RadioGirl Designs & paintandink

Change of Scenery: This Blog Has Moved, Sort Of

2008-09-25T23:23:00.003-04:00

In the interest of simplification, I have finally completed the copying of all relevant blog posts from this blog to my Explorer's Notebook, and, although I have left many posts here intact for their comments (since I can't copy those but they boost my ego, so I want to be able to come back and visit them), or to keep other people's backlinks intact (far be it from me to be a link-breaker), this blog is essentially closed.

Please come visit me over at the "new" place, which isn't all that new, anyway.

Insert Cheesy Title Here, Like...

2008-05-13T06:14:00.007-04:00

"Ch...ch...ch...changes!"

or

"The Tides of Change"

or

"The Winds of Change"

or (my favorite)

"A Rolling Blog Gathers No Moss"

etc., etc.

My original intent in having two blogs was to keep business and personal life separate, but the truth is that I don't necessarily want to do that, as an artist. I'm actually doing my best to live an integrated, whole life. So I am combining my blogs, slowly moving posts from this one to The Explorer's Notebook, which will be my main place until I get a web site up and running. I know that it still isn't the good old Paint&Ink blog, but it seems to be the best solution for now - so many blogging friends visit me there, and I hesitate to move out of two blogs at once.

(I feel like I should send out change-of-address cards.)

I will leave the posts with comments here in duplicate, because I can't copy comments nor can I import them, and I will also leave the post about the starry table, since so many people seem to find their way to that one (makes me proud!) but from this point forth, please look to my other blog for new posts, as well as all of the posts from both blogs. It won't be an overnight change, but it is already about 30 percent done.

I look forward to seeing you over there!

Sailing the Vivid Sea

2008-02-18T15:16:00.007-05:00

Every time one of my items is featured in an Etsy treasury, it's a thrill and a compliment and a pat on the back all wrapped up in one. And when someone features my artwork in their blog, it's even more exciting. Lynne Davies of the Etsy shop skully and the blog Autonomous Artisans has featured my map of the Vivid Sea in a wonderful story in her post "Sailing the Seven Seas" with a bunch of other really fun piratey treasures, including the dangerously sweet Thomas Tillerman and a dress that I love (I already have the stein to go with it, you see...). Check it out!

Sweetness, Indeed.

2008-02-11T16:19:00.004-05:00

The first time I had an Etsy order from someone I didn't know, I thought it was a mistake. Actually, what I thought was that someone had used MY Etsy and PayPal accounts to purchase something from someone else. (It seems so silly now, but at first glance, that's what I thought.) I was floored. And then, after reading the e-mails over and over again, and figuring out what had happened, I was still floored. Only much, much happier than I had been ten minutes earlier.

That customer, April Meeker, who sells her own wares on Etsy as secondsister, commissioned a second painting almost immediately after purchasing the first one, thereby doing wonders for my self esteem and my hope for my future as an artist.

And she has done that again by featuring my artwork this week on her blog, secondsister suaviloquy. (Suaviloquy is the coolest word, isn't it?) Many thanks, April. It's an honor.

Still Mapping, and Soon, Exploring

2008-01-26T16:44:00.003-05:00

It's been a whirlwind two months around here, and I'm about to head off into the tropics to celebrate my birthday with some hands-on exploring of Hawaii (surely island travel falls under the category of business research, too?), but before I go, I thought you'd like to see what I've been doing around here. My latest paintings:

Realm of Good Cheer, 8" x 10", (reproduction)

(This original has been sold, but reproductions are available in the Interimaginational Institute Shop. These others are all originals and available; reproductions of some will also be available when I return from my travels.)

Marvelopolis, 5" x 7", ink and watercolor on paper

Fortune Isle Treasure Map, 8 1/2" x 11 1/4", ink on wood

Tall Ship No. 1, 2.5" x 3.5", ink and watercolor on paper

And a special map just in time for Valentine's Day:

Realm of Love, 5" x 7", ink and watercolor on paper

(This is actually one of two love-themed maps - I have yet to scan the second, which I like even more, but I'll share it when I do.)

Happy Travels, all.

Curious What the Fuss is About?

2007-11-26T11:59:00.002-05:00

I talk a lot about Etsy on this site, but still I'm not sure that very many people know much about it, so here's two nutshells' worth (first someone else's nutshell, then my own nutshell).

Essentially, it's an online marketplace on which anyone can open shop as long as they are selling in one of three categories: handmade items (i.e. art, jewelry, pottery, furniture), vintage (over 20 years old), or supplies (beads, paper, yarn, etc.). The great focus is on handmade items, and you can find anything from a firepit for your backyard to a purse made from a hardcover Nancy Drew book to an original painting on gallery-wrapped canvas.

It is not an auction site; the prices are set by the seller. Just like Ebay, however, Etsy itself doesn't handle the actual payment, so once a sale is "completed" on Etsy, the buyer still must proceed with a payment method. Sellers offer a number of methods of payments, from PayPal to check to bank transfer (in Europe); most prefer PayPal (which has come a long way in recent years - you don't even need a PayPal account to use PayPal to pay with a credit card and the seller still won't have your credit card details).

There are some drawbacks: the search function is less than perfect, but still functional (the main catch being that if you wish to exclude things from your search, you must use the word "NOT" in front of a word, instead of a minus sign as you would on the Internet). And the features are not necessarily intuitive. Many have odd names and so you must explore them to figure out what they are (like Time Machine 2, which shows what has just been listed, and I think is the BEST way to get an overview of what's selling on Etsy, and Treasury, which is a great way to be introduced to new sellers and have someone else do the searching for the really cool items you might not find just browsing). If you're looking for something specific, the category list is probably the most basic way to find things.

