chevron curtain

I recently made a few curtains for my house, after realizing that those mini shower-rod-esque expandable poles were only $3 each at Home Depot.  Now, I know exactly how leaky all the windows are.  This is my favorite curtain behind my prized succulent collection.  Right now I really feel this is the best looking part of my entire house (sans the water bottles and spray bottle...).  

Making the pattern for the Faux Fur Bear Hide / progress shots

I had a lot of trouble making the bear head pattern, which is interesting because I don't remember having too much difficulty making the coyote pattern.  I had to try three different bear head patterns before I got the final one.  I use foam rugshells/head forms that I buy from a taxidermy website to make the patterns.  I started off trying to sculpt the animal's head, and then make a pattern off of that but not only did that take forever but I feel like I wouldn't have gotten as accurate results.  The foam bear head is specifically a grizzly bear head- and a small one at that - but it's still HUGE!

The final pattern taped to the head.  I go through a lotttt of computer paper in this process.

Turning the paper pattern into a more permanent pattern on thin cardboard. I also test out the pattern by making a head out of less valuable fabric first.  You can see my tester in the background of this picture, made out of an old sheet.

The coyote and bear head.

The incomplete head laid on top of the foam head, just to see how it might look.  The foam head isn't used in the final skin.  They are stuffed.

For every animal, I have to look at photos of skulls and teeth and draw the teeth.  Each set of teeth is specific to the animal.  I don't use the same teeth for the wolves that I used on the bear.  I really like playing the researcher and drawing the top and bottom sets of teeth.

Faux Fur Bear Hide

My biggest and manliest faux fur hide yet!   So far this is my favorite so far.  It can be seen and is for sale on my etsy shop, here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/123931479/grizzly-brown-bear-faux-fur-hide-skin

Mason - my new/only/first dog!

 So I got my very first dog about one month ago!  I've only waited my entire life to get a dog!  And this is a real good one!  His favorite thing to do is lay down and be a couch potato.  He's a schnauzer mix and is 3 years old.  He's really unique looking and has a full beard and mane that get him lots of compliments.  I got him from Hopeful Hearts Dog Rescue in Wilmington, DE, but he is a rescue originally from Taiwan.  He lived in Taiwan up until about 6 months ago.  I gave Joan Chen, one of the people that runs Hopeful Hearts Rescue, this drawing of him the day I adopted him as a gift.

Mason drawing, 10" x 8", graphite on bristol paper, 2012.

This is a photo Joan took of Mason, her wire-haired rescue Daisy (who loved to stand on you so you were forced to give her pets because you couldn't get up), and myself.

 Mason with Alec, my boyfriend's mom's shepard/husky mix.

Now I get to vacuum up faux and real hair every week!

Blown Up Cross Section Drawing

I made a series of 14 cross section drawings for the construction of the bison model and final life-sized bison sculpture. For my solo show, I blew up the tallest, widest cross section drawing using an overhead projector.  I even transfered my disorderly notes to myself and my scratchy 5th-grade-boy handwriting.  I used this gigantic piece of graphite to draw the whole thing.  It gave the feel of a single (albeit gigantic) pencil line.  

 The only wall that was clear of a lot of hanging pictures and furniture was where we usually keep the trash can in the kitchen.

Here it is at my show. The actual cross section is now 76" tall, which is the height of the bison sculpture at it's highest point.

 It looks small compared to the bison!  That drawing is the actual size of the timber framed section.  There is a lot of felt/fur bulking it out!

This is the original drawing.  The entire drawing is  only 16" tall.  The "wood" is 1/8" thick in the original drawing, and in the enlarged version it's almost 1".

Here are some cut paper pieces I made in preparation for Positive/Negative.  All but one sold in my etsy shop.

This one is currently for sale in my etsy shop.

 I really liked the final one, so I knew that the white on white idea had was worth giving a real try.

Positive/Negative Paper Cuts

I had an idea for these for a while and I could picture like this in my head before I even started.  I was hesitant to make them because I haven't done any serious xacto knife cutting in a while.  I also was unsure of how difficult it would be to cut thick watercolor paper.  I did a couple practices, and once I was sure they would turn out fine I jumped in and got 'er done. 

Positive/Negative, 26" x 40" (each), Arches watercolor paper, 2012.

During this process, I discovered Glue Dots, one of the best adhesive inventions on this planet.  They are achival quality double sided sticky dots that come on a roll.  They come in Regular, Mini, and Micro sizes, and I ended up using Regular and Mini in all my recent paper cuts.

mats cut diagram

For my show I had to get a total of 9 mats cut.  I called about a dozen places comparing prices and how long it would take and ended up going to Seven Arts Framing and I couldn't have been happier.  I ended up measuring something wrong and getting the incorrect mat size cut, and then either they messed up on cutting one or I messed up on clarifying what I needed cut and they re-cut both mats for free!  I feel like my pack-rat tendencies might have expanded into the digital realm since I felt the need to scan and post this image of the sizes of the frames and art I needed matted.  Maybe I can actually throw the piece of paper away now.

...it's not really magic...

After hopelessly looking for and asking people about my house's stud finder, I gave in and treated myself to this for Christmas:  the magic stud finder.  I somehow got mine new for $6, must've been on ebay.  It really seems like magic compared to the electric kind we had before, that would always stop working if you accidently took it a half a millimeter away from the surface of the wall or would just be beeping and you wouldn't be sure if you found a stud or you found the electrical wiring jackpot.  The magic stud finder works with three really strong magnets that you rub all around the wall and eventually they'll stick to a nail in a stud, and bam, there's your stud!

It's not magic, it's just plain ol' science!  And I'm crazy about it!  No batteries required!

color editing in photoshop

ah, Photoshop.  I know how to do about six different things in photoshop, and I do them over and over again on various different (sometimes not-so-relevant) problems hoping that one of the six will end up working out.  This six-trick pony tried to edit a dark photo on her own, and it wasn't going so well.

Here is the original photo:

There are a lot of darks, and then that one really bright, washed out spot where the light hits the floor makes things even more complicated.

Here was one of my color correction attempts:

I tried to lighten it, but all it really did was make the colors duller and wash out that bright spot on the floor even more.

And finally, here is the photo my friend Charles Roderick, a professor at Harper College, color edited:

He brought me through all the steps and of course a month later I couldn't remember how he did it at all.  Luckily, I emailed him about it a couple months later and he remembered exactly what he did, and even had a video showing the steps!

Here is that video tutorial: http://vimeo.com/5293279.  

It involved going into levels to figure out where the lightest part of your photo is, and then going into curves to actually adjust the colors.  

Hope this helps someone else as much as it helped me!

my very first solo show!

Two weeks ago I set up my first solo show in the McLanahan Gallery at Penn State Altoona in Altoona, PA.  It's a part of the Ivyside Juried Art Exhibitions.  It runs from January 10 - March 3, 2013. I made a few new 2D pieces for the show recently.  Here are some not-the-best photos I took.  I'll take better ones when I go back to the gallery, probably a couple more times.

Here's a link about the show: http://www.altoona.psu.edu/now/news.php?value=4005