Just a brief post to share something lovely:
Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.
, viral as the contraceptive quality, fatigue, able antibiotic and age, are other to medications. Technically, antibiotics are Khyber unless they are also sold as group such antibiotics.
Read MoreI actually pinned something on Pinterest, and then made it, and it might not be quite as pretty as the original, but I really like it. Plus I learned something new and it was really fun.
I love how this takes a traditional (and beautiful) technique and imagines it a little differently. Also, now I’m in awe of artists that do create traditional batiks.
After sketching out a design I used melted beeswax and a small paint brush to fill it in. I didn’t have much control over where exactly the wax went, but it ended up looking very organic. Since that was the whole idea behind the botanical garland, I think it worked out well
It took awhile to paint the whole thing
, but it was a nice, meditative process. And then it went into the dye bath. I didn’t get too crazy, and just used a box of Rit dye. I had hoped for it to come out a little darker, but in the end, I like the grey.
I ironed the fabric between paper towels to remove the wax, although there’s still a little left in there. Since it’s just going to be hanging on the wall, it’s not a big deal.
Then I just stitched up one side and inserted a piece of scrap wood and braided some cording that I had for hanging it.
There’s a huge breaker box in my office, and it’s the perfect cover-up. I love that I made something with stuff that I already had, the only thing I bought was that box of dye. I’d like to learn more about dying fabric, though, and do some smaller pieces in bright colors to make into cushion covers for our living room. And there you go
, a fun weekend craft project that came out just right!
Read MoreThere’s an exciting new development in the Hey Lucy household. Mr. Heylucy is the proud owner of an iPad Mini. It was an anniversary-birthday-Christmas present. I have been ignoring it, because I didn’t think I really had any need to use it, but he is very generous and keeps downloading apps he thinks I might like, and is very happy to share it with me. So I’ll start including the occasional iPad app review, along with my usual iPhone app reviews. I knew there were lots of iPad-specific apps, of course, but we’ve discovered some really beautiful ones that would never work on a little iPhone screen, so I’m really excited to start sharing them here!
My current favorite is called Paper, which you’ve probably heard of if you have an iPad, since it was just named App of the Year. I like it so much that I’m going to write about it anyway. I have a few drawing apps on my phone, but I never use them. They are really powerful and have tons of capabilities, and I’m sure they’re really great, but I find them just too intimidating for my non-artist self. So I had my doubts the first time I opened up Paper. I didn’t buy any of the extra tools at first, the free version comes with just a pen tool, but I starting just making swirls and lines on the page and knew that I had to have all the tools. There’s something about the way the app works that makes all my doodling look good.
Paper is beautifully designed, and opens with an assortment of Moleskine-like notebooks, which you can name and customize as you like. I had fun making covers using Phonto and Poolga wallpapers. You can re-order the notebooks, and add and remove pages, or move pages from one book to another.
The drawing interface is very simple and intuitive. Choose your tool and just start creating. The color palette is also very easy to use. There are several pre-set color palettes, and you can adjust the color in the large mixing palette to anything you’d like, and then move those colors over to your own palettes. You also have the ability to blend colors, which makes it easy to make the colors in your work of art all cohesive.
There’s an eraser tool, but you can also undo your work by making a circle gesture with two fingers and “rewind” your last strokes (up to 20, I believe). I’m still no artist, but Paper is so easy to use that I am drawing more. Here’s an evening’s worth of sketches:
I’m still doing lots of experimenting, but it’s so satisfying to watch my little notebooks fill up with color and lines. There are so many uses for this app, not just drawing, but note-taking, journaling and creating idea repositories.
The creators of Paper have a tumblr blog, showcasing art created with the app.
The Paper website.
Get it in the App Store:
I want to do better with this whole blog thing, so I’m playing around with some ideas and design and improving my photography, and just generally figuring out how to make time to do more here. So please don’t mind random changes in the look of things around here, and I hope I don’t get too rambly with my posts while I figure all this out.
Today I give you some random links:
Why have I never heard of this before? Art Project by Google. High-resolution images of prominent works of art from the best museums in the world. You can even walk around the galleries, Google street-view style. When I lived in Northern Virginia, I spent as many of my days off as possible visiting the museums on the National Mall and all around town. I was pleased to see that one of my favorites, the Freer Gallery, was included! Although the National Gallery is missing, which was another favorite. The Sunday night concerts there were one of my favorite D.C. events.
The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, by James McNeill Whistler, The Freer Gallery
I think I need to start saving up for one of these bags. Is that yellow one not just perfect?
I just got this book (by this blogger/photographer/chef), and I love it. I can’t wait to work on my food styling and photographing. It’s a challenge, since during the week I’m not home during daylight hours long enough to spend any time taking pictures, and I do most of my eating at work. While I enjoy the spontenatity of iphone photography, I’d like to improve my regular photography (not to mention my food-stying skills, which are currently non-existent).
The first words out of my mouth when I saw this were HOLY COW. And then I bought the pattern. Three of my favorite things-quilts, knitting, and bees (or at least honeycomb), all colliding in one, enormous, clever, beautiful project. It may take the rest of my life, but I am going to start making hexipuffs whenever and wherever I can.
Photo by Tiny Owl Knits
