Cupcakes in My Mail!

I absolutely love getting things in the mail, except bills. I've been checking the mail a lot this week ...waiting for CUPCAKES!

I was soooo excited to receive my very own Little Cupcake Notebooks from Scout Books! They came out even better than I had hoped! Scout Books is based out of Portland where they do all sorts of beautiful work and print these babies with Soy Ink on 100% recycled paper!

One of my goals for this year is to create some products with existing artwork. (You may recognize these cupcakes from my East vs. West food pattern). I typically create work and then as soon as its done I'm sick of it. On the upside I'm constantly working on new stuff!

I've found that reproducing my work allows me to see it anew. Whether that be photography, printing it on fabric or changing the imagery slightly. Do other people feel this way?

Anyways, I'm absolutely smitten with these! I added them to my Etsy shop right away.

I found out this week that I've got a spot in the RISD Alumni Spring Sale so I'm starting to stock up!

These also just in! I've been sort of obsessed with this color palette of neutrals+ neon. I feel like I'm seeing it everywhere. Maybe its just a good transition from the blahs of Winter to the brightness of Spring. Not that I think neutrals are blah.... just dirty snow.

I'm also obsessed with stationary, even though I rarely get to use it... :( I guess it makes sense that I would enjoy creating my own stationary for people to send through the mail. I thought the cupcake pad looked very nice with these envelopes from PaperSource , the Japanese Washi tape and this super cute cake eraser I received for x-mas!

It made me want to sit down and write a letter or bake.... I can't decide which! But with Valentine's Day approaching I should be prepared to do both. You can get your own cupcake notepads here. I'm also hoping to make some matching stickers, so keep your eyes peeled!

Pie in your Eye

This time last year I was still in Japan. Although I was thankful that my family was able to come visit me, I was also missing my bf, friends and delicious American traditions that I had taken for granted... such as pie!

This year I tried my best to make up for it!

A friend recently told me that they had never tried pumpkin pie, he didn't see the point in finding another dessert he might enjoy but have to eat sparingly. Booo... 1st of all Pumpkin pie is the healthiest of pies! 2nd, it is truly the most American pie, I would argue more so than Apple! 3rd its a crime to live in New England and never had tried one... a crime against Paul Revere, Norman Rockwell, and Tom Brady. (They are quintessential New Englanders)

So yeah.. These are pies my sister made for the holidays and I enjoyed each of them! This post is a little late, as are my Holidays Cards sitting on my desk... le sigh. But this year I will try to do better.

Providence Patterns

I first came to Rhode Island on a college visit. I explored the city nervously, trying to picture myself here as an art student for the next four years. After a tour of the campus and wandering around I fell in love with Providence's architecture and of course RISD.

Since 2003 I've been living here on and off again (yikes!) There are definitely times when I take it for granted, or forget my initial reaction to the city of Providence.

Visiting Japan was a similar experience. Everything looked so different; the buildings, people and transportation are all scaled smaller. Tall people might find this disconcerting... but I loved being able to reach the handholds in the subway.

I also loved living in the picturesque countryside of Kyoto. No matter how grumpy I felt a quick ride on my bike always brightened my mood. There is really nothing better than casually biking past fragrant fields of rice, vegetables, streams and small houses. I also developed an affinity for the surrounding mountains, they offered a fantastic backdrop and landmark visible from almost anywhere in the city.

At first when I came back I had to fight the urge to point out how different everything is in the US. "Look at my giant coffee!" "Can you believe how loud those people are talking?" Coming back allowed me to see Providence with fresh eyes and of course appreciate the time I spent in Japan. ( The blue painted under porches in New England always makes me smile)

With that in mind I felt compelled to draw patterns of Kyoto and Providence for my East vs. West collection. Here's my Providence drawings...

After coloring it in the computer and about 3 trials of printing and tweaking the colors:

And a close up!

Here's the Kyoto side complete with trains and mountains!

Yay trains!

The fabrics were printed and being sewn into reversible totes, mostly so you don't have to pick one over the other.

They are for sale in my etsy store! A few other items are there that I made for the sale Claire and I did around Thanksgiving. The sale was a bust but at least I got a lot of work done!

Hurrah for getting things done!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Lately, I've been obsessed with the moon and the early stages of NASA. I've been reading lots of great books about space: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. She asks all the right questions; who makes the food that goes into space? How do bathrooms work in space? Does space smell after 2 weeks? Her books are always written with a fun sense of curiosity and I always learn a ton of interesting facts. Here's an amazing poster of the moon that I've put up in the studio. It's from a 1969 National Geographic.

Between all the reading and documentary watching I've been wondering if there was a piece I could do about the moon or the 1960's. So when Etsy announced their joint contest with NASA it felt like perfect timing. The winner would get to see an actual shuttle launch and might even have their winning entry sent into space !! How cool is that? Anyways, I started sketching out various things related to NASA; shuttles, lunar modules, astronauts, and ham the chimp! I decided it would be fun to make a space pattern and sew it into something functional such as a laptop case!

I wanted the lining to look like a control panel, this one is pretty closely based off of the Apollo command module.

After studying the construction of popular laptop cases, I decided to create one that zipped 1/2 way down the side allowing easy removal of the laptop. You also can see and appreciate the lining more!

