Hi this is Sarah from Hanami! Its been a while! I’ve been busy with wedding stuff, but I definitely have some time to talk about our newest member Black Sheep Designs!

If you are in Rhode Island and have had the chance to go to some of the best shows then you have probably seen the beautiful work by Pam! To me her work is sophisticated and playful! Take a look at this earrings!

I just love them so much! The pink accent adds a little something extra that makes them playful! I hope you will take the time to visit her shop and I am sure you will like her just as much as we do!!

Ever since I saw this amazing Sticky Mini Rhubarb Cake recipe on Sparkling Ink, I’ve wanted to bake up a batch and bring them out for a summertime picnic at a park or the beach.  They’d make a lovely dessert after nibbling on some cheese from Farmstead and some fresh bread from When Pigs Fly.  A bottle of wine from Sakonnet Vineyards might just make it a perfect meal.

I could invite all my friends, and stick a flower in my hair for the occasion.

(notecards from HeatherJeany, silk flower hairclip from Hanami Gallery)

We would, of course, wear breezy summer dresses.  And since the food would be so delicious, we would be sure to save the recipes.

(dress from PhriendlyK8, recipe box from Malcom Studio Shop)

What are some of your summertime daydreams?  How would you spend your perfect summer day?

The other night I had an idea that I deemed far superior to all of my previous out-of-nowhere cockamaimie ideas. So without giving away the punchline in the first paragraph allow me to tell you the backstory behind my latest screenprinted kiddie t-shirt design.

Immediately upon having said mysterious idea I ordered a bunch of organic toddler t-shirts from American Apparel. I usually don’t get organic shirts because they’re pricey and my profit margin is already not so great, but this project demanded them (you’ll see why later). Next up- dyes and fixing agents and other goodies from Dharma Trading. Am I in college again?? As I set myself up in my kitchen with my dyes I reminisced about many nights spent in the dye lab in college with only my gas mask (safety first!) to keep me company. Surprisingly I retained none of the actual dying knowledge but lucky for me Dharma has detailed instructions on their website. I was also going to be using my washing machine for the dying (despite my husband’s suspicious glances) which I had never done before *fingers crossed*

So, like the obedient little dyer I decided to be (ignoring the little, lazy voice inside of me telling me it would be okay to skip this step) I washed all the t-shirts in preparation for their transformative trip through the agitation cycle.  As the shirts were washing I dissolved 2 cups of salt (the instructions called for 3, but I only had 2) and, separately, 1 tablespoon of dye. With my freshly washed shirts ready I set the washer to fill up for a small load. I was hoping this would correlate to the 3 gallon water instructions I decided to follow. The regular washing machine instructions are for a full load and require 20 (!!) cups of salt. Like I said, I only had 2. I added the dissolved salt and dye plus 2 teaspoons of Calsolene Oil and gingerly dropped the tiny little t-shirts in. I set the machine to agitate for 15 minutes and started to dissolve the Soda Ash (1/3 of a cup) to slowly add to the washer over the next 15 minutes. After that I set the machine to agitate for 30 minutes. The directions said 30 minutes for light results or 1 hour for darker results. I want a lighter color since I will be silkscreening on top of this so 30 minutes seemed good. After that I ran them through a wash cycle with regular laundry detergent. When the wash cycle ended I excitedly opened the washing machine but my heart sank a little because the color looked very uneven. It was late by this point (I started at 7:15 and it was already 10:00) so I threw them in the dryer and went to sleep, hoping for the best. The next morning I took them out and they were PERFECT! Exactly the color I wanted and totally even, amazing!!

Next step: making the screen. For this I used my Yudu. I have a real love hate relationship with that thing. I love that I can always get the screens for $15 with a 40% off coupon at Michaels, I love how nice the exposure unit is with its little interior drying rack, but I hate all of their crazy expensive supplies so I use QTX liquid emulsion and regular, water based inks to do my printing. Once the screen was made I got set up to print, and I’m SO happy with how they came out!! I’m totally psyched to be debuting these little numbers on Saturday at the opening day of Providence Open Market. I’ll be there with fellow Arts in RI buddies Kristin Crane, DS Brennan Photography, Suzanne Tanner Glass, Malcolm Studio and Hanami Gallery so come by and say hello!

Po-ta-toe

Okay, so maybe the pressure of this busy time of year is getting to me…..but, honestly speaking, I’m such a texture, color, substance person that it takes very little to pique my interest…..

My husband has enough Irish blood in him to demand potatoes on a nightly basis.  The other night I was digging through the big brown bag in the pantry and to my dismay this is what I found!  At first I was disgusted but then the artist in me took over and I began to see all the possibility!

Imagine what a Mr. Potato Head you could make out of this!  The new growth actually looks like sea coral and the texture is unreal.  Yeah, it must be the pressure…

Check this video out and sing along!   A  fitting testimony to the Po-ta-toe!

I wish what I did was as easy as it looks but believe me, it’s NOT!! Especially when you are me!  Here is a look at my workbench. A total mess and how it is 90% of the time.

This buckle, which I named “Sunburst” is made of many different types of tessera. Tessera is mosaic speak for the different types of materials (glass, ceramic, marble, etc) used in a mosaic piece.   I use everything!

I started off with a beautiful cabochon of  Red Creek Jasper for this buckle.  Jasper is one of my favorite materials to work with. I  knew I wanted to fan out from it so I choose the golden orange  in the jasper and used that as my color pallet.  For tessera I used glitter glass, mirror glass, Czech glass beads, stained glass and teeny tiny ceramic tiles. All the glass I hand cut and meticulously placed along with the beads and tiles.  I use a special glue to adhere them to the buckle base.  Here it is half done.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I first outlined the cabochon and the border of the buckle in tiny beads made of unpolished Picasso Jasper.  After it was all done I had the fun job of filing all the sharp edges down.  Some of the glass I use is thicker than others and can get very sharp after nipping.   I used some of my fathers old tools to do this job. He gave me this box of his old metal files that he used when he was a jewelry designer.  I find it pretty ironic that I am making belt buckles now after spending many years of  working in the family jewelry business that I really didn’t like!  And we did mostly belt buckles, not mosaic, but they were buckles none the less!  Yes….life can be funny like that.

Here is a side view of the buckle with all the different heights.  I tape off spaces around where I’m filing so as not to scratch any of the glass surfaces with my file. It is a very tedious job but one I have to do in order to avoid lawsuits!!

Finally I grout.  Yep….real grout like you put in between floor or wall tiles.  A very messy job and brutal on my hands.   Good thing I’m not the girly type getting manicures all the time. They wouldn’t last one day!

Cleaning the excess grout off to expose all the different tessera and their heights can take hours! I am extremely meticulous and work under a magnifier so I can see every detail.   Okay, okay….I do it so I can just plain SEE too!  (The ole eyes ain’t what they used to be!)

Here is the finished piece.Notice the background is a paper plate.  That is because I finished this on Friday night and brought to a show the following day and SOLD it! I didn’t have time to take a picture of it so I was telling the customer who bought it “WAIT! I need a picture!”  And that is how it ended up having a paper plate background from my lunch.

My name is Lisa Calabro.  I am a mosaic artist and a proud member of ArtsinRI!

You can find more of my belt buckles and other works in my Etsy shop.

www.crookedmoonmosaics.etsy.com