Blinking Flights

My Creative Space

My creative space is all about catching up at the moment! Doing the markets every week is pretty full on, you never know how much you will sell & you never know exactly what people are after. Last weekend, I sold out of boys, the week before I didn't sell one single boy!


I'm loving the new fabrics I got from Riyo at the markets on Saturday!
And did you notice that just when I said I wasn't making any more bugs, the ones like I used to make with the felt antennas, I found myself in the middle of about 3! I guess I just like them, they're so colourful...




I'm very good at stating things... not sure if these critters will be ready by the weekend though!

Eeeeek! Birds requiring faces!

More creative spaces at Kootoyoo!
Hope your Thursday is good and productive!
B.

My Creative Space

Well, I took these photos yesterday afternoon, and already they seem out of date! I did a lot of sewing & screen-printing last night, and I have something which I think is supercool to show, hopefully I'll get to take some more photos soon... she's ALMOST finished... plus there is a new toy which I can't show until Kimberly has hers-- part of a giveaway I've just done.






Aven, Lars & Andrew-- Joe wants to keep Lars (the one with the glasses).




Millicent.

More Creative Spaces at Kootoyoo. I hope yours is filled with the kind of exciting buzz that mine seems to be at the moment-- I'm feeling productive!

Have a great Thursday!
B.

My Creative Space

Well, things are really busy around here after having a whole 36hrs off the job this week! And my creative space is mostly related to market preparation...

I have bought a market tent/gazebo thingo, I have 2 tables, I'm making up signage, and finishing up some new little fleecy guys and gals. I'm also printing as much as I can, and trying really hard to be really organised...


I've made up a whole batch of memo holders to hold my price tags, thanks to Mitsy and her tutorial (and ingenuity!) :) I'll post photos of the actual finished product soon.


A little blonde... and a Frenchie too! Awesome fabric again from Mayumi.




And I'm loving this colour! It's the one I'm using for my market banner, so stay tuned!


More Creative Spaces at and through Kootoyoo as always!
B.

And just a little note about my PIF a day:
I announced a couple of days ago that I will be selling 1 item a day in my Etsy Shop for 50c plus the price of postage. I had written a little note about etiquette with that post, but I'm going to have to go one step further and say that:

If a person purchases more than 2 items this way, I will be canceling their transaction because I want to share it around a bit, and let everyone have a turn... that's part of the fun.

In light of this, it might be wise not to simply buy something because it is cheap, there will be a variety items go up for sale... and there are still 33 days left to go... you don't want to waste your chance on something that doesn't really float your boat now do you!?

My Creative Space

My desk-- it might look a little messy to you, but the fact that you see the table is a good sign to me!

Little faces: because I've been sick, I've been doing lots of hand sewing on the lounge, and lots of idea sketching! I've got big plans for these little woolen faces!




And Meg brought over this doll for me to be inspired by. She got it in Japan 20 years ago and it's very precious to her, so I'm feeling a little flattered... I love the kissy-lips most of all!


And I'm loving the Amy Karol book that I got from the library so much. I made this little clutch from a Millicent patch... with sweet lady beetle lining inside!




More Creative Spaces at and through Kootoyoo!
Get some inspiration!

B.

My Creative Space

Well... my creative space has been the focus of my life this week. Since I got home from the markets I have pulled a lot of things apart around here, and I think the influence of The Toy Society has been good, I have given away so much stuff, stuff I was hoarding for ridiculous reasons, like maybe one day, I might do more uni on something that interested me briefly seven years ago... so my creative space has been a crazy, chaotic mess of everything I love, or did love, no matter how fleetingly. I've also been suffering from this adherence to how my apartment should look, like have the dinning table in an orthodox spot, Joe pushing his sculpture equipment out of the way, me having an extra bed set up just in case, and the way my fabric was organised was atrocious, I would neatly pack it all up and put it in the cupboard, and it would be out and all over my desk within ten minutes of starting a new project.

Sewing space in the middle of all the pulling apart.

So I was thinking, I need to admit who I actually am, how I work, and build my space around that. The dinning table is now set up for screen printing, not eating, and so people who come over will know that I eat at the coffee table... so what. I got rid of all the education textbooks I used last year in the dip ed, because someone else can use them, and I'm not, no matter how many hundreds of dollars they cost me. I moved the stereo, which sad to say I rarely use these days, and replaced it with all the beautiful, big, hardcover art books Joe and I own, which had been sitting at the top of the linen cupboard, neglected for just over 2 years now. Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Whitely, Dada, street art, Russian Expressionism, here we come. And one of Joe's beautiful landscape paintings has taken centre stage in the lounge room. This place is looking more like a workspace with some living areas in it, and that's what it really is. We don't ever really just sit around and chill out, we are always making, reading, looking at pictures, testing, doing, and so we need to be able to use every square inch effectively.

And it feels good! I'll take photos when everything is sorted.

Hope Friday is good for you, and remember to check out all the other creative spaces at and through Kootoyoo!

B.

my creative space & stuff!

Well, I have another market to go to tomorrow. This time, Glebe, hoping that it's better than Bondi, and that the weather is a little more palatable there than it has been here... sunny, but oh so windy! Most of my creative time has been zapped up with preparation, but I do try to use every second available to me, and this is how I've been using it...

