Oddmall: Emporium of the Weird November 19-20

Come November 19-20, 2016 I will be at the Everett Community College in Everett, WA for Oddmall: Holiday Emporium of the Weird! Come and check it out! I'm busy building stock now. If you need anything before then, please go to www.OrangeJar.com or directly to my Etsy Shop at www.etsy.com/shop/OrangeJarArt.

For directions to the Everett Community College, Everett, WA, pls click here.

Crabby Granny is a Grand Champion!

As promised, This is Crabby Granny in her full glory. She's feeling quite cold so she has her shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

Here she is trying to remember the proportions of that healing tonic.

I think she's about to get up...

She has a very nifty yet simple belt. It's made of jute and she can hang just about anything there while she's scouring the woods! One of her staples is a small jar filled with dried herbs. It's her magic potion, a cure-all. And by jolly, it does cure all! She also ties dried branches and other finds by her belt. It keeps her hands free when she's out collecting.

Her shoes are really old and worn out by now. She can really get mud stuck all over it specially when she goes out during a terrifying storm. She says there are mushrooms that grow only during lightning flashes and pounds of thunder, and melt with the first ray of the sun. So she has no choice but collect them while the storm is raging.

A few days ago, after sitting down and writing in her book (I talked about Crabby Granny's book here), Crabby Granny decided to go to Puyallup and hang out at the WA State Fair. She took her rocking chair and cane with her so she was serious about staying there for a while. Must be the flora...

Crabby Granny's cane is made of dark wood. She sculpted a bird's head at the top.

She also made this rocking chair from the branches of a 100-year old tree.
The picked up the felled branches after a big storm.

"Whaddya want?" Granny said.

This morning, she sent me this picture. Seems, she's accomplished more than collecting herbs over there at the WA State Fair.

So that's Crabby Granny for you! I'll get more pictures of her at The Fair when I go visit!

(It's actually Betty M, the NWPCG president who sent me the sms photo about Crabby Granny's ribbons at the WA State Fair - much thanks Betty!)

Crabby Granny's book of herbs

When I started this project, there was only two things I knew for sure: I wanted to make an old woman with a cane. She was going to be either an old witch or an old female elf. With my family's vote, she became a witch. As I browsed through pictures of old women, I gradually leaned towards a picture of an old woman who did not seem too happy with the world.

And from there, her full character started forming in my mind. She lives in a remote but very cold village. She's a traditional witch in a semi-modern era, who discovers natural cures around her and she wants to pass this knowledge down. So one thing that's very important to her is her book of herbs.

This is a big leather book – well, big for her size – is where she records the kinds of plants, their properties, when to harvest them, where to find them, how to prepare the potions and what ailments they cure. It's a work in progress. She discovers new ways of preserving the roots and herbs every time.

To make her book, I took out some handmade paper and cut them to size. I folded the paper and cut them by tearing them apart to give the edges a rough look. After scoring it some more, I stitched them together with brown thread. When I had four sets, I covered the edges of the sewn pages with brown paper.

Check out my uneven stitches!

After the glue dried, I took the end pages on both sides and glued those to the leather cover. I wanted it to look simple and home made, so no fancy folding or decorative scoring on the leather. I only scored lines across the spine of the leather to keep it in shape. 

After everything was bound together, I started to age the paper with coffee. Which is a mistake, I found out a few minutes later. I should have aged the paper before binding them! As you can imagine, the liquid watered down the glue and detached a couple of sets of pages. So I had to be really patient and re-attach each set after the coffee dried off. Good thing the individual pages were held together with thread, at least those didn't fall apart!

Once the binding and ageing was complete, I drew on the pages, and tried to make them as small as I can, with what I hope are still legible writing.

I also gave the leather cover a very good beating: scratched it, pulled it and poured different liquids on it (which I should also have done before binding paper and leather together - oh well, these are great lessons for my next book). After some time, it had the decency to look properly old and aged. But looking at it, I felt something was still missing. So I got my thingamajig out and drew this small tree on the cover. I think that made Crabby Granny happy. It captured her book of herbs perfectly!

The last detail I added was given by Mother Nature. While out on a walk, catching Pokemons, I found a tiny feather on the pavement. It was the perfect size for Granny's hand. So as soon as I got back home, I made a small pocket for it at the back. Granny wants her tools in convenient places, this helps her find her quill easily if she needs to jot something down.

