Posted on

Nerd Cave Hallway Corner – the sign, the lantern, and the bell.

I readily admit that I’m a nerd, if you couldn’t tell from the cat castle entry. Let it be known that I’m the kind of nerd that wants a nerd space, so much so that when I bought my house I requested a partially finished basement for the nerd space of my dreams. Here we are, a few years in and finally started work on that space, slowly building my collection of created and found treasures that would lend themselves my goal of a recreational area that speaks to me. It may not be your thing, but it’s turning into mine.

I’m going to jump in and talk about some of the progress on one corner of the evolving nerd cave. So, this corner is in the “hallway” of the basement, it’s fairly dimly lit, but it connects the stairs, garage, laundry and the Drunkin’ Dragon a.k.a. our home tavern. The whole space still needs work on the ceiling, the floor, and the trim, but I just couldn’t wait any longer to create a space that makes me smile and allows the evolution of the decor to begin. This particular corner contains a few unrelated projects, but I’ll touch on each of them here. Hopefully you’ll see my vision start to emerge, even though my interests covered in other areas of this room span a much larger dorkscape.

Let me begin with the sign. I batted around a few options for signage for the connected tavern and ultimately went with existing supplies that will probably get beefed up in the future, it doesn’t quite have the presence I’m looking for with it’s current dimensions, so I’ll probably end up gluing it to a chunkier bit of round wood, but I had these circles for another project and had been a bit too excited to get started. I found the type and imagery online and transferred the lines by scribbling on the back of the print outs and tracing the front side to allow light pencil marks to show on the wood I was using. Once done I used my wood burner and watered down paints to tint the areas and finally stained over all of it. You can see it on the wall which is covered by removable brick wallpaper. I’ve never wallpapered before or wrestled giant stickers so I was a complete novice, but it was much faster than trying to paint bricks and it can be restored to boring down the road if needed.

Burning
Color Blocking
Paint and Stain washed

The wallpaper was cheap and had too much repeat for my tastes and as I mentioned the space is dimly lit so I did lighten up the other items on the wall and a little bit of the wall itself. I was thinking that some green would be a nice contrast so I went with more chalk paint and rub and buff on that thrift store find. I’ve got some LED candles in there so we’ll have a bit of ambiance next time we have some nerdfolk visiting.

You can see a painted white on some of the “bricks” to break up the pattern and try to break up the darkness of the wallpaper. I also added some stone wallpaper in various spots in the hallway so you’ll see some of that as well.

Finally, I found what I think must be a one of a kind find, a combination bell and candle carved out of wood. It reminds me of pixie architecture It’s everything I didn’t know I needed with a chunky rustic flare that I felt fit in well with the entry to the tavern. The only downside is that it was painted solid black on a green backer board so I went to work. This is dry brushed with the same chalk paints and more rub ‘n buff sprinkled in.

Before
After
Hung in place

That’s the progress of that corner of the basement with plenty more to come!

UPDATE: After posting this, I was fired up to finish beefing up the sign so I found a cheap wall-mount, uh… tray? I’m not sure what it was intended to be, actually. It was in the wood section of the craft store, I checked out all the wood circles both flat and inset. I ended up thinking the size and shape of this one were perfect. I figured the diameter would work and the depth would give it a “barrel end” look, so I jumped in face first. After banging the sharp edge a bit, I used thinned chalk paint, drew lines with a paint pen at this point so they’d be less clean than if I applied at the end, layered on rub ‘n buff, then stippled on some straight paint. Once this was dry and I had washed my hands a few dozen times, I globed on E6000 and wiggle-pressed the original thing wood disk into the center.

I’m fairly pleased with the results, but it may get some wood burning next time I take that tool out. I’m going to sit with it for a bit and see what I think. Hope you agree that it’s looking more fitting for a nerd tavern sign.

Posted on

King Zordon’s Cat Castle

Home of the Royal Ragtail, King Zordon of Our House

Once Upon a time there was a kitty named Zordon. Zordon was a sad kitty because he didn’t have a castle of his own, there was no where for him to lounge and look down upon his minions. I saw the issue and decided to rectify the situation immediately.

I was mostly working with plywood I’d saved from shelving, left over paint, and imagination. The plywood dimensions decided the dimensions of the finished project, so I spent time in the planning stages decided how big I could go, how cats move, and how to support a little royal chunk. I did have to buy a few supplies, namely a fancy window mold for resin, random wood bits, some “L” brackets, and a few stencils.

Clearly the castle was going to need some grandeur so I found tray molds online and adapted them to work for my purposes, cutting the flat section from one window into panes for the open window and only partially filling the molds to get the depth I was looking for.

Once I had a number of drawings in place, I got to work making some simple lines for my circular saw and jigsaw cuts. My little brother was over and no one is safe so he gave me a hand juggling the large plywood parts. After everything was cut I sanded and did some color blocking for the base colors and left that dry overnight. The next day I got to the fun bit, decorating!

