gallery opening success!

better late than never: to everyone who came out to the gallery opening last week, mega thank you from the top of my heart for coming out and supporting my graduating class!

this was technically my first gallery showing and although at first it didn't quite feel like a real gallery opening, when i got to the gallery and saw how packed it was with all sorts of faces i didn't know it finally hit me: this is a gallery show.
i'm glad that everything came together in the end to make a fantastic night and could not thank the lovely true hearts that have supported the last three years of my life in this pretty great and exciting new career path.

everyone's pieces looked wonderful and some of us even had some pieces sold by the end of the night. I couldn't put my quilt for sale just yet, i have to hang onto it partly 'cause it'll be in a show later in the summer with some of my ladyfaces and also 'cause of how tight that heart string is tied to it. i'll learn to sell off some other pieces i've made but this one will be mine for a few years at most. working on it for almost three months was kind of struggle but in the end i'm proud to call that piece mine. i folded it up in so many different ways to work on it that i never actually knew the size of it until i walked to the back of the gallery and saw that it had its own wall...woops?
maybe i should probably also learn how to not put SO much heart into the art pieces i make so i can let them go a little easier.

sunday was the take down of the show, which only took about two hours with the help of about 10 hands. it was kind of fun to help out in that, seeing a few friends and helping them out with their pieces. it made me think i may volunteer with gallery take downs in the future perhaps with the OCC.
check out my flickr to see more shots of the wonderful pieces that were shown.

His Twinkling Perch

about a week before our grad show opening, i officially completed my ultimate tribute to my Spaceboy!

for our critique day, we had to some how install our final pieces the way we would have liked to see it shown in the gallery. the mere size of this quilt had me display it on the tables instead of taking up an entire wall in the studio which was good for both the other ladyfaces to hang up their pieces and to make my quilt look completed. when i had no luck to lay out the backing and batting to sew it all together before the crit day, i almost cried and continually asked myself what had me make this quilt a queen size!

now that it's completely basted with lots of new stars, suggested by the class, i can't complain for the size. the fact that outer space is so vast kind of plays well with the black space of my quilt. i guess in this case, my brain knew what it was doing...though i hope it'll tell me why next time i'm near tears out of frustration.

at the beginning of the semester i wanted to make an entire collection of accessories in the theme of spaceboy but was pushed to concentrate on just this quilt. one of my ideas was to make a set of scarves originally with a running wolf pack kind of design and have random lines from spaceboy letters. it's still something i'd like to do but i guess i'll have to leave that for later. with everything coming to an end basically by next week, i went ahead and made scarves anyhow and squeezed in a few natural dying sessions in the studio. i bought some tight weave cotton gauze from the studio and used pomegranate with iron mordant and lac with alum mordant.

the pink was a little too pink for me so i dipped it literally for a second in the pomegranate bath and it gave me this way yummy smokey rose color.

a moon just for me

so today i realized that i hadn't posted a blog is nearly a month...or maybe it has been a month but regardless, it's been far too long. tisk tisk on my part 'cause a number of really awesome little things has happened since then.

i mentioned in the last real post of how my brains decided to make my very first quilt based on my love letters to an imaginary boy who lives on the moon. i wanted to cram in a little collection of clutches, scarves and maybe some brooches to go with the Spaceboy theme but after my first critique with my very knowledgeable teachers, all that over the moon crafty nuttiness (see what i did there?) was more or less thrown out the window for me to fully concentrate on making this pretty neat quilt.

last week was my break week and it was filled with finishing up with the embroidering portion i had for the moon and finally finally sewing it all together, something that felt like would never have happened.
I've been thinking a lot of how people will be seeing my work at the grad show in toronto and wanted to show my strengths, one being my mega heart on for needlework, texture and a dash of sappy sentiment.
i think this quilt touches on all of those including my love of natural materials, using all cotton materials and natural dying. i had to (sadly) use a pinch of pigment to darken the final two shades of gray as well as the silk screening of the letters but over all i'm happy to have kept the materials sweet and natural.

