And now, the Winner!

I'm very happy with the response my big giveaway received. After the deadline passed I went to random.org, put in the numbers, and came out with #27 or...

MissKnits! Congratulations, Mel! The prize-givers have been contacted, and I will mail out my prizes on Tuesday.

She has a lovely shop of handmade items, as well as a supply store at BitsfromMissKnits. You can also check out her blog here.

For those who didn't win, don't be discouraged! I'll be holding another giveaway soon. Makeup lovers, definitely stay tuned!


Well, tomorrow is my last day. Printmaking final, and an Ed. Psych exam. I'm kind of nervous!! I really hope to make all As, I worked my butt off this semester and it has been the toughest so far. Wish me luck!

And thanks for visiting. :)

Woodcut: Final Result.

Hey guys, remember that woodcut I was semi-griping about? Well, after 8 1/2 hours of cutting, cutting, cutting, proofing, and printing 18 editions, here is the final result...

"Brushes" 2/18, 9.25x12"
Oil ink on Masa rice paper

Half of the editions look like this (as much as it can, considering we don't have a printing press). I'm turning in the other half that has more residual marks on the white table, which looks nice. Tonight I matted an edition. I'm contemplating selling it among other things at the VAS Holiday Sale. Do people really like buying editions, even with only one being matted? How do you package it?

Oh, VAS stands for the Visual Arts Society. It's a nice little club here at Tech that I just recently joined, and I'm excited about being a member. For the holidays they have a craft sale where members can sell their work, so I'm really looking forward to it. It'd be my first professional sales booth thingy. The main problem I'll have is deciding on prices: I always have trouble with that! I don't want to overcharge, but don't want to get duped either.

Well, ideas for my finals are coming along. I just hope they turn out the way I imagine them to be! What are your plans for the next few weeks?

Woodcutting.

Woodcutting is not easy. No, really, it isn't. The first couple of assignments in Printmaking involved cutting linoleum blocks, which wasn't the easiest thing to do per se, but at least linoleum is soft. (Tip: placing the block in contact with heat makes it even softer. I put boiling water in a small tin, covered it with foil, and placed the block face-down on the foil.)

Woodcutting is our weapon of choice now, and it's difficult. The block has to be bigger (minimum 8x10"), and we're using wood (mine's some sort of poplar). The tools have to be continuously sharpened, and they've been used so they aren't in perfect shape (too expensive to purchase on our own). You have to consider carving against the grain, and around knots. I tried my best to purchase blocks that had little to no knots on either side. Even then, it's still arduous, and it's so easy to slip and knick an area. Once it's cut, you can't get it back. The one pictured above is a re-do!! :(

I just like the look of my pen drawing, which is there to simply mark my areas as guidelines. I'm really worried about getting to the details of the metal handles on the brushes... not sure how to go about cutting those correctly.

Any experienced woodcutters out there to lend some helpful tips? :)

Friday Featurette and Update.

My quick featurette goes to Flock Together Jewelry.

Tail Feather Earrings, $10

Her shop contains beautiful earrings, necklaces, and headbands. The arrangement and detail are so spectacular, yet all lightweight, and considering the material the items are not too expensive. My friend has a pair of feather earrings that she wears a lot, and I can understand why. I hope to own a pair soon! You can visit her blog here.

In other news, I'm doing pretty well in my classes. Printmaking is now coming to printing "editions," or copies of an artist's proof that is the best print of a design. Matting will not be fun, but it must be done. In Photography... man, I love that class. My paintbrush picture (will post soon) was considered "best photo of the day" hehe. ^_^;

Fall Break is coming, but I figure I'll be busy during that time so this weekend will be my break. Going home, hopefully to shoot good documentary photos for class, work on my sketchbook (Drawing II, not the project), and relax! Sometimes taking a break is the best, most logical thing to do.

But lots of good things have been happening, and I hope it doesn't stop. My first sale was the Color Grid painting, and Tyler posted a lovely blog about receiving it. It was so surreal, seeing that there when only days ago it was in my art room. Can't wait to sell more! I've also been getting luckier with giveaways, and a lot of progress is being made. At some point I will do a giveaway, probably this weekend. I REALLY want to give back to you guys (though you seem to be disappearing on me a little)! ;)

Let me know the good things going on in your life, art or otherwise.

Happy Ending to Week 3.

That's right, the week is done! As an art major, for the past three semesters I've had Fridays off, a very handy thing indeed. Today went by pretty smoothly, and had some joys in it.

Photography class was great! There were no problems getting the film into the spool and processing it. I managed to make three prints today, though I'll present only two because the third was attacked by a black fuzzy thing on the print's edge.



Printmaking wasn't too bad, just trying to figure out my still life. Need to work on that this weekend, along with a drawing on atmospheric perspective, Art Ed. writing sheets and a collage, as well as Ed. Psych. homework. Phew!

But fear not: the icing on the cake today was that I received the earrings I won from ljlh*designs!!


Hooray! I was so excited to see the little box. Everything is beautiful: the box, the cards (I like 'em!), and of course, the jewelry. It's perfect, too, because the blue crystals almost match the blue gem in my engagement ring. I can't wait to be able to wear them! Thanks so much, Libby. :)

I hope your week has been as successful and productive as mine. The only way it could get better is if I made a sale, haha!

Monday Musings.

I've learned a few things today.

I don't really hate printmaking. I just get easily frustrated with any new artistic medium at which I'm not immediately great. I'm a perfectionist, unfortunately, so that can really dampen my optimism when trying novel things. But it also frustrates me how hard I'll have to work even more, as well as kiss up to, my teacher because she rarely gives out A's, especially to non-studio students.

Taking photos with a manual camera is much more interesting than with digital. The sense of mystery with not knowing how the picture turned out can be invigorating and intimidating. My other art classes stress me out, but I'm already looking forward to Photography class this Thursday. Getting the film into the spool without damaging it sucks, but it's such a small, tiny problem that it worries me not.

People are not as nice as we ISFPs want to believe. This is a sad, but true fact. Some people are just not good people. The worst part is, some people are so good at concealing this that you have to get to know them a long time before their true colors show. By that time, it's hard to let go. Even now I still miss one of my old friends, with whom I've not spoken since my 18th birthday.

But despite that, life is gorgeous. With my health in good shape, my mind clear, and new prospects on the horizon, I'll just keep on walking with my head up as high as I can lift it.

Friday Featurette and F(ph)otos!

Yeah, I'm a big fan of alliteration, I do it when I can. Anyway, I think every Friday I'll do a mini-feature of an Etsian where his or her items really appeal to me. For the first one, today I'm featuring crearting:

Handbound Wood Journal, 3 1/2 x 2 3/4in $18

I'm obsessed with journals (kreativlink rocks my socks), and this only fuels my fire. Journals with WOOD covers? And gorgeous painting designs? Count me in.

The only downside to these beautiful journals, in my opinion, is their small size, but I can understand the reason for it. Still love 'em and heart 'em when I can. One day I will own a custom, handmade journal, I swear it! :P

Anyway, a tiny little update. Yesterday was very frustrating and fun at the same time, a bizarre combination of emotions really. Photography resulted in fun, but began with frustration. My film would NOT go in the spool, and it took 15 minutes in a small, pitch-black, hot closet to get the film ready for processing. But after all of that, here's a "contact" sheet of my negatives and one print from my roll that I loved (though a bit out of focus):

Printmaking... ugh. Aligning 2x2 blocks on a huge sheet of paper, and making sure to ink the right amount, is really tough. Hopefully I'll still get an A for effort.

What have you guys been up to this week? :)