The Pleasure of Tiny Things

Happy New Year Everyone!

2012-01-22T04:31:00.000-08:00

January 23rd, 2012 begins the Year of the Dragon. I usually don't celebrate holidays, birthdays or anniversaries, but this year I had the biggest urge to do all the "New Year" things. It's fun to decorate the house and make all of the traditional holiday foods. I'm feeling homesick for that "big family" culture! It's hard to get together as a family with modern day life, especially if you live in a culture that's vastly different from your own. Imagine celebrating Christmas or Thanksgiving when it's not a holiday... i.e. you don't get time off work and school/life goes on as usual. The most festive thing you see is an end-cap display of wilted bak choy, ginger and yellow mums at the grocery store. It's hard to get excited about something when no one else is. This year I told myself it doesn't matter... just have fun, so make a batch of dumplings enough to feed 50 people even if you're the only one who will eat it! LOL... yes I have about 2 gallons of cioppino in the fridge because I wanted some and I don't know how to make a serving for one. I've had cioppino for lunch for the last week, I don't think I'll want to eat it again for another 6-8 months.

I'd like to revive some traditions from my childhood. I think the key is to make it fun and involve others who would share your enthusiasm. Even the smallest gesture counts, like putting together a small display on your coffee table. Happy New Year Everyone, I wish you good health and happiness in the year to come!

Paper Blossoms Tutorial for Chinese New Year

2012-01-17T23:46:00.000-08:00

I remember making paper blossoms for Lunar New Year decoration as a kid. It's a symbol for Spring, luck and prosperity. This is a fun and very simple project. You can make your own just in time to celebrate the Lunar New Year on January 23rd! Have fun!

Materials:
Pink & yellow tissue paper (or whatever color you'd like to make)
Tree branches/twigs
Scissors
Ruler
Thread (I used brown to match that color of my branch)
Get the better quality tissue paper, usually they sell it by the sheet on racks. This paper is stiffer, stronger and will hold it's shape better. No worries if the only thing you can find is gift-wrap tissue. This will work too, it's what I used for this tutorial. One sheet is easily enough to make 40-50 flowers.

Making The Petals
Step 1:
Cut pink tissue into 5" x 2" pieces. They can be a little longer if you want a fuller flower with more petals. I like to stack a few pieces together and cut them at the same time. The tissue is so thin it's easier and faster to cut a small stack vs. one sheet.

Step 2:
Fold the tissue pieces into quarters... fold it in half length-wise and then fold in half width-wise. Again I like to do this to 4 pieces at a time.

Step 3:
Cut deep lobed scallops along the open edge of the folded tissue. So when you unfold the paper it will be scalloped on both edges. Each scallop will become a petal when the flower is finished.

Step 4:
Gather the tissue by roughly pleating it. It doesn't have to be neat, just keep the paper centered. Pinch it in the center, don't twist. I find it's easier to fan out the petals at the end when it's not twisted.
You've just made the petal portion of the flower!

Making the Stamens:
The stamens are made the same way as the petals. Use yellow tissue paper and cut it into 2" x 1.5" pieces. Fold the tissue pieces in quarters and cut slits on the open edge creating a fringe on both sides when the paper is unfolded. Because the sections are so small it might be easier to cut a long strip that is 1.5" wide, fringe it then cut it into 2" sections afterwards.
Repeat step 4 from making the petals and gather each sections, pinching it at the center.

Step 5:
Now you have both the petals and stamens finished. It's time to assemble the blossom. Take a section of string and tie a double knot at the center of the stamen piece. Then tie a double knot around the petal piece. You'll get something that looks like a feathery bow.

Step 6.
Now your flower is assembled, you just need to fluff it out! Take the stamens and pinch them up. You can tug on them a bit, but don't pull too hard you might tear pieces out. Then fan out the petals and fluff them up. A better quality tissue will allow you to manipulate the flower more without tearing.

Step 7.
Tie the flowers to your branch and trim off any excess string. Use your aesthetic judgement on what looks best. ;) You can make bigger branches for a center piece or just small bouquets. If the flower flops around too much on the branch you can always add a dob of glue to hold it in place. You can also make garlands by tying them to a ribbon.

Thank you for visiting the blog! 新年快樂!

Hibernating For The Winter

2012-01-16T15:38:00.000-08:00

2011 was a crazy busy year with moving and remodeling, but we're really happy with our new home. I felt really overwhelmed for most of the year and a lot of projects got put on the back burner. Now that it's winter and things are slow I feel I can take some time off to recoup. I'm hoping the Year of the Dragon will be a little less hectic.

Kitchen nook:
I like to propagate cuttings for the Spring in case my plants don't make it through the winter. I also started some tea plants (Camellia sinensis) that are too small to leave in the cold. So here it is, our kitchen nook turned into a temporary greenhouse for a few months. Luckily it's a very bright corner and I don't mind giving up this space to have some greenery through the grey winter.

Paperwhites bursting through.
I've never forced bulbs before... it's quite addictive! They grow so quickly. I'm hoping these will bloom in time for the Lunar New Year. This picture was taken a few days ago and now as I type the flower buds have already made it through. Paperwhite is a Narcissus (daffodil) and a symbol of good luck and prosperity. It's a tradition to have them blooming in your home during Chinese New Year... or as I'd like to call it, "The Real New Year". :P

New Work @ G.Gibson Gallery

2011-11-30T17:21:00.000-08:00

I have a set of new crayons that will be in a group show at GGibson Gallery in Seattle! I'll be at the reception tomorrow, please stop by if you're in town.
G.GIBSON GALLERY
Works By:
GALA BENT, DIEM CHAU, MAIJA FIEBIG, HEIDI KIRKPATRICK,
RACHEL MAXI + SAYA MORIYASU
December 1 - January 7
Artist Reception: Thursday, December 1 from 6-8pm

I've been getting back into carving crayons, this time with a different twist. I remember growing up with a lot of Chinese art and it's many themes. One of the quintessential theme is of the Four Seasons. They mark change, progress through life and the beauty of nature. This is my own interpretation of the Four Seasons.

Winter - Bamboo

Spring - Cherry Blossom

Summer - Lotus

Autumn - Chrysanthemum with bamboo fence

Goodbye Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

I was driving with a friend yesterday when the news of Steve Job's death hit the news. I was instantly floored and saddened, what a great loss. I've never personally met Mr. Jobs, but his innovations have changed my life. Apple products have allowed someone like me, a laymen, to navigate, explore and take advantage of all the resources the tech world has to offer. I've been able to keep up and grow as technology advances. Thank you Steve Jobs.

When a family member dies in Chinese culture we wear a patch of black fabric on our sleeve to mourn the loss. I thought it would be a nice symbolic gesture to put black tape over my Apple as a sign of respect and gratitude for what Steve Jobs has given us. Please feel free to repost this.

New Works & Crayon Commissions

2011-09-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have some new works available on my website. Please go check it out.

I've also received a lot of emails inquiring about the carved crayons. I make them on a commissioned bases. Each crayon is $250USD and the turn around is about one week for 1-3 crayons, this is not including shipping time. It may take longer depending on what is requested. I usually work from the Crayola 64 pack and the bright "fruity" colors work best. I like to have a good face pic and an overall body shot of my subjects for proportion and clothing reference. I love special or unusual requests, I see them as a good challenge. Feel free to contact me if you have any inquiries.

The Café - SHOWstudio Shop London

2011-09-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have a current show at SHOWstudio Shop in London.
The Café
1-9 Bruton Place
London, W1J 6LT

September 8th - November 5th, 2011

"The Cafe," an exhibition centered around coffee culture and cafe society in fine art, fashion and film. The show examines our enduring fascination with the culture of café. The SHOWstudio Shop has transformed their gallery into an actual coffee shop for the duration of the exhibition. They will also include artworks that intrinsically take up the subject of the café at their core as they set out to both present a slice of history as well as examine coffee culture today. Curated by Carrie Scott.
Featuring work by:
Piers Atkinson
Kendall Carter
Diem Chau
Robert Doisneau
Emil Hoppe
Nick Knight
Terence Koh
Stephen Lapthisophon
Steven Meisel
Misha Milovanovich
Mother Of Pearl
Vincent Ramos
Rebecca & Mike
Tim Roda
Keith Tyson
Luke Waller
Morgan White

You can see a preview of the show at SHOWstudio.
Thank you for including my work in the show Carrie! It's wonderful finally getting to work with you.

Push Stitchery - Win A Copy!

2011-09-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I'm sooooo sorry for the lapse in posting. Hopefully I'm back on the blogging horse again. I'm very excited to be a part of Push Stitchery, curated by Jamie Chalmers (a.k.a. Mr. X Stitch). The book is packed full of great art and insightful interviews from 30 embroidery artists from around the world. Lark Crafts is doing a giveaway, you can win your very own copy! Follow the link and just leave a comment :)

There I am! There are 6-8 images from each artist along with bio's and a Q&A section. The print quality is great and I love how it's bound. I have a thing for books that open flat.

Cayce Zavaglia
I want to see these in person... there is so much intricate detail.

Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė
I'm a BIG fan of her work!

Tilleke Schwarz
I love her colors and the playfulness in her imagery.

Charlene Mullen

Andrea Vander Kooij

Thank you Jamie and everyone at Lark Books, great job!

Raffle Winner Bellen!

2011-06-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

This is Bellen Drake's family portrait, she was one of 2 winners from my Japan charity raffle. I had a lot of fun doing this. I would like to thank everyone who participated and helped promote the raffle. I was amazed we raised so much money! I hope you like your family portrait Bellen :)

I got quite a few emails about how I did the raffle. I actually got in some trouble with Paypal for doing it. I would not recommend doing what I did... It's sad there's really no alternative. If you're raising funds through Paypal, they require you to be a certified non-profit or you formally represent the organization you're raising funds for. I was neither, I just wanted to do something and I couldn't think of any other way. They also strictly prohibit raffles and lotteries... but hey I'm a monkey wrench. I thought they would let me slide for charity sake, but I was wrong.

Paypal contacted me 2 days after the raffle was over and suspended my account. They asked me to prove that I was either a non-profit (401C) or a representative of the non-profit. The alternative was to refund all the money! I had already wired the money to the Japan Red Cross so a refund is out of the question. All I could do was email them my wire transfer paperwork and hope they'll accept it. In the end they restored my account, but gave me a stern warning against doing something like this.
*warning heard guys!*

A few other artists and friends were not so lucky. Paypal suspended their account right in the middle of their charity fundraisers. It was a big nightmare for them! I'm so sorry I sent them down that path. If only there was a way to donate directly to a charity via Paypal and have Paypal notify me that someone has donated on my behalf. Am I making sense??? There's no way to do that now. I think a lot of good can be done that way... it's almost like a micro-loan situation. We're more likely to make donations through a friend's request than marathon drives and TV commercials. Being able to raise funds as an individual gives it a personal touch, it's grassroots and I feel it can really pull a community together. With that being said I'm not a professional fundraiser and I don't do this a lot.

Paypal is a wonderful way to do business online. The only other option is Google Checkout, but they're still relatively new. I know their policy is just to protect the consumer against scammers and frauds. I think the market is big enough we need a few more alternatives to Paypal.

If I ever do this again I'll probably sell E-cards (along with the chance to win a set of crayons :P). It'll have to be a "sales" type exchange instead of "gift". That just means Paypal takes 3%, but in the scheme of things 3% isn't bad.

Now back to Bellen's crayons! This is Bellen, she's a photographer in Seattle. She requested that I carve her with a camera. I modeled her camera after the Canon 1D & 5D series.

Charles the father. I tried to capture his wonderful mustache/goatee thing. I also really like his shirt.

Eben the son. He's a soccer player! I think I've had a lot of practice with soccer players by now :P

Delphi the daughter. She has a cat that she loves. This was my first time putting an animal into the mix. It was a good challenge, I'll do doing more combos like this.

Textiel Plus

2011-06-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

I'm in the summer issue of Textile Plus. Thank you Coco, Dorothé and everyone at Textiel Plus!

I'm so honored to be in the same issue as Nick Cave! I recently saw his work at the Seattle Art Museum. Sadly today was the last day to go see these amazing suits. He's my new art crush.

Click on the image to view large. Sorry folks it's only in Dutch.

GESCHA's Crayon Politics

2011-06-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about how this project turned out! I was approached by Matt Senga on behalf of Gescha to create the cover art for his new album "Crayon Politics". This is Gescha's first solo album and I'm so honored they chose my work.
For more info about Gescha go here:
http://gescha.bandcamp.com/

We wanted to make something simple that would be eye-catching as well. We went with his name spelled out sitting on chess pieces. I'm a big fan of the rainbow!
G - sits on the king
E - sits on the pawn
S - sits on the rook
C - sits on the bishop
H - sits on the queen
A - sits on the knight

CD album cover

Vinyl album cover

Back/insert & interior
The black & white image is artist, Christian Faur's work. He stacks crayons to make an image, each crayon acts like a pixel.

I just wanted to give a great big THANKS to Matt and Geordie! I hope you guys are as thrilled as I am about this. Good luck with the new release! We'll have to grab some beers if I'm ever in Saskatoon Saskatchewan ;)

Check out his lead single "Love Pirate"!

KSAT: Artistic Games & Biggles Flys Again

2011-06-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Yasmine Tashk contacted me about KSAT, a Paris based zine focused on the idea of collaboration and artistic games. In this latest issue artists are paired up with musicians. Each artist chooses a song from a list of musicians and makes a piece inspired by that song. It was a fun idea and when I heard "Farewell " by Biggles Flys Again I was immediately on board! It's such a beautiful and melancholy song, I felt my work resonates perfectly with his music. Biggles Flys Again is Dublin based musician Conor Deasy, he makes quiet bedroom folk pop.

KSAT Issue n°4 - MUSICAL ISSUE :
What inspire the musicians while composing music ?
What do their music inspire to other visual artists?

Release Party/Exhibition & Concert:

Saturday, June 18 at 4:00pm - June 19 at 7:00pm

Gängeviertel

Valentinskamp

Hamburg, Germany

Musicians are:
Biggles Flys Again
Dent May
Matthias Kranebitter
The Debutante Hour
MmMmM
Young Michelin
Papir
Mungo Park
Woog Riots
Kid Bombardos
The New Spring
Boom Boom du Terre
Bradien
Da Brasilians
La Boutique Fantastique
Dead Gaze

Visual Artists:
Lizer Van Hattem
Diem Chau
Rasmus Westman
Matthias Reinhold
Sara Escamilla
Rémi Jacquinot
Mia Frykholm
Jelle Kos
Sarah Marguier
Mikey Heller
Sarah Roloff
Kazuma Eekman
Marilou Klapwijk
Léo Dorfner
Steingrim Veum
Clea Hance
Yasmine Tashk

John & Jessica

2011-06-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

A recent commission for John & Jessica who got married on May 27th! Congrats guys, wishing you many happy years!

Another shot from the side. I really like how the flower in her hair turned out. The white and grey combo was chosen by John.

The groom's crayon. He had wonderful long curly hair, but decided to cut it for the wedding. I was looking forward to making a long haired groom.

The bride's crayon. This was a wedding gift for Jessica. John had a hard time sneaking a shot of her in the dress. I hope she likes them! The color turned out very well. I had to ad lib on what the back of the dress looks like. We decided to keep her glasses on, it gave her that lovely geek factor. ;)

Bestest Buddy Tom

2011-05-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

This was commissioned by Femke as gift to her friend who recently lost her dog Tom.

Click on the picture above to see a larger image.

