Sunday, October 31, 2010

Ice cream and chocolate

Work in progressWork in progressAll my good friends know how much I love ice cream. I almost always have ice cream at home. And alongside chocolate,  it is my number one weakness! I can never ever say no to ice cream (and chocolate). So of course I was super delighted when my favourite magazine asked me to do some ice cream drawings and collages for them. Oh yay! Only problem is, it makes me think of ice cream all the time! So fun but not such a good thing for someone like me!

So, ice cream aside, I'm a big time chocoholic too. I 100% identify with this post of Anna's. These days, Woolworths, Big W and IGA all have my favourite Cadbury bars on sale. 2 for $5! So bad, very bad. I have been trying very, extremely hard to gather my brain's worth of willpower and tell myself not to cave in and buy any chocolate or ice cream. Stress makes me eat a whole bar of chocolate. Yes a whole big bar. Not the tiny one serving bar. My brain thinks that's kid-size. It wants to go for an adult-sized bar, which means the entire big bar. Not good!

I've been trying to not eat any ice cream or chocolate at all. So far so good. I think the last ice cream I had was last week? And the last bit of chocolate was a small teeny baby block my friend offered me. It was small and super tiny, it wasn't even kid-size. It was more like a new-born baby size. My brain wants more, but my muffin-top says no.

Spring roll night

Vietnamese Spring Roll NightVietnamese Spring Roll NightVietnamese Spring Roll Night
I've been so busy with work and so dinners have been a bit crazy weird and sometimes strange-tasting. But over the weekend, I decided to treat my taste buds a little and we had homemade souvlaki and vietnamese spring rolls. They are so easy, healthy and most of the stuff's raw. Surely,I can prepare chopped lettuce, onions, noodles, rice paper, boiled prawns, basil, mint, shredded chicken and tomatoes in under an hour right?

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Sitting in the sun

Sitting in the sunSitting in the sun
I have a gazillion things to do and this morning I woke up earlier than usual, stressed and panicky again. ( 3rd day in a row! ) I was feeling all bummed out and not in the mood for any work at all. The sun was so nice and inviting. So I decided with a chair and cup of iced water, to sit outside on my little sunny plant-filled balcony with some work. And guess what, an hour later, I'm done with two of the urgent tasks I needed to do! Oh and I'm a shade darker too. I'm thinking sunshine does some good to my brains!

Have a nice weekend! Hopefully it'll be sunny and everyone can get some nice warm sun!

Oh and thanks for all the lovely emails and comments about my dish cloths! I made only 12 and they're pretty much all sold/pre-ordered already. So I ordered another 21! More on that soon!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Guess what came in the mail?

Dish Cloth/tea towel!Detail shotDishcloth/tea towel!Amazingly printed tea towels! With my art on it! I was so excited when Darren handed them to me. There was a bit of an 'ahhh and oooh-ing'. I must say, I am pretty amazed with the quality of printing! The print out is exactly the same as my original drawing. Hooray! These tea towels, came in the mail yesterday. A whole 3 yards worth! I spent a good part of my day in the studio cutting it up and preparing each piece carefully for sewing. I need to hem the sides nicely, minus the yellow border, which were just there so I know where to hem, and pack each individual one neatly along with the recipe!

I was just cutting them yesterday, and five of my friends/lecturers saw them and immediately made a pre-order. Hooray! So I'm left with 7 which I will be selling at MARKit on the 28th November. Looks like I will need to order some more! I was thinking $28 might be a little expensive for a tea towel. But people who've seen it says it's cheap and that I should make it more expensive, considering the plain good quality ones at the supermarket are already $20! Well, I'd like to think my art can be placed in anyone's home, so I prefer if it's an affordable price. I think they make good presents one can buy for their girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, mum, dad, child, friend, the list goes on!

Anyway, I posted a picture of it on twitter yesterday and some have asked if they could pre-order for christmas. So yes!
Each tea towel is $28 USD, and they're printed on Linen-cotton Canvas. *Machine wash warm or cool, using phosphate-free detergent. If you would like one, just shoot me an email at dawntanwenyi@gmail.com, and we can arrange to make payment via paypal. I'll be able to send them out end November! Just in time for your Christmas giving!

