Comfortable Shoes Studio

Review: Update Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to Eyedropper

I wrote about the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen here. I suggested in the post that perhaps the pen could be converted to eye dropper fill rather than use the carts. I find that the pentel carts are pretty pricey, though it is awesome ink. They range from $2 for 2 ($2 per cart whoa!!!) to $ 11 for 6! (Jetpens has about the best price I could find.) Converting this pen to eye dropper amount to a massive savings. I found I went through a cart pretty quickly in regular sketching and using the black to fill in the background.

 

I loaded it up with some Omas New Gray. Which is a nice pale silvery gray that layers well, perfect for sketching. It is not a lightfast gray so it should stay in the journal and not on the wall. I’ve posted here about turning a pen like this into an eyedropper and this pen is no different. I used a blunt syringe to fill the barrel with juuust under 3ml of ink. That’s 3 carts of ink, in one fill. While I used a dye based ink I could fill it with a pigment based ink as it’s designed for that, which mean it’s even more awesome.

After letting the ink get to the brush I noticed that the ink flow is a little faster than with the Pentel ink. This could be because the Pentel ink has pigment or is thicker than the dye based ink. The Omas Gray ink has good flow even in a fountain pen. I’ll be trying out more inks once I run through this one. The other good thing is that I can fill my black pen up with Noodler’s Heart of Darkness once I run out of carts of black. (Scored 2 more with this pen.)

 

The best thing about turning this pen eye dropper? It’s simple. All you need is a little silicone grease from the plumbing section of home depot and an eye dropper or a blunt syringe. Money saved? Each fill will save you about $3 over using cartridges.

 

 

Promote What You Love

The "Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate," images are rolling around twitter and facebook these days. While I agree, and I've seen first hand how powerful promoting something you love can be, both for you and the person; I think it's foolhardy to ignore what you hate entirely.

The story with the ostrich sticking it's head in the sand is a good one, bad things don't go away if you ignore it. The same for tryingto think only positive thoughts, you can't make bad things or depression go away by thinking it away. We aren't magnets and the world isn't fair and sometimes hard work doesn't pay off. Sometimes life sucks.

BUT I've learned that you can make things work for you if you spend some time and are honest with yourself on how you can take that bad situation and force it to work.

My matra will be "Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate; but keep a mindful eye out for the bad stuff."

Watching some RSAnimate

Yesterday I met with a friend of mine, he's a terrific artist and we had a nice long chat over great coffee. During our talk we spoke of the TED talk about school killing creativity. When I got home I looked up the talk, it's a good one and linked below. You should watch it.

In some ways I think that our root fear of play and experimentation in our art and journals, where does it go as we age? We were all pretty creative when we were 5 and 6 and even 7. But at some point we all want to draw realistically (this is tied to developmental milestones) and I think get frustrated and quit. If you look at most kids at specific ages they all go through this. Some of us never get past the frustration.

The next video is about the paradox of choice. It's not directly related to art, but I think you'll see why I put it up here. I think we get into a mode of overwhelming choice when we walk into an art and craft store. It's why it's so easy for companies to shove crap down our throat when we don't really need or want it. Step 1: Overwhelm the consumer with too many choices and Step 2: Prey upon that and TELL them they NEED specific parts to create a project. Never-mind that you could unlock their creativity by teaching skills rather than spoon-feeding a specific project. But then unlocking creativity isn't as good for the bottom line as selling a specific project that requires the person buy items off a list. (Think #cultofstuff)

 

 

 

The final video, in which I think I could do an entire post about, is about the movement about staying positive, and that you can bring everything to you by presenting a positive front. Slap a smile on your face and everything you've ever dreamed of can be YOURS! I'm not afraid to say that sometimes my life and my brain are dark dark lonely places. Sad. I've got a relatively good life- a nice enough house, a car that runs, a lovely wife, a DayJob that pays my bills, and good health. Honestly, I've got it better than many people. I'm happy about that, I won't lie. But there are days when I hate everything about life. It's not wrong to say that sometimes, life isn't fair and life sometimes sucks. That's realistic.