Prices vary widely, so you can find something for any budget. And the quality of items for sale varies widely, too, sometimes even within one person's shop. But I think most people would be impressed at the way the average quality skews heavily in the direction of excellent, unbelievable, even awe-inspiring.

In short, Etsy is a fantastic place to do your holiday shopping. And although all prices are in U.S. dollars, it's not limited to U.S. residents; there are both buyers and sellers from all over the world. One of them might be your neighbor. And, with limitations, most people will ship all over the world too (the limitations mostly concern things like soap or perfume that might be prohibited in customs regulations).

If you're still wondering why you'd want to buy handmade, I'll answer that in an upcoming post. In the meantime, just go check Etsy out.

Use What You've Got.

2007-10-26T15:46:00.001-04:00

If you were on an island with no paper, and you had to make a map of the island so you could remember many years down the road where you had buried your fabulous treasure and pass that information on to your wily pirate protege, what would you do?

Use wood, of course.

Introducing my latest project, treasure maps on wood. These will be going with me to the Handmade Parade in Norfolk on November 10, and if they are still with me at the end of the show, will then make their way into my shop.

Treasury Map

2007-10-05T12:18:00.000-04:00

It's a very lucky day for me... My artwork is featured in two Etsy treasuries at once! Wowza. Yippee!

My Kingdom of Delight print is featured in Happily Ever After

and

My brand-new tiny framed original, Four Masts, is featured in Sailing Like Columbus.

Stop by soon, because that first one is expiring in three hours. Thank you, piratesandpixies and kerri9494!

Speechlessly honored

2007-10-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

Mrs. Dragon, of Fantasy Artists of Etsy (FAE), has featured my artwork on her blog this week. I have no words of my own to express the gratitude I feel for her words. It's a tremendous honor to be highlighted, an even bigger honor to be highlighted so eloquently, beautifully, charmingly.

I feel a little like Sally Field right now, and that's not a bad thing.

Showing off

2007-10-01T15:57:00.001-04:00

My first live-and-in-person art show/sale was a great success. A few of my magnets and prints and one of my very favorite paintings are on their way to new homes, and I wish them well in their journey (and I hope I get used to this sweet sadness when I say goodbye to an original, because it is such an incredible feeling to think of other people gracing their walls with my paintings).

Equally as important, this was a fantastic opportunity to explore the public side of being an artist. The event was not huge, which was a great thing for me, because I never felt overwhelmed, and I also had a chance to practice reaching out to passersby and talking to people without worrying too much about interrupting one person to talk to someone else.

Of course, it always helps to offer chocolate. Sometimes, I practically shouted, "Hey! Come get some treasure!" And people would give me a funny look, which in itself is not necessarily uncommon at an event like this one, and then edge closer, and look at me questioningly, and I'd add more quietly, "It's chocolate." I think it is a worthy goal to make the world a better place by handing out free chocolate.

But I was both surprised and delighted by how many people stopped by my table even before the offer of chocolate. So many compliments and questions and conversations about maps and cartography. Many people signed up for my mailing list, took brochures and took MOO cards. (If you're one of them, hello and welcome and thank you for stopping by! Please let me know you're here!).

I was very proud of the way I set up my table - after hours of tormented thought about where I could find a tablecloth big enough for a ten-foot table, it occurred to me that a canvas dropcloth, the house-painting kind - would be a bit like a ship's sail. Perhaps too big for me to iron, but attractive nonetheless. Al suggested the fishing net and the shells, and he built the display board for the little paintings.

The treasure chests were a natural display option; and I am very, very pleased by the "brass" sign for the Interimaginational Institute (this photo from the practice table I set up in our living room the night before).

I wanted it to look like the brass plaque one might find outside some kind of Victorian academic society housed in a pompous stone building in an old city, and in the right light, I think it does.

Next time, I'd like to add some more props to the fantasy/make-believe side of things... I love the way the net and treasure accented the treasure maps, but the realms and lands were slightly underflaunted, even if they didn't complain, not once. The purple velvet scarf - a hand-me-down I've had tucked away for years - was a good royal touch, though.

All in all, a great first outing. AND, as you see, I got to dress up, which is always a good reason to get up in the morning.

The larger paintings, I hope, pending my acceptance to the show, will be going with me to the Handmade Parad e in Norfolk on November 10; until it is time to prepare for that show, I will make some of the smaller framed mini-paintings available on my Etsy shop, starting tomorrow afternoon. The magnets (which I don't make by hand) are available on my Cafe Press site. I will be experimenting with my own handmade magnet recipe soon, so keep an eye out for those!

Happy travels, my friends.

Jaunts

2007-09-18T11:26:00.001-04:00

I've been working on getting out of the house and the studio and, well, refilling the creative well, lately. The past two weekends have been great, a good dip into Virginia's artistic waters.

As mentioned in the last post, I took a lovely drive on Saturday up to Onancock for the grand opening of the Red Queen Gallery; it was a marvelous day, filled with incredible art, good conversation, amazing weather, a a ship, a stop at the Book Bin in Onley on the way back, and some breathtaking views of the Chesapeake Bay (I've driven over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel so many times that it takes a lot to make me stop the car for a closer look, but I did on Saturday, and I'll be posting those photographs on the other blog shortly).

