I’ve crafted in one form or another since forever, as I’m fortunate to come from people who make things. The guest bedroom at my grandma’s house features curtains she made, a rug she hooked herself, and furniture made by my grandfather. I love staying in there. My mom has sewn and crocheted and made ceramics, and my dad is very broadly handy in a mechanical sort of way. Growing up, my best friend’s mom made crafts to sell at craft fairs, and their basement was a wonderland of ribbon and yarn and glue and plastic canvas.

Me? I do some of everything. I actually reined it in early last year, when I realized my dilettante tendencies were keeping me from finishing a single large project. In 2009, I took classes in metalsmithing, lampworking, chainmail, encaustic and acrylic painting, and I’m sure several other things I can’t think of right now. In 2010, I worked on Furlough and finished a scifi novel. And, well, attempted in vain to sort out the rest of my life, but that’s a story for another day.

I’ve made beaded jewelry since I was ten or so, but I’ve only ever sold it individually to friends and, occasionally, on my Etsy page. This weekend, I shared a booth at a local flea and craft market and sold my jewelry in public in an organized way for the first time. Lookit:

Pretty, no? Some of it includes beads I made myself at the torch.

I’ll be selling stuff again at the Punk Rock Flea Market on December 10th. I’ll have all the jewelry pictured plus some, and comics and zines, and my friend (and tablemate) Jenny’s beautiful handmade sketchbooks, and some foodie goodness she and I are going to make.

Because I’m still lucky. Most of my friends are makers of things too. It’s nice this time of year – there’s something about winter that makes me want to tuck into projects. I have about a billion things I want to knit, and I’m about to start on a small zine about my small cat, a companion to my Cat Lady zine. I want to cook a million squash this winter, and maybe knit myself another sweater, and do a ton of sewing.

I’ve also had an idea to make cat sweaters, inspired by a fortuitous visit to the Martha Stewart pets section late this summer. We’ll talk more about that later. It’s seems like a journey to a particular kind of heart of darkness, but I think I have what it takes.

It’s a glorious thing to be part of an event where you’re often asked, “You wrote all this?” and you get to answer, “Yep, I wrote and drew everything you’re looking at,” and the response is usually, “Well, wow.”

I had a very good time indeed at Short Run. I’ll elaborate soon.

Hey, all! I will be plying my wares tomorrow at Short Run. Prints and comics, and I’ll be selling my complete works, which I haven’t done in person before.

Now, as for me, I’d better get to stapling.

Short Run!

I did a summer workshop at the Center for Cartoon Studies a couple of years ago, and I found it just unbelievably densely packed with a mix of great instruction, illuminating history, and inspiring ideas. Robyn Chapman has just written a great blog post based on one of her lectures. It’s easy to get stuck in the idea of zines printed on letter-sized paper and then folded in half – it’s easy and effective, and it can be quite good-looking – but WOW, there are a lot more options out there.

I can be kind of staid with matters like this, and I’ve been considering form more for my next few projects, now that I’m feeling more practiced at creating content. Articles like this get that particular part of my imagination firing.

Step one: go through a tarot deck and see what strikes my fancy.

Step two: sketch arts based on said cards.

…

Step 11,403: profit.

(This will happen 98 years after I am dead. And Bolands are often long-lived.)

So the Muppet Rawk show was a blast. I haven’t found a great set of pictures from it yet, but I’ll add it here when I do. So totally worth it, and it was gratifying to see so much great art sell. In the meantime, here’s the full view of my piece.
I’ve done some digital coloring before, but this was the most ambitious thing I’ve done (gradients! so many!). I really like how it turned out, and it’s a great start to what’s going to be a solid couple weeks of processing and coloring. That would be for my comic from the 24-hour comic thing I did earlier this month. The prettified, colored pages are due at the end of the month, so guess what I’ll be up to this week? I’ll be the one in the corner with the bad posture and the Wacom tablet.

I’ll also have art at my drawing group’s annual Halloween show, which will be at Cafe Racer on October 27th. I’ll be telling fortunes too.

In the last month, I’ve gone from two jobs to one job to no jobs, so I’m going to have a lot of time for art (and bloggening) for the next while. Expect to see more, both here and on Tumblr, as I’m going to have a lot of wonderful, long-awaited time on my hands. I’ll have a process post up for the Muppet piece shortly, because I do seem to love showing off my pencils. And once I get any leftover prints from the show, I’ll be selling those on Etsy.

It has been proven twice, and tomorrow night, it shall be proven once again. I’ll have a piece in Muppet Rawk III (details here). What’s Muppet Rawk? Well, it’s when a bunch of extremely silly and often very talented artists do versions of classic album covers… with Muppets in them. I’ve seen a lot of the art that’s going to be in it, and I’m genuinely excited for this. It’s the kind of thing I’d go to even if I didn’t know anyone in it and I just happened to see a listing in the paper. And that is my favorite kind of event to be a part of.

Here’s a glimpse of my piece. I’ll post the whole thing later.

Do DO do-do-do. See you there! I’ll have prints! They’re an open edition, so they will be really rather not expensive. And they may end up on Etsy later on…

I’m tired, so that’s all the clever headline I have for you today. The headline’s irrelevant, though, because I have prints available in an auction for a great cause. My friend John Platt, writer, artist, and philanthropic type, organized an auction to benefit Fearless Nation PTSD Support. Learn more here.

The auction is here, and you have just shy of a week left to bid on prints, sketch cards, and other goodies from other artists and writers.

I have links for you. Nothing fancy.

John Allison shows a bit of Jack Cole’s cartooning advice. Solid.

A process post from Lucy Knisley, one of my favorites.

And a roundup of some art from my illustration group’s recent live drawing show. I have a few pieces I still need to scan. That’s not the only post I owe this blog, but it’s one I should really get to in the next few days. Apparently my work looked noticeably different from what people have come to expect from me, which was quite a surprise.

That’s all. I’m occupying myself with small, complete kind of drawings, with the intention of filling up a small, cute notebook I found at my favorite art store recently. Complete drawings, with few faces – that’s the current challenge. I get pleasantly envious of people who have these little books filled completely with their own work, so I’m going to make my own. I do have books filled with my own work – sketchbooks dating back ten years (!) plus 16 years worth of journals (which I’ve dedicated a half-finished post to, on the event of completing another book about me me me – I’ll post it soon, promise). However, they’re for my own use, which is quite different from having a beautiful little art-filled object of your very own.

And that’s that. I owe you many scans and a few stories. They’ll come.

On Friday, if you are near Seattle or easily able to get to Seattle (or not easily, don’t let me tell you your business), you should come to my illustration group’s next show, Economy of Line.

Look! I give you the information in two different forms!

Via the group’s site.

And also via the Facebook, where you can even say if you’re coming so as to make us feel better about ourselves.

I’m probably going to be doing small drawings – the idea is quick art sold inexpensively, and the best way I can do that without feeling like I’m making crap is to work small. So I’ll be doing wee ink and watercolor drawings, along with all the glorious output the rest of the group will be covering the walls with. Come on down! Bring the (well-behaved, funny) kids!