I'm not suggesting we all let it hang out. No, I think we should be realistic in what our lives are like, it's not all sunshine and roses, sometimes it's dog crap on the floor and a flat tire on the highway or a bad day at the job. Not being honest about these facts of our lives is as ridiculous as always painting a smile on your face and pretending they don't happen. These dark spots are WHY I art journal. I pour the shit out onto a page and then turn it. I paint dark little scenes on watercolor paper and then pour ink on it. Denying these aspects of my life isn't honoring myself. Hiding it away doesn't make it go away. No matter how many pretty pages you paint in your art journal doesn't make everything alright.

The process is what makes things right not the product. It's okay to slather paint on a page and just turn the page and never look at it again, every page does NOT have to be finished. MOve on, just like your life moves on. It's the nature of an art journal that you move on. You grow as a person and grow in the art journal. Don't let false positivity hold you back from creating something that is wonderful because you are afraid to explore something that is not happy or perceived as not positive.

 

Honesty, Authenticity, Truthiness and Resonance

When I was in school everyone talked about wanting to make "honest work." The new buzzword for honest work is "authentic." We could spend days over glasses of red wine and mugs of coffee (as we did in college) talking about what this means. In the end it all boils down to, "I want to make work that resonates deeply withing myself and has deep personal meaning." End of story.

Or is it?

I think the truth of all the discussion and thinking on these topics is that essentially we're afraid of what we put on the paper/canvas/board/ or in the journal. Many of us make work and hide it away. It's why the art journal is so perfect, at the end of your art session you close the covers and never ever have to confront what you made again. Simple right? Except you're missing out on a  prime piece of the art journal process- learning from what you've put down and thus from yourself.

I think that fear is why we also buy into what the industry pumps out for us. It's far easier to follow the industry's recipe for success than to forge our own path and style.

Maybe the real question we need to ask ourselves is, "How do we move past the fear and into creating our work? How do we learn from ourselves to create work that resonates deeply?"

It's this hard work that an art journal is intended and supposed to help us explore. If you never look back at your pages and be critical of them (without gessoing over them) and learning from those pages what are you missing out on. If you focus on nothing but making pretty pretty pages I think you're missing out on a very important part of art journaling.

Here's a challenge: Go through your art journal, either the current journal you're working in or a recent one. Use a sharpie, write on the margins of a page what you'd change on that page. If you are too chicken you can use a post it note. If you get bold, draw right on top of the page with your sharpie.

Journal Flip: Moleskine #3

I started this journal the spring before I found out that a family member was going to need emergency open heart surgery and have her aeortic valve replaced. I found out that August and the surgery occured in November. Not long after finding out I ordered a new journal, the happy summer drawings and paintings didn't seem to fit with the down and somewhat sad theme that seemed to pop up.

I've never bothered to go back and fill the remaining pages. I don't think it would fit with the journal. Sometimes it's time to simply move onto a new journal and start fresh. It's okay to simply move on.

 

Weekly Round Up of Videos

I usually post these on Saturday but with it being New Year's eve and me doing nothing... I forgot. So any who, here you go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watercolor Play Experiments

I've been using watercolors for close to 20 years now. It's crazy when you thinkg about it. The first 5 years or so of using watercolors, I hated them. I used them primarily to add a toned color to a sketchbook, large flat washes of one color, let it dry then draw. Lovely.

Then about 10 years ago I decided I was going to master them. I never did. What I did do is learn how to use them better. I learned how to layer colors, be patient and let one layer dry before floating another over it.

I also learned to love the happy accidents, like the things you see in my current videos.

I learned to give up control and get beutiful results.

I get messages on youtube where people ask me, "How do you do this? Where did you learn this?" The video below is my answer.

 

The truth is, you have to give up control. You have to be willing to get something ugly to get something that really is beautiful. Sometimes in the midst of the ugly is just one spot that speaks to you and will motivate you to create more. Then you try again and again and again and find more beauty, and beauty in colors you'd never have combined before.

I don't usually use the word play, I prefer experiment, test, and try. The truth is that when I use those words with other people they give me a look like it's scary. If I cay play, suddenly we're out of science class (I forget I was a geek and loved science class.) and back in the area of playful experimentation where we can leave behind our concious thoughts and truly try things out. So get in there and play.

Review: Exacompta Plain Journal

 

I was given the Exacompta plain (unruled) journal to review by Karen and Stephanie of Exaclaire,the US distributor for Clairfontaine and a variety of other French stationary products. I like to put journals through a few paces before I do a review and since it took me a full year to get through my last journal, it’s been awhile.