And on Saturday, the 8th, I headed down Route 13 to downtown Suffolk for the "Taste of Suffolk" festival. My real purpose was to see a group of artists participate in a painting circle, hosted by Angelia of Red Thread Studio, who posted a note on the Etsy forums. Each artist worked on a canvas for 20 minutes, then passed the canvas on to the next person. The result was a collection of six vivid collaborative pieces of art, which were auctioned off at the end of the day (I'm still disappointed that I didn't win one, but, ah, well).

It was fascinating to watch the works in progress, growing and changing with each artist's uniquely identifiable touch, and the artists themselves were charming and very willing to chat with the passersby. Definitely worth the trip.

Coming Attractions

2007-09-17T13:11:00.001-04:00

It's always when I post the least that it seems the most is happening. That seems a bit backwards. I'll work on that.

I am delighted to announce that I've joined the Fantasy Artists of Etsy street team, and I look forward to becoming part of this amazing group of artists.

I've also signed up for two art shows/sales in the Hampton Roads area:

I'll be in Artist's Alley at FantaSci 6 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center on September 29 and 30.

And, pending acceptance, I will be part of the Handmade Parade hosted by the Norfolk Craft Mafia on November 10.

I am very excited about both shows (although a bit nervous). I've been drawing and painting like a fiend to have enough work just to fill up my table. (Which also means that if you had any intention of purchasing one of the originals I have in my Etsy shop right now, step right up, because I'll be taking them with me to the show in two weeks).

If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello.

This weekend, I also had the opportunity to attend the Grand Opening of the Red Queen Gallery, in the charming town of Onancock, Virginia, where ten of my paintings are eagerly seeking new homes. It was a marvelous event. The gallery looks beautiful, open and sun-filled and colorful, and I am both awed by the work of the other artists and honored to be in their company. If you're anywhere near there, do stop in, and, while you're there, take a map of the town, also drawn by yours truly. And on top of seeing the gallery and meeting a number of wonderful people, I took a jaunt down to the wharf, and scrambled all over the Godspeed for a while. Any day with a ship in it is a good day, is it not?

Flights of Fancy, Flights of Fantasy

2007-05-30T15:03:00.001-04:00

I've put a few more maps up at The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration & Cartography, including this one:

because some people might wish to visit new kingdoms after they go treasure-hunting. All that treasure -- gold, I assume, although the maps don't specify -- could be useful at fairy markets and the like.

As more lands are discovered and mapped, or as more lands are mapped, and the maps then discovered, the Institute will offer those for your exploring pleasure, as well. And remember, your purchases support future mapping expeditions!

Won't you join me?

2007-05-29T18:15:00.001-04:00

On an incredible and unforgettable voyage in search of new lands, hidden treasure, terrific tales and fantastic adventures?

And in celebration. Because today is the first anniversary of my Etsy shop, and although I have not spent much time tending my shop in recent months, I am back - with something that came out of the blue and wraps up so many of my long-tucked-away childhood dreams in one.

I am pleased to announce the opening of:

located at paintandink.etsy.com.

All I wanted to do when I was a child was go places. I pored over maps for hours, sent away for travel brochures from places I'd never heard of, read National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveler from front to back, spent hours dreaming of becoming an explorer and a cartographer. What better way to live a life than to go all over the world, find new places and then make maps to tell everyone else?

But I grew older, and most people do, I deemed some dreams unreasonable and shelved them away in my mental attic while I went on to other activities. I got the impression at some point that there was nothing left to discover, really (something I realize now is somewhat untrue, even in the age of the amazing Google Earth, but I was convinced I was too late back then). Yet, I never lost my love for stories of explorers, discoverers, adventurers, pirates -- and for the maps they used in their exploits.

As I've grown older, I've realized that the most uncharted land of all is that of imagination. There will always be room for adventurers, explorers and dreamers to roam and discover freely. And there will always be a use for new maps.

So I put dip pen in ink and brush in watercolor these past weeks, and I present you with my maps of imaginary places. Treasure maps, journeying maps and maps of kingdoms filled with magic.

I have been so lucky that even as I changed my plans, my life has still been filled with incredible experiences, expeditions and countless journeys to amazing places. And of all the things I've done with my time, this cartographic project has been one of the most fulfilling, the most fun, the most joyous.

A few of my maps are already available on Etsy, and more, including a map of the Kingdom of Whimsy, will be up over the next few days. Please pass the word to those you know who might like to visit me at The Interimaginational Institute of Fantastical Exploration and Cartography. You'll need no luggage for this journey; just a good sense of adventure and a bit of spontaneity.

Self-Portrait

2007-04-13T11:39:00.001-04:00

From my last drawing lesson. Our instructor had us cover a paper with graphite, and then draw by erasing and using a pencil (9B) to add only the darkest shadows back in. I think it's a pretty good likeness of me. Better than any other self-portrait I've done.

Blockhead

2007-03-13T12:15:00.001-04:00

My Christmas cards started a fire. I've been working on various block prints this month, and this week, I made these, for assembly into cards:

and these:

I am so pleased with both of them and with the whole printing process. It's so different from painting, and I love it just as much, in a very different way.

