esprit de l'escalier

Oh Thursday, where have you gone

I'm taking weaving again. It started Tuesday, but I was in again tonight to dye some fabric pieces I'm going to use in my project. (I'm making a rag rug for my parents. I have some blue fingers to prove it.) I thought that I wasn't going to be very long. I got there at five and didn't leave until the Cultural Arts Center closed at ten. I really should have known better. I left my fabric sitting in dye. Hopefully I'll like the colors when I go back to clean them.

I need to remember the following, so as to survive my weaving class. One: I need to bring a proper dinner or I will eat too many of the sweets that are always lying around. Two: I need to bring my water bottle to class. The weaving studio sucks the moisture out of you. Three: I need to remember not to stick my hands into water with either soda ash, dye, or both. The soda ash dries out my skin and the dye changes its color.

I had a quick dinner when I got home of an apple sliced and smeared with peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. And a mug of chamomile full of honey, followed by a shot of apple cider vinegar. I have been keeping a cold at bay, but I'm sure that the temperature fluctuations this weekend will lose me the ground I've gained on it.

I need to be up early tomorrow morning for a conference, which I am not looking forward to, as waking up continues to be hard. (I am okay with the cold, but miss the morning sun.) I should have gone to bed an hour ago when I got home. Where does the day go? Anyway, hello! Sorry it's been a week. I just got some film back from the holidays. I'll share some photos soon.

Craft Wars

This winter/early spring my good friend Esther told me she was applying for this craft competition reality show. (We learned later it was Craft Wars on TLC.) She needed an assistant and asked me to join her. I'm always up for an adventure with Es, so I said I was in. Over about a week or so, we goofed around in her basement, using power tools and getting crafting in front of a camera. We sent the videos in and lo and behold! We were in!

The end of March we flew to LA for our super secret taping. We had one day to ourselves where we explored LA - wandering Santee Alley, K-Town, and Little Tokyo. Then we had two long days in the studio for taping and interviews. That first day of taping was one of the longest, most sureal, and most fun I've ever had. Tori Spelling is the host. I got to hug Donna Martin!

Tomorrow our episode airs. If you are in the Columbus area, you should come by the Gateway Theater. We'll be watching it with a bunch of friends and are going to do a Q&A after. Or watch it on TLC tomorrow night at 10pm Eastern. Watch Esther and I run around, glue things, freak out about time limits, and craft our asses off! It will be fun. Esther and I will probably be tweeting while it airs. I'll post photos of the viewing party tomorrow!

Below are the promo videos for our episode! Here's an interview with Es with the Columbus Underground. Ack! I'm so excited.

My monster muppet rug

On Tuesday night I finished my first rug in weaving class. Now, I sort of jumped ahead of some of the other students, because instead starting on a loom from scratch, I jumped on a loom that was already set up with the warp, which saved me a lot of time. I used loopers, which are cotton loops that are leftovers from making socks. (Remember those potholder looms from childhood? Like those loops. Only I tied them all together before using them in the loom as the weft.) That made the rug sort of like a rag rug.

I didn't quite know how long the rug was going to end up; I thought about 6 or 7 feet. I just kept going til I ran out of loopers. Turned out it is over 11 and a half feet long... yep! It's gigantic. Luckily I have a long hallway in my apartment! As I was weaving it, I kept joking that it was my muppety rug, since it's mostly purple and blue. Now it's my monster muppet rug! Here are some photos, taken by my friend Esther, as I was taking it off the loom.

Me cutting it off the loom.

Me pulling it off the loom... it just kept coming!

Here it is all rolled out!

Art class rabbit hole

I was right. My first class at the Cultural Arts Center was just a quick trip and fall down a rabbit hole of art classes. I started with screen printing, which officially ended last week, but our instructor Pat is letting have some extra studio time and we worked while the new class started. Tonight I finally got to print some t-shirts, with some success. Not all of the t-shirts were winners, though. I had some technical issues getting the emulsion to burn correctly. Anyway, I made some t-shirts and would have photos to share, but I forgot my digital camera is out of juice... That being said, I have some things to send to some people this weekend! I also might try and thrift some more t-shirts this weekend to try again.

My rabbit hole journey has now taking me into a weaving class, also with the same instructor Pat. I think I am officially one of her acolytes. My friends Esther and Angel are in the class too. Unfortunately there are a lot of newbies, not of space, and only one Pat to go around, so it might be slow going at first. I decided to do a looper rug, which is like a rag rug, but instead of using rags, you use these cotton loops that are leftover from the manufacturing of socks. I'm about to return to looping the loops together, to make a big long chain. To be honest, I'm still a little lost, but I'm looking forward to the adventure. Photos, I promise.

Monday night crafting

Today I stopped by the craft store to pick up some supplies for something I was going to start for a friend. I did not buy the most important piece of this crafting puzzle because I thought I had come across a stash of said ingredient a while back - a treasure trove that went back to my pre-teen crafting hey day. (I am being purposefully vague because said gift recipient may read this before I can give it to her.) Anyway, I come home, almost fully stocked, and can't find what I'm looking for. Anywhere. So much for crafting tonight.

Actually, I knit some. Our local yarn shop, Wisp, had a sale this weekend, and I bought a bunch of yarn, with specific projects in mind! Or vague projects at the very least. So instead of working on a specific project with a near deadline, I started to knit up a vague blanket. I decided to not watch the reruns on tv tonight and instead listen to NPR. (Tonight they run This American Life, followed by two hours of World Cafe.) Sitting, knitting, listening to excellent music was a good choice. (Check out this Irish band, O Emperor. Their album hasn't been released here yet, but it sounds like good stuff.) Regardless, I still am feeling cranky. Even David Dye's excellent playlist can't help me shake it. I think I'm getting to bed early tonight.

