Objet Petit Ahh...

Pinata Show: Part 2!

A month ago I had the wonderful privilege of participating in the second incarnation of a pinata show curated by Dayton Castlemen and Matthew Dupont. The last show was September 2009, and Abby and I made a pretty sweet donkey for that one.

This year's show was a little less academic, and a little more more smashing things with baseball bats, and it was fantastic!

According to the event information:

Objet Petit Ahh… is a single-evening exhibition and smashing party of artist-created piñata-sculptures.

In what could be the most destructive art exhibition in the history of Chicago, all of the artwork in the show will be obliterated by the show’s closing that evening. Whatever various and sundry contents should spill forth from the piñata sculptures will immediately be considered public property.

It was a busy week, but I promised Dayton a mini pinata, and ended up with a tiny 20-pointed origami-inspired glitter-filled lovely piece of smashable paper mache. Not exactly the easiest thing to make, but it was fun. And the party (at Co-Prosperity Sphere) was even more fun!  30 (ish) pinatas, people swinging baseball bats, free prizes, fantastic people, a little poop throwing, what more could you ask for!?

The inside was coated with gold glitter
and the smashed wreckage looked like little geodes!

The Titanic, made by a Trinity freshmen, Kaleb Dean,
complete with an ice bat!

the aftermath.

And here's some nice video footage someone put together of the evening, check it out!

Patterns, drawing, and bags.

I have recently become the owner of a wacom drawing tablet. I don't know why I've never used one before, what with my love for drawing type and all, but i'm a little in love it.  It was tricky getting used to watching the screen instead of my hand as I draw, but i'm catching on.

I've also been really interested in making textile patterns lately, and I love screen printing and sewing and I have a huge bag of colorful vintage metal zippers.

So this happened:

(UPDATE: they're on etsy, HERE!)


Last week I was out at school to talk to a typography class about things they should be doing in school to get ready for the real world, which I am so not an authority on, but Ellen told me I was inspiring.  Anytime I'm at Trinity for any reason, I make sure I bring a screen printing plan with me, and the cranes won this time.  The print studio is probably the best room on campus, it has huge windows that face the prettiest view of Trinity and it's sunny all afternoon. Theres an old radio that happily and loudly plays The Drive all day long, and I don't think anyone is using that room this semester, so I take advantage of that when i'm out there.

Those of you who know me know that I don't really draw anything other than letters (it's just best if I leave that to MelissaPeterson), so to draw these guys I folded a crane, took pictures of it, and then drew over the photos with my wacom.

I like them.
The little zipper bags will be on etsy soon, and I hope to be printing larger scale pieces of fabric as well!





Side note: this is my first wacom adventure. It was for a poster for a Pantene Beautiful Lengths hair donating party that the nurses at Northwestern are putting on.

What a cute ponytail! Who knew I could draw those? Not I!

1000 paper cranes

(Aren't they cute?)

My wedding gift for Claire and Gary is finally done and delivered, and I thought I'd share. 

The japanese tradition says that folding 1000 paper cranes for a couple on their wedding day is wishing them 1000 years of happiness and prosperity.  My obsessive paper-folding tedium-loving self thought this sounded like a great plan, and a few months of continuous paper folding later, I achieved a very large pile of pretty white birds.

1000 paper cranes

I had them all folded in time for the wedding, but I was a little too last minute in figuring out how to display them, so that part didn't happen until later. It's a good thing I have a wonderful woodworking father who was more than happy to assist!

Museum glass, curved edges, tricky spacers, pretty wood.  It's the perfect addition! The inside dimension  is 10"x10"x1.5", and 1000 cranes fit inside. They're pretty tiny!

The cranes are now hanging in the VanBehm apartment, and I hope they serve as a daily physical reminder of all the prayers and well wishes offered on the part of their family and friends who have been (and will continue) supporting and cheering them on!  

Cathedral Window II

Finished!

At first it was little annoying and slow going, but once I got the hang of it, I was making up excuses for why it was ok that I was just sitting on the couch sewing a tiny quilt square and watching project runway on hulu.  Now that it's done I'm contemplating a full quilt...  bet you couldn't have guessed that one! 

(anyone have a extra bolt of off white cotton sitting around that they want to donate to the cause?)

Look at all that hand stitching!

I stitched though to the back, making the wonderful quilted pattern.

Due to the folding and layering process, light shines through beautifully,  just like a cathedral window!

Typeforce 2 Book

The Typeforce 2 book is here, and it's beautiful, thanks guys!


In February my folded paper alphabet was in the "showcase of emerging typographic all-stars" at Co-Prosperity Sphere, along with lots incredible work from some very talented type lovers.  And now it has been officially documented in this beautiful catalogue which was pre-released at the Unisource paper show last night.

Super fun!

Cathedral Window Process

I have a lot of travel coming up in the next month and half and so, and I always need a little project to work on for long hours in cars.  I've been wanting to try the cathedral window quilt for quite a while, so I got some pieces ready for my trip to Baltimore about a week and half ago.  There is a fantastic tutorial at the Hyena In Petticoats blog.

It's perfect for me, all hand stitched, I can use my pretty vintage fabric scraps, it incorporates some origami folding, you stitch the squares together as you go, and it's not backed, so I can stitch squares together until i'm bored, and then it'll be done!  I'm thinking my first attempt will end in pillow size.

Here are a few process photos, it's great fun!

Claire's Shower

My sister is getting married in september, and we just threw her a bridal shower! ...perfect opportunity for some serious craft time.   I made just about all the decorations from some vintage wedding wrapping paper ordered from etsy.

invites and recipe cards

pinwheels, triangle vintage wrapping paper bunting, flowers and bright orange furniture.

"B" (for Behm) & heart cookies on our nana's vintage serving tray

 book page flowers, pinwheel and photos

name tags

claire's name tag