DIY: Embossed Ceramicness

So I might be having a little bit of a love affair with pale-sky-aqua blue, faded-rose pink and, well,  pastels in general. Proof of such here and here.

Sometimes when people are inclined to talk to me (which I don't recommend to the easily offended, annoyed or grossed out by stories involving pants wetting accidents and pee puddles [which, btw, is up next on this blog post menu]), they ask me stuff. Stuff that leads me to believe that they must read my blog and assume the following:

1. That I make stuff all the freaking time.

2.  That I also dress like a moron all the freaking time.

One of these things is as false as Miley Cyrus virginity rumors. Can you guess which?

If you guessed the first then, ding-ding-ding!, you are correct! Congratulations! You win absolutely nothing but my utter respect at your guessing skillz. Really. I mean, you should consider joining the circus and being one of those weight-guessing people. I hear the pay is incredible. 

Which means the crazy notion that I'm a making-stuff-maniac is totes false, ya'll. Truth be told, I spend entirely too much of my life online googling things like "dorky art teacher clothes" (can you guess whose mug pops up first? Use those expert guessing skills of yours...) and chatting up long lost buddies on Facebook. Which is what I was doing last night when a class photo from elementary school was posted. Next thing I know, it's past midnight and I've been reminiscing about favorite teachers and crazy classmate antics with people I've not spoken to since the 5th grade. Time well spent for sure. Meanwhile, my sewing projects/unglazed ceramic pieces/half finished paintings of nude leprechauns (just seeing if you were paying attention) are left collecting dust. Das my life for realz, ya'll.

I've also got this terrible habit of starting something and then callin' it quits midway through. Sometimes I return to said DIY -n- Ditch but it's often weeks, nay, months later. Case in point: my Embossed Ceramicness. Last November I attended the annual state art conference in the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee where the allure of the airbrushed t-shirt never dies. I took a course that involved this pretty sweet process of using your printing block as a ceramic embosser. I began by creating the above masterpiece.

And transferring the design to my linoleum block. This was done by scribbling on the back of my drawing, taping the drawing to my block and then going back over my pencil lines. At this point the carving commenced.

This squirrel-tastic block was carved by my awesome art teacher buddy Mallory. One of the things I love about attending these workshops is you get to hang out with your favorite artsy friends. And you make so many new buddies who do a much better job at commiserating about life in the art room than, well, your hubs. Cuz new art teacher friends don't get that glazed-over "is this gonna be another kid peeing themselves story?!" look like that dude who lives in my house and breathes my air. Nay (yeah, I just used that word twice in one post like a boss), new artsy buddies slap you a high five and commend you for your tales of how you turned lemons into lemonade. Or, rather, puddles of pee into a "Pond, kids! Don't step in the pond because you don't want to get wet!" (this actually happened...which was met with a "Yeah, cuz that pond is PEE!" by a dear kindergartener).

One friend I made at an art conference years ago has since become a dear friend of mine. Her name is Debbie and she carved this block which I'm thrilled to say I have a ceramic copy of. I can't wait to get it glazed and out for Halloween. I'll be sure to share it with you soonish.

Okay, where was I? Ah, yes, the carved block. Is it any wonder I don't finish much? I can't even stay focused on one lil blog post! Once the carving was finished, a slab of clay was placed over it. That was either rolled out or run through a slab roller. From there we had the option of turning our embossed piece into a vase, a mug or a slab. I did a little of each.

And that was way the flip back in November. It wasn't until recently that I busted out the glaze and forced myself to finish these pieces. The completed slab in the top photo was mounted onto a wooden flower box.

While these lovelies have found their home at my front door. Finally. After months of hanging out in the Land of Forgotten DIY's, they are now complete. Who woulda ever guessed I'd get 'em done?! Well, you, of course. What with your intuitive guessing skills and all.

Until next time, friends, STAY AWAY FROM YELLOW PUDDLES! 

And have a great holiday weekend.

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DIY: Hokusai's The Great Wave Dress

 'kay, lemme first start by saying that I don't know what in the world kind of crazy blurry lame-o setting I put my camera on but I blame it entirely on these crazy blurry lame-o photos. And the crazy blurry lame-o photographer. Who just so happens to be me. 

That being said, look! I put a great big Hokusai wave on my dress! And take another look! At the entrance to the art room! Be sure to get a good hard look before that evil fun-hater the Fire Marshall comes and has a heart attack at all of the codes I'm breakin'. I mean, did you see the tree? And I've not even given you a complete tour of the place, complete with the hanging lanterns and wax paper umbrellas (tour post coming soon). I mean, seriously. If I don't cause the dude to go into early retirement then I'm just not doin' my job, says me. And my principal. But she says that too me all the time.

