Fun in the studio!

If you start doing what you love to do the most, you find yourself in another dimension. Living the dream, that is how it feels like ;) 

I thought a new sign for my shop, when vending would be nice. 

Upcycling.... the long side of a cupboard drawer!
I think I found it in the basement...

Acrylic paint in yummy shade of blue ;)

Like the sky, of course... most beautiful!

Then I used random small pieces of leather to make the knotty rope for the sign, I like the colors together - blue, black on wood. 

Living Earthia

I've been rearranging some things around today in the sunshine streaming through the windows!

Last night I took a look at my stock of materials and fabrics. 

As new ideas fill in the canvas of creativity, I look at what is at my hands to decide what I am going to be working with, and what not yet; sort everything by fiber content; type of fabric, garments to be re-made; sort everything out by color - love playing with color! ;) 

Spring cleaning, if you will... 

Among all the supply, there is a special place in my heart for the Precious Box. It has all the bits and leftovers of favorite yarn, trim, buttons, leather, stripes of gorgeous fabrics, ribbons, etc - not such a big box, but there is so much goodness in it! 

I just finished customizing my water bottle sack, using the insides of this PB (Precious Box), and it felt like I was using a palette of paints ;))) Digging around the colorful texturized mess ;) 

Pictures to be posted tomorrow, the light is not so good right now.

But here are some more pictures I took during the day today: 

 aurora borealis bead

i absolutely adore sparkle and something "raw", so to say, for example, fiber - un-dyed wool (in this case), ... kind of paradoxical.. and kind of not at all ;)))

 On this new coat vest i'm making (new design, model piece) I sewed 4 tiny aurora borealis beads.. i placed them in such a way around the garment, that you can only see one at a time, from each angle just one ;) and you won't be able to see it easily, just the shine ... ♥

Cat Hats are in stock now, get your festival attire taken care of ;) 

http://www.earthia.etsy.com

larger basket - wool, bits of various yarns put together - this one beautifully fits all 20+ pairs of handwarmers.. everything is organized and neatly sorted hehe ;)

 i totally love how thick and firm the basket came out, it holds the shape because it has this durable structure, - lots' of thin yarn together, tight stitch with a smaller hook. looving that mint and chocolate combo that just happened on it's own ;)) ♥

 crocheted basket for things - it holds things, that go in the pocket - keys etc. Very handy! Ladies who crochet, here's an idea of how to use up leftover yarn, - pile it up in one chunky yarn and knit away. 30 minutes work

cotton & lace 

scarves 

area rugs, both are circles! ;) mmmmm... dreaming of a LARGE round pouf! to sit on ;) 

Just a Sunday

Yummy details around the room ;) 

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Around the Studio

Welcome to my colorful place! 

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See lots more pictures after the jump ;)

Closet Case

Buying (Fashion Merchandising) was my major at FIT, the school I graduated from with bachelor degree, not Fashion Design. So, naturally, I liked the subject, - it was about fashion, after all. I studied a lot of math, but alongside I got to learn even more of fabric science, color, trends, history of costume, pattern making, display installation, and, sure, all the business aspects of fashion world - statistics,  marketing, advertising, and so on. Generally, this is a great subject to know, as you have quite a knowledge of both sides of the industry - the artistic and the business one. And I took ballet and yoga as my physical education requirement classes! ;)))

Professional buyer is something that is in me and is here to stay, and every once in a while I catch myself thinking "this vintage skirt would be awesome on someone, too bad I don't need it"... and then I buy it for the beautiful fabric, or a cut, or uniqueness of it. So, over the years, admittedly, there is quite a collection of really nice clothes - thrift finds, vintage finds, or even unworn, or like-new current pieces hanging in a separate closet. The closet has been opened ;)

Half a day today I spent working out a place in the room to get nice pictures of yours truly wearing the goods. So far so fun! ;)))) The two skirts are the objects of desire, that some one may want to acquire ;) 

    

Peek-a-boo! 

One of mannequin's boobies is squished, she fell on her face... ;( 

It's a little gray outside today, but I'm loving it ;) 

The box covered with most amazing psychedelic velvet fabric! It used to be a maxi-skirt I found in a San Francisco Salvation Army store. Stack of pillows - upcycled curtains as pillowcases, filler - small cut offs and and leftover bits of sweaters I use in making new designs. Socks.

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Brown cotton velvet bell shaped skirt - hot! Very Steampunk, color is like chocolate. Current, evening wear.

Vintage tribal necklace from India, bone.

Valentino skirt. Wool. Mmmm... nude pink spectator booties with brown satin ribbons, ;) Seychelles.

