Mad Scientist Monday #18: Getting back to Nobody

Day 247  Is it too much to ask to get sharks with freakin' laser beams?  Dr. Evil is my Mad Scientist today.  Why?  I dunno, because it is funny, has nothing to do with this post and seems so "irrelevant"......cue the music and dance scene...

  

After nearly a long a wait as Dr. Evil in cold storage I finally got to work on this again.  I can't find the post but last you heard about this altered book was that my precious angel cats had scratched the embroidered felt cover, no crying over ripped stitches.  It gave me a chance to work the piece differently.  This time I went with a duck cloth in grey.  I must have ripped out the stitches 20 times trying to get the borders correct but instead I used a bit of recycled wool from men's pants.  

This is the fake book cover of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I did temporarily tack down the strips in places just to keep it straight. I just used a simple embroidery straight stitch around the wool.

I even used a hoop for a while but then it got really hard to use because of the bulk of the stitches.  I am going to keep this idea for the future but use one of those wooden frames instead of a hoop.

I am fairly happy with how it came out being the first time trying this and really winging it.  I consider every project and every stitch to be a learning experience.

It got a little wonky in places but when the center is filled with the picture it will look better.

Unfortunately, I got so obsessed with not letting this border beat me that I didn't work on my weekly TAST so I am going to work on that tonight.  But I just had to tackle it to see if what it looked like finished is what I imagined in my head.

Posts on the evolution of this altered book:
Post 1
Post 2
Post 3
Post 4

What will you create today?

Touch Me Thursday #5: Fuzzy Wuzzy

Day 223 This is the story of what NOT to do...so we will precede it by showing you a vintage Dumbo ornament in all it's fuzzy wuzzy cuteness.  He is missing the pink on the inside of one of his ears but I might redo it for him because it makes him look more pitiful.

When you have been working on a project for a few months now, a hand embroidered project, one with LOTS and LOTS of tiny detailed stitches...you DON'T leave it exposed at night even if you are exhausted and you just forgot.  Because that ONE time you forget the cat decides your project resembles a most lovely scratching pad that you left out just for him.  I will admit that despite the innocent looks he was giving me because jeez mom wasn't I proud of him using the present I left out for him and not the couch?  I did a lot of talking loudly that morning, it almost sounded like yelling but then I realized that this was an opportunity to rework the project with ideas to 'do better next time' that I had as I was going along like some more shading details, different fabric to stitch on and seed beads.

The fuzzed up unfinished corner of the project with the fibers pulled up into little pills and piles.   The embroidered parts were just a disaster of pulled stitches SIGH.

And of course who doesn't love an excuse to go get some fabric and use a coupon!  This cotton fabric is lighter than a denim but more open weave and pliable.  Like a heavy linen maybe?  Not too sure because I pick a lot of fabrics by touch and forget to look at the type...it says 'Michelle solids' on the receipt from Hancock Fabrics.  I will definitely be using these again as I am really pleased with this fabric and the wide variety of colors is comes in so if you know who makes this let me know but I have it in my notes to check it out when I go back.

The sketch started again.

A wide range of colors to choose from for shading and decorating.

 What will you create today?

Mad Scientist Monday #7: "Here then as I lay down my pen...

FUN STUFF:  I was featured on Creating my Way to Success' blog today...Check me out!   Very creative, very inspiring blog...it keeps me motivated to keep moving forward in my art and business.

Hub and I have been steadily working on updating the website and are working our way towards the store. OCD sole proprietors gotta do everything methodically one step at a time ;)  I had been selling and working on sewing stuff locally and I think it would make my business much more well rounded to expand to more online.

Momtastic's Craft and Cake Group Classes are up for November and December 

Information on the Individual Sewing lessons with your machine is now online.  

(I will be posting information on hand sewing and embroidery lessons shortly.)

Momtastic's Super Crafting Art Parties are perfect for your upcoming special event.

Let's all Snoopy Dance 

and we return you to your regularly scheduled program....

Day 202  ...and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of  that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end."  

We continue our discovery to find our favorite mad scientists...today is Robert Louis Stevenson Scottish author, bohemian and it seemed a tortured creative soul going against everything society said was 'right'.   Author of such famous stories as Kidnapped, Treasure Island and of course The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (my favorite).

I think this picture makes him look like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all wrapped into one person.

This weekend while waiting between events at a swim meet my daughters helped me work on the altered book the cover of which is my entry into the Covered in Stitches project (linked to the right there).  And might I say it was really fun to mess with people's heads as they did a double take upon seeing us coloring and drawing in a book, a library book with a bar code on the back GASP HEHEHE how taboo were we?!?  They didn't know it was discarded and bought for a dime at a garage sale did they??  And now the book has been turned into a work of art.....

