Homemade Greetings

Chubby round faces seem to be on my mind a lot lately. Could it because of this one? Yes, perhaps. In any case, February is a multi-birthday month around here, and I've resolved to not buy any commercial cards any more. If I can help it. Here is one I just made for Flora, soon to be a year wiser.

Foam Core + Wire Hangers + Hot Glue Gun = ?

Desk-side shelves! So my desk? Measures three feet by two, which is just not really enough space to put anything. To remedy that, I just whipped up (I think it must have taken something like 45 minutes) some shelves with pieces of foam core I found in my craft cabinet. They just happened to be of three varying sizes, so I ended up with that pleasing tiered effect. I anchored them to the wall with wire hanger wire: basically, I shaped 6 V's out of the wire and then bent the angle of each V up 90 degrees. Then I hot-glued the long V parts to the underside of each shelf (making sure the long parts span most the shelf depth for extra weight support), and hung the shelves from screws. Here is what the underside ended up looking like:

Oh, and you know how the glue gun tends to carry a label saying the glue is hot? Yeah. Turns out that's true.

Welcome to My Underground Lair

I hope you like your quasi-futuristic clothing... I designed it myself.

Remember this WIP? So this is aparently what I imagine a secret underground lair would contain in its various rooms.

It's always very important to stock up on Penny-Farthing bicycles, Erlenmeyer flasks, and test tubes of all sorts.

Also key is the closet-o-superhero/villain-outfits, for the extrapowered adventurer on the go.

Finally, remember to allow for a portal to the sky when including a rocketship.

Brand New Artist

Misha taught Lara how to use my colored pencils - and so we now have this beautiful drawing. I love those arched lines.

As I post this, I am laughing a little bit on the inside - you see, I really REALLY don't much care for abstract art. If I am being honest, for me true fine art (as opposed to decorative art, which has its place and requires talent but does not compare) ended somewhere at the end of the eighteenth century. My personal theory is that the Impressionists came along, looked at some Jean-Louis Davids ("Death of Marat," anyone?), and thought, "Well, there's no way I'm ever going to make that happen, so how about I just daub paint on a canvas randomly?" And so on with each new, less figurative, less time-consuming, less technique-intensive style. Once I walked into a museum to see a large white canvas with a black number 4 in the middle. The painting was titled "4." Really?

In college, a friend of mine tried to convince me otherwise, arguing basically that abstract art was an expression of process rather than product; in other words, that what was great about Jackson Pollock (don't get me started) was that you could see the movements of his body in his work and trace the flow of paint on the canvas. I'm still not buying it for adults, but what I love about those arched lines is their representation of the movement of Lara's little wrist. What arm gesture made those squared-off squiggles? I'll have to watch closer next time.

Stencils Aren't Just for Mommy!

They're for Daddy too. I love this picture of Misha and Lara. Usually all the photos we take are sort of still - or at least camera-aware - but there's so much movement in their bodies in this one that it's perfect for distilling into the stark black and white contours of stencils. Now the real question... what should I put this on?

All Bets Are Off

Have you ever heard of King Ludwig of Bavaria? He was this totally wacko king who bankrupted his country in the 19th century building extraordinary castles in the mountains - castles which were built in styles that hearkened back several centuries. It's as if you suddenly started building yourself a Baroque manse to go into your acre lot. When we visited my mom in Germany, we went to see the most famous of these castles, Neuschwanstein, a gorgeous almost toy-like structure that looks like a young girl's princess dreamscape. It's breathtakingly set amidst dramatic viewing points in mountain ridges (this bridge is one of them - it's where the first photo was shot from), but you are never quite free of the haunting thought of the wastefulness of building it while the country was dissolving.

In any case, several years later, when we moved to Philadelphia, Misha came home one day to announce that among the many, many murals that decorate the walls of this city, he had found one dedicated to King Ludwig. Really? King Ludwig? Here? But why? I didn't particularly believe him, and decided that he must have dreamt it, or mistaken something for the castle - especially since all Google searches proved useless. We had a semi-real bet going about it until yesterday. Randomly walking through a small back street on our way home, guess what we found on the corner of Juniper and Spruce?