 

Ah! the rag got in the picture again ;) It is made out of the t-shirt yarn that I made a couple of years ago, using my own unused t-shirts (duh!) and some friend's as well - thank you, guys! 

Love brights!

I will be taking more pictures, when time permits, as this project is only the beginning and I will see how it takes off. 

But these wool socks were rocking my world this whole Fall and Winter! I'm not taking them off just yet ;) 

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Leaping into the Spring!

Crocheting to "Jeeves and Wooster" British comedy series, I love the books as well. 

I am wishing everyone amazing awaking Spring season. 

Something beautiful will unavoidably grow and flourish... 

inside and outside of us, this coming season, ever evolving - us... 

If we want so ;) 

Happy Spring to you!!!

☀

Dream Catcher

What is dreamcatcher? 

Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The dream catcher when hung over or near your bed swinging freely in the air, catches the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher, slipping through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams not knowing the way get tangled in the dream catcher and perish with the first light of the new day.

How is it made?

Using a hoop of willow, and decorating it with findings, bits and pieces of everyday life, (feathers, arrow heads, beads, etc) the dream catcher is believed to have the power to catch all of a person's dreams, trapping the bad ones, and letting only the good dreams pass through the dream catcher.

read more about dreamcatchers and how to make them at dream-catchers.org

I found a picture tutorial on how to make a small dream catcher by Veronika aka livejournal user virienn ;) it's so easy!!! Tutorial is Veronika's step-by-step instructions, the text is in Russian, but it is pretty clear without the text, what to do ;) 

let's try and share pictures ;) post yours in the comments to this post ;) 

Color, you make me happy!

Delightfully blogging, still... it feels amazing to just be home, at my beloved iMac, for once. Black tea with a dash of cardamom, turbinado sugar and milk (run out of half-n-half, uneven seams!)... Listening to Bob Marley... Finding great inspiring everything everywhere!!! ;) 

Here's what can be done with used crayons, you can create your own color confetti! Now if I only could find what to do with dried up play dough that my niece has laying in tiny bits of color splashes all over her play area ;) On the search for it!

hmmm if I remember correctly, this post is via Mountain Girl

New rug!

Enough t-shirts accumulated, finally, to let me start crocheting new rug. I'll try to think through the colors this time, as I have a pile of stuff I can cut into yarn, from which I can create color patterns. So far, it has been black/brown/green earthy shades... Will see if there's going to be enough of only those colors to keep the rug in the colors of a cartoonish forest ;) 

Yay for colors!!! 

(on this Thanksgiving day, I also am grateful to enjoy color!)

"Ben! I have one word for you: PLASTIC!"

I not always have a grocery bag with me. In such a case I ask a cashier to fit everything in as few bags as possible (it's always no more than two) and to not double bag it. I get all kinds of puzzled looks (human nature is incredibly vast in it's beauty of expression), lost looks, and even comments like "she's crazy". Sometimes, a kind clueless soul warns me, that my shopping bags are going to be to heavy, if not doubled. And then I say: "You know what's heavy? The build up of plastic on the Earth." A response, as a rule, is the look, that's even more lost. There are places, like Whole Foods, where not only customers, but all the staff is aware more or less, but not in the area of Brooklyn, where I live... I keep hoping that one day I'll see understanding and approving smile from a sales person. This is why, I collected as many bags as I did, with the help of my food-shopping loving family, and made my first shopping bags, which I'm intending to take every time I go grocery shopping. 

It is so darn easy and rewarding to make a bag like this, that I am to share a pictorial process, in hopes that it can be handy for some, if not all :)

Fold a bag lengthwise, cut off the bottom and the handles (those parts can go to recycle bin for plastic at your local supermarket).

Cut the folded bag across into several pieces, approximately 1 inch wide.

Unfolded, each piece will have a circular seamless shape.

Here's a seemingly tricky (but it's not) part. Take two "rings" of plastic that you unfolded, and interlace them, like shown in the picture. You sort of wrap one circle around another, making a loop, through which you pull out the whole thing eventually. 

Here it's more visible.

Dozens of bags are made into yards and yards of plastic yarn, which is then rolled into a ball.

I hope you can crochet. If you can't, you're missing out on a rather pleasurable pastime making many beautiful things for yourself and your friends and family. 

Here's my grocery bag. I like how there is a blue and red stripe going around - it happened totally by accident, a nice little gift from my own effort ;) 

p.s. oh, and the rug is the one I made out of old t-shirts, i blogged about it earlier ;) It feels soooo nice to step on it in the morning, a sudden splash of color... boom! makes me happy!