Crocheted Hat

Here's a snapshot of the hat I made my brother Tom for Christmas.  I told him it was going to be charcoal gray and asked what he'd like the coordinating color to be.  Naturally, he said green.  We Hurleys like green!  I used this pattern to get started (it's just your basic hat), but I made it extra long so that even when it's cuffed, it covers his ears.  He lives in a cold, wintry state now & I want him to have cozy ears!  It's kind of hard to see the cuff in this photo -- but it's there.  I did about 5 rows in green & the last row in gray.  When it's cuffed, that last row blends in nicely with the top of the hat. 

Elephant Cloud

Saw this cloud the other day & snapped a pic (no, I wasn't driving-while-photographing).  It looks like an elephant, right?  I love scanning the clouds for interesting shapes.  Like a Rorschach, I'm sure that what you see in the clouds relates to your emotional state or your psyche in general.  I often see animals in the clouds.  What does seeing an elephant say about me, I wonder? 

Robot Love

I'm so happy with the Valentines I made this year.  SO HAPPY!  Aren't they adorable?  

[Robots Need Love, Too!  I love it when their little heads cock over to one side]

This was quite an experiment.  As you can see, the robots are articulated, which means that all the joints move.  First, I tried to attach the joints using eyelets, but that was a massive failure.  I consulted with my friends, Michelle & Jody, and they suggested brads -- which worked perfectly!  These are super-tiny brads and they were so much easier to push through layers of thick paper than the eyelets (which proved quite frustrating).  The big heart in the center is also a brad.  I pushed that one through the card itself to attach the robot to the card (clever, right?)  All the other brads just connect robot parts, but don't go through the card. 

First, I made patterns for the robot's pieces.  Then I traced the parts and cut them out of silver cardstock.  This was very time consuming.  As a result, I only had time to make five cards.  FIVE!  They are precious, people! 

In the interest of full-disclosure, I should say that I found the basic design for my robot on-line -- but that design was screenprinted and one-dimensional. It was my idea to cut out all the elements separately and attach them so they would move. Also, I didn't sell these cards and I don't think it's a big deal to use aspects of another design so long as you're not selling it.   If I decide to sell robot cards in the future, I will make my own robot all together.

Strangely enough, of the five I sent, three people didn't realize I had made them.  Next time, I will definitely affix a label on the back.  I must say, I was so excited when I put them in the mail.  Just giddy with excitement!

15 Artists in 15 Minutes

This is something a friend invited me to do on Facebook.  You take 15 minutes to name 15 artists who've influenced you.  I had so much fun thinking about it.  One artist's name led to another, usually with an "Oooooh!  I love her stuff.... Reminds me of his stuff...."  Sometimes, an artist's name would pop into my head, but I'd think "Well, I like his work, but I don't think it really influences my stuff...."  Like Rothko or Klimt.  I love both of them, but not sure I can say they've influenced me.  Maybe on some level, but I didn't include them on my list.  Here are my 15 in 15 (in no particular order).  Feel free to leave yours in the comments!

Andy Warhol
Vincent Van Gogh
Michelangelo
Mary Cassatt
Edward Hopper
Georgia O’Keeffe
Ansel Adams
Richard Avedon
Life Magazine Photographers
Picasso
Katsushika Hokusai
Utagawa “Ando” Hiroshige
Linnea Designs (Linnea Asplind Riley, her daughter Johanna Riley; & Johanna Kriesel)
Norman Rockwell
My Mother

When I thought of "artists" I considered artists whose work is typically done on paper -- like watercolors, oils, acrylics, photography, block prints, and graphic design.  You should, of course, consider any artist who inspires you.  Here's a brief little bit on a few of the artists on my list:

Andy Warhol, as you may know, is one of my favorite people, to say nothing of being a favorite artist.  I highly recommend his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again).  

Andy Warhol came of age along with television.  He was fascinated with fame and the creation of celebrity -- oh, how he would have loved this age of "reality" TV!   Andy also understood the power of television to desensitize us to catastrophe -- something we still grapple with today.  His series "16 Jackies" is a perfect example of  this.  He painted several portraits of Jackie Kennedy from that grief-filled November when her husband was assassinated.  Some are of her smiling that morning in Dallas; others of her somber, veil-covered face during the funeral procession.  Andy's aim was to portray this event on canvas like a film strip flickering by -- repetitive, something you could pause or rewind and watch again and again until it no longer hurt.  "I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning," he said.  He's right.  Every year in September, we're bombarded with images from 9.11.2001, and I think we are inured to it.  It's not as visceral as it was that day -- in part because of time, but mostly because  that video runs on an endless loop for days and days....  After awhile, you just change the channel.

