I have a very good crafting day

Good day today. I gave myself a day off from all my recent exercise — for which my sore muscles are both grateful and displeased, go figure — and spent the rainy day crafting and listening to pre-2000 Mariah Carey albums. 😉

I also received the second-to-last of my trades in the mail today: a giant assortment of soaps from Maple Street Creations, for which I exchanged one of my favorite reversible floppy totes. I’m pretty sure I won’t need to buy soap now for months and months. Yay! Handmade soaps always seem less harsh than commercial soaps (not to mention less chemical), so I try to buy them whenever possible. My favorite is still the olive oil soap I bought once from the San Jose farmers’ market. I wish now I could remember the guy’s name. The soaps were beautifully packaged and fragrant without smelling artificial at all. I think they were also something like $8 a pop. My second-favorite South Bay Area soapmaker is Copper Moon Apothecary; I love their olive oil/comfrey/calendula bar. Its lightly sweet fragrance is perfumey without being overtly feminine, a quality I always look for in bath and body products!

In LA, I always bought soap from Auntie Godmother’s at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. They had this gorgeous, emeraldy-olive-colored soap that was scented with eucalyptus and sage, a truly fascinating combination!

Wow, I did not know I had so many delectable soap memories stored away. I guess soap is just such a multi-sensory experience, I find it very evocative. 🙂

I spent some of the day on shop business, writing up a little survey to include with my thank you/order confirmation emails, and reading over bookmarked articles. Starting an “actions” folder in my bookmarks has really helped me organize my internet time — if I see something I want to take time with, I just put it in that folder, and return to it when I can really read it and act on the advice.

About mid-afternoon, I started working on my first decoupaged box since last summer. The photo at right shows how all my boxes begin: with a selection of the magazine scraps I’ll use for the base layer of decoupage. I usually start with both a color scheme and a “flavor” in mind; this time I wanted textured, sparkly, deep blacks for the exterior and vibrant, rich purples for the interior, with jewels or other precious objects scattered over. The “Cafe de la Presse” box ($2 at a garage sale!) holds files with all my magazine scraps organized by color (red, grey/silver, multi) or theme (plants, food, “odd things”*). Behind this box, under the coffee table, you can see a tiny portion of the many stacks of uncut magazines I have stored up; I’ll sometimes sit down and just cut out pictures when I have half an hour. It’s hard on my wrists, but the more scraps I can accumulate, the more interesting my collages will be. It’s one of my fondest dreams to someday acquire an antique dental cabinet in which to store these clippings… I suspect this dream is even less realistic than hoping to publish dozens of books, but I cherish it almost as much. Maybe more. 😉

Here’s my decoupage station all set up and ready to go: two layers of newspapers, various little dishes (another garage sale find), my chosen magazine scraps, ergonomic paper scissors, brayer (the clear acrylic roller at upper right — it’s supposed to smooth out the papers but I nearly always end up just using my fingers), sponge applicator and gloss-finish Mod Podge, and the object to be decoupaged — in this case a vintage cigar box.

I’m not sure how much time I spent decoupaging, but I laid on the first layer of black scraps, then waited for them to dry, then did another layer of Mod Podge, and called it a day. The first layer of scraps is just to cover the wood and labels, and give some kind of background. I usually just stick pieces on any which way to get the job done faster. In the next session, I get pickier about which scraps I use, the shape of their edges, and how they go together. In my frustration over my inability to find a satisfactory finishing medium for the boxes, I’d forgotten how much I enjoy the process. Decoupaging these boxes reminds me of sewing my brooches: it’s improvisatory, time- and labor-intensive, and wholly absorbing. I didn’t take a picture of the box after I laid on the magazine scraps because I want to surprise you all when I’m done. 🙂

After the decoupaging, I took a little break, then decided to take a suggestion from Mo at The Mouse Market and make a cash apron for the shop. I made one for Mo last year for her first craft fair, modeled on the one I made for myself for the FabMo show, and we’re both very happy with them. I had thought these aprons would be all over Etsy, but apparently they’re not, so I’d like to make a few for the shop. I’ll post photos tomorrow, when the light gets better.

It was a very productive day, but I’m still frustrated I’m not balancing my various projects. Seems like all my work time goes to the shop, and drawing and writing get neglected – today I skipped my afternoon drawing hour once again, because it just seemed so impossible after the decoupaging. I’ve still got to work on this balance.

*My “odd things” folder is one of my favorites. It contains random images I just loved so much I had to cut them out: cool architectural details, clocks, amusing signs, and so forth.