What's come over me?

I must be in a serious sewing phase. I'm getting a big thrill trying to sew things on my own. Now I understand why seamstresses and tailors charge as much as they do. This is serious work on your fingers and your back if you're not careful. Right now I have a whole bunch of fabric I never thought of getting even a few months ago. I am in the middle of a sewing project to give monogrammed, reusable coffee sleeves as Valentines to co-workers.

I still enjoy doing Japanese calligraphy. However, my 2 year old niece also loves messing with my art supplies. I discovered my favorite calligraphy brush buried at the bottom her stuffed animal treasure box. Oddly enough she replaced my brush with one of her broken crayons. At least she knows how to do a fair trade. Maybe I just need a muse to inspire me to do more calligraphy. It's difficult finding the quiet time and zen state you need to do calligraphy with a toddler trying to paint her face with dirt.

New Item!: It's a...Bag?

Your eyes don't deceive you. Why yes, it is a bag!

I saw this cotton drawstring bag online. The first thing I thought? I can make this into calligraphy! I bought one, along with bottles of fabric paint to experiment with. Honestly finding the right ratio of fabric paint was harder than the actual calligraphy. You can't make this paint too runny or it'll go through the fabric. But it can't be too thick or it won't apply to the fabric at all. Such a finicky medium. On the positive side you can actually see my brush strokes.

In any case, have some practical art to hold all your stuff!

Saku - Blossom - Japanese Calligraphy on Natural Cotton Drawstring Bag

I'm in a Blog!: Mystic Wynd

I received a message earlier this week from Mystic Wynd that she featured my Japanese calligraphy in her latest blog entry. An Asian inspired post filled with pretty things and facts about Chinese and Japanese culture. Go check it out!

Delightful Discoveries - Domo Arigato

Thank you so much, Mystic Wynd! You made my week!

What Do I Do With a Goof?

See this piece on the right? It says 大喜び (おおよろこび pronounced 'oh-oh-yo-ro-ko-bee'). What does it mean? Delight, or glee.

Yes, glee. Like the TV show with not teenagers singing their parents' high school pop songs with some newer songs thrown in for fun.

Anyway. I made this piece to sell. I wanted to show a little bit of humor and pop culture in my otherwise super classy shop. (I'd like to think it's classy =p) I took this picture and did the biggest facepalm I've done this month.

So what's the problem? I can't sell it anymore. There are two strokes missing from the 喜 section. It's like forgetting to cross your t's and dot your i's. I feel like an idiot.

But the irrational, likely artistic, part of me can't bear to just throw this out. The little fella didn't choose to have two strokes missing. Do I give this to someone? Do I leave it somewhere to find? Any idea would totally help.

I'm in a Treasury!: Up Close and Personal

Many thanks to SimplyInvitingCards for featuring my Star calligraphy in their treasury!

Every item in this list shows off some of Etsy's best macro shots. You know that funny little flower icon in your digital camera? Yeah that one. Flowers and cloth are great ways of practicing with your macro feature. If you get really good you can take macro shots of bugs and other little things that scuttle about in the world. Thanks again SimplyInvitingCards!

Click here to visit the 'Up Close and Personal' treasury by SimplyInvitingCards

I'm in Treasuries!

Seriously, this is an overwhelming amount of love to discover while I was out this long Memorial Day weekend. I honestly don't know where to begin thanking everyone for adding my work to Etsy's Treasury East galleries.

What makes Treasury East different from the (defunct) West and Main? First, Treasury East is permanent. Second, you can create however many galleries you want. What stays the same? Etsy IT system ninja administrators will determine what's hot by clicks, comments, and if it's been linked to other websites.

Thank you thank you thank you for the support and love! <3

Click here to visit 'Gorgeous Greens from the Handmade Highway' by bprdesigns


Click here to visit 'Fine Writing' by ericadaley


Click here to visit 'Things that are yellow for no reason' by CarolynsCollection


Click here to visit 'Romance is Golden' by Analiese

See you at Con!

My blog is going on a little break while I attend FanimeCon in San Jose, CA this weekend. I promise pictures of when I travel down for the day.

Don't forget to visit Kimonomomo's booth at the dealer's room! Exclusive calligraphy and artwork is for sale with her beautiful kimono. Check out other events (cosplay, videos, anime marathons, panels) and enjoy all of it on your 39th hour of eating just Pixie Stix. I kid, I kid. Actually no. This happens quite often.

See you there! =D

WIP: May? It Must be Con Season!

Hello guys and gals. I've been a calligraphy machine churning out enough inventory to sell for Fanime, the local Japanese anime/video game/manga convention held during Memorial Day weekend in San Jose, CA. Thanks to Kimono Momo for lending me a small area of her dealer booth to show off my art against the backdrop of beautiful kimono.

At the moment I'm waiting for some smaller trading card sized pieces to dry. And while I'm doing that I'm punching out more cherry blossom shaped paper punches as well for a larger personal project. No rest for the wicked, indeed.

I'm in a Treasury!: Sayuri

Many thanks to Aurorart for featuring my Fude - Brush calligraphy in her newest treasury. Check it out!

Sayuri (Lily) Treasury

I'm in a Blog!: Satin Stitchery

Many thanks to Satin Stitchery for featuring my Dawn - Akebono calligraphy in their Sunday Shopping blog article! You can find the link to her blog below and read through her other wonderful posts:

Sunday Shopping on the Handmade Highway

I'm in an Coffee Table Artbook!

It's Friday night and I'm very happy to be home. Why? Because I just learned that on of my art pieces was accepted into an art book! Hooray!

The SomethingAwful forums have a (deservingly) bad reputation on the Internet, but it's not all snarky bad apples. A very talented forum member decided to do the impossible and publish a Goon Art Book. There was a one month deadline for submissions and I made the cut!

The theme of the book was 'space'. It could be outer space, the space between two objects, or just spacing out.

Here is the art I submitted. It's the character for 'star' (hoshi) done in tensho ('seal script' style) of Japanese calligraphy. Tensho is considered the oldest known writing Chinese writing systems. The character hoshi is everywhere for traditional Japanese outer space vocabulary, from constellations to planets and even galaxies.

You can download the book for free at http://www.artgoons.com

(I'm on page 31-32 on the low-res version, 61-62 on the high-res btw.)

If you like what you see, you'll be able to purchase this book for $35 + S&H (estimated price and not finalized). It's a fantastic book filled with wonderful art from a whole slew of artistic styles. I'm sure there'll be something for everyone, plus you're only paying for the cost to print the book. The artists nor the book organizer is profiting. I'll be posting purchasing information when it becomes available