Tom is missed. Sweet boy.
If you can read Dutch here's Joyce's blog about the crayon and Tome:
http://www.joycevannispen.blogspot.com/

Rijswijk Textile Biennale 2011

2011-05-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be in the Rijswijk Museum's 2011 Textile Biennale! I'm honored to have my work featured on the poster. It's a wonderful line-up of artists, if you happen to be in the Netherlands please go see the show! Embarrassingly I had to Google the name to learn its pronunciation ... it's Ris Vik. I bet you can get some high scores playing Scrabble in Dutch.

RIJSWIJK TEXTILE BIENNALE
June 7th - September 11, 2011
Museum Rijswijk
Herenstraat 67
2282 BR Rijswijk
The Netherlands

Was
Porcelain plate, organza, cotton fabric & thread
2011

Artists in the Show
Mariëlle van den Bergh (Netherlands)
Dorothée Van Biesen (Belgium)
Diem Chau (USA) - you know where to find me ;)
Orly Cogan (USA)
Andrea Donnelly (USA)
Erin Endicott (USA)
Wen-Ying Huang (Taiwan ROC)
Gaby Kleindienst (Germany)
Valerie van Leersum (Netherlands)
Janice Lessman-Moss (USA)
Sanae Mimori (Japan)
Barbara Polderman (Netherlands)
Astrid Polman (Netherlands)
Jacquelyn Royal (USA)
Elisa van Schie (Netherlands)
Johanna Schweizer (Netherlands)
Adrienne Sloane (USA)
Sue Stone (England)
Anna Torma (Canada)
Michel Wieggers (Netherlands)

D di Repubblica/La Repubblica Interview!

2011-05-07T02:18:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be interviewed by D di Repubblica! Google Translate here I come :) Thank you Ilaria, it was great working with you.
Image gallery here

DiaCRITICS Interview

2011-05-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful interview with artist and writer Lien Truong on Diacritcs.

DiaCritics is an online blog started by DVAN which stands for Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network. DVAN’s aim is to promote artists from the Vietnamese Diaspora whose work in literature, visual art, film and performance art enriches our communities and strengthens ties between Vietnamese across the globe. We undertake to support this body of work through cultural events, exhibits and publications that explore connections between art and society.
DVAN is international in scope. It provides resources and promotes the work of Vietnamese artists in the United States, France, Canada and Australia, as these countries host the largest Vietnamese communities overseas. It also supports artists who have returned to Viet Nam and produce from that location.

It's a wonderful resource for Vietnamese artist or for those who are interested in Vietnamese art. I never knew they existed until a few months ago! Go check out them out, just click on the screen capture for the link.

Sorry for the long belated post on this interview! Thank you for introducing my to DVAN Lien. :)

IndieFixx Interview

2011-04-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

I did a fun interview with Jen Wallace from IndieFixx. Sorry for the delay in posting this... I'm quite behind on posting these days! Thanks for the great questions Jen :)

Day 4 & 5 Finished!

2011-04-21T03:06:00.000-07:00

Day 5 and I'm finished!

I spent 3 hours yesterday (Day 4) redoing the newspaper bed. I removed the frame, took out all of the newspaper I had laid down and double dug the bed. Then I reinstalled the frame. I was tired by the end of that 3 hours and called it a day.

Today (Day 5) I filled all of the beds with soil. I'm surprised it took almost 5 hours to do! I also cleaned up the work site a bit. I found that it was faster to mix the soil directly in the beds. I started by mixing in the wheelbarrow and that wasn't very efficient. I'm planning to make a summery post so that all of the important information is in one place.

All-in-all this project took 5 days (about 22 hours not including travel time to the many stores). I was able to do most of this myself, but you definitely need a second person to lift the raised bed frames and set them in place. The cost was about $250 with soil.

And so we start! We went to a few nurseries and bought some starter plants. I was surprised to really like the plant selection (and price) at Fred Meyer. I went to the one in the Ballard/Fremont area. Their plants were healthy and well watered with the exception of a few cucumber flats.

I'm also starting a few things from seed like spinach, lettuce, radishes and peas. I've found with plants like tomatoes and peppers I get better results from buying gallon pots. It'll be my first time growing broccoli and cabbages. I never had enough space before, they're such HUGE plants. Fingers crossed!

As I was finishing off with the beds I looked over to the gate and began to wonder what I can do there... maybe a row of raspberries or asparagus? This will be the never ending project.

Raised Bed Day 3

2011-04-19T03:04:00.000-07:00

Another day of digging. I ended yesterday with my 1st bed finished and my 2nd half dug. I picked up the work today around 3pm and finished all 3 beds around 7:30pm. I decided to make the 3 beds with 3 different soil preparation methods:

The 1st bed was done with single digging and the sod removed. It took about 3 hours. (right)

The 2nd bed done with double digging, the sod (top layer) was buried underneath another layer of soil. This was the more laborious of all 3. It also took about 3 hours, but more heavy lifting was involved. (center)

The 3rd bed was done by just placing layers of newspaper on top of the sod and piling new soil in the frame. It took about 30 minutes, but I have my doubts about the effectiveness and benefits of this method. (left)

My feeling on all 3 is that the double digging is best when cultivating a bed for the first time. It was the hardest one to do, but well worth the work. There's always weeds, grass or something growing on the top of your soil that you want to take out before planting. Single digging just rotates the soil from one section to the next, what's on top of the soil still stays (relatively) on top. You have to manually pick out any weeds or plant matter that you don't want growing back. It's not so bad if you have a few plants here or there, but when there's a dense carpet of sod that's another story. You can't effectively till sod with just a single dig.

Double digging is hard for me to explain. It's basically like a single dig, but instead of rotating the soil from section to section you also rotate it from top to bottom. You start by removing 2 shovel's depth worth of soil and place it aside (each shovel's depth is a layer) Then you put the top layer of soil in the next section into the bottom layer of your first section. After that you cover that top layer with the bottom layer of that next section... Top layer becomes bottom layer, each section at a time. I was very confused by the instructions I read, even the illustration was no help, but once I got started digging it all made sense. I'll try to do a demo tomorrow. The plant matter in the top layer is buried so deep that it won't regrow. Not only is it covered with 12" of soil, but I'm putting on another 12" after the raised bed frame gets installed. No way is grass going to poke out of 24" worth of soil. Another benefit to this method is how fluffy it gets the soil! Because the soil takes up more volume I need to buy less soil to fill up the bed and I don't have to compost the sod, it gets composted in the ground. The only drawback is how laborious it is, but honestly it's not that bad.
*This is the method I'll use from now on when cultivating new beds.

The 3rd method I used was placing newspaper onto of the soil to act as a barrier and kill the sod under it. This is very simple, unless you're in a very wind situation. I don't know if I was doing it right, but I don't like this method. I'll illustrate below:

So I'll just call this the "Newspaper" method. It's as easy as it looks, lay down newspaper and pile soil onto of it. My issue with this is drainage. At my old home the previous owners had made a sidewalk garden using this method. I didn't know this at first, but noticed that when I was watering the water would run off fairly quickly and the soil also got dry quickly. It was mostly filled with drought tolerant plants like euphorbias, lavenders and sedums. I thought that I had let the soil dry out to much and it lost some of it's water retention qualities. After I started digging into the ground I found a layer of partially decomposed newspaper about 8" down. It was effective in blocking out plants/weed under it, but it also formed a barrier for water and accelerated topsoil evaporation. I noticed roots had a hard time penetrating the newspaper as well.

This is an image of all 3 beds in place. I don't know if I'm doing the "newspaper" method right, but if so it seems like a perfect waste of top soil buring it under newspaper, inaccessible to the plants above it. Then have to go buy a lot more soil to fill the bed. There's also the drainage and evaporation issue and I don't know what kind of chemicals are in the paper and ink. I wouldn't mind so much if I'm not eating the plants I grow. I guess you can do the same with a weed blocker fabric, but you lose soil depth. If I have a 12" raised bed and I dig another 12"-24" I'll have lots of room for roots to grow. I couldn't hurt to give those roots more space right?

Yes it's easy and quick, but it's no good, unless you're planting a parking strip and don't really care. You know one of the "set it and forget it" moments. I feel so strongly against this that I'm redoing this bed tomorrow with the double dig method. It'll add another day's work, but I'd rather do it now then regret it a month from now. At least it has no soil in it! So my conclusion is to double dig when cultivating new land. Heck I might go back and do it to the 1st bed too... maybe... I'll see how my aches are by then :P

Another photo of Guy being helpful. Notice how high the mound of soil it. This is from double digging, no soil has been added, it's just what was there fluffed up. Guy approves. :)

So tomorrow I redo my 3rd bed and fill the beds with soil. I'm hoping I'll be ready for planting on Wednesday or Thursday.

Raised Bed Day 2

2011-04-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

This is what a broken back looks like! We hauled about 70 cubic feet worth of compost, manure, peat moss and top soil up 10 steps and into our back yard. I'm so thankful the old owner left his wheelbarrow behind. It saved the day! This is about $200 worth of soil and 3 trips in the Prius.

You can calculate how much soil you need by multiplying your bed's height, width and length. Mine is 4x8x1= 32 cubic feet of soil is needed per bed (times 3 beds is 96 cubic feet). I'm going to mix in some fill dirt that was left by the south side of our house. The fill is clean and mostly sand.

Today was the ground breaking and back breaking day. This is the no-fun part and I would totally recommend renting a rototiller. I started by marking out where the beds will go and used a shovel to cut a perimeter. This gives me a nice clean edge. I've dug 2"-3" wider than the bed's dimensoins to make sure I clear all of the grass around it.

The next step is to till it. This is just plain ol' elbow grease. Nothing makes it easier... I used a Japanese garden hoe similar to this one from JapanWoodworker, but with a longer handle. I found that angle and ergonomics was good for me.

This is where I stopped today, we started at about 11am with buying and hauling soil and I stopped working at about 7pm. We took 2 hours off to each lunch and wander through the Ballard Farmer's Market. So for about 6 hours of work I got 1.5 beds tilled and all of my soil brought on site. My husband and I did the hauling together, but I worked on the tilling by myself. So you can gage the amount of work it takes to prepare for a raised bed.

There are lots of different methods used on how to build a raised bed (and how to prepare the soil). You just have to pick the one that you have the energy and resources for. I'm going to experiment with a few methods in each box.

This is my first bed. I've removed the sod and tilled it. I started with the 2 steps above (cut the perimeter and a rough till). After breaking the sod into big chunks I shook out soil and tossed the sod aside. In most of the forums I've read removing the sod is unnecessary. I just did it for the hell of it. At this point it's ready for the raised bed frame. Tilling and preparing this patch took about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
*To get the dirt out from the sod I beat clumps of it against a 2x4. Lots of dirt went flying everywhere, my hair, my eyes, my mouth... not fun. Not the best way to do this.

I won't be removing the sod in the other 2 bed. I will double dig my 2nd bed (started and half-way done) and I'll just lay newspaper over the sod on the 3rd bed. These are both methods that others have used and said works. I'd like to see which 3 method is best at promoting plant growth and inhibiting weed/grass growth in the beds. I'd like to see what the easiest & most efficient way is. I'll have more info on the other 2 beds tomorrow (weather permitting) and I'll keep you guys posted throughout the season.

This is the first bed with frame installed. After tilling we lowered the frame into place, filling in any low points and making sure it was level. We lifted the frame up again to dig a small trench where the frame was. You'll see an indentation/footprint in the soil, just dig an inch or 2 slightly larger than that footprint. Fill it with gravel for drainage. I forgot to buy gravel this morning, but I had a bucket of small rocks laying around. I packed the rest with the sandy fill dirt I had (not as good as gravel for drainage). This drainage trench will help keep your wood dryer. It'll still rot eventually, but this gives you some extra time.

Lower the frame onto your gravel once again and pack the outer perimeter with soil. I just shoveled some fill dirt all the way around the walked on it. You're pretty much just setting it into place.
*Where I live I'm not so concerned with digging critters so I didn't install chicken wire under the frame. If you're concerned with moles or rats, rabbits etc. you should do so. This bed is ready for soil. I'm waiting to fill all 3 at the same time.

I don't know if this is necessary either, but I staked all 4 corners of the frame into the ground. This keeps it from moving around, but I assume once it's been loaded with soil it's not going anywhere.

Today I realize that 4' across is pretty wide, especially given the extra lumber widths making it a total of 51" wide. I'm on the shorter side and I can tell reaching the middle is going to be a hassle. If you're shorter or have back issues I'd go with 3' or 3.5' wide beds.

Just in case you guys are wondering. This is Guy, my supervisor.

Raised Bed Gardening 2.0

2011-04-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Today I started on the new raised beds. This is the 2nd time I've built these and I've made a few changes to the first version. Building a raised bed is very easy with a few good tools. If you're interested in starting your own garden check out this wonderful article by Kate Gardner from PlanetNatural. So here are the details:

3 Beds total (for now... I'm probably going to build 2 or 3 more)
I really want a winter garden and a few beds to grow onions and garlic in, not to mention potatoes/yams. All of these crops require a dedicated space for almost the entire growing season (in Seattle). Unlike beans, peas, leafy greens, radishes and chard etc. where I was able to do 2 or 3 rounds in the same space. With a yard that's about 2000sf I want to challenge myself to grow for year round eating! I'm not much of a lawn person anyways :P

Beds are 4' x 8'
It just makes sense with lumber being 8' long. It also fits nicely in the Prius. Yes we hauled all of the lumber you see in that pic in our 2005 Prius! It's like live action tetris.

Beds are 12" high
My first version was 18" high (or three levels of 2"X6") and it needed A LOT of soil to fill! This time I'm only going with a 12" high bed (or two levels of 2"x6"). I searched around for more info on bed height and found this great video from GrowingYourGreens.

Cedar and Hemlock Fir
I originally planned on making all of my beds from cedar, but 2"x6"x8' cedar lumber was about $14.00 each and I needed 6 per bed. Each bed would be about $90 with corner posts... that's a little more than I want to spend. Lowes also had the same in Hemlock Fir for about $4 (or about $30 per bed with corner posts). I debated for awhile at the cost vs. longevity of the wood and for the sake of experimentation I decided to go with both. We made 2 Fir and 1 Cedar bed. I'll keep you guys posted on how these compare to each other.

Costs
6 Cedar 2"x6"x8' = $84.00
12 Hemlock Fir 2"x6"x8' = $48.00
2 Hemlock Fir 4"x4"x8' = $16.00
Total for 3 beds: $148.00 (not including soil or misc things like screws and nails)

Tools for the job:
circular saw, pencil, level, tape measure and drill. You'll also need nails or screws and a level area to put it all together on. It really helps to have a concrete pad or patio. Measure and cut the wood. Each bed has four 8' sections and four 4' sections and four corner posts that are 12"high. Well the posts are really 11" since 2x6 lumber is really 1.5"x5.5".

After you cut all of your pieces lay them out on a flat surface and begin to assemble. In the past I used clamps to hold the wood together then pre-drilled and screwed them together... or you can have a helper hold the wood together, but it always slips or moves. I cheated this time and used a nail gun! It was soooo much faster! I still pre-drilled and used screws, I just don't trust brad nails to withstand years of abuse. I tend to overdo it. This was the original tutorial I used from Popular Mechanics.

My husband helped me with these and we managed to put all 3 together in about 2 hours. I also added some braces in the middle of the 8' sections, my old beds were a bit wobbly in the middle. Tomorrow we'll deal with the soil and "install" our beds.

Three-Dimensional Line & My First Skype!

2011-04-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

In Between, an installation of red strings and nails.
I have a group show that opens this Friday in Kirkland, WA. I'll be there, so if you're in town please come by and say hi.