The paper is off white, a very nice cream color that I really like a lot. The paper is laid textured on one side and much smoother on the other side. For some this would be a detraction, personally I like it very much and feel it opens the journal up for a variety of media I wouldn’t normally consider. Dry media does much better than expected- things like charcoal and soft pencil really like that laid texture. Though it is textured fountain pens love it’s surface.

Wet media also does admirably on this paper. I was pleasantly surprised when I soaked the paper down with water and color that it held up. It didn’t just hold up, it out performed the luxury of the Rhodia Webnotebook. When it dried the wrinkles (cockles) relaxed. While the paper is not perfectly smooth it’s less cockled than I’d have expected. I was able to lay down a nice wash of watercolor on BOTH sides of the page and have not one drop show through or soak through to the reverse side. That is pretty amazing.

Even my wettest writing pens don’t soak through. Occasionally you can see dark colors through the pages, but that is the case with most any journal. I’ve painted pages with ink and it doesn’t soak through to the reverse side, which again, is pretty amazing. I haven’t been interested in doing any collage in this but I’m sure it would take to it well.

In summary:
100 Laid Textured Ivory pages 100gsm
5.5x8.5 inches
Ribbon Marker
Soft Covers with a fabric spine, meant to go inside a leather cover, many companies make them
Price $15.50 at gouletpens.com

It handles wet media like a champ and is wonderful for a fountain pen. Pencil does amazing textural things on the textured side but doesn’t smudge as much as would be expected on the smooth side.

It’s not cheap but it’s a better value than the moleskine sketchbook, it’s got more papges that behave better and respond better. I’d rate this 2 happy thumbs up and would recomend it to anyone looking to get a nice journal that they can write in, sketch ink, test watercolors in, and abuse.

Artfire Sale

I'm running a sale in my artfire shop. I'm moving back to etsy. I'm sure many of you will be happy to read that. I'm offing 25% off everything except my art. I don't want to spend the time to relist everything on etsy. So you get a good deal on journals, journaling supplies, and jotter notebooks. I haven't made a book in ages so these are some of the last of my handmade books. I'm not sure when I'll be making more. Code is LAMEPOLICY and is good for one use and 60 days.

observations on making videos

I’ve been messing around with my video camera, my iPoo, and the boom mic stands that I use to hold them. I picked up a couple of official iPoo* tripod holders and for less than $5 each they are a little better than my clamp method, and cheaper, but don’t have that kludge** factor. They are a little less strong/ sturdy than my holder, but I can see how they can easily be made a lot stronger, so should I need to, I can adapt them.

I took an evening and a 1 minute clip and decided to figure out the RIGHT settings to manage quality, speed of render, speed of upload(aka file size) for videos I plan on uploading to YouTube with my software. At one point I got super frustrated with the included help and the official online help and delved into google. Go figure, I should have done that in the beginning. I found a helpful YouTube channel explaining which settings to use to get rid of the letterboxing (don’t use the obvious settings, duh!) Rendering is still not at the speed of my iPoo but it does do a much higher quality video AND I can do longer videos plus I can use a variety of different music, do a voice over if I want, and add effects.

I found some music to use with my videos as well, stuff I haven’t heard a million times before and fits my style. I’m really happy with that. I need to put it on my iPoo so I can use it consistently across the board. I am trying to stay away from stuff that has copyright or isn't made for use.

I’m trying to keep my videos to particular lengths- sketching or drawing videos with no instructional content are under 3 minutes, Q&A videos are under 5, instructional videos can go as long as they need to go. i’m considering some review videos on favorite products.

Automatic Drawing

Nothing quite like unwinding after a hard day at the grindstone with a little automatic drawing.

 

Fountain Pens and Inks I use

Dave asked me on YouTube to link up my favorite fountain pens. So here's a list:

Kaweco Sport- I like it for it's ability to fit discreetly in a pocket and be converted to an eyedropper. (at jetpens)

Platinum Preppy- for $3 it's a workhorse, it comes in an array of colors and can be converted to an eye dropper. (at jetpens)

Lamy- To get this to convert to an eye dropper you need to find a clear tube to fit inside the case or find a matching roller ball. Even then you need to epoxy the vents. In my opinion it's worth the hassel you can get interchangable nibs and expand your nib size for not a lot of money. (at jetpens)

TWSBI- the most expensive of my pens, it lays down a smooth even line and its a joy to sketch or write with. (not available at jetpens)

Pilot Parallel- These come in a range of sizes and I think act more like a paint brush than a pen. I have a 6mm size and it lays down an awesome swath of ink. (not available at jetpens)

Inks:

Noodler's Black- It's a workhorse. Easy to use and a deep dark black. (no longer at jetpens)

Private Reserve- I enjoy their shades of blue. (not available at jetpens)

Diamine- I enjoy their chocolate brown shade. It's deep it's dark it's really nice. (at jetpens)

I hope this list, though not exhaustive helps out make some choices about what fountain pens to start out with and if they are for you.