Here's a close up:

When I entered my case in the NASA contest I was hoping to make it to the voting stage, so I could rally friends and family to vote for me. I didn't get in and I was pretty bummed about it. Soon after, I saw this: Moon Embroidery, which also didn't make it to voting. I thought this piece was extremely innovative and beautiful. I couldnt imagine why it wasn't in the contest either. After linking to it yesterday, it appears there was some sort of glitch with the voting system, so who knows what happened...

Despite all that I'm glad I designed the fabric and made this! It's up for sale on Etsy and fits a 13" mac. I'm going to photograph some other stuff I've finished and put it up for sale sometime this week!

I'm pretty happy with how my case turned out! I'd never put in a zipper like this or done work with padding before but I managed! If you or someone you know is obsessed with space why not get them a sweet laptop case for the holidays? ; )

I've been so busy the last few weeks sewing for my first Craft Fair with my sister and finishing up a piece for They Draw And Cook's Holiday Contest.

Food for the Fall

Mmmmm squash... Although it didn't come to me via csa, I thought it deserved a little celebration. I've been indulging a lot in foods I missed last year while living in Japan. (squash, mac and cheese, risotto, hot chocolate, apple cider, roasted veggies) There was plenty of squash in Japan, but it was never pureed or roasted. Speaking of which... I'm a little behind on the veggie drawings. Here's a squash study for a Butternut Squash, Sage and Bacon soup.
Butter is so hard to paint!

I've been busy mailing out promo cards, visiting A.P.E in San Francisco (more on that later) and trying to finish up patterns in my East vs. West series. I'm hoping to sew them into lovely totes for the holidays!

I've also been busy creating work for contests lately! Including: They Draw and Cook's Holiday Recipe contest! This is a blog I've recently stared following and has become a fast favorite. They feature recipes from artists all over the world! Their contest will feature favorite holiday food recipes over the month of December and one will be featured each day on The Food Network, which would be great exposure! I love cooking at the holidays but I'm not sure what I should draw for this... any ideas? What are your favorite dishes to eat?

Okay well that's it for now. I'm still working on a post with favorite purchases from the Alternative Press Expo but I might lump it together with the NY Art book fair, which I'm going to check out this weekend! Also the YOSHITOMO NARA show! If your in NY and want to catch up, come by the Art book fair! (It's free!)

Garlic and Vampires

Garlic and Onions are not the most exciting veggies, but they can definitely supply a lot of flavor. I decided to give these bulbs some credit and paint them on an Autumn like cloth. 3 weeks left of the CSA and I've done 12 veggie drawings so far!
Next week I'll be heading to the West Coast to check out A.P.E, the Alternative Press Expo. (Think Comic Con but with zines and small publishing companies) It looks like they will have some great speakers; including Lynda Barry and Daniel Clowes! I'm staying with my Aunt which is always fun and hopefully I can meet up with some friends, bloggers and potential clients. I've been busy putting together little zine like portfolio's I can hand out.

I can't believe its already October... I'm starting to plan an elaborate Halloween costume to make up for last year's complete absence of Halloween. Something involving a tiny red hat I picked up in Harajuku. If you like Halloween, vampires and fabric depicting them then head on over to Spoonflower. I entered this week's contest. Vote for my Vampires!

I missed the Kawaii competition that I desperately wanted to enter. So, I decided to make this a kawaii/vampire fabric. You might say that crosses and gravestones aren't cute... But that's cause you haven't seen a sleepy coffin or a crying stake.

Voting is up this week till October 13th! And while your there check out all the other awesome fabric people have made! Maybe I should do a post on my favorites sometime soon.... hmm

Patterns

I'm a big lover of patterns. My apartment and wardrobe are filled with stripes, polka dots, florals etc... I decided I should learn how to make my own patterns. With a little help from a friend I learned how to put my pattern into repeat on the computer. (proving once again that knowing the right way to do something saves time and frustration) And so with my new skills I am going to create a fun series of patterns based on my favorite things from American and Japanese culture. But wait... there's more!
One of my favorite finds in Japan was a small tote I got in a fashion magazine, it was reversible: one side gold and shiny, the other side floral (two of my favorite things together). I got tremendous use out of the bag because of its flexibility and it inspired me to make this tote.

For the American pattern I included the snack foods I really missed while abroad: coffee, berries, pretzels, and cupcakes. I didn't include everything I missed for fear of the pattern repeat being 2'x2'. For the Japanese side I drew: sweet potatoes, oranges (mikan), persimmons (kaki), chestnuts, tea, green tea ice cream, snacks filled with red bean paste, dumplings (nikuman) and a large variety of mochi. I was so excited when my fabric arrived from Spoonflower!

Here's the pattern all cut out!

I sewed together my prototype bag and showed it off all weekend!
Here's the Japanese side:

Here's the American side:

It was really exciting to see something I drew on fabric. Some parts were a little darker than I want so I'll tweak them. Soon after though I will have these babies up on my Etsy shop for sale and the fabric will also be available on Spoonflower. If you haven't already checked out Spoonflower then I suggest you do. They have a wide variety of fabrics you can print on, the quality is great and its a lot of fun to see what other fabrics people come up with and vote in their contests! I'm working on the next set of prints which will be landscapes; one of Providence and one of the rural parts of Kyoto (where I was staying).