Three-Dimensional Line

Curated by Ellen Ziegler for In Lieu Exhibit Space
April 16 - May 28, 2011

Opening Reception: Friday, April 15, 2011, 6 - 8:30 PM

The Three-Dimensional Line presents eleven artists who amalgamate volume, dimension, scale, emotion and illusion with line in a myriad of ways. This exhibition explores the creation of three-dimensional form in the space of a room or in the mind of a viewer.

In an effort to make sense of the world, the eye and the mind navigate between two and three dimensions, using what are sometimes the barest visual clues. The humor and mischievous play apparent in these works exemplify the power that artists can harness to compel and confound the viewer. A perceptual game ensues; we feel our neurons firing.

ARTISTS

Timothy Brown

Robert Campbell

Diem Chau

Amy Hamblin

Victoria Haven

Sean Johnson I LOVE HIS WORK! Yo man get a website! :P
Margie Livingston

Jean Lullie

Michael Ottersen

Susan Zoccola

and work on loan by Vija Celmins

In other news I have an opening tonight at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. I couldn't be there physically but in the age of technology who needs a body?! Greg Blair, the exhibition coordinator suggested we use Skype to get me to the opening. This is my first time using Skype. We did a test run yesterday and I'm SO HOOKED! Yes yes... this old lady is behind on the times.
Thanks for introducing me to such fun new technology Greg! See you tonight.

Spring Fever

2011-04-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

We finally have some sun in Seattle. Last year we had to wait until June for sunshine. I swear I was a few weeks away from hanging myself. This nice weather is giving me a serious case of Spring Fever! Even with a pile of serious work to do I'm compelled to dig in the garden... that and buying a $4 head of lettuce. Seriously should lettuce cost $4 per head?! It was organic, but still, that's ridiculous.

We just moved into a new house a few months ago. At our old home I had a small, fairly well established garden that provided us with a decent amount of veggies during the summer. This new place is a blank slate, but it's a good canvas... there's not a lot of stuff I have to remove and it's flat. I just have to build the beds and till the soil. I feel like I'm racing against time to build my beds, everyday I wait to plant is a good growing day wasted.

This is the sunniest part of the yard by our boxwood hedge. It's close to house and the water supply.
I have no idea what I'm doing. I found a bundle of 2x4's by the side of the house and decided to sketch out some bed designs. I like sketching on paper, but this gives me a much better visual. All in all I'm going to start with 4-5 beds. I think this will grow WAY MORE than 2 people can ever eat. I only had 1.5 beds in the old house. This will give me room to do root veggies, onions, garlic, broccoli and cabbages. I can also set aside some space for a winter garden. When we had the smaller space I stuck to high output crops like spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and beans.

An overhead shot from the kitchen window. You can see 3.5 beds laid out here. I've made them 8'wide by 4'deep with a 20"-24' footpath in between. I'm planning out what I need for materials today and hopefully I can get this built next week.

Money For Japan & Higo Benefit Sale

2011-03-25T23:39:00.001-07:00

I wired $6590.00 to the Japanese Red Cross Society today! This was done through Key Bank in the University District in Seattle. The reference number is: 20110325-00006772, it was done this morning so the wire should be completed by now. The money will be routed to the Sumimoto Mutsui Bank in NY then it goes to the Tokyo branch. I've requested a receipt of the transfer after completion. I think they'll email me a confirmation? I've never done an international wire before.

I just wanted to say thank you again for everyone's contribution and the HUGE response to this raffle! This means more than just money and provisions, we've sent them a great deal of good will and positivity too. I really can't say enough thank you's.
Diem

If you're in Seattle I highly recommend stopping by the Aritst For Japan benefit art sale at Higo. I will be there on Sunday around 2-3pm. I'll try to make it on Saturday too, but I'm not sure about the time. The Murakami Family (Higo Variety Store) will match up to $10,000 of the money raised by this event.
Kobo at Higo
604 S Jackson St
Seattle WA 98104
206.381.3000

Thumbs Up To YOU!

2011-03-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

Thank you EVERYONE who contributed to this, you guys are amazing! Also a big thanks to everyone who helped pass the word, I can't believe how many people knew about this raffle. I was eating Pho with my husband last night and overheard a couple talk about it in the next booth. LOVE IT! The raffle ended at midnight PST (about 30 minutes ago) and we have raised a total of $6590.00 for the Japan Red Cross Society! I will go make the bank wire in the morning and I'll post a receipt for the transfer after it's done.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

And the winners are:
#153 Sean & Candace
#88 Eben
CONGRATS guys! I wish I can do something for everyone who entered ^_^

There's always a need for crisis relief. If you're interested in helping I highly suggest donating to the Red Cross.

For Japan: Last Call!

2011-03-23T01:48:00.000-07:00

This is it folks, the last day of our raffle! Ticket sales will stop tonight at midnight PST. So far 275 people have raised $5820.00 for Japan. Good job everyone, let's break the $6000 mark tomorrow! I'll announce the total raised and the winners on Wednesday, March 24th.
Good luck all and good night.
Info on how to participate here: http://tinyhaus.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-japan.html

For Japan Day 6 Update

2011-03-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

We're in Day 6 and 260 people have raised $5510.00 for Japan! It doesn't look like we'll make it to 1000 tickets, but this is still an incredible number. Thank you everyone for participating and passing the word. I also want to mention that this offer is open to worldwide contributors. I can and have shipped these crayons everywhere. No worries on shipping costs or hassles, I'll take care of all the shipping costs :)
The details and original post here: http://tinyhaus.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-japan.html

I'm so sorry for having missed the last few days worth of updates on the Japan raffle. Our dog had a vet visit for oral surgery, he's old with bad teeth. It was nerve-racking since they had to put him under for the procedure. He's an old guy and they said he might not make it through. But luckily he's fine now and recovering. Thank you Carkeek Park Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Rossi!

Sojourn, (Be)Longing & Storylines

2011-03-19T04:11:00.000-07:00

I currently have 3 shows that recently opened. Sorry for the belated news. Please go check it out if you're in the area.

STORYLINES: Contemporary Embroidery
Craft Alliance
6640 Delmar Blvd
STL, MO 63130
March 18-May 8, 2011
Six contemporary artists explore narrative works in thread – stitch by stitch.
Michael Aaron McAllister
Ray Materson
Chris Niver
Deborah Baker
Caycez Zavaglia
And me!

SOJOURN
Northern State University: Isaac Licoln Gallery
Northern Galleries
1200 South Jay Street
Aberdeen, South Dakota, 57401
March 10 - May 13, 2011

(BE)LONGING
Kirkland Art Center
March 5 - April 9, 2011
Curated by Mercy Trent
Artists Include:
Sonny Assu
Jana Brevik
Zhi Lin
Hugo Ludena
Tess Martin
Saya Moriyasu
Remedios Rapoport
Marie Watt
and me!

"Mahjongg" 2007
Toothpicks, brown paper bag, rice bowl and cardstock
5.5" x 5.5" x 2.5"

For Japan: After Day 2

2011-03-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

48 hours
206 people
450 tickets
$4500.00 dollars for The Japan Red Cross Society!

Thanks again for another terrific day! Things have slowed a bit today. I'd like to ask everyone's help in passing the word! Feel free to post this on your Facebook, blog, tweet, even smoke signal :) If we can get 100 tickets everyday until March 23rd we'll be able to meet our goal of 1000 tickets or $10,000.00 raised. That would be an incredible task!

Just link to this: http://tinyhaus.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-japan.html
You can grab an image here: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5531130505_9f7349774e_b.jpg

For Japan: After Day 1

2011-03-17T00:44:00.000-07:00

24 hours
155 people
343 tickets
$3430.00 dollars for The Japan Red Cross Society!

Thank you EVERYONE for your overwhelming response! This was beyond anything I had hoped for. We reached our goal of 200 tickets in under 12 hours. Let's shoot for 1000 tickets by March 23rd. I really do think we can hit that mark. More information here: http://tinyhaus.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-japan.html

On another note I've maxed out my gmail sending capacity for March 16th. Hopefully it will reset in the morning or by the afternoon on March 17th. For the people who bought tickets late tonight you'll get your confirmation email in the morning. I have received your payment, you can always check in the link above for your name and number. THANK YOU for your patience. Now for some sleep.
Thank you again,
Diem

For Japan

2011-03-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting here for an hour thinking about what to write and how to write it... for the past few days I've been glued to the news about Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster. It is so shocking to see such devastation and chaos. I am in awe at how the Japanese people have persevered through these difficult days. People stood in line, paid for items, kept their cool, helped their friends and neighbors. Every single person kept their civility. Such strength is inspiring. My heart goes out to everyone there and I hope that perseverance will get them through the difficult days/months ahead.

I'd like to make a humble offering and raffle off a crayon family portrait for the Japanese Red Cross Society. The winner will get up to 3 crayons carved to their specifications. Ticket sales start now and will go until midnight PST on March 23rd. The winner will be announced on March 24th. I will use Random.org to pick the winner. I'm hoping for at least 200 tickets, but I won't limit the number to 200. The more tickets I sell the more we can raise for Japan!
*** THANK YOU EVERYONE! THE RAFFLE HAS ENDED, I WILL POST WHO THE WINNERS ARE SHORTLY. WE'VE RAISED A TOTAL OF $6590.00 FOR JAPAN!***

Ticket Price: $10

Prize: A family portrait of carved crayons (up to 3 crayons) *Update* There will be 2 winners selected of 2 different recipient.

Selection Process: when you pay for the ticket I'll email you with a number. A random winner will be picked via Random.org. I will post the results of the drawing on March 24th.

Donation Proceeds: 100% of all ticket sales will go the the Japanese Red Cross Society. I will pay for all fees and shipping costs.

If you're interested in participating in the raffle please Paypal $10.00 to (email removed, the raffle has ended)
Please make your payment as "GIFT" and make a note "FOR JAPAN". PLEASE DO NOT write anywhere on your payment the words "RAFFLE" or "LOTTERY". Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I'm sorry I can't take any other forms of payments. Paypal is the easiest and fastest way, it's also the best way to keep records.

THANK YOU!
Diem Chau
*Update* HOLY COW!!! We broke 200 in half a day! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This is so unexpected, I don't know what to say. The emails keep coming and I'm in tears writing this. Let's shoot for 1000! Since so many people have signed up I'd like to offer a second family portrait, so there will be 2 winners total!