I have 3 tubs full of toys and I've also been making up some pot-holders to sell. I've been making my way through my scraps tub, hence all the patchwork, and I've also been using up screen-printing seconds, and I've used a woolen blanket in the middle, that I bought from the op shop for making dolls quilts with, so it's all quite efficient and environmentally sound!

Tom Yum Vegetarian soup from the 3 Mangoes on Enmore Rd (in Enmore), makes my heart swoon!

Yes, and this is the unfinished tub... some just need a few stitches, some need a whole lot of doings!

Look at the cool stamps that I bought from Jess. Pretty excited about using these, I just need some ink.

And I'm busting to make this little hat from the Amy Karol book. It's too cute!


And I've started working on a new toy, Miss. Panda!

I've also been busy trying to get together a bit of a network for crafty types down here in the Gong, and so I've been emailing, setting up a new twitter account, some flickr stuff and another blog in relation to that. If you know anyone is this region of NSW, please pass on my contact details and the blog address: here. Pretty please with a cherry on top!

B, x.

My Creative Space..

My creative space today has been a mix of disappointing photo emulsion attempts... not enough sun or patience... I'm trying to make some screens up but I'm not having much luck today.

Hopefully Millicent will appear on fabric some time soon, and hopefully the rain and greyness will leave me alone!

And I've finally forced myself back into opening Fireworks, and I will soon open Dreamweaver and HTML up my website, which I've been really, really, really (really) lazy about... I've changed the design about a gazillion times, but I'm happy with this one:

Nothing too exciting going on, other than embroidery and bingeing on hours and hours of Mad Men. I love it. I love Peggy and I love Don. And I hate Pete!

Check out more creative spaces @ and via Kootoyoo. I love the little doll that Nan @ rummage has made, it's very sweet!

B.

My Creative Space

I'm back! I forgot about this fun post last week... which is a shame, cause it's one of my favourites... I like snooping around and looking at everyone's pictures, and everyone had hearts hidden in their theirs last week... I would have liked to join in on that!

Ok, so this is what's happening around here this week, or today at least! This is my ironing board, and it's the centre of the bug production process right now... I make the bodies, the heads, the faces, the hands then the antennae, and then I piece them all together and give them a back piece. I'm up to the most exciting and tantalising part of the game, which is piecing them, then sewing them, then pulling them out the right way, and seeing a new little bug come to life... I get all ahead of myself here, and go from controlled adherer to a simple production line, to a giddy person who throws order out the window, and has some bugs stuffed and tagged, whilst others wait patiently for their peripheral organs or limbs...

I've also just finished sewing and stuffing a batch of small toys all made from the pattern I used to make Gordon. This little mouse is amongst my favourites from this June batch, as they've become known.

And the chronicle of the printing continues... we're fumbling around with photo emulsion, and whilst things still aren't perfect, they seem to be getting better with every attempt. We're looking for some better fabric paint, our local art store only stocks one brand, and we think it's a little gluggy... any suggestions from printing enthusiasts would be seriously listened to and appreciated... so please pretty please... ANY ADVICE? or even links to good sites/tutorials and I'll love you forever and forever!

And, yes, all my creations are very much into the Eels (the band), they are bliss!

All this plus the entire first season of Mad Men on DVD are going to be making for a seriously intense creative space over the next couple of days!

More spaces at Kootoyoo.

Cheers,

B.

My Creative Space

Well, today is going to be a non-event for productivity... the house is a mess, even for me, and I need to spend some time really cleaning, tidying and ordering things... my brain always works better when the space is ordered, but the way I create is to pull things out of their 'away space', and mix colours and look at fabrics, and look at books, and compare old designs... and generally make a huge mess.

This is what you'll find around the place at the moment...

1. Lots of sketches... they seem to be multiplying around here...

2. Some fabric I printed using a photo emulsion screen. It's no where near perfect, but it's a vast improvement on the last time I used the emulsion, so I will stick at it!

3. A Ruby Doll I'm making for the Craft Hope project: dolls for girls living in an orphanage in South America.

4. Some fabric I have no idea what to do with, but could not resist whilst Etsy shopping a little while ago...

5. And of course, there are new bugs arriving all the time! This one is a little baby bug, inspired by the 'premmy' cabbage patch I had as a kid, made using cotton and Japanese linen.

More creative spaces as always at Kootoyoo!

Well, I'm off to clean and cook a big quiche for my Grandmother's birthday! Wish me luck!

B, x.

My Creative Space... better late than never!

With everything that has been going on my life the last couple of days, I didn't get a chance to post my creative space yesterday, and since it's one of favourite things to post and read, I though I'd stick it up late rather than miss out!

Well, I trained it up to Sydney yesterday to see my folks, my poor Dad in hospital having eye surgery, and my poor Ma who is obviously worried sick about him, and about the pace of life in Sydney and getting around the city while its pouring rain and miserable... So my creative space consisted of packing up one of the little 'cute as a button' clutch purses that I made from a pattern in the Meet me at Mike's book, taking some embroidery thread, little felt bug faces and some needles and scissors and making up bug faces on the train, in the hospital, in the motel and well, anywhere that I had some time to do so!

Got some strange looks from teenagers, but have realised since I stopped being one, that their opinions are generally not worth worrying about ;-)

Check Kootoyoo for more creative spaces, and check her Words and Pictures for a very nice post on the word 'Careful'.

Goodnight!

B.