Experiments and Developments in Studio Furnishings

Note: If you're looking to read things about the mysical/revered/ineffable creative process, there won't be much in this post for you. If, on the other hand, you geek out over minuscule technical developments and love seeing how other people function on a practical level in their studios, then read on!

The first big deal in the studio is that I replaced my many-years-old Liquin squeeze bottle solution. Backstory: I love Liquin, but I like to get it in the big 1-liter glass bottle, the top of which gets all gunked up over the course of opening and pouring and closing repeatedly. Plus, you have to shake it like an uncooperative ketchup bottle. I actually emailed Winsor & Newton a few years back, asking if they knew anything about Liquin's interaction with plastics, as it's a petroleate. They had no idea; I was on my own. So I got a squeeze bottle made of that sort of gummy soft plastic. And it worked fine, for a long time.

Old Liquin Bottle (Deceased)

There was clearly some air communication through the walls of the container, causing a skin to form, but in the basement studio, where the temperature was really controlled and the air a bit humid, it wasn't much of an issue. Scene change to NYC, cue heat wave. The skin formed so fast that it was just a waste, and then the squeeze bottle split up the side in a final throe of death.

In search of a new bottle -- and quickly -- I came upon an almost-empty ketchup in the fridge, contained in the new Top-Down bottle from Heinz. Thank god for food packaging innovations (I'm only half sarcastic here). It's kind of perfect. The plastic is rigid, not gummy, but squeezable. (I don't know my plastics, but the recycle code on it is 1 and it says "PETE" below. Does that mean it's PET plastic? I don't know. I could probably google it, though. The previous squeeze bottle didn't have a code.) And of course it's meant to stand upside down so it's always ready to dispense. And it has a valve! Actually, the valve has been a bit problematic, because the Liquin has been wanting to separate lately, perhaps because of the heat, but I'm finding a good violent shake does the trick. And the best part is: no skin has formed yet. Even through our patch of 100-plus-degree days. I think I've found a winner.Heinz Top-Down Bottle Repurposed as Liquin Dispenser
Second on the list of neat experiments is a custom oiling-out formula I put together. On the wallpaper painting, I was having a terrible time with glare on the darker edges. Even using my photographer's even lighting we couldn't get it to photograph sufficiently well. Furthermore, this is one of those things that I just have to troubleshoot because it becomes a problem on all my work. Not having had a very good technical painting education, I hadn't heard of oiling out. But, thanks to YouTube, I had subscribed to Gamblin's feed, and they had recently put out a video on the topic. (I was on a YouTube kick for a while, so I watched that, and about a million other things, including Art21's new series, which is totally worth a look.) A good artist-friend of mine had also passed along the tip that Lavender Spike Oil was supposed to reduce shine on dark areas when used as a medium. So I hodge-podged together a recipe for my own oiling-out solution, hoping for a finish would be even and maybe a little satin.

Collection of Painting Mediums

My recipe is as follows:


• 1 part Odorless Mineral Spirits (1 small pour, maybe a tablespoon? two?)


• 1 small lump Cold Wax Medium (lima bean size)
  
  Smash and stir til dissolved.


• 1 part Galkyd


• 1 1/2 or 2 parts Lavender Spike Oil
  
  Then you brush it on evenly and rub it in with a cloth (cheesecloth, ideally) using circular motion.

It definitely seemed to help considerably. Now the painting is at the photographer's again, and I'm awaiting results. She may still have to use polarizing filters to get it just right on film, we'll see. But I have high hopes. And already the in-person experience of it is improved, the colors glow and the corners don't glare. (Storing the leftovers in a tin can with plastic wrap, however, was a failure. I got a glass jar with a rubber seal for storing future batches.)

Development number 3 involved a trip to Ikea. The Brooklyn store is kind of a hell-hole, and that's not just because I'm partial to the Portland one. But we drove out over the Brooklyn Bridge, and coming back into the city the view was just beautiful, so the trip was arguably worth it just for that. It's funny to realize that there's a lot of the city I haven't actually seen, despite having traveled past/through it, because I'm so often underground. It feels like a strange treat to be in a car.