I'm going into the studio later in the day to start hemming the sides! Oh Yay!
x

Monday, October 25, 2010

Nearing the end

Studio on FridayAlmost done!
I seem to have way too much on hand right now. Somehow I seem to not know how to say no to things. Anyway, I planted myself to my chair today and finished both my essays, and then dragged 3 big bags of stuffing to my studio, and planted myself there and finished sewing my huge fruit cake box. I am so glad to have finally finish sewing all my seven sculptures. I just have to stuff two of them with lots of stuffing and build platforms for all of them, and then I am done. Done!

I've been working on all my sculptures, 5, sometimes 7 days a week, for almost a year now. They are so much fun to sew. But at times, I find myself going crazy just looking at them. Lots of needle pricks, effort, money and love goes into each sculpture. And today when I was finally done with my last sculpture, I sat in my chair looking at all them. I'm not sure why, but I felt this sudden bit of sadness in me. I started wondering if anyone else other than myself, would love them as much as I do, and buy them, considering they're huge and not your typical on-the-wall sort of art. All of them will be on sale at really affordable prices, during my graduation show ( which opens on the 22nd! Come say hi! ). These sculptures have, over the months, become such great company. I often give them hugs, I fall asleep on them while sewing sometimes. I eat my lunch while they sit quietly beside me. I am really crossing all my fingers, toes and strands of my hair and hoping they'll go to nice new homes. I'm hoping someone would love them as much as I do, and bring them home, so they can smile whenever they see them.

PS: North Melbourne Market was so much fun. I took some pictures. Darren helped by mending and buying nice flowers for our little stall. Thank you Darren! And thank you to those of you who came and said hi. It was so nice meeting you all. Oh and my etsy shop's now stocked with several new prints and a new 2011 calendar.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Tomorrow tomorrow!

etsy shop update tomorrow!
I forgot to take photos of my mountain brooches and bag pins during the day so I'll only be listing my recipe drawings instead! I will have 6 different recipe prints up for sale. And my little shop will reopen at around 8pm Melbourne time. It looks a little lonely right now, with no items at all. But I made a new banner though. I think it makes my little shop feel happier in preparation for nice summery weather. Oh and don't forget, I'll be at the North Melbourne market tomorrow! My luggage's all packed with prints, pins, tapes, books, and pretty things that'll make my booth look cute. Come say hi if you're in the area! Lots of other nice lovely people selling pretty crafty stuff!

See you!
x

Edit: Shop is now stocked with new food prints! Yay ; )

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pie
Oh yum. I haven't been able to find/spot any condensed milk caramel at the supermarket yet. Need to look harder I think. The recipe looks too easy to not make me want to try it. And yes, this will be made available as a print when I have my Sunday shop update! Th original will be for sale too.

Have a lovely Friday + weekend everyone!

To Market To Market!

Hi there!
Just a teeny reminder that I'll be at the North Melbourne Market this coming Sunday! The market falls on the same day as the Spring Fling Festival, so there's going to be lots of people and fun action happening in the North! I will be selling lots of new recipe prints. They'll make nice christmas presents I think. If you can't make it to the market because you're living in a different country, state, don't worry, I will be having an etsy shop update on Sunday night, perhaps sometime around 8pm Melbourne time.

See you then!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Shop update heads up!

Strawberry shortcake Calendar!
As we speak, copies of my calendar's being printed. it's pretty exciting I reckon. It's my first time making a calendar for sale! I will be doing a shop update on Sunday night, and this calendar will be available along with some other food recipe prints, their originals, and possibly some mountain brooches. This time round, all the recipe prints are all A4 sized, printed on cream coloured fine-tooth paper. They'll hang nicely framed in a kitchen! I will be hanging one in my own kitchen too.

More soon!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

test printsShop stuffPacking shop stuffMountain making
Spent 3/4 of my weekend working at home, watching Jurassic Park on the tele while making more mountain brooches, bag pins, prints and paintings to sell at this coming Sunday's craft market. I also managed to squeeze in time to work on an article that will be featured in a US magazine, and also collect my huge marshmallow bag and paintings from my show at Guildford Lane Gallery. So glad the show's over. Oh and I got a huge big bag of pillow stuffing from Penelope! It was so huge, it fit so snugly in the entire back of our car! Thanks Penelope!

