Yeah Urban Craft Uprising!

What an incredibly awesome experience! I got great feedback from buyers and vendors, and sold a LOT of kits! I am so excited to make new fresh designs now. I'm gonna get crack-a-lackin'!

But, my holiday knitting has been being SO neglected... so I am going to go home, I am going to rest, and I am going to knit! And then i'll embroider some more.

I am going to spend all my money at Urban Craft Uprising...

my favorite cloud pin, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Today Liz and I spent the afternoon setting up the Tako Fibers booth at Urban Craft Uprising. Oh. My. Goodness! EVERYTHING that I have seen there so far is AMAZING!!!!! I might spend my entire paycheck there. Its going to be really hard to buy gifts, because I want EVERYTHING!
The most beautiful felt paintings and amazing little animals from Softlife are in the booth next to us. They are so great! Liz and I both FREAKED OUT when we saw the amazingness.
We are also right next to Cake Spy, which I love already. We set up pretty early, so we haven't seen the cakey goodness yet, but I am super excited to be sitting between 2 awesome artists! Hooray!
Um... you ARE coming, right? Saturday and Sunday (December 5th and 6th) from 11am - 5pm?? RIGHT? You really should. Get all your holiday shopping done, and buy from local handcrafters!

darn proud of myself

finished red fancy bird!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

After tons of hard work, I am finally getting to the point that my kits are getting DONE and look GREAT! I am feeling super confident about the Urban Craft Uprising this weekend.
Thats right, MARK YOUR CALENDERS and come to the Seattle Center expo hall on December 5th and 6th. I will be selling many little kits with many little designs!
The guy pictured above is now officially on my new Etsy. Exciting! Here is a link if you want to check it out.

I have also been silkscreening more felt for more pin/brooch kits:


and only have about 3 more designs to go. then DONE. done done done!

yay! happy! yay!

This is what 257$ of tapestry wool looks like.

This is what 257$ of tapestry wool looks like., originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Just in case you were wondering.
I did the not so smart thing of picking out all my colors and then having them thrown into a basket. And then forgetting my notebook that TELLS me which colors go with which kits at work, duuuur.

Just 2 weeks until Urban Craft Uprising! So much to do eee!

Yeah swag bags!

Yeah swag bags!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Yay!

At Urban Craft Uprising, all vendors donate a few small items to go into their "swag bags." What are these amazing things you ask? Well, the first 500 people to go to the UCU actually GET one of these amazing bags full of handmade goodness for FREE! yes! When I went 2 years ago, there were people lined up for hours WAITING for the goodness.
Vendors only need to donate a small amount, but I donated a bit more - 7 little bags with everything one needs to make my "little cloud" embroidery pattern.

I was up late doing last minute touches, but I think they look GREAT! The shape of the bag made it impractical to silkscreen them, so they are rubber stamped with stamps I carved. I think it looks as good - or better - than a silkscreen, so I'm pleased. I also learned just how much work its going to take to get these all together. Just these 7 little ones took my helper (my momma :) ) and I about 2 hours to get finished. The next too weeks are ASSEMBLY TIME!

In other news, there is no other news. Oh, except my Intermediate Flash class is going really well. I am really enjoying it. I have been working on a little interactive animation where you dress a lady. Very exciting.

Bye!

Working Working Working.....

Little Silkscreened Felt Pieces!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Yay! Here are 4 little designs for my embroidery kits. You get a SNEAK PREVIEW!!! I've been cutting and silkscreening and writing and ordering and doing so many things to get them ready. This is a just a little small peek at lots more to come.

I really take on too much. Besides this, I am participating in a print trade, printing all my own business cards, designing the website, taking classes in Flash... and I've been working a full time job too? geez louise!

Business license, credit cards, taxes, oh my....

