now on etsy

so i just started an etsy shop today.  i have 1 item listed in the shop.  hahaha...  etsy recommended 8 to begin with.  in time...in time...hopefully.

for all international ladies who have written to me regarding online classes, let's begin with a written tutorial. 

more than 60 pages and close to 300 pictures, i have put by best effort in writing this travelogue tutorial as thorough as it possibly can. enjoy the journey.

holtzing major style

i received a few emails during the week that call me in....i haven't been here in a while.  i've been scrapping diligently though; just haven't got the right time to take photos yet.

sometime last week, i paid some of my unfinished projects a visit and i realized that i've been tim holtzing major style.  i suppose i'm one of those late bloomer not in the know that actually tim holtz' papers are very much scrap-able.

so here they comes...

the wardrobe, the paperbag and the travelogue.

the wardrobe looks like nothing much yet.  i can tell you that it's finished with various mediums over paper and chipboard presenting antique wood, leather and reptile textures.  i thought i have the inside mapped out, so my ambition in the next few days or weeks is to showcase this piece.  well, that's the thought.

i paid many hours into this paperbag album, yet none of the details i foresaw is showing yet.  i suppose the only way to finish it is by using it.  that will take an eon.  i think by the time i'm finished (and i will), the random memory will be my longest running album in the making.  but i love the idea, so much so that if this is going to be the only project i'm doing for the rest of the year, it will be worth the time and effort.  someday, i shall share it.

it's back!  this travelogue is a prototype of a class i ran last week. the longest running class ever; 12 hours.  i sort of remembered that the last travelogue was always long and tiring, so i knew this one was going to be a long class with the added features and larger than expected group.  what i didn't remember was...oh well, i don't remember many things these days. i was so lethargic that i thought...well never mind what i thought then.  in fact, today...5 days later, i still feel the fatigue.  it's best blame my hypoglycaemia and anemia, which i stop recalling which type specifically because apparently there's nothing i can do about it.

i took 1 shot of the class and that was it.  if you've been to my workshop, you know how messy the place is. that day by the time we're leaving i'm surprised how clean all the tables were.  there was no trace that i've been there running a class.  come to think of it, i figured it's because we're not using any mediums that day.  how i miss making a project without using any mediums (by means paint and all), but just paper..lots of paper cutting and glue.  

i thought i could reproduce this travelogue with my eyes closed—figuratively speaking.  then i failed the attempt of reproducing another one before the class.  perhaps it's just in my mind, but the paper sequence wasn't right and i don't have enough in the stash of what i wanted to use without cheating—meaning taking from another stash—which i knew wouldn't work  either because then it becomes repetitive.  alright enough with that dilemma.  let's just say that i didn't bring enough metal parts home from the workshop.

anyway, if you're still reading this and you're one of those who have written to me regarding online classes.  i have a news.  i have written a thorough instruction, over 60 pages that is,  for the travelogue using the k & company's around the world collection.  not that the paper matters; i also include the photos of this version.
i should be able to make it ready this week.

since i've taken a few more photos of other projects i'm working on, i might as well share them.

 

i bound 6 of these journal books in 1 sitting over an episode of tv series, but jazzing it up takes forever. not the actual working on it time, but going back and forth getting the mediums and looking for the parts, and "the putting them back in place" time.

i didn't make this fabric album.  a friend made it and gave it to me.  she wants me to finish it and i haven't got the chance to work on it yet.

kathy's camera.  i didn't do justice to this camera.  another one i'd like to work on soon.

alright, that's it for now.  long day tomorrow, i better start my daily rituals and get some sleep.

memento revisited

staring at my memento on the shelf, i rather felt it wasn't quite there yet.  visually it didn't speak what's in the mind.  so i played with it a bit today.

and there she is...

the images behind the mother of pearl frame embedded fragments of thought. i wanted to rivet it, but wasn't sure if i would break the delicate frame.  stripped from her garments, i moved the wings behind the charlotte which make is more like the winged victory or guardian angel if you will. she's carrying an insignia of the tree of life.  it is fashioned like an ancient coin/medal; i made it with clay.  so the pure heart/sacred heart is bound on the side with a couple more charms; mi casa milagro and the way of life.  on another strand is the coiled lily of the valley which i really like.