Up next, more on Crabby Granny's details. This is just the first instalment. To check out details of this art doll and her WA State Fair ribbons, please click here.

My Old Man wins two ribbons

I entered My Old Man at the Evergreen Fair (Monroe, WA) competitions under Sculptures, Fine Arts section and today, I found out that he got two ribbons, First Place and Special Award! Pretty cool!

Seems like everybody won awards but it is still super cool that he has a nice big ribbon to affirm his awesomeness. My Old Man was created last year during the Wendy and Toby Froud workshop in Portland, during a very difficult time in my life. He is very special to me. So I am very happy and proud that others can see how special he is.

If you want to see him, he is still on display at the Evergreen Fair, Building 500 till September 5, 2016. He is in a glass case in the middle of the middle room.

If you want to read My Old Man's story, please click here.

Cleaning Pasta Machines & the Bottles of Hope Challenge

Have I mentioned that I joined the Northwest Polymer Clay Guild (NWPCG) early in the year? So many things are flying through my head, it's hard to catch a thread of thought. I actually looked up the Guild even before I got to the USA. Involving myself more in the art of polymer clay was one of my goals.

US - the land of plentiful polymer clay supply and mentors! Yebaaa! Unfortunately, life happens and there are many roadblocks to these goals so it wasn't until late last year that I was actually able to attend a meeting as a visitor. And I think it was January when I was finally able to sign up as a member. So far, I've been enjoying the monthly meetings, learning a lot and enjoying conversations with fellow artists! 

Only last meeting, a fellow member Maria Brown of Blonde Crow Studio walked us through how to clean our pasta machines which was a phenomenal experience! I was a cop-out though -- I was taking pictures for the newsletter (which by the way, I started editing and designing June 2016 issue onwards) -- so my machine was left untouched. Seeing everybody untangle the mess that is a broken-apart-pasta-machine can be a bit scary but I'm sure I'll get there one of these days.

Taking it apart and putting it back
together again: oh joy!

One of the Guild projects, which I've come to know is relatively new to the group too, is the Bottles of Hope Challenge (BOH). Our participation was brought on by the initiative of current NWPCG president Betty Mehlhoff and the decorated bottles will be given to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma, WA. So cool! But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself, a little about BOH first. Here's the official description from the site:

Bottles of Hope are small glass bottles covered with polymer clay and given to cancer patients. They symbolize a wish and a hope for health. 

This project was started in 1999 by a Rhode Island cancer survivor and has spread internationally. Bottles are made by artists, students, survivors, seniors and many more who volunteer their time and love.

The official BOH Guild competition was held during NWPCG Clay Camp 2016 which I was not able to attend (Life!) and awards were handed out  then but the BOH project is ongoing and members (or even non-members! Anybody who wants to share some hope and joy are welcome to participate, just check out the links for details) can still decorate and donate bottles at any time.

The Guild was given a box of sterilized vials from the hospital, so I grabbed a handful and started my own collection which I'll be giving to Betty soon. Here are some of them:

I quite like how this mini fairy cottage turned out!

This is my fave so far, I call him Master Elvish Funji.

So here we have Mr Elf, Toothless and a heart capped bottle.
The heart is hallow, been experimenting on hallow clay creations.

You can also see these photos in my Instagram account. 

It's really fun working on these little things and it warms the heart to know that they may make a cancer patient happy and filled with hope. I know my Dad would have gotten a kick if he received one of these.

Go Hawks!

Football mania is afoot! Everywhere I go I see fans in their favorite jersey sporting their favorite numbers. And it has reached my little space I call my studio, so clad in my own Seahawks shirt, I went to work on two commissions from Seahawks fans. Turns out they bring these to the games and get is autographed. So cool!

Doug Baldwin

Russell Wilson

Go Hawks!

Halloween decor

I love Halloween decor. I'd love to go crazy with jute sacks and black lace, ghoulish props and witches' brews. But of course, budget and space is always a problem. So I keep my Halloween party ideas on Pinterest instead. I collect inspirations from classic to the macabre on my board called Booooo... oooo... ooooooooooo.... 

So while collecting those, I have also dreamt up of making my own props and decor and finally this year -- enter unabashed self-promotion -- I have finally come out with my first Halloween inspired decorations: ghoulish bottles that will look back at you; black, aged, vessels to keep the spirits of the night. These, I am very proud to say, would look at home in your apothecary cupboard or witches' kitchen. These are available for sale in my Etsy shop. To view the full collection, just click here. 