I've been using thinned acrylic paint instead of inks, but today I went to Jerry's Artarama to get more rubber blocks and lino blocks to carve, and decided to try some water-soluble printing inks. This will be my first lino carving, too; I've been using Speedy-Stamp rubber sheets. I do believe the lino will be better for letters, as the rubber is so squishy that it smears the paint on smaller details (I think it would have been better if the paint were thinner, too). But the rubber is easier to carve away and I think the lino will be easier to carve into, so I expect to use them for different purposes.

I've been inspired lately by this book:

Handmade Prints

by Anne Desmet and Jim Anderson.

It's full of beautiful examples, many of which are simply stunning. It explains everything neatly and concisely, in a straightforward, matter-of-fact style, while not talking down to the reader (so many books these days assume the reader is either already an expert or in fifth grade) . And the authors make even the more complicated printing methods seem entirely possible and doable, and fun, to boot. Which is really why I like printing so much in the first place.

Getting Territorial

2007-02-15T13:53:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to announce that I have settled on a web hosting company, and registered a domain name, and will soon have a web site to call my own.

I will officially unveil my site address once I have something to show.

Practical Voyeurism

2007-02-05T08:02:00.003-05:00

Like many people, I think, I am fascinated (perhaps even obsessed), with other people's home offices and studios. Call it practical voyeurism. I look for tips and ideas and inspiration.

This morning, I just discovered Boss Lady and her Flickr pool, Women's Workplace Wednesdays (via Make It, a blog for craft entrepreneurs).

I might contribute, someday, when I get a working camera again. Sigh.

I've been soaking up pictures of Alicia Paulson's amazing studio in the February issue of Romantic Homes and the Spring issue of Better Homes and Gardens' Creative Home magazine. And now, there's even more pictures of her home in the next issue of Romantic Homes. Can't wait to pick up a copy.

And then there's my long-time favorite (well, long time in the blog world), On My Desk, which is a gift to the world from Linzie Hunter.

As for me, I've been scouring furniture sites, art supply sites, and office sites for the perfect studio furniture, and honestly? There's not a lot of options out there. At least not in my price range. I suppose furniture is like anything else, though. Follows a trend, and if you don't like the trend, well, tough. And white furniture, which I prefer in a small room like mine, just isn't big these days. But even beyond color, there don't seem to be a lot of super-functional options out there. I want a painting/drafting table and desk set that combine storage with attractiveness, and I really don't want all my supplies be out in the open (so no ladder desk), but I want everything to be close at hand. I also don't want to have to keep moving things out of the way every time I switch projects (Off the desk or table, yes. Out of reach, no).

Perhaps I should become a furniture designer just to get what I want. IN fact, once I get over my irrational fear of cutting my fingers off with the table saw, I might do just that. In the meantime, I am hoping to piece together a mish-mash studio that works.

Uh-Oh

2007-02-02T15:56:00.001-05:00

I've found a new place to spend money.

It's much, much closer to my house than A.C. Moore (which I still love and always will) and has amazing prices. It's almost all art supplies, instead of art and craft supplies mixed together. And it's got that urban warehouse-y feel, which just tickles my inner artistic fancy. It's just what I thought Virginia would never have. And it's only a 5-minute drive away.

How Embarrassing

2006-12-13T11:56:00.001-05:00

I mistyped my blog address in my email signature, switching the "s" and the "p" in "blogspot" and have inadvertently been sending countless people to a Mega Bible Studies site that seems to exist solely for people who mistype "blogspot."

My apologies for the inconvenience, and my kudos and gratitude to anyone who found there way here in spite of that. I've fixed it.

Up and About

2006-12-11T10:14:00.001-05:00

Being couch-bound has its advantages, and although it took me a while last week to accept that I had to just sit down and let myself convalesce, once I did, the week actually became pretty pleasant. I wrapped myself up in blankets, drank a lot of hot tea, hot chocolate and instant vanilla lattes, and drew.

I worked on cross-hatching, practicing what I learned in the drawing class Al and I took recently. The class, which was based on this book, brought together many of the ideas I had been exposed to in previous art classes, but this time everything sort of clicked. I learned to see differently. I learned how to put myself in a right-brain frame of mind. I learned how to draw what I see and not what I think I see. And as a result, I think that my drawings are fundamentally better; now it's a matter of putting in the hours to get my skills where I want them. And a lot of patience. Which I was forced to have this past week.

Now I am up and about, for the most part. Not yet at a hundred percent, but a lot better and glad for it. So I'll be working on getting some new designs up in the Cafe Press shop this week, I hope in time for last-minute Christmas shopping.

One thing down...

2006-12-06T11:33:00.001-05:00

I was hoping to catch up on some work this week, but the bronchitis is back and has bowled me over (how's that for alliteration?), so it's back to sleep it off for me. However, I did finish one commission this week for 40 Christmas cards, and I am quite pleased with them.

Up on the clothesline to dry:

I carved myself a new logo stamp (I like the irregular woodblock feel):

And added some aqua trim:

Tied them up, nice and pretty with the only ribbon I could find (my huge bag of ribbons has gone missing in the move back into the office. How this is possible, I do not know. Our house is not big):

Fortunately, I had some raffia too:

And there you have it. I'll be taking the package to the post office this afternoon. I am very pleased with that tag -- it was a spur-of-the-moment creation and I like it so much I am going to use the same design for new business cards.

I hope that I'll be able to get fully back into the swing of things by the end of this week. I'm itching to get back to work and I have two more commissions waiting in the wings (the commissioners of which have been very patient, and I thank them profusely).

Guess WHAT??!!

2006-12-01T14:20:00.001-05:00

I'm back in the studio. WHEW.