Anyway, we made the Ikea trip because I've had my eye on the Bygel cart since before I moved.

New Painting Cart

It's very compact, not too rickety, and only $30. Hard to argue. I also got some glass shelves to use as palettes. It's so nice to be mixing on glass again. Plus, I have my desk area back, now that my palette and brushes are all loaded onto the cart. I can't help but miss my old painting cart, with it's 4 swiveling wheels and hugeness, but for my current space this is a vast improvement.

The last and most recent development is that we finally got sufficient air conditioning installed to deal with this heat wave. And it's been glorious. I can finally paint without dripping sweat, and without my paint literally drying on the brush. Oh, a/c, how I love thee.

Brick and blue: a studio palette

The studio has been in some state of remodel/redesign since I moved in. No surprise there. Recently I've been working on pulling up the carpet (lots of carpet glue; slow work) and painting the floor, and generally making the space feel lighter and more finished. Hemming and hawing over colors...

For a while, sections have been a pretty strong yellow. "Butternut Squash." The thought was that, since it's a basement space with very little natural light, it needed some pretty intense color therapy to not be a depressing cave. But it turns out, it's just too overwhelming. Oppressively yellow.

Once again I start collecting paint chips. I have a whole ziploc baggie somewhere with probably a full pound of little cut out samples, but I have to start fresh for each project. This time around, the focus was mainly on blue... with a few samples of persimmon, coral (a color that's been on my mind for a while now).

The floor is going an almondy, warm white. Something bright, but not stark, with a satin finish. With only about a sixth of the floor (if that much) painted so far, it's already brighter, feels more like a legitimate space. But in need of color.

My attention has lingered frequently on the remnants of the old chimney that comes down through the middle of my space. My dad says remove it; it would open up the space so much more. And that's true, but there's something about it that I love. Between that and the dark, exposed beams, it becomes my own little (underground) New York warehouse art loft. (I've been looking for ways to restore it that don't involve caustic chemicals... have yet to find anything satisfactory.)

So, from there, I've come to a potential palette of antique brick and some sort of pale, warm or dusty blue. Not too primary, not too teal... something nuanced. Then, to Flickr for some inspiration in that vein:

From Endings Come New Beginnings

I finally finished my commissioned painting. After months of hemming, hawing, loving, hating, holding on too tight, procrastinating out of fear of messing it all up, and taking leaps -- and despite predictions to the contrary -- it's done.

And I made a video so you can see it come together!



But now there's the trepidation (and excitement, of course) of a new blank canvas.

Oh, February, how you fly!

February's been trucking along at full speed so far!

On Super Bowl weekend, I printed up a set of wedding invitations for a bride in Texas. They were a customization of my country sunset design, and involved a gradient that was making a little nervous, to be honest, but they came out great. I'll have full pictures in a few days on the Phaedra Paperie blog but til then, here's a little peek into the printing process.


Then, I got back to the work of remodeling/reorganizing my studio. I know it's been a long time since my Remodel: Part 1 post, but it's an ongoing process. My studio has vertical beams that run down the middle of the space, and the remnant of the house's original chimney, which makes it hard to make the most of the space. Boxes and piles have a tendency to collect along the dead space around the beams. So I took that area and turned it into a work surface with storage underneath. It's not yet what I would call clean, but now at least I have a well-lit place to do small paintings, drawings, pen and ink, etc. without having to clear a spot and sit on the floor.


Capping off the month so far, yesterday I had Kate from Katie Joy Photography over. She's an up-and-coming photographer who will be shooting her first wedding in only a couple of days, and just got a new camera. We know each other from our day jobs, but it was great to interact with her on a professional level. I needed some professional/head shot type photos, and I also wanted to get some action shots in the studio. We looked through a few, and they looked promising -- the studio shots especially looked great. I'm so excited to see all the shots!

February Goals

Ok, so December wasn't a great month for getting things done, and January struggled a bit, too. But I pulled through at the end. (I'm including the first couple days of February as part of January, because it makes this list look a lot better.)