 I painted this Great Wave mural over 10 years ago for a bulletin board in my previous school. I can't believe that I actually managed to 1. not lose it; 2. not tear it up; 3. it just feels like there should be a 3 here even though I don't have a third point. I decided to hang it outside my art room because 1. there wasn't any more wall space in my classroom; 2. I was tired of seeing it rolled up and on the floor in my storage closet; 3. again, no third point but 3 was feeling left out.

 I thought the black backdrop would show off the painting a bit more than the cinder blocks. AND I also thought of the look it would put on ole Fun-hatin' Fire Marshall's face and was all, "YES, wall-to-wall paper it 'tis."

 Being the crazy person that I am, I got it in my head that I needed a dress to match our unit on Hokusai's The Great Wave. And wouldn't you know, that very day The Thrift Store Gods smiled on me and put this sweet white Target dress in my hands.

 From blah to Holy Crap, run for your lives, that wave is gonna swallow us whole!

 Just in case you wanna make a Great Wave Dress (and, like, duh, who doesn't?!), here's what I did: I began by laying out my dress and drawing my version of Hokusai's print in the size I thought would work on the dress. On the back of some wrapping paper. Because I didn't have anything else (BTW, if you are expecting a prezzie from me in the near future, be warned, it will be wrapped in a Kroger sack. I'm outta wrapping paper.)

 To create the two tones of blue in the big waves, I appliqued these teal pieces on top of the dark blue.

 I decided to use the white of the dress for the foamy part of the wave. Which meant I only had to create the blue portions of the water.

 Here you can see the white of the dress acting as the negative space. BTW, that's a kneaded eraser in the foreground. Not my chewing gum.

 Once a thousand of the world's most pokey-est of pins were put into place, the stitching commenced. Which, fyi, is no fun party when you are constantly being stabbed by said pokey-est of pins.

Once all the pieces were in place, I added the zigzag types of lines to create the waves and, viola! One Great Wave Dress complete!

Oh! By the way, I totally didn't forget about the giveaway (ha! yes, I did). So, don't you worry. I'll be announcing the winner soonish. Good news for all you slackers, there's still time to throw your name into the ring. Do it! You need crayon fabric in your life. Trust me. It makes a world of a difference (no it doesn't. Drinking does).

Chat soon, ya'll! I'm off to find out just why my photos are so crazy blurry lame-o. And possibly fire my photographer.

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In the Art Room: Welcome to Japan!

 So, can you guess where we'll be traveling this year in the art room? If you just guessed "Chexico!" like one of my students today, then, I hate to tell ya this, but you are incorrecto. As they say in Chexico.

However, if you guessed, "We are going to Japanese!" like another student of mine, then, yay! You're getting warmer! We'll be studying the art, culture and people of Asia this year. I decided to go with a Japanese theme for my room decor.

 That being said, I really had no clue just how I was gonna transform these windows into the Land of the Rising Sun. So I uprooted a stash of Hokusai prints (my inspiration for this post) and slowly started knocking it out.

 The kids are always fascinated by the window paintings. My favorite question of all time: "Does the principal know you painted the windows?" My other favorite question comes every year from my custodian buddy who will walk in, stop dead in his tracks and say, "Did you paint that?!" Seriously, every year. When I tell him, "yes!" I always get an "all by yourself?!"

 It took me a couple of hours to wash Paris off my windows and take down all of the art work. Here's what my blank canvas, so to speak, looks like. It's a lovely view but it can be very distracting to the kids when we have wacky weather, friends on the playground or sun shining in our eyes and burning out our retinas.

I began working on this during summer for just a few hours a day. On the morning I came back to this, I absolutely hated it. The colors seemed too bright and garish to me. But I've got a rule about art-making that comes courtesy of Tim Gunn: Make it work.

 At the end of that day, I was getting a little closer to being finished and a little happier with the result. I figured whatever I didn't like I could stick my giant tree in front of. Cuz that's Tim Gunn's other no-as-popular credo: Big a** trees hide big a** mistakes.

 This here's about the time I threw down my brushes, wiped my brow and heard that oh-so-familiar, "Did you paint that?!" And all that was left was adding the tree.

 Now this tree came in at least a half dozen parts from the ever-so-lovely Anthropologie store in downtown Franklin, Tennessee. Wasn't that so super awesome of them to donate it to the art room? I thought so. I had some of my favorite buddies help me put the thing together...and we almost did it. However, my skillz with drillz are seriously lacking. The thing ended up with enough screws sticking out of it that it closely resembled a cactus. When I asked the principal if all the kids had their tetanus shots because, if not, we might have a prob with all those rusty bits sticking out, she kinda freaked a little. I'm not gonna lie. I was woe-is-meing to a wonderful parent at our school who then proceeded to volunteer her awesome husband to come and fix Big Bad Tetanus Tree. And all was happy in Chexico. Er, Japanese. Japan! Whatever.