HOORAY!

Okay, so there are still a few last details left unfinished. Like outlet covers. But I could. not. wait. another. day. So we moved all the furniture back in, and I am happily ensconced in a room that is visually much warmer and more inviting that I could have dreamed when we began the project, even without outlet covers (and curtain rods). All I really thought we were going to do was raise the foundation and get rid of that nasty paneling. Instead, we created something very special.

Many thanks to the people who helped us along the way, to family and friends who have been so understanding and forgiving while my brain has been dust-clogged, and to all of you have been so encouraging and interested in the goings-on. You all made it much easier and more pleasant to endure.

And of course, a very big thank you to my husband, Al, who, after all, raised a house all by himself.

Finally, a special shout-out to Gus the Cat, who was shut up in various rooms in the house throughout the process, and still manages to purr when I pick him up.

So....

This was my office/studio on Friday, October 13:

(Should have turned the light on for this one. Sorry.)

With the furniture in, it looks exactly the same on camera, but it actually doesn't in person-- this camera with its overbearing flash does not do this room justice -- but Al and I have been discussing getting new furniture, anyway, perhaps a corner ensemble that will work as both computer desk and painting table to go in this corner.

In the meantime, I tried different arrangements to see if I could keep the cat off the painting table on his way to look out the windows, but to no avail. The furniture just wouldn't fit any other way (the room is only 9 feet by 9 feet). So I gave in.

And here's my new storage cabinet where I wanted to put it originally. It is covered in the sheet music for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and I was careful that the very first page in the upper left corner be the beginning of "Ode to Joy," because I think every piece of furniture should bring a little joy:

And where it ended up, across the room (all nine feet of it):

I will post more detailed pictures and different angles, along with before shots of the cabinet, which are worth seeing, in a separate post soon.

Seeing Stars Again

2006-11-21T12:26:00.001-05:00

My first bit of press. So exciting. Many thanks to Jules of ikea hacker.

My full directions for this project are here...

Yesterday, I realized there was one more thing in the office left undone, so I drywalled the closet... (cue music now)... All By Myself. I am so proud of my inner contractor. Now I have only to primer and paint the closet, and together we must cut and paint the molding and trim for the room, and hang a few shelves... and then we're done. The holiday weekend and impending obligations may or may not interfere, but I think we're in single digits now, so that I should still be back in the office by the beginning of next week. What a relief it will be to really get back to work, and to have all of my supplies at my fingertips again.

Not to mention having the rest of the house back from its current state as storage facility.

So close...

2006-11-20T08:01:00.001-05:00

We finished laying the floor last night and now we have only to cut and paint molding and window trim and put up outlet covers, etc. We'll most likely do this on Friday, and I should be back in the studio before the weekend is over. I am so excited.

The floor looks absolutely gorgeous.

Of course, now I'll need new furniture. I'm refinishing one storage item right now, about which I am very, very excited. I'll post pictures of that when it's in place.

Next, once we have all of the debris out of the garage, I want to build a custom painting table. Since I have no experience building furniture (if you don't count trying to make a prefab desk that didn't work, work), I want to keep it as simple as possible for now, so I think I will start with something like this. I'd like to add another drawer and I'd like to extend the top out further so it is more of a desk than a table. But I like the basics of it very much and it will give me an excuse to use the new miter saw and the table saw I talked Al into buying (as if he needed that much persuading... but he was trying to stick to the budget while I just kept insisting it would pay for itself. I think it already has.).

Out of the Box

2006-11-14T14:13:00.001-05:00

My mom said to me on a recent visit, "I wish I were creative like you."

I know for a fact that my mother is creative -- I've seen evidence of it in her home. And I believe everyone is creative naturally, but some people just don't know how to access that creativity.

So I decided to give my mom some tools to jump-start her creativity and I concocted a gift for her:

A Creativity Toolbox

I put a quote in the bottom of the box by Wassily Kandinsky:
There is no must in art because art is free.

I raided my own stash of supplies for sequins, embroidery thread, and other embellishments. I added new paints, brushes and a palette tray.

I picked out some fun and pretty papers:

And then I made her a guidebook.

I threw in some more quotes from famous artists and added some tips on how to be creative:

And I made up some "rules."

I don't know if she'll ever use it, but I think she really liked it.

Oh, Starry Table, how I love thee

2006-11-09T13:55:00.001-05:00

I am delighted and honored that Jules of Ikea Hacker invited me to write up the instructions for my star table. They are a little long, but they are in reality very simple, and I hope, inspiring. This is the project that, ahem, ruined me. That is, I cannot look at a piece of furniture anymore without wondering how I can make it better, more interesting, or totally mine.

This was my first decoupage project ever and I did it on the fly with a few materials I was given for free. I just did it because I thought I could. I didn’t do a lot of research into decoupage, nor did I worry too much about the process as I was doing it. Since then, I have tried a variety of decoupage techniques, but I find the simpler, the better, and I tend to use these very same steps. I am always learning, though.

The table was a hand-me-down from someone who purchased it at Ikea, but I can’t find it any longer on the Ikea site and, sadly, I’m too far away to go look for myself. But these techniques should work with any wood furniture. If you're really attached to the furniture and/or a perfectionist, you may wish to practice on something else first.

