My Imaginary Friends A-Z

Still waiting for my package, I hope it gets here by tomorrow, because with the holiday, it means it won't get here till Tuesday, and that is far too far...

In the meantime I am spending this beautiful day inside tethered to my laptop (thanks Grama!) working on my series of alphabet images featuring my line, My Imaginary Friends.  So far I have finished 6 of them, and not in alphabetical order.   Here is an example of one of the finished images, coincidentally, the letter A...

These are so fun to make because they combine hand drawing with Illustrator.  I make the initial line drawing of the Friend in a black pen, scan it into my computer, and then use Live Trace in Illustrator to get it clean and crisp.  If anyone is interested in how to use Live Trace, just hollar, it's so fantastic and easy.

The hardest part of making these is coming up with imagery or designs to go with the words. Here is one with a more literal approach:

At the moment I am working on Juggernaut and Flowerchild, and they are tugging at my shirtsleeves...

Etsy or bust...

Recently, I opened an Etsy store!  Recently, I closed an Etsy store!  What in the world happened you ask?  I wasn't satisfied with some of the product,  let me explain....

The bulk of my Etsy store is products that feature my character line, My Imaginary Friends.  I spent days and days hand dying adorable little onesies and kid t shirts and woman's panties.  I purchased all different types of inkjet transfer paper.  I now know a lot about inkjet transfer paper.  (perhaps a future post!)  I found a product that I thought was as good as it gets for transferring images onto clothes.  I bought it in bulk (i have 43 sheets left!!)  I  ironed on the images onto all the clothes, I photographed everything and up they went into my Etsy store.

 But something was nagging at me...The stuff looks really good, here is a sample:

I decided after washing a few of my own samples a few times, that the quality of the print is just not there.  They look great in the beginning, but I was really worried that after a few washes, they were going to look pretty faded.  So, after regrouping from what was a very expensive set back, I decided to further research various products and technologies for ink jet transferring. 
Emboldened with a new sense of commitment to my career, I made a huge investment. (huge is of course relative, it was a lot to me!!)  I ordered a new printer and these special inks formulated for cotton.  I also ordered a heat press.  And they are throwing in samples of inkjet paper that they say is the top of the line. 
So now I wait for my new toys to arrive.  My hope is that the results will be long lasting so that My Imaginary Friends don't fade away...
Stay tuned for delivery, hopefully by Friday!!

To all the lovers...

..of art, of design, of craft, of small trinkets kept in old tin boxes, of bubbling beeswax, of 70's soft rock classics, of vintage wrapping paper, of rain on a summer's day, of possibility...to all the lovers everywhere...
I say go for it...
Welcome to my blog!  This is my first of many posts about art, design, craft, and living as an artist. I hope it is inspirational to you, as so many blogs out there are to me.
I would like to start by thanking Kelly Rae Roberts.  She is a wonderful artist with a new ebook about her journey of becoming a successful artist and how to overcome the fears and little voices that sabotage us.  It is a totally inspiring book and I recommend it to all artist passionate about their art and who want to live and thrive off of it.
She gives really good tips on how to tackle the online presence thing, such as having a blog!
Thank You Kelly Rae!

Remembering Heaven, combined media installation, 2010