Iron City Alchemy

IT MIGHT BE A PYRAMID

2013-02-10T13:41:00.002-08:00

I've been thinking about this post recently. It's because, while half-heartedly browsing the internet for reasonable writing jobs the other day, I once again stumbled into the bizarre world known as online marketing. That's actually kind of a deceptive name, because mostly it seems like a pyramid scheme. Maybe. Specifically, I found a link to Wealthy Affiliate, with the promise of a free

THEY DRAW AND COOK: WILD VIOLET SYRUP

2013-01-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to submit something to They Draw & Cook, and I realized that my violet syrup from last spring would be a great candidate for illustration. I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I'm auctioning the original of this drawing off on my Facebook page now.

DRAWING LAB #11: KIND OF BLIND

2013-01-27T15:24:00.001-08:00

I'm not going to lie, I have sort of been putting off working on Drawing Lab. Actually, that was technically a lie. I've been massively, completely putting it off. I blame exercise number 10, which was drawing blind contours of random people in a coffee shop. For one thing, I pretty much hate blind contour drawings of anything, and for another, staring fixedly at someone you don't know while

POST-NATAL YOGA

2013-01-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

I don't tend to make New Year's resolutions just for the hell of it. Who needs another obligation, especially right after Christmas? But this year it was unavoidable, because of yoga. Yoga and I have a history. At this point it's actually ancient history, or pre-kids anyway which is pretty much the same thing. I still tend to think of myself as a yoga person, though, which got a little awkward

REBLOGGING

2013-01-23T22:49:00.001-08:00

I haven't blogged in over three months. When that happens, it's always harder to start again. I feel compelled to apologize or explain, even though I know no one minds but me. Actually, it might even be me that I feel like apologizing to - to my concept of myself as a blogger, maybe. Bloggers don't just disappear for three months. I feel like I need to legitimize myself with promises for the

CROW PRAYER FLAGS

2012-09-18T13:59:00.005-07:00

I'm really excited to be sharing this project, because it's something I've been thinking about for over ten years. Actually, when I started thinking about animal prayer flags, it was seahorses... but now I couldn't really imagine choosing anything but crows. Anyway, I drew these crows and made them into a Spoonflower design, which people can order and use to make their own DIY flags.

STREWING: MINECRAFT

2012-07-29T20:42:00.002-07:00

So, we've been playing a lot of Minecraft around here. By we I mostly mean River, but it does rub off on everyone. Violet really likes to sing the song TNT, for example. There is a fair amount of staring at the computer, but it's not just staring at the computer (it pretty much never is). We get huge murals of the Minecraft creatures on a near-daily basis, for one thing. We've also delved into

NOCTURNAL (LEARN NOTHING DAY)

2012-07-24T13:39:00.004-07:00

Learn Nothing Day started today at 12:00 AM (I know, because I was there). Less than an hour later I had totally blown my chances for the year by watching a detective show, from which I accidentally learned a few things about guns and submarines. Meanwhile, River was teaching himself things about how to build better lego monsters. Seriously, they were much more realistic than the last ones I saw

ZODIAC (IN PROGRESS)

2012-06-30T17:44:00.001-07:00

DRAWING LAB #9: LEFT-HANDED RIVER

2012-06-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

I really don't have much to say about this week's drawing assignment. I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to art, so drawing with my non-dominant hand is...not my favorite. I practiced on my family so that no one could get too offended; River came out the best. Think I'm gonna skip the part where I add sketches of everyone I've ever met :)

DRAWING LAB #8: DIRTY BIRD

2012-06-16T19:59:00.003-07:00

I've had a crazy couple of months - maybe I'll write a post about it some day. Short version: I'm really behind on sketching and blogging. Today I got back on the Drawing Lab train. I was supposed to make some random watercolor squiggles and then find an animal in there. While I was working on my three attempts, I kept waiting for this exercise to become my favorite like the others kept

KALI YOGA

2012-06-06T18:37:00.002-07:00

This thing is giant in person. Giant! That's probably why it took me a month to finish :)

DRAWING LAB #7: MIXED MEDIA MONKEY

2012-04-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a jump on my next drawing assignment. Look at me! I'm almost caught up. This project was a monkey, drawn with four very different tools. I chose an indigo marker, two colored pens and blue watercolor. I was sketching at a coffee shop, so my weird media actually got a bit weirder when I realized I'd forgotten my paintbrush. Paint applied with a napkin turned out better than expected