Supplies needed:

table and chairs, sandpaper, paper cutouts to be decoupaged, gesso, acrylic paints, glue (Mod Podge or other decoupage glue), polyurethane, brushes

The simple steps:

1. Take everything apart and sand the wood.

2. Cover with gesso and then paint.

3. Glue paper shapes to the painted surfaces with mod podge.

4. Varnish with many layers of polyurethane.

The detailed steps:

Preparation:

1. Unscrew table top from base and chair seats from frames.

2. Lay the table top and seats on a tarp or other okay-to-get-paint-on-it surface.

3. Sand wood lightly.

Painting:

4. Cover all to-be-painted surfaces with gesso.

(If you’re unfamiliar with gesso, it’s acrylic primer found in art/craft stores and pronounced “jesso,” as I learned when I had to buy it the first time for myself and asked for “gesso” with a hard “g.” In my opinion, you don’t need expensive gesso, paint or brushes for this project. Buy them cheap. I used the cheap black foam brushes and threw them away when I was done.)

5. Paint all to-be-painted surfaces with as many coats as you need to achieve the hue you want. Let dry between each coat, unless you want to blend colors, in which case, apply the colors at the same time.

(I used only blue and red on this. I painted the underside of the table and chair seats red and let them dry. Then I painted the top surfaces with both colors: I mixed the blue and red on a tray to make purple, then blotched together red, blue and purple on the table, and blended them to get the look I wanted. I also went for a scratchy look, which has been great as I've moved the table from place to place - any dings looks sort of intentional. To know the drying time for each coat of gesso, paints, glue and polyurethane, read the manufacturer’s instructions.)

Decoupage:

6. Cut out the paper pieces while the paint dries.

(I cut these stars out of wrapping paper. I really like using wrapping paper, because it’s so thin that, if you get bubbles as the paper gets wet with glue, you can sort of crush them out with your hand. You will usually end up with a crinkly effect, but I like that look, and at the end, the finish will make the whole table very smooth to the touch. If you want it to look and be smooth from the start, try heavier paper and carefully smooth it out from the inside to the outer edge. If you use magazine cutouts, be warned that the text or images on the back might be visible through the paper.)

7. Spread Mod Podge or some other decoupage glue over the surface in a thin but total layer. Lay the paper pieces on the table in the arrangement you want. Spread another thin layer of the glue/podge on top of the paper pieces. Let that dry.

(If you do see bubbles you don’t want after the glue dries, the recommended technique is to cut a tiny “x” with a craft knife and push a little glue down there before putting the “x” back together so that the edges of the x overlap. I have tried this with mixed results. As for the glue, different decoupagers have their favorite products, such as wallpaper paste, spray adhesives and others. I like Mod Podge, and have not had any problems with it)

The crinkly effect:

Finish:

8. Finally, I coated everything with three or four thin layers of polyurethane. This is the part of the process that takes the longest, because of drying times between coats.

(I used Anita’s Water Clean-Up Polyurethane and found that an 8 oz. jar was more than enough for this one project, but you can buy a gallon of polyurethane at a paint store if you like. The very best thing about this finish is that every time I’ve discovered a water ring or such on the table, I have just brushed another coat of polyurethane on the table and the mark has gone away.)

9. I recommend waiting at least 24 hours to use it even if the whole thing is dry to the touch.

Almost Finished...

2006-11-08T17:08:00.001-05:00

Well, the delay in finishing the studio/office renovations has lengthened by weeks thanks to Other Things Happening, but we have been working as hard as we can, and we are so close to being done, I can smell it. Oh, wait, that's the glue I'm smelling.

The last drywall screw goes in. Whew. I'm not saying I wouldn't hang drywall again. But I'm glad this batch is done.

This was before we realized the drywall tape really wasn't staying down.

So we had to come up with a solution. And that was to make stucco! I like stucco. Stucco reminds me of California, which I miss every day. Now I have California inside. This is just the beginning of the finish, before the textured paint was added.

This is after -- and the best shot I have with a realistic depiction of "Honey Moon." Ah, so rich and warm and buttery and honey-like. And it has no lead in it, so if I get hungry, I can lick the walls. Which I might do. I like the paint that much.

There are tremendous benefits to being married to an electrician. One, he can teach me to do cool things, like installing outlets (me being a girl who shocked herself installing an extra phone jack). Two, if I don't feel like risking life and limb playing with wires, he'll do it. Thank you, honey.

The ceiling fan has a remote. Amazing. Of course, our ceilings are so low, I can touch them while barely even reaching, and the chain for the ceiling fan nearly brushes my head. But just in case my arm hurts, there's a remote.

I don't think this looks like me, but I do think I look skinny in this picture, so I'll keep it.

Down goes the first row.

On Day One of floor-laying, we learned that two humongous tubes of glue don't go very far. We had to stop and then buy a CASE of glue tubes the next day.

This is where we are now. The last few rows have to be mitered to fit in with the strangely angled staircase, so we had to call it quits for the day. And now our plans will be postponed again as we must go out of town this weekend. But we're almost done.

A complete set of photos can be found here. These aren't for the faint-hearted. There are 69 of them.

Experiments in Interdependence

2006-11-07T07:52:00.001-05:00

Leave well enough alone? Oh, guess what. I am not capable of that. I must always tweak and alter and change.

So I am adding a blog to the RadioGirl web site family (and hope very soon to have one ring to rule them all... oh, sorry... I meant, one main web site with my own domain to be RadioGirl Headquarters... I'm working on it now).

