SCRAP ART Show

Today I dropped off my two art pieces at the Arc Gallery in San Francisco's SOMA district. I saw a lot of wonderful artwork being dropped off. Jenny Morningstar is doing a fantastic job of curating the show and I  can't wait for the opening on Friday night. The variety of work was very broad. The show is title SCRAP ART presented byscrap-sf.org.

There will be art work made with objects from SCRAP at this exhibition. The drop off day was today.

My funky airmail envelopes!

Last night I was looking at a tutorial on creativebug.com that was taught by Christine Schmidt on making airmail stamps. I bought Christine's book Print Workshop when it came out a couple of years ago. I also own a lot of her great rubber stamps. Here are my handmade rubber-stamps inspired by the tutorial on Creativebug.

                                                                               

I bought a eraser stamp at Daiso for $1.50. You can buy other carving blocks
but I wanted to try using inexpensive materials for this project and it worked just fine.
 The cutting tools are Speedball linoleum cutters.

                                                                           

These are the two sets of stamps I carved mounted with rubber cement on blocks of wood.

This is where I did my version of the airmail stamps. I decided I wanted to have two colors so I carved my first stamp with three marks on it leaving enough SPACE in between for the single stamp.  The second stamp was a single mark. This is an easy way to get two colors on the envelope.

I used the "three mark" stamp with the blue ink pad trying to get close to the edge of the envelope.

The next step is to use  the single airmail "mark" stamp with a red ink pad and stamp
in between the blue "marks".

Here are some of the finished stamped envelopes with my new stamps.

                                                                             
 I used craft paper envelopes and used an airmail stamp I found at raft.net. I didn't trust myself to cut out letters! I am not accurate enough or skilled enough for the linoleum cutters. As you can see I made two sets of stamps. The first one the airmail "marks" are wider and the second one I made was skinnier. I plan to make a third more accurate set but as usual  when I see an idea and I want to make it FAST and now. My version is pretty funky but definitely one of a kind envelopes for mail art!

Here is the great book by Christine Schmidt called Print Workshop showing
all sorts of hand printing techniques including making rubber stamps.

O'hanlon Center for the Arts

Join me this Sunday November 11, 2012 for a Repurposed Book workshop at the O'hanlon Center for the Arts
10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
www.ohanloncenter.org

Give a discarded book a new life!!
Stretch the limits of a creativity and repurpose a book for all sort of great projects.

Make cut and paste cards, a photo holder or paper sculptures in this workshop.

Day of the Dead Workshop

Join me at Ruth's Table this Friday the 26th of August from 6- 8 pm for a Day of the Dead Altar making workshop.
We will have a lot of material available to have everyone build altars. You can bring your own mementos from home to used to honor your loved ones. Last year Aiko Cuneo lead this workshop and I will lead it this year.

These are some of the Day of the Dead Altars made last year at Ruth's Table workshop. Every altar
was different and wonderful.

A resident of the Bethany House where Ruth's Table is located makes her altar.

I made this simple Day of the Dead Altar yesterday. I used a box lid and added the handmade flowers that
I made at the Mission Cultural Center made out of crepe paper. I made my own rubber stamp that I carved
using a large eraser bought at the Daiso $ store. I made a print of it. While I cannot draw very well the crudeness of my drawn skeleton looks a little like a wood block in my opinion.

Cempazuchitl Flower workshop

Last Saturday I walked with my friend Dorothy to the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in the San Francisco Mission District. I have passed this center for years and this was my first time inside. We attended a Day of the Dead Workshop where we learned how to make Cempazuchitl flower known as the "flowers of the dead". These flowers are used to decorate the Dia De Los Muertos altars to honor loved ones that have passed away.

           

We started making the flower by scrunching and crinkling the crepe paper. We cut little triangle across the top.

Dora Luz Sanabria the instructor shows Dorothy her method of folding the flower.

You then add the 24 guage floral wire for the stem.

Using floral tape the flowers bottom and stem are wrapped to finish the flowers.

The finished wrappped marigold. Now just spread out the flower gently with your fingers to desired "bloom".

The finished Cempazuchitl flowers.

Terrarium Class Workshop

Join my daughter Elana and her friend Annakai-- aka the Succulent Sisters. www.succulentsister.wordpress.com -- -They are having a terrarium making workshop

in Mill Valley, CA.  on Sunday the 14th at the O'hanlon Center for the Arts. Check out ohanloncenter.org for more details on the class.

Craft, Cocktails and Cake-Toppers

Last week I invited five friends to attend a crafting party at Chronicle Books. It was hosted by Creative Bug and Hello Lucky. It was nice to see Julie Roehm, Jeanne Lewis and Kelly Wilkinson of Creative Bug. Check out Creative Bug for great online tutorials!  I couldn't wait to see the demo by Hello Lucky owners Eunice and Sabrina Moyle. I love their letter press cards! I forgot my camera so my iphone documented this event. It was a fun evening of craft, friends and cupcakes. You can' beat that!

Watching a demo of the cake toppers.

I love Chronicle Books. I have both of Hello Lucky's book. Even though I  don't
plan on getting married again I get great ideas from their Handmade Wedding book for
other occasions.

I captured someones cake topper. I had to finish mine at home since it was so crowded.

Coffee filter flowers..all over the room