Crafty Tuesday : A Few Books I am looking at

Consider this sort of a book review of random books I am using for my next couple of projects and some books that are in print and useful to me and I hope to you as well.

One general sewing book that is new to me and I have found very informative is Sarai Mitnick’s The Colette Sewing Handbook. It has very clear direction for pattern making and how to think about the shape of a garment. The information on darts is worth its weight in gold to me. The book’s author assumes that the reader is a beginner but don’t let that stop you from taking a look at this book. She also has some good advise to think about how you view clothing and what works for you. It is also one of the clearest explanations of what all those strange markings on a pattern pieces are.

In the realm of men’s fashion, I found The Victorian Tailor by Jason Maclochlainn very useful but it does assume a certain knowledge of patterns and pattern making. It is also interesting in the historical context that it presents. Again not for the beginner but if you have put a couple patterns together, this book is an interesting read.

If your interest goes towards steampunk but you haven’t a clue or a little clue as to how to make the gadgets that go with the look, I can recommend Steampunk: Gears, Gadgets and Gizmos by Thomas Willeford. These projects are great jumping off points for bigger ideas and the “where to find your gears” section is very useful. The author is a first class scrounger but also gives modern alternatives that you can find in your local hardware shop or fabric store.

In the realm of puppetry I really like 10-minute puppets by Noel MacNeal who is better known to many as Bear from Bear in the Big Blue House. The puppets are simple but the principles can be used to create more complicated puppets. Most of the materials are easy to find and this is a great book for teachers looking to put puppets in the classroom.

John E. Kennedy has two books out that I find useful but you have to read them in order since one builds on things from the other. Puppet Mania is a great book for the beginning puppet builder. He lays out a lot of the basic techniques that you need to make more complicated puppets. His follow up book, Puppet Planet builds on the first book and gives more advanced techniques to be used.

These are books that I know are still in print. Next week I think are some treasures that are out of print but I use all the time.

I am grateful for books that I can currently get my hands on.

Crafty Tuesday This Week on Thursday

Rather busy the past couple of days but I thought I would get this one in before the end of the week.

I had two new pieces in the Art Show at LunaCon this year.

One was a griffin and the other a Calot.

The griffin was at Caroline’s request. She wanted a griffin baby based on the Skylanders’ character Sonic Boom’s babies. After drafting the patterns, I decided to make another one for sale. It took me a bit to get the legs the way I wanted them so that the critter would stand up without help or plushie flop.

(For the Visually Impaired: This is a griffin. It is blue with a yellow beak. The tail has a little black fur tuft to give it a lion-like look. The wings are blue as well. The eyes are green with large pupils. It has long triangular ears on top of its head.)

The calot (which is from John Carter/Barsoom) was put together pretty fast but I used what I have learned from other stuff animals, I was able to make the pattern in good time. The skin was a lucky find at the fabric store. I thought about adding fangs but I am still of two minds about that. It has 6 six legs rather than 10 because I tried 10 and it was way too crowded so I understand why Disney used 6. I think the purple tongue makes it work.

(For the Visually Impaired: This is a calot. Its skin is a brown sandy color with some slightly darker splotches at random places. He is “sitting” up on a plexiglass stand. He has 6 legs and a horseshoe nose. He has a purple tongue sticking out of his mouth)

So those are the new characters to the group.

This week was regroup week before I start on the next set of projects.

Crafty Tuesday Professionalism

By professionalism, I am talking about client/artist interactions which needs professionalism on both sides even if it is your bestest bud.

I am a former moderator in a community on Live Journal called Artist Beware which states the purpose of the community as a place to voice positive or difficult experiences with commissioners or artists. This includes both paid transactions and art trades. Customer and artist reviews, lost contacts, and reports of art theft (as long as there are commissions/trades involved!) are welcome. Positive reviews are in a monthly format; a moderator posts and members then comment regarding their positive experiences. Separate positive review posts will not be allowed.

This community is also open to discussions and questions on how to conduct business between artists and their customers. (copyright the owner of Arist Beware 2012).

