More earrings!

Today I posted a brand new pair of earrings on my etsy shop. They are little bird shrinky dink post earrings, perfect for the spring. They always seem to get the most attention when I show off my ever-growing shrinky dink collection, so I have a lot of hope for them. Check em out and buy a pair before it starts snowing again!

Studio #28

For my first year in the MFAI program all of my things lived in studio #28. It's not the biggest of the spaces, nor the smallest. It fills up with sunlight in the afternoon but can't compare to some others that have skylights. It sits near the kitchen, making trips to the watercooler quick, but lunch-time and dinner-time are always quite noisy with conversation. It was just an average space, a good studio for me, but soon I must bid it farewell.

I'll be moving on to #8, the current storage studio that no one has loved for years. It sits near the computer area which will make for conversation and gossip central at all times except for lunch and dinner time, the opposite of what I've grown used to. I promise to make it the best and coziest that I can and although I'll be looking out of my imaginary window, I'll still be unbelievably grateful to not be in a crowded cubicle where four studios are smushed together anymore.

Here's to the last day of classes of our first year!

Earrings up for sale!

In the last day I've added four original pairs of earrings to my etsy shop. They're all made with shrinky dinks, one pair are post earrings (the teeth that I previously posted on here) and the other three are charms attached to fish hook earrings. I had a ton of fun making them and can't wait to start on some more!

All of my fingers and toes are crossed that they sell. Wish me luck!

aliciasartifactory.etsy.com

Teeth Earrings

Last night I was busy making two pairs of shrinky dink teeth earrings (okay, it didn't take all that long, but give me some credit, I'm still fairly new at this). Anyway, I wanted to post the process just for fun, from the drawings to the baking to the finished earrings. These will be on etsy in the next couple of days, promise (and you should buy them too.. I've been thoroughly enjoying the pair I've been wearing!).

My next shrinky dink earrings

Yesterday afternoon I was experimenting with a variety of different pens I bought to see which ones work best to make shrinky dinks. My favorite ones out of the small group that I made are these little teeth! They will soon be my next set of earrings.. and also I'll be making more to sell on etsy, keep a look out!

Anorexic Alphabet

So it seems that Thursdays are officially alphabet-making day. By this time each week I'm usually feeling a little less motivated to continue working on my motorcycle book, so instead I make alphabets. It's not a bad plan, actually. This is another one that I use quite often and having done this will make my life a little simpler in the (near) future. Enjoy!

The Alphabet, Revised

Lately I've really been enjoying drawing this particular style of lettering and yesterday I had one of those really duh moments.. maybe it's time to make the alphabet so I can stop having to draw the same letters over and over! Wow, hello.

So here it is all cleaned up and ready to be used...

And now that I got that out of my system I can move on to some less duh projects.

A short intermission from recent work

Since there's been a slight lull in my posts lately, I wanted to add another two prints from my days as a letterpresser. I probably sound like a broken record but I really can't stress enough how much I miss printing on a Vandercook.

These are from the very beginning of our time in the letterpress studio when we were just learning how everything ran and worked. One of the first things we had to do was practice setting type and we were told to look into our saved text messages for inspiration. It seems like a weird combination - cell phones and letterpress - but the point really was just to come up with content quickly and get to work setting it up...

If you know me at all, you know the story behind this text...and I'll leave it at that. But really, it's too perfect not to post. The larger text is printed from wood type and the detail is exquisite in person, you really can't fake it.

Also we were able to print from the shop's plate of the California Job Case, the one that I surprisingly memorized.. but only after a full semester of setting type, of course. If I had to set a sentence now it would be like starting all over.. good thing I saved my diagram! Hopefully I'll get to use it again one day. (I'll be praying that whatever shop I'm using follows this layout.. fat chance though, sadly.)

Shrinky Dinks!

Yesterday we were being busy bees in the studio making shrinky dinks for all of the second year students. We each picked a classmate and made them a little something to remember us by, partly because it's addicting (now that I've finally made one I can attest to this) so any excuse to make one is a good one, and partly because we're going to miss them tons and tons when they graduate. I chose Will and wanted him to finally stop being confused as to whether my name is actually Alicia or Angela. It's been an on-going issue.

Also with my tiny little scraps I drew some skulls as an experiment, just to see how small they'd actually shrink to. They turned out so adorably perfect that I'm going to make earrings out of them for sure.

I can guarantee there will be more of these to come in the future! (I'm thinking itsy bitsy tooth earrings!)