Art & Patience

connectthedotscrafts — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:10:00 +0000

Patience. This is something that is definitely not in my genes. When I was little, whenever my dad went away for business he would bring a little something back for my brother and I. One time he brought us back these little rocks with a word written on each – mine said “Patience.” At the time, I think I took it as a bit of an insult, but these days I’m very aware of how I constantly need to remind myself to be patient.

Like my mom, I like to be busy – it’s hard for me to just sit and do nothing (in fact, I’m incapable of this – just ask Ian). I have to be busy with my hands, crafting, making a list, somehow feeling like I’m moving things along. At work, I barrel through my to-do list so much that I wrote “PATIENCE” above my computer so I’m reminded to SLOW DOWN!

Nowadays, I’m needing to be especially patient at work because my head is brimming with creative ideas – I have to try this, I have to try that, I need to make this, what if it was with this fabric, could I try that, can I do that with my machine…but I have to wait until I’m home to follow through on anything. I end up coming home with 5 lists of ideas in my planner because that’s all I can do to move my art forward during the daytime.

And then when it comes to creating the actual projects, I also struggle with patience. I can easily work through the entirety of Sunday on a single project, forgetting to get dressed or even to eat. But once I finish making one of something, I’m ready to move on to the next project. I rarely make the same thing twice because I feel impatient to try new things, build my skills, keep moving forward. This is a problem when it comes to creating some inventory to sell. If I start to make a “batch” of something, I start to feel like a robot, not an artist. I remember pumping out 60+ milk carton coin purses for the Providence Art Festival…it got old pretty fast. I guess that says that art-marking is more about process than product for me. But product = profit, right? I’m trying to split my time now between inventory and new projects (I made a priority list, of course), but time is so, so limited!

Knowing that this is something that I need to work on, I’m giving myself a little “patience challenge.” I was inspired by Sew, Mama, Sew!’s Scrap Buster Month projects – especially Sew Take a Hike’s “A Little Help From My Friends” Quilt. I’ve never truly made a quilt before. I think the patience thing has been a bit of a road block for me. So, as you can see in the photo above, I’ve started work on my own scrap quilt. Little by little, I’ll get there. This one will probably take a few months. It’s almost painful for me to write that. But I’m going to be patient! True to the spirit of the tutorial, I got a little help from friends to get this quilt started – Tiffani at work helped me to cut the paper squares for it, and one of my students at New Urban Arts especially encouraged me to take on a project that requires lots of patience. We’ll see how I do. Any tips?

Going along with the patience theme – just like corporate America wants me to feel, I’m impatient for Christmas! I made this Christmas apron from a scrap bag of fabric that I got at good will. I’ll be posting up a tutorial on Wednesday, so come back and check it out!

Carole Ann

Recycled Project: Good Will Grab Bag Christmas Apron

connectthedotscrafts — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:55:00 +0000

There’s a story behind this apron – back in July I went to my favorite good will store in VT, SEVCA, and discovered that they have a sewing section! They had big bags of different fabrics grouped together, and I scored a whole bag of Christmas fabric for $2.00. Last week I really wanted to make a tree skirt, but I couldn’t find a good pattern out there (anybody know of any???), so I decided to make one up myself. So, it needed to be a circle, and I started drawing and soon realized that math was in order. Thanks to the freedom of Brown’s open curriculum, I haven’t taken a math class since high school. But Adj and I put our heads together and did all of these calculations about the circumference of the big circle and inner circle and how many panels of different fabrics I would need in order to complete the circle. Confident in our calculations, I started cutting the panels out. After about a half an hour, I realized that we were way off, and decided to abandon the tree skirt idea for another day. Instead, Adj and I decided that the panels I cut out would look great as an apron – yeah, an apron! A pretty, math-free apron!

Anyways, the moral of the story is – get out there and find a grab bag of lots of fun fabric at your nearest good will store, and make a lovely apron! Oh, and never ask Adj and I to figure out a math problem. Yikes!

Good Will Grab Bag Christmas Apron

You will need:

Scraps of Christmas-y fabric, at least 24” long and 6.5” wide for the front and pocket

¾ yard of fabric for the back, bias, and strap

Paper to make your pattern out of (I used my go-to pattern maker: the JC Penney flyer!)

