Category: color

Observation Without Judg(e)ment

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I’ve been exploring a system of geometric patterns in both my professional and personal work for a little while now. This is the background, composed in Illustrator at one-quarter scale, for a new piece.

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After penciling in the three-inch grid on a 36 by 24-inch (61 x 94 cm) stretched canvas, I used a compass and straight edge to transfer the background design. Then it was a happy trip down old-school graphic design production memory lane as I wielded eighth-inch (3 mm) black crepe line tape to sketch out the shapes.

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I used shades of white, warm gray, brown and green acrylic for the underpainting.

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After adding a thin ivory wash and letting that dry, I pulled off the black tape. I’ll now add… other background stuff, and paints, and determine what final hue and value of gray to re-stripe (by brush) the outlines. Although I have some definite intentions, as usual, I’m making it up as I go along.

Plastic Litter Collage

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Nearing completion on the plastic litter collage. I bought some two- by quarter-inch wide ply to build a frame, which I’ll paint white.

As more pieces were collected, I re-worked some of the areas. The blue-green section is pretty much filled in.

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Red could use a few more bits.

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And in the lower right corner, a bit of hipster humor and tree hugging :)

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Hide one’s light under a bushel

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I wound up making six bushel baskets from Kris Compas’s tutorial. I used one-inch wood circles that I had on hand for the base, and after the second basket, redrew the pattern so all the uprights were like fringe, instead of individual slats. (The pattern is up on 1inchminis. There’s also a version to print multiples. Yay no measuring.) By the fifth or sixth basket I was getting a nice bulbous curve by shaping it over the top of a two-ounce acrylic paint bottle. Coopering the top rim was also much easier on the paint bottle form.

I’m working mostly on the new project now, but the in-progress Argo Wool Works Showroom is a nice bright place to sit and think and plan, with a cup of tea. (The ladders are by Sir Thomas Thumb, to be used to display hanging goods. I also splurged with the 2015 contest award and bought a scythe o_O)

Now I have to go make a 12:1 cup of tea :)

 

Aubergine, Overlook

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Using the kit’s doors, stained aubergine, with the mullions painted oxidized lead black.

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Yesterday I took a picnic lunch (not pictured) to Thornton Overlook, just north of Pacifica. So pleasant to sit outside with mild sea breezes and a majestic view. The Sea House Warming Hut is not far from here, in case a chill fog sets in :)

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Looking south, with Pedro Point rocks in the distance.

Interior Floor, Brickwork, Lighting!

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I’m using Kiwi Scuff Cover in white to stain the interior wood floors. This is one coat. I wish this kind of applicator was available for all stains! The planks are my beloved Rustic Clapboard Siding Strips from HBS/miniatures.com.

Here it is trimmed.

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And again the next morning, with a third application of Scuff Cover, before final weighting to dry flat.

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I love the light this morning, with a break in the clouds between storms. (Pacifica just declared an official state of emergency from all the big wave damage to our sea walls and cliffs :(

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I’m using my gruzzy pot of gesso as mortar and plaster for the brick walls. This is the first coat. I expect I’ll finish with very light sanding and a wash of mildly warmer white.

And, yay for me!

lighting_plan_012316My first ever lighting wiring plan. Big learns ahead.

Inner Walls

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The interior walls of the 2016 build are exposed brickwork, which will be whitewashed, with star-shaped tie irons from Old Mountain Miniatures. The bricks are all salvage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. More than this is not known.

Yipes, Stripes, Stuff

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This pattern variation appeared after watching 20,000 Days on Earth, a good, if mildly self-indulgent film chronicling memory, writing and performing — made unbearably, poignantly tragic by the recent death of Mr. Cave’s son, Arthur.

One of my favorite scenes is Warren Ellis’s recounting of Nina Simone’s backstage pre-performance requests. Many thanks to Austin Kleon for pointing us to this worthwhile talkie.

Then the next day I woke up and David Bowie was dead. I am sad.

I made a little yellow table from the stain test. This shot is for Keli.

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I don’t often do adorable, but when I do, it’s one of Janet Granger’s tea cozies. I love this design (and the cat one). The only thing that’s sad is that it’s worked on 32-count silk gauze, and there’s more gauze show-through than I’d like to see. I might actually go back and do full cross stitch (rather than tent), or start all over on 49-count with silk. Probably when monkeys fly out of my butt, as Wayne so cheekily observed :)

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And since I’m stuck on miniature needlepoint, at least until I start a new build, all you sewists, beaders and book artists should check out Thread Heaven, a quite effective thread conditioner in a wee cobalt blue box that has made my stitching tangle-free. A merciful reprieve. Because science! And, as their site proclaims, it’s non-petroleum-based, and vegan :) ? !

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Wait! Everything just changed:

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Looks like it should arrive near the end of my current, um, fierce vigorous fiery set of work deadlines, so yay!

 

Stain Test, Yipes Stripes, Storm

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Keenly considering staining the as-yet-undetermined exterior cladding of the 2016 HBS contest build this daffodil yellow from MinWax. Waiting for it to dry so I can sand the test pieces, maybe build a little table. It’s a compelling color, yeah?

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Have reached one inch (2.54 cm) in width on the Yipes, Stripes rug! Contemplating adding a red in. As I mentioned previously, variations of the black-and-ivory motif will recur every inch or so.

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Back-to-back storms continue to blow through much of Northern California. This day there was a lull in the rains, and the combination of King and high tides + storm surge was pushing in 15-foot waves without cease. Some crested 30 feet, and twenty minutes down the coast there were 50-foot wave faces at Mavericks (!) It was, is, as is said, EPIC.

Cats are getting tired of all the wet, though.

Here’s a slightly different view of the beach (and more of this month’s splash image).

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Blue + Green

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Next volume in the miniature color book series: Blue + Green.

Like Pink + Green, it’s ten pages perfect bound, and measures five picas square (.833 in/21 mm).

This one shows found beach glass on a watercolor background, the view from Rattlesnake Ledge in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, afternoon surf off West Cliff in Santa Cruz, California, pool noodles on a wooden bench, and a self-portrait with found fishing lure, Pacifica, California.

Because color is endlessly interesting.