i've mentioned before i've never quilted anything before this so i wanted to give myself the easy little shortcuts to make this moon madness of mine work and work well for the deadline. after enlarging a photoshopped design of the moon, i traced that enlargement onto tissue paper and literally sewed that pattern onto the layered fabrics. it was kind of tricky at first to sew it all down but when i got the hang of it i was rolling through it no problem. also it helped that my little ed gein machine is such a trooper, the little guy can tackle just about anything i put it through...have i ever mentioned that i love this little machine?

boy on the moon

 since 2001, i've been writing love letters to an imaginary boy who lives on the moon. we meet in dream, we have little adventures on his moonlit perch where we turn into wolves, lay still like piano keys and become royalty. it's all quite saptastic really.

last year when i heard we  call all the shots in our final semester, my Spaceboy came back to spook me all over again. I have a number of sketchbooks filled with all these letters and one day hope to publish a small collection of them, but i'm glad to have my graduating collection in the theme of our mega old and twinkling love.
i've mentioned before in other posts that i'm kind of a nut when it comes to making and crafting but i think i may have topped myself off this year with my first piece of the collection being a quilt. yep, that's right.
i've never in my maker life have made a quilt but like the story of my life, i didn't want to use traditional patterns. i wanted to make up a picture with pieces of fabric like you'd see in paint-by-number kits, after running into the fantastic space quilts of Jimmy McBride, i knew exactly what my own quilt would be like.

along with the Spaceboy theme, i knew i wanted to use more natural based materials and processes. at first i wanted to use reclaimed materials from old shirts to make  up the picture of the moon but thought that could take much more time than i really had. i scored a wicked discount on a medium weight cotton from Fabric By Designers on queen street and began my hunt for grays in the natural dye world.

 

pomegranate is maybe my new favorite. an iron mordant will "sadden" dye stuffs and give great dark and deep shades, with pomegranate it gives this wonderful gray color which was perfection for my Spaceboy's moon. after pot dying all the cotton, i wrote out selected letters (written between 2003 and 2005) and silk screened them onto the fabric. i've always loved the look of handwriting on fabric but to see my own and the subject being so dear to my old bum ticker, i just had to print on a cotton blend i found in the scrap bin for a new scarf...'cause i don't have a gazillion scarves or anything.

there were wolves

first off i should apologize for the lack of posting. i'm about to go into my final week of holiday breaktimes and only now am i updating this funny little blog, horrible aren't i...

the last couple of days of the semester were a whirlwind of buzyness and making plus writing a 3000 word paper on the DIY culture of today. getting everything done seemed impossible somedays but i'm glad to say i may have totally conquered the semester! 

i am pretty happy with my own pack of wolves i made for the dye and print class (yet to be titled). the textures of their coats were made with both machine and hand embroidery with different types of yarns. i wanted to make one wolf be on it's back with it's paws up in a submissive posture but that meant i'd have to tweak the pattern and do a few samples which i completely didn't have time for. in the end i made five wolves, all with wire armatures so they can be somewhat in different positions. because their faces didn't have much detailing, i tried to show emotions through their tails for my critique day. i also made a few small grounds of tree branches wrapped in gauze to sort of copy the fotoshoot i did with them in the near by forest. i've been thinking of maybe playing around with the pattern more after school is out and try and make a larger pack and to stylizing the wolf shape a little more; make the body longer, legs skinnier and the wolf in general, a little larger. oh did i ever tell you that i'm kind of bonkers? no? oh ok.

it was different to have only two major projects in my main course  but with all the time spent on the moons and wolves, i'm glad for the time we got for each.

for my material investigations class we had to make a self directed project that involved two processes we worked with in class. i decided to go with paper making and felting, possibly the two favourite materials that have entered my crafting life. 

i made a diorama picture which i haven't done in about 7 years and after playing with branches wrapped in handmade paper, i went for a forest scene. one of required samples for the paper portion of the class was using chicken wire with handmade paper. i ended up making a deer head and wanted to make a little felted deer for the forest scene. when it came time to drawing up a picture for the proposal, my brains were so taken over  by wolves that the deer kept morphing into one. i finally gave into my brains and decided to felt a mini two inch wolf. i totally wanted to dunk in my tea and eat it, it's that adorable.