There were a lot of problems that could have been solved or not even occurred if there had been even a modicum professionalism on one if not both parties parts.

When I have a client, I have a contract as to what is expected of me and of them. There are due dates for various things including approvals from the client and also points that there are no more changes allowed unless agreed to by both parties. There is also a schedule of payment(s) for the project.  I expect a certain amount of professionalism be it a company or a person who is commissioning me to make something for them. Honestly I have had more problems with companies than people in terms of this but I have had some clients who were never going to be happy no matter what I did.

Recently I have seen a trend that I find a little troubling. People who are OK to decent at something that decide that they are going to do it professionally. They have all this energy going into it and more power to them but they quickly discover that moving a hobby to work is not easy. For one thing they find out that their window for getting their project completed is probably a much shorter window than the leisurely way that they have made things in the past. Work is work and it is great if one enjoys doing it but it is still work. One is being paid for product they are to create. And, much to these people’s amazement, their clients would like to be (or insist upon) being informed where their project is and what is going on. They have invest money in you and expect results.

And throwing up one’s hands and having a temper tantrum on the Internet is not going to endear one to new clients. Also constantly complaining about not being able to sell one’s wares while person X, whose work is not as good, just sells and sells and sells. Well person X is getting product out to their clients in a timely fashion in a professional manner.

How one presents one self on the internet is important especially if one is considering making their hobby a business. I would suggest researching who is doing what you want to do. See what the market is for what you do. Is there something that you bring to the table that is totally different/unique that is a sellable point to clients? And you do need to think of your customers as customers no matter if they are your best friend. And develop a thick skin especially if you succeed because there are others out there who are going to pick you apart because you succeeded. Act professionally and you will find yourself in a stronger position when things do go wrong because you did.

I am grateful for the lessons I learned early about professionalism which have served me well.

Crafty Tuesday Harry Potter ATCs

And I have LunaCon in a week and a half. *sigh*

Not at my best on that one.

I am part of the Harry Potter Crafts. I have been for a number of years and done swaps and challenges over the years.

This past swap was making 4 ATC (Artist Trading Cards: Which are cards that are the size of a baseball or trading card and given or exchanged not sold).

(for the Visually impaired, there are four cards here. This will be a short description of each because I am talking more about them in the entry. The one to the left is a furry Monster card with eyes and teeth. The top card is a willow tree with a Beware sign to the right of it. The right card says “Qudditch Rules” and has two broom sticks crossed, a snitch at the top, two quaffels on either side of the broomsticks. The bottom card says Bernie Botts on the top and Every Flavored Bean on the bottom of the card with colorful jelly beans in between)

The theme was Hogwarts’ students so I decided to try a number of different things.

The first card, the one on the left, I did was the second version of a card I did a couple of Valentine’s ago. It is the Monster book done as a card. The interior of the card is a lovely blood red paper. It is glued to two pieces of cardstock the size of the ATC. I put brown fun fur on the outside and glued some googly eyes on top. The teeth are made of watercolor paper and I almost got them to fit into each other.

The second card I did was the one on the right. I used watercolor paper and used watercolor paint for the background with one color to represent each house. I then used paper to create the two brooms, the snitch, and the two quaffels. Watercolors are pretty new to me but I like how they look.

The third card is the bottom card. I took a Bernie Bott’s box and carefully cut the logos off the box. I made the beans with a new set of flair color pens. Yes, Flair is back again and they are pretty nifty to use. I like the thin lines I could do without bleeding between the colors.

The fourth card was the top one and was the card furthest outside my comfort zone but I thought I would give it a go. It is the Womping Willow that I did all in watercolor. I learned a lot about watercolor by doing it including that I really like playing with watercolors. The sign that says “Beware” is a separate piece that I made and glued onto the card.

So that’s the ATCs. I am working on stuff for LunaCon and Caroline’s science project so I have to be twice as creative in totally different ways this week.

I am grateful for having such a good time painting.