Today I have entered the world of BUSINESS. I have spent the morning looking up the ins and outs of getting a business license. The entire process is WAY more confusing than I thought it would be. Not only is there a license needed for Washington state, but also for Seattle. I need to have my UBI number to open a business checking account at my credit union. I need to actually BE ORGANIZED which is really, really difficult for me.
First step - cleaning the studio up and utilizing one of the 5 sets of filing cabinets we have in here.

I am also looking at accepting credit cards for the Urban Craft uprising. Etsy members say that ProPay is awesome, and to forget about the iPhone apps. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm not sure how comfortable buyers would be with entering their credit card info over the phone, but I want to be able to accept their business as well!

Off to clean!

Must. Knit. Sweaters. For. DOGS!

Must. Knit. Sweaters. For. DOGS!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Ok. I should be working on embroidery. But the knitting bug is getting to me so bad. I found this book at Books Kinokuniya and I REALLY should have bought it. DOGS! in sweaters. A marriage so pure!

More in progress embroidery

More in progress embroidery, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

More progress on another embroidery pattern. I have made acetate templates for 12 patterns, more than I was planning on! I am hoping to make at least 12 more, and then pick and choose which ones I want to prepare for Urban Craft Uprising.
I am getting more and more excited by the day. I am pretty sure I have my packaging for the kits all picked out, I just need to do a little more pricing to make sure its the right choice. I found a display solution that is going to look AWESOME, I am so pumped about it! I need to design the Tako Fibers website too! I have a lot of work to do, but I work better under pressure :)

On a different note, I am trying to finish my Mrs. Darcy sweater while preparing for all this crafty madness. All of my sweaters have ridiculously huge holes in them or are not warm enough. I guess I could buy a new one, but when I have a sweater half made, that seems to be a waste of money...

But, in case you want to know... I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want KnitPicks Elegance yarn in "Jay," to knit myself a new cropped cardigan. mine is so very sad, the holes in the armpits are ridiculously beyond compare. What used to be my cutest sweater is now my only-if-there-is-no-chance-that-i-am-running-into-someone-who-wants-to-hire-me sweater.

I think I'm going to go to bed now and dream about satin stitch... goodnight!

Embroidery!

Embroidery in Progress, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Again, its been ages since I've written. I am in the lab at SVC, during break from my Intro to Flash class. Its so nice to be in front of a big, huge, nice monitor again! Note to self - computers are better with better equipment!

I have been accepted to the Urban Craft Uprising show in early December! I am so excited. I will be selling my embroidery kits. But how can I sell something that doesn't exist yet, you ask? WELL! I have been feverishly working on them, and plan to have at least 10 designs ready to sell in December! Yeah! Here is one in progress.

Hard at work lately

photo, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I've been hard at work illustrating, designing, and making art in general lately! I have finished my illustration for the Town Hall "Saturday Family Concerts" poster, and I am happy that it has been spotted all over town! The picture above is the original watercolor in its infancy.
I am working very hard on getting my website up TODAY. I just found a tutorial on making a CSS image gallery that I am going to adapt to my site. Hooray for hard work!

favorite bears

favorite bear, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I haven't written in a little while! I do apologize. Because I am not on my computer constantly at work, I haven't been very inspired to pick it up at all. My telephone has been serving as my computer, and I have yet to find a good app to post to my blog from my telephone. Do you know one?

Anyway, I have been drawing a lot of bears. Here is another one:



Its not a very good picture, but I do enjoy the bears.

I also painted a lot of little guys on tiles:



I think I am going to cover them with resin!

i am making rain

i am making rain, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I haven't written in a little while, but this is because I have been very very busy!

This is my latest letterpress project. It is not going very well yet but I like the idea of it. I am taking / symbols (slashes) and randomly scattering them. Its very challenging to put in leading and to get it even remotely close to locking up. The plan is to print this in a few colors on kitakata paper, and then use that paper to chine-colle on bigger prints.

I WILL figure it out!! :)

red bird

red bird, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

So here is my final little bird!!! The other colors are so subtle and I really enjoy it.