Cutting mat and rotary cutter

Scissors

Thread (I recommend red or green!)

2” Bias Tape Maker (will make it faster, but can do without it)

Iron

Sewing machine

1. Make your pattern for each of the triangular-ish panels. I drew a shape on the JC Penney flyer that is 24” long, 6.5” wide at one end, and 1.5” wide at the other.

2. Use your pattern to trace and cut out five of those shapes – you can use five different fabrics, or choose only a few to work with. It’s up to you! Iron your panels and set them out to determine the order you want them to be in.

3. Sew the panels together. Start at one side and pin two panels right sides together along the long 24” side. Sew with a ¼” seam allowance.

Add the next panel, right sides together, and repeat until all five are sewn together. Iron the seams flat.

You might notice that the final shape is really skinny on the top and much wider on the bottom – don’t worry, we’re going to shape the top of the apron in the next step.

4. Measure down from the middle of the top of the apron 6.5” and mark a line straight across all five panels at this point. Use your cutting mat and rotary cutter to cut along this line. This will leave the body of the apron to measure 17.5” straight down that middle panel.

5. Use the top piece that you just cut off to make the pocket. Pin the two ends right sides together and sew ¼” seam down the edge.

Turn the tube right side out and flatten it however you would like so that three or more of the panel patterns are showing. This piece forms the pocket on one side and the pocket lining on the other.

Use your cutting mat to even out the tops and bottoms; it will form a triangle-ish shape that is reminiscent of the apron itself, only upside down! My final pocket measured 5” tall, 5 ¾” wide on top, and 3” wide on the bottom.

6. Next, make the bias tape that will form the perimeter of both the apron and the pocket. Cut a 2” wide strip of the contrasting fabric at least 85” long. (You’ll probably need to attach a couple of strips together to make a strip this long.) Use the iron and bias tape maker (or just fold the fabric) to make the .5” wide bias tape. Make sure you have some good music playing, because this will take a few minutes and a little patience.

7. Wrap the bias around all four edges of the pocket and sew 1/8” all around the inside edge.

8. Place the pocket wherever you want it on the apron. Pin and sew around the sides and bottom (3 sides) 1/8” from the outside edges.

9. Now you’re ready to cut out the back of the apron. Place the front of the apron on top of the back fabric with wrong sides together (as in, how the final apron will look). Trace around the edge of the apron, and cut out the back.

Pin together around all four sides (still wrong sides facing each other) and baste stitch around so the two sides are attached.

10. Attach the bias around the sides and bottom of the apron (3 sides), sewing 1/8” seam.

11. Make the apron strap. Cut a 3” wide x 70” long strip of that contrasting fabric (same as back and bias). Again, you might need to attach a few strips to make a strip this long. Fold the strip in half long-ways (so it’s 1 ½” wide) and make a crease with the iron (barely visible in this photo). Unfold and iron ¼” under on each side of the crease, so in the end it will be 1 ¼” wide (again, barely visible).

12. Attach the strap. Find the center of the strap and the center of the top of the apron. Line them up and begin pinning the strap so it sandwiches the apron (just like with the bias tape. Continue pinning the ends of the strap so you’re ready to sew along the entire length. Start on one end of the strap, sewing 1/8” seam to close the end of the strap, the side, attach it to the apron, and continuing on to the other side and end.

You’re done! Be prepared to bake some Christmas cookies in style!

More recycled projects to come – any requests?

Soda Bottle Flower Tutorial

connectthedotscrafts — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:02:00 +0000

As Carol Ann mentioned last week we love recycled materials and will be featuring an item each week and how to transform it. This week’s items is a soda/water bottle. I have been creating these flowers for about 4 years now and have found many uses for them. One example is the chair I designed above for a charity benefit to support local arts programming for the homeless.

What you will need

Soda Bottle
Scissors
Spray-Paint
Newspaper

A note about bottles:

· Thin bottles such soda bottles and water bottles work best for this project. Thicker bottles like that which Gatorade and Vitamin Water come in are to thick and not suitable for cutting with scissors.

· Each bottle has a unique shape and texture that will lend itself to differing flower designs have fun and experimenting with different bottles to get various designs.

