this shawl was a gift for my SIL’s mother. she was going through some serious health issues, and this was my way of sending our prayers on for her…

I love shawls that utilize multiple lace patterns. they help keep the knitting interesting… and they always look great. this was a really fun pattern to make.

this is one of my favorite projects. it was made from some of my handspun as a gift for my sister-in-law a couple Christmases ago.. i really love the way the colors came out and the texture of the handspun knit fabric.

i got the impression that my sister-in-law really didn’t appreciate it… i think she would have preferred something store bought… but what matters to me is the love i put into a gift for her. after all, gifts are about the giving… not the gratitude. i made something that i was proud to give… and i would have loved to receive.

the colors are more true in the top photo. this photo shows the lace pattern well, but the colors really didn’t come out. i love the combination of lace and mobius. i thought that was especially fitting for the science loving sister-in-law.

I’ve been working on a lot of illustrations lately… but I’m not able to show them, because they are all tied to an upcoming  project (WWMDFK?).  I did get an unrelated illustration done, though, and thought I would share the process  that went into creating it.

the process starts from a pencil sketch.

actually, it starts from several sketches… the best elements of each cobbled together on tracing paper to make the finished concept.

from there, it is traced out onto 108 lb. bleed proof smooth surface paper made for pen and ink work with ink on the light box. when I’m done, I scan that one for a good black and white image that I can reuse in various ways later.

and then color that one in…  I used Prismacolor artist grade colored pencils slowly and lightly layered and then blended with a neutral to remove any stroke marks.

when all the coloring is done, I go back over all the ink lines to strengthen the contrast and sharpen it up. and then I scan in the color version.

I touch up any areas that need it in Photoshop (like erasing any stray color that brushed over onto white areas)… and that gives me yet another digital file to have fun with later. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and clean up this guy yet… but I will. with many illustrations, this would be the end… but for this dragon, he had yet another phase of his transformation…

I carefully cut him out and layered him onto a background made from torn old book pages.

layers of black and white cardstock are glue in for the nameplate section.

the original is 8″ x 10″ with a 3 3/4″ x 4 3/4″ plate area. it will be framed and a photo added to the plate area. the scanned image will be printed at a reduced size with our information in the block for identifying the books in our personal library… and maybe even for some gifts

I hope you enjoyed watching him emerge!

]]> http://www.jenminnis.com/artblog/?feed=rss2&p=369 0 http://www.jenminnis.com/artblog/?p=275 http://www.jenminnis.com/artblog/?p=275#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:30:58 +0000 Jen http://www.jenminnis.com/artblog/?p=275 several years ago I got a kit to learn Pine Needle Basketry from the Caning Shop in Berkeley. I love the Caning Shop. they have such wonderful things to play with… things I can’t find locally anywhere else…. like my Pysanky supplies. this basketry kit is everything you need to make a sampler basket that walks you through many of the stitches you can do with the coiling technique. I worked through the bottom of the basket happily and had started to curve up the sides… but the checkerboard stitch requires traveling the needle under sections of wraps and was very hard on my hands. as a result, I set it aside for a while… and then we moved and it got shuffled into a box and out of sight/mind.

this year, I set a goal to try to finish up old UFOs (unfinished objects). at the very least, I want to unearth as many as I can find and figure out if they are something worth hanging on to or getting rid of.  while sorting through things in the studio, I came across the basketry kit. I got it out and soaked things to prep… and managed to get a bit more finished. the checkerboard stitch is as hard on my hands as I remember… but if I can get slowly past that section, then it should be smooth sailing.

I have dreams of using the coiling technique with other materials… maybe pine needles and handspun yarn stitching? or spun paper for the coils? lots of potential… if only I can get past that darn checkerboard section!

1. Jen 2010, 2. Esme Mandalla, 3. Cypress Bowl, 4. Little Bubbles, 5. DIY Sock Patch Loom, 6. Esme, 7. Lacis – Needle Lace Exhibit, 8. Flower Maiden Scherenschnitte, 9. Tina 2008, 10. SunFlower, 11. Paul 2008, 12. Flowering Tea – Before Steeping – Flower Jewel, 13. Jen 2010, 14. Pine Needle Sampler Basket, 15. Compass Rose 4, 16. Cemeteries, 17. Yaquina Head Lighthouse, 18. Esme, 19. Lacis – Needle Lace Exhibit, 20. Flowering Tea – Before Steeping – Flower Jewel, 21. Compass Rose 3, 22. Pine Needle Sampler Basket, 23. Compass Rose 2, 24. Jen 2010, 25. Hands of Light Exercise, 26. Tilden Botanical Gardens, 27. Pysanky Dye Samples, 28. Jen’s Pysanky 2007, 29. cactus bloom, 30. Lacis – Needle Lace Exhibit, 31. to sort, 32. 1/12th scale origami crane, 33. Lacis – Needle Lace Exhibit, 34. Hands of Light Exercise, 35. O Scherenschnitte

