Flea Market Sunday

This morning I went to the Long Beach Antique Market in Long Beach, CA. It's the third Sunday of every month. So much to see, so little room in my house for more treasures.... I brought my camera though and took a few pictures of things that caught my fancy.

Two Vintage Cats

Nifty 1950's Tuppercraft "Pin Kaddy" for Diaper Pins

Bird Embroidery

Vintage Bottles Nicely Displayed

More Vintage Bottles With Cool Labels

Mexican  Pottery Animals

Remember these?

Clay Lion

Jumbo Faux Clocks

Indian Textile "Toran" Valance

Patchwork Show Santa Ana

Today was Patchwork's Spring Show in Santa Ana, California. Here are a few shots of my booth set up and some of the new shibori dyed items I had for sale. (I share a booth so this is my half)

We had a corner spot!

A view down the table.

New shibori dyed zip cosmetic bags.

New shibori dyed silk scarves for sale

New Tiny Press

I purchased this mini printing press, a Baltimore 11, on Ebay back in 2014 for a song (not really a song since I can't carry a tune, but a very good price). It was affordable because it was missing an ink plate and rollers. It took me 2 years to find the parts.

First, rollers were purchased at the LA printer's fair from Ramco Roller. The owner, Adrian Ramos, kindly took a set off one of his presses because it was a perfect match. The ink disc was a harder fix because it had to be made from scratch and I had nothing to go by but the model number. Everyone at the Printer's Fair said "talk to Dave" meaning the wonderful Dave Churchman. I contacted Dave in Indiana and even though he had just gotten out of the hospital, he jumped on my project. He had an Amish machinist make me a disc and after a few stem adjustments (FYI, a Baltimore 11 does not use the same ink disc as a Sigwalt 11!), a perfect fit. My little press is all set and ready to go.

My regular press is a Kelsey tabletop and this one as about 1/3 the size. So cute!

The Baltimore 11 press was made from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Mine has it's original black and gold paint. You can read a little history at briarpress.org here.

Shibori Fun

I decided to try my hand at Shibori - a Japanese method of fabric dyeing that involves pleating and binding the fabric to create the design. Mine is very basic but was a lot of fun to do and fairly easy.  I had some cotton scarf blanks to play with and looked up some methods online. (Sorry I can't give a source but I researched weeks ago and looked at a variety of instructional websites and then winged it).  After folding and pleating the fabric in a variety of ways, I kept everything in place using rubber bands, string and binder clips (the black metal ones from the office supply store). I used RIT dye and followed the directions. Since I didn't want to risk dyeing our sink or washing machine, I bought a large pot at the Goodwill and did it on the stove top. This worked really well and there was no mess. After I washed out the dye, everything looked really solid blue and I was a little worried about my technique. After cutting the string and releasing the binder clips I was amazed at the patterns that emerged. I call it a success!

My first attempt at shibori!

Each pattern comes out differently.

My only regret is that I didn't leave the plastic gloves on until after I had cut the strings and hung everything to dry. My finger tips are a bit blue!

Exciting New Project!

I've been working on a new project that I'm very excited about.  I've been wanting to print some scarves for awhile but have been having trouble finding an affordable way to do it. Out of the blue, I was invited to submit some designs to a newish (launched November 2015) website called shopvida.com which makes a variety of scarves and tops from artists' designs. The site features all kinds of designers - photographers, painters, printers, etc - and manufactures their designs as custom, print-on-demand products. The company is based in San Francisco and manufactures mainly in Southeast Asia. A portion of the proceeds go towards a literacy program for the makers.

You can check out the site here (http://shopvida.com), or my page here (http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/victoria-cole). I've just ordered some product which I will show as soon as I receive it. Below are a few of my first designs offered for sale.