1. Take the cap off your soda bottle and clean the bottle by swishing some water around inside. Be sure to keep the cap!

2. Remove as much of the soda bottle label as possible by slipping a pair of scissors under the label and pulling away the remaining sections.

3. Squishing the bottle in the center with your hand, use scissors cut a slit in the side of the bottle half way down from the neck.

4. Slip the scissors into the incision and cut around the circumference of the bottle.

5. Decide what length you would like your petals to be.

6. Then shorten the distance between the end of the bottle and the neck by making a new cut around the circumference of the bottle.

7. Determine the number of petals you would like your bottle to have.

8.You can have as few as 4 or 5 or as many as 15-16. Make incisions from the end of the bottle to the neck.

9. Once you have all your petals divided shape each petal by rounding corners adding points or cutting them in whatever shape your heart desires.

10. Pull back each petal flipping them inside out and creasing each at the base of the petal.

11. a Now that you have your flower created you ready to begin decorating. Spread your newspaper out on the ground outside placing the flowers on top. Make sure that you are protected from the wind so the flowers don’t blow over and your paint doesn’t drift away before it reaches the flowers.

11. b Holding your can of spray paint about 6-8 inches above the flowers begin spraying them by moving the can back and forth over the flowers until they are the shade you like.

12. Once spray painted let the flowers dry for about 30 minutes before touching the paint. You can use multiple colors of spray paint for a multi-color effect or add embellishments with markers or acrylic paint. Here are a few of my designs.

If you would like to attach the flowers to items as I did with the chair. Drill a hole in the cap of the soda bottle then thumbtack, screw or nail it to your wall, door, shed, or art project. Then screw on the flower!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know your thoughts and be on the look out for next weeks transformation.

~Adj

Art & Connections

connectthedotscrafts — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:11:00 +0000

I am a connector. I’ve known this about myself for a while now. Each time someone is telling me about their interests, I’m thinking of organizations and people that they should know about. “Oh, have you met so and so? You should talk with her about x, she’s starting a project about that and maybe you could get involved.” A big piece of my job at the Museum is being a resource for the AmeriCorps team. They’ve nicknamed me Carole Answer – they’ll come to me with any question and I’ll either know the answer or connect them to whomever they need to talk to in order to find it. “Oh, you know Carly is working on a program related to that…I know she’d know the answer, and it might be a good opportunity for you to learn more about it.”

My brother is in the finance field and he’s constantly reading books about networking and business strategies. He shared with me one of the pieces of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: there are three types of people in this world – salesmen (great at persuasion), mavens (information gatherers), and connectors. This was part of why I chose Connect the Dots as our company name. I’m really interested in making connections and building community, finding resources and being one myself. Kind of a dialectic of art, inspiration and ideas.

Last weekend, Adj and I had one of our “business” crafternoons – our task was to get the Etsy shop up and running (finally). For some reason, I threw a bit of a tantrum about it. Something inside me was uncomfortable with the whole thing and I couldn’t understand why. We talked a bit over lunch, and one thing that came out was the issue of connectedness: selling art on the internet to people I don’t know seems so disconnected. I feel connected to each piece of art that I make, and the people that they end up with. I love to give my creations to friends as gifts, to custom make items for people, and even to sell things in person when I can see people handling my work, asking questions about it, getting excited about it. I know that Etsy is an important venue for artists to sell their work. And yes, they can make connections online – through comments and forums. I can virtually interact with people whose blogs I read, and hopefully those that read mine. It just feels so different than person to person contact. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Creating community online?

Just some things I’m thinking about…

Carole Ann

Recycled Project: Milk Carton Coin Purses

connectthedotscrafts — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:11:00 +0000

We LOVE working with recycled materials. Before I throw anything away, I think to myself – “Can I make this into something?” And usually, I can. I have an entire box of random stuff that I can’t bear to part with because I know someday it’ll be exactly what I’m looking for…

There are so many reasons why working with recycled materials is fun:

1. Good stuff for the environment. I recently saw an art project where a man took a picture of each and every item of trash that he threw away for a year – yikes! How can we turn that daily waste that we generate into something nifty and useful, rather than adding to landfills and running out to buy new stuff?

