LEH » Thing-A-Day

Thing-A-Day ATCs

Laura H. — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:33:26 +0000

I’ve been feeling ill this week so have been neglecting my Thing-A-Days…I’ll make up for it at the end of the month, though.

I made some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) based on the theme of REPETITION…I wanted to see how many ways I could use the same image (the bathing girl) with different ATC techniques.

I did these pretty quickly, so they’re a lot more simple than some of my other cards, but it was fun to experiment!

Thing-A-Day day 16: Twitter feed painting

Laura H. — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:09:14 +0000

This concept combines last week’s MAPPING theme with REPETITION. I’m painting my Twitter feed on canvas as a way to take this weird, impermanent digital medium which itself is about sharing transient moments, and capturing it in a permanent way.

Also, I realize as I paint each letter painstakingly by hand, it’s about deliberation. So many Tweets are just throwaway, random thoughts, but I’m forced to look at them differently when I’m rendering every one of the 140-or-so characters by hand.

In-progress pics:

Thing-A-Day Week Two

Laura H. — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 06:12:50 +0000

This week’s theme has been “MAPPING” — although it turns out that I have a lot of ideas that need more than 20-40 minutes. That, combined with a busy week, have meant that a lot of my Week Two projects have been concepts to be executed at a later date.

Sunday: freckle glove concept & drawing
Monday: sewing the freckle glove prototype
Tuesday: a cat’s map of the house
Wednesday: my day in photographs
Thursday: a map of all the houses I’ve lived in during my life (with photos)
Friday: self-portrait without lifting the pencil
Saturday: my day in sounds

Thing-A-Day day five – alternate floorplan

Laura H. — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:58:57 +0000

Taking my theme of “RE-USE” in a slightly different direction, I tried to imagine ways to use spaces in new and unusual (though still practical) ways. I’ve started with the floor plan of my apartment, creating different ways to inhabit and make use of each room.

Thing-A-Day day 4 – tote bag

Laura H. — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:57:37 +0000

I started on my project really late tonight, so I couldn’t borrow an iron in time to fix my cloth… so I have to wait to sew this tote bag tomorrow!

[I'll edit this post tomorrow when I've made progress.]

Thing-A-Day day 3 – office collage

Laura H. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:42:13 +0000

Going off my theme of re-use, I wanted to turn the detritus that’s littering my desktop into something pleasing that would brighten up my space, instead of adding stress and clutter.

This photo is a little washed out, the blues are very pretty hues. The bulky thing on the bottom is built-up/rippled tape. I might add staples tomorrow, for even more texture!

Thing-A-Day day 2 – transplanted ivy

Laura H. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:24:13 +0000

Continuing my theme of RE-USE, I took some cuttings of the English ivy growing in my parents’ backyard, so that I can grow it in a basket hanging by my front door.

Thing-A-Day, Day 1 – recycled newspaper beads

Laura H. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:22:54 +0000

For my day one Thing-A-Day project, I did the prep work for some recycled newspaper beads, based on this great ‘recipe’ by A Storybook Life.

I didn’t have a Crock Pot, only a stove top, so I had to boil and simmer for an additional hour and stir it constantly — making this pulp was like making a risotto!

It took a while for the pulp to cool off enough to touch, but once it wasn’t steaming I started rolling some beads:

Even so, I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t complete this from start to finish for Day 1, as the beads take a while to dry. (On the other hand, I did do some sketches/paintings with materials I had lying around the kitchen — ink, carrots, wine and paintbrush.)

Looking forward to tomorrow’s RE-USE-themed project!

4/4/09 edit:

The first beads, painted, sanded and strung.

Sanding these wasn’t easy, but stringing them was rough too — I had to poke a nail through them and they are surprisingly dense. Next time I’ll add holes while they’re still a little soft.

I painted these with three colors: red, pink and cream. For the next batch I’ll either try that in reverse (cream as the base color) or pick more contrasting colors… and will also probably do several layers per color instead of just one.