Here it is with the contrast boosted way up, so you can actually see the other colors:




I start my new/old job tomorrow, and I am very very excited about it! Except, I have come down with an evil sinus infection and sore throat. I will be very upset if I have to call into work on my FIRST DAY!

it left a bad taste

it left a bad taste, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

This is a silkscreen and woodcut. I made it for the Print Zero exchange. I am finally participating in it after being asked to for 3 years in a row!
This piece is a little darker than my usual work. I am not entirely sure what its about. Maybe about something that you used to like that now reminds you of something bad. Or maybe something as innocent as forgetting to brush you teeth in the morning.

By the way, I quit my job and now I have a new job! Hooray!

bird wing

bird wing, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

In the Continuing Letterpress class that I am taking at Pratt (taught by the wonderfully amazing Miss Lisa Hasegawa), we learned about proper justification of type with this exercise - create a shape out of type.
I had high hopes and big dreams for this - my original setup took me several classes to set - 8pt Spartan type with a multitude of facts telling you all about birds.
But, we are nearing the end of class. Next week is our last class, and I was falling behind. So I scrapped it and made this guy out of 20 different faces/sizes, and I am way happier with it than I was with the original.
I decided to go with the shape on the left. What do you think?

letterpress/anniversary

letterpress, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I don't have much to say right now, except I am going away for the weekend with my benjamin, for our ONE YEAR wedding anniversary. What! Geez! I can't believe its been a year already!

So I am making us a little present, some buisness cards that we can hand out as a duo, on "hello my name is" stickers. Since they come in sets of two and all. Each one has our different information, but our joined website on the bottom. When we become more awesome than we are now and start to actually update that website, it will be very handy, i'm sure!

Bobmas!

Bobmas!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Yay! I gathered a few dear friends who knit to celebrate Bobmas, the founding of Ravelry on April 11th! Hooray! We had cupcakes and knitted.



I made tiny baby socks...


and Keren made mutant booties.


Hollie did a very good job at her first re-learning knitting project! (She has since frogged it all and reknitted it)


I finished one of my baby socks after we had eaten dinner. Baby feet are tiny! Here it is compared to Tater:


Happy Bobmas!

Alpacapalooza!

Alpacapalooza!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Alpacapalooza was AMAZING. Last Saturday, we all met up and enjoyed a full day of adorable, amazing, beautiful animals! (We all being me, Ben, Liz, Astrid, Caley, Bre, Brian, Julia and Harper!)

Ben and I are planning on living in a green house and having alpacas one day, as illustrated in this picture:


While we didn't get to roll around in the pen with them this year, it was still a wonderful time. We had a picnic lunch, looked at all the booths, and watched the judging in the show ring too. We even saw little kids leading their alpacas through an obstacle course! Jumping over hurdles! Be still, my heart.

If you would like to see the whole Flickr set, this link will take you there!

Close up of Resin City - In Progress

Close up of Resin City - In Progress, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

So, although you probably don't know me, you may have gathered from this blog that I like doing a lot of things. I like painting (watercolors, acrylics, gouache, encaustic...), I like knitting (with fancy, beautiful yarns), I like printmaking (letterpress, silkscreen, woodcuts...) I like embroidery (preferably my own designs), I like sewing (blouses mostly), I like cooking (with fresh vegetables)....

Because of this, I have a hard time concentrating on any one project. I will usually dedicate myself to one project per week, and switch between them. I recently finished my cloud embroidery project, I am almost done with my blouse, and I am working on a knitting project (blanket pieces) while I watch movies at home. These little paintings have sat neglected for a month now.
They are acrylic and resin on panel, with many layers of paint and resin. I am really, really pleased with them, but the layering on this piece is especially lovely and unexpected.

So tonight I am going to work on these, and save my other projects for the weekend. But on Saturday, I will be celebrating Bobmas and knitting all afternoon :)