2. We’re pretty poor. Both Adj and I work for non-profits, so it’s about the service, not about the money, folks. We need to be resourceful in finding materials. I’ve found that the allstaff email with a call for people’s old ties, plastic bags, milk cartons, etc. works wonders. And it’s so very free! Also, I personally don’t have a car, and there isn’t a fabric or craft supply store within walking distance. So if I’m going to keep scratching this itch that’s telling me to create stuff, I’m going to have to just use what’s on hand!

3. It’s super cool. Isn’t it crazy to transform one object into a completely different one? The colors, shapes, textures of trash items inspire us.

Readymade Magazine has what they call the MacGyver Challenge in each issue: they name an old object like phone books, slide projectors, or medicine bottles and challenge readers to make something awesome out of them.

Connect the Dots will feature a recycled item and a project to transform it each week. Feel free to suggest an item or respond with ideas for what you can make out of the different stuff we choose!

We’ll start off with an old favorite: The Milk Carton Coin Purse. I’ve had such success with this design in the past two years – it was one of the top 10 projects of 2008 on cut out and keep, and every time I use mine at a store the cashier will comment on how neat it is. They’re great to have on hand to give as birthday presents and little gifts. And an easy thing to pump out while watching tv! It requires almost no materials, and it’s 100% recycled – not even any tape or glue! Enjoy!

Milk Carton Coin Purse Tutorial:

You will need:

A half gallon milk or juice carton

Cutting knife

Cutting mat

Scissors

Pen

1. Start with a half-gallon sized milk or juice carton. Pull open the top of the carton, clean out the inside and make sure the inside is dry. Be sure to keep the cap!

2. Use scissors or an x-acto knife to cut off the bottom of the container. Pay close attention to the “front” of the carton (the front is the side that has the cap on it) – you want to make sure that this edge looks really neat, and that you cut it as close to the bottom of the carton as possible.

3. Use a ruler to measure and mark one of the sides of the container about 3″ from the bottom and 5″ from the bottom. The space in between these markings is going to be the body of the purse.

4. Use scissors or an x-acto knife to cut away the sides and back of the carton below the 3″ mark and above the 5″ mark. Make sure you don’t cut away the front of the carton!! We need that part. If you want, put a post-it note on the front of the carton to remind you not to cut that side.

5. Push the back of the carton towards the front of the carton to fold the sides in half.

6. Make two more folds on each side to create the accordion effect.

7. Fold the bottom of the front of the carton up. It should be a little bit taller than the accordion folds.

8. Fold that tall part in, and tuck it under the accordion folds.

9. Now for the top of the carton – cut off the ugly white part that has the expiration date, etc. You should only have the colorful part left.

10. Use the x-acto knife to gently detach the white thingy that the cap screws into. This topmost part is going to be the “lining”, providing reinforcement for the top flap.

11. Fold the lining over on the already-existing crease, and trace the circle onto the other layer of the top flap. Cut this out with an x-acto knife, cutting slightly smaller circle than what you marked.

12. Now that the whole top flap has the cap hole in it, fold this over the body of the purse and trace the circle once again onto the front of the purse.

13. Pull out the bottom flap and lay it flat on the cutting mat. Cut the cap hole with the x-acto blade out of only the bottom flap.

14. Once you have your hole, put the white thingy through the hole.

15. Tuck the bottom flap back into the accordion folds so the white thingy sticks out of the front of the body of the purse.

16. Fold the top flap over the white thingy and put on the cap. You’re done! Fill it with change, and be prepared to take the whole thing apart every time someone asks you how you made such a cute purse!

More recycled projects to come!

Carole Ann

Are we artists?

connectthedotscrafts — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:24:00 +0000

Adj and I have done a lot of thinking lately about what it means to be artists, and why it’s so hard to call ourselves by that title. We started out with our crafternoons about a year ago, messing around with hardly-used sewing machines and getting to know each other as friends. As the year has gone on, our work has evolved from those relaxed afternoons at the table in my kitchen to art-making permeating other and unexpected areas of our lives, and holding crafternoons that we designate as “business meetings”.