Anyway, as I was saying, this new blog, I am RadioGirl, will be an offshoot of this "professional" blog, RadioGirl Designs. I am sometimes extremely disorganized, and sometimes organized to the point of overdoing it (overcompensation, you know), but in the long run, I think it will be easier if I keep the "random-thoughts-dreams-opinions-hilarious discoveries" and the "professional" stuff connected but still independent from each other... or perhaps the best word is interdependent.

It may become a bit of a hassle to maintain two blogs (three, actually, if you include my husband's and my personal blog, which is entirely separate), but I am looking forward to the challenge. This move will free me to write about things that I do want to share with others, but don't necessarily feel fit perfectly here on RadioGirl Designs. That is... this is the show, and that's

It's an experiment. One of my all-time favorite words. An experiment in interdependence.

(and if you pop over there now, you can read the story of the RadioGirl name...)

One exception to this separation of material will be the continuing renovation of my studio/office, which is very nearly done. I promise I will post more pictures here soon. Today, I hope. It looks amazing - better than I ever dreamed - and it is still visibly incomplete. I am bubbling with excitement and anticipation of how it will look when finished.

By the letters S and W

2006-10-30T10:49:00.001-05:00

S is for scrapbooking

When I lived in Germany in 1991 and Prague in 1995, I kept scrapbooks, one in each place. They were pretty simple. This was shortly before the explosion of scrapbooking as a serious hobby (or perhaps, the re-explosion), and although I decorated the pages a bit, my focus really was on keeping a visual record of what I did while I was in those places, to supplement my journals, as opposed to making intricate layouts. And I'm glad I have them, because they do help me remember. Maybe one of these days I will post some pictures.

In the meantime, however, you can take a look at the scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery, one of my two very favorite authors (the other is Madeleine L'Engle).

W is for work, writing and walls

Today I go back to work on a freelance writing job, so my entries may or may not be sporadic.

The office hit another snag this weekend, but one which I believe we solved. We primed the walls and still found that we could see the drywall tape through the walls and it looked awful. So we came up with a solution which I think is beautiful but which took us an extra day to implement. Pictures to come. Now we are on track to prime tonight, paint tomorrow and, I hope, lay the hardwood flooring over the next week, in pieces each evening after we are both finished work. Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and encouragement!

Welcome...

2006-10-30T09:22:00.001-05:00

... to my little sister, Olivia, born October 29, 2006.

I look forward to building a great friendship across the 31 years that divide us.

Love,
Alison

Glue Ikea to Art

2006-10-28T17:30:00.001-04:00

Take a look at this:

This to That

Wish I'd known that existed a lot sooner. And what a perfectly named web site.

And this:

Ikea Hacker

which makes me very happy. I've "hacked" much furniture, but the table below is one of the things that I know came from Ikea originally (although I wasn't the one who made the purchase; it was a hand-me-down, but I was the one who decoupaged it). I actually miss Ikea for the little things and cheap curtains, a lot, even though I swore I'd never buy Ikea furniture again after a certain disaster with a should-have-been-beautiful desk.

I adore this table, though. It is my single favorite piece of furniture that I own.

I can't get the dust out of my clothes.

2006-10-23T16:18:00.001-04:00

Sometime soon, I will be back in my "honey moon"-painted painting (and everything else) studio, and I hope to bring you REAL befores and afters then, but here's what we've done so far.

The 9 days we had set aside to fix our foundation, gut the office/studio and refinish it, and replace the bathroom floor have passed, and we have accomplished ALMOST everything we intended to do. We would most likely be done -- we were two days ahead at one point -- but I got very sick early on, and missed about two days, and was only at 50 percent for another day or two.

Here's a sample of our progress. The rest of the photos are here.

At the beginning, there was a cart. And then there were five carts.

Who says punching your fist through a wall isn't fun?

This, times five thousand, came out of our ceiling and off our walls.

I thought I would never want to see this avocado green linoleum from the bathroom again, but now I gleefully stare at the photo and shout, "You are GONE! Bye-bye!"

This is the hole Al cut in the floor to ease the pouring of the concrete to support the new foundation posts. Yeah, that bathrug? It didn't survive. That's okay. The bathroom is next on the list to be renovated from top to bottom, and we'll get a nice one, then.

Here's Al with some of his handiwork. Do you SEE how nice that new beam/floor joist/whatever-it's-called is? Do you KNOW how nice it is to have a level floor where once there was a four-inch difference across the room and every time I took a bath, I was certain the tub would crash through the rotted floor in the middle of the bath?

All hail my husband, the lifter of houses.

This is how we intended to tile the floor. And I still think it would have been lovely. But even after all that work and the pouring of leveling compound, the bathroom floor still is a bit wavy, and we decided the tiles would crack too easily.

So we did this instead.

And all that time I was afraid to carry the boxes of tile, for fear I'd drop one and the tiles would crack into a thousand tiny little pieces. (The grout still needs to be cleaned up a bit, but it will be a while before the bathroom is totally renovated, anyway). By the way, that's our new toilet. It flushes with just one finger. Not only that, but the seat is a fancy schmancy seat, and if you tap it ever so lightly, it closes ever so slowly, all by itself. I spent a good 15 minutes tapping it and watching the seat go down with a quiet whisper, whoooooooooooooosh, and I am not ashamed to admit that.

When the ceiling in the office came down, we learned that the attic floorboards above are made of recycled materials:

I left the packing list there for the discovering pleasure of anyone who might someday redo this office again.