Please note that I am not compensated for linking to these particular sellers, I link to them because I'm a happy customer who has recieved nothing but top notch service from both sellers. I'm happy to steer people in their direction.

Flickr Find Friday: MIlk Tea

I enjoy this page about tea by Ulan25. I'ts simple and sweet.

 

Flickr Find Friday: Journal Pages

This journal page by This Chicken reminds me of Pinterest. Anyone else remember having a journal you stuck images from a magazine into, or an inspiration board?

Flickr Find Friday: Deadbeat Dad

Sure, the topic is crappy but the image pops like whoa! The black on the bright colors really keeps me looking. RcannonP does great things with color.

Flickr Find Friday: FakeGlue

Another journal page that resonates with my style of journaling: Collage, sketch then add a dash of color. LOVE IT. When I add the ephemera from my daily life to myjournal I'm recording my events not the events of some big company churning out what they THINK I may want to record. Nah, that ticket fromt he raffle I didn't win records the dissapointment of loosing.

Anyway FakeGlue does a great job of that with this spread.

 

Technique-I-can't-wait-until Tuesday: Mini Polaroids with the Pogo

I was over here reading Crafty Moira’s site and I stumbled upon her tutorials, this one caught my eye- pogo printer yes, making it look like an old school mini Polaroid, why yes thank you very much.

After checking it out, I realized it would be cool to have the pogo print the square image and then simply trim off the excess. (read, I'm too lazy to go get my white cardstock.) After some trial and error I figured some stuff out.

First. Don’t work the actual 2x3 inches of the print, you’ll get a grainy print. You need to work larger than the print size so the pogo can compress it down, or something like that. I chose to work in GIMP (a free photoshop clone that kicks butt) with a “canvas” size of 4x6 inches, which is the same aspect ratio as the pogo print, which is 2x3 inches.

Then I opened a photo, I cropped it square and then cut and pasted it to my 4x6 blank “canvas.” It was over sized, I then selected “resize layer” and resized the image to 3.375 inches square. This will give you a 1/8^th of an inch border around the sides of your image, and about 1 inch at the bottom. After this you have to flatten the image and then save it as a jpeg. Now send it to your pogo.

When it prints you’ll notice several things. First the pogo has a hard time with square edges, the top edge of my images are all just a hair off square. I don't mind this, but if you do you may wish to go with Moira's original instructions. The second thing you’ll notice is that the bottom part of the image is really long. You’ll need to trim the bottom so that it is ½ an inch high or so that the whole thing is 2 3/8ths tall. Trim with a ruler and an exacto and voila! You have a mini Polaroid, from a Polaroid Pogo. Sawweet.

In Journal Revolution there are instructions on how to make a Polaroid mat from cardstock for a perfect polaroid full sized image. It looks awesome too.

Some tips for printing you want the image to be at 300dpi, if you let the program autoselect 75 or 150 dpi the resulting print will be pretty grainy. I’m pretty sure it has to do with how the pogo processes the images to its format. In any case the higher the DPI the better the pogo print will be. Also be sure that you save it as a jpeg, if you don’t the pogo will not print it at all, its little lights will blink at you, you might get frustrated because you don't understand it's blinking light, unplug it and then turn it on and off*.

So as I was doing this I realized that I could really add any color to the back ground. I remember Polaroid did some neutral gray and black bordered polaroids at one point, but what’s to stop me from making the background any color I want? Or what if I wanted to add some text to that little area below the photo? Or what if I tweak the image in GIMP to create a pinhole effect?

There are so many alternatives to this that it’s crazy.

Here are a few of the images I made, ready to go for anyone's pogo.