For Adj, this evolution took form in part by applying to be an Artist in Residence at Firehouse 13. She now lives with four other artists of different mediums in the second floor of the firehouse – she has a bedroom, a large, communal kitchen/living space, and a studio for her work. The walls of her studio are lined with hanging neckties and silverware earrings; there is an entire table covered in sets of silverware that she purchased at various yard sales and good will stores; and intense stuff like clamps, files, and a blow torch. In order to apply to be an Artist in Residence, she put together an art portfolio and had to articulate what motivates and characterizes her work. She’s also been a part of a couple of different recent gallery shows at AS220 and Waste Not Want Not and has a show coming up at Firehouse 13 this January.

For me, I’ve begun to take connect the dots more seriously. We had a booth at the Providence Art Festival this summer – it felt so good to be a part of the local art community and be noticed for our unique recycled and “clever” work. I had the logo and business cards made. Adj showcased our stuff at two more community events this summer. Outside of connect the dots, I became the coordinator of The Hive Archive’s Hive O’Clock Happy Hour Art Workshops, lining up artists and venues for this monthly gathering of interesting and creative people. I applied and was accepted to be an Artist Mentor at New Urban Arts, an after school open art studio for high school students. I spend at least 5 hours/week there now, creating with students and

thinking about my own growth as an artist. My craft supplies have grown to occupy not only the living room but also most of my kitchen, and are more often than not spread out all over the place. I’ve begun to think about creating and sewing on the weekends as not just a pleasant thing that I want to spend my time doing, but something that I “need” to do, something that is demanding more time from me (in both a good and a bad way).

It’s become undeniable – with all of the time that each of us is devoting to art, we are no longer just messing around. Art has become a huge and welcome part of each of our lives. Connect the dots is a way for us to support each other as we grow as artists. We had our first business meeting two weeks ago, and drew up a manifesto of sorts.

connect the dots aims to:

stay true to the crafternoon philosophy (learning and creating as a part of a community)
contribute to the artist community of creativity
learn about art/specific skills
earn a little money to sustain our studio/supply costs
excite and energize others with our work
network with other artists in Providence
become comfortable in our skills are artists

We’ve been thinking about the blog, and how it weaves into these goals – helping us to contribute to the community of creativity and hopefully excite and energize others. We have high hopes of posting more frequently, including tutorials, and reflecting about our journey to figure out how to call ourselves artists and how our awareness of environmental and social justice weaves into our work. We want this blog to not just be documentation about what we’ve made, but a means through which we can move closer to the goals we articulated in our manifesto. (and how that manifesto evolves over time.)

So, we’re calling ourselves artists now. It’s silly how it took official titles like “Artist in Residence” and “Artist Mentor” to allow us to start feeling comfortable with the word, but I guess that’s how it is. And even still it feels a little funny.

Stay tuned for more thoughts as we let this wonderful and overwhelming amount of creativity take over large parts of our lives.

Carole Ann

First Commission!

connectthedotscrafts — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:27:00 +0000

This week I got to work on a super fun project on commission for the museum. I remade a batch of child aprons for the 60′s Dominican market exhibit called Fefa’s Market.

First I got to pick out some vintage 60′s fabric from my favorite fabric shop in my hometown.

Then I created a pattern and cut them all out.

Lots of ironing to make the bias tape that goes all around!

And sewing it all together!

Voila! I can’t wait to deliver them tomorrow!

Also, Geneva came over to keep me company while I was working on them. She was on a quest to make an awesome outfit to wear in her marching band for the PRONK! event happening in Providence tomorrow. She wanted to use t-shirts to make something to wear over her bright red spandex pants…

One trip to Michael’s, two t-shirts, some cutting, tying, and sewing later, here she is! The best part of the night was when she spontaneously yelled out: “I love sewing!” She did an awesome job!

Cozy Revamp

connectthedotscrafts — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:21:00 +0000

Getting ready for fall, and I was doing some experimenting with revamping old t-shirts and button-ups into fall accessories.

I finally dug into my big box of old t-shirts and tried out a few things. Found this braided scarf tutorial on that old dress – I love how the t-shirts look after you stretch out strips like this.

I had lots of strips left, so I tried making a crazy necklace-type-thing. I can’t decide which I like better…

Then I decided to revamp this old button-down that I never wear into a fall scarf. With a soft linen-y type material for the other side, it’s super cozy.