This was the first piece of drywall to go up:

Then followed many days of effort -- sweat, tears, frustration and satisfaction -- with a little help from my friends (sorry, it's the only photo I've got, Laurie and Jess):

Here's me, measuring drywall with my 24-year-old big yellow Brownie pencil (I knew I would need it someday), right about where my painting chair used to be:

And yesterday, last night around 7, precisely, Al put the last piece of drywall in (well, not technically, because there's a small piece to put in the closet after all the flooring comes out of there, but it certainly FELT like the last piece to me):

So, what did we accomplish?

We gutted the office, raised the foundation (which involved much concrete pouring and heavy lifting on Al's part), replaced the bathroom floor, leveled the floors (150 square feet?) with leveling compound, tiled the bathroom floor, installed a new toilet (worthy of an entire blog entry in istelf), and put up new drywall in the office.

We still must: tape, mud, prime and paint the drywall in the office, put up the new ceiling fan-light fixture in the office (if, that is, the ceiling isn't too low), and install our new bamboo wood flooring in the office and hallway.

I apologize to anyone who has emailed or called in the last week and is waiting to hear back from me. Please bear with me. We'll be working in the evenings for the rest of this week, too, and probably next weekend, and then, we hope, we can put all the furniture back in place, and get back to a semblance of normal life. Until, that is, we renovate the bathroom.

Status Report

2006-10-19T07:17:00.001-04:00

This was my office/studio on Friday:

This is a slightly older but wider shot:

This was my office on Saturday morning (Al stuck the hammer between some of the nails I used to hang drying paintings):

This was the office Sunday night:

This is the office this morning, with leveling compound laid down on the floor:

I have been pretty sick for the past two and a half days, and unable to help Al much, which put us back some, but I think we'll be catching up now. And many thanks go to my friend Laurie, who not only helped us demolish and clean on multiple days, but came over last night to make me chicken soup from scratch:

So...

2006-10-14T12:10:00.001-04:00

So our house is about to fall down, so we will be using this week to jack up our house, so we spent quite a bit of money at Home Depot last night, so we filled five carts of stuff (like 16 sheets of drywall, plywood, 5 gallons of paint, two jacks, 4x4s and 2x4s, 7 cases of bamboo flooring, a brand new miter saw and so on), so we are going to refinish the office/studio, too, since we might as well, so we have emptied the office, so the computer will be disconnected temporarily.

But I have set up shop in the dining room, so I should be able to keep painting and I should be able to get back on the computer soon, so I should be able to post pictures, perhaps, so you all might or might not hear from me in the next week.

But it will all be worth it to have a studio painted in "Honey Moon." Gotta love a paint called that. AND there will be THREE electrical outlets when we're done. Even more worth it. Hoooooray, renovations!

Mmm, my lucky day!

2006-10-13T12:05:00.001-04:00

So it's Friday the 13th. Good things have always seemed to happen to me on Friday the 13th.

And today, I have good news... yay! There's more fun stuff up in the Etsy shop... five new quote plaques and a painting...

All the Wonders (in green), 5"x7"

Always Green, 8"x10"

Christmas-specific hangings will be up very, very soon. I am working away at them right now and having a blast!

And there's also some new stuff in the Cafe Press shop: a set of clocks of which I am very, very proud:

Also... this so exciting to me, I feel like I am going to start giggling maniacally at any second... I just received my order from Cafe Press of a few of my designs:

These are the Bar Harbor postcards... I took this picture while there on a shoot a few years ago and I've loved Maine ever since... good thing, too, since I have family roots there:

This is the Lake Tahoe Journal, taken at Emerald Bay by a Bristlcone pine (certainly one of my favorite trees at absolutely my favorite place in the whole world, and someday, someday, maybe I will be able to live there and drive a Subaru like everyone who already lives there). I am so amazed that I can now write in a journal with my own photograph on the front:

And most exciting of all, I think, are the clothes:

That sweatshirt is one of the most comfortable items of clothing I have ever put on. So soft and warm and cozy, like a portable fireplace! The shirt, on the other hand, is a bit small. Somewhere between a small and a medium (or a small-and-a-half, you might say), even though it's supposed to be a large (good thing I ordered a large, since I normally wear mediums). I'm a little disappointed, and might take it out of the store, but I do love it so, anyway. If you do, too, just be sure to order at least one size larger than normal.

And while we're on the subject of shopping, I normally hate, hate, hate shopping. With one exception: shopping for art supplies. So, two days ago, I took a jaunt to the fabric store and came home with all these treasures to use in displaying my wares (you can see I used one for the journal backdrop).

I am so delighted by these fabrics.... they are sweet and spicy and drinkable all at once.
And I got some Christmas fabric too, for those things I'm working on now:

I am a little concerned about the way my camera has been moiring things lately; I don't have the slightest idea why it does it with some and not others, but I imagine it has something to do with the all-powerful, overwhelming, could-light-the-way-for-a-train-in-a-tunnel, blinding flash. I'm always trying new ways of shooting with it to compensate for that flash, though, so I'll just keep trying. Please forgive when the pictures look a little strange.

In the meantime, here's wishing you all a wonderful, delightful and very lucky Friday the 13th!

A Must See Site

2006-07-11T22:53:00.001-04:00

Be Jackson Pollock. Go on. Check it out. It's fabulous. Great for destressing.

Found through StumbleUpon, which is either one of the greatest things I've ever downloaded or one of the worst (for concentration, that is). Either way, it's one of the most entertaining, sometimes exhilarating and often overwhelming, but always delightful, things I've ever downloaded.