Yea I know my fellow nerds this is not the exact quote, creepy movie.

Don't know what we were doing, sort of the doors to Oz with a yellow brick road detail.

We sketched out the constellations that were in the pictures in the book larger and colored them.

Coyotes howling at the moon under some colorful stars.

Fish swimming in a river as the animals walk along the 'bank'

I expect that this will be completed by the end of this month.  When I finish I will take better pictures of the outside covers and all the pages in order.

What will you create today?

Mad Scientist Monday #6: We complete our plan to take over the world er ponder art....

Day 198  Today we continue our post from last Monday's Mad Scientist  and we give you Vector from he movie Despicable Me, the man who gave you the shark tank living room, the piranha gun and my favorite the squid launcher...OH YEA......this is one of the cleverest animated movies with a great soundtrack I have seen in some time....

You can see the second post where I discuss the stitching and the texture here

Here is a recap of the supplies for this part of the project....
Halloween image
embroidery thread<---in this case a blue thread I found while thrifting, not sure of the brand but it is as thick as 6 strands of the DMC embroidery type but not as strong of fibers
needle
pushpin
pencil
Sharpie
optional: spray sealant

Vector Credit

Completed portrait Raven.

Completed landscape Raven

After the glue dried from Pt I I dry brushed gold paint in random streaks onto the paper.  Then I let that dry for a couple of hours.  I decided against the original brown paint because I wanted some sparkle, I didn't want the whole thing to fade into the background against the brown paper pages.

I lightly sketched the ravens in pencil (because it is hard to erase lines at this point on top of the glue and paint) and then traced over with black medium point Sharpie.

These are my original paper patterns for the two ravens I use in my business.  I just freehand sketched  and enlarged.  

The larger sketches did not turn out too badly for freehanding and I am happy even if their proportions are not exactly right I know that is just the OCD artist talking ;).

Some more angles of the landscape Raven after Sharpie tracing....he's got some rather large feet eh? lol its also the angle I took the picture from but it looks funny here.

He is so handsome.

Then I took a regular ol' pushpin and started punching holes at regular stitchable intervals.  The canvas one was easy the one though the mat board left a blister on my thumb in the future I am going to find a longer tool I have here at the house to use (no buying use what you have). This project was a blast and I can totally see myself doing something similar again.

Here is the thread I used.  Blue is the color of the ravens I used for my business and I wanted  it to look black in certain light and blue in others...I also wanted the thread to look flat like sketched lines but if  you looked closer to see that there is a 3D aspect to it.  Found this thread in a bag of others while thrifting...it is not as strong as the DMC embroidery 6-strand type, its almost like a thin yarn,and its old but it did the trick.

I captured the blue in the light in these pics.

I have a couple of places to glue down on the edges and they will be ready to hang today.

I hope you enjoyed this project.  I know I did!!
This week I will be showing off more of my Covered in Stitches/Altered Book project it is turning out to be quite the fun art invention.

What will you create today?

Scenes from my Sketchbook #5: Inspired by Nobody

Day 190:  Well I decided on what book to use for the Covered in Stitches contest (link on the right there)....

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book....

in which a boy's family is murdered and he escapes to an old graveyard to be raised and protected by ghosts of all ages.  The boy is given the name 'Nobody'.  It really is a good read but I won't spoil it any more so go read it yourself.

But in case you are interested, here were the other contenders my family came up with: 

Coraline

StarDust

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Go Dog Go

Macbeth

Robert the Rose Horse

The Wolves in the Walls

Spirited Away

Howl's Moving Castle

Bunnicula

Lots of variety but a lot of the macabre so in the end the vote went to this book.  The Graveyard Book, Coraline, The Wolves in the Walls and Stardust (with one part edited out for younger ears) are great read alouds and the first two are particularly spooky this time of year~but a good spooky where it totally creeps the girls out but they are clamoring for more.  Halloween is our favorite holiday and we have our annual books to read aloud...we do Christmas ones too we're not all about the dark....its just so much fun though!

Preliminary sketch without many details for the book cover.  Not sure about the background, plants or statue yet.  On Thursday I will show you the start of the embroidery.

Great cover but not the one you normally see...the blue  one with a headstone is more common.  Credit for this and all images below.

Aren't these amazing sketches and art by Dave McKean??  I just love how they really grab you into the story.

Might use some ghosts and a better headstone/cross in the illustration instead of my initial sketch.

Between this one and the one below you can see my inspiration.

I always love to see my initial ideas come into being.....this is all such an organic process for me and I just go with my feelings as I am sketching/stitching/creating so I am sure to see things change as they take on a life of their own.

What will you create today?