Lastly, I cut rectangles out of all of my old blue t-shirts to make a patchwork scarf. I used orange thread, and it was my first time (intentionally) trying my hand at lettuce edging. Looks cool! I plan to wear it tomorrow!

No go on craftland for aje or me, but we both have interviews at New Urban Arts next week!

-Carole Ann

To the Netherlands and back

connectthedotscrafts — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:17:00 +0000

The laziness of summer is officially over, and I’m back to crafty business. First, a recap of my trip to the Netherlands!

Erica and I went to visit Lisa who is getting her master’s in the city of Leiden. The country is conveniently small, so we got to cover a lot of it in our week there – each day a new city: Leiden, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, and Delft.

Windmills, bikes and canals. Everywhere!

The only souvenirs I brought back were fabric! I got this adorable and cliche Holland-y fabric at the market in Leiden. Not sure what I’ll be making yet…

And I HAD to come back with some oil cloth because it is everywhere over there! So many shops have rolls and rolls of colorful prints. I guess a lot of people use it to make bags for the backs of their bicycles. I’m hoping to get a bike soon, so I’ll definitely be fashioning a bag for myself!

When I got back, Heidi from work commissioned me to craft a batman cape for her little friend Eli’s 4th birthday. So cute! Apparently he put it right on and had to ride around on his bike to see it fly in the wind!

Crafted a new case for my camera.

I love these two fabrics together!

This week’s project was a gathered bag from a tutorial that I found on Ruffles and Stuff. I made this first one last weekend. The red and white fabric was actually supposed to be the liner, but as I was sewing it together I thought it was much more interesting to use the contrasting fabrics on the outside. I think I’m going to give this to Monica for her birthday.

I learned a few things in the process of making the first bag and trying it out for a day. First – I made sure to place the seam of the band on the top of the bag in a spot where one of the straps would cover it. Second – I found that when I used the bag I was having trouble digging things out from inside, so I added a pocket to the lining for essentials like wallet & cell phone. Third, I felt like it could use a closure of some kind of the top, so I added a magnetic snap. Still not sure how I feel about it…it’s actually kind of a strong magnet. I guess I’ll try it for the week and see how I like the new tote!

I plan to get back in the habit of posting frequently, so stay tuned for more posts, and news about craftland and new urban arts!

The Summer in Review

connectthedotscrafts — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:41:00 +0000

Carol Ann and I have been crafting together for almost a year now and I am just getting around to making my first post to the blog. : ) What a better time than the end of one season and the beginning of another. It seems like the summer just began yesterday but we are winding down to the end of August already!

Throughout the summer Carole Ann and I have been crafting our way through Providence. We were each led a workshop for the HIVE the http://www.hivearchive.org/ . For $10 crafters received a drink or appetizer and a crafting lesson with materials included.

Hive O’ Clock

Carol Ann had a full house of crafters at the Down City Dinner on Weybosset St. where she led the 2nd Hive O’ Clock workshop. She taught local crafty women how to turn their household milk carton into a fun new coin purse.

The first Hive O’ Clock workshop was held at the Union Station Brewery where I taught a small but highly energetic crew of 9 how to turn old soda bottles into bright and colorful flowers.

Indie Arts Fest

Because my partner in crime had to run off to VT, I was left to man the Connect the Dots Booth at the Indie Arts Fest on my own : )… well that’s not completely true… I had help from a couple friends. Thanks Cathy, Geneva, Jeff and Eric for all your help with set up and cleanup.

My friend Nelson stopped by to check out my Silverware Jewelry and see what I have been up to with my free time when I am not hanging out at the rock gym with him.

The silverware jewelry took many different forms before turning into these awesome earring which are made made from the stems of various forks, spoons and knives I have collected over the past year.

My workbench was in shambles before the Indie Arts Fest! Here is a snapshot of it the week before the festival with tons of earrings in various stages of completion.

Soon the workbench will be back to its good ole self once I am done preparing for our fall showing at the Street Painting Festival this September. Look out for more details soon. This summer has been full of crafting craziness and we hope will continue throughout this next year.

Good Luck and Peace
Adj