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(Andy Warhol, 16 Jackies, 1964)

Just a note about Andy's soup cans.  My father doesn't "get" them.  A lot of people don't.  The thing is: A lot of people didn't "get" Monet, either.  "Why paint lily pads and flowers?  I see them everyday."  That's why he was called an Impressionist -- he painted his impression of the world around him.  Andy's the same.  He painted the world around him -- and that included soup cans.  As far as I'm concerned, he's a Mid-Century Modern Impressionist as much as anything else.


(Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Can Display, 1964)

Andy Warhol was a gentle soul, and a rare case in that he was lucky enough to experience artistic fame during his own lifetime.  Very, very few artists ever achieve fame from their art during their lifetimes.  Picasso is another example of one who did; Van Gogh is a very famous example of one who did not. 



When it comes to Picasso, I love his sketches.  I do not particularly like his portraits of women from his cubist period -- but I love his sketches.  They're like haikus; stripped down to the most essential elements of the object at hand.  Pure poetry.


(Picasso, Le Papillon (The Butterfly) )



(Picasso, Le Hibou (The Owl) )

Van Gogh painted with such passion.  He wore his heart on his sleeve and it was impossible for him not to exhibit his emotional state through his paintings.  I love that.  He was a gentle soul, too.  Tormented, but gentle.  I think Don McLean got it right in his song "Vincent" with lyrics like "...and when no hope was left in sight on that starry, starry night, you took your life as lovers often do; But I could have told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you...."  Ah, it makes my heart ache!  I wish I knew him, because I would have been a friend to him.  I'm not so arrogant as to think that would have prevented his suicide, but I like to think I would have offered him some comfort.  Vincent was very close to his brother Theo.  That's a connection we share, because I'm very close to my brothers, too.  Theo would send Vincent money, hook him up with jobs (when possible) and generally looked after him.  In fact, some say Theo, who died just six months after Vincent, did so from the grief of losing his beloved brother.  They're buried next to each other.  There's poetry in that, too, don't you think? 

(Graves of Vincent and Theo Van Gogh, in Auvers-sur-Oise.  Photo here)

Hokusai & Hiroshige -- I'm in awe of their block prints. Having done a few myself, I cannot believe the intricate matrices they created, designs with such rich & extraordinary detail because it is hard to carve wood!  Have you tried?  It is hard!  I use Soft-Cut, which is like carving an egg white -- much, much easier than wood. 

(Hokusai, The Great Wave, circa 1831. Note the way in which Mt. Fuji acts as a calming foil against the ferocious wave.  It sits slightly off-center on the horizon; a stable, equilateral triangle anchoring the print.)

Norman Rockwell was such an immense talent, but he didn't get the respect he deserved until much later.  Many wrote him off as "just an illustrator."  But he was certainly an artist.  I love his Triple Self-Portrait.  It's clever, to be sure, but it also reveals much about him -- including the artists who influenced him.  Tacked up along the corner of the easel are works by Van Gogh, Picasso... is that a Rembrandt?   His scenes of an idyllic America tug at our collective heartstrings -- not because they're nostalgic -- but because they epitomize the America we still hope to realize.

(Norman Rockwell, Triple Self-Portrait, 1960)

Oh, Knit!

I’ve taught myself how to knit! Can you believe it? I’m totally shocked. At first, I wasn’t sure I was really doing it. I needed to repeat the experiment, so I knitted a couple more squares (I use them as coasters) and, yes indeed, I can knit! Well, the garter stitch is all I know, but that’s a start!

I found the illustrations in this book to be supremely helpful. It was a gift from my brother Tom, so thanks, lil’bro! I know I’ve only been knitting for about 36 hours, but I think I found an error in the instructions for binding off a regular knit stitch. Just saying. Vogue editors, feel free to gimme a call before you publish the next edition and I’ll give you the details.

(Photo from Amazon.com)

I want to make this adorable baby blanket.  The free pattern, courtesy of Lion Brand Yarns, is here.

(photo from Lion Brand Yarn.com)

Knitting does take awhile, so I might make a quilt instead. I'll let you know what I decide.  Truly, though, all I really want to knit is an adorable baby sweater and some striped socks for myself.  After that, I may be done with knitting.  I think I’ll need lessons on those items, though. Knitting-in-the-Round seems über-complicated. 

Still, very excited to be working on my 4th garter stitched coaster square!

Inspiration Journals (Inspiros)

I clip images from catalogs and magazines compulsively. Eventually, my clippings are incorporated in one of my Inspiration Journals ("Inspiro Journos" to those “in the know”; “Inspiro” to those who are on a first-name basis with one). Anything from a beautiful art piece to a funny t-shirt, if it speaks to me, it gets clipped. Really, it’s quite an honor.