so now they stood regally side by side; wishing the world a wonderful 2013.

be still my heart

i'm not into antiques and whimsical, flourish, splatter paint; i just don't really get them.  i find them surreal, then again i do not get most of the contemporary art.  in the midst of post modern esthetics where it says everything is art, let's be honest — how many of us understand the function and meaning of abstract.

i learned about the existence of pinterest from this blog viewer link.  i took notice of some beautiful metal and fabric works by few artists.  one captivated me, nina bagley.  like silent reverie; her artworks are so deep and complex, yet she delivers them in such harmonious honesty.  they speak the foreign language  i can comprehend. each piece with its meticulous detail tells a story, and they all have the same tune. nuff said...take a look at them yourself if you're interested.  as for me, i can see alabama clearly in the near future; i give myself 12 months to personally learn what i could from her...who knows.

months ago, i lost interest in papers.  i started focusing on familiarizing myself with the various materials of metal smithing.  mixed metal work supplies are hardly available where i am and they're not easy to bring in due to the hazardous warnings.  as luck would have it, my first stash got stuck.  everything got abandoned, but not forgotten...until last month.

to distract myself from a sadness, last month i picked up where i left them.  so they say a journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step.  i did not have the weaponry and ammo for metal works....yet.  i tried to make do with what i have and educated myself with trials the hard way, starting somewhere and step by step building the arsenal. on boxing day, 3 months later than expected, my stash finally arrived. 

so...inspired by nina bagley and translating one of her work roughly into my own story...

memento

 

a copper plate book carefully aged; bounded with hand colored silk sari ribbon called love story and interlaced with some spanish lace and hand wrapped antique lily of the valley glass beads on silver plated wire. dangling on a chain are 50mm swarovski wings (the're called pegasus actually).  not visible here are a couple of silver plated charms.  i acquired antique frozen charlotte circa 1890 directly from thuringia limbach, germany.  somewhat it supposedly stands for the winged victory of samothrace.  on the cover is another swarovski pendant called the wild heart set on a silver plated filigree after my wild sacred heart necklace; except for here, i call it the pure heart after the welsh hymn calon lan. the word memento is engraved using a hand steel stamp.

you have to excuse the photo which i took with an itouch in my studio on a rainy day.  (like i know how to take a better one on crystals and metals with a bigger camera).  this is the better one of the couple i have which unfortunately not showing much.  thus i tried to narrate what's happening on the cover without going into the symbolic details.

here is another piece based on what i saw by jen crossley which she call hers etched in time.


what i purposely didn't do was to call it alis volat propriis which i always thought of side by side with that goddess nike sculpture....one of my all time favorite by the way; the winged victory of samothrace that is.  the cover is brass etched with tim holtz book cover stamp and coptic bound with black irish waxed linen.  i chose each charms carefully within the symbolic context of ideas...from conception up to realization so that it worth to be the keeper of what would be written in it.

so now i have 2 books to write on in 2013.  oh, i have a couple more actually.  i made one the other night and bought one last week. 

i'm excited about this new found interest and  perhaps looking into making some small installations in the future...meta stuff i mean. 

hear my soul speak: the very instant that i saw you, did my heart fly to your service.
~ the tempest by william shakespeare

chronology...coming soon

i redesigned and recalculated this typewriter template with swiss precision (ha!).  originally it was going to be an assemblage of a poem i wrote. after contemplating other few ideas, i settled on making it a chronicle of my 2013 engagements instead.

it's going to be a studio class starting mid december if not beginning next year.  as usual i'm still waiting for some additional supplies to arrive.

this antique typewriter comes with a pull out compartment housing a rolodex like filing cabinet using graphic 45's place in time that doesn't deserve to see the light of day yet.

so, see you soon perhaps.  :)

freedoooooomm.......

just a quick update, i managed to close the beagle freedom project fundraising.   idr 11.700.000,- (lots of zeroooos but the usd took 4 zeros out, so usd 1,170) was raised and donated on august 22, 2012 in honor of max' 6th years of joyful companion.

was it tough?  you bet!
would i have done it all over again?  for the chance to see a few beagles in a loving homes—anytime.

i was going to take a shot of the studio's mess, but i forgot and managed to clear it out a little.  it's like a twilight zone hits by a tsunami in there.

thank you ladies for supporting the project: buying and liking them and thank you shannon keith and everyone at arme and bfp for your angelic work.

my life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet i'm happy. i can't figure it out. what am i doing right?