wolves at my door

we've begun to really have some worktimes on this multiples or large scale project for my dye and print class and have started to collect materials and inspirations for sampling and sketchbook work.

after working so much with the image of the moon, a whole pack of wolves were at the door of my brains and i was completely willing to let them in.

my idea of making a small pack of three dimensional wolves totally fit the third option of multiples making up a large scale piece, so i opened the braindoors and let the wolves come in to take over for the next little while. 

one of my favourite things about making and the whole creative process is how something can go from an image in your head, to something tangible and real in front of your eyeballs. it's especially mega funtimes if they look nearly identical, that kind of thing makes my heart jump around and pop pretty loud.

there is something about the wolf that i really connect with...not quite sure what but i don't mind. i did a bit of research and watched a few videos on the gray wolf and they're a funny bunch. they do this thing where they'll just hold another's head or snout in their mouth, kind of like a cross between keeping them in check and love bite, how flippin' adorable is that? the coloring of the gray wolf can vary anywhere from full gray, have reddish shading to either completely white or black. they can be super affectionate with each other and even to people. their heads are big, their paws are chubby huge and their size is on average, up to 2 meters in length. i want a wolf hug! not too sure about wolf kisses though...

 i've mentioned before how i try to use thrifted materials instead of buying new ones when it comes to projects. not only is it fun to have the challenge of a limited selection of what you may need but it makes you see other materials in a new light.

i originally wanted to use thrifted sweaters in this new project to full (or felt) but there is something happening in some thrift stores these days where they've hiked up their prices quite a bit.

luckily my material hunting day started with a score of a good amount of a jersey fleece from the re-use center, but my heart kept saying "sweaters!" 

i wanted to make 4 or 5 wolves and calculated about a sweater per wolf, which would have definitely added up.

i was starting to get bummed but then came across an old coat that had a sweet patterned wool for the same price as two sweaters and my heart was kind of lifted, picturing at least two and a half wolves coming out of it. then i came across a pretty large merino sweater in gray and was awesomely surprised to see the entire inside be a knitted lighter gray! way mega perfect.

i'm now hoping i can pull off making 5-7 wolves...but we'll see just how much sleep i need this time.

work placement news

in my last post i mentioned about the work placement portion of my final year in textiles where i get to work in a pretty awesome little shop in Toronto, Freedom Clothing Collective.
Well they asked me to write a shorty post on their own blog for a meet and greet event happening this saturday with one of the wonderful makers they carry, Priya Means Love.

i've grown more aware of all the junk that goes into skin and hair care products and will always choose something more natural if i can (with anything in my life for that matter) so to know and spread the know of Priya's locally made, organic and 100% natural skin and hair product line makes me feel fuzzy inside. these products smell so edible! but don't worry, i haven't tried to eat any of them...yet.

click here to read the blog post!

internally yours,
sister valentine

no sleep on the moon

before i get into the hand and lock project, i first have to mention about this pretty awesome bit of third year. the textiles program turns out to be the only one under the crafts and design umbrella that has a work placement portion, which i think is such a great thing to have with any academic career. i can only hope that will change for the other studios in the next year at least.
i've been doing my placement portion of the course at Freedom Clothing Collective.

a pretty great little store in toronto that has a very similar heart to my own. carrying 140 different local artists and makers but with something a little different; 90% of their stock is either organic or repurposed and recycled materials, whoah heart pop!
in the last few years i've tried to make and craft with a greener approach and with the daydream of one day owning my own shop similar to Freedom and the White Elephant in hamilton, this store couldn't have been more perfect for my placement.

last week i was asked to do up their surprise window display with the theme of alice in wonderland!
those who know me well, know how hard my heart beats for that story. of course i was pretty mega pumped for doing up the window and just had to squeeze in a craft session to make them a giant tea cup!