Heart (part 2)

I haven't posted any Etsy love in a very long time. My list of favorite sellers has become unwieldy, and I don't page through it as much as I used to. (Which is probably a good thing. As much as I love supporting artists, the wallet is a little thin these days.)

Okay, so I'm not the greatest at making these little collages, but I thought I'd give it a whirl. Apparently I'm into orange and foxes - it makes me think of the Little Prince.

1. I love the simplicity of this necklace. Local Library little drop.

2. I love Katy Horan's work, here's her letterpress at Little Paper Planes.

3. Joanna Rutter has the sweetest pins and necklaces. I like the Mr. Fox pin.

4. I have been crushing on Morelle forever. I constantly keep favoriting different bags.Burnt orange truffle clutch.

5. How cute is this guy? Gaspard E. Pinopine stuffed fox by Ninon.

(Click the image to see it larger. I hate that Flickr doesn't give me better sizing options.)

Last minute valentine wishes

Went shopping tonight - best time to go to the mall as it was empty. Snagged a kick-ass coat. All of this made me even later in this post. I made some valentines this weekend, wish I could have sent one to all of you. Hope you had a candy-filled day!

Randomness and some etsy love

Today we had some sun throughout the day, which was glorious. I had forgotten how gray central Ohio was (according to this website we have 190 cloudy days on average per year in Columbus). But there was a visible sunrise and full sun at lunch, so I went to restaurant with large windows and sat in one, soaking up the vitamin d with my soup and salad and Fast Company.

I've been humming songs from Anything Goes all day. My Dad found our old tape of the 1962 recording - it was always a big hit on family car trips. I was a little wound up Sunday night and gave a little interpretive dance show for the family. I'm really happy my brother didn't think to tape it. I really don't want to end up on youtube that way. I'd rather have my lunacy kept in the family.

When I moved from Chicago, my fabulous roommate Natasha traded up with her new flatmate. She's living with a great girl named Jean, who's a painter. I seriously covet many of her pieces that hang throughout their apartment - lovely snippets of everyday life and Chicago. Well, Jean just opened an Etsy store where she has some cards for sale and this awesome calendar of places around Chicago. (You can find Natasha posing around Graceland Cemetery in October.) Check Jean's shop out.

More Etsy love

Now that I am a poor grad student, I should probably stop trolling my favorite shops on Etsy, but I can’t help myself. My favorite seller list now goes for 12 pages. I love looking at the creative and beautiful things people are making and putting out into the world.

I have to share a couple of my recently acquired favorites, or new shops that I am ogling.

One, have I said anything about Bonspiel before? I can’t remember. I love this shop, and Ellen, its owner/creator. She does some fabulous things with leather, but my favorites are her little changepurses. Her little purses are $18 and are very well made, with great colors and screenprinted designs. She uses lots of animals and leaves. I have bought five. My Mom has two of them with squirrels that she keeps in her purse for makeup and whatnot. I have a shiny gold one with a butterfly, that I keep jewelry in when I travel. I use my light blue with a salmon head on it for cash, while my yellow with brown pufferfish and coral design keeps my cards. I love them all so much.

Ellen is great to communicate with, and I can’t say enough about my love for her shop. Check out her new Multipass (again with squirrel) or her Foxy Little Leather Changepurse. If only…

As you can tell, I’m kind of into little pouches. They are like cute boxes, only portable and they fit in my pocket.

I’m also loving the pouches from DrikaB. Oh my god, are these bags cute. The colors! The patterns! I bought a purse from her this summer and love it (see above). Her bags are so well made - they are quilted and soft, but seem very durable all the same. I love the difference in texture from the bag and its handle of jute webbing.

A post about current Etsy love cannot be complete without a mention of the dear Mischievous Meg! Friday she opened up shop. Check out that shot above. This girl is like the sunshine whisperer. I am a lucky owner of it (and two others in the la robe rouge series). You can buy it and another print here for $16.

I love her takes on the ordinary beauty that surrounds her world. She makes me open my eyes more and is one of my inspirations with film. I recently refound her blog and am entranced - she's thoughtful and generous and I love getting to know her.

Here's another one of my favorite prints of hers. Her medium format prints are sublime.

Sigh... there is so much beauty out there. Watch your wallets...

Etsy Love

I have been saying that I would write about Etsy for a couple of weeks and haven't gotten around to it yet. I have had a hard time knowing how to start. I've known about Etsy since fall of 2005 but didn't really start buying anything from it until the beginning of last year. Since then I've bought a lot of things, from necklaces for myself and others, a plethora of magnets, cards, prints, more and more prints, bags, t-shirts, and have bookmarked many more.

I love that you can read about the people who make everything. You can often visit their blog and get a feeling for who they are. You can ask them to make special things just for you (by messaging them and asking) or bookmark items that you can come back and salivate over later.

I love that you can search by category, color, geographic location, and by word. Everyday is a different group of selected items, which is perfect for browsing. Every week has a featured seller, with interview. At the very bottom you can see the latest items uploaded onto the site.

You can see some items I bookmarked here. I tend to just bookmark the sellers instead, though, and you can see my list here. The best way to start exploring Etsy is to find someone you like and look at their favorites. I bookmark a lot, because I never know when something might be perfect for someone. I'm always on the lookout for the perfect gift.

Below is a picture from my cubicle. There are lots of little things I've bought on Etsy (or the internet in general) that color my walls and keep me sane. I encourage the Etsy-uninitiated to start browsing and building bookmark lists. It's a fun way to shop, and it's good to know my money is going directly to the producer.