea last year for all her leftover paper! A print exchange called Leftovers!  I heard about it from Anniepod Press. 

It's pretty simple.  I make 14 prints from my leftover paper, mail them to Amy and she sends me back a random mix of 12 prints. One set will be used to raise money for a charity and the other will be used for shows.  Pretty dang exciting if you ask me!

So today I rounded up my leftover paper.  Sketched out my design, redrew on to my linoleum and started carving!  

I cut out my original design to trace - Is this cheating? :)

I usually draw on a scrap piece of paper and then decide which way the design will look best. The way I drew it or flipped.  It still happens once in a while that I forget my design will be a mirror image once I print it!

Thanks for the press Nancy!

This is my first time using unbacked lino.  I wanted to get a more even ink transference by using the press I'm borrowing from my dear and fabulous artist friend Nancy.  I can't use a backed block in this mini press.  It is much easier for me to carve a backed piece, but I'm sure I'll get use to the unruly unbacked lino! 

Leftovers 2011

I'm pretty happy with the results and I'm really excited to see what I get back!  I'd love to be able to see the entire collection at a show too.  The deadline is March 15th and the cost is $12.  Please see Leftovers for more information!

Happy Tuesday and Happy Printing!