there are so many pretty little things in this store but my bum ticker rang out for the itty bitty bunnies by Slo. after grabbing some perfect bristol board from the basement, i went home with the idea of making some bunny tea for the window display. i don't even know how but i made the form of this giant tea cup and found some scrap brown linen fabric to be the tea. when i got to the store the next day, i made and attached the handle, painted some spirally red roses in the spirit of the queen and was pretty happy with it. i have a few more shifts with them and the opportunity to work along some pretty neato people. trust that i'll be posting again about those last days.

so about the hand and lock project: i think...yep, i may be crazy. 

when i got this hand and lock project, my brains showed me what i should make and i went along with the idea at full force.

the tight grip of schoolery

first off, shop news...well the itty bit of shop news.

before school came and kidnapped me from the blogging world, i spun off a fair amounts of hats and made a fair number of upcycled jersey bracelets which will very soontimes be posted online in the shop for your true hearts to gawk at. oh! and you have my full permission to purchase once they're posted :)

i've already had a few requests come in from some new friendly faces and some old friendly faces but i hope they (and you) know that all of them are welcomed. 

request mode: engage!

my summer had all sorts of goodness and more traveling than i expected which is completely ok by me, i hadn't been traveling much at all these last couple of years and the travel bug was beginning to itch.
i kept mighty busy with local little craft shows, doing a bit of dreadlock work for a bunch of pretty sweet strangers and giving myself certain little shop goals but i was way super excited to get back to school by the end of it.
i missed my crafty ladyfaces and being all "homework drunk" during some late nights in the studio, seeing other friendly faces in the craft wing and above all my brains just wanted more!
this year we've had a fair amount of switch arounds with teachers but i think all that dust settled perfectly in place for my final year in textiles.
the pretty awesome Hamilton based Roisin of Bespoke Uprising is teaching our materials explorations class and i completely blame her for sparking a new handspinning love.

from first and second year, i have a whole lotta left over fleece and without really much of an idea of what to do with it. i did thought  of making nuno felted bracelets for the shop after making some samples for a felting project last year but never got around to that leaving me wanting to spin all of it!
thankfully while in Portland with zee brother at the beginning of the summer, i scored a drop spindle knowing i would someday use it. i knew what it was when i saw it but i had not a clue of how to use it.
first week of school and we were already handed a to-do list of 20 samples with natural materials, most of these things i picked up on a walk home from school.

i remember laughing at how nutty i must have looked picking random plants along the road and riding the bus with literally a fistful of leaves, grasses and wildflowers. on a side note; if your a girl, holding a fistful of grasses and wildflowers on a windy day totally can make you feel pretty.
after handspinning, we did a bit of pot dying. before i wasn't every really into pot dying for some reason but with the plans that i have for some projects in second semester, i was happy to get a little refresher.

James st. North art crawl

one promise i made to myself this summer is to try my hardest to make it out to more arts and crafts related events and what better way to start that promise than going to the James st. North art crawl in hamilton.

the graduating textile ladies  held their own show and everything looked fantastic! the building that housed their skills from the non stop rain was still being worked on but it only added to the overall collections of these ladies. rachel morrison was interested in how people would interact with her piece. the torn up and exposed original wall paper blended her foiled and silk screened paper remnants so well that some people would simply walk right by it without giving it a second glance.
keiley stewart's animal heads were a big attraction. suspended from the ceiling were her needle and hand felted rabbit, lion and fox heads for people to slip into and get their picture taken, including this simple girl.
katie walker's lovely scarves and necklaces were hung up just perfectly as they were in the on campus gallery opening. i'm kind of bummed that i didn't get a shot of her crochet wire  and paper slugs, they were almost hidden in a little gap of exposed concrete. check out her blog to see pictures of these ladies setting up the show and miss walker's new work, whoah sweetsville!

i loved going through the buildings (which all seemed to be under construction or renovation and it was just dandy) to see all kinds of skills was pretty amazing. i saw some amazing sweaters by preloved which made one of my guy friend's wish he was a girl to wear some of them and some pretty fantastic pieces of art in all kinds of media. i'd stand two feet away from some pieces and try and figure out what materials were used or what kind of processes like corinne duchesne's "collide" piece on mylar. these mixed media pieces were huge and freaking beautiful. since we use mylar in the studio for screen exposure, i knew exactly what it must have felt like to work on its surface. kind of like plastic semi transparent sheet of plastic, i've only really worked with water soluable graphite and india ink with it but duchense used paints on it and i think dye water on it. i stared at this piece for easily ten minutes.