And while I totally love my Japanese set up, I gotta tell you, I'm gonna miss Paris a bit. In fact, I had one or two students today tell me that they'll miss seeing the hot air balloons and the Eiffel Tower.

 The year before we studied Europe, we covered Egypt. At this time, I was only painting the right bank of windows. Before I went all crazy town and painted the entire ding-dong thing.

Regardless, I'm super stoked for the new school year. This is what I wore today as our introduction to the art room and a tiny glimpse into our year in Asia. Although it appears we might have to have a wee chat about cultural acceptance as I heard this from one of my students today:

"Mrs. Stephens," with a look from head to toe, a sigh and an eye roll, "you look ridiculous. As usual."

Seriously? I get no respect! 

Sayonara, dudes!

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DIY: A Crayon-tastic Dress and A GIVEAWAY!

 What you see here is an art teacher that's one crayon short of a full box. 

Partly cuz, let's face it, I'm nutz (and I'm not just sayin' so. During our school's evening registration, I was asked on more than one occasion by the under-10 set if I was planning on being "even crazier this year." When I replied with an "um, I suppose so?" I was met with mostly "yes!"es and a few "oh no"s. But those came from parents and the administration. Which doesn't count, says me.) And the other partly cuz, well, I used several of the crayons from my box for that there hair clip.

But that crayon clip was just the icing on this Ultra-Geeky-Crayontastic-Art-Teachery-Get-Up Cake. 

When I stumbled upon this crayon fabric at JoAnn's, I knew deep in my tacky-bedazzled heart that it was meant for curtain-making or bulletin board decorating. Not dresses. I thought to myself, "Should I? Or would that be taking things a little too far?" And then I remembered THIS get up, laughed manically (which drew stares and whispers and a phone call to the police) and realized I done took things too far a long long time ago.

I also scooped up a coupla yards of that blue chevron. I loved the idea of it paired with the crayon fabric (look, I can teach about zig zag lines and crayons with this dress. Shoot, this dress just does the teachin' itself. Thank goodness because with all this sewing I forgot to write my lesson plans. Just kidding, principal lady!).

You might recall I scored a batch o vintage patterns this summer that just happened to be in my size. I decided to use the one above...with much anticipation. I've never heard good things about Vague, er, Vogue patterns and, I gotta say, with good reason. I mean, I thought Mrs. Butterick was bad. She at least talked to me. Vogue just uses pictures, arrows and a couple line drawings of the middle finger. It's most off-putting. Thankfully, this pattern was pretty self-explanatory, so my wee brain was able to manage.

 I really loved the dress on the envelope with the butterfly border fabric so I used the crayons as the boarder to the chevron. I was a little concerned that so much blue zigzag would be boring and toyed around with other fabric choices. In the end, I decided that having the zigzags run in different directions would be twofold terrificness: horizontals to accentuate and verticals to elongate. Wow, that sentence made me sound all smart -n- stuff. Maybe I'll include that in my lesson plan. Oh! By the way, crayon shoe DIY here. Cuz I know you're dying to make your own. Double Oh! More about my Art History Wall here.

 Just a coupla books I plan on reading whilst wearing said dress. See, I did plan. A little. 

Have ya'll read these? Love 'em.

 And there you have it! One Crayon Dress complete(-ly crazy. You're welcome, children.)

 And now, lemme giveaway some stuff! I have a coupla odd-shaped yards of this crayon fabric (due to cutting to create the border) and this super rad vintage box of Crayola crayons in hardly-used condition. The fabric would make great quilting squares, classroom curtains, underwear, the possibilities are endless. To enter, all you gotta do is leave a comment about what you'd do with either the crayons, the fabric or both! International friends, you are always welcome to join the fun. I'll throw all ya'll's names in a jar and announce the winner sometime next week. When I've finished writing my lesson plans.

Until then, lemme hear from you and enjoy the rest of your week!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #71

I have no idea what's happening here. More than likely I'm trying to suppress a fart because hubs was in the background making dinner and his gross-out-tolerance is extraordinarily low. Which is unfortunate for him, being married to a fart-in-the-kitchen-whilst-preparing-dinner dame like me. dress: The Limited (I know, right!); cumberbun: gift from a friend; crinoline: picked up at Pre-to-Post Modern in Nashville; shoes: Sofft; necklace: vintage Target

Ya'll've (yes, I just invented a new contraction: you, all and have. Deal wit it) heard of Shark Week, right? Well, with hubs on vacation last week, it was Hubs Week at Casa de Cassie. Which was awesome because we got to spend so much time together (well, okay, "awesome" might be a bit of an exaggeration. A week is a really long time) and we got so much done. For example, we managed to watch every episode of Naked and Afraid (are you watching this? You really should be because it rocks). Now, if you're like me, when you heard that title you had flashbacks of the time the electricity went out in JCPenny's while you were trying on bathing suits...very frightening and naked. Kid ya not. Thankfully, that's not what this show is about. It's a reality survival show that features a nude guy and gal who are stranded on a remote location for 21 days with only one item of their choosing. After watching back to back 'sodes, hubs and I already know what we'd take: a keg and a hot tub. Duh. 