If you don't have a pogo you could create your blank canvas as 4x5 inches and then scale it to the "correct" Polaroid size of 3.5x4.25 inches. Then you can print it on any printer or load it to a thumb drive and take it to CVS/Walgreens/Walmart/or anyother store with photo printing. (Walgreens has a service where you can load a bunch of photos to a website, place them on an 8x10 sheet of photo paper, and then print the whole thing for a couple of dollars. All you have to do is pick them up at the store in a few hours, they will ship to you for a few dollars.)

Technique Tuesday: Golden's Tar Gel for Cult of Stuff

This week’s Technique Tuesday is an additive. I’m combining TT with the Cult of Stuff workshop on AJ ning. My choice of stuff to experiment with was Golden’s Tar Gel. It’s an additive that you mix with a liquid paint to get stringy lines that stay raised, think of Jackson Pollock, and you have the right idea.

I’d read that Tar Gel takes forever to dry, I don’t like my art journal to be out of commission for that long, so I grabbed a board and did one of my automatic continuous line drawings on it in sharpie. I’d had paper and thread glued to this board previously so there is a lumpy bumpy texture already in place.

I filed in the face portion of the drawing first with warm colors then added a flat dark blue background. To this I added the strings, bloops, blobs, drips, drizzles and splots. I mixed a good amount of color with the medum, so that it was thin and runny. I then loaded up my palette knife and dribbled away. It was fun to try and control the medium, as it really had a mind of its own. Sometimes large blobs would run off the knife, sometimes thin streams.

The interesting thing with this medium is that the drips and dribbles stay raised. I tried the heat gun on them but it raised air bubbles and the medium did not seem to like it at all. So I’ve put a fan on it to attempt to dry it faster. Hopefully tomorrow it’ll be dry enough that I can hang it and get some decent pictures.

 

 

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Cult of Stuff part 2

The initial anti-cult of stuff response is, of course, that you need less, but the more reasoned response is that you need to find the media that is most suited to you in your expression.

For years I used a fountain pen. I set it aside for a set of Sakura pens and then for a set of Pitt pens until 10 years later I’m back at the fountain pen. Why? It works for me. I like how it works; I love the lines I can get.

I also use acrylic paint, watercolors, as well as various other tools. Why? They work for me and I like the effects I can get.

It took me awhile to figure out what I liked and how I work. Even still a break from my usual pen and ink work to make gelatin prints to liven things up. A workshop or a class at Michael’s, AC Moore, or your local community college can really shake things up and get you out of your creative rut. What about finding an art buddy? Someone you can head to a coffee shop with, or walk the park with, or sketchcrawl that pretty town you’ve never bothered with?

It’s a lot easier to head to the craft store and buy some premade ephemera and slap it in your journal than it is to trek to a coffee shop you’ve never been to isn’t it?

I’ve been there.

My point is that we need to get back to the process part of art journaling. Step away from the scrapping aisle. Head to the “fine art aisle.” Look at all the stuff there. Student Grade. Artist Grade and the more recently introduced “Professional” grade*. Here’s the thing, none of the stuff in that aisle is going to make much sense until you get dirty with it. Sure you understand pencils, colored pencils and pens but what about those tubes of paint? Where do you even start? Head to YouTube, Google, or ArtJournaling.ning.com search through for some technique videos and tutorials. The internet is crawling with great (and shitty) advice.

• Try to avoid buying supplies on a whim**.
• Buy student grade if you aren’t sure you’ll like this media***.
• Don’t start with a full contingent of mediums and additives.

Make a promise to yourself that you will sit down with that one material and experiment with them in every way you think possible and a few ways you didn’t think were possible. Make notes. Get to know that material.

Get curious. Perform mad science in the pages of your art journal.

Ask yourself this question: What would happen if I did this? How would this respond to this?

Now that you know that material inside and out, add to it. Layer your spray inks over watercolor, and acrylic over that, glue down some ephemera from that coffee shop you tested out last weekend.

Now that you’ve read all this, you’re thinking, “I don’t have time, I just want results.” Here’s my answer to that, “You need to make time to experiment. You can’t get results without putting in a lot of time. If you take short cuts the only thing you’re doing is cheating yourself.”

When you decide a media isn't for you get rid of it. Craigslist and eBay are wonderful tools for getting rid of stuff you don't want anymore. Also consider donating unused art supplies to a school for use in their art room.