post craft sale

before anything, thank you to everyone to made it out to the craft sale last week. even to just say hi, it was pretty neato seeing people buzz at our table.

we got a way sunny corner of the caf and i have to admit it made everything look yumsville! all the colors of my monsters and kay tor's voodoods and brooches just popped and nearly made my own heart pop. i brought out just about everything i had for sale online, the new monster plushies and brooches which really filled up the table space, leaving my tote bags to the side bench in the sun. i was embroidering and kay tor was sewing up some more brooches during the entire sale and the other table around us (mostly glass and ceramics) would comment on how the great thing about textiles is that you could do it anywhere. they couldn't blow glass or throw clay just anywhere like you could with knitting, crocheting and embroidery. it wasn't the first time we heard this but it's always fun to hear.

there were times where people would take a break and wander around to the other tables and suggest making trades which both kay tor and i were completely up for.
with our neighbouring table (and fellow dread head) claire anderson, i traded for a cutie little bowl with a balloon cut out. i thought instantly that i could use it for crocheting at home, feeding the yarn through the balloon i wouldn't have to worry about the yarn rolling away from me and getting a little dirty.
with a now graduate glass artist silvia taylor, i traded for this pretty amazing glass feather which is now hanging lovely in my window though it could be moved to my workshop window soontimes.

the talented glass artist and friend megan came around half way through the day asking me to sew back on a flowery detail on her skirt. she said that day was the first time she wore it and the flower was beginning to come off. i didn't expect any form of payment for the job but she said i can come around and pick out a glass strawberry. now for those of you who know me well enough, know of my strange love of strawberries. i've said once before that if i were a fruit, i would be a strawberry. all that said, i had to accept! well my goldfish memory got the best of me that day and completely forgot about it until the end of the day when everyone began to pack up, megan came around with these two cutie glass strawberries in hand and said both were mine to take home, whoah heart pops!

despite the little sleep really beginning to sink in by the evening, it was all great fun and made kay tor and i decide to do this sale again next year.
although it was a small sale, it definitely gave me a bit of insight of what i need to do to have a pretty sweet table. the labeling took a little longer than expected and i kind of wish i had a bit more time to make more stuff 'cause i'm a nut like that. this summer i'll be on the hunt for craft sales to maybe do up but i'll admit one thing: my big ol' bum ticker has the hillside festival of 2012 in mind... just saying.

sewing marathon: day three

today i woke up good and early to head over to the school studio with my little ed gein machine packed up for the ride to work the open house with tara-marie. she did a few printing demonstrations while i sewed up some brooches for the sale (which is tomorrow, eep!)
kay tor and i agreed to give her a teeny bit of space on our table to sell her knitted hats and brooches which will go lovely with my crochet hats and both mine and kay tor's brooches. whoah brooch city!

taking these designs from a page in my wee sketchbook, i'm all smiles at how mine turned out and even have some left over to make for some future online sales...just saying :)
there are certain things i make that i just have to make one for myself, this time with a brooch. i embroidered a scissor pair for myself and trust i'll be wearing it tomorrow at the sale.

considering i made all this stuff in roughly four days, it leaves me pretty confident for future craft sales. i don't have too much left to do to be ready for the (kind of uncalled for) way early set up. the monster plushies were nearly all sewn up in last night's marathon with just the stuffing left to do. i'm not showing it in the teaser picture, but i used all sorts of different materials for the backing and sewed on their hand embroidered names onto the backs. i only wish i had more time to hand embroider some 's heart v' tags so people can remember where these little cuties came from, but alas there is always next time.

