Happy Thursday!

Woo! What a relief! I just turned in my last two papers and finished up most of the big stuff on my sculptures. One more week of school and it will be pretty tame, it's so nice to be close to finished. I'm actually looking forward to finals week because I don't actually have any exams, and I really only have two final crits that week so basically I just need to sew and paint a whole lot.... I like that. I do that anyway. I will be posting a new crafty leftovers pattern tomorrow night so be looking for it.

Sorry no pictures today, I moved them all to my external hard drive without even thinking about it... Nothing new anyway. Tomorrow though I will have some pictures of the yarn I dyed on Monday. It is finally dry.

Tonight: more painting, more sewing, typing up an artist statement, printing some business cards, and matting more paintings for the show this weekend... So much fun! Too much for just me... nah... Just the right amount.

Have a good night!

Hi a little early....

Haha, not blog for a week, whatever.... I'm so excited about my yarn that I dyed last night I just had to tell you all about it! It is the most beautiful shade of pale sage green! I really had no idea what I was going to get with it because I had never used leaves for dyeing before... the book said avocado green, but honestly I like my result much better!

Also, I wanted to post today because I wanted to test out the paypal button feature... I just signed up for a merchant account... So I decided I would offer up the little travel tissue holder for sale. If you want it, it's your's. I will remove the button when it sells... or if it doesn't at all in a week then I will make someone I know buy it to test out the button.

And it is reversable, so here is the other side:
Tissue included with purchase $3.50 + $1.50 S&H

Also, just so you know, I'm going to make a bunch of the catnip pillows next week and will be putting those up for sale as well. Most likely on Wednesday or Friday. And I'm also starting a mailing list that will let you know when items go up for sale, art show announcements, and special offers for mailing list members only. Just shoot me an e-mail at kristinroachoriginals@gmail.com with "Mailing List" in the subject.

Have a good day!

Hello there all

And how was your Thanksgiving break? Mine was pretty good... as always too short and now I'm here back in DeKalb wondering how I am going to get everything I need to get done this week... and today I just realized that I need to get my portfolio together for my painting review next week! I have two short papers due this week, a painting to start and finish in a week and a half, a show to get ready for... that's right, I got in, woot... a sculpture to finish, stuff to dye (with lettuce), another sculpture to finish, a fiber art project to finish, presentations to give... ah! okay so I'm going to stop listing stuff because it is freaking me out.

The weekend was all and all really nice. My friend Jill was sick, which stinks, for her and me both... She is coming to the end of a semester too and that is always the worst time to get sick... Me... Well I just wanted to soak up her creative vibes she is always sending out. So it goes.

Also, here is the announcement that is being sent out for the show... Pass it around, come if you can, buy my paintings if you are willing.....

On December 2ND Leger Fine Art will be holding it's
second salon show. This one day event includes area
artist Terry Rathje, Leigh Funk, Eric Mart, Audrey Brown,
Stephen Calvert, Dennis Hall, Rick Lodmell, Brian
Spurgeon, Kristin Roach, Marylou Kean, Jill Hatzer, Kara
Fedje and several more. The media varies from metal
sculpture to pen/ink and has turned into a very
exiting exhibit of known and soon to be known artists
and their works. I hope that you'll be able to attend
this little event.

LEGER FINE ART
2ND SALON SHOW
DECEMBER 2ND, 2006
6:00pm to 9:00pm
refreshments to be served
a $2 donation will be requested at the door
donation to go to purchasing materials for
artists otherwise unable to afford them.

Thank you for your time and hope to see you at this
event.

Sincerely,
Charles

So you are going to come right?

Anyway, I need to get working on that "to-do" list... I think I need to take the rest of the week off blogging too... but I will post some nice photos of yarn and shows and my new work and stuff and more stuff, you'll love it, promise!

Happy Turkey Day!

Or Tofurkey Day for some of us! Hehe. So sorry I didn't post yesterday, what was I thinking anyway? I worked all day and then left straight for my parents.... where did getting online and posting pictures fit into that?

Here is the yarn that I dyed on Monday. It's all dry and wonderful. I just love the way that it turned out! I can't wait to dye more. My Mom is letting me clean out the garden (she's glad for the help really). I'm going to grab the tomatoes, cut back the raspberry canes, collect all of the dead mum flower heads, and clear off the sidewalk of walnuts. I should be getting some more yarn on Saturday or Monday and will hopefully dye it Monday or Wednesday night. It's really addictive, I love it so much. Anyway. The sock yarn is still a mess, but as you can see by the little ball I have been making some progress untangling it. I will never again forget to tie it off!

Mr Beuler climbed into a bag of polyfill and brought it all out of the bag and then proceeded to roll and dig in it.... he was being so cute that I took pictures instead of scolding him like I should have... Oh well.... he sure is cute though!

