More than a year later!

Since I last posted I got engaged, started teaching a new class, bought a house, and have been making lots of art. In 2012 I went a little card crazy. It started after the Bride of Frankenstein painting with this Sew in Love card.

                              

Originally I the card was going to say "We were made for each other" but once I looked into it that seemed to be a very popular card idea. But I still wanted to do something with the Bride so I decided on "Sew in Love". 

Mother's day was quickly approaching and I thought about things I would do with my mom as a kid. The first thing that came to mind was making cookies and being allowed to eat some of the dough. 

I couldn't make a semi-sweet Mother's day card (pun intended) without doing a more ridiculous card. I also wanted to do one that was meant to be given to a mother from her son (son's seem to need all the help they can get when it comes to holidays). I thought for a while about famous mother/son duos and then I remembered Norman Bates and his "A boy's best friend is his mother" line. From that came "This Mother's Day I just want to say thanks... for letting me borrow your dress."

You have probably figured out that I really like cook dough...

Going back to the "horror" themed love cards I made this Morticia and Gomez Addams inspired cards.

After a number of family members and friends had babies this past year I made two baby cards, one Frankenstein inspired and the other Werewolf inspired (a lycanthrope is a werewolf and pronounced like-en-thrope).

"This Halloween remember... you don't like candy corn!"

This card was made more as a reminder to myself somehow I forget every year that I really hate candy corn.

This is just a little taste of what I've been working on, I'll show you more soon. 

Paintings!

I started making small simple paintings to go along with my jewelry boxes. I'm not sure why I love silhouettes but I do. And of course I started with my favorite ... Audrey.

Audrey in Pink (get it here)

Audrey in Red and Pink (get it here)

And of course I need to switch over to the weird when I've a little too much normal. 

Vampira in Blue (get it here)

The last painting I made was of the Bride of Frankenstein (Elsa Lanchester). I wanted to make her more realistic, beautiful but still slightly gruesome.

Bride of Frankenstein (get it here)

I kept the background and edges really rough and sketchy mostly because I wanted to loosen up after the tightness of the other paintings. I want to do another painting in a similar style of Dracula's Daughter and other classic horror women but I must admit I'm having a hard time finding villain women in horror movies from the 30's - 60's. There are plenty of victims but very few villains, which is a shame because villains are much more interesting.

Comicazi-Con and Bad-*ss Christmas Bazaar

Alex and I were at the Comicazi-Con and Bad-*ss Christmas Bazaar December 4th in Somerville. My Vampira box was a big hit! It sold pretty quickly. I'll be making a new one soon for those of you who missed out on going home with this lovely box. It's popularity also inspired me to make a Bride of Frankenstein Box. I'll post it as soon as I'm done. 

Vampira Box!

I just finished a very dark but beautiful box with Vampira on the cover. It occurred to me that everyone might not be familiar with Vampira so I thought I would give a little information here.

Vampira was a character created by Maila Nurmi. The idea first came around when she dressed up as Mortica Addams (from the New Yorker comic, the Addams family tv show didn't come out until the 60s) at a halloween party in 1953. A tv producer saw her and the "Vampira Show" was born, which was a horror movie tv show. If you haven't heard of the show don't feel bad, there were only 5 episodes. After the show ended Vampira went on to be in a number a schlock pictures the most well known being Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Still from Plan 9 From Outer Space

Charles Addams comic strip, inspiration for Vampira

I know Vampira is very different from the other women on my jewelry boxes (Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn) but I picked her because like those other woman she is a style icon, she just has a different style.

New Boxes in Progress...

I've been working on a new set of boxes, these ones are 3 inches longer than the first set I made. At this point the boxes are all constructed and papered I just need to figure out designs for the inside and how I am going to decorate the tops. I do have some designs made up to continue my style icon series but I'm not sure they would work with these new boxes. I'm not sure if it's the different shape or my paper choices, but I feel these boxes need something different. I might not make all of these jewelry boxes, some of them might be made to hold a notebook/journal and writing supplies.

What I love about the new set so far is that they are all very different from one another so I feel I can go in a few different directions.

This one is very dark and a little creepy

It looks a little like a coffin

The paper is beautiful though, it has a kind of velvety texture

This one makes me think of a circus. I might have silhouettes of tightrope walkers on the cover 

Danger decided she liked this one

Not sure what she's doing with her tongue here

But Danger agrees that it should have something with the circus on here.

This one is very sweet. I think if I added anything to the cover it would only take away from the pattern

I think the purple adds a nice contrast. I will admit the purple and white make me think of my high school colors

This one seems perfect for the fall/winter transition. 

The gold inside reflects really well.

Simple but still beautiful

I'm not sure if I want to make this one into a jewelry box or a writing box.

So those are my new, almost finished, boxes. I would love to here your ideas on covers, or designs for the inside structure. Or guesses on what my cat is doing it those pictures.

I love fall

It was so warm this afternoon I had to go for a walk before it started to rain. 

Someone puts a bunch of these animal decoys by the river. I'm not sure if they are trying to scare away the geese or other animals, but you can tell from the goose in the background that it doesn't really work. Six years in Massachusetts and I still don't understand Flatlanders.

But I still love this walk by the river.

Slightly gloomy, but still pretty

I thought it looked like a little door, Alex thinks it looks like a monster with a big mouth

Jewelry Boxes!

This past week I had a few days off so I really started to get into my new jewelry box project. This project grew out of a few different past projects. I would say it's a mix of my Female Ancestors Embroidery Project and making my portfolio box for job interviews.

Mary Edmunds

The above image is one of many embroideries I made for my graduate thesis project last year. I collected photographs and information of my direct female ancestors and with that information I embroidered their image clearly and simply and then embroidered their history and secrets in white thread around them.

The portfolio box for my interviews was a simple handmade clamshell box with decorative paper. This is a required project for all Lesley Grads for the Visual Art Education Program and it seems that people either love making them or hate making them. I absolutely loved making my portfolio box. I actually ended up making a second one for my sister-in-law for Christmas last year and made a photo album and guest book to go inside it for her and my brother's wedding. 

So this fall I really wanted to make another box but I didn't know of anyone who needed one and I honestly have enough 3D projects hanging around my apartment. Then I was at a comic convention with my boyfriend Alex Cormack helping him sell Poe Twisted (which he has two comics in) when I realized that there were a lot of girlfriends at this convention who looked board and had nothing to look at or buy. I started to think of what would interest me at these conventions and what I would like to make and came back to boxes. They eventually turned into jewelry boxes but they still seemed a bit boring. Back to the drawing board I started to think of how I could make the boxes more interesting for both the viewer/future owners and myself. I thought back to how much I enjoyed making the embroideries but I knew that people wouldn't want my ancestors on their jewelry box so I picked a few of my favorite style icons of the 50's and 60's. Including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Audrey Hepburn in red and white

Elizabeth Taylor in blue and orange

Elizabeth Taylor in green and purple

Audrey Hepburn in blue and red

For more images check out my etsy shop.

So far I'm having a great time making these boxes. I have already made some sketches for my next batch which will include longer boxes and removable trays. I'm also working on cut out cover designs for Billie Holiday, Coco Channel, Dorothy Dandridge, Natalie Wood and Rita Hayworth. 

If you have any suggestions/requests for style icons please let me know!