oliver + s

oliver + s is the sweetest online pattern shop I have ever seen. The patterns are displayed as paper doll clothes that you can try on your paper doll! Every pattern ships with a five-inch-high paper doll and outfit. Their paper dolls are illustrated by Dan Andreasen.

I was directed to this site in a round about way. Facebook told me to do it! Actually, fb told me to look at some of the groups my friends belong to and oliver + s was listed under Kinion's page. After visiting, I see why. This page reminds me of Kinion so very very much. So, now I know about this wonderful site and have already chosen what I want to make next. Yay Kinion for sharing and yay for oliver + s!

p.s. there is also a great blog on the site.

Madness or Mad Genius...you decide

A little voice kept whispering 'keep going'"

His neighbors said that he was crazy. The experts he consulted told him he was wasting his time. His wife thought he had become obsessed. But David Mintz persisted, filling the night with the sound of clattering pots and high-pitched mixers, as he looked for a way to make a nondairy frozen dessert from the fermented soybean curd, tofu.

Serial Killer? Mad Soybean Scientist? No...tofutti, silly! The label claims that it is "better than cream cheese". Is it? I'm not sure because I haven't eaten cream cheese in 10 years. From what I can recall, it has a similar texture and tastes somewhat like cream cheese. For those of us who can't or choose not to eat dairy it's a YAY I CAN EAT A BAGEL PROPERLY AGAIN! Cost: under $4. You can even make cheese cake out of it and it apparently never molds (?).

For your dietary entertainment here is a recipe from Chabad.org for Tofutti Cheesecake:

Ingredients:

2 containers of Tofutti cream cheese (make sure to get plain and not a flavored version)

2 eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Ready to use graham cracker pie crust
Mix all ingredients together. Easiest when the "cream cheese" is first mashed with a fork. Use an electric hand blender for a few seconds just to get rid of any remaining lumps.

Pour into the pie crust. Should fill to exactly the top.

Cook uncovered for 1/2 an hour at 350 degrees. If after 1/2 hour the top is still liquidy, cook another 10 minutes or so until it is starting to turn brown. Cool completely before serving. Enjoy!

I heart Julie Lee

Just made my semi monthly visit to my facebook page and saw a posting by Ms. Beth of Twist re: an article about a 10 year old headband prodigy {article here}. As if that weren't just super sweet all on its own, the article mentioned a name I sort of recognized but couldn't remember from where. That name was Julie Lee and here is her {website} where you can hear her music. Check her out!.

Alder Tree Amazingness

This is an Alder tree root nodule which kind of looks like a heart and kind of looks like it might be covered in bees. I love it. That's all I have to say. I would really like to have an Alder tree root nodule of my very own one day. I hope you are all enjoying the rain.

La La La Human Steps

I haven't posted in a long while. I've been out of town at the CGPS conference (more on that later) and it was wonderful! But now on to other things...like Edouard Lock's La La La Human Steps. I have been fortunate enough to come across Amelia in it's entirety on youtube. It's been divided into 7 pieces. I planned to post one piece each day but that would be crazy so please look it up on youtube if you would like to see more. Amazing physical strength from the female leads, speed, endurance, control, and a little melodrama make for a dynamic conversation. This choreography really is all about communication and I love it. I even love David Lang's remake of Lou Reed's I Am Waiting For My Man. If you aren't into dance, watch it anyway...you may find it visually stimulating and at the very least will be exposed to a new language.

Animation!

Some great kids shows that could also appeal to adults (like myself): Linnea in Monet's Garden a cute story about a little Monet fan who travels to France with the old man that lives in the apartment next door. The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Bear about the struggles and similarities between man and polar bear with a heart wrenching twist. Kirikou and the Sorceress, African tale of an amazing little boy who saves his village from a woman with a thorn in her spine. The Stonecutter, a live action film based on a folktale that is common throughout the world about a small man who seeks to be greater and greater until he discovers that, even in his insignificance, he is great. Also, an honorable mention to Duck Ugly a french take on the Hans Christian Anderson tale. Of course the National Film Board of Canada always puts out great animated shorts, but Ishu Patel's Paradis is really beautiful. Please visit a link about him {here}. Anyone who knows me, knows I can't make an animation list without including Hayao Miyazaki's films...any of them. Please see them in Japanese if you can. There are literally thousands of shorts that I love, so I won't try to list them all. Isn't animation wonderful?

The Weeping Camel and other docs that rock my socks

While I was incapacitated and cranky with crutches, I made good use of my time by watching all of the documentaries that I have been accumulating in my Netflix lineup. I started with The Story of the Weeping Camel, a documentary about a camel, her baby, and their struggle with postpartum depression. It sounds crazy but turned out to be really touching. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried at the end, of course there is much more to it than I let on. It is really about rural Mongolian life, religion, and traditions. I have added this film to my personal library and will undoubtedly watch it again. Some other good docs are Ballerina, In the Realms of the Unreal, Lioness, Wings of Defeat, Please Vote for Me (mostly Ind. Lens stuff). One doc that I thought was particularly powerful was Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors. Wow. Of course there were many others that I watched but didn't care to see again. These are just a few that I really liked. I hope you have a chance to watch them.

oh my cavalier

pencil, watercolor, mixed media, and lots of cute critters in fancy dresses...oh yes, and bee hives. This appeals to little Jennifer so much! The artist: Julianna Swaney. Here is what she says: " I'm inspired by fairy tales, animals with sharp claws, Victorian hair weaving, antique ephemera and postcards, bird song, nursery rhymes, lace, cabinets of curiosities, anthropomorphism of all kinds, and many more things!" Awww...I like her so much. If you like her too, please oh please visit her website or her blog or her etsy store. Let me know what you think!

Shakerag Workshops

I have been working at Shakerag for the past couple of years. I really love it. Last year was amazing. I was a work study and participated in Chris Bucklow's "Developing a Visual Language". Chris Bucklow is a painter and photographer from the UK, you can see his website {here}. I met some incredible photographers, had great conversations, ate wonderful food, and just enjoyed being on the mountain and having some time to myself everyday.

This year I was a Studio Assistant for Susan King, a photographer and book artist from KY. Her workshop was all about developing ideas for artist books. We were fortunate to have a perfect mixture of personalities (you can see a few of them above) in that workshop so our conversations were incredibly inspiring. Best of all I had the opportunity to renew my friendship with Lesley Patterson Marx.

The above image is from Shanna Leino, a book artist from NH. I was her Studio Assistant this year as well. You can view her books and her beautiful handmade bookmaking tools {here}. She taught Late Coptic Binding. We built our books from scratch; pasting papyrus sheets together to make our boards, cold tooling leather covers, and hand filing brass pegs. It was one of those "working til the wee hours of the morning" classes, but so worth the effort. Shanna has a gift for bringing people out of their shells, at least she did that for me.

The above image is from Dan Essig, who I will be the Studio Assistant for next year. Check out his website {here}. There are still spots available in his class and you can register at the Shakerag Workshop site {here}. If you ever have the opportunity to take a workshop ANYWHERE...you need to do it. Any new experience is an opportunity to grow artistically, emotionally, and spiritually. Many places offer scholarships or work study opportunities. It won't hurt to call and see if you qualify. DO A WORKSHOP THIS YEAR!

Women's Work

Nancy Youdelman works in mixed media and memories. Her paper, bead, and button constructions remind me of both the types of clothing I wore myself as a child and the materials that I enjoyed using in my childhood. She studied with Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro at CalArts. I first saw her work around this time in 2007. She was showing at the Donna Seager Gallery with two other book artists. This gallery is a treasure and if you haven't seen it, you can view all their artists work {here}.