1. Chantal J.
2. Cindy R.
3. Cindy R.
4. Brian D.
5. Brian D.
6. Victoria J.
7. Victoria J.
8. Andy I.
9. Antje H.
10. The World's Best Ever
11. Soni K.
12. Donnabelle C.
13. Donnabelle C.
14. Heather H.
15. Lotta A.
16. Kenita G.
17. Robin
18. Robin
19. Sherri aka Alvin
20. Noel
21. Wyly A.
22. Wyly A.
23. Wyly A.
24. Donald B.
25. En Faust
26. Erin S.
27. Jonna W.
28. Pomme-Pomme
29. Geoff C.
30. Geoff C.
31. Geoff C.
32. Dennis R.
33. Dennis R.
34. Jeff E.
35. Jeff E.
36. Jeff E.
37. Ellen Z.
38. Ellen Z.
39. Ellen Z.
40. Ellen Z.
41. Ellen Z.
42. Ray / Ballerz
43. Dina N.
44. J. L.
45. J. L.
46. J. L.
47. J. L.
48. J. L.
49. J. L.
50. J. L.
51. J. L.
52. J. L.
53. J. L.
54. Betsy B.
55. Betsy B.
56. Betsy B.
57. Betsy B.
58. Susan M.
59. Susan M.
60. Susan M.
61. Elizabeth T.
62. Erin L.
63. Julie C.
64. Julie C.
65. Nathan V. N.
66. Eurie C.
67. Eurie C.
68. Eurie C.
69. Eurie C.
70. Eurie C.
71. Courtney H.
72. Jeremy A.
73. Alan G.
74. Mario F.
75. Natalie R.
76. Gail H.
77. Gail H.
78. Gail H.
79. Gail H.
80. Gail H.
81. Alexander L.
82. Juan A.
83. Juan A.
84. Steven T.
85. Laurel A.
86. Zena C.
87. Sara L.
88. Eben D-M
89. Elizabeth B.
90. Jeannie L.
91. Jeannie L.
92. Joey V.
93. Lisa L.
94. Andre Z.
95. Steel Toe Studios
96. C. L.
97. C. L.
98. Ellen F.
99. Beth M.
100. Lotta A.
101. Julie A.
102. Julie A.
103. Julie A.
104. Julie A.
105. Holly M.
106. Holly M.
107. Holly M.
108. Holly M.
109. Holly M.
110. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
111. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
112. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
113. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
114. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
115. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
116. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
117. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
118. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
119. Jenny Z. & Dan D.
120. Lirong L.
121. Emma D.
122. Monica I.
123. Kim N.
124. Alex G.
125. Stephanie M.
126. Stephanie M.
127. Kasey G.
128. Ronald B.
129. Eric G.
130. Brian B.
131. Brian B.
132. Brian B.
133. Heather K.
134. Heather K.
135. Heather K.
136. Heather K.
137. Heather K.
138. Heather K.
139. Heather K.
140. Heather K.
141. Heather K.
142. Heather K.
143. Richard L.
144. John Y.
145. John Y.
146. John Y.
147. Kaila B.
148. Jonathan T.
149. Hilary A.
150. Leslie G.
151. Sean & Candace G.
152. Sean & Candace G.
153. Sean & Candace G.
154. Sean & Candace G.
155. Shane C.
156. Shane C.
157. Shane C.
158. Amy H.
159. P.A.S.B.
160. P.A.S.B.
161. P.A.S.B.
162. Monica C.
163. Monica C.
164. Monica C.
165. Andrew B.
166. Jason/Southernwayfarer
167. Jason/Southernwayfarer
168. Jason/Southernwayfarer
169. Jason/Southernwayfarer
170. Jason/Southernwayfarer
171. Jason/Southernwayfarer
172. Jason/Southernwayfarer
173. Jason/Southernwayfarer
174. Jason/Southernwayfarer
175. Jason/Southernwayfarer
176. Sally B.
177. Laurie B.
178. Natasha C.
179. Kathryn P.
180. Kathryn P.
181. Amanda P.
182. Amanda P.
183. Amanda P.
184. Ashley C.
185. Erika C.
186. Laura S.
187. Erica V.
188. Erica V.
189. Erica V.
190. Kamala K.
191. Tom P.
192. Aron P.
193. Aron P.
194. Aron P.
195. Aron P.
196. Aron P.
197. Aron P.
198. Aron P.
199. Aron P.
200. Aron P.
201. Aron P.
202. Melissa M.
203. Sierra N.
204. Raedy P.
205. Raedy P.
206. Raedy P.
207. Raedy P.
208. Raedy P.
209. Cris M.
210. Cris M.
211. Cris M.
212. Selene C.
213. Ellen W.
214. Melanie P.
215. Winnie K.
216. Winnie K.
217. Winnie K.
218. Aubrey D.
219. Robert S.
220. Robert S.
221. Robert S.
222. Courtney S.
223. Kasey W.
224. Kasey W.
225. Kasey W.
226. Kim B.
227. Kim B.
228. Kim B.
229. Andrew H.
230. Leslie A. B.
231. Chelsea H.
232. James B.
233. James B.
234. Liz B.
235. Liz B.
236. Liz B.
237. Liz B.
238. Leslie A. B.
239. Wendy S.
240. Wendy S.
241. Wendy S.
242. Wendy S.
243. Derrick L.
244. Alison L.
245. Alison L.
246. Trisha G.
247. Sue Ann H.
248. Sue Ann H.
249. Sue Ann H.
250. Sue Ann H.
251. Sue Ann H.
252. Pyng L.
253. Pyng L.
254. Pyng L.
255. Pyng L.
256. Pyng L.
257. Pyng L.
258. Pyng L.
259. Pyng L.
260. Pyng L.
261. Pyng L.
262. Paul M.
263. Paul M.
264. Steven S.
265. Steven S.
266. Angel O.
267. Angel O.
268. Angel O.
269. Susannah B.
270. Susannah B.
271. Joseph P.
272. Deborah & Shannon H.
273. Deborah & Shannon H.
274. James M.
275. James M.
276. James M.
277. Anonymous
278. Anonymous
279. Anonymous
280. Anonymous
281. Anonymous
282. Anonymous
283. Anonymous
284. Anonymous
285. Anonymous
286. Anonymous
287. Linda M.
288. Linda M.
289. Linda M.
290. Linda M.
291. Linda M.
292. Nola A.
293. Nola A.
294. Nola A.
295. Joseph C.
296. Susan S.
297. Susan S.
298. Susan S.
299. Elise M.
300. Lindsey H.
301. Yvonne P.
302. Victoria H.
303. Victoria H.
304. Ken K.
305. Ken K.
306. Ken K.
307. Ken K.
308. Ken K.
309. Angelia P.
310. Crossen C.
311. Meredith A.
312. Meredith A.
313. Meredith A.
314. Meredith A.
315. Meredith A.
316. Lisa K.
317. Amber F.
318. Alison M.
319. Alison M.
320. Theresa S.
321. Tim M.
322. Tim M.
323. Jaime H.
324. Jaime H.
325. Danielle G. & Family
326. Danielle G. & Family
327. Clare F.
328. Saya M.
329. Saya M.
330. Claudia B.
331. Claudia B.
332. Claudia B.
333. Claudia B.
334. Claudia E.
335. Laura T.
336. Kim T.
337. Bulut D.
338. Kelly L.
339. Demi R.
340. Demi R.
341. Demi R.
342. Demi R.
343. David R.
344. Maury S.
345. Maury S.
346. Maury S.
347. Maury S.
348. Maury S.
349. Hanna M.
350. Hanna M.
351. Jon S.
352. Kittytoes
353. Lauria T.
354. Bryana V.
355. Elaine B.
356. Elaine B.
357. Elaine B.
358. Elaine B.
359. Elaine B.
360. Michael P.
361. Megan A.
362. Kim T.
363. Betsy W.
364. Betsy W.
365. Frank N.
366. Jamie M.
367. Lisa G.
368. Lisa G.
369. Valerie V.
370. Valerie V.
371. Heather L.
372. Heather L.
373. Heather L.
374. Sue B.
375. Sue B.
376. Sue B.
377. Sue B.
378. Leanne D.
379. Elizabeth M.
380. House of Pinku
381. Nancy S.
382. Nancy S.
383. Nancy S.
384. Daniela S.
385. Kaila W.
386. Kaila W.
387. Apama M.
388. Troy K.
389. Troy K.
390. Troy K.
391. Troy K.
392. Romy Z.
393. Jennifer A.
394. Ruth C-H
395. Ruth C-H
396. Ruth C-H
397. Thien-Kieu L.
398. Thien-Kieu L.
399. Thien-Kieu L.
400. Maya V.
401. James R./Lauren D.
402. James R./Lauren D.
403. James R./Lauren D.
404. Matthew B.
405. Kathleen F.
406. Karen L.
407. Lien T.
408. Samantha T.
409. Samantha T.
410. Samantha T.
411. Samantha T.
412. Samantha T.
413. Lisa H.
414. Lisa H.
415. Lisa H.
416. Lisa H.
417. J. L.
418. J. L.
419. J. L.
420. J. L.
421. J. L.
422. Mira & Karl S.
423. Mira & Karl S.
424. Mira & Karl S.
425. Mira & Karl S.
426. Mira & Karl S.
427. Yuka P.
428. Yuka P.
429. Yuka P.
430. Jessica B.
431. Elizabeth D.
432. Lorraine R.
433. Lorraine R.
434. Jessica G.
435. Jessica G.
436. Dean G.
437. Dean G.
438. Frank V.
439. Frank V.
440. Frank V.
441. Frank V.
442. Frank V.
443. Frank V.
444. Jacie L. A.
445. Cameron H.
446. Cameron H.
447. Elaine M.
448. Elaine M.
449. Thorly J.
450. Marco L.
451. Barbara R.
452. Barbara R.
453. The Paredes!
454. The Paredes!
455. Jennifer M.
456. Jennifer M.
457. Genevieve T.
458. Genevieve T.
459. Genevieve T.
460. Andrew/Linda R.
461. Ashley M.
462. Liz T.
463. Jeff M.
464. Ada C.
465. Jennifer F.
466. David T. B.
467. David T. B.
468. Sean S.
469. Allison K.
470. Carol J.
471. Alicia K.
472. Kirk A.
473. Kirk A.
474. Kirk A.
475. Emily F.
476. Ian P-E.
477. Ian P-E.
478. Ian P-E.
479. Donna D.
480. Byron R.
481. Byron R.
482. Byron R.
483. Byron R.
484. Byron R.
485. Ron L.
486. Ron L.
487. Ron L.
488. Lucy R.
489. Colin G.
490. Kylie S.
491. Amelia H.
492. Matthew G.
493. Maggie R.
494. Maggie R.
495. Amy F-H.
496. Stephanie S.
497. Stephanie S.
498. Stephanie S.
499. Stephanie S.
500. Stephanie S.
501. Stephanie S.
502. Stephanie S.
503. Stephanie S.
504. Stephanie S.
505. Stephanie S.
506. Alexandra K.
507. Julie R.
508. Sonja R.
509. Victoria D.
510. Victoria D.
511. Cherry D.
512. Cherry D.
513. Cherry D.
514. Cherry D.
515. Cherry D.
516. Christina W.
517. Mimi B.
518. Mimi B.
519. Leah & Jackie
520. Leah & Jackie
521. Carrie N.
522. Carrie N.
523. Stefanie H.
524. John S.
525. John S.
526. John S.
527. John S.
528. John S.
529. John S.
530. John S.
531. John S.
532. John S.
533. John S.
534. Lark & Dan P.
535. Lark & Dan P.
536. Thomas K.
537. Brandon H.
538. Laura L.
539. Laura L.
540. Al M.
541. Al M.
542. Andrew G.
543. Viet N.
544. Lashante G.
545. Vane B.
546. Vane B.
547. Isabelle P.
548. Lisa/Villa Treasures
549. Thea S.
550. Kathleen H.
551. Anna P.
552. Heather A.
553. Heather A.
554. Heather A.
555. Jill D.
556. Helena H.
557. Terra S.
558. Terra S.
559. Terra S.
560. Elizabeth B.
561. Elizabeth B.
562. Nathan V.
563. Cheri & Peter K.
564. Cheri & Peter K.
565. Cheri & Peter K.
566. Diane W.
567. Nancy W.
568. Nancy W.
569. Nancy W.
570. Nancy W.
571. Nancy W.
572. Anne C.
573. Diane M.
574. Diane M.
575. Diane M.
576. Kirsty T.
577. Craig S. & Shari D.
578. Craig S. & Shari D.
579. Yoko N.
580. Yoko N.
581. Dyan A.
582. Dyan A.
583. Ahky's Auctions
584. Ahky's Auctions
585. Emily B.
586. Emily B.
587. Emily B.
588. Hanako N. & Prairie S.W.
589. Hanako N. & Prairie S.W.
590. Hanako N. & Prairie S.W.
591. Hanako N. & Prairie S.W.
592. Hanako N. & Prairie S.W.
593. Carmen S.
594. Carmen S.
595. Molly S.
596. Monica T.
597. Monica T.
598. Monica T.
599. Russell B.
600. Russell B.
601. Amy H.
602. Amy H.
603. Laura M.
604. Laura M.
605. Laura M.
606. Laura M.
607. Laura M.
608. Laura M.
609. Laura M.
610. Laura M.
611. Laura M.
612. Laura M.
613. Pei P. S.
614. Roz
615. Roz
616. Marianna D. N.
617. Gail G.
618. Gail G.
619. Gail G.
620. Gail G.
621. Gail G.
622. Gail G.
623. Gail G.
624. Gail G.
625. Gail G.
626. Gail G.
627. Michael N./Jenise S.
628. Kelly S.
629. Kelly S.
630. Kelly S.
631. Kelly S.
632. Caren B.
633. Caren B.
634. Caren B.
635. Diana M. J.
636. Diana M. J.
637. Kim M.
638. Jennifer F.
639. Alicia J.
640. Alicia J.
641. Alicia J.
642. Alicia J.
643. Alicia J.
644. Tiffany B.
645. Tess A.
646. Tess A.
647. KC P.
648. KC P.
649. KC P.
650. Mattie I.
651. Mattie I.
652. Mattie I.
653. Mattie I.
654. Mattie I.
655. Mattie I.
656. Mattie I.
657. Mattie I.
658. Mattie I.
659. Mattie I.

Bellevue Art Museum & Art Zone

2011-02-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited to be a part of The Mysterious Contents of Softness. Eleven national and international artists are in the show. It's Organized by Bellevue Arts Museum, curated by Stefano Catalani and made possible by 4Culture and City of Bellevue Arts Program.

The Mysterious Contents of Softness
February 4 June 26, 2011
Bellevue Art Museum
510 Bellevue Way NE
Bellevue, WA 98004

Members' Reception: Thursday, February 24 • 6 - 9 pm
Free First Friday Lecture featuring Diem Chau: Friday, March 4 • 6:30 - 7:30 pm

Artists Include:

Lauren DiCioccio I remember the first time I saw her water bottles. I've not forgotten them since.

Angela Ellsworth One of my favorite pieces from the show.

James Gobel

Angela Hennessy

Rock Hushka

Lisa Kellner

Miller & Shellabarger

Lacey Jane Roberts OMG I loved this work! You have to see the pink fence.

Jeremy Sanders

Nathan Vincent

And me!

I'm also featured on Art Zone with Nancy Guppy. You can watch it below, my segment starts at 2:40. If you have trouble viewing it you can go HERE.

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to Stefano Catalani, Valerie Vozza and Nancy Guppy for their support and for thinking of my work. You guys are the best!

The Ramos Family

2010-12-22T21:46:00.000-08:00

So we recently bought a fixer home. The remodel seemed like a dauntless task but with a good recommendation from a friend we found the BEST contractor ever! If you're in Seattle and you have a home project, I HIGHLY recommend Ramos Construction. I'll link to his website once it's up.
I was talking with Jeff last week and he said he went to my website/blog and loved my work. He wanted a set of family portrait crayons. I was so excited and honored he liked my work that much. This is a set of Jeff, his wife (and future baby ^_^) and Thomas the dog.

The Wife:
I wanted to make a bigger belly... it was hard given the limitations of the crayon. I really like how her curly hair turned out.

Thomas the Dog:
He's a black lab. I chose grey because the details show better on grey then black. I also added a collar and tag detail after taking this pic.

Jeff the Builder:
I like to think this is what Santa Claus would have looked like when he was younger. Jeff rocks the beard. I added pupils to his eyes after taking this pic.

Neo Kitsch at ArtsWest

2010-12-07T02:53:00.000-08:00

I'll have a selection of carvings in the Neo Kitsch show at ArtsWest in Seattle. I'll be at the opening on Dec 9th. It should be a fun show, please come if you're in town. I believe Charles Krafft will be there as well... I've never met him in person, but I'm a BIG FAN of his work!

Neo Kitsch
December 5th-24th
Artists reception Dec. 9th, 6 – 7:30pm

ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery
4711 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116

Making Money

2010-12-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

I was recently commissioned to carve 10 crayons with 10 different world currency symbols on them. This was my first time working with text. I was nervous about my lines and angles being off. I mostly work with very organic shapes.

From left to right:
US Cent in Copper. I chose this color for the ubiquitous penny. The cent symbol sits atop a pillar of coins.
Mexican Peso in Scarlet. Mexico's national colors are red, white and green. The $Peso symbol also sits on one of The Pillars of Hercules. It's theorized that the "$" came from the Spanish coat of arms where a ribbon wraps around the pillars.
Indian Rupee in Yellow-Orange. This is the color of marigolds and saffron dyes. Whenever I think of India I think of rich, vibrant colors.
Chinese Yuan in Dandelion. Yellow was China's imperial color and is still associated with wealth and status today. I used the Chinese word for Yuan instead of the Yuan symbol. Since both Yen and Yuan uses the same symbol I wanted to differentiate them
Brazilian Real (Reais) in Green-Yellow. Brazil's national colors are green and which symbolizes the country's lush forests and the country's wealth in gold. This was the perfect combo of both colors!
US Dollar in Fern. I chose this for the namesake of our beloved Greenback.
British Pound Sterling in Sky Blue. Blue is one of 3 national colors in the UK. I also think of the monarchy when I think of the UK. Hence royals and blue bloods. Royal Blue was too dark so I used Sky Blue.
The Euro in Orchid. This was the hardest color to choose because the EU represents so many countries. Tyrian purple was the color of wealth and royalty in early Western Civilization. Modern day Europe comes from those ancient empires so I chose purple.
Japanese Yen in Carnation Pink. Japan has many symbols, but perhaps one of the most popular one is the Sakura flower. I chose pink to reflect the many hues of the cherry blossom.
Russian Ruble in White. Russian Winters are well known around the world! I think of the snow and blinding whiteouts. Such harsh weather makes tough people. The Russian Ruble doesn't have an official symbol yet, so I just used the most popular one.
Although I had a rainbow color scheme planned I also wanted each nation's (EU) color to reflect it's identity.

A closer look at the Yuan vs. Yen

Peso vs. Dollar
There's a bit of a controversy on who had the $ symbol first. Here are some of the many theories. I'm going with the Pillars of Hercules theory and that we adopted it afterward.

One last look :)
Thank you Davis and Louise! I hope you enjoy the new addition to your collection.

New House!

2010-11-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

It's official, we have a new house! Well... not so new, but you get my drift. There's a lot to do before we can move in, this will be the first time we work with contractors. We've mostly done improvements and repairs ourselves, but this project is well above our heads.

Oh yes... There's LOTS to do! You can count on me for a blow by blow of the remodel.

We also have a huge backyard! This will be the site of my future studio :) We had put a bid in on this other home, but the bank pulled the listing after we made our offer. They decided to auction the home instead. It was a scummy deal and we felt uneasy doing business with them. It has been HELL dealing with the banks & escrow company. It seems like there are no rules to the game and the banks make it up as they go. They do whatever they want and there are no other way around it. You have to just jump through their hoops and suck it up. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this. No more moving around for us.

Eggs From Mum

2010-11-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

My mother will still occasionally bring food by the house. She wants to make sure I'm well fed. This time we got some fresh eggs from her hen house and a huge bag of winter chard... some Vietnamese ham, Banh-mi sandwiches and some roasted pork. I think I'm good for the winter thanks mom!

I LOVE fresh eggs. We used to raise chickens for eggs when I was little and mom has recently taken up the hobby again. The yolks are an amazing orange color, not like the pale yellow ones from store bought eggs. The taste is also much richer... you can definitely tell the difference when making things like Hollandaise sauce.
They are fun to keep and not too much work. The only downside is the smell and noise... and having to decided what to do with them when they stop producing or fall ill. You can grow very attached. My grandfather ran a farm and my grandmother/mother have done a lot of slaughtering. If I had the choice I would much rather kill my own food. All of the "family's" slaughters have been done very respectfully and quickly. My grandfather would say a "thank you/prayer" to each animal before it was killed. The focus was to do it as cleanly and quickly as possible and no other animals were ever present.
I'm a meat eater and struggle with the idea. I know what "meat production" is like in the US and how animals are kept and how they're killed. We mostly eat chickens and when we buy meat we try to stay to the free range, organic, yada yada... It's not an issue of "it's wrong to eat animals" with me, but I do have a problem with how they're treated. We go through phases of not eating meat, but I'm a bacon ADDICT and have HUGE MEAT CRAVINGS! Imagine a starved out vampire next to a juicy neck. LOL
Well thanks for the eggs mom! I'm hoping to have enough yard space to have our own chicken coop one day.

