Monday, November 9, 2009

Zenspirations by Joanne Fink

WOW! I had the *best* time yesterday at the workshop put on by Joanne Fink. It was like decorated versals merge with zentangles and more! Joanne's workshop was called Zenspirations and was it ever!
Joanne is a terrific instructor. She was very organized, had wonderful handouts, and first quality supplies. What I really liked was that she shared so generously with her handouts so that once the workshop was done, you really have a good reference packet to use on your own. The workshop was extremely well layed out - meaning each step was useful and fun and did not waste any time. We got right to creating and I felt I had learned a great deal when the workshop was over and every minute was very well used.
The great thing about Joanne's Zenspirations is it really takes the idea of zentangles one step further. There are so many ways you can apply what Joanne taught. I was always intrigued with zentangles but hadn't made the leap yet because I didn't know what use it would have to me other than a fun time-eater and Lord knows I don't need anymore of those! :-) If you ever have the opportunity to take this workshop with Joanne - DO IT!
We started by learning some basic zentangle like patterns. Then we learned how to apply these to a series of curved lines. Here's my first go:
We then learned how to apply them to versal like capitals. The fun part is the letters are a series of sketched lines so if you make a mistake, you can correct it with another line. It takes away a lot of the pressure of trying to get perfect letter forms. To me, that is the zen part. You can create without worry! Here's a "K" which was one of my first letters.Finally, we learned a little playful technique with sakura gel pens.

Can't wait to play more!
Until next time...

Erica















Thursday, November 5, 2009

Zentangle Conference - yahooo!

I'm going to the Zentangle Monograms conference taught by Joanne Fink in Orlando! I am so excited. It's been so long since I've been to a calligraphy workshop - years even!

I have never done zentangle although I've heard about it. So I watched some videos on line and read some stuff on it and gave it a try last night with a ball point pen and regular copy paper. I think I'm really going to enjoy it!
It is complete coincidence that when I turned my paper, this looked like a woman's profile! I'll share what I do in the workshop when I get back.

Truly,
Erica






Monday, November 2, 2009

Water Bottle Carriers

I gave these as gifts to the teachers last year. I loved how they came out. You can get the pattern for free here at Pink Chalk Studio. I think the teachers liked them. I also made them for Mother's day. I added the little beading accent. I wish I could have found bottles to match all the colors but no such luck. Do you know how hard it is to find decent water bottles that don't cost a fortune?! UGH! Anyway, I made myself one, too! :-)








Monday, October 26, 2009

Candy Corn Witch

For those of you hoping to only see lettering here, I have to apologize. I was trying to decide if I should separate out my personal projects from my lettering and I finally decided I would keep it altogether. Sorry! You'll just have to weed through the stuff that doesn't interest you! :-)

So this past week my daughter and her best friend decided they wanted to be candy corn witches for their halloween party. This was fine except all the local stores had sold out of the costume and the adult version was wayyyy too risque for my taste and for my 12 year old!

I agreed to make both of their costumes. What was I thinking? Oh, probably the same thing I think any time I am met with a challenge - I can totally do this! It would have been fine except the girls found out they would need me to make the costumes on Friday morning and we were hosting 15 people for dinner for my mom's birthday on Friday night!

So I ran like a crazy person all day getting stuff done and went to JoAnn's and bought all the fabric after I sat down and sketched out the idea. This was not easy as I could not find a pattern to modify so I had to wing it all on my own! Yikes!

We had a wonderful dinner party and said goodbye to all of our guests around 10ish. I sat down to the sewing machine and had a 15 hour costume sewing marathon. That's right - I pulled an all-nighter. I can't remember when it was exactly but at some point I think around 2, I realized if I went to bed, I would never finish in time for the Halloween party the next day.

So I sewed and cut and measured - wait reverse that. I'm still a little sleep deprived! But ... drum roll ... I did it! The girls were thrilled. They loved their costumes and I was happy to do it. I crashed at 3:30 in the afternoon and didn't wake up until 6 o'clock Sunday morning! Phew! What a weekend! But it's done...

Here is the sketch I did as well as the finished costumes... Hope there are other moms out there as crazy as I am that can appreciate it!

Truly,
Erica


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Final fishies

I thought I would post a picture of the final fish project. These are hung in the window of our kitchen. The gloss made a big difference. The fun thing is they gently sway and rotate so they look really dynamic in an otherwise dull space. The cats are going nuts! :-)
Happy Thursday!






My first American Greetings job

I just completed my first gig for American Greetings. I am thrilled to be doing freelance for one of the top greeting card companies in the world! It was a great learning experience and just this one job has improved my "contemporary" lettering already.

It's slightly embarrassing to admit my first attempts were less than stellar. But the senior lettering designer was so patient and extremely helpful. His direction was excellent and I was able to accomplish what he was looking for. PHEW!

This is straight lettering - no illustration or card design - so it is done in black and white. Hard to imagine these two lines took me well over a 40 hour work week, 6 nibs, a full jar of McCaffery's, and two reams of paper! But the practice will certainly help in getting my style up to speed.

So here it is ... look for it in a major retailer near you next Father's Day!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Second Beading Attempt - Dragonfly Ornaments

I saw this great ornament on this site: Dragonfly Ornament.

Dragonfly Ornament.Looking for terrific Art and Craft Ideas? To make these lovely dragonfly ornaments, see the tutorial and photos on the How To Arts and Crafts.com website.


I wanted to make an ornament to donate to our Art Center to sell at their craft fair.

Wow - this was hard! I couldn't get the wire to stay smooth. And it was very time consuming. But I had fun. I chose to do silver instead of gold. The directions were great. I would not have been able to make it without all the photos.

Truly,
Erica