earlier while in the studio, it popped in my head that i should maybe individually price everything so i wouldn't get confused in spitting out prices...you throw too many numbers in my head and i am no good for anything :)
i chose a pretty sweet font i found on a website that suited my accessories. i would have hand written all of them but the clock told me to go with the easy route via the ill tempered studio photocopying machine. i used a thicker craft paper mostly 'cause i've always enjoyed craft paper, especially after seeing how neato it looks during the sales we organized earlier this year. i'll be using my decorative scissors to spruce it up a pinch and using a white cotton thread to pin them to the items.

now i must leave you for the last leg of this marathon. i have to admit i get kind of anxious at the end of long sewing days. in fact my ed gein machine begins to sound like the birds from a pretty cute stop animation video i came across, which is what i will leave you with... 'cause i'm nice like that.
hope all you true hearts out there can make it out to tomorrow's sale!

internally yours,
sister valentine

sewing marathon: day two

don't tell my Ed Gein Machine that i've escaped! i just had to break away for a tea break and to give your lovely faces a bit of eye candy. yesterday i finally put together a wee workshop space for myself, it's still kind of bare but i'll be making it extra yumsville over the summer.

 i had a lot of things to sew up for the upcoming craft sale on saturday but could you believe nearly an entire day wasn't enough? yeesh.
at about 11 pm last night i was beginning to get a little bored with sewing up so much but i have to admit it's pretty neato how much i've done. way faster than crocheting that's for sure! all the scarflettes and cowls i've had sitting in my suitcase are officially done and ready for the sale.

many of these are pretty cozy and lightweight to wear during chilly fall nights or early spring days. but  with this funny cold weather we've been having lately around here, i can only hope people will really enjoy these toasty things. i used mostly recycled materials, patches from sample books and all sorts of leather, wooden and plastic buttons i found in my button collection which i have still no clue where they all came from.

now i'm on day two of this sewing marathon and onto cuter things.
these are a new breed of monsters for me. unlike my crochet monsters (which will also be at the sale), these guys are more likely to have animal fur, different kinds of horns and arms with big but gentle claws. when i silkscreened these onto the unbleached muslin, i couldn't help but to laugh at how happy and adorable they all were. the four kinds have different names which i've nearly done embroidering onto cutie scroll banners with teeny hearts. i have this theory about naming monsters: they should have names that are fun to say or just rolls out off your tongue easily.
again, these will be sold at the craft sale and just fyi: my monsters are age friendly :)

my tea cup is nearly empty and i'm sure my Ed Gein machine is beginning to catch on so peek on here tomorrow and see what else i'll have in store for the sale.

internally yours,
sister valentine

over the moon and back

the school year is officially over...whoah. i was thinking about it over the weekend of how quickly it happened. i'm done my second year in textiles? was i there for this? :)
you can expect more blog posts now that summer has officially started but as for now; there were a few projects i wanted to blog about but with the final weeks of school drowning me in lovely craft times (and bucket loads of teatimes) i'll bring you up to speed:

request lined mittens: complete!

these were the first mittens i've ever crocheted and i'm glad to say that they're pretty toasty fit, a little late for the final cold days of winter so i like to think of them as way on time for next winter. 

i used new 100% wool yarn bought from Romni Wools and a light bright white cotton linning as requested. also these shots don't really show just how huge these are but i guess when you're in furniture design like Tom is, it's good to have a pair of paws for hands.

i introduce to you a Mr. Francisco Lamark in doll form, head honcho of the Lamark society. standing at a distinguished 8 inches, i used yarns to embroider over a silkscreen drawing i drew. i was even lucky to find a pretty sweet shiny copper colored ribbon for his helmet, making the bolts with french knots yum! i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. i moved a few things around from their symbol for asthetic reasons, but i'm sure the Sea Salts and Francisco won't mind that. 

i still have others to sew up and send out to my brother who is in charge of the website and any fund raising. hopefully these dolls will sell and help them towards their fantastic goal.

mark your calendars!