For Ryono

2010-11-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

A recent commission for the Ryono family. It's a surprise gift for Colin Ryono, who recently finished his first graphic novel. I hope he's not reading this... if so SURPRISE!

Amy in the Spring of 1990
The figure is based on his main character from the book. Good luck with everything Colin & Mark!

For Caren

2010-11-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

A recently finished crayon for Caren, it's her son playing his guitar. I had a hard time with the guitar and had to make it wrap around his body. I hope he like it & thanks for the commission Caren :)

Getting Back To Business

2010-11-09T15:08:00.000-08:00

I'm getting back to work. There are some very cool commissions coming up. This will be a set of 10 crayons based on 10 different world currencies.

Some plates for a set of embroidery pieces. I love this design, it's Poppytrial by Metlok, made in good ol' Cali-forn-nee-ay.

Thank you for being patient guys!!!

6 Leafed Clover!

2010-11-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

Saw this while I was walking Guy yesterday. It stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought it was 2 clover stems twisted together but as I got closer I realized it was one mutant clover. It was the first time I saw more than 4 leaves on a single stem. Very cool.

There are 4 main leaves and 2 smaller leaf-lets that stick straight out of the middle. It just happened to be next to where Guy did his business.

A nice underside shot of how the leaves come together.

Indie Craft by Jo Waterhouse

2010-11-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

I came home from some work travel and found this lovely book in the mail! Indie Craft features artists, designers and crafters who bring a contemporary eye to traditional techniques. Many of them are redefining the art of craft and I'm honored to be featured among them. A big thanks to Jo Waterhouse, Faythe Levine and everyone at Laurence King Publishing!

The cover art is by Jenny Hart, my favorite embroiderer :)

A few of my pages.

Congrats TaDa!!! If you've not seen Tada's Revolution you're missing out! It's always good for a Awww, Eeee, Oooo or just a plane old chuckle.

Shauna Richardson
Unbelievably beautiful and the execution is spot on!

Erin Dollar
I met Erin last year at Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle. It was the first time I saw her whimsical beards. Want your own beard? Check out her shop on Etsy.

Chau Plastic Surgery New Office

2010-11-06T23:53:00.000-07:00

My uncle asked me to help him with some interior design work for his new office, Chau Plastic Surgery. He's an amazing plastic surgeon in Berkley, MI (near Detroit). I'm quite in awe of what he's gone through and his accomplishments. At the age of 16, during the Fall of Saigon, he boarded a helicopter at the US Embassy in Vietnam to flee the country. He was alone and perhaps did the hardest thing anyone had to do at any age. When he arrived in the US he faced many years of discrimination and racism. He washed dishes to pay his way through college. He eventually ended up in medical school and became a surgeon. He's never forgotten where he comes from, although at times I feel he's haunted by his past. Success is a hard thing to grasp, he still peers over the fence to see how green the grass is on the other side. If he reads this I'd like him to know he's standing on a lush meadow of green, there's no better place than the one you've built for yourself. We're all very proud of him.
More about Dr. Bruce Chau

I picked the color palate and did a concept sketch for him. I wasn't involved in any of the construction process. He had the help of many friends and staff members. Thank you guys, I'm sure you held it together for him.

They wanted a calming and welcoming feel. When I left everyone was very happy with this new space. It was great to meet you all: Ashley, Maria, Amy and Allison(?)... also Dr. Barak! Good luck with everything.

Another shot of the room.

I painted a tree mural in the center of the room. There was a column that juts out and we wanted to make it more of a feature and less of an intrusion.

Close up of tree mural.

Before:
This is the space before any construction.

After/Concept Sketch:
There's more furniture in the room... but I thought I did a good job of outlining the design elements. They still need to frost a huge wall of windows.

Juxtapoz Handmade

2010-10-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

I just got this lovely book in the mail! Juxtapose Handmade is published by Ginko Press and features artwork from 24 artist who's work crosses the boundary between craft, design and contemporary art. I'm honored to be among so many great names. This is a beautiful book, definitely worth looking through. Go check it out at your local bookstore! Retails for $29.95, hardback, 208 pages, full color.

I'm blown away at the quality in this book, both printing/binding and the artwork inside! Each artist has a good set of images and a short bio. Thank you for including me in this project Saelee, Ana and everyone at Ginko & Juxtapoz!

Ana Serranao

A. J. Fosik

Orly Cogan

Gregory Euclide

Saelee Oh

There are so many good artists in this book I can't blog it all! Seriously folks.

A. J. Fosik
Ann Wood
Ana Serranao
Brendan Monroe
Caroline Hwang
Christl Hansman
Christopher Bettig
Clare Crespo

Cody Husdson
Connie Wong
Diem Chau
Gregory Euclide
Jennifer Muskopf
Jenny Ryan
Jim Houser
Megan Whitmarsh

Nicole Gastonguay
Orly Cogan
Peter Callesen
Saelee Oh
Sara Escamilla
Sarah Neuburger
Souther Salazar
Stephanie Anderson

New Studio?

2010-10-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

We might be moving to a new house. There's a 20'x20' garage in the back (pictured above) that we will convert into a studio if we get the house. This is a BIG DEAL for me and I feel it will be world changing for my work as well. Fingers crossed and of course I'll give you guys the blow by blow during the construction/remodeling process.
I'd like to thank a very special friend for helping us make this happen. Without you this would not be possible! THANK YOU!

Double Rainbow All The Way!

2010-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

Well, not exactly double rainbows, but I found two 4-leaf clovers. No... I didn't go into hysteria I was just REALLY HAPPY! Funny how such a small thing can make your day brighter. I'm not a superstitious person... but we could really use the luck right now. Do you hear that universe?!

To be honest finding this clover was a cheat. I was looking for it and it was near where I found my last 4-leaf clover. I picked this one and left the other one for someone else to find.

It's a beautiful fall day in Seattle. The weather is just how I like it, cool and overcast. These are my favorite row of trees by my house. I'd love to walk through a whole forest of them or just lay among them and look up.

My beater shoes with fall leaves. I bought these about 5 or 6 years ago at Payless (El'Cheap-O store) and they've been the most comfortable pair of shoes ever! I wear them almost everyday and they've outlasted 2 pairs of Camper shoes.

A summery of the day's walk... 4-leaf clover, fall leaves and a black walnut that fell next to me from a giant tree.

The Strange & Beautiful World of Kamala Dolphin-Kingsley

2010-10-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

I got this painting from my friend Kamala Dolphin-Kingsley. We're both big gardening geeks and dog fanatics. I have a small collection of "Guy" art and have always wanted a piece from Kamala. Her pet portraits are AMAZING, every time I see a finished commission I want one even more! She surprised me with this awesome gift. THANK YOU KAMALA! It's a silhouette of Guy among Hosta plants and an army of slugs.

She really captured the essence of his ear hairs :P Can't get enough of this pup? More here.

You can contact Kamala for your very own pet portrait or visit her Etsy Shot for some beautiful affordable prints.

Many Kudos W+K in Communication Arts Annual 51

2010-10-20T02:21:00.000-07:00

This is the week for congratulations. The Nike project I did for Wieden + Kennedy has been featured in the current Communication Arts Annual! Great job guys and I can't thank you enough for taking a leap with my work.

The project information is listed on page 112. Once again congrats to Matt, Brad, Kelly & Krystle and also to Denise and Shari.

Images of the press kits are featured on page 113.
Thanks for the scans Luca, much appreciated :)

Congrats Aimee & Thank You!

2010-10-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

A friend I met on Flickr, Aimee Ray, just released a new embroidery pattern book! I just got my copy today and it looks great. The projects are very cute and simple enough to do with the young-uns. Retail price is only $14.95, way better than a movie and popcorn in my opinion :P Go check it out. You can also find it on Amazon.

I'm so going to make this one.

Thank you for the mention Aimee, I'm honored! For you visual people who aren't on Flickr I highly recommend it. I've met many wonderful friends and artists there, both locally and from far away. It's more than just a way to share photographs; it's how we keep in touch, exchange ideas and give feedback... but we mostly enjoy making snarky remarks and being juvenile. It's a good place to find like minded people.

Last Harvest of 2010

2010-10-15T03:17:00.000-07:00

My last harvest this year. Our nights are getting chillier and days getting shorter. So long summertime, I'll see you again next year. With a heavy heart I pulled up all of my tomato, zucchini and cucumber plants. It was hard picking the tomatoes before they have a chance to ripen, but I wanted to experiment with a winter crop this year. Most of my plants were getting moldy as well, it's just time for a clean up. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all this tomato! I pickled some of the green ones and gave some away. I still have 2 full bags in the fridge.
The summer has been wonderful, besides for a few supplemental veggies we haven't had to buy produce since late June. We're not huge salad eater mind you, we still have to buy fruit. I wish I had enough land for an orchard (and some llamas, goats & chickens)! LOL

I cleared the beds, tilled the soil and added some some bone meal and fertilizer to the mix. Not too much just enough to replenish the soil after a summer's worth of growth. I've never overwintered plants before and I'm not sure if I'm starting too late in the year. We still have a few warm days left, I hope this is enough to germinate the seeds I've planted. I'll need to make some kind of frost protection, maybe plastic sheets over the hoops?

I spaced out my chard and onion in the small bed, they were being crowded by my tomatoes during the summer. Hopefully they'll survive the transplant and last me a few more months. I've heard that chard is a hardy plant and do well in cool/cold weather.

All of the local nurseries and garden centers have cleared out their stock of edibles. Besides for herbs like rosemary and sage I couldn't find much so I had to resort to seeds. I think next year I'll start some seedlings in September for my winter crop. I chose broccoli and cabbage, they're hardy plants.

While I was at it I bought some tulip and allium bulbs too. They give me something to look forward to come springtime.

Gravity With John Hudak

2010-10-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

I forgot how I became acquainted with John Hudak's work. But I was instantly captivated by his sound compositions. A few months ago John contacted me and said he was experimenting with sound clips from other artists and reinterpreting them. I was intrigued an offered a clip from my grandmother's morning chant. John's composition of the clip is called Gravity and it's a part of his newest release! John also asked me to design the cover art. This was a very enlightening process, thanks for including me!
You can listen to samples and download the album here: http://johnhudak.bandcamp.com/album/gravity

"I've eaten more salt than you have of rice" 2002
You'll hear the chant in it's original form at the beginning of this video. This short documentary is about a day spent with Ah-ma (grandmother in Cantonese). I spent every single weekend and summer with her when I was younger. Everyone else went to camp or hung out with friends. I had Ah-ma... and I'm glad I did. We would spend our days watching corny Chinese soap operas and making food. She talked about her past and I kept her company. It's been very hard watching her age. Even at 83 she's a social bird and very active, but her body had definitely slowed down.

John asked me for something that I felt connected with and I immediately thought of this chant. My grandmother adapted this morning ritual after having survived cancer. She wanted a way to give thanks for the day. I made this during college and this was a learning piece... I have to apologize for the shaky camera work!

There's a Chinese saying, "I've eaten more salt than you have of rice". My grandmother said that to me so many times. Basically it infers her age, wisdom and experience. Because rice is the foundation of most meals you eat a huge sum of it... while only a little bit of salt is eaten. Therefore if someone has eaten more salt than you have of rice, they've been around a great deal longer than you have.

The cover art is inspired by the faces of Buddha statues. I wanted a meditative image. I started with a sketch on velum then I transferred the drawing onto a piece of Soft-Kut. Soft-Kut is like silly putty, just press it against any graphite drawing and the image will transfer. Then I started carving in a spiral motion to create a radiating effect.

You can see the carved marks here.

Some test prints.

Peel Gallery, Houston

2010-10-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

"Float" 2010
Organza, thread & porcelain plate

I have a show opening this Friday in Houston at The Peel Gallery! I will have quite a few new pieces as well as a collaboration piece with designer Joey Roth. Sadly I won't be able to make it to the opening this time. Please come by if you're in town.

Walk The Line & Sounds Like
October 15th - November 16th
Opening Reception: Friday, October 15th, 6:30-9pm

Peel Gallery
411 Montrose Blvd
Houston, TX 77006

"Hands" 2010
Graphite on ceramic speakers
By Diem Chau & Joey Roth

Designer Joey Roth invited me to participate in his second series of the Sounds Like project. Joey released his amazing ceramic speakers earlier this year and wanted to see how other artists and musicians would interpret his work.

Bemis Center Auction

2010-10-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

I've donated a piece to this year's Bemis Art Auction. The auction exhibit has already started, but the auction itself isn't until Nov. 6th. The Bemis Center has been a great resource for artists locally and nationally. If you can't make it to the auction they will also have live online bidding. There's more information in the link above.

The 12th Annual Art Auction and the accompanying six week exhibition is the Bemis Center's largest annual fund-raising event. The art auction features over 200 local, national and international artists and spans 4 galleries and over 10,000 square feet of gallery space. The event is a kaleidoscopic survey of contemporary art, drawing over 600 people to the auction event and is truly the most anticipated art event of the season. If you would like more information about the Bemis Center's 12th Annual Art Auction, please call 402.341.7130 or email info@bemiscenter.org.

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
724 S. 12th St., Omaha, Nebraska
Auction Exhibition: October 8th - November 6th, 2010
Auction: Saturday, November 6th

Yogurt Sauce - A Healthy Dressing

2010-10-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

Yogurt sauce is a light and healthy alternative to Ranch dressing. It still has that tangy cool flavoring without all the fat and calories. I feel it's like a Mediterranean BBQ sauce in that there's so many ways to make it. Every family has their own recipe and special ingredients. I learned this while helping my Turkish friend prepare dinner. Thanks Mehmet!

There are many variations to this sauce, but this is the one I've grown to like.
1 pint of plain yogurt
6 or 7 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoon of dill (fresh is best but dried will do)
1 teaspoon of salt

I've found the best way to peel garlic is to SMASH it with the flat side of your knife. Place the knife's flat side over a clove of garlic and firmly press down. Make sure you have a secure hold of the handle when doing this. After the clove has been smashed, actually crushed is a better term... the peel will simply fall off. No fuss no muss. I believe this is a popular Chinese/Asian method, I saw my mom and grandma doing it growing up. Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook is a great advocate of this method as well :P

I've seen those garlic peelers in the supermarket, but I've never tried them. I don't like to clutter my kitchen with gadgets that only have a singular purpose. Pretty soon you're swimming in silicone knick-knack and can't find your peeler.

Place yogurt, garlic, dill & salt in mixing bowl and mix! I would recommend using good quality, thick yogurt. A pint of this mix will last us about a week. It's great in any garden salad or spooned over chicken or salmon. You can also use it as a dipping sauce for veggie sticks. It will stay good for the duration of the yogurt's date. If it gets watery because the yogurt has settled, simply pour out the water and give it a good mix.

The yogurt sauce all mixed up. I usually pour it back into it's original container for refrigeration/storage.

A typical lunch... Banh mi sandwich with greek salad & yogurt sauce. The salad has cucumber and tomatoes from the garden as well as avocado and olives from the store. The banh mi is from my favorite Vietnamese deli in Seattle called Seattle Deli. I burned the sandwich because I was too busy taking picture for this blog to pay attention to the toaster oven! Oops.

