Thing-a-day.com

I tried making batik prints today, based on these instructions. Basically, involves stamping designs on fabric with melted wax, submerging the fabric in dye, then ironing/melting the wax away to reveal the design (since the waxed parts will resist the dye). I printed on white cotton napkins. They are drying now (photo). The yellow stuff is the beeswax.

The whole thing turned out to be so much more complicated than I had imagined.  I couldn’t keep the wax hot enough for long enough to make it penetrate the fabric. By the time I had brought the wax-covered stamping tool over to the fabric, the wax had cooled too much. (I think using an electric skillet or double boiler would help - I just melted the wax in a can on the stove and brought it over to the work area. We had to reheat the wax twice.) I couldn’t get anything close to the designs I had planned. After struggling with the first two napkins, my husband I just poured the hot wax on the next couple of napkins in a random pattern, before the wax had a chance to cool. Then we said, Fuck it, let’s tie-dye! So we tie-dyed the rest of the napkins. Then, because we’re CRAZY and SPONTANEOUS like that, we dyed some tshirts, too.

And now I have blue hands. Because I’m a stubborn person who doesn’t follow instructions. Or her husband’s advice.

It was totally fun, though. I’ll update this post with added photos of the finished batik prints, when they’re done drying and being ironed.

p.s. I missed yesterday! Damn.

I cut out the shapes from what used to be cork coasters

I sketched/doodled some designs for the batik project I’m hoping to do this weekend. I’ll keep you posted!

I made my husband a keychain. He’s into music.

Until now, his keys were on a piece of string. (The wooden key ring in my post from yesterday was actually mine, though made by him years ago.) This was my first time using shrinky-dinks. When I was a teacher, I always wanted to do this with my students, but never got to. It was fun! I guess my students missed out! 

My husband requested something to hold the contents of his pockets at the end of the day.

Well, I had vowed to never miss a day again, but over the weekend we went on a spontaneous trip… and that went out the window.  (And though I wish I were, I’m not the kind of creative person who can make an impromptu portrait out of sugar packets or something like that.) So I almost threw in the towel… but then I realized, I did take bunch of photos over the weekend, and that counts, right? So here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend.

Whole set here

I’ll be back later with something made today. Tootles!

I’m terrible at drawing and really intimidated by it, so tonight I was talked into playing this “game” where someone draws a scribble and the other person has to make a semi-sensical drawing out of it. Here are some results (both before & after) - I’m not telling you which one(s) are mine!

And now I’m all caught up and it’s going to stay that way!

I designed a postcard to print and send to my friends back home.

“na zdraví” means “to your health”
Is anyone interested in a swap?

I like my earrings… but I never think to wear them! So I wanted a way to have some of my favorites out where I could see them.

Catching up!

This is a Korean dish my mom used to make all the time (and still does). The chicken is marinated, braised, and then stewed with daikon, carrot, potato, onion, and green onion. The marinade is basically the same as the marinade used in Korean bbq.

For day 9, I wrote a letter.

For day 10, I made chocolate pudding from scratch. I followed Mark Bittman’s recipe from his book How to Cook Everything. It was as easy as making the instant kind, like everyone says. And it turned out delicious, at least in its warm state. It’s chilling in the fridge now. The best part is “cleaning” the pot afterwards.

I tried the Rasterbator for the first time. But instead of using an image, I used text. (I pasted it into a document, saved it as a PDF, then converted the PDF file into a JPG.) I used one of my favorite short poems by Langton Hughes, “Advice.”

I’m kind of disappointed that it’s not exactly how I envisioned it - but I guess some days will be misses. I might try it again with the line spacing reduced and the dots set to a bigger size, to make it more abstract. And maybe frame it. I’ll post an update if I do any of those things

Advice

Folks, I’m telling you,
Birthing is hard
And Dying is mean
So get yourself
Some loving in between.

- Langston Hughes

I wanted the beads to look sorta randomly placed and asymmetrical

I saw these tiny terra cotta pots (they’re a tad bigger than a thimble) and thought they were cute. Today I made them into a mobile, using twine, an embroidery hoop, wooden beads, and some satin ribbon.

I made fresh mint tea. My last couple projects were so time-consuming, tonight I wanted to do something that would take, like, 5 minutes… And yes, it was totally easy, but at least I made something I’d never tried before. And it was lovely- to drink and to look at.

I made coasters out of felt. Again, it took much longer than I thought it would… For day 5, I’m going to have to draw stick figures or something!

Today I fingerpainted on some blank cards. Sorry about the low light in these pictures!

I made this one specifically for a friend who recently had twins:

I designed some mailing labels for our new address… I used Neo Office (it was all I had available to me) and it took forever!  It was fun, though.  This is a screen capture, but maybe I’ll post a photo of the printed labels later.