If you are new here, this is your first visit, please realize this is a (so far) 4 post rant on stuff. Feel free to head here to read the rest of my tirade. Also, please don't assume that I hate pretty pages or would sneer at your art. This rant is about empowerment not judgement.

Wordy Weekender: the power to blow my mind

Yesterday I was listening to a piece by the Vitamin String Quartet, a remake of one of my favorite songs from my youth, and it brought me to tears. I’m happy to say that I grew up with Nirvana and Alice in Chains and a variety of other great bands emerging. I was a closet music fan, not telling my friends about my Ass Ponys tapes or Pixies CDs, afraid that if I went too far out from their mainstream box they might judge. I had one friend in HS with whom I talked about music, Melissa, she was a metalhead and when I found Facelift I immediately made her a copy.

I had one of those moments while listening to the VSQ where I realized that I create art in the hopes it moves someone in the same way. Every now and then I get an email from someone telling me they found my stuff on youtube, flickr or art journaling ning and that it moved them.

Here are some videos from my youth. The Ass Ponys still rock.

 

There is something to be said for remakes of music done with strinq quartets.

This blows my mind.

Wordy Friday: Riding This Bus

I don't read a lot of blogs as religiously as I read Connie, Paul, and Lisa's. Why? Well, they post a lot of eye candy photos and words that I find relevant to my life, you know stuff that makes me think.

Thinking is good.

Connie recently posted this little ditty.

It made me think.

In some spots I disagree and others I agree.

I look at my time as the most precious thing, well, ever. I don't have a lot of it. I've only got this one life. I've only got the time that has been allotted to me. When people come at me with hate and anger I choose to ignore them and shut them out.

I have learned to make liberal use of gmail's block function and the IP address blocking ability of typepad.

People who send me hate filled rants via email want to waste my time. I've learned the hard way that giving them attention simply feeds the beast and distracts from things that add meaning to my life.

Another person's rage does not add meaning to my life.

Another person's anger does not add meaning to my life.

Responding to another person's rage and anger detracts from my life.

I refuse to give someone who thinks only with hate, power over my time and allow them to detract from my life.

While it's not up to me to determine who I bump into on this journey, I do determine how I respond and ultimately I decide who I allow on my bus.

gray

It's been gray and dismal here for almost a week and it's predicted that we'll get more rain next week. Yawn. The weather makes me want to crawl back into bed and snooze. So far we've had less sun this spring than we did in February.

I've been working though. I'm doing a review, tomorrow, on Liquitex Coarse Texture Gel and in a week I'm doing one on Golden Coarse Pumice Gel. Good stuff, adds a whole new layer of texture to a page or in this case a cover.

I'm also working on a technique tuesday where I alter a cover with modeling paste and build up layers of glaze to create an antique beat up looking cover. I've done one cover already and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's one way to take a boring composition book and make it super cool. The great thing about it is how cool it feels, smooth but rough. The other texture  pastes and gels are the same way they feel really cool.

I can't wait to show some of the stuff I'm working on.

Also I'd like to ask who I pay off to get a little sun. I could really use some.

Friday Finds: Allie George on Art Journaling Ning

A week or so ago a youtuber contacted me requesting some more information about art journaling. I gave the info, and she ask for more. I direcrted her towards Art Journaling Ning. I don't plug the site enough but for those of you who don't know I started AJ ning about 2 years ago to create a free space where people could learn and share what they know about art journaling, pass techniques around in a safe environment. At the time it was the ONLY site that was dedicated to ONLY art journaling. As far as I know it is still the only site dedicated to only art journaling. Other sites have cropped up that cater to some aspects of art journaling but I think AJ Ning is the most complete and has the most members.

Anyway, Allie George signed up and immediately started to share her images. I'm glad she did. You see her journals are exactly what I see as "art journal." They are raw, have writing, have great images, collage and paint. You can tell she focuses on the PROCESS of creating the page and not on the idea of a pretty page.

So eff yes, Allie George.

Check out all her work on AJ ning here, and check out a few of her pages here:

Wordy Monday Evening: Snake Oil, Sharks, Resonate

Lisa over at LifeUnity put up this post earlier and it resonated with me, in part because I’m going through some of the same balance issues but also because it’s a very real post and that is something I feel like the blog-o-sphere has been lacking.

