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I needed some, so I made them! :) 

Click on this sentence to read my post and see them

Sighs and kisses

Today I drew something that I had been wanting to draw -again- for a very long time.

Click on the image to go to my blog post

Tea cup card with teabag

I made another tea cup! 

This time I did remember to document the whole process, I believe :D 

I began by taking pictures of the embossing, 

I was quite thrilled by the water discovery so I took pictures to show how it happens.

I used a paint brush to "paint" the shape with the water, the first one to the left has already broken through the water, I used a tool to outline it and pushed it gently. The second one did soak in the water but is just there without further prodding. The third one is just a fat drop of water that has not yet been absorbed by the paper.

I found out that adding some regular white glue or PVC helps to strengthen the paper, and I'm hoping it makes good filling material as well so the embossed area isn't too fragile.

The next step was to keep on outlining and gently rubbing the design from the back or inside. I do this placing it over 3 napkins, just regular paper napkins, otherwise the embossing can't "grow".

I have no idea what the tool I use is called, I found it in my mother's stuff too many years ago and never heard it's name or where she got it from. If anyone knows I'd really love to find out so I can get others and replace this one since one end comes off, although I'm not complaining since the inside part of the metal tip comes in handy sometimes! :)

And here I turned the paper around so this is the front or right side of it and went all around the design with the small ball tip of my tool so it would become defined. I removed the napkins from underneath so it was on a flat and hard surface, a glass would be ideal, I just used my cutting mat. 

So, after I was done I lined the embossed part with pink bond paper and cut the back of the cup shape and glued them all, leaving a big pocket inside the cup. For the embossed part of the cup I used thick paper, in México we call it "papel marquilla" and I'm not sure what its English name is or what its components are, but I remember getting blocks of that paper through my entire schooling years for art lessons, and I loved it back then as much as I do now!. Specially because it came in a rather large size and it's great for water colors, gouaché, ink and coloring pencils.

And it was time for my favourite part! The little teabag tag. Can you tell how tiny it is from the picture? In my country we use the metric system, so I'm not too familiar with inches yet!.

The white paper on the left is the actual tag and it's made of coated paper, as well as the "tea bag". The little square to the right is -well, at that point was going to be- a little paper cut out silhouette, I cut through 2 papers at once so I could have them on both sides of the tag.

I felt so happy cutting paper that I made a flower for the front of the tea cup

Time for some music! 

I was very happy that Alice asked me about Philippe Jaroussky yesterday on her comment, actually she asked about counter tenors. I love this video! 

OK, back to the card. I needed to attach the string to the teabag so that it would stay put if it got pulled out from it, I was wondering how to do that and I remembered seeing this hand at Elsita Mora's blog that I liked very much so I decided to make one to hold the string in place.

Click on the picture to go to the original post where this image comes from.

So I made a tiny hand similar to the one on the picture

But that didn't go too well as the fingers in the middle became distorted so I started a bigger one

I traced a design on it using the same tool I use for embossing, come to think of it I call it a burin sometimes, and began cutting. 

At one point I had to use my thread counter to see some of the details on it.

Then I realized it needed some backing so I could actually glue the tag's string to it, so I added some.

And here is the teabag finished. I made some tea with the tip of a paintbrush and paint :) It actually has a 3rd fold not visible on this picture, so it's a triptych. Everything else on it is blank so a note can be written on it.

And here at last is the finished tea cup with its teabag inside it 

Do you like it? :)

Stacked tea cups 2

I've just finished the second card and came to share it!
These on the right are  the original tea cups.

And below are the ones I made today. For some strange reason I forgot to take pictures of the third and fourth cups while I was making them, I'm a bit bewildered about it since I remember thinking about taking those pictures as I was making them :D

So here we go, this is the first one, behind it is the  plate. It's not painted yet but I had embossed its edges.

 For the spoon I did an experiment, I embossed it using water, and look at it! Completely three dimensional! :)

I made some lavender twigs with a purple bow for the spoon.

And began cutting  out the pattern for the second tea cup.

My daughter told me that it couldn't be used to drink tea from after all the "holes" I had made on it, but I told her that we didn't know if perhaps it was lined with glass on the inside ;)

Here are the first two cups stacked up.

And here should go the other two cups I somehow missed taking snaps of! o.O

So I'll have to skip all the way to the fifth cup! Which here has the inside already painted.

And here it had the handle "on" for the shot. It's a separate piece.

The blue botanical pattern reminded me so much of a "Nantucket Briar" box we used to have eleven years ago! It had bathing "milk" in it, it used to bubble up A LOT! And it was incredibly fragrant! Those were the good old days! :)  

Here are all cups finally done :) All that's left now is the card, and an envelope!
That one I haven't made yet, but these are two more pictures of the finished card:

I hope you like it! If you have any suggestions of other kinds of cards I could make using teapots and tea cups I would love to hear them!

I have a couple ideas in mind but nothing in concrete yet. 

One of them would be a big cup with a tea bag that could be pulled out and the message could be written on the tea bag. Maybe it could open like a little card. I'll have to experiment a little bit with it to understand how it could work! 

I'm so glad my kids have a school break and I get to work again! 

My youngest just started kinder garden and

I've been quite busy adjusting to the new schedule and have missed writing in here!

Here is a pretty song that I was listening to while finishing this project :)

Trying to hold myself true

Alice inspired this post with one of her comments, she told me she thought I was already making my dreams come true, which got me thinking "I really hope I am".

About 4 years ago I was told I probably -most likely- had breast cancer. 
It was not true but I started thinking about my life and what I was doing with it.