Mid Century Mosaic Scarf

Mod Dots Scarf

In the City Scarf

In the City Top

Winter Leaves Top

Polish Illustration - Adam Kilian

I love folk art and illustration and have recently become interested in vintage Polish art.  I saw images from this book online awhile ago and it suddenly came up for sale on Ebay so I snatched it up. The book was published in 1965 in Warsaw and I believe it is a play (the text is all in Polish...) It was illustrated by Ukrainian-born artist Adam Kilian. For some history about Adam Kilian, check out this website culture.pl. You can see more of Kilian's illustration on another website, Fishink (and Fishink has lots of other great stuff on it too!).

Here are most of the illustrations from the book  although not necessarily in order.

Spring Song

A new collage to welcome spring. This was done on a piece of pale gray scrap board. I used a rubber stamp in the background. The hand made papers are in shades if green and gold and the little bird is embellished with watercolor. This one is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Spring Song original collage

Collage Cubes

In 2014 I did my 52 weeks of collage. For weeks 35 and 36, I collaged on wood cubes which was fun and a little different. One was given away for an art exchange so I purchased a few more cubes to do some new ones.
 

Collage Cubes from 52 weeks of Collage, 2014

Below is one of the new collage cubes.  I painted the cube with acrylic paint and then used vintage postage stamps, antique documents, bits of old money and rubber stamps.

Top

Sides 1 and 2

Sides 2 and 3

Sides 3 and 4

New addition to the flock

I have a new addition to my flock of birds. This one is from Ecuador and is similar to ones done by Ecuadorean silver artist Joaquin Tinta. Mine is unsigned but I like it anyway. You can find a bird for yourself on Etsy or Ebay.

Modernist Tinta-style bird from Ecuador

New Collages

I've been working on some new collages. All are done on vintage Reader's Digest book covers - they're a nice size and the board is good for gluing. I used a variety of vintage papers, rubber stamps and hand made papers.

"Tell Me Little Boy"

"A bird sings of Italy"

"Classical Documents"

"Admit One"

Flea Market Sunday

I haven't been to the flea market in awhile but last Sunday I went to the Long Beach Antique Market in Long Beach, California. It takes place on the 3rd Sunday of every month at the Long Beach Veterans Stadium. I brought my camera but was so busy shopping that I forgot to take a lot of photos. Here are a few things that caught my eye.

 A nice Asian ceramic vase...

Glass orbs...

A very cute cat from the 60's or 70's...

Plastic bracelets in bright colors...

A retro blanket in pink and orange...

A lion with lots of character...

Glassware in all colors...

Stacks of vintage suitcases...I wanted them all!

I purchased way more than I planned, and left a few regrets behind. Oh well, there's always next month...

Letterpress Exchange

I am participating in a letterpress exchange with the Ladies of Letterpress (LOL). Our assignment was to come up with a broadside using a poem or a quote. Here is my submission.

Letterpress broadside

The quote is by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. The broadside is printed in 5 colors on a speckled white recycled card stock. The pattern on the bird and the type were printed from metal blocks, the leaves and solid part of the bird were printed from my handcut linoleum blocks, and the star shape in the background was printed from a wood block (purchased from Virgin Wood Type). This was printed in an edition of 60 with 50 going to the Ladies. I have a few of the extras in my Etsy shop for sale.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a fun & festive holiday

Holiday Crafts

I love the holidays with all the sparkle and shine, festivities and decoration. And, I love to make things for around the house. A few years ago I made snow globes using old jars, oven bake clay and small ornaments. Recently, I've been seeing apothecary jars with little scenes inside so I decided to try one. I found, at Jo Ann Fabrics, packs of tiny little trees in a variety of sizes (these seem to sell out quickly so shop early!) They also had small cardboard houses covered in glitter. I loved the little houses but couldn't find a jar quite big enough. So I went to my go-to shopping place, Etsy, and found a tiny clay cottage from Blue Bird Clay. At that point, I didn't want to shop for the perfect sized glass jar so, in my stash of vintage items, I found a tin jello mold, filled it with salt for snow drifts and voila! A tiny winter scene.

There are so many cute clay cottages on Etsy that next year, I want to make a tiny winter village