Sheridan is having their annual open house and craft sale come April 30th!! 

i've been thinking of doing some craft shows if not this year than next and i think this could be a good little introduction. 

myself and kay tor will have a table at the craft show to sell some things we've made during the year, some new things we've made especially for this sale and in my case, some things from my online shop.

so remember the date or join the facebook event and i'll see you there!

internally yours,

sister valentine

whoah biggy news!

first, i must apologize for not blogging about this client project sooner and also for the following beefy blog. ready your toosh.
second, let me catch you up a bit:

a few weeks ago in our dye and print class, we had to propose an installation or wall hanging for this gigantor wall in the new Sheridan campus in missisauga. this thing was a daunting 10 feet wide by i think it was 14 or 20 feet tall wall, regardless i was excited to maybe get picked. i came across this lovely photo of all sorts of fungus and their different textures and colors intensely tickled me so i decided it'd be fun to make plushie and felted fungus....and that's all i could think of. i just felt i couldn't knock out anything more to  push this idea further and i wasn't alone.

paper love, how you haunt me

sometimes the world just tries to tell you things. last year i was drawn to water themes and now i'm being pulled towards paper....and maybe a pinch of water again.

in my surface design class, our new set of designs are for a fashion collection based on paper collage! believe me that with my rediscovered love of paper and collaging, that i was ecstatic and freaking excited about this new set of designs. i chose my color palette of browns, blues and yellows since i hadn't worked in that palette before in my surface design class. a collection i did last year was brown and blue heavy but it's nice to add an accent third color, change things up a pinch.
i wish i had taken a picture of the studio today 'cause it looked lovely, the print tables were with loads and loads of all kinds of paper for us to pick from. we all took our time in picking through it all and about an hour later, just a handful of us actually sat down to start working on some samples.
today i realized (and not for the first time) that the people around me this time in my life are just as much of a dweeb for the same things i am. it made me laugh out loud a few times watching these crafty ladyfaces. after going through the wrong program in college, i'm glad to say i've found my herd.

pre v-day sale status: sweetsville

just a quicky post about the sale today 'cause it went awesome!

last minute baking totally came through and before we could get the stuff out on the table to sell, people began rummaging through the boxes for the goods.

the tote bags, silk scarves, t-shirts and valentine cards were a hit. even the poop ones were loved by lots of people so yay for cutie pie poops!

to think of it, this week is pretty neat for me in my little craft student world.
apart from ruling the sale pretty hard today, i noticed that my first collection of surface designs of this semester were put up on display outside of the studio which is exciting. it's the first time i'm up there, fun!
also this friday the textile studio has the opening in the campus gallery, which is currently holding two of my favourite pieces i did last semester and yet another surface design collection...i'm everywhere for the next little while and that's ok by me

and lastly, my Ona/ Selk'nam inspired bags are done done done! come soontimes, they will be on sale in my etsy shop as a collection.

internally yours,
sister valentine

spanish blood = bag project

i've been itching to get on a new blog post about my projects sooner but this student thing really has a hold on me...and that is neat :)
a new project for my dye and print class has me touching base with my roots. well, i should say my blood's roots.

the Ona tribe from patagonia (also known as the Selk'nam) have some striking body paint used in ceremonies like marriage, coming of age and in plays about fighting with certain spirits. i've wanted a project using these designs but haven't really had a good project to come up for them, until recently.

my big heart in little things

this x-mas i made a mega effort to stay away from the malls and make just about everything, the presents, labels and this year, right down to the paper. before the studio was closed for the break, i had a chance to print my own wrapping paper and tissue paper this year, whoah fun!

in the last few years i've just made more handmade gifts for x-mas, spending less and less time in the malls. i wanted this year to be ultimate handmade and i'm glad to say i accomplished that except for one purchase to get a real sweet and vintage mug for my dad, which at 25 cents, it shouldn't really count. the others got handmade scarflettes, hand felted jewelery and for the nomadic style of the brother, a handmade passport holder.

at one point i realized just how nice it was to stay out of the loud and obnoxious malls during the holidays on top of giving my family and friends the awesomeness that is one of a kind. i was invited to tag along for a few mall trips and happily declined. i figured if i'm not there to buy anything this year, i rather not be there at all. it genuinely felt pretty awesome to be able to give something entirely handmade and trust that this x-mas won't be the last :)