An imaginary boy on the moon

I've a mini IG sale in the works so i thought to give a little backstory to these few 

scarves up for grabs.

Back in 2001, i began a series of love letters written to no one in particular at first. 

Around the same time i had read for the first time The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Soon after followed a gorgeous novella of short letters by Canadian musician Hawksley Workman called Hawksley Burns for Isadora. 

These were major influences in the first handful of letters and i eventually conjured up an imaginary boy who lived on the moon. His name was simple and admittedly stemming from a favourite Smashing Pumpkins song, Spaceboy. 

Despite these letters being such a giant window into my silly heart, i always wanted to put these out into the world. My highschool librarian even let me sell little photocopied zines on her counter for a quarter.

With his name a whole universe was created. We wrote messages on moonbeams and used stars to signal to each other. My over sized heart bled and grew slowly like the twinkling birth of a galaxy over years and many notebooks. 

In my final year of textiles in between a quilt project, i was able to squeeze in a small batch of naturally dyed and silkscreened infinity scarves using these hundreds of letters. Out of the 30 or so of cotton lawn and cotton gauze, i've still another nine left so i thought with the relaunch of this funny little craft life, why not start with a heart tickler.

Keep an eye out on IG to snag one!

S♥V

a craft sale & new goodies!

next weekend is the date!

come out to Sheridan College (trafalgar campus) for the open house and craft sale from 9am to 4pm. you can find me there with all the new goodies i've been busy making this past month like patchwork zipper pouches in several sizes,

some pretty adorable wolf portraits ready to hang and watch over your true hearts

 and iphone hardcase packs which i'm probably most excited about!

in each themed pack you'll get one clear hardcase and  three interchangeable faceplates made with images from vintage textbooks and children's books.

i have packs for both iphone 4 and 5 whith themes from cowboy, shark, anatomy, hair and undersea. i can't wait to see how people will react to them.

also excited to be selling my wolf-moon knit hats, which i can not seem to stop making despite what my sore knitter knuckles may say.

there will only be a select few of these happy pom pomed goodies along with striped knitted hats and cowls. what better way to join a pack than with a happy pom pom?

i'll also have some old goodies like a few more spaceboy scarves which are naturally dyed and silkscreen with some love letters written to that imaginary boy who lives on the moon.

they're all light weight cotton and triple or double wrap infinity scarves, making it perfect for chilly spring or fall days.

i also came across a whole herd of pillow monster friends that were hiding in my petite workshop and they all need happy homes.

i always have a fun time at this sale but i'm especially excited with all the goodies i've made this time around. invite your friends and family to come say hello at my table and don't forget to check out all the open studios in the arts and crafts wing, it's where this funny little craftlife of mine stems from!

internally yours,

sister valentine

moundbound

when i first started out these Spaceboy letters they were in a way, somewhere my flooding heart can just bleed a little. i mean that that in a sap and love sense, my bum ticker has only so much room in this body till it gets a little antsy.
over the years, Spaceboy has grown into being such a part of me that when i look up at that superb moon, my heart's brain-stuff starts to tell me another story of when he and i were together just about everytime.

in the last few years there have been several people that has told me that the moon or wolves reminds them of me, some of them let me know of wolf doco's on netflix or moon and space activity.
i can't deny how much this tickles me, having such a tight heartstring to anything to do with the  moon/space or relating to wolves.
i've decided to run with this and having an itch to make some neato handbags, i was on the hunt for inspiration!

i had my first date with my new public library card and just before leaving, i came across this pretty fantastic visual reference book about space, i completely "clutched my pearls" when i first opened it.
this was exactly what i needed to get on these intergalactic handbags.
i needed to know the colors of the different gases that make up so much of what we don't see from down here, like the gorgeous clouds in a star cluster or the breathtaking trails left behind by supernovas.
since i can remember i thought that space and the images that we got from satellites were so mesmerizing.

in my somewhat frequent thrift "window shopping" i came across a decent amount of lightweight black canvas and a heavier weight light blue canvas, i thought both would be perfect to use as handbags but also for playing around with bleach painting.
i've always been tickled by the idea of bleach painting but the idea of using such a harsh chemical on the things i like to make always kind of pushed me the other way to trying it out... that is until now.
when my brains show me something this great, how can i NOT make it?

i still have to do a burn test to figure out the contents of each but it feels like mostly cotton which is exactly what i like to work with. i tried a little bit of watered down bleach on the blue, that gave me an idea of how to make the different values of the gas clouds but i know i need to experiment and sample a lot more.
the idea is to use the bleach painting to make those gas-like clouds and then go in using dyes (like dylon packs) to paint in the different colors. once the base is all set, then i'll use french knots and hand embroidery for stars...oh and maybe a few patchwork planets.
i'm still in the beginning stages of all of this but it is pretty exciting. being done with school has left me somewhat ADD with projects but i'll be focusing on this project for the next while.
as always, every step taken from having the thought i see in my brains to creating the real thing in my hands is making my bum ticker go all fluttery, yum!

the two things i'm hoping hard for will be that this work out as well as i think they should and to get accepted for the City of Craft december show!

one of the pics from my application: miniature crochet vile necklaces

we don't get word till September 15th of who gets in so please cross your fingers, eyes and hearts for me! i've wanted to do a City of Craft fair for a good solid year now and without schooling taking over my life this year, i'm able to apply. can i get a woop woop?

before i cut out, i must mention the wonderful trading adventures i've gotten myself into with some talented ladies. 

my fellow craftmate and ladyfriend Sarah Dee and i agreed on a trade. partly 'cause i wanted to do a trade with her before she left for home and also 'cause her shoe collection was not the greatest. not so much style as much as just having hand-me-downs or way used and even an entire size larger.
being the helpful strawberry type, i just had to help her out and thought these shoes would be just dandy.
i drew the happy birdy and the bubble pipe on tracing paper to pin to the shoes, surprisingly it was easier than i thought to embroider it all. oh yea and the lyrics are from an adorable Glass Beef song miss Sarah would always (and i mean always) sing around me.

the next trade i'm currently working on i can't show too much of 'cause then it'll ruin the surprise of the trade...which is kind of the goody part about doing trades. i will say that i took something from my sketchbook.

i "met" miss Jen of the Humble Carnival via instagram. she had posted asking if anyone was up for a trade and i couldn't say no. i've done two over border trades and it's always a treat to get in touch with the fellow crafters up in here. (by here i mean earth, imagine an alien craft trade?)
i was still in embroidery-mode after Sarah's shoes so i kept at it for this one but with yarn this time. i'm always surprised how the back can be just as interesting as the front.
i'll post again when i have more progress on these space bags and trades, promise.

internally yours,
sister valentine