This drawing is from around that time, she's my "Enana amarilla" (yellow dwarf)

I had very good reasons and a very long list of sensible excuses to put aside what was really important to me. 
I found out that the things I had valued and wanted as a child were the very same things that still held value to me and I deeply regretted not having the time to complete them.

I had wanted to learn to sing and dance but to dance I had waited too long, probably to sing too.
I had unfinished songs and poems.
I felt like I was leaving nothing "done" behind me, something that was valuable to me.



I also understood that values are a very personal thing and that I had strayed from mine too many years ago in pursuit of lofty goals for a greater good that were not my own and had lost myself in the process, I could hardly remember what it felt like to be me before religion or adulthood.

I also realized that dying was something I would do alone and that no one else could do it for or with me when it happened so in a similar fashion living should also be done by myself, and in an even more selfish sense it had to be done the way I valued the most. 

So I tried to rescue what I could of whom I used to be when I felt myself to be more creative and bursting with things to say and make. I'm still trying to remember how to make something from that place inside me.

And often I still need to stop and re-set my priorities, because everything else seems so more important than to draw or craft, specially being a single mom.

Thoughts and projects

 

Today I've been working on an art doll while listening to this

music. We're rehearsing it at the choir.

 I live on a very loud and busy street. We have a window facing the west so we can watch beautiful sunsets and at nights I can hear peacocks calling out from a neighbor's house.

Night time is by far the best, it's the only time close to something peaceful, because there are still noisy cars at night. But usually the temperature drops and it's  pleasant.

The picture on the right is a part of the doll's body, I was actually attempting to catch a view of the inside which is very pretty -as well as the outside of course- although the interior will no longer be visible once the body has been sewn up.

The picture on the left is the bottom part of the body and the faces are 2 of my favorites, I finally made up my mind and will use the one on top for this doll.

I'm always thinking about so many things while I craft,

Last Friday during Latin class this verse by Sor Juana came up:

En perseguirme, mundo, ¿qué interesas? 

¿En qué te ofendo, cuando sólo intento

poner bellezas en mi entendimiento

y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?

In hounding me, world, what do you gain?

In what do I offend you, if I only seek
To put things of beauty in my understanding
And not my understanding in things of beauty?

And it's been going around my mind for several reasons. The first one is that when I listen to 17th century songs in Spanish I can't help to think about her because she contributed a great deal to some of the most beautiful 17th century Mexican songs, which brings me back to beauty.

While I can't say that I fully understand the true meaning of her verse I do feel that I'm constantly seeking to understand everything I've seen and experienced in life. I also feel that I'm permanently drawn to beauty and I look for it everywhere all the time.

I need to see it, touch it, kiss it, and to understand it and put it into objects or words.

I love words, I need words to think and I would like to learn so many more and their meaning to be able to think and understand so much more than I do, to name all my feelings, so that I can say so much more and do it in a beautiful way.

To live a better life, a much fuller and meaningful one.

I draw most of my deepest feelings from my childhood, it was a time when I could feel very intensely. I had many hopes and dreams, the same ones I have today, I wanted to learn pretty much the same things, languages, music, poetry.

Sor Juana grew up not too far from where I did, but she had nicer weather (for my taste) than I did, because she was closer to the volcano Popocatépetl, and she also had the wonderful smell of the woods surrounding her. Sometimes I can't understand why there isn't a forest at my door and I feel perplex for a fraction of a second when I first open the door.

I wish Sor Juana and I had known each other during our childhood, I keep thinking she would have been an extraordinary playmate because children can dream and create freely. The days seemed so much longer when I was a little girl, and the sky was darker at nights and the stars so much brighter.

I hope for really long and fruitful days, like those of my childhood.
I have a collection of dreams in my mind that I dreamed when I was a child (while asleep) and I would like to put them into handmade books, I also have poems that need to be worked on. I don't know the process, I have so many unfinished projects wanting to take shape and surface.

I came across the next song while looking for blogs to link to my "Inspiring blogs" suggestions.
I liked the strings and the rythm felt exotic, like México must have been in the 16th and 17th century, a bit spicy, a bit classical, a blend of so many different expressions

This song left me with a dream-like feeling and I hope it may also make you dream :)

Work hard or work smart?

Today I made this reindeer,  I was craving a painting of eyes and some critter and as often times I could not resist a little paper cutting.

This is partially inspired by a Polish tradition in where they hang up paper cut outs on the walls, from a string.
When I made my first wall paper cut I found it hard to hang it from the string so I added a cute paper tag at the end of the string, that's what the birdie on the left is for.

The brown sideways eyes are of my "Enana amarilla" (yellow dwarf) she's my only framed drawing and I use her glass for a paper-cutting board!

I hope soon to get my hands on one of those awesome self-healing mats.

Which brings me back to what I was thinking right when I finished making this:

How to make this practical or marketable?
As much as I wish I could throw myself completely into my every whim I have to make a living first.

So in terms of marketing and trends I  thought of Christmas tree ornaments that I would like to have myself,  adding 2 strings or ribbons, instead of one to tie the reindeer from a bow would look much nicer.
That's why now there are a birdie and heart in the photo below, one for the end of each string..

I also began wondering how many of these I would need  and want and how much I could pay to get a bunch of them, (or similar items) and I'm thinking it may be wiser to print giclées and adapt them as an ornament because making each individually would send the price through the roof. At least for me.

I want to make these and others in every possible color. But first I have to find out how and where to print them and how much that costs,
Sometimes I really wish I had someone to help me out with advice on this matter. This morning I was thinking I should only sell prints at my shop! Then it would be more affordable and I would pretty much always be stocked!
If you've been through this I would really appreciate your input :)