• Submit to galleries that have January submission dates. Done. Well, to one. The most important one. (There were two with January dates, and the other I'm not as into, so it's cool.)
  
  
• Send image of HSC painting to client. Discuss money, shipping, timelines, etc. Sent image and discussed money. Had previously talked about shipping, and touched on it again. Did not discuss timelines, because they're my nemesis.
  
  
• Photograph valentines and get them out into the digital world. Mostly done. Sunlight has been scarce, but I did get a good photo day right at the end of January. I sent out an email or two about them, and put them on my Etsy, but never did a big email, and still haven't blogged about them.
  
  
• Make confirmations for Bridal Screenprinting class and finish syllabus/materials list. Made confirmations -- the 27th of February at noon -- but still need to finish the actual work part.
  
  
• Get laptop repaired. Got a new laptop for what it would have cost to fix the old one! Yay!
  
  
• Give my truck some love. An oil change, maybe a new turn signal light. I filled the air in the tires (much needed) but still need an oil change and a turn signal.
  
  
• Finish sewing projects for other people that I've had sitting around for way longer than is reasonable. Apologize for keeping them so long. Not done. I'm a jerk.

Ok, enough with the half-hearted accomplishments. On to February's goals:

• This month is going to be mostly about finishing things I've started. A bulleted list, in no particular order, will suffice:
  
  
  • HSC Painting: gotta get it out of my studio
  
  
  • Sewing: shirts
  
  
  • Sewing: cushions
  
  
  • Class planning: materials list, order materials, syllabus, assemble necessary bits
  
  
  • Cards: blog about them, damnit... maybe do the card section of the website, too
  
  
  • Knotical Invitation Suite: print it, photograph it, post it
  
  
  • Gloriously Awash In Sin blog: post something, for crissakes
  
  
  • Taxes: this requires me to make sure I've caught up on all my bookkeeping...
  
  
  • I feel like I'm missing something... I'll add it when it hits me
  
  


• A separate goal, but one that I hope will help the above, is to wear shoes when I'm working at home (as opposed to just being at home... ah, the challenge of trying to work and not-work in the same space). I've noticed that wearing shoes makes me more productive, perhaps solely for the fact that it keeps me from getting too comfy and curling up to nap on the couch. I wonder if that's just totally weird, or if other work-at-home-ers have found this out, too.

Shipping Container Pipe Dream

Raw and gravity-defying

I've really been digging shipping container construction lately. I like the aesthetic, industrial and sort of a la Brooklyn / Williamsburg artist warehouse lofts when it was still all rough, before the developers got ahold of it.

Actually made of shipping pallets and trailer homes, respectively.

I really like the aesthetic of the buildings by Infiniski, a company operating out of Spain and Chile. Their whole focus is on the re-use of materials... containers, pallets, etc. I love the way they maintain the aesthetic influence of the original material. Probably my favorite is their "Forest House" on their site (which is all flash, so I can't pull the image). Go look at it!

I also like Lot-Ek's CHK (Container Home Kit). Scalable and flexible, with lofts and catwalks to boot.

Lot-Ek's Puma Building. The front is very similar to their CHK design.

And I really love what Canadian Designer Kieth Dewey has done with his Zigloo home. He really maintained the industrial elements, even using chain link in the interior and salvaging stairs from another industrial building. Plus, he has an extensive photo gallery of various phases of building.

The Zigloo's front steps

Despite the quantity of imagery available, there seems to be very little in the way of how-to information. Shed and Shelter has a pretty good list of companies who actually do things related to shipping container (or ISBU: Intermodal Steel Building Units) construction, rather than individuals or small groups who have done one-time projects or experiments. I just found out Google Sketchup has a whole section on container housing. I'll probably be browsing that a lot...

But of course, lack of information hasn't kept me from designing my own dream studio made out of containers. Nowhere to put it yet, but hush, reality. Dream a little dream with me...

Sneak Peek!

Just a little sneak peek of something I've been working on for Phaedra Paperie...