Today Connie over at DirtyFootPrints posted this, and it also resonated with me. It’s also a place I’ve been in my head lately, thinking of what is “enough.” What is good enough? (more on this later.)

Aggression  and sharks.

Or as my Dad used to say, “There are assholes everywhere and some of ‘em, most of ‘em, are out to get you.” Often times my Dad meant this about boys (ha!) trying to get in my pants and people trying to take my money, but this applies to the wild internets*.

Let me back up here.

A few weeks back I decided I was going to cut back on what I allow into my internet and life. Every time someone put up a post on facebook or twitter that made me feel icky I unfollowed or hid them from my view. After another week went past I’d go back and check and see if their tweets or posts still made me uncomfortable, if they did, I unfollowed, blocked, and or unfriended them. It’s been about 3 or 4 weeks since I've been doing this and frankly the quality of my twitter feed has gone up, I’m genuinely interested in what people I’m following and I’m not burdened by reading stuff that offends me.**

Why do I do this? No one has the right to make me feel bad, When I allowed people to suck up MY time with their drama I was giving them power over my life and allowing them to waste MY time. Additionally I can't worry that I'm going to offend them, clearly they don't care if they offend me, so why am I concerned about offending them? 

It’s as if I gave them permission to crap on my good time.

So I’m done with it. The drama and the snake oil sales, done.

That’s another thing that is getting to me lately, the snake oil sales. If someone is selling you a promise to unlock your deepest inner power, it’s most likely snake oil. The only person who can do that is you. I’m  wary of someone who wants to whisper into my ear and ask me to do stuff that makes me feel icky. I’m not talking legit life coaches, teachers, licensed therapists and social workers who have been to school and trained to make you push your boundaries. I’m talking about the arm chair quarterbacks that want to tell me what to do when they haven’t put in the hard work themselves, the do as I say not as I do crowd.

I have made my way so far by listening to myself, going with what I feel is right. It’s why Art Journaling Ning is free and will always be free to join and enjoy with paid classes for those who are interested. I see this whole thing as living real.     

Technique Tuesday: Sticker Paper Toner Transfer

The other day at work I was about to toss away the backing sheet from some address labels. I looked at it's slick surface and thought about the fact it had already been through a laser printer and that in the past I'd stuck sheets missing a label or two through the printer and that the toner sort of flaked off those areas. I heard about a collage technique in which you cover each collage piece with gel medium, let it dry and then use a sticker sheet to cover the pieces and finally adhere it with an iron. So, I wondered, "What would happen if I ran this empty sheet through a laser printer, with the image reversed, and ironed just the TONER onto a sheet of paper/art journal page?"

Well it turns out you get the best damn toner transfer I've ever seen. Crisp, clean. clear, and nearly 100% transfer of the toner to paper. I haven't tested this on an art journal page but I'm sure the transfer will work just as well.

Here's what I did:

• Clear the edges off the stitcker sheet
• Set up an image in GIMP(photoshop, or some other program that will let you REVERSE your printing options or lettering)
• Go to Image>transform> flip or use the "flip" tool
• Flip Horizontally so your image is reversed
• Select print
• Tell the printer that you're using "thin" paper or a transparency, this uses a lower heat setting so the toner sits on the surface of your sticker sheet better.
• Place this on your page, set your iron to a HIGH NO STEAM heat setting. (play around with heat settings to see what gives you the look you want. I found that high heat gave the crispest transfer, but lower heat settings distorted the image and left some toner on the sheet.)
• Carefully iron the page, gently move the iron around, hitting ALL the toner with the iron.
• Remove the iron
• Allow the page to cool enough that you can touch it comfortably.
• Gently peel off the sticker backing.
• And shout out "HOLY CRAP IT WORKED!!!"

Alternately if you want to grunge this up, peel the sticker paper up when the toner is still hot, if any is still slightly stuck to the backing, it will stretch the toner out and distort your image/words. Then iron it again to get it stuck to the page. Let it cool and peel off the backing, subtle distortion.

This will NOT work with injet or ink based printers, as the ink will just bead off the sticker backing.

The sticker sheet can be used many times, but I found that after a few runs through the printer that the transfer was more and more grungy. I also found that large areas of black did not transfer as well as images with more lines and white.

I will be saving all the address label and sticker backing material frmo here on out, this is the BEST transfer technique I've ever used.

Here are some of my test pages and one page that is 100% from transfers.

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