Cell Block 316

Been pretty busy with some plush preparations for a grand shop reopening.  But I took a 24 hours break to participate in The Soundry's Cell Block 316 art show.  Artists were "locked up" at the Soundry for 24 hours, and had to complete as many works as they could. All projects had to be started and completed within that 24 hour period.  It was a really fun experience and I would totally do it again. It was nice to kinda be forced to make art, because you really had nothing else to do. I couldn't distract myself with a chore, or go watch tv, I had to make art, or do nothing.

I think I got some really cute pieces out of the show, including a couple that may end up as plushies!













This last one was a collaboration piece with another artist, Brittany Hunter. She painted a background and asked me to put some of my little creatures on it, so I did!





Now that this has been wrapped up, its back to work on getting my shop opened again, especially since I have another piece of exciting news coming soon. :D

Working on pieces for Soundry's Member Show

I've been distracted from updating. A lot has been happening lately in real life, however I am finding time here and there to sneak in some creative things. I have a couple of commissions to finish up, including the Sharktopus for Declan O'Brien. Also I'm finishing some work for the upcoming Soundry Members Show. I'm should have 5 pieces in the show including a good sized plush

Some of the things I'm working on that aren't plush:


Drawing finished just last night. 6x8 inches, color pencil on paper.



Painting in progress. 4x12 inches, acrylic on canvas.

Baby Canvases II Show is up!

So much of the last 2 weeks has been wrapping up work for the Baby Canvases II show at the Soundry. I finished all 15 works and added little tags to the back of them with my blog address and dropped them off last Wednesday.  This past Saturday was the show opening. There were so many good works. I drank a delicious lemonade fizz served up by the lovely folks at the Soundry.  HINT: The Soundry is a gallery, studio space, and coffee bar all in one!


My friend Katie, who also had work in the show, dragged me over to where my stuff was displayed. I was surprised and thrilled to see that within an hour of the show opening 2 of my works had already sold.  :D I took a picture of my hanging work before I left, and now a total of 5 had been sold! *twirls* I'm very excited if you can't tell. This is the first time I've sold anything I've made, which is super awesome.

I'm so glad some of them (maybe more?) will have new homes. I'll be honest, I had a hard time relinquishing some of these to the show once they were finished. In particular, that little girl with the red balloon. She's modeled after some of the dolls I'll be making soon.  I was finally able to put her in with the rest of the pieces once I decided I'd make myself a bigger version of her for my home.  Turns out my sisters all want a version of her too, as its become their favorite as well.

You can see more detailed views of all of these on my Flickr Account.

Here are the works Katie had up, and below that are the works her sister put into the show. Katie made some really cute kokeshi girls.  I really loved the little blue skull one, so its mine!  We're doing an art trade. Her blue skull kokeshi for a variation of my Stitch Bunny.

The show is up until July 28, so if you are in the Northern Virginia area, you should go check it out. There really are some very neat works, and its just an neat space overall to visit.

Baby Canvases II - Tiny green monster

Yet another piece in the set I'm doing for Baby Canvases II. A cute little painting of my little green monster.  You've seen his cousin "in the plush" in this post.

I'm still getting used to this whole shading in color concept.  I've used monotone dry media for so long, that its sometimes hard for me to understand that not just any old dark color will do for shading. I originally tried making the shadows on this little guy in a dark brown. It didn't blend so well, nor did it look too good. So I had to go back over with more greens to finally get it to look how I wanted.

With more practice I'll get the hang of it.  :D

2x3 inches
acrylic on canvas

Baby Canvases II - Stitch Bunny - In a day

One of the many things I've added to my list, is to participate in the Baby Canvases II show being held by The Soundry. I figured it was a nice baby step into painting since I haven't finished a painting in...oh....10 years? Yeah...

So, the other day at lunch I was doodling. Trying to come up with little felt patch designs for the upcoming plushies I'm working on. Instead I doodle a slightly more complicated cute bunny (and friends).

I figured it was perfect to use as one of my Baby Canvas entries. I had even sketched him at the exact size. Perfect!

If you look closely in my messy workspace you can my sketch as well as the painting of the bunny in progress.

I have a feeling him and his friends (not as easily seen here) will end up in my mental que of "Cute things to make into plush form".

Here he is all ready to go off to the show! He told me his name is "Stitch Bunny". I feel I better listen to him and title him as such, otherwise there could be trouble.

Busy bee - show applications

I'm going to be a busy bee over the next few weeks. There are some deadlines closing in for work and applications to some shows. The Plush You Seattle deadline is May 10. After that the Strange Figurations deadline is June 30 and the very next day is the deadline for Teeny Tiny Art show #7.

I've got several sketches that need to turn into paintings, as well as several plush ideas. I'll try to get some in progress shots while I work on things.

This little sketch is definitely one I'd like to finish in time to submit to the Teeny Tiny show. I'll be working on her and some others over the next couple of months.

I must say I'm really excited to get some of my sketches out of the sketchbooks and make them into final pieces. Some of them have been sitting in there for a long time, and are starting to get cranky with me.

Skull doodle test subject

I got the disappointing news that I did not make it into the Plush You LA show. While I was a bit bummed out, I'm not too down about it. I really am just starting out. So I'll work on making more cute things and try again next time.

Also I've been switching moods from my Plush Mood, to my Art Mood. I got the idea recently to make a simple little doodle to use to test some new methods. So here is my little skull doodle.

Nothing super fancy. Just something simple that will allow me to concentrate on learning to work with some new mediums rather than being too focused on a finished project. I've traced him onto several 6x6 pieces of bristol and will begin experimenting tonight. Mwahaha!

Here he just has some thick ink outlines. Just for fun. The other methods I'm gonna play with are:
- oil pastel
- water-color resist
- acrylic with resist


And maybe some others. We'll see. If they come out pretty decent, I'm going to donate them to the 6x6 exhibit.  More on the 6x6 show here. Its basically a fund raising exhibit where anyone can donate pieces of art 6x6, and the art center sells everything for $20 a piece. There are no names on the pieces (except on the back) and on one knows who they are buying from until after its purchased. It seemed like a neat idea, and I was going to do these little tests on this size bristol anyway. So basically its perfect! If I have time, I may doodle out some other little pieces, just to get myself into the art groove.

Plush You LA application submitted!

YAY! Here are the 3 images I sent in. You'll recognize the one from the Mortal Plush show. I decided to go ahead and use her for the application.

Now I can focus on packing and moving before beginning working on other projects. :)

Plush happenings

I have been planning for a while now on submitting some plush cuteness to Stuffed Magazine. Their next deadline is February 15. I was going to rework my Vox plush that was in the Mortal Plush Show last year, as well as create some "sisters" or friends.

Its helpful that I've started to get into a plush mood. I get crafty moods, where I am completely focused and only interested in a certain art or craft. I've been trying to work on some art, but my brain was just completely elsewhere. Its a good thing though, because not only am I working toward submitting some work into Stuffed, but I just came across two more fun tidbits. Schmancy Toys is having an Olympic Plush Challenge for the upcoming winter games. So I thought, hey why not toss my hat into the ring for that.  Also the next PlushYou! show has been announced. Applications are due February 22.

I must admit I am quite giddy about all the possibilities. I'll be sure to post what I'm working on as things progress. Getting into Stuffed, or into the PlushYou! show would be so exciting.  *wiggles happily*