Once the windows were installed I realized the scale was off so this is where I decided I needed a stencil for smaller details. I used a few different paint shades and dry brushed our castle, adding left over wood aging stain over the paint.

I made one cushion and we added a second so the poor monarch would have ample perching spots to nap, monitor the humans, and track the progress of the working riffraff to ensure he’ll be forever a spoiled cat king.

Posted on

The Blurry Line Between Arts and Crafts

Am I making art, a craft, or something in between? There isn’t always an easy answer. There are a few ways to address the age old question of whether something is an art or a craft, intent or function. Not matter which way you come at the question, both of those criteria seem to have shades of gray.

Wall Art examples

Intent – If you’re evaluating a piece you could be guessing at the artists intent based on your life experiences and your interpretation of their work, which opens up the possibility of there not being a deeper meaning or feeling intended. You may see a vibrant crimson stroke across a pale green canvas and infer a passion, anger or hope in that bold stroke. On the other hand, maybe the person producing the work had a happy mishap that was ascetically pleasing, perhaps a cat bumped their arm and caused a random red streak across a jade background. Are they an artist for having found the effect appealing and considering the cat collaboration worthy of display? Is it art at all without the intent behind the stroke?

If the intent is to create something beautiful that speaks to the artist and expresses their feelings, views, or speaks volumes from their soul, but that piece was made using a series of planning, programming, and technology as tools to produce their vision. Is that art because the intention was there? I’ve seen people argue that it is a craft because it uses machines instead of a more traditional hands on approach. If I drew a three denominational drawing with a stylist on a tablet, in a computer program, sent the file to a machine that produced my design in three dimension then painted the result by hand, is it art? Did it somehow become craft because it used technology in the space between the hands on parts? Am I somehow less responsible for what I created from nothing because every step wasn’t by hand?

If I do a collage of imagery from my childhood and feel the result explores my loneliness and hope for the future, is it art? Is it any less art if I used craft supplies? What if I created a design using craft sticks? At some point does it become tramp art, which the name seems to suggest is art?!

Function – The argument for this criteria is whether or not the end result is functional or aesthetic. What happens if it’s both? A beautiful piece of furniture comes to mind, proportions and curves lovingly planned and hand carved over months. Would that craftsperson be an artist? What if all of those things apply, but it’s for a wall hanging, entirely aesthetic, do they transform into an artist because no one can use it for dining or storage?

What about jewelry? Ornate and decorative, but body ornamentation can also serve a function within society. It can signal a connection in a relationship, to a religion, to a society, or a culture. How about Pottery? It often can fall across both sides of the divide.

I’ve decided that I’m going to err on the side of art. If I take the time to create something that evokes an emotion in myself or others, whether useful or purely decorative, I’m going to consider it art. I am an artist because I’m creating something original and putting a piece of me into the work. I don’t care if I’ve used my fingers, tools, craft sticks, or technology. I art.

Posted on

Vintage Anatomy in Color

Colorful Skull vintage medical illustration

The first hints of fall are upon us and though that tends to be the harbinger of heating bills, it also means the coming of Halloween! YAY!

Over the past few days my love of Halloween and anatomy has driven me to invest time and effort with playing with coloring in vintage anatomy diagrams in Gimp. I find it calming and it makes my love of anatomy illustrations happy.

A little backstory, a bit off topic, but it is ultimately the reason for the start of this website and my time being free to focus on more artistic projects was the loss of another hobby. I was a video game streamer, which I had to put on hold for Covid house rearranging. (My streaming space had to become my work from home space.) Unable to stream, I replaced that hobby with trying to set up a sanctuary for people like me. Whether a hobbyist or starting a side gig, or an artist trying to share their works. Like video game playing, I find things more fun when they can be done in a social way.

ANYWAY, these photo manipulations are the sorts of things I enjoyed twenty years ago, when I could afford Photoshop, but budget and time constraints had put digital art on hold for about a decade, now I’m rediscovering my love of photo manipulation in Gimp. I had originally downloaded Gimp, last year, as a way to create a few images for my old streaming channel. With no end of isolation in sight, I’ve had to make longish term plans to migrate rooms around to allow for streaming again, this time the streaming is likely to be more art in nature as opposed to playing video games, it could be a mix. Who knows?

My free time is all spent working on this multifaceted, dynamic hobby. I’m creating layers, painting, blending, cropping, changing opacity, and finding my happy place for free. These images have been deconstructed and made into layers, then I colored the layer behind the overlay created from the original outline of the image. I blended and made adjustments until I was happy with the effect. I then annoy all of my friends with the image adjustments I made. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it excites me.

This resurgence of passion for art has me branching off into eCommerce, website creation, and reading/watching all things marketing; all of which have expanded my hobby into what feels like an adventure. However, I don’t have an adventure budget, so this entire process focuses on keeping costs low and learning how to do things I had never considered.