Booooo.... oooooo... ooooo to you all.....

Seedling

I am obsessed: I want to garden again. In what used to be my bachelorette's pad, I had a compost bin under my kitchen sink (and friends can testify that there was no stink usually associated with composting) and a window garden. I grew tomatoes, basil, sweet bell peppers, ficus bonsai, holly bonsai and some other plants. But it's been two years in this new apartment and I have not yet tried my hand at growing stuff.

Okay, to be totally honest, I did impulse buy a couple of herbs during last winter season but they quickly died from exposure. But that urge to plant plus this growing, nagging guilt about throwing biodegradable items in with general garbage has really made the itch to practice my green thumb so bad!

Like a seed trying to sprout, this urge grew out of dirt or thrash to be exact. Without any conscious plans to start a garden yet, I started segregating biodegradables again. And because I did not have any gardening materials at hand, save for a set of garden tools which my uncle gave me, the segregated wastes quickly turned into a stinky mess. So I had to get a sack of soil to cover it up. Luckily, my mom gave me a shredder a few months back, so I also had shredded paper that I could toss in to control the smell. More brown materials in the compost like dried leaves, paper and dirt helps avoid stink. If you're interested to get more information about it, here's a very nice infographics about what you can or cannot put in the pile. You can view the full version here.

Since I lived in an apartment complex, I was very concerned about the compost bin becoming smelly. I took extra precautions, specially since I did not (and still do not) use any special bins designed for this purpose. I placed my compost in a garbage bag inside a garbage bag, inside a plastic bin. This makes it possible for me to tie up the first bag to contain the smell, tie up the second bag over it for a second layer of protection and then close the plastic bin cover over the whole set-up. I'd go in, check moisture, add water if needed and try to rotate everything at least once a week. Though mostly anaerobic, the compost turned into dark, moist, rich soil.

This time though, I am using a standard bin composting design because we have a balcony where I can store the compost. I used a cheap plastic bin from the hardware store, punched in some holes for air circulation and filled it up with browns and greens.

If I have the space, I would love to make this DIY rotating composter. This would give my compost that much-needed aeration. A quick Google search led me to this simpler bucket project: DIY on using Home Depot buckets.

Some composters would have a pretty tub that they'd leave by the sink where they can deposit their biodegradable materials before dumping it in the compost pile, but if you're not finicky, then any tub would work. If you don't leave it too long, even a small open top dipper would do. I use an old coffee tin can with a plastic cover.

This waste segregation reduced our garbage immensely! In the first week, we only threw out a couple of small bags of thrash, mostly product wrappers. It was a huge difference to see how much less garbage there is.

Unfortunately, I don't have that much space. I've already started storing some biodegradables in the freezer. I read that freezing them first then thawing and placing in the compost bin helps degrade them faster. However, I would need to stop collecting compostable materials soon.

There's a vast difference between the amount of brown (carbon-rich materials) versus green materials (nitrogen-rich) you can throw in. The Compost Guy says the ratio range of Carbon to Nitrogen (called C:N ratio) is 20:1 to 40:1, so that's a lot of browns (which are my paper, soil and errant dried leaves that drop in the balcony) versus greens (my kitchen scraps). That math just means one thing to me: everything adds up to a full bin and I have no more space. A backyard would be lovely, fairy godmother.

It will definitely not be quick. Composting guides say compost can be ready in three to four weeks (I wish!) because normally compost is ready to use in six months to a year. And I do like to err in the side of caution. I left my first apartment compost in the previous residence for a year before I started using it.  I'm also considering vermicomposting to get it done quicker.  In the meantime, I can start germinating seeds and arranging the space for our burgeoning garden, which right now is just a compost bin and some seeds.

I do wish my apartment community has vegetable gardens or pea patches. Found out recently that Liv Apartments, one of the newer apartment communities in Redmond offers pea patches and for me, that's a stroke of genius! I've often mentioned it to hubby, that with all these landscape grounds around apartments, offering residents vegetable gardens and composting space should be a staple. I hope it works out for Liv Apartments so that hopefully, the trend will catch on.

Recycling, composting, gardening -- ahhh... it feels good to be back in touch with earth.