Around the same time, two different things came up that got me thinking in a new direction. first off, I started wearing my February Lady Sweater (my first sweater knit for myself) in the evenings… and dreaming about what my next sweater should be. while browsing around Ravelry at sweater designs, I was wishing that there were a way to picture them modeled on someone closer to my own body type. this lead me to look into fashion design bodies, otherwise known as Croquis. I quickly realized that I would seriously benefit from making some croquis from photographs of myself to use to “try on” different styles and see how they would look on me. this lead me to think about offering to make croquis for some of the less popular (in magazine and book models) body shapes to offer to others to use on Ravelry. I’m still considering this for the near future…

But, in the mean time, another thing came along to distract me and get me thinking. several years ago, I created an illustration of 3 Haute Men for t-shirts for the CraftLit podcast. Heather, who hosts the podcast, is working on a book of patterns by various designers based on characters from classic literature called WWMDfK? (What Would Madame Defarge Knit?). Heather wondered if I would be interested in participating. Well, of course I would! so, this means I will have plenty of reason to focus on my drawing and sketching skills.

But then we come back to the original question… what kind of regular exercise could I take up that would stretch me and inspire me without becoming more of a burden than a help. this is where my mind drifted back to the idea of croquis! they are quick sketches… hopefully less than 5 minutes… and are not focused on finished designs. they have many specific advantages. they help practice proportion and form. they help envision poses that can be used later in more detailed sketching or drawing. they are quick but still interesting. the collection of finished croquis make a great inspiration file for future illustrations. because they are meant to be built upon later, they are purposely left with very sketchy details… which lowers the pressure to produce something finished and allows me to keep my focus on getting the body shapes right.

so, I decided to set myself the task of a Daily Croquis. since I don’t have a handy live model, I  started off working from magazine models and the tv paused. I’m planning to work up some from photos of family and friends that I tend to knit for, so that I can use them for project planning… and eventually offering to make some over at Ravelry… but in the meantime, I’ve been keeping an eye out for ideas and poses that would be helpful for the WWMDfK? book.

here’s a sneak peak of some of my first Daily Croquis up on my “Inspiration Wall” (aka, closet door in the studio)

baby knitting has been in the works lately. this cute kit from Knit Picks is very fun. when finished, this will be a sweater for a 1 year old little girl. the yoke is the blister stitch pattern in multiple colors. i’m very excited with how this is coming out.

here’s a peek at the backside of the blister stitch section:

this has been giving me lots of ideas… i can really see working this blister stitch pattern in a Pi style round for a centerpiece or trivet… or the center area of a Christmas tree skirt…

these first two eggs were made as examples for the people who came to our egg dying party. the star pattern was made to show how a simple 8 pointed star could be made complex by adding more and more pattern detail. the confetti egg is an example of how random squiggles can end up making a beautiful and complex egg.

it all started a few years ago, when we decided to go to Stitches West together on our anniversary weekend instead of our usual High Tea. after a long day of shopping in the marketplace and spending way to much money, I got home and realized that I had only bought 2 balls of yarn. oh, I’d bought pounds of roving, tools, beads, and other shinies! I had biz cards for designers and dyers and suppliers. but actual yarn to knit up? just two small balls of sock yarn. one for my husband. and one for me. and that was the start of the anniversary socks.

the first years socks were a pair of Monkeys for me (that you may have seen before) and a pair of Alternating 2×2 Rib socks for Paul that soon became known as his Cobblestone socks.

this may not seem a very exciting pattern for a special pair of socks… but since this is the only pair of socks Paul had let me make him that wasn’t just a plain 2×2 ribbed cuff….

then, last year, we did it again. we went to Stitches on our anniversary weekend and made sure to pick up some special sock yarns. my socks gave me a chance to play with Kristi Schueler’s wonderful SKA March 2009 Mystery Sock Pattern (available free on Ravelry). it was a fun challenge that let me try out a few techniques I had wanted to try… an i-cord cuff and a star toe. I learned that I loved the i-cord cuff and hated the star toe. star toes just don’t fit me right.

Paul took forever to decide what he wanted for his socks. he really loved the colors of his chosen yarn… so he decided he wanted something more than just a rib. eventually, he let me talk him into another of Kristi Schueler’s patterns… the Journeyman Socks from the summer 2008 issue of Spin Off. I have loved this pattern since I first saw it. twisted stitch cables come to a point over the instep.unfortunately, just after I got started on these, I was given my first project working on samples for the Knit Picks catalog… and they went into hibernation. that first KP’s project flowed into another and Christmas and… one deadline leading into the next through the final months of the year. I have one more small project to finish up before I can pick these up again… but now I’ve found I have lent out the magazine with the pattern! *sigh* I guess these will have to wait. put I’m still excited to finish them up.

and so, today is our Anniversary again! this year we decided not to go to Stitches. we don’t have the disposable cash we had a few years ago, and my stash is currently enough to sustain me for the time being. instead, we’re going to make sure to head out to our favorite LYS and pick up 2 special balls of yarn…  I’ll let you know what they become!