Other than that, we went to the movies, visited friends and fam and just plain relaxed. It was a lovely week that just zipped by at the speed of a flying squirrel (more on that shortly). And now, it's back to reality. Hubs has returned to work and I go back to school on...Wednesday. This Wednesday, people! And I can't...stop...crying. Tears of joy, of course. Big fat hairy tears of...joy.

Until I stop sobbing, I hope you have a super groovy week. Chat soon!

A coupla years ago, hubs decided he wanted to grow some fruit in our front flower bed. Which would be great if it wasn't The Front FLOWER Bed. Not like that matters as flowers have been refusing to last more than a week up in dat bed for as long as I can remember (which could have something to do with the fact that I'm like the Grim Reaper Gardener). So hubs stuck some strawberry plants and a blackberry bush in the ground. This year we've finally been able to get to the blackberries before our furry friends and have been munching on these lovelies for weeks. We couldn't figure out just who was eating up our strawberries until we came home to a skunk with a mouthful of berries and a tail raised and ready to rip, not unlike me in the top photo. To which we said, "We're good, skunk. You enjoy those berries, they's all yours."

Would you take a look at this super sweet photo-bomber? We're attempting to put this big ole gal on another diet...we've gotten a bit outta control giving her our table scraps (which include ice cream, cheese, yogurt and grits. Yes, grits. She's a Southern cat, after all). dress: BCBG; sweater: thrifted, Banana Republic; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; bow pin: Sweet Katie from The Little Red Squirrel!; shoes: Crocs...they've become my go-to shoe for all of this rain we've been having

Okay, dudes, quiz time. Do you know what this is...? And don't be all Mr./Mrs. Obvious and say, "Duh, Cassie, it's a squirrel." Because, I can assure you, after witnessing it flying up to the bird house and zip into it at the speed of light, it is not (and by "witnessing", I mean hubs saw it happen and told me all about it. And, unlike myself, he's not inclined to tell tall-tales or fart in the kitchen. Which I bet is mighty uncomfortable for him. The no-farting not the no-lying.)

I mean, it's totally not a regular squirrel, look at those crazy pupils. I had to tiptoe up to the house and hold the camera at arms-length just to get a good photo of the little guy. I woulda gotten closer but I had visions of him flying out of the house and attaching himself to my face and sucking my brain out thru my eyeballs. Because that's what flying squirrels do, right? Hence the dilated pupils.

Another photo-bomber who actually closely resembles the Unabomber, strangely enough. Funny-ish story, hubs and I were out recently when I overheard a woman say, "Oh, I love your sandals." Now, I'm not gonna lie, you dress crazy for a little while and you get rather used to folk commentin' on your duds (my fave, "Do you always dress like that?!") My response to the sweet lady was "Oh! Thank you!" only to discover she was talking to hubs about his hippie rope sandals. Hubs looked at me and said, "She was talking to me. It's not always about you. I look cute too." Indeed. dress: Tennessee Antique Mall

Definitely, um, cute.

Even though hubs had the week off, I had to get into my art room and work just a pinch. I managed to wash Paris off my windows and begin knockin' out my latest theme. I'm still far from finished but it sure made me sleep a little better at night to get some work done. dress: The Hip Zipper, Nashville; headband: Pangea, Nashville

Hubs and I took a mini-road trip to visit some friends in Knoxville, Tennessee. Whenever we are there, I gotta stop into my two fave vintage joints, Nostalgia and Four Seasons Vintage which are conveniently close together. I love this collection of salt and pepper shakers...but I scored my own collection at the thrift store just before droppin in here.

 I love a vintage joint with a shop kitty, don't you? This one cracked up me, I'd never seen a cat scoop water up and drink it that way. With this kind of talent I now understand why the restroom door had to remain closed. Wouldn't wanna interrupt a scoop-n-drink of toilet water.

So I've gotten like super lazy with my hair-stylin's of late. This is what happens when I wash my hair and decide to attempt Heidi braids: I end up with 1980's anchor man hair. Which is totally making a comeback so don't you knock it. dress: vintage; belt: gift; owl sandals and sweater: Anthro

Well, it doesn't look like this anymore because today I finished this beast! Although, just looking at this half finished monster, any idea where I'm taking the kids in art class this year...?

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