This hobby has evolved into brainstorming outlets for my creativity that were low or no cost and it occurred to me that I wasn’t alone in trying to do art on a shoestring, so here I am, researching and learning and hoping to share that with a community of like-minded people. Soothing my anxiety by playing in Gimp to make works for my Redbubble store and loving every minute of the process. Both Gimp and Redbubble are entirely free.

Want to dip a toe in a Photoshop style program for photo image enhancement, consider Gimp. If you’re looking to upload your work on products that can be printed, Redbubble is the most intuitive, user friendly option I’ve seen to date. If you’re interested in seeing what I’ve been up to, check it out here.

Posted on

Digital Download Day

I FINALLY did it. I figured out how to make digital downloadable budget packages! They’re up and running on my new Etsy Store. I wanted to share some general information about how I went through the process.

Now, I’d been making my own budget sheets forever, doodling them out each month.There’s something great about visualizing my goals and treating debt payment and savings like a game to be won. I fully confess that paying bills can be the pinnacle of adult suckiness, but when I have it all laid out in front of me with a goal and clear cut direction, I feel like I’m in control. When I’m in control, the tables turn and I win at money, even if it’s a little at a time. Seeing the progress and paying things down is slowly removing the shackles keeping me from freedom. In my case that’s to become debt free and to have a safety net for when Murphy comes knocking.

So, I decided to try my hand at more professional type budget pages and provide them to others as well. I did it, it was frustrating and fun, I look forward to learning new strategies and exploring what else is possible. Making this decision meant that I had to learn a new program, google my buns off, and make an Etsy store. Like my Redbubble account, I do earn money from the sale of items on Etsy, I’m using that money to reach my own financial freedom and allocate money to fund my passions.

That’s how I spent today, I was feeling under the weather so I hunkered down and learned like a million new things. Let me tell you how I did it, from scratch in one day.

  • Downloaded Inkscape – a free vector program and made coffee
  • Fiddled with the tools and realized I was over my head. Way over.
  • Watched YouTube videos until I developed a twitch.
  • Brainstormed as I fiddled with the tools – coming up with a plan for SUPERHERO themed budget tools
  • Saved each work and exported to a pdf file
  • Googled how to combine pdf files together – https://combinepdf.com/ was my favorite.
  • Finished the first pot of coffee and made a second.
  • Made a JitterBayer store on Etsy!
  • Set up all the settings and paid 20 cents to upload my documents – incorrectly as I had indicated that I only had ONE of the item to sell.
  • Sold my first digital download to a friend and realized my mistake as my store was sold out!
  • Re-posted correctly – realized the profit from my first sale covered the cost of uploading again. Nice.
  • Started the process of making the next budget packet – retro game styles.
  • Repeated the combining and the posting and the coffee consuming.
  • Struggled and gave up trying to make an image for the store page – I can only move so many mountains, people.

That’s it. If anyone is interested in trying, there are resources out there that detail all the parts, I wanted to provide a quick sweep of my experiences with a general overview. Happy Arting!

Posted on

Stained glass fun times!

Foxy

Stained glass lessons have been completed and my good friend has had a taste of all of the steps to work with glass. She went home with a cute little fox that now resides in her kitchen, overseeing life and providing a little color.

She’s sold on working in the medium more and I now have a co-hunter for economical sources of glass for future projects.

I love designing projects, cutting, grinding, and piecing it all together. Then comes to best bit, admiring how light passes through and makes my work light up. Science and art combine to make magic. ❤

Posted on

Bones, Sinew, and Muscles. Oh my.

Digital art and anatomy filled my weekend. I collect old books, many science based. Most of my books are over 100 years old, so I decided to share my love by putting some of images on products in time for Halloween. Check it out when you get the time, I’ll be adding more this week. The Link.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, the spooky life has always appealed to me with the dressing up and macabre decor. Love. So, I wanted to share some pictures of past Halloweens so you can understand my passion. Enjoy!

Posted on

Day 83,521 of Quarantine

I’d been looking around at the same walls for longer than I care to think about; the urge to try new things has pushed me into technological areas that I had previously left untouched. Blogging.

This new venture is to spare my loved ones the messages of “look what I can do” or which one do you like better? I’d been utilizing some basic materials around my home to create all manner of projects, this is followed by annoying everyone in the tri-state area with what I had made. It seemed like a good time to dip my toes into sharing that bit of myself with the general public, to spare my friendships and loved ones the constant bombardment of my creative endeavors.

My supercharged-coffee fueled mind comes up with an idea and the need to create overwhelms my life until I’ve done something about it, it’s an addiction and I’m all for it.

I recently needed a new purse as my old one was falling apart, bits of leather trailing behind me as I walked through the house and parking lots, it was a problem. I decided to get a cheap canvas bag and customize it as a craft project. The plan was to attach buttons, doodle, and maybe apply a vintage patch or two. In reality, I started doodling and realized I could use the nail polish I had (back from my stint as a girly girl) to make my doodles pop. Three days of stinking up the house resulted in a purse that brings a smile to my face when I look at it, it may not be the most adult purse ever, but it is fun. What’s the point of life if it can’t be a little fun now and then?