All the pillows I've received from some of you, friends, readers, and nice strangers, have been going into nice yummy food sculptures. Mainly a tetley's tea bag, Kraft cheese and Uncle Toby's Muesli bar. Over the next few days, I will be going into my studio daily and working long hours to finish up my almost 3m tall Ritz Cheese cracker box, Yorkshire Pudding box and a big square fruit cake box. All the nice pillows and stuffing that I've yet to use, will go into these three sculptures. I'll promise to take some photos so you can all take a peek at what's been happening! But thank you so so much for all the pillow and stuffing! I think to date, I've gotten like over 30 pillows! Pillows aside, all the comments about my sculptures...It makes my heart swell to know that there's so much niceness in people! Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it!
x

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Thank you

Artworks ready to be delivered!New namecard taped onto doily
All of you are amazing! When I wrote my previous post, I wasn't expecting anything in return. But so many of you have since commented,emailed me personally, leaving me with such encouraging words. One after another. It really did made me feel so much better, knowing I have the support of so many of you. So thank you very very much. I guess it's a lucky thing I took home all my works and replaced them with 3 random drawings and my marshmallow bag. ( Had to put something into the show right? No way should I let the meanie win! ) I labelled everything not for sale, because I didn't want to have the meanie have 40% in case any of my works sold. Anyway, the very same night after I posted that entry, I sold the two photographic prints to a nice lady who owns a beautiful shop along Gertrude Street! It really came as a surprise and I'm really really thankful for it. Along with the two prints, I've also sold all 5 of my framed food recipe drawings to another lady who has the cutest dachshund! She sent me a photo along with one of her emails. Too cute for words! So yes, all 7 works originally made for the show, all sold. I think it's a first time that has ever happened to me. I am beyond elated!

The photos above show all the artworks nicely packed and bubble wrapped. It feels good knowing they're all going to good homes. Thank you Paula and Penelope! Oh and I made a new name card too. Nothing fancy. Whipped it up just before bed, within 30 minutes, while trying to fight the sleepy monster.

Monday, October 11, 2010

In all honesty

Horrible dayHonestly, I've never ever felt so horrible about a gallery before. Alright maybe just once, when I was angry with this gallery in Ottawa who didn't contact me for months and did the same to other artists stocking stuff at their gallery. Anyway, that is another story altogether. The thing is, I'm in this group show, along with 6 other talented artists. It opens at Guildford Lane Gallery tomorrow night. And I was really looking forward to it. I packed and 'dragged' a bunch of new works to the gallery this morning. ( They were heavy! ) And guess what? The gallery owner turned out to be this big meanie. Like seriously, big scary meanie.

We were only allowed to hang our works using the string wires he had at the gallery. No nails, no sticky tape, no blu tac, nothing at all. Even our work descriptions weren't allowed to be taped onto the walls. Honestly, which gallery does that? I know some do, but at least they're nice about it and assist you in all ways possible and help make everything look good right? But no, this silly guy just snapped at us and said no to everything. He didn't help us and when he saw some bits that were hung up he just said it looked bad and that he has been in the industry for so long, he knows what's good and that just looks bad. Like what the hell, if it's going to look bad, then just help us, stop snapping at us.

He was really crazy about how we were on the ladders and he got really angry when we were on the ladder alone. He was such a control freak and he made such a fuss about us using a penknife while at the table. We were really careful to not scratch his table. But there he was checking everything. Crazy dude. Apparently one of the artist checked him up on google and found lots of other stuff about him being racist and not sticking with his contract, changing terms at the last minute, making artists cry on their opening nights, and sexually violating his female gallery volunteers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We didn't know and just found out. So it was really too late for us to back out. On his website, it was stated the gallery only takes a 20% cut from works. But guess what? He told us 'Special rate of 40%!' The designers who were in charge of this exhibition told us he was a really nice guy but after everything was confirmed and stuff, he became such a mean person. Totally different from before!

Anyway, he was just really mean, and there was this one point he just snapped and stormed out of the gallery. At that point, I felt so horrid, I left the gallery too. I cried. All the way down Swanston Street, into Melbourne Central. I know. I'm such a lousy bummer. But I think as an artist, I shouldn't have to put up with his shit and 'degrade' my work by mounting my work onto styrofoam board and bull-dog clipping it to his silly wires. Can you imagine a nice archival large photo print with clips and a styrofoam back? Oh god. My frames were a no-good either. They didn't work and stay straight while hung on the wires. Apparently another artist asked for a platform to place his work and ended up getting told off with him saying 'I'd much rather you bring your own platforms'. I thought about stacking some crates up and propping my framed paintings on it. But the idea was just stupid, ugly and totally unprofessional. We weren't even allowed to blu tac our tiny little bios onto the walls. He suggested we staple-gun my friend's bio, onto her frame.