So the bet is off, and I'll try to doubt Misha less again. It seems that this is a pub called Ludwig's Garten, with its own mural, not one produced by the city, which is probably why it doesn't show up on Google.

Compromise

I used to love to paint with oils (like this, for instance). I say "used to" because ever since Lara was born there just is no way to accommodate the precariously balanced canvas+easel+brush+medium+turpentine+palette setup, let alone the lengthy painting time itself. So for a while, I didn't paint at all (watercolors are not even remotely a medium I understand), and ended up drawing. Or mostly not. But I think I might have stumbled on the great compromise that is acrylics. Minimal setup, no need for complex easels and things since the drying time is negligible - and, even better, the texture of acrylics which they are wet is as similar to oils as anything water-based could be. Very nice. This is the little starter set I bought myself at an art supply store (I have commitment issues to big tubes that aren't White or Black).

WIP

Here are a few previews of something I am right now working on. These little images are painted with acrylics on a canvas board, and they are tiny (the gift box one is about 1.5x1.5 inches)! And let me tell you something - you never know quite how obsessive-compulsive you really are until you start painting details on that scale and being absolutely determined to get every infinitessimally small piece just right. Now I've always had a touch of the old OCD - I pretty much think that anyone who makes things with their hands is somewhere on that spectrum - but painting in miniature with a #2 brush when you really need a #1 but were too cheap to buy the full size range in the store? That takes a special kind of relationship with repetitive movements. I apparently have that relationship. I would go so far as to call it love.

Honorable Mention!

Remember that wrapping paper from Hannukah this year? Well, it got an honorable mention in the Whiplash December contest (scroll down)! Yay!

Summer in January

My excitement at having cutely altered a piece of otherwise useless clothing is only marginally tempered by the fact that what I've made is intensely unseasonable. Because: summer=yay! While: winter=boo. With that in mind, I give you my old too-short shorts (seriously, I can't believe I ever wore these. Ah, the carefree leg exposure of college!) now made into a reasonably short frilly skirt. The ruffle is made out of some pinstripe fabric from a pair of pants sent to Misha by his grandmother who described them as "knockabout trousers." Neither of us are quite sure what knockabout trousers are, but now I can safely say that they have been knocked about into becoming parts of an apron, and part of this skirt. And there's plenty more knocking about where that came from!

Weekend Mornings

Lazy weekend mornings call for pancakes. Well, when I was growing up they actually called for omelets, baked potatoes, and lox (which not suprisingly remains one of my favorite meals ever) - but now times have changed and Lara is the one doing the growing.

This is what the table looks like from her perspective... before she actually gets to it of course. Daddy's lovingly formed pancake letters didn't last three seconds before being devoured.

Of course, no morning is complete without some creating. Lara has recently taken to turning our kitchen into various art installations. Here is one of tupperware. Am I wrong, or is there a real eye to the way they are scattered? Ah, modern art of dischord - it makes everything look intentional and non-chaotic.

Hiatus Ending

Sorry, everyone! We've been crazing busily. Or maybe busying crazily. Either way, I'll be back in a flash!

Fourth Night

I love these beautiful hand-dripped candles that we buy every Hannukah. There are innumerable colors in each box, and the glow is gorgeous and warm in our tiny menorah. Our family is fairly secular, but the tradition of lighting candles each of the eight nights seems to really fit the cold weather and early dark of the season. Peace, everyone.

Baby Feet Redux (Happy Birthday, Rowan!)

Another stencil I love! I do have to say, though, cutting out those tiny details is murder on the old repetitive stress injuries. But so worth it! This is for my friend Danielle's son... Ok, let's face it, it's really for her, in honor of his first birthday. He is Lara's best friend by default, since she is my best mom friend. She is an amazing woman, and I really feel grateful to have her in my life. Happy Birthday, Rowan!

By the way, what I haven't mentioned is that both this and this are canvas-covered photo albums I found on clearance at TJ Maxx. Have you been to that store? It's the best.

Baby feet

Baby feet? Baby feet.