I took a walk with my mom and Annie (my parent's little lady, she's a lab something mix... so cute too)... This picture is all blown out because I was adjusting the settings still but Annie was being so nutty... she's a real goof ball. My mom flings around the leash for the first block or so of the walk and then Annie get out all of her energy flailing around and biting at it and then walks just fine.
These are some other pictures that I took on the walk.Anyway, I'm off to help clean up the house and go collect some more dye stuff out in the yard. Have a happy thanksgiving! Stop eating if it starts to hurt!

Print Gocco! Go Coooooo!

Alright, well sorry about the title, I got a little excited there... I'm not sure how long you readers out there have been reading... but this past summer I bought I print gocco... and it made me happy... but what to make.. what to print? I had no idea... well it dawned on me and here she be. Lots of printing! I was hem hawing around about business cards.. something I've been really indecisive about. I really just don't like the idea of going to office max or some such thing for my business cards that will be promoting my handmade/fine art/organic fibers business. That just seems like a huge contradiction. Anyway, I was thinking about silk screening on some recycled paper... And then it hit me! I have a print gocco, it's the perfect size, and I also have old card catalogs that I have been wanting to use for something but nothing in particular, which are also the perfect size. These are the pictures after an hour of printing.














































































I then proceeded to print on just about anything I could... Vellum for instance...













Craft Paper...













Muslin.... and I would say that I like this one the best outside of the library catalog cards... although I'm not exactly sure what I would use it for...












When I cut them I can fold them to make a little plate card or just unfolded as a single business card with space for a personal note/message...












And I can also print them again to get a whole lot of little tags for products...












And I can use the bottom half, when the catalog cards are cut in half, as another product tag, but folded to put information about fiber content/price/weight... that kind of thing. Because they were catalog cards they already have a whole punch.













I also took a picture of the yarn while it was drying... I was impatient... Anyway, it's all tangled up because I yet again forgot to tie it. The worsted isn't so bad, but the sock yarn is going to give me a headache. It will be worth it though. The colors turned out great. A beautiful brownish grey and a deep chocolate brown.... I can't wait to knit it. I do really need to get a drying rack... like one of those folding ones for cloths. That would be perfect.












I have been working extra this week so I decided to spend a little bit of this money I have been hoarding and get two skeins of organic bulky undyed yarn... I want to say it's alpaca. But what to dye it with? I have been tooling around with the idea of lettuce. I read in my book... which has kind of become my natural dyeing bible... that you can get a bright yellow-green with tin and an avocado green with iron... Which one? Well I suppose because I have contaminated my pot with iron I better go for the avocado green.

Well I need to head off to the studio and do some more little paintings. I will post more pictures of the new ones on Wednesday (I did 5 on Saturday). And hopefully the yarn will be dry by then and I can post pictures of it.

Have a good couple of days everyone!

Hi there, it's an off day for me...

Well today has just been odd. I feel like I've been doing everything backwards... but I did dye some yarn with walnuts today and that finally went forward. I'm so excited, it's going to soak overnight... I want to see it right now, but I will have to wait. So, instead I have some pictures for you all of other random things.

This is the quilted pot holder that I made from the crafty leftovers pattern. My sewing mechine went on the fritz so I will have to hand stitch the rest.














I did a couple more paintings. Here they are. I have more in my studio that I did last night, but I'm waiting for them to dry.





































And here is some fabric that I bought at the quilting corner in Ames. I'm going to make some more catnip pillows out of the blue mouse fabric and some travel tissue holders out of the other two fabrics. E-mail me if you would like to order one or the other. They are both $5 each. Shipping is free. Just let me know.












Well that is all for now. Have a good night!

I just can't stay away....

But I might have to. I have a super busy day tomorrow! I'm working at the Bookstore in the morning until 130 and then at encore from 2-8 and then the pot luck from 8-? and then posting the crafty leftover pattern! Jeeze! Plus a friend is coming into town and I need to clean my apartment a bit before him and his cousin get here so they don't think I am living in a trash heap... which I'm not, it just might look that way from time to time (especailly when he only gave me a two day notice.... he had mentioned it about a month ago but wasn't sure about the date).

I have some good news and some annoying news too. So annoying news first. I rented out a studio space at the school and every time I go in there I'm cleaning out people's crap... I have collected quite a few pens, x-acto knifes, brushes, and other little things this way.... the studio spaces are partitianed off with tape on the floor so pretty much if I don't mark my teritory everyday my space starts to get sucked into the general "open" studio area where everyone and their mother can paint. And you know, I'm okay with this... as long as they don't get paint on my stuff or steal things or store their crap in my area I really don't mind that my stuff gets scooted around... but! and this is a big but... faculty should know better than to set up a still life on the desk in a studio area... I mean that is what we pay for every semester. Not just a space, but a desk, chair, easel, and a locker.... it's a package. And you know, I haven't been diligent about making my presence known (aka I clean up after myself), but faculty should know better! So me and one of the other guys who rents out a space moved the table into the "open" studio area and moved a new table into my area, which I promptly covered with my own drawings and things and put a sign on. This better not happen again....