DRAWING LAB #6: 20 BLACK DOGS

2012-04-25T17:07:00.002-07:00

I have to confess that I skipped exercise #5. It was an extension of the zoo assignment, and there was no way I was going to the zoo to draw two weeks in a row. Also, it was about using pencils of lots of different kinds, and I am a horrible pencil snob. Not only do I use mechanical pencils exclusively, I actually turn the point around to use the sharp part of the lead. So. Exercise six was to

NEW PROJECTS

2012-04-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I've had some interesting commissions recently, the most recent of which was my first logo. It's for "Hello, Baby!" doula service, so I was thinking about cute babies right away, and rabbits just sort of seemed to fit the theme. Also, Google image search confirmed that nursing baby bunnies are truly adorable. I played around with a few different sketches, though, and in the end we

ANGRY BIRDS, LAZY DAYS

2012-04-21T19:06:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted about my awesome kids recently, have I? River has spent most of the past year immersed in the world of construction, but apparently construction is now over. The theme for this spring has been video games. Angry Birds, Mario, Minecraft, and more Angry Birds, mostly. The thing that intrigues me most about this is that while he does spend a lot of time playing games (and

DRAWING LAB #4: ZOOPHILIA

2012-04-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

This week (ok, let's be honest, last week) my drawing exercise was to sketch at the zoo. I wasn't that excited about going by myself, so I asked River if he wanted to draw at the zoo with me. He was pretty excited about it until he realized I meant draw animals. His favorite thing to draw right now is Minecraft stuff, i.e. anything made out of squares. While I was drawing, I was thinking

WILD VIOLET SYRUP

2012-04-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'm always amazed at the plants that suddenly show up at my house. For example, I'm pretty sure the back yard wasn't totally covered with violets last spring. This year it is. I love violets, but I've never eaten them before, so I wasn't sure where to start. In the end, I decided to keep it simple - specifically, simple syrup. The hardest part of making violet syrup is picking enough flowers.

DRAWING LAB #3: CAT GESTURES

2012-04-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

This week the Drawing Lab exercise was gesture drawings. They are just not a strong point for me. I get the idea: you draw fast, and try to capture the shape and movement of the subject, especially something that's not going to stay still for long. It makes sense, but... I am a line drawer. It's hard for me to shift gears. This first picture is a pretty good example of how not to do gesture

DRAWING LAB #2: BLIND GIRAFFES

2012-03-25T15:40:00.011-07:00

It's week two of Drawing Lab! This week's assignment was to do blind contour drawings of giraffes - drawings with as few lines as possible, made while looking only at the original (never the paper). I liked this exercise because I've done a lot of blind contour drawings, but this was a fun twist on it. James liked this exercise because he got to take my comment, "doing giraffes sounds like more

NOM NOM GNOME: NETTLE BERRY SMOOTHIE

2012-03-24T19:34:00.006-07:00

After a surprisingly long break, I'd like to announce the return of Nom Nom Gnome - simple, tasty food (with gnomes). I'm also pleased to announce a less qualified success with nettles. The soup was edible; this smoothie is actually very tasty. Here's how I make my smoothie: 1 C frozen berries (cherry is my favorite) 1 banana (frozen if you like it extra thick) 1/2

NETTLE SOUP

2012-03-17T16:30:00.007-07:00

I have been feeling like I need to start eating better, but that doesn't come very naturally to me. I am no good at giving up junk. So, my current approach is additive rather than subtractive. I've been having smoothies for breakfast, and a lot of salads. (It's possible that they're mostly iceberg lettuce. I do what I can). When we moved up here where it's green, we had visions of bountiful

DRAWING LAB #1: CATS IN BED

2012-03-15T19:02:00.004-07:00

I kind of hate drawing practice. Unfortunately I also hate drawing for a few hours, looking at what I've done and realizing that it's all totally wrong. I really like this book called Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun, because they are, and they do. I'm on a mission to work through these exercises with my blog buddies at Making Stuff, Vinegar and

LOVE OCTANGLE

2012-03-08T17:46:00.001-08:00

Behold, my first foray into designing fabric! This is actually a remake of a drawing I did a million years ago. Octopi really do have three hearts, apparently. I think it must make things complicated. Anyway, now it's an infinitely repeating pattern. Available for purchase at Spoonflower, on lots of amazing types of fabric. I got my swatch in the mail today, and it is lovely.

CROW LOVE

2012-03-04T14:16:00.002-08:00

This is the same screenprint image that I used for Crow's Knot, but my original vision always involved embroidery. Finally got it done :) at Etsy