Our Far Flung Family

We basically dot the globe. We have family in San Francisco, Washington state, Massachusetts, Baltimore, New York, Milwaulkee, and Germany (soon to be Moscow) - and this is immediate family, not the various cousins-removed that inhabit all sorts of other countries. We made Lara a litte book to show her where everyone lives (printed by Shutterfly). Her supremely talented daddy illustrated each city and then we included photos of the people who live there. Here are some of his cute illustrations (he drew on paper, I colored on Photoshop).

My dad is a metallurgist who works in a foundry. (By the way, can we just pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that Misha was able to just draw out a foundry, from scratch, with no references, in about 10 minutes? Hello, talent?)

My dad also likes to sail.

We are the bunny family - Misha has blue ears, I have purple ears, and of course Lara is pink all over. Here, Lara is fishing with her dad on his dad's farm.

Us on a wine tasting picnic in Napa Valley.

And finally, here we are eating the delicious Napoleon layer cake that my grandmother makes from scratch (it's my favorite food in the world - notice my outside piece in this picture - and I probably wouldn't hesitate to kill you for it. I'm sure you're a very nice person, and thanks for reading my blog, but your life is forfeit if it comes between me and Napoleon.)

Inner Essence

When Misha was in medical school, he would come home and collapse on the couch after particularly grueling days - and that's how I painted him. I love this painting. Something about the way he is depicted just feels so right - the position he is sleeping in, the leg dangling over the couch, the arm on the stomach with the shirt raised, something about the colors also. Not sure. When he woke up and saw the painting, he exclaimed, "It's like you've captured my inner essence!" which I took to be the highest form of portraiture compliment....

Dangly Danglers

I love love love dangly earrings. Could this be because I don't have pierced ears myself? Perhaps. Long story short - I actually did get them pierced at 14 (take that, parents who said I had to be 15!), but the new holes were too much to take care of and you couldn't see any earrings I was wearing under my long hair anyway, so I let them close up.

Anyway, here are some I made for the be-punctured members of my family.

Handblown Czech glass with round faceted pearls.

Wooden circle beads.

Amazonite, howlite (?), and purple quartz.

Mommies and Babies

Another one, this time on a canvas-covered photo album. I'm really loving how these are turning out!

You'll recognize the image as "Flora and Juliet", below. Incidentally, check out the work of Flora's uber-talented artist husband, Robert Armetta. His work is incredible, and I am so grateful for his use of formal realism in this era of abstract installations and wacky performance art.

Art Corner

I love this little corner of our apartment - the placement of the paintings (if I do say so myself!) and the tiny rusty metal figurines above. Each of the collages is the work of Sam Ladenson, an unbelievably talented artist and family friend. He was an amazing, funny, always surprising man, and he is very much missed.

I also love the comfiest armchair (and ottoman that you can't see) in the house. It's my dissertation perch.

Small World

Has anyone checked out the Nikon Small World photomicrography website and competition? Because if you haven't, you need to click and go there right now - I have never seen colors and images like the ones these amazing scientists happen to capture when doing their experiments. And that there is a contest every year for picking the winners? Seriously, click the link.



Using a bunch of their images, as well as other photomicrographs found all over the web, I printed t-shirts for all the guys that are usually impossible to shop for. I made a whole bunch, but here are three that I haven't wrapped yet. They are themed. For a grandfather, a "Gray's "Papaya" shirt with images of hot dog meat, hot dog bun, and relish (the white tee). For an uncle, images of Burgundy, champagne, and Pinot Grigio (the black tee). And for Misha's cousin's boyfriend, whom we don't know that much about, just some very cool images of science-y things (the gray tee).

Incidentally, because I love it so, here is the clue for the wine shirt:

Part I:
I shivered in snow on the Champs D’Elysee
Sans warm winter coat, it wasn’t my day
To a salesman I said, “Pardon moi, monsieur”
Then my French failed me, so I just said, _____

Part II:
The last round of eating in “Meat versus Man”
There’s the fat guy from Jersey and Ken from Japan
Poised to devour each hot dog and bun
They drool as they wait for the ref’s starter _______

Part III:
A suitcase of cash I’ll dump on her desk,
Trying to bribe my orgo Prof Tresk
I’m now failing her class but I guarantee
At least this will earn me a nice passing ______

Get it? "Brr" + "gun" + "D" = Burgundy!