TUSH Winter 2010

2010-10-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

The people at TUSH Magazine, German fashion/trend/culture/art magazine, did a little feature on my crayons in their Winter/2010 issue! This was fun to flip through... I felt it had a harder edge than the typical fashion mag. Thank you for sending me a copy and also a big thanks to Hella!

September Garden Update -belated

2010-10-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

The garden is winding down and fall is approaching. It's been a lack-luster year due to our cooler than average spring. Our mild winter has also produced an abundance of pests like slugs, snails and aphids... Literally every broad leafed plant I have is holey, it's been frustrating to say the least.
*The "W" was a little experiment I did for Wrigley's gum... the project fell through but I have another idea hatching! It's made with gum.

My biggest success was the zucchini and cucumber plants! I've been getting 2-3 large zuchs and cukes a week. I planted 3 zucchini plants and 4 cucumber plants. The cucumber surprised me the most and I've been enjoying Greek salads for 2 months now. I'm not remotely sick of eating cucumbers yet and will miss them come winter. The Burpee's Supreme is definitely welcome in the garden next year.

What you see in the picture above is my 2nd round of planting for the year. I started with spinach, lettuce, peas, radishes, peppers (BIG FAIL), chard & tomatoes (which is just ripening). The 2nd round consisted of zucchini, cucumber, onion more chard and long beans... also various herbs in gallon containers. I'm toying around with a 3rd round of planting for winter harvest? Maybe garlic, cabbage, kale and more chard??? It's supposed to be a very severe winter and I've never overwinter crop plants before. If I am to do it I'd need to start now and pull out the plants that are slowing production. I still have to wait for the tomatoes to ripen... but the zucchinis are starting to mildew and they've stopped producing... So many decisions and so much to experiment with. I'm learning as I go!

My latest haul... I'm getting less cucumbers and zucchinis but more tomatoes. There's also a handful of basil, Vietnamese cilantro (rau răm) and shiso (thanks to Vic ^_^). This is a weekly harvest with tomatoes coming in between.

The Tomato Jungle:
My tomatoes are finally ripening. I pruned away the lower leaves so I can actually see where the tomatoes are. Seeing this makes me happy!

Shiso
A good friend of mine gave me a few shiso plants this year. It was my first time planting and eating it. It has a very distinct spicy/pungent flavor. It's hard to describe, but GREAT grilled with meats. I pickled these leaves and ate them wrapped around rice (much like how you would use grape leaves). I've had the Vietnamese variety before, which is purplish and much spicier. My parents used to make Nem Nướng, only they would wrap these leaves around the meat before grilling. The result is a nice infused flavor.
*Thank you Food for For for the amazing recipe! A bit THANKS to Vic for the plants and pickling spices.

Rau Răm is another one of my favorite herbs. We used to eat these with baby duck eggs (Hột vịt lộn - Warning the link is pretty graphic!) You eat the eggs with a handful of these leaves and salt & peper for flavoring. I've always been squeamish about eating a little duck fetuses... so I would just have it with a hard boiled egg instead. It was a wonderful peppery taste and provides a nice kick. I would recommend eating it raw. The effects aren't there when cooked.

It's not all fun and games. Here are a few FAILS from the garden:

Green onion FAIL!
The tomatoes overshadowed these poor guys and I have a pile of limp greens. But the good news is the slugs and snails left them alone! :P

Malabar Spinach FAIL!
I started these from seed late in the season and they never took off... they were also heavily targeted by the slugs. I was supposed to have a vast jungle of them by now, being that they are vigorous growers. But alas this tender trailing vine is the only thing I have. Maybe I can bring this one indoors over the winter and have a head start next year.
For those unfamiliar with Malabar Spinach it's like eating okra, very slimy with an abundance of mucus.

Maple Tree FAIL!
I think I killed him by digging around and disturbing his roots. I had to clear off some bamboo runners and I transplanted another tree next to him. I'll do a severe pruning and hope he comes back next year.

Hyphen Magazine Fall 2010

2010-10-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

I'm in the Fall issue of Hyphen Magazine! It's a great issue, you can see the preview HERE. I especially like the tofu article. I'm thrilled and honored to be featured. I love the layout!

A BIG THANKS to:
Sita Bhaumik - it was great getting to chat with you.
Erica Jones
and everyone at Hyphen

They did an amazing job with the printing. The funny lines in the above scan is an image from the back page bleeding through.

Silent Auction @ San Jose ICA

2010-09-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
I'm so sorry for the long hiatus. I've been feeling a bit drained lately... but the good news is there's so much to talk about now! I'm getting back on the blogging horse dammit!

I've donated a piece to this year's San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art Art Auction. A preview of the auction can be seen HERE. They're amazing, wonderful people and I'm honored to have shown there this year. If you're in town please go check it out. It's a 2-Part event... the silent auction is this Friday, Oct. 1st and it's a free. The work will be up for for the month of October and the live auction will be on Oct. 23rd. You can find more info in the "Silent Auction" link above.

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
560 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113

This is the piece I donated, titled "Ruby Slippers". My work will be in the Silent Auction. Sadly I won't be able to make it down there.

My Dolls On Etsy

2010-08-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've listed 3 Dorries in my Etsy shop: TINYHAUS
They were in the Lost at Sea show at Gallery Hanahou in NY. I designed and made them. They're made of linen with wefted yak hair and poly fill. Hope you guys like them :)

The Orr's

2010-08-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

My latest commission for the Orr's. This was my first time working with Razzle Dazzle Rose. It's a very fluorescent color, almost impossible to photograph well. I had to do some major color manipulation in Photoshop to tone it down. The wax was also very soft and got gummy/sticky when heated by my hands. It's been VERY HOT in Seattle. Every couple of minutes I had to quench my hands in ice cold water to keep the temp down when I'm carving. I usually work late nights when it's this hot.

This is my new crayon base. I like the proportions much better than my old bases. Before shipping my crayons to their new homes I will usually do a fitting first. You can see wax residue in the holes.

The bottom is lined with felt, an extra little touch. :)

This is how the crayons are packed for shipping. They are fitted into "foam coffins" and bubble wrapped then bubble-wrapped coffin is suspended in packing peanuts. This method has been greatly successful, I've shipped worldwide and none have broken! *knock on virtual wood*

Trying to Work

2010-08-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Today I went through some of my clutter and cleaned up/organized a few things. I've been trying to get back to work lately. I've had a lot of problems with concentrating on my ideas and with feeling unmotivated. Probably the biggest cause of this is letting stuff build up around me, both physically and mentally. Piles of junk mail, old magazines, things I no longer use or need just sitting around. Worst yet, remnants of half finished projects constantly lingering in my peripheral view. I keep thinking, "I'll get that to the Goodwill" or "that's going to the dump... I've got to shred these". Instead of doing it I just keep thinking about it. I've had this to do list circling in my head with a sprinkling of new ideas that I keep wanting to try. It feels like the tornado scene from the Wizard of Oz in my head! I can hear the music now...

I feel more focused now that a few piles are gone. It's funny how getting rid of stuff can be so liberating. Guy and I sat in the garden for a few hours while I looked through some books and did some sketching.

Ghosts on Glass: Daniel Carrillo

2010-08-11T01:28:00.000-07:00

I met Daniel Carrillo through Facebook. I started seeing these AMAZING photos pop up on my friends pages and later on found out that Daniel did the work. A few emails later we arranged a studio visit. His photographs are taken using a collodion process, it's like watching magic! He gave me a quick tutorial on how it's done and I got to see him prepare a few plates. It involves coating a piece of glass with collodion emulsion, the act of doing so reminds me of coating a pan with butter.

Daniel standing in front of his camera. All of his equipment is vintage from around the 1900's-1920's... with ad hoc parts that he makes himself. I was very impressed with his guerilla carpentry skills and resourcefulness. It's truly inspiring! His future plan is to outfit a van with this camera and a portable darkroom. He really wants to mobilize his operation and shoot outdoor/public spaces. I can see those amazing images already!

Here are a few more Carrillo portraits:
Natasha
Cable
Erin
Nola

Guy in Dan's studio.

We had a great visit. Daniel was kind enough to squeeze in a family portrait for me. He does take commissions on photo sessions. I highly recommend it!

Summer Distractions

2010-08-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

I think chard is one of the most under-appreciated leafy greens out there. I would grow it just for the visual impact alone!

The garden is in full swing and vines are bursting with fruit. It's such a precious time I find it hard to work. My old college prof. (Steven Vroom) said to me once, "A garden is dangerous to artists." I didn't believe him, but it is...

The enemy was here! At night I like to hunt for slugs and snails... the crazy lady out in her yard with a flashlight. It's the only way to be sure, search and destroy! :P

Random Studio Stuff

2010-08-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

Shelf of random things next to where I work.

My color palette of threads.

My stash of thrift store porcelain.

Shelves of glues, glazes, old art show postcards, toxic stuff and paint. I used to paint years ago, I still have tons of acrylic paints left from those years. Surprisingly the paint is still good after 5-6 years of storing. Someday I'll paint again.
I also have a fetish for glues...

My father's old text books, some are from college others are from grade school. Also my husband's grandmother's letters and journals. It's a nice old dusty smell.

Gardening Update

2010-07-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

Summer has finally hit in Seattle and I'm so happy! Yes gardening is a big distraction to art making, but hey how many days of sun do we get in Seattle?! This is about 2 1/2 weeks of growth in the raised beds. It's amazing what sun and heat can do for plants.

Zucchini blossoms:
I had really bad luck with my zucchinis last year. The leaves kept getting mildewy and the baby zuchs just shriveled up and dropped off. I found out that mildew is a huge problem, especially if you plant where the air is stagnant. I had planted them in a back corner of the raised bed last year. This year I decided to give them the primo-front and center location. There's a nice draft, a lot more sun and enough room for them to grow. I also read that spraying milk on your plants will help keep mildew at bay. I haven't tried it yet.

As an added benefit the zucchinis also live next to a huge clump of oregano, which attract a lot of pollinators. It turns out my baby zuchs were dropping last year because they weren't fertilized. It's called "fruit abortion"... brings about all sorts of horrible visuals. But when the seeds aren't fertilized the plant decides it doesn't need to bring the fruit to full maturity. Why waste the energy right? The bees are definitely doing their job this year!

This was my first zucchini harvest this year! I got 5 this week from 2 plants.

Sir SCAMS-alot

2010-07-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

I got this wonderful email last month from a Betty Davies saying she wanted to purchase 2 pieces off my website. She said she's in London right now but moving to Johannesburg. She wanted to have her shipping/moving company take care of the transport (STRIKE #1). I didn't hear from her for weeks, which is not a big deal a lot of time sales never go through. Then she emails me again saying she's been in the hospital but she still wants the work. Several emails later she said her husband has sent the check via Royal Mail, something about her twin sister helping her... she has some disease. Usually it's not this convoluted, sales either go through or they don't.

After the check's in the mail I get constant emails from her asking me if I've gotten the check yet. Most people aren't so eager or worried. I got said check a week later for almost 3 times the amount due in a fishy envelope without a return address (STRIKE #2). The post mark was crude... really anyone can buy a UK stamp and Par Avion sticker. There was a piece of white paper folded with the check that had some ink traces on it. They could wait for the ink to dry?! SRLY, stop being so eager guys and go back to Scamming 101. I give your efforts a -D.

The check was shit-tastic to say the least, with ink rubbing off where it was folded (look at the "B" in Bank). Real bank checks will never do this. This was done on your average laser printer. You can get these blanks at any stationary/office supply store. There was no watermark or hologram, although I wouldn't trust those either. It's just more expensive to fake. This was a real low-budget, bottom feeder, unsophisticated effort. Also note how the word "Cashier's Check" is crooked and off-center. I hate to see such low standards, next time reprint the check.

Seeing the check was STRIKE #3. I knew it was a scam, but their follow up email to me confirmed my findings. They wanted me to cash the check and give the moving guy the "leftovers" with was double the amount due. I hardly call that leftovers. I had a good laugh... I was going to string them along a bit and try to find out as much as I can, but I'm too busy right now... no time for fun. I've included some info below of names, contact info and other aliases they've used. I did some quick digging on the internet. If I find out more I'll continue to update this post.

I have to say it's really low trying to scam artists. It's like robbing from an orphanage. POST AWAY internet posse! Leave no RAT HOLE unturned! If you get their emails play with them a bit, let them chase those wild geese. You're not a victim, this is good free entertainment. Tell them you didn't get the check and have them send you another one. See how many checks they'll send you before they figure it out. Mail them a rock as your art piece. Send them their own checks in the mail. Or better yet, stop responding to their emails for a few days and let them sweat it out. So many tricks, so little time.

DO NOT CASH THE CHECK! It's a fake and won't go through. The bank will charge you a fee as well.

These are posts about the same scammers:
http://stopartscams.blogspot.com/2010/06/artist-experience-barbara-santos-scam.html
http://lyndatouart.net/2009/12/artists-beware.html

NAMES THEY USE:
Betty Davies
David James
James Carter
Dolphin Movers
Vonnie Taylor
Jeff Harrison
Susan Davies
Fabrice Simmons

This is their contact infos:
David James dolphinsmovers1@yahoo.com
Betty Davies bet.dav001@mybestmail.com
**look for similar emails with other numberings i.e. bet.dav002@mybestmail.com

Jeff Harrison
7301 6th Ave
Tacoma WA, 98406

James Carter
Dolphins Movers
The atlantic House
48 Caledonian Road, Kings's Cross
London D47 BT
UK
Agent No..206-338-3153

743 Passaic Ave
Clifton, NJ 07012

12 Dennis Street
Nelson Mandela SQUARE
Joannesburg, 4005 JB
South Africa

Edible Weed ~ Hydrocotyle bonariensis

2010-07-19T02:48:00.000-07:00

This is Hydrocotyle bonariensis. Although it's considered a weed in many southern states, it's actually native to that area! I found some in my uncle's garden in Texas and thought it was Rau Ma (Centella asiatica or Gotu Kola). Long story short I dug up a few rhizomes and planted it in my garden in Seattle. I used to drink Rau Ma juice as a kid and have seen the juice offered in a few Vietnamese deli's and restaurants here. But I really wanted to grow my own.

Although this isn't Rau Ma, it smells exactly like it when crushed. Hence my miss identification. I've actually only seen the plant once, when I was 5 or 6... The scent never left my memory. It's much like smelling freshly crushed Pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius), you never forget such a sweet and unique scent.

The rhizome cutting I took from Texas grew very quickly and I was able to harvest some leaves today for juicing. I had my doubts that this was the "right" plant but I juiced/ate it anyways... stupidly of me! DO NOT EAT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU'RE 100% SURE IT'S EDIBLE! Luckily for me this was...

The leaves I juiced was very close to what I remember, only it had a slightly bitter aftertaste which is not inherent in the Centella asiatica leaves. Also the fragrance from fresh Rau Ma juice would enveloping your nostrils, but this juice only had a hint of that intensity. From those two facts I knew I had the wrong plant... of course by now I had already drank 1/4 cup worth (about 6 crushed leaves) and had forced my husband to drink as much... Oops! No... no tingly feeling yet... no nausea, headaches or impulses to vomit... my throat is not itching. "Goooooooood!" I thought. Hubby had the poison control number handy.

I sat down and did a hardy search to I.D. the plant. It wasn't hard, I found it within a few minutes. I also have some plant classification experience. I should have done this BEFORE ingesting the plant! Instead of being Centella asiatica it is Hydrocotyle bonariensis and it's also edible. From doing the search I found an interesting article about edible weeds:
Weeds as a future source of human consumption.