There was a dog at the gallery too and he demanded that we do not touch her at all. He asked me how old's my grandmother. I simply said she passed when I was really young so I don't know. He asked ' how old was she when she died?' I said I don't know. And he went on to say his dog's 17, so that's 102 human years. So at 102 I wouldn't want anyone to touch me. I mean, that's pretty rude I think. To ask when my nana died and say that sort of stuff. I think at 102, I would still want others to hug me!

Oh well, that aside, so much problems with hanging and stuff. In the end, I gave up, and took all my work back home. I know. So dumb of me. But I did just that. I was totally lost. I lugged all my works back home. I was honestly so pissed and so angry that so many artists have had to put up with his shit. And now it was our turn. I felt like I needed to bring the whole things up, and let others know about it so the same thing won't happen to other artists. I think all the crying and frustration made me realize how I shouldn't have to let him 'win' in this situation. Later on after lunch, I ended up bringing in 3 of my food diary drawings and my marshmallow sculpture. It really wasn't what I wanted but I'd rather have something up than nothing. I didn't want to give in to him. So yes. 7 works made specially for the exhibition, all sitting at home now. Nice. I feel like I've wasted a big deal of my time, but I guess, lesson learnt.

So yes, if you're an artist, illustrator and you're thinking of working, volunteering or exhibiting at Guildford Lane Gallery, please don't. I think we should all spread the word on this so no one else gets cheated by him.

Since this post, some who have worked/had shows there, have emailed me privately to let me know of similar or worse experiences. Hopefully if you've had bad experiences with them, knowing that others went through the same shit might make you feel better. We are all in this together and you are not alone. I think we should all stand up against him, spread the word and not let him carry on with his crazy antics. 

Saturday, October 9, 2010

What I bought at Finders Keepers

What I bought at Finders KeepersWhat I bought at Finders Keepers
Pretty hand printed fabrics from Harvest Textiles and Ink and Spindle.
What I bought at Finders Keepers
Sweet duckie measuring cups. They are porcelain and so precious!
What I bought at Finders Keepers
Darren bought me this beautiful sterling silver Victoria Mason necklace. It has a 'nice biscuit' on it, and along with the necklace, came a pair of cute hello earrings.
What I bought at Finders Keepers
And cute house shoes from Chimney! They're leather and hand made. So comfortable!

So here's all the nice stuff I bought from Finders Keepers. I went on Saturday. So so much goodness in one not-so-tiny shack! It was huge with over 150 stalls of amazing nice crafty stuff. I think I must have looked like a little kid in a huge ice cream shop. To be honest, it took me a while to get used to the massiveness. I saw so many lovely people there! Pip from Meet Me At Mikes, Penny from Pocket Carnival, Laura and Emma from Harvest Textiles, Lara from Ink and Spindle, Victoria Mason, Renee and Angela from Leeloo, Chris from Corky Saint Clair, Louise from Frankie Magazine, Belinda from Brkich, Susan from SpinSpin and the list goes on. Everyone's booths looked so cute! I also met a few other blog friends, Fiona, Penelope and Anna. So nice to have a quick catch up with you girls. Anyway, you should go check it out if you can. It's on today till 5pm! Happy shopping!

I know there's lots of links in this post. But I think it's only right I link to everyone. Hope that doesn't bother you at all!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Calendar Making

Making a Calendar for 2011InspirationSpent the whole day today making a nice little A4 Calendar, which will be available for sale soon. Mid November, or if all goes well, end of October! It was a bit hard deciding if I should have a sweet or savoury recipe drawing for my 2011 calendar. Miss Penny suggested something vegetarian. Being a 'meatarian' ( okay actually I eat lots of vegetables too. I love my greens, but yes, I'm a meat person ), I never really thought of that before. So thanks for the suggestion! I ended up going with a dessert so vegetarians can enjoy it too! A yummy whisked spongecake with strawberries and cream! I got the recipe from Jamie Oliver's magazine. I always love his recipes. They're pretty easy and fuss-free.
Sewing up some green peas
Apart from drawing, I've been sewing some green peas. Haha. Yes! They look funny. Green blobby bits. Haha. They're for my Yorkshire pudding sculpture. I'll post some photos next week!