January's coming along nicely. Some successful printing, a few wedding orders in the works, frequent lattes, and a new laptop in the mail. No complaints!

January Goals

December wasn't such a great month for getting things done...

• Finish HSC painting! Still not quite done. But close.
  
  
• Continue not wasting my life away in front of the computer. Good so far.
  
  
• There are a couple of local galleries whose submission period is during January, so I need to get my packet ready to go. I always 'mean' to submit, but let my procrastination/fear/anxiety get the best of me. Not this year. (Oh please, oh please.) Didn't do it, but I'm going to, I promise.
  
  
• I have a stack of artist registry forms. Once I've got packets together for galleries, it's not much more work to submit to some artist registries. My official goal will be getting 6 of the 8 I've printed out actually sent. Didn't do that either. May or may not do it.
  
  
• I promised some people prints of my work forever ago and never followed through. Get those ordered/sent so they'll get them in time for Christmas. Did it. So at least I feel like less of a jerk.
  
  
• I'm going to be teaching a class (through Paper Zone) on screenprinting wedding invitations in January after the Portland Bridal Show, so I need to fully outline the class syllabus and handouts. I can finish them in early January, but the hard work will need to be done before the last minute. Did it somewhat. Still needs finishing, but very do-able.
  
  
• Photograph Valentine cards. Prepare publicity email(s). Nope. Gets moved to January.
  
  
• Create mural proposal or OSU Engineering department. (Not sure this is going to happen; it will definitely have to take a backseat to the HSC painting.) Didn't happen. I'm ok with that.
  

Most of this month's goals are unfinished things from last month.

• Submit to galleries that have January submission dates.



• Send image of HSC painting to client. Discuss money, shipping, timelines, etc.



• Photograph valentines and get them out into the digital world.



• Make confirmations for Bridal Screenprinting class and finish syllabus/materials list.



• Get laptop repaired.



• Give my truck some love. An oil change, maybe a new turn signal light.



• Finish sewing projects for other people that I've had sitting around for way longer than is reasonable. Apologize for keeping them so long.

Studio Office Remodel, Part 1

The past couple of weeks I've been gearing up for a wholesale mailing blitz for my 2010 Valentines. (I know it seems early -- and for the real world, it is -- but give it a couple more weeks and you'll start seeing Christmas merchandise. The drop date keeps inching its way earlier and earlier. Pretty soon 'Christmas in July' will just link up with Christmas in December without any break in between. My point is: in the world of seasonal retail, September is not too soon to start thinking about Valentines Day.) Deciding on this year's colors, laying out my order sheet, running copies, printing color and design samples, and so forth.

I ran into a snag when my color printer ran out of ink. I was pretty sure I ordered 2 cartridges last time I ordered, so I thought, I must have a spare sitting around here somewhere. After it failed to turn up in all the predictable spots, I figured maybe it was time to clean my desk. There was a good chance it was buried in the 6 inches of stacked/falling/piles of paper.

My studio office. Note how the wall of the window well blocks off any light that might make its way into the office area.

A few hours later: a mostly clean desk but no ink cartridge. My desire for said ink cartridge (which it turns out I never ordered -- the second cartridge was the black one) morphed into a desire for a better office in general. I had been really craving some natural sunlight in my workspace, since I spend an awful lot of time sitting in front of the computer during gorgeous days.

I had been toying with the idea of a remodel for a while, sketching out ideas to make use of the strange, angular space my desk was in.

Daylight!

So the next morning I started ripping things apart. Meanwhile, of course, I was still in the middle of getting materials ready to mail. This was not going to be a quick remodel (quick remodels require detailed plans -- I barely had plans at all) and I have a hard enough time shutting my computer down at night. Besides, we had just gone to Everyday Music, and I had a stack of new (used) cds, and I can't work without music anyway. So I just stacked everything to the side.

Unplugging is for losers.