Hydrocotyle bonariensis pureed and strained.
Both Centella asiatica and Hydrocotyle bonariensis have beneficial medicinal purposes. But as a medicinal herb it has many different properties, some of which may adversely effect your particular condition... please read up on any supplements before you take it.

Sure it looks pretty now... Hydrocotyle bonariensis juice. Strained Pureed leaves mixed with water and a spoonful of sugar for taste. I wouldn't recommend it... slightly bitter and it might kill you if you I.D. the wrong plant! (LOL I laugh because I'm not dead) But now I am on a search for the real Centella asiatica plant. Saw some seeds on Ebay... I think this post needs a Part Deux!

I just wanted to make a quick note about collecting plants from the wild... unless you're qualified AND permitted to do so please don't do it. Also please take special care if you're foraging for edibles, be sure you know what you're eating and what's on your food. Many plants in urban settings are contaminated, especially aquatic plants like water-cress (and the one I've harvested). These aquatic plants are like sponges that soak up any chemicals, poisons and parasites around it. Not to mention plants that live below the waist might have been urinated on. I collected my sample from my uncle's garden, to be more precise his vegetable patch. I also took the sample home and grew a new batch of foliage from it... I didn't eat the sample directly. I made a huge mistake in ingesting the plant before I was 100% sure of what it was! That was really stupid, please don't do what I did! Here's a great Universal Edibility Test for those of you who are interested.

Blueberry Cobbler of YUM!

2010-07-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Cobbler is one of my favorite desserts. I've never made a cobbler, but I REALLY REALLY love eating them! As luck would have it there was a sale on blueberries at the market and I decided to make one for dinner. Not bad at all for my first cobber. It's SO GOOD! The only drawback is that I might eat the whole thing tonight... must... have... will power...

Here is the recipe:
I didn't have any fresh OJ, so I made some from concentrate (I know blasphemous) and I also added a tablespoon of lemon juice to balance out the sweet. All in all I really liked it, next time I might make more topping or something a little crumblier.

Dune Buggy Massacre of 2002

2010-07-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

My husband and I built a dune buggy in the summer of 2002. It was quite an adventure! We scrapped 2 VW Bugs and made one jacked-up Franken-car. I have no idea what to do when it comes to building/rebuilding cars, but I can take things apart really well! Pitty I can't find pics of the finished product. This was the spare-parts victim. We didn't keep the dune buggy, it was a bit unstable and the steering was off. I think we sold it to another gear head.

This picture was taken at my mother's old house. She was VERY NICE to let us do this in her parking area. I miss tearing things apart, good times!

Happy Trails!
xoxo
Diem

My First Dress

2010-07-09T00:22:00.000-07:00

I took a little break from art-making recently and made a dress. It's my first time making a human-sized dress, I usually sew for dolls. To my surprise it's much easier to make human clothes than doll clothes. The pieces for doll clothes are so small it's very tricky to sew. Human size is more forgiving, but you definitely need WAY MORE space and material.

I bought this book from Kinokuniya in Seattle. It's full of fantastic patterns and beautiful images. I really love the clean and simple aesthetics of Japanese pattern books. All of the text is in Japanese, but the illustrations are clear enough you can feel your way through.
If you don't have a Kinokuniya close by I highly recommend Pomadour2 on Ebay. I've bought a few books from them before and they do a good job of scanning sample pages. You get to look through the book before you buy, it's almost as good as browsing shelves!

This was the dress I chose to make.

This is the result of my first dress. The dress hasn't been hemmed in this picture. I would probably add 2" to the length in my next attempt. Overall it was very easy to sew and took about 4 hours. The only problem I had was getting the collar to lay flat. Probably a NOOB mistake.

The collar is a bit funky, it sticks out and doesn't lay against the body. I thought I had cut the trim fabric on the bias, but looking at this picture I think I might have cut it straight! That would explain it... Fabric cut on the bias is much more flexible and moldable.
I'm so excited! Dress making is very addictive... once you make one you want to immediately make another.

The Dotti's

2010-07-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

This latest commission is for the Dotti family to celebrate their newest addition! I'm especially in love with their pup Boo.

Boo is a Boston Terrier. I love the stubby tail and how his front paws are slightly turned in.

The Brother in Robin's Egg Blue.

The Baby in Scarlet. She'll be here by the end of July! Congrats guys :)

I had a hard time resolving the mid section. I didn't have the proper tool to carve out a flat/smooth interior curve. I almost need a tiny spoon. The knife cuts and doesn't scoop... if I'm making any sense.

I went with a soft curled pose for this carving. While searching around for reference images I fell in love with how cute tiny baby feet are. I think I did a pretty good job with the feet. Scale-wise she's WAY TOO large in comparison to her brother's carving, but I had to make her bigger in order to get the detail I wanted.

Raised Bed Gardening First Year

2010-06-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

This is a little catch-up from last year's gardening adventures... I'm getting better about posting more often.

This was my raised bed garden in July 2009. I built the beds in April, this was only 3 months of amazing growth! Looking back there were a few factors that lead to this lush sight. It was virgin soil with plenty of nutrients and I added bone meal and veggie fertilizer in the mix. It was also a really hot and sunny summer. We hit 3-digit days in Seattle, that's unheard of!!!

I was a total NOOB to growing vegetables. My strategy was to cram plants in where ever there was space, resulting in some plants crowding and overshadowing others. I planted zucchinis in the middle of one bed and it pretty much took over the whole space. I learned my lesson this year and planted it in an outer corner. When it grows it can spill out of the box leaving plenty of room for other plants. I'm also growing more leafy greens instead of root veggies. I eat a lot more greens and they don't take as long to mature. My carrots and beets didn't do too well. Maybe I need more sun?

A few shots of what I pulled from the garden last year.

It was also really nice getting to sit in the garden and eat.

The Yard: After

2010-06-25T04:02:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry this is a year late! I started this huge "Raised Bed/Patio Yard of DOOM" project last year and totally neglected to post the finished result! So here it is a year and 2 months late:

Progress shot Day 2 (Day 1 was just me ripping things out and digging out a stump)
This was taken April '09. Before I started this project the yard was a gloomy overgrown mess, constantly damp and shady. I wanted to have a vegetable garden and an area that I would enjoy spending time in. The paved section, with lumber sitting on it, was previously a pit of gravel. It was too unstable to set chairs on and wasn't very inviting. The pavers were about $200 and it took me 2 days to do it. Luckily the ground was level and fairly compacted, if not it would have been an extra days worth of work. I really LOVE the stone path that the previous owners put in. They made some good choices, but it just wasn't optimized.

After the paving was done I started building the raised beds. This corner of the yard was the sunniest. I had to remove a mound of dirt and the stump from a sizable prunus tree. It was a biatch, someone had planted it with a wire cage around the root-ball?! Thank you who ever it was... thank you very much.
After I leveled the dirt I marked where the beds would sit. I decided to make 2 beds for that corner.

Progress shot Day 3
There are many ways to build a raised bed. I used this raised bed tutorial from Popular Mechanics and changed the design a bit. Since it's such a small area I didn't need the drip system. The basic idea is to build a 4 sided box without a bottom. The lumber cost was about $120 and I had another $40-$50 worth of misc. supplies like screws, weed blocker, PVC tubing and brackets for the trellis/tent system. I had most of the tools required so I didn't have to buy anything but the materials. There's also the cost of dirt...
If you're not the handyman type or don't have a chop saw etc... there are kits you can buy. They're usually pricier and do not include lumber. Here are some that I like:
Natural Yard Kit The cool thing with this one is that you can take it apart and you can put it together with just a hammer.
http://www.composters.com/raised-garden-beds.php
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/staking-kit-bed.html

This is the yard finished. This picture was taken 2 months after I started the project. It took me 4-5 days over the period of 2 weeks to finish. It's become a much needed space for me. I love poking around in the dirt even when I'm crazy busy with work. Being in it is very peaceful and I can just let my mind go blank for awhile.

Behind the Nike Project

2010-06-23T03:19:00.000-07:00

First off I just wanted to say WOW!!! Holy cow, I didn't expect such an amazing response to this project! Thank you EVERYONE in Internetland and beyond! Here is a quick peek at some in progress images.

Right after the Nike Project was confirmed I did a little dance and got right to work. I started by making a few sketches and peeling crayon labels. The peeling process has become somewhat meditative. If I ever end up in an asylum I'll be the girl in the corner rocking back and forth peeling crayon labels. Wonder Woman was also there to cheer me on.

I made a few partially carved samples including this one. I wanted to focus on the shoes (naturally), grass texture and the figure's movement. I've always carved standing figures, this was my first attempt at carving more dynamic movements. There's only so much you can do within the physical borders of a crayon, but I wanted to see how much I can allude to.

No, they're not spooning...
This was also my first time making multiples of one figure. Next to the major time crunch making multiples was my biggest challenge. I made a "master" carving and used it as reference for all of the other copies. I would draw guidelines from one figure to the next and quickly rough out an approximation. After all of the major parts were in place it was only a matter of refining the details. The details take time, but it's not as nerve-racking.

A friend once compared my carved crayon surface to the facets of a crystal.
Here's what W+K 's got to say. There goes my secret of outsourcing to gerbils! :P

World Cup 2010!

2010-06-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

I was commissioned by Wieden + Kennedy to carve 66 crayons for Nike's promotion of World Cup 2010! Eleven special recipients received these boxes... I have no idea who got them, but I'm so jealous! W+K is amazing to work with and the project was a welcomed challenge! I had 18 days to make around 70 crayons, there was a week I slept 3 hours a night. Enthusiasm and great communication from the team at W+K really helped my progress. BIG THANKS TO:
Kelly Wright
Matt Blum (& Wendy)
Krystle Mortimore
Brad Simon
and the WHOLE TEAM!
Also a big thanks to John Jay for having my work in your office!

The clam-shell presentation box.

The contents: the wooden carrier also serves as the crayon's base.

The crayons in their base.

All of the pieces:
The design team at Wieden Kennedy made the box, base and contents. I made the crayons. They also chose the colors, it was a metallic/stone theme. I've never worked with metallics or white before. I'm a BIG fan of the silver and white crayons now.
Photos courtesy of Wieden + Kennedy

The 6 figures that are in each box. In the final version Robinho (far left in Silver) sticks his tongue out slightly and Rooney (Grey) has his arm folded instead of raised above his head. I wish I could have captured Rooney's signature pose, but it was impossible considering the form of a crayon.

Fabio Cannavaro in Antique Brass from Crayola. This color was introduced in 1998 in the 120 box set.

Didier Drogba in Copper from Crayola. This color was introduced in 1957 and is Charles Schulz's favorite color from Crayola.

Franck Ribery in Gold from Crayola. The color was introduced in 1949 in the 48 box set.

Robinho in Silver from Crayola. This color was introduced with Gold in 1949 in the 48 box set.

Cristiano Ronaldo in White from Crayola. Introduced in the Studio & School 12 box in 1903

Wanye Rooney in Timberwolf from Crayola. Introduced in 1993 in the Big Box of 96.

Here is Nike's Write the Future World Cup spot. I love the part where they start printing "Wayne" name bracelets!

http://www.youtube.com/user/nikefootball

Mrs. McDougall The Vet

2010-06-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

A special commission from Mr. McDougall to Mrs. McDougall. She just graduated from vet school and they're expecting a new addition to the clan. Lots of exciting things happening in their lives so he wanted something special to commemorate the moment. Thanks for choosing me to do this, I'm honored!

He requested a carving of an eagle. They also love canoeing, so I combined the two. I tried carving the whole canoe but it wouldn't fit given the scale of the eagle. I ended up with a half canoe sticking out of the water. I think it turned out very well!

This Is What I Live For

2010-05-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've got a crazy schedule coming up... a HUGE commission. I'm sure you guys won't see me for the next couple of weeks. I love and hate working so intensely. On one hand I get to test what I'm really capable of and push those limits. On the other hand I'll really miss sleeping. LOL

This is my work load for the next few weeks. There are 82 crayons I have to carve by mid June. This is by far the most I will have done in such a short amount of time. I can't give more details now... but it rivals the US Cellular commercial! WOW!

I have one week to make 30 crayons (1st Half in picture), then another two weeks to do the next 30 (2nd Half in picture). From there I have four days to make 14 (Overtime in picture) and finally another four days to make the last 8 crayons (Sudden Death in pic). In general it takes me 2-3 hours per crayons... but these will be made in duplicating sets of 6. I'm hoping the repetition will speed up my process. I have to make 3-4 a day. That's 9-12 hours per day 7 days a week for the next few weeks. Yeah Baby! Bring it on!

Brother Sister for Cathy

2010-05-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

Recent commission for Cathy. These are her 2 children.

Happy Mother's Day or all the mothers out there, the toughest and most aggravating job in the world. Mom, Grandma and I have decided to celebrate tomorrow (Monday) to avoid the crowded restaurants. Love you mom ^_^
**Update**
I just called mom and grandma to postpone our Mother's Day lunch to next Monday because of my huge workload this week. Mom said OK, see you next week. Grandma said, "Oh good! I get to spread out my free lunches!" I guess EVERYONE has been inviting grandma out to lunch for Mother's Day... she's had to postpone 2 different uncles! LOL Next time I guess I need to schedule a date with her secretary.

4 Leaf Clover

2010-04-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

I found this today while walking with Guy. I spotted it right away, he was far taller than all the other leaves. This is my 3rd time finding a 4 leaf clover. The first time was back in high school. While running to class and I swooped down to pluck a lawn daisy. I missed and ended up with a handful of grass, twigs and a tiny 4 leaf clover. Totally by accident! The second time was last year while walking Guy... maybe it's his luck? We were doing our usual round at the Ballard Commons Park and near the edges of one of the pathways I found three 4 leaf clovers. I picked 2 and left one for someone else to find :) I pressed them, but I don't know where they are now.

I guess it's not that hard to find a 4 leaf clover, check out this tutorial on Instructables. I sometimes look for them, but the times I've found them I wasn't looking. It's an amusing activity, ranks right up there with looking for Jesus rocks on the beach (rocks with crosses on them).

I didn't take this picture. I just wanted to illustrate what the rocks look like.

Must be a good omen... maybe Art Chicago will go well. I'm packing tonight and I'll be in Chicago tomorrow! Ma... Pa... I'm goin' to the Big City! :P

New Works Available

2010-04-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have some new works available on my website. Click on picture above for the link.
Shadow 2010
Porcelain cup, organza & thread
14¼"H x 5"W x 2¼"D
$400.00

Grasp 2010
Porcelain plate, organza & thread
18"H x 6"W x ¾"D
$600.00

Legacy 2010
Porcelain plate, organza & thread
14"H x 6"W x ¾"D
$700.00

Cheongsam 2010
Porcelain plate, organza, cotton thread & thread
6 ½"H x 6½"W x ¾"D
$600.00

Ruby Slippers 2010
Porcelain teacup, organza, cotton fabric & thread
3"H x 3"W x 2"D
$400.00

Art Chicago 2010

2010-04-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

I will be at Art Chicago this year, myself and my work included. The Packer Schopf Gallery (Booth 12- 147) is bringing my work to the fair. I'm hoping to spend some time at the booth on Friday, April 30th, and Saturday, May 1st. This will be my first visit to Chicago, I'm very excited! There's so much to see I hope 3 days is enough.

Colloquial @ Gage Academy in Seattle

2010-04-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

Union
Porcelain teacup, organza and thread
3”h x 3”w x 2”d

Colloquial:
A showcase of Northwest ceramists who use clay to depict subtle narratives that range from universal allegories to specific personal experiences.
April 20th – May 15th
Artists' Reception: Friday April 30, 6:00-8:00pm
Gage Academy: Steele Gallery
1501 10th Avenue East, 3rd floor
Seattle, WA 98102

Artists include:
Akio Takamor
Tip Toland
Patti Warashina
Myself and MORE!