On to the better news - I brought in all of my little paintings to class and my professor thought they were really great and that they stand on their own feet as far as art pieces go and he gave me some tips on how to frame/mat them and some advise in general. It was good to get positive feedback from him because I really feel like everything I have done so far has been kind of lacking. I think it was just lacking that spontinaity. I am kind of worried about the little paintings though because that is what I put on my desk to mark it. They are so small... I really hope they don't wander off. (get stolen). That is another reason why I am not posting tomorrow... I want to work on some more of those little guys. I'm going to do some more yellow ones and then move into green...

Well that is all I have for you tonight. Have a good day!

ps - for reading all that you get a prize! An unedited photo of my studio while preping for the art and craft sale. Mr B is under the table too! He says "hi."

Pish Posh and Paint

Well, no images of the crawling plaster body yet, I'm going to snap some in class tomorrow. Instead, just 9 little mixed media paintings that I did tonight. I had a pretty harsh crit today. They didn't like my idea, so I have to re-evaluate what I am doing for it... something similar, but different. I need to make it more potent.... anyway, I decided instead of hem hawing it out tonight and worrying about whether or not it was good enough, I would just do some little paintings instead... well collaged paintings. I made 13 total tonight, 4 are still drying, i will post those Friday. I'm really excited, it's been awhile since I painted and enjoyed myself. I think I'm just going to keep making them until.... well... until I don't want to anymore.

Some details about them: They are all aprox 4"x 6", mixed media (acrylic, fabric, wood glue, string, other stuff laying around), all on illustration board.

The colors are a little off, but pretty close.







In other news my friend Jill, the most neat-o lady ever, called me up and she is going to be showing some of her photography Dec 2 in Davenport.... anyone around that area should totally come out for it. I'm going to be there. E-mail me for details. Also she said that I might be able to get in... so I might have a show too... which would be so nice. DeKalb is kind of a cess pool as far as show going is concerned. Okay, so not to rant too much... but there are only about 4 gallery spots in DeKalb worth showing at... and every grad student and BFA candidate is trying to get a spot in one of those four spots and everyone from faculty to BFA candidates send out huge guilt trips if someone tries to get a show who doesn't need it. So after being here for over a year I have been too much of a wuss to thumb my nose and say screw you to the art community here.... what kind of show would that be even if I did, without some kind of showing up of the art community, it wouldn't be much of show now would it.... anyway... that's my rant.

I figure that I will try to get some shows around my old town and then next summer when I move to the Chicago area I will show at some galleries there. I'm really wanting to work up a bit of a reputation before I head up there. So that way the curators won't laugh when I submit proposals... it's really competitive. Anyway, it's 11pm and my bedtime. Have a good night.... oh yeah, one last thing... A new Crafty Leftovers Pattern will be going up on Friday... Late.... look for it Saturday.

Where did Monday Go?

Oh my, I totally missed out on Monday posting. I did have some great times this weekend, it was so great to see Jason and the little lady Molly cat.... I miss them both already, sigh... Anyway, I already mention and posted the light box try out..... but I didn't post about casting my whole body for my sculpture project now did I! I'm pretty excited about it. It looks really super nice. It took 4 people an hour to coat me in plaster (they were actually covering the sheet that was over me, I needed a hollow human form draped in fabric, so a sheet covered in plaster while I'm under it was the answer). Anyway, it took another hour for it to dry! It was tough, 2 hours in a really uncomfortable crawling position... but it was so worth it. It looks great... it's charged with motion. In fact so much so that while it was drying (after I was out) everyone thought it was shifting to the side, but really it was just that way. It's one of those great dynamics that most artists try to capture and I was able to... well me and a crew of 4. I was so worried it wasn't going to work out and it did! But I still need to add a head (suffocation reasons prevented me from casting my head while under a sheet... no way to breath, that is bad)... and I need to smooth it out and do all of that other ocd stuff that I do with my sculpture. I also need to make the quilt top...
I figured out the numbers for it at work the other day... I will give you the run down:
Large Squares 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" - 169
Rectangles 12 1/2" x 2 1/2" - 1095
Small Squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" - 1764

I started with the small squares and have close to 400.... only 2628 to go! And with all of that excitement I am off to bed. Good night everyone... I will try to get some pictures of the cast for tomorrow's post.

Today is a day.

Well it is and there is no lying there. I do have some stuff to show you/tell you about, which is kind of exciting for me. Unfortunately not as much as I had hoped, my camera is out in the car, and well, it's realllly cold, so maybe tomorrow more pictures for everyone.

