Beautiful Sunday: October 29, 2006

Beautiful fall mums for "Beautiful Sunday". See sidebar for link.

Illustration Friday: Wind

A little reference to the "Wizard of Oz". Actually it's "weather" not wind, but wind was a factor. :-)

Thursday Challenge: Autumn

More Letterpress...

Inspired by the offerings of YouTube videos of letterpresses in action at I Love Letterpress, I did a search myself and found this documentary on the craft. Take a look.

Collecting Letterpress Type

As if I needed something else to collect I'm now a collector of letterpress type. I kind of feel like a letterpress junkie. I found this old typeset drawer at a flea market and then I began to troll ebay for type. I started out with metal type and now I'm in love with the old wooden letters and numbers. These numbers were my first "score". I'm now addicted. I've found one website devoted to letterpress and I'm looking for more! I Love Letterpress

Bleach Stencil Designs for T-Shirts

Fantastic shirts that are imprinted with bleach that I saw today on Martha Stewart. I wish I had a picture to show how great they looked. Here's the instructions:
[Stencils available at: stencil1.com, video from Martha available here.]

Stencil T-shirts from marthastewart.com
Here's an easy way to transform a plain T-shirt into the latest fashion trend.

Tools & Materials
T-shirt
Cardboard
Stencil
Pushpins
Plastic gloves
Bleach gel or bleach pen
Spouncer, optional if using bleach gel
Anti-chlor solution
Fabric paint, optional
Pressing cloth, optional
Iron, optional
Process
1. Pin your T-shirt to cardboard.

2. Secure stencil on T-shirt with pushpins.

3. Wearing gloves, dab on bleach gel with spouncer, or use a bleach pen.

4. Leave bleach on for 1 to 2 hours.
5. Remove stencil from T-shirt, and take cardboard out of shirt.

6. Put shirt in anti-chlor solution (2 1/2 gallons warm water and 1 teaspoon bleach stabilizer) and and stir around.

7. T-shirt should be soaked for 5 minutes. Don't try this with silk—it will ruin the fabric.

8. Take shirt out and rinse well in room temperature water.

9. You can stop the process here. If you'd like to add an extra layer of color, pin stencil back onto T-shirt.

10. Use spouncer with fabric paint to stencil the design.

11. You can center or off-center stencil over original bleach design.

12. Remove stencil, and let paint dry completely.

13. Heat-set paint by putting a pressing cloth on shirt and ironing on high heat for 30 seconds. Or follow packaging directions for fabric paint.

3-D Pumpkins for Halloween

Found an article on how to carve 3-D pumpkins by artist Ray Villafane. Look at the wonderful examples here. Makezine. Here's the artist's website as well:Ray Villafane

Thursday Challenge: Glass

Taken from the passenger side window looking into the side rearview mirror on a trip back home from out of town.

Photo Friday: Thin

Okay, this is not totally obvious so work with me. :-) What liquid do people drink a lot of when they're on a diet to be THIN? This was taken in a hotel suite with one of the provided glasses. The glass sat on the kitchenette with the light from the bathroom and the sunlit room behind and to the side. I thought it turned out interesting.

Black & White Photo Challenge: Partial Desaturation

I've posted this before, but I really like it so I'm posting it again. I think the partial desaturation really works for the subject.

Thursday Challenge: Light

Photo Friday: Anger

Two army men in a standoff, isolated on white. Everytime I see army men I'm reminded of an old late night show that was on briefly in the 80s. I think it was called "Fridays" and they did comedy skits like on Saturday Night Live. Michael Richards (before he was "Kramer" on Seinfeld) was a cast member and he did a skit where he played a little boy that played in his backyard with his army men. Every time you saw the show he was doing something tortuous to the army men. He melted them, cut them up, etc. for his games of war. I think Richards is hilarious in most characters he's played and this was no exception. Anyone else remember him from "Fridays"?