I loosely organize my clippings in categorized envelopes (think, “Jewelry”, “Motifs”, “Project Ideas”, "Art", “Interior Design”) , and all those envelopes are kept in my InspiroTote. I also keep my supplies in the bag, too. These include several sheets of black cardstock, tape, glue, pencils, pens, brads, a ruler, and precision point scissors. Oh, and the Inspiro Journo, too.

I take each clipping and mount it to a piece of black cardstock with glue or double-stick tape. Then I affix the mounted piece to a page in the Inspiro Journo. It’s quite a process, but design aesthetics are very important to me even when creating something as deceptively simple as a clippings repository. I want them to look nice.

I like to keep individual projects corralled in their own tote bag or cubby box, and with all this gear, my Inspiro Tote needs to be nice and roomy. The Inspiro Tote has come to be known as my B’BOD: Big Bag of Destruction (prounounced BEE'Bod). Originally, the “D” was for “distraction”, but destruction works, too. I highly recommend one for each and every one of you craftistas & artistas out there.

Here are some photos from recent Inspiros. The first clippings I put in the journal without the cardstock backing. Just glued’em and sticked’em to the page -- and they look terrible. That’s when I started mounting the clippings to cardstock.

Some of the pages have fancy fold-outs, like this one. The left page contains a list of all art pieces contained in the fold-out & the artist’s names, like a reference guide.  The right page actually unfolds to reveal six additional panels, which is a great way to present lots of thematically-linked clippings without using additional pages.  In this case, the theme was "art".  Another fold-out (not picutred here) is for "vintage posters". 

Some clippings are affixed with a brad, so it can be rotated to reveal something underneath (usually an artist’s name or the catalog entry so I know where to find the item later).  I used a sweet little green flower brad here, to echo "Daisy Face".  And how great are those designs? They're both by Alexander Girard.



Some of the pages have pockets:

In this case, I used a pocket because the Andy Warhol item on the right page is double-sided, and I wanted to be able to remove it to see both quotes. 

I love Andy Warhol.  The left page was from O Magazine, but my Inspiro is significantly smaller than O Magazine.  So I made a cardstock plate for the quote, cut out my favorite part of the image, and sort of "remodeled" it so it would fit. 

In terms of design, these Andy Warhol pages are my favorite. 
 
Here are some pages with project ideas that inspire me:


(Quilted & embellished postcards, something I've long wanted to try)



(Crocheted creatures, dolls, & animals)

(Whimsical block prints (maybe screen prints, actually))

Lots of pages in my current Inspiro relate to interior design, which I love.  How great is this kitchen?



(William Goldberg's stunning Ashoka cut diamonds and a serene bedroom)



Often times, I clip images simply because they evoke something in me.  Sometimes, it's a memory or a connection to something else, as in this photograph of row boats on the beach.  Reminds of a piece Van Gogh did, which I'm privileged enough to have seen in a museum. 



Or this shirt, which was photographed so masterfully.  It's sheer & I love the embroidered details.  The amber light streaming through gives it a luminous quality that can't possibly exist in reality or when it's being worn by a model.

And who doesn't dream of having a tree house hideaway? 

I typically affix the clippings to the pages, and after several are complete I go back & write a quick note about each clipping in the journal.  To an outsider, the clippings and the journals seem like a lot of craziness, but to me, it's great fun.  I love to go back and look at the pages, because they constantly inspire & motivate me to create.  

(Of course, it helps if you have a sweet Kitty to help you, too!)



The A-List: Alice's Favorite Tote Bag

This is the fabulous tote I designed!


This was the first tote I’ve made with this pattern, and even though it was super simple, I’m still tweaking it. As soon as I’m done refining the pattern, I’ll post it here.  The tote is about 16" wide, 14" tall and 6" deep.  This one has a handle, but I'm making one for my mom with a shoulder strap.  I'll include info on both options in the pattern, and maybe a button closure or zipper, too.  [NOTE: Zippers scare me!  I'm no good at putting them in!]

I love the fabric I used, which was from my stash (although I’m 99% sure it’s Waverly).  The exterior is this wonderful terracotta-apricot with sun-yellow flowers. The inside is a coordinating stripe, with two simple pockets on each side.  It's hard to see in this photo, but that pocket is actually sewn in the middle -- so there are two pockets.  Each is big enough for a cell phone, but also for pens & pencils, an iPod, a small camera, a deck of cards, a tape measure….whatever you want to tote.

This tote is very roomy. I’m using it for my Inspiro Journo project right now, which I’ll tell you more about soon.  It will also make a great farmers’ market bag, diaper bag, or travel bag -- and it’s washable.  I like using home decorator fabrics for totes & purses because they have a nice weight and they've usually been treated with stain repellent so they're easier to keep clean.