Organization in Progress

I have finally started my attempts at organization in my studio. Remember the containers I purchased from Ikea? Probably not because it has taken me a ridiculous amount of time to put them to use. Sorry for the dark pictures, I just had to put something up because I think it's all beginning to come together, and I couldn't wait until daylight to take the pictures. I also plan to rip the carpet out within the next 2 weeks. I am excited and worried about what's underneath, but worse case scenario I have to buy a cheap rug to throw over it if the floors are really bad. Anything is better than the long piled carpet they chose, it's so hard to keep clean! Sorry my desk is such a mess, I have many projects in progress!

Almost There!

I have reattched the gazelle's horn. It looks so much better already. I haven't gotten around to painting it but I sure am excited about finishing this project! It's going to look great once all the repairs are finished! I used a cardboard tube, some insulatating foam and a product called Creative Paperclay to patch the cracks. I sanded the clay after it dried and after I paint it, it will look as good as new! Here are some pictures:

Attention to Details

Since the kitchen "overhaul" I have been contemplating a new faucet. This is similar to what I have (with a black side sprayer):

After all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into the counter tops and back splash I don't think this faucet is worthy. If the house was much larger I would make a ridiculous investment and buy this faucet by Kohler:

This one is my absolute favorite (expensive taste)!
On the more practical side I could do something like this, by Moen:

I'm not crazy about this one but I can't get to expensive and I don't plan on replacing the sink so I guess I'm stuck with a four-hole faucet. If I were able to go with a single hole construction and purchase a side sprayer I would pay a little more money and go with the faucet from Delta:

I don't know what I could do with the other 2 holes that would remain, is it possible to use a single hole faucet with a side sprayer and hide the other 2 holes? If so, I think this one is perfect for the new kitchen!

Stickers

Design a sticker,it's fun! Makes me really want to be involved in designing advertising stuff. Here is the design I submitted. Hopefully it's worthy!

Working

I made this for our website at work yesterday. We are working on imagery for our centennial year. I don't think this is the idea they are going to go with but if they did they would change the colors. The owl is part of the school seal and the two buildings behind are the new (present) law school and the one on the right is the old building. Maybe I will get a chance to have some of my designs on the website, I will keep you posted!

Ideas

Here is a rough sketch of my backyard and the plans I have for the patio. I'm still not sure what to do with the flower beds or which plants are best for this region. Behind my house there are some apartments so I would like to plant something along the back fence line that will stay green all year and won't grow taller than 12-15' (because of the utility lines). I would love any ideas from the green thumbs out there. It's Oklahoma so we have pretty brutal summers and usually a mild winter (with occasional freezes).
This is the best photo of the back yard I could find. I will try to update with a better photo although the grass hasn't turned green yet, so it won't look at pretty.

Here are a few things I would like to incorporate but I'm not sure that the styles are cohesive enough. I would like to keep the patio furniture and accessories minimal to accentuate the flora I plan to grow. The Fire pit is from Blomus. It's such a sleek, modern design but so far out of my budget. I have some ideas for a DIY fire pit, fingers crossed. The glider reminds me of the one my grandmother has on her back porch and I have always loved it, also out of my budget; it's on my garage sale list!

I don't remember what site this pattern sheet came from (apologies) but I thought it may come in handy for pavers as well as craft projects. The colors and designs are lovely!

Outdoor Living!

I haven't really considered my backyard as far as improvement and design. I have a hard time deciding on what to do with the space. For some reason designing the backyard is very overwhelming, perhaps it's because it isn't as divided and restricted as each room in the house. It's limitless in terms of function and the space is open to be divided at my discretion. I did purchase a shade today from overstock:

I plan on creating a small patio with a fire pit. I am working on the plans and gathering ideas from everywhere. Since the weather has been so nice lately I have been putting off several of my inside projects and playing outside. I just can't wait to have a patio and some shade to sit under and relax.

Tada!

My tile endeavors revealed! Please excuse my dirty sink, I am still in the process of cleaning everything (there is saw dust everywhere). I also have not had a chance to change out the light switches and sockets which will be white. Enjoy!

Teasers

Some teaser photos from the demo...It was pretty exciting, as you maybe able to tell. I plan to seal the grout tonight or early tomorrow morning so photos are on the brink. I'm ready for my closeup!

I'm Back

I took off most of this week to work on my house and today I'm back to work. Our office has been working on things since it's spring break so I had to come in today and check up on things. Needless to say, there is a lot to do and several things "out of whack." I missed posting on St. Patty's day (apologies) but I hope everyone had a good one!

I feel like I accomplished something, I knocked out 3/4 of this project but still need to do the counters and back splash next to the range. It wasn't the easiest project and took several power tools but boy, what a pay off! Photos to follow. I also worked on several other, anticipated projects between drying times but they aren't finished yet. I plan on posting pictures this weekend. Sorry for the delay and unexplained absence!