~ snoopy

max, i love you since the day i saw you, i love you now and every second in between. thank you for loving me back baby boy!

"the" alice? ~ no. 4 bfp fundraising project

 cheshire cat: "the" alice?

when i first mentioned to a friend that i was going to sell some scrapbooks to raise money for beagle freedom project, she immediately said: do the alice.  she meant the impromptu tea party i did a while back of course.  i gushed that i wouldn't be able to repeat it even if i took 7 different kind of chill pills.

a few days after, i picked a tunnel vision assemblage i made for the impromptu tea party v.1b which i never quite finished yet.

alice kingsley: sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

before i knew it...

i assembled the flying cards pop-up.  that wasn't so hard.  except for when i visioned the binding, i realized the v.1b had a different measurement from the v.2.  so i had to change the base.  what started so effortless turned in to a series of literal bone breaking effort; from conditioning the rock hard "soft clay" to crashing the melting pot to pieces.

i must admit a few times the thought that perhaps i should just have forgotten the projects and donated my own money and asked from a few friends that would say so as well.  then i saw those pictures updates on bfp facebook page and made the pledge to do as planned.

today, before my very eyes...

blimey, couldn't believe it myself—never better binding and revamped version.

another beagle owner friend offered a generous donation for this book. honestly, i would give it to her as a present had i not made it for the fundraising. i felt bad, but i felt much worse for the lab beagles.

 
i didn't see that most of the charms were flipped when i took the photos, but they're all tie-in to the story and some special ordered metal words charms from the story.

let's see through some of the pages.

this book is designed as a story book all though. the left panel housed the tunnel page and the title page is from tim burton's movie tie-in book.

the graphics are from graphic 45 ~ hallowe'en in wonderland papers.

some pages are meant to accommodate die cut photos.

some are meant to hold full page photos, but i left semi-fixed embellishments just in case. this page has an alice with pull in/out tab on the next for some writing.

there are 24 pages til the end and a tunnel vision box—thick, solid, leather bound inside out interlaced with various fabrics and laces.

some people inquire if i will make more of the sold album to sell; no but thank you for your interest and thank you for supporting this bfp fundraising.

travel log ~ no. 3 bfp fundraising project

a hand bound travel theme journal i finished yesterday for beagle freedom project fundraising.

the cover and back is composed by various metals,resin, clay, beads, fiber, resin, wood, mica and other trinkets.

the 6 inside signatures are sewn using acid free 140 smooth ivory splendorgel and 7 gypsies global papers.

it's a keeper, i will have to repeat this one for myself when i'm done making all the projects for bfp fundraising.

beagle freedom project fundraising

a while ago i stumbled upon a very moving video...

following the site, i went to check another...

beagle freedom project  rescue lab beagles from death row in research labs all over the world to be given a chance of freedom in loving homes.  beagles are the most popular breed for lab use because of their friendly, docile, trusting, forgiving, people-pleasing personalities. 

this little boy walked out of the cage and touched grass for the first time since birth.  he was one of the lucky rescued from the labs.

the 40 beagles they rescued a week before their death row from a lab in spain. first scared and confused then nurtured and fostered until they are adopted into their forever loving homes.

so...inspired by another lady at beagle freedom project facebook, i'm selling my work to raise money for the beagles rescue.  in honor of my beagle max, i'm making 6 projects for the fundraising, one each for the 6 wonderful years of his present. all profit made will go directly to beagle freedom project.


portrait of a lady

my camera went error 20 halfway through taking the pictures.  it will be at least another week before i can send it for repair due to the independence and eid holiday here.


"happiness" bungalow

i'll be posting more details on the beagle freedom project fundraising page. i'm finishing up a couple more works and will be uploading them in a few more days.