I will have 3 pieces in the Colloquial exhibition at Gage Academy in Seattle. Don't miss the artist lecture by Patti Warashina on April 30, 7pm... same time as the opening reception. Unfortunately I won't be at the opening, I'll be in Chicago.

Booker The Bestest Crayon Of All!

2010-04-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

I recently finished a very special commission for Booker, a sweet little Italian Greyhound. This dog melts my heart, easy to do it's made of butter :P. I first saw Booker last year on Flickr (warning, photo is not for slight of heart): www.flickr.com/photos/bookertheig/3286993425/
Booker was on his last day of life before being rescued. Now he lives a happy and full life with his family, gumming everything in sight! You can see more of Booker on his website: www.bookertheig.com

100% of the commission fee went to Paws and Hope for Paws. If you're looking for a pet PLEASE ADOPT one from your local shelter or rescue. They're often the most grateful and loving animals. Some might need work, but you'll be thankful in the end. My favorite place to look is Petfinder. That's how I found Guy, the love of my life!

Hair Commission

2010-04-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

A recent commission for Kathie. This reminds me a lot of the old elaborate hairdos women used to have. I like how fashion can such a period marker for culture. Much like carbon dating is used for determining somethings age.

Porcelain bowl, organza & thread
5" diameter by 2" high (roughly)

Why I Don't Get Out Much:

2010-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's the small things that make life worth living. A friend uploaded this gem. She's The 10 Cent Designer aka Lori Andrews, who's a brilliant photographer, interior designer, artist, cook and she makes a smashing Wonder Woman! Check out some of her books.

So from the many comments on her video I saw "Search YouTube for dueling Carls" and got this!

And my day was made... I have told you "I love you" lately internet?
If you want one you can get your own Talking Carl!

Show of Hands @ Whatcom Museum

2010-04-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to be included in "Show of Hands" at the Whatcom Museum, curated by Barbara Matilski. Come by if you're in town. I might make it to the opening, I will update this post if I decide to/can go. It's a wonderful line up of artists, a must see for sure. **Edit** Sadly I can't make it to the opening/preview night.

Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists 1880-2010
April 24 - August 8, 2010
Preview Night: Friday April 23rd, 5pm-8pm

Show of Hands Takes In-depth Look at Northwest Women Artists
Exhibition coincides with centennial of women’s suffrage in Washington State

Featuring more than 90 works of art by 63 women artists from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, Show of Hands opens April 24 at the Whatcom Museum‟s Lightcatcher building. Celebrating women‟s contributions to the legacy of Northwest art, this unprecedented gathering of women artists examines the myriad talents women of the Northwest have displayed in all media since 1880.

Some of the artist shown include:
Mary Henry
Imogen Cunningham
Margie Livingston
Victoria Haven
Fay Jones
Claire Cowe
Marie Watt (one of my favoritest artist of all time. OK favoritest isn't a word, but for this kind of love I need to invent something! Here's her on Flickr y'all: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marie-watt-studio/)
Sheila Klein
and so many more I'd be doing this all day!

On a side note:
For all you freaks, geeks and steampunks check out the American Museum of Radio and Electricity, also in Bellingham. And while your at it, go grab a ball of yarn at Spincycle Yarns, my favorite woolly indulgence!

Vox Design Poland 2008

2010-04-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

Just uploading some old press for archiving. This was for Vox Design in Poland. Thank you to the awesome folks at Vox for finding me and sending me a copy :)

Venuszine.com with Jonathan Shipley

2010-04-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

Just uploading some old press. This was a pretty cool interview I did with Jonathan Shipley for Venuszine.com in April of 2008.

Fiber Arts 2008

2010-04-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Just uploading some old press for archiving. This was for Fiber Arts Sept/Oct 2008. Big THANKS to Suzanne Beal!

Seattle Magazine: Spotlight Awards 2008

2010-04-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

Just uploading some old press for archiving. This was for Seattle Magazine's Spotlight Awards for the arts. There were some great artists in the mix, but a pity all of the links are broken.

This was in Seattle Magazine: September 2008 issue. Thanks Brangien!

Dorries Lost At Sea - OH MY!

2010-04-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Finally all done and shipped! I'm so proud of them. These 3 gals will be going to NY for Lost At Sea at Gallery Hahahou. Info at the bottom of the post.

Name: Meranda
Age: 386
Species: Mermaid
Current Obsession: Going to concert, music, punk/goth fashion and having FUN!

Linen doll w/ poly stuffing, acrylic painted face and wefted mohair scalp. Accessories include: Mermaid tail, shell brassier, pearl & carnelian necklace... also black T-shirt, silver stretch pants, black lace skirt, B&W striped boots and bead necklace. (8 piece outfit)

Name: Octavia
Age: 13
Species: Octopus
Current Obsession: Eating Kelp, being Vegan, collecting T-shirts and TOTORO!

Linen doll w/ poly stuffing, acrylic painted face and wefted mohair scalp. Accessories include: 6 T-shirts, brown pleated skirt with blue lace detail, B&W acorn print scarf and skull barrette. (9 piece outfit)

Tentacles close up. There's a pipe cleaner in every tentacle... you can mold them as you please.

Name: Elouise
Age: 8
Species: Human
Current Obsession: Collecting shells and meeting new friends.

Linen doll w/ poly stuffing, acrylic painted face and wefted mohair scalp. Accessories include: Linen dress with B&W ribbon detail, B&W striped bloomers, Red socks, black felt mary-janes, red hair bow, Starfish necklace and bag of shells. (7 piece outfit)

LOST AT SEA
Daring Fiber Artists Delve Into The Deep
May 6 - June 11
GALLERY HANAHOU
611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC / galleryhanahou.com

Opening reception: Thursday, May 6, 7-9 pm RSVP info@galleryhanahou.com
The gallery will have these on sale on their website. I will update this post as soon as they do.

Tools FAQ

2010-04-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the FAQ's...
The tools I use in my embroideries are very simple and commonly found. A majority of the work is done with these 3 items you see in the picture. I can literally take it anywhere and work!

When it comes to trimming thread I greatly prefer using snips (Nigiri-Basami) to scissors. They cut much closer and with more precision. If you want to try out this delightful tool you can purchase one at Ichiroya. I stumbled onto their website years ago and found Yoshimi Fujiwara's work. I always appreciate knowing the person behind the product, especially when they're as dedicated as some of these Japanese artisans.

When it comes to crayon carving I use a 4.5mm Hangi To from McClain's in Oregon. These are for woodblock carving, but they work perfectly for my purposes. I've tried using Exacto's too but they're too thin and too sharp often resulting in a snapped crayon. I also have a hard time carving curved surfaces with Exacto's.

On a side note I've been dying to try out some of these needles made in Kyoto... but I can't quite decipher what I need from the info on the page.

Dorries Lost At Sea

2010-04-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

A sneak peek at 3 dolls I will have in the "Lost At Sea" exhibition next month at Gallery Hanahou. This is the evolution of my prototype doll, they've sprouted hair, scales and tentacles! I'm still working on some final details. I might also make them a presentation box, but I really don't want to go overboard on this project (no pun intended *snort*).

Here are a few eyes and mouth samples I painted last night. Thanks to TADA's vote on painting the faces on vs. embroidering it. I really love how crisp the painted shapes looks and I also have so much more control. In terms of play value paint can withstand more than stitches can.

Grandma Grandpa

2010-04-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa (mom's side) in front of their home in Vietnam, surrounded by mango trees.

Just found out my grandmother passed away in March. She lived in Ninh Hoa, in Southcentral Vietnam. Because I lived with my father's family back in Vietnam I didn't have the opportunity to know her very well. We've only seen each other a handful of times, but she's definitely a tough cookie! I'm from a family of hard heads, iron fists and armour plated emotions. We don't say "I love you" or even "good job", encouragement meant not getting chewed out. Having grown up with this in my blood I don't think I would want it any other way.

Grandma was born in 1929(?). She had 12 children, my mother was #6. She has 7 surviving children, 5 daughters & 2 sons. From what my mom told me a few of my uncles passed away during the American War? Others died of illness or when they were very young.

Each phase of our life is like a completely different lifetime. I asked my mom how she felt about her father's (grandpa) death back in 1995. She said she was sad, but felt that their connection was like a thin strand stretched far away. She left her parent's home as teenager to take care of an aunt with TB... a few years later she married dad and moved to Saigon. As she explains it the life she had with her parents was only 17 years. The life she had with my father was longer than that. Childhood was so long ago and seem to have occupied such a great span of time. It's quite a paradigm shift to realize you've lived with someone for the same duration as the years in your childhood. Standing here looking back I'm not the same person anymore, that lifetime is gone. I'm looking forward. I don't mourn the past, I carry it on my shoulders.

Grandpa died in 1995. His longevity was a miracle. He had stomach and/or intestinal cancer. The doctors gave him 6 months to live in the 60's? They removed 75% of his stomach and small intestines, maybe even some of his large intestines as well. I'm not sure what else was taken out. It was primitive medicine compared to today's technology and available medley of cancer treatments.

He survived the surgery and move to a small home in the countryside (top picture). He lived separately from his wife and kids, although I'm sure close contact was kept. I don't know what lead to that decision or how their relationship managed. I don't know how the children dealt with it or if anyone other than my grandfather had a say in the matter. My guess is he thought he was going to die and needed his peace before he goes. Maybe he just wanted to spend some time reflecting.

In the subsequent years he started a small farm, became a devout Buddhist. By devout I mean keeping to a strict vegan diet, observing the daily rituals and embracing the philosophy of harmony and balance. He ate what he grew and completely changed how he lived. He had a good long life in his continuing years. My grandmother eventually came to live with him.

My grandmother ran into his surgeon years later... the surgeon apologized for not being able to do more for my grandfather and gave my grandmother his condolences. My grandma turned to him and said, "What are you talking about! My husband is still alive!". My grandfather died in his 90's.

I remember Grandpa very well. I was the trouble maker on his farm, picking things before they were ripe. I remember visiting his farm when I was 4. We lived in Saigon, a mostly urban area and I've never seen how watermelons grew. I was so impressed with the huge shiny balls of green popping out of the ground that I carried one into the house to show everyone. Along with the melon I also dragged a tangle of vines behind me. I think I must have killed a plant or two. No one could yell at me because I was so happy to show them my prize! For the remainder of my visit my grandfather shadowed me to make sure I wouldn't destroy anything else. It became a hide & seek thing. I'd detect a pair of feet behind a bush or around the corner and run to him.

Assemblage 23!

2010-04-03T01:15:00.000-07:00

I went to an Assemblage 23 concert earlier in the week. They've been my favorite band for awhile, but I've never seen them live. I was blown away by the explosive energy and it kept going all night! That experience makes me want to go out more and I'm a complete hermit. If you're interested in more of their music start with Failure.

Let Me Be Your Armour

Disappoint

Embroidery FAQ Part 2

2010-03-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

The most asked question I get is, "How do you get the drawing on the bowl?" So I decided to document the making of piece from start to finish. Here is Part 1.
After I finished with the embroidery I play around a bit with the composition.

Here are a few examples of what I could have done. It's amazing what a tiny shift can do to change how the piece is interpreted. Seeing these photoshopped together I have an urge to do a series of based on chairs!

When I've decided on the final composition I sand and apply a thin line of glue to the bowl's rim. Then I gently place the silk on the bowl. This part requires a lot of precision because you can only do it once. I can probably wash the glue off before it dries and redo this step, but the fabric might warp from the moisture or I risk damaging the embroidery in the washing process. I use a PH neutral PVA glue, it's used in a lot of bookbinding applications. It's archival, dries flexible, won't yellow or crack and has great adhesion properties. I've used this glue since 2005(?)... and my first few pieces still look the same, no apparent aging/yellowing or cracking.

I've read up on a few discussions on how all PVA glue (white glue AKA Elmer's Glue) are the same. I assure you they are not! There are definitely professional grade glues that are safe for your work and others that are cheapo's. PVA glue is probably the least toxic as opposed to epoxies.

I brush on an additional layer of glue to the silk surface, this insures even coverage. I let the glue dry for a few hours and trim the excess. And that's all folks!

This is the finished piece.

3000 Yards And Counting!

2010-03-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't kept track of how many pieces I've made, but I do keep track of how many spools of thread I go through. I'm almost done with a 3000 yard cone of thread! I started with this cone in 2007... I've since switched to Gütermann's polyester threads for my main embroidery and reserve the big cone for the "hair" in my work. I'm very happy with the quality of their threads. It doesn't fuzz or fray even when I undo the stitching several times to rework my lines. It's also just thick enough for my purposes... I get really nice clean lines out of it. I've gone through 2 of the Gütermann 250 meter spools within the last year, so I guess it's 3500 yards and counting!

Embroidery FAQ Part 1

2010-03-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

The most asked question I get is, "How do you get the drawing on the bowl?" So I decided to document the making of piece from start to finish. This is a current commission I'm working on for Kathie. The square bowl belonged to her grandmother, who received it from her mother.

I usually start by sketching on a sheet of drafting velum. When I'm happy with the sketch I overlap it with the dishware and move it around to select my composition. Then I mark the boundary of the porcelain by rubbing a crayon along the edge. This mark tells me where to embroider.

A piece of silk is pinned to the velum and I embroider on silk. I like to slip white paper under the velum to help me see what I'm doing. I don't use a hoop or stretcher, they tug at the fabric too much. It took a lot of practice stitching to get the right tension so I don't warp the fabric too much. Although there will always be some amount of wave and puckering, it's all a part of the artwork. The fabric also tends to "breath", changing as the humidity and temperature changes. Sometimes there's more slack and other times it's tight as a drum skin. But most of the time these changes aren't noticeable.

A close up shot of the stitching. Most of the linework is done with a simple running stitch. Because the fabric is so sheer there's no need to double back to create a solid line. *Doing a running stitch on a solid fabric would look like a dotted line.* This method of working reminds me a lot of contour line drawing exercises back at school.

Click here for Part 2!

And The Rest Of The Story...

2010-03-20T02:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to editing the rest of the Zodiac crayon images.

Dragon
This Dragon crayon was my first attempt. Most of the other crayons took at least 2 or 3 trial runs before I was happy with the results. The texture of the scales turned out very well. I grew up around a lot of Dragon motifs. It reminds me of Dragons swirling around a column or post or a Dragon and Phoenix wrapped around a pair of Chinese wedding candles.

Dog
My solution to carving long snout dogs is to have them look down. Composing within the dimensions of a crayon is challenging. This fellow is very Kitsune-like.

Ox (see Horse description)

Horse
There's a Chinese saying that ties the horse and the ox together:
牛耕田马吃谷: The ox plows the field and the horse eats the grain (and the next line goes)... the father toils for the daughter's prosperity. The meaning behind that saying is the ox/father works hard and toils away while the horse/daughter gets to enjoy the results of his hard work.

People used to repeat that saying to me all the time when I was little. They would ask if I wanted to be the ox or the horse. The underlying question was... do I want to toil and work hard all my life or sit back and enjoy what would be given to me. I HATED it, even at 5 or 6 years old. I didn't want to be an ox in the field, but I'd be damned if I sit back and let someone do my work for me. I was going to be the ox that ate it's own oats or the horse that plowed its own field. But after my father's death the truth behind this saying really resonated with me. I worked hard for everything I have in life, but my father did in fact toiled for my sake. The saying is true.

Big THANKS to Laura for the blogging about my Zodiac crayons and everyone at Boing Boing & Digg for picking it up.