That was all a couple days ago now. Now I'm in the thick of the hard part. It's not easy to frame out anything when you can't attach anything to the walls (concrete). I can secure things to the exposed beams, or the staircase (although I'm not sure I would really call that 'secure') but everything else has to function on tension and gravity. Oh, and nothing's level. That's been fun. But I am making progress.I dropped $100 on some solid wood countertop from Ikea to use as the desk and worktable portions, but that's the only part that has really cost anything. The rest is recycled or scavenged. Much of it from the original framing that was in the basement "bonus room" when we moved in. (It wasn't much of a bonus, unless you like fire traps.)

More to come. Wish me luck.

Gotta start somewhere...

Mmmm... new. I don't regularly get to use Pthalo blue at all, much less as the base of a painting. But this painting isn't quite my regular thing, exactly.

In other news: after another cleaning session with A acting as facilitator and motivator, the studio is still not clean. The never-ending battle. Losing battle in his view, but I think it's actually much improved. Suffice it to say we have different standards.

Cold and flu season, right on time.

There are so many wonderful-to-ogle things in the blogosphere... I'm getting sucked in, I feel it. It's like when I used to LiveJournal, and got sucked into the goings-on of my friends' lives, except that this feels so much more legitimate. Pretty things are legitimate!

Anywho, I had a really great printing day last week, following a really great paper-shopping day, the result of which was a bunch of great Valentine's day cards. But then I got sick. So I'm just getting around to posting pics and links and such now, many days later.

The first thing I must share is my drying rack -- not for its fabulousness (yarn, clothes pins, and scrap lumber, oh my!) but simply because I've been whining about not having one and now I do. Sort of. So here, bask in its glory: Not worth picturing but which makes me giddy with pride is my new, genius registration system that makes everything line up wonderfully and resulted in absolutely no registration errors during my batch of card making. The only errors were due to bad ink passes (totally my fault) and that brings my success rate to something like 98%, up from around 64% not too long ago.

Back to the cards, though, because that's what you should be ogling. Most of the batch was gold on burgundy, which looks really great. But I also tried to find a color that worked well on the red paper I picked up. Less success there -- tried a salmon-y color and straight white, neither of which had the same pop that the gold/burgundy combo did -- but they're available too, if you like them. The shop page on CarlyBodnar.com is working now, so you can get them there. So go get some!

PDX Must See: Thomas Wood etchings

If you're in the Portland area, and have any appreciation or knowledge of etching, you must go see Thomas Wood's prints at the Augen Gallery's NW Davis location. Images online absolutely do not do them justice. I'm not the type of person that buys art, because usually I'm just too critical of it. Plus, I'm not the type that can go look at the same piece over and over, like you go back and re-read books. But these prints I could sit in front of for hours, I think. I almost bought one of his prints last night. I really don't have the money, but so beautiful... and the more I screenprint the more I can really appreciate well-registered prints, and he's got multiple plates on many of his prints. Super rich colors, textures... very realistic but surrealistic... very satisfying.

Ok, I'm done. Back to my painting. I got the painting wall in my studio clear enough that I can actually do some work. (Yay!) The rest of the office/studio is slowly, ever so slowly, getting cleaner as well.

Hello, world.

Okay, so I'm blogging. For "all the wrong reasons," like increased google-ability. And because I'm sitting with a beer and waiting for a screen to dry, and... everybody else is doing it.

Also, it's potentially a really great way/place to collect and share all of the lovely things out in the world (and by world I mean internet, of course). Like GingerAndGold does. And like Design*Sponge. I've recently gotten into reading design-y blogs and can finally see the value in them. So I guess I'm a convert.

Plus, I have to have somewhere to direct my self-satisfaction over the small improvements I occasionally make to my studio. Adrian is sick of hearing about how much I love my new wash-out booth (see photo).

It's the shower curtain from our old apartment (the house has sliding glass shower doors... which we broke... beside the point) hung from screw-in eyes from the beams and then packing-taped to the laundry sink on the outside. It's pretty ghetto -- my whole studio is -- but necessity is the mother of invention and it works like a dream. I also put a pressure nozzle on the end of the sink hose, which is fantastic.

P.S. This is genius: I may have to work my employee discount and get me some. Like I need more places to stash crap.