Illustration Bootcamp {Part 1}

Fast. That's all I can say about June. I couldn't believe it was here, and now I can't believe it's practically gone. 


It was a crazy month for me. I had a TON of projects up in the air, which is great, but also SUPER stressful. All of my stress caused a neck injury (say what?!?), so I was pretty immobile for a couple weeks. Mid-month I got an opportunity to travel to Minneapolis for a totally fantastic illustration bootcamp (more later in this post). That was followed by our first garage sale, and then a trip to Pittsburgh to visit Stephen's folks. Phew! We literally just got back from PA a couple hours ago and were welcomed by 100° temps. All I want to do is curl up in front of the AC and sleep for a day or two. 

Bluestar Ink at our garage sale

But I can't do that because I want to talk about my experience at Illustration Bootcamp!


Backstory: For the last few months I've been contemplating the future of Bluestar Ink. I have been having a blast juggling a million different projects that all fall under the Bluestar umbrella. From the freelance graphic design to Fuzzies to screen printing to illustration to knitting to random sewing projects and house projects, my plate is overflowing. The variety keeps me creatively malleable, but I am getting tired. I've decided that I want to focus on one main avenue and all the other projects will become "hobbies". That focus is illustration.


Drawing is my first creative love. If I could draw all day, every [work] day, that would make me the happiest. I love translating the world in through my eyes and out through my pen. But people don't necessarily know me as an illustrator. I am going to attempt to change that.

sketches

The first step to my "new" illustration career was signing up for Illustration Bootcamp with Meg Hunt at Light Grey Art Lab. I've never done anything like this before, much less taking a LONG weekend for myself, but Stephen was super supportive, so I decided to go for it. I have been a mega-fan of the guest illustrator, Meg Hunt, for years now, and to be able to pick her brain about her process would be a great opportunity. Plus, I'd get to meet a bunch of other illustrators, including my Twitter friend, Anika!


The workshop was held at an awesome place called Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis. Founded by Lindsay Nohl, owner of Paper Bicycle LLC, Light Grey is a classroom and gallery space dedicated to engaging the art and design community. Again, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet Lindsay and her team and learn a thing or two (or fifty!) from them.


I could go on an on, but I'm going to save it for Part 2 of my experiences at Illustration Bootcamp. Be sure to stop back for lots of eye candy from the workshop! *Update! Part 2 can be found here.

Home Ec {Weekend Tote}

Can you believe your eyes? Yessiree. I have finally completed another Home Ec project! I think it has been about a year since the last, so it was LONG overdue. And what inspired me to tackle another project? Well, this upcoming weekend, I have a big illustration getaway planned, and I wanted a cute bag to carry all my stuff. Instead of buying one, I remembered the Home Ec tutorial for the Weekend Tote and decided to make it for the occasion!


Since this was one of the later projects, it would definitely be one of the more challenging. But I figured I've had some practice making various bags the last year (here and here), and I thought it wouldn't be too bad. Plus, this one called for some leather - how fun is that?!?


In lieu of buying some new leather online, where I wouldn't really know EXACTLY what I'm looking for, or what I was going to get for the money, I decided to scour the thrift stores for an old leather jacket that I could upcycle. But, I found an even COOLER option:

LEATHER CHAPS! Ohhhhh yeahhhhh!


They're XL, so I HAD to stand that way just to keep them up on my hips. :-D
But XL means lots of leather - exactly what I needed. The largest panel required for the bag was 18"x18". Unfortunately, there wasn't a section of leather from the chaps that didn't have a seam running through the middle. See how the legs were broken up into panels?

I decided to go for it anyways. After ripping apart one leg, I thought it would be cool to incorporate the big zipper from the chaps as well. And thankfully, it was JUST long enough!


As far as the fabric upper portion went, I decided to finally use the cute  Echino bike fabric I bought at Purl SoHo almost 2 years ago. The black leather would look great with the colors of the fabric. And as for the lining, since this would be a pretty heavy-duty tote, I wanted to use some heavier fabric - I ended up using some red and white striped upholstery fabric from IKEA. I was all set and ready to start sewing!


The basic bag construction was pretty simple. The tedious part was making all of the little leather accessories - the handles...the zipper tabs, etc. Sewing leather means taking it slow - but it was SO worth it in the long run. I LOVE how it turned out!

You can see where there is a seam running through the bottom panel and the leather handles. I really don't mind it, especially when there is such a good story to go along with it. And doesn't that zipper look badass? If the biker dudes only knew how cute their leather chaps could look...

Desktop Calendar {June 2012}

To recognize the fact that my garden is still growing (yay!), I decided to go with a gardening theme for June's Desktop Calendar:

I haven't had a lot of luck with my garden the past couple years, so admittedly I am a bit paranoid going into this year's growing season. I've been having a lot of trouble with the green beans, since something is shearing off the first two leaves as soon as they sprout. Even after I put up a fence, the pests were STILL getting to them!


This year, though, [knock on wood] the beans are still growing! Stella helped me plant them, so there is even more pressure that they succeed. Along with the beans, we also planted lettuce, tomatoes and some herbs. Our garden plot is pretty small, so we're limited. But that doesn't diminish my excitement for fresh veggies!


You can click on the above image and save it to your computer, or you can also find it here.

Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Have a fabulous weekend!