Mad Scientist Monday #5: Spam, spam, bacon and spam...& more altered book project

Day 189  Our mad scientist of the week is Zane, a character from the Syfy network TV show Eureka.  Oh lordy can that man light a bunsen burner!  Not too happy with the way his character is being written lately but well I'd be pissed too if the network my show was on was cancelling yet ANOTHER successful show, bah whatever enough with the overdramatic fangirl stuff...on with our creations...

Go ahead take a good look... Zane Donovan Credit

This weekend was the Albuquerque Aki Matsuri (Japanese Fall Festival) 2011 ....we look forward to this every year because it is wonderfully cultural, small enough to be enjoyed and they always have some cool art going on...and of course who could forget the good foods to eat!!!

I wait to get one of these every year....my favorite food...masubi

I think this is an odd concoction, what kind of drugs were people on to go hmmm seaweed, rice and oh I KNOW SPAM that will taste wonderful together!!!  And you know what? IT DOES!

Why do I always find myself singing the spam song, even in the grocery store, yep mad as hatters we are....gawd TV life is so boring without the muppets, SNL (and I mean the real SNL not that boring crap they have been touting for the past 20 years I mean the policically incorrect drug alcohol infused hilarity) and Monty Python

Speaking of odd concoctions.....at least their cosplay is creative...lol...the theme of this year's festival was Kabuki and they gave out masks to paint.

Yep we're all mad here...

Yep back to that book.....the cover is coming along nicely and I will show you the prelim sketch tomorrow...for now you will have to make do with some of the fun I have been altering the inside pages...don't worry I will do some better quality pics as soon as it is complete

Sketching--there is a door in the rock the astrodude is pointing at that I drew and a door opening behind him (somehow managed to get both of these outside the pic frame go figure)

paper cut out with fabric sample scrap behind it

post card cut out over the title page

fabric sample scrap collage for the red planet pages

This post was supposed to go out this morning but Google Chrome or the network in our area or both or something else entirely are not playing nicely......so I hope you got to be creative today...see you tomorrow!

Scenes from my Sketchbook #4: Macbeth?

Day 186: Working out some possible covers and ideas.  One of my favorite plays by Shakespeare is Macbeth and as a child I would read it over and over again.  I am not totally sold on this theme yet but have been playing around with random sketch ideas from some of my other favorite pieces of literature.  I should have the idea finalized by the weekend so I plan on showing you the work in progress next week.

Mad Scientist Monday #4: One Wild and Crazy...Book

Day 185  Our mad scientist of the week is Dr. Hfuhruhurr ~inventor of the cranial screwtop brain switching surgery or something along those lines....

Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin) from The Man With Two Brains Movie Link 

Our project of the week is an altered book.  I am challenging myself by entering into the Feeling Stitchy contest to design my own embroidered book cover.  I wasn't sure how to start quite frankly but I had a light bulb moment when I found this book at a garage sale over the weekend.  At 10 cents and a good size to hold in your hand and less than 50 pages.  I think it will be perfect and not too intimidating to finish.

"Life in the Universe" by Dr. Alvin Silverstein and Virginia B. Silverstein.  Copyrighted in 1967.  I love the dedication to Bobby, Glenn, Carrie and Shannon...no one calls their kids 'Bobby' any more, its cute, it needs to make a comeback!  Not going to use this book for the cover idea, just wanted to use the book as a base.

Back in the day when computers didn't check out our books, people did!

A sample illustration in this book...it is filled with black and white sketches.

Testing fabric scraps mixed into the illustrations.  I have plans to use fabric, paper, found objects, colored pencil , paint and of course more hand embroidery on the inside pages.

 So here is the start of the outside part that will be embroidered.  I just took a piece of cream felt-the cheap stuff I had laying around-might regret that later but I am trying to keep with the 'not buying new things' part of the Mad Scientist Monday goal.  The cover I will have done before the November 7th deadline for the contest.  The inside pages I expect to have completed shortly afterwards.

You can see the green color of the cloth cover on the spine there which was in good condition.

I just glued the edges with some Aleene's Tacky and wrapped the felt square around the cover and into the inside like a jacket.  I will also be putting a back 'cover' on later.

Testing some fabric sewing into the book.

 This will be a fun project to take with me while the kids are at their activities.  I should have this sketched out by tomorrow for the Scenes from my Sketchbook posting.  Then I can start working on the hand stitching!!!   I will keep you updated with the progress...and no I won't tell you what book I am going to use....I love so many books and so many favorites it was hard to narrow it down.

Remember kids don't try to french an x-ray, it can't taste that good and frankly its just disturbing! Movie Link

Off to work I go...having a blast keeping the sewing going, teaching sewing classes and generally just being creative.  I can't show you many pictures of the things I do for clients but hopefully this week I will be able to show a few adorable tulle skirts off!    What will you create today?