For now, have a great weekend! To those who live in Melbourne, are you going to Finders Keepers? I am! I've been waiting three years for it to come to Melbourne. It's finally here. I'm so going, and nothing is going to stop me. Haha. Poor Darren will have to go 'girly shopping' with me too. Thank god he kind of likes these sort of crafty-type things too. So it won't be that bad for him. Haha.

Oh and as a nice Friday morning surprise, guess what I found? A write up feature on my art + me on Lifelounge! Awesome and so super funny. I had a good laugh to be honest. Thanks nice people at Lifelounge!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Table Today

Table todayBeen working on making new recipe drawings
I kind of divide my art life into two parts.
1. In my studio, where I make crazy human size sculptures and sew like a mad woman.
2. At home at my table, drawing and painting smaller scale recipe drawings. Sometimes I move to the living room, where I can sit in front of the television, in the sun, and watch Ellen and Oprah while I draw.

I think the way I work and separate my art-making into two different locations, makes it co-exist pretty well. I wonder how it's going to be like next year when I move and have to work, not to mention fit everything in a presumably-tiny room.

Anyway, my nice friend Jinghui, came over to work on her thesis while I worked hard making brooches and some new recipe drawings. We are both so stressed, three more weeks or so to deadlines. It's nice we can actually work together and motivate each other to concentrate on our own work. We worked on our design grad show about 4 years ago. I slept over at her place and we worked hard into the night. Haha. So much fun. We should do it again, only this time she'll be writing and I'll be drawing. Still fun I reckon! Miss Hui, please come over again soon! : )

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nice Mail Things

Washi Tape from HikiTote BagNice Mail ThingsSuch a horrible crappy day yesterday. I didn't even want to get out of bed and tried sleeping in as much as I could in order to avoid the day. But as usual, plan to sleep in failed. I'm a morning person. So it's always a bit difficult to sleep past 9am. Anyway, point is, I had a crappy day and guess what nice things came in the mail to cheer me up? Some nice gingham washi tapes from Hiki, and a pretty tote bag and 2 new Victoria &  Bird dresses from Amy! Oh my, Miss Amy is so talented, just look at all the dresses she's made! So super cute and according to my housemate, so slimming! Oh yay to slimming dresses with cute collars and a scalloped hem. Thanks Amy! Haha. I know what I'm going to wear to work today...

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Walking

WalkingMelbourne UniversityTrinity College
And so! My weekend was spent walking and walking and walking so much till my feet hurt! But in a good way I suppose. Remember how I said Darren and I were going to attempt to walk all the way from South to Savers in Brunswick and then back? Yes! Crazy as it sounds, we did it. I think it was over 15km worth of non-stop walking. But it was good. These were some photos I took while walking around. There were many more nice photo opportunities, but after a while, I got really hot and my feet were so tired, and I had to use almost all my willpower to focus on just walking, so let alone take photos. Haha.

Anyway, thanks for all the nice things you said about my brooches! I bought some nice Balsa wood yesterday. I will back those paper brooches up with balsa wood so they become nice and sturdy. I will be selling them on my etsy shop some time soon. As for the doily buntings, they seem to not work the way I want them to. So I'm scraping the idea. I really enjoy working with paper though, so maybe paper buntings will be a nice fun thing to make. I'll see how it goes!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Tiny Mountain Brooches

Making tiny mountain broochesMaking tiny mountain broochesI spent the whole of yesterday colouring, gluing, cutting and painting. These bits and pieces will be made into either tiny mountain brooches or bigger sized pins for tote bags and stuff. I will be selling them, along with some doily buntings, limited edition hand painted 2011 Calendar, some large original paintings, and my prints at two upcoming craft markets! First up, Thread Den's North Melbourne Market, which will be on the 24th October. And the second market will be Markit @ Federation Square,  on the 28th November, as a Craft Hatch/ Craft Victoria collaboration. Thank you Craft Hatch for selecting me to be the Craft Hatch representative! Yay! Hopefully everything turns out nicely. I'm working really hard to make all these nice bits of goodies, just in time for your christmas shopping! All, while struggling to finish seven huge sculptures for my graduation show, which by the way, is totally sucking the life out of me now. Haha. But in a good way I suppose.


Alright, off to a weekend morning breakfast! Darren and I will be attempting to jog/walk from the South (where we live) to Savers in Brunswick. And then back. I wonder if that's possible. I think so, considering how I once walked all the way to Northcote. Haha. We'll see and I'll let you know if our walk ends up becoming a 'let's give up and just take the tram' trip.