More Ideas

More projects to look forward to. This blog has become an archive of my ideas and a project lineup. Oddly enough I think this has allowed me to catalogue my epiphanies and clear my brain for processing. In turn, I have had an overflow of creative juices. Maybe it's the anticipation of spring and nature in bloom. Here is a new "sketch"

Spring Stencils

If only I had more time in the day! I have so many ideas and so little time to achieve them. I have been better about not dropping the ball on projects that are in motion so it's been a good year so far. This post maybe a bit to philosophical for some so I just wanted to begin with a disclaimer.

As an artist I think it's important to be ever-chaning while still capturing yourself in the work. My first instinct was to use "while still maintaining your style" in place of "while still capturing yourself in the work." The diction becomes important because I don't think our styles are or should be static. I do believe that your work should represent your passions and response to the environment which also transform.

I have been considering styles and meaning as I work with stencils. I thought that they could be my "trademark" but then I realized that it isn't about having a trademark it's about making things that represent me. The stencil has a hard edge, graphic quality which I like to juxtapose against fluid, organic objects such as nature. I also like to incorporate the opposition between feminine and masculine so lately I have been creating compositions like this one:

I was thinking eventually, as I progress through my mounting list of projects I would start this one, which will hopefully become limitless and possibly become a gallery show. Big Dreams!

Roller Shade

All of the windows in my house have mini blinds and I'm just not a fan so I have started replacing them with roller shades. I plan on putting curtains in my bedroom but for the rest of the windows I wanted to go less formal. I have used fabric to spice up some of the shades I have put in the other rooms but since I have been stenciling like mad I decided I wanted to do a stencil shade in the living room. The window is pretty large (71"x58") so I was thinking a large tone-on-tone pattern would be nice. Here is the living room window. Here are a couple of examples of the patterns I would stencil:

Lowes sells the roller shades and they are fairly inexpensive. I also think one of medium/light weight maybe nice just to filter the light and not darken the room. I will post the finished projects when that day comes. As for now, I have several projects still in production and some in the line preceding this so don't hold your breath.

Weekend Crafting

This weekend I was pretty unproductive but I did accomplish one craft project. I wish I could say that it was easy and I breezed through it but this was not the case. I made template after template but I still didn't get it quite right. I have decided to hide the jagged edges on both the top and bottom of the shade with a simple grosgrain ribbon but I didn't have any lying around.
I used wrapping paper from target and spray adhesive to glue the paper to the shade. I like the surprise aspect of the paper lining but after I finished I realized that when the lamp is off the shape of the shade is all wrong for the lamp. I couldn't pass up the $5 shade from IKEA but now I wish it had a barrel shade. For now, they are a little jazzed up but I will be looking for a different shape of shade. Toodles!

Work in Progress

(Relative to this post) have started a new project.  One of my Goals for 2009 was to finish projects before moving on to new ones and I feel like I have been fairly successful. I have a large project I have started and I have reached a nice stopping point and need a breather. I decided I wanted to work on a couple of projects simultaneously because I feel like it allows you to contemplate each piece. It's nice to be able to walk away from something and come back to it with a new perspective. Here is the project in the beginning stages, I already feel like it may evolve from my initial idea but that's just part of making art.

Priorities

My mom and I saw this really fancy gazelle sculpture at a fabric store in Texas last summer. It was damaged and in a close out area but they still had it marked pretty high so we decided against it. Plus, the missing horn was no where to be found so it better be pretty cheap it I am going to have to reconstruct an entire horn from paper mache.  

At the end of last year my mom made a trip back down to Texas to visit my grandfather and decided she would pick up the gazelle for my birthday. When she went back to bargain, the missing horn had miraculously appeared.  Apparently they did come off the marked  price (although I'm still not sure that it was a bargain) so my mom snagged it because it was to fun to pass up. We haven't had a chance to fix the horn yet but it is #1 on my list of craft projects. After all, it is in my living room and while the missing horn makes for a conversation piece it must be fixed ASAP. This weekend I will be studying wheat paste formulas and paper mache construction. I did come across some amazing paper mache pumpkins last Halloween and I think it will come in very handy for this project.

Helpful Hints

I forgot to mention that when I went to my friends birthday celebration this weekend I met a guy that also makes stencils (what are the odds?). His name is Brian and he gave me his card, he runs a coffee shop. I know I have been raving about the Quickutz Silhouette but it's so expensive. Brian was very insightful and opened my eyes to a couple of neat and affordable tools. First of all the stencil burner, amazing! Why didn't I know about this sooner? and...at $30 what a steal! Another marvelous idea, (again how could I live without it?) an airbrush! I have been using spray paint which seems to work ok but with an airbrush my palette is much broader. For around $50 I will be ready to make intricate, professional stencils! Thanks Brian!

Last Minute

Yesterday night my friend was celebrating her birthday and she invited me out for drinks. I didn't know about the plans until a few hours before the celebration and I wanted to bring her a card or some sort of handmade gift. I threw this together in an hour or so and luckily I had some cheapo Ikea frames lying around so I spray painted one black and Voila! I thought about makin gher a card but I thought this may be more green and not just get thrown in the dump (maybe I have more faith in my work than I should Ha!).