First off the art and craft sale was a smashing success and we are thinking that we will have another one next semester. Over $1000 worth of art and craft was sold in two days... and because we (Ars Nova) wasn't taking a cut of that, it all went to the art students who participate, which makes me feel really good about the whole thing. I personally sold 7 wallets total, I had to make some more and bring them in for the second day, which made me happy. Anyway, so I do have 6 left over, but they aren't that nice, hence they did not sell... so I think I'm just going to pitch them (I was having issues sewing them so the stitching is reallllly messy, I am not so proud of that). Here is the one that I kept for myself.

Jason built a light box for product shots and this is our first round of experimenting with it.

Now that I finally have the hang of sewing with vinyl I will be making more of these, but I will be using my own photography instead of from a magazine. I don't want to get hit up for copyright infringement.

Anyway, this is one of the things that I bought from one of the other vendors there, it's the little bag I wanted, it didn't sell by the beginning of the second day so it's mine now!
I also bought the little white dish with a red bug on it, that I also told myself, if this doesn't sell I will buy it... so it's mine too.

In other randomness, I have decided not to resubscribe to ArtNews... and am thinking about subscribing to Cabinet instead.
Well, that's all I've got right now, it looks like we might be heading out soon and dinner is needed before then. Have a good weekend!

Ars Nova Art and Craft Sale!

Alright! So the Art and Craft Sale went off without a hitch today. We had at least 20 vendors and I even put out some of my vinyl wallets so I guess I was a vendor too! I actually sold about 1/2 of my wallets in the first two hours (I only made 12 so it's not that many), but I'm not sure how many sold in the rest of the day so I'm going to whip up a few more tonight and put them out in the morning. There were so many neat things, I've set aside all of my misc money for the past week and this week so I can buy some stuff. I have my eye on a little ceramic dish with a bug on it and a circular quilted zipper pouch.... There is fun fabric on the outside and then a recycled cabled sweater on the inside, it's so neat (nice job heidi). I took some pictures of the crazy wallet making that was going on last night, but I am going to have to wait to post them until Saturday. I'm not going to be posting on Friday, so Saturday it will be instead. (I have to work for 10 hours and then drive to Ames... Yeah to Ames! I get to see Jason, so exciting!). Anyway, I have to give a presentation in my art history class tomorrow so I better get on it!

Have a good week! Craft it up!

specifially at one site

So I turned in my portfolio for my mid term fiber arts project today. I'm not going to try to explain its meaning or anything like that, it would be longwinded and partly bs... I will just show you the pictures instead.

And here are some pictures of me working on it, taken by my mom who was really great and helped me put up and document the who piece.


(It was really windy)

Anyway, I need to send out the quilt block swap partner info right now, so I better push off. Don't forget to check out the new pattern on crafty leftovers, it's a travel sized tissue holder. I know I'm getting the sniffles all over the place!

Have a good week!

Hi there!

So I've been a little absent lately, but I do have good reasons, which I'm not going to disclose here because this is public and they are private. The good news is that I'm back and I have some pictures and I'm going to do a little show and tell.

Here is my wall of drawings that I've been working on from time to time. There aren't as many as I would like, but the diversion in my life has made it so. Hopefully I will get more up there soon.

I started working on the bathmat again, it's almost finished, but I ran out of yarn on one of the balls (I'm working off three strands at once), so I'm going to have to rewind the large ball into 3 smaller ones. I hope I have enough. I recycled a sweater to get it, so there is no more yarn to find. Only 10 more rows to go too! Keep your fingers crossed.
I also started work back up on the Go Everywhere with Everything sweater for stitch and bitch, that I started about, well, it was the first sweater I started about a year and a half ago, so I decided that it's about time that I get it finished.
And while picking up some supplies at JoAnn's I decided to pick out a little $2 prize for myself.
And I was making it into things when Mr B came along:
And I ended up making what I was making to small and decided to use fabric that I had more of into this:
Which you can get a pattern for over at Crafty Leftovers, I just posted the new pattern today, you should go check it out.


And horror so horror! I broke my favorite knitting needles today. It was the sparrow milk protein ones... I loved those and they don't sell them anymore. I think it was being in the warm and then really cold and then warm again that made them brittle. I really don't want to buy a new pair of needles right now, I'm really trying to save money, but at the same time I'm trying to get the wavy line sweater finished by Christmas time.

Oh and this week I'm going to be in the Art and Craft Sale that Ars Nova is hosting in the Glass Gallery at NIU. It should be fun. I'm going to make a bunch of these:


I'm actually going to be making wallets that are tri-folds, double folds (like the one above), and check book holders. I'm going to be putting any that are left over up for sale in my etsy shop.... I will keep you posted.

Anyway, I'm taking off for the night, I will see all you kiddos again on Monday! Wish me luck on getting all those wallets/checkbook holders made!