Stencil Frame

I think I was right about the stencils. Here is the one of me and Lara on a picture frame. What do you think? I'm thinking yay!

I really love the reduction of a complex image into just two colors - how amazing that our eyes are able to translate this very limited information into a three-dimentional image. I wonder though at what age this begins to happen - since I assume what allows us to understand the image is our lived experience? Lara is 13 months old - has she already formed a clear enough view of the world to be able to contextualize this stencil?

Also, are there visual puzzles based on this ability to understand stencils? You know, along the lines of other optical illusions?

Stencils

My new idea - wouldn't these make cute stencils? Mommies with their babies. Above are Lara and I. Below are my friend Flora and her daughter Juliet (don't you just love that name?)

Nothing cuter

Than the girl of course. (Craftwise, this is the softest onesie ever made into long sleeved tee with ruffled bottom and barely visible pocket.)

Wrapping

I really believe in the need for beautiful presentation of gifts. Inventive, and surprising even. We have a wonderful new tradition going of non-store-bought wrapping for each holiday season (new because our tiny nuclear family has introduced it to our extended family). Sometimes it's been combined with the even more delightful old tradition of clues that each recipient must solve in order to guess what the present is before opening it (old because it has existed in my husband's family since his childhood). One year we bought tiny finger puppets from Ikea, and made each the star of a construction paper tableau on each gift - the tableau and an accompanying poem were also the clue. This year the wrapping is made of magazine strips glued to the outside of boxes.

Here is one of this year's clues (for a baseball-themed tshirt from the photomicrograph series I'll post about later):

Part I:

My beaker exploded in period three
The chemicals landed all over me
Forced to stand under the old safety shower
I was mocked and abused for over an hour
I had to go to my “happy place”
Because in chem. class I added acid to _______

Part II:

My fairy godmother cast a wonderful spell:
Instead of a carriage, a car faster than hell
Off to meet with the king’s son I go
In a sleek Maserati the color of snow!
But a manual transmission means stall after stall
How on earth will I make it in time for the _______

Get it? Base + ball!

(I love this wrapping so much I've submitted it to the Whiplash competition this month. Eek!)

'Tis the Season

I am working hard to keep up with my pledge to make presents for everyone, which is harder for our huge extended family all at once during the holidays than it is for individual birthdays. My favorite this year is this dress-up apron for my mother-in-law, featuring a patchwork of swatches from Lara's baby clothes (collective awww....).

Paper Dolls

Didn't you love paper dolls when you were a kid? I remember constantly making new ones, and loving those little shoulder and arm tabs even more than the clothes themselves. I made one with a set of historical costumes for my friend Jessica's daughter. She lives inside her closet with all her gowns.

The doll is composed of a paper head and wire body - wire, so you can move her arms and legs around to fit into more than one pose. The costumes came from here (I added pencil, various beads, fabric, and things, and Mod Podged for durability).

Happy Birthday!

Lara turned 1 on the 7th. One! Amazing. I love making her things, at least in part because she is entirely unaware of their provenance. Plastic red tube? Love it. Hand-sewn, hand-embroidered felt name book? Love it. Random piece of packing cardboard? Love it the most!

See all the pages on my Flickr.

GHOTI

So George Bernard Shaw once joked (apparently apocryphally) that spelling is so random in English that you could write the word "fish" as "ghoti" (taking the "f" sound from "tough," the "i" from "women," and the "sh" from words like "nation"). Discuss.

Father's Day

For Father's Day this year, I embroidered Fermat's Last Theorem on a polo shirt for my dad the enginerd. You can see the embroidered letters peeking out of the collaged box I made for wrapping the shirt (the letters appear logo-style on the left of the shirt when worn). For the sticklers - yes, I did leave off the "for all n>2" for space considerations... I was just so happy to come up with an idea for something handmade for him. Anyway, Dad loves it.