Blog Mentions! oh my!

I have been mentioned on a blog for the work I did on "The Quilt That Wouldn't Quit". I have never been mentioned on a blog before so I am kind of geeking out a bit. It is nice being recognized for your work. Here is the link:

http://blackthreads.blogspot.com/2010/03/quilt-that-woldnt-quilt-by-cynthia.html
Go check it out!

If you want to see all the illustrations for the book, plus a few concept illustrations for it you can go to my deviant art gallery here:

http://luksicreations.deviantart.com/gallery/#Quilt-Book-Illustrations

Cards! Lovely litttle Love Cards.

Like I said previously, these were supposed to be for Valentine's Day but hey, love is an every day thing and not a once a year thing so I decided to finish them and VOILA! They are block prints done with magenta speedball ink. The ink is the water soluble kind so it will run if it gets wet. Though it does stain your fingers for a little while. They came out a lot brighter than I thought they would so it was a bit shocking.  I like the designs though, so I think I will play with them as vector images and put them up for sale in the Zazzle store as well. These cards are going into the Etsy shop, hopefully in the next hour or so, definitely by the end of the day.

This is the first time I have done lino cut block printing in a very long time. It felt really good to dig into those blocks and scrape around. I always draw my design out first then transfer it on the block. I am too much of a control freak to just start cutting on those things without knowing where and what I am drawing. Also, you have to remember to do it backwards since it is basically a stamp. I think they turned out pretty well. I think the next batch will go smoother since I finally got the hang of it again.

One more thing, I received an extremely cute photo from one of my mom's co-workers, her boss really, and it is of his grand baby playing with one of my handmade teddy bears.
It is so cute and it made me really happy to see it being played with! Here is the photo:

I need to make more plushies. Have the ideas and the patterns made, just need more material!

Construction over and Cards!

I am a fast little worker bee when I want to get something done. I have some temporary slide shows up to show my work. I am using those until I can find better ones, maybe with flickr or someplace else. Most likely flickr, just need to get my stuff set up there and no time for that until this weekend. So enjoy the newness.

I have also been block printing cards again. Will get a post of those up in the next few days. Letting them dry so I can take photos of them. My fingers are stained magenta, it is a bit strange looking, almost alien like. It's more hot pink than magenta really. Very delayed love cards. I had intended to have them done for Valentine's Day but then life got a bit crazy so half got done and then I just now got to finish the rest. Love happens every day though so who says you can't make love cards any other time of the year! Will be sharing them by the end of the week and they will be up for sale in the Etsy shop. Going to overhaul that shop soon too. Need to be more descriptive and all that fun stuff. Back to work now!

Under Construction for a tiny while...

With all my stressing out about websites and portfolios on websites and blogs and all this crazy information which makes your head spin if you know absolutely nothing about HTML like I do (cause frankly, I never took the classes and even when I tried, it was like a foreign language to me), I FINALLY decided to figure out how to reconfigure my mess on here. How about that, amazing isn't it. Well I found out I can add pages onto my lovely little blog here and get my tabs set up and I don't have to move anywhere! YAY BLOGGER!!! I can't remember if it's always been that way, I don't think it has, but it probably has since I am not the most observant person in the world about this kind of thing. ANYWAY, I am rambling and what I am really trying to say is, SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

This place is being overhauled for a bit to make it more functional and not such an eyesore. Tabs have been made and information is being moved to those nice little pages I have made. Until all the info has been moved, the links to my hot mess will still be available over here on the right, or the left, depending on which template I have thrown it on. Sorry for the inconvenience, mainly mine, not like you guys care all that much. I shall now go celebrate with lemon lime soda and an aspirin. *swoosh*

Guess what's back

Back again, shoes are back, tell a friend. (Dork Alert engaged I know)

Anyway, I have new Hi Top Sneakers in the Zazzle store. I decided to have shoes again since they are now carrying Hi Tops. I had taken the previous shoes out. Here they are:

Sweets Hi Top Sneakers by LuksiCreations
See more Candy Keds Shoes

Bubble Hi Top Sneakers by LuksiCreations
More Shoes Keds Shoes

I think I am going to streamline the store a bit more soon. Plus I will be making custom hand painted shoes to put in the etsy shop too. Soon, I have lots of exciting things to make and share!

The One Man Hat Band

I decided to do my baby sister a favor and bead her man a hat band. It was supposed to be for Christmas, which he got to look at it but I hadn't finished it yet. It's now March, I just got it done last week, lol. So much for me being swift on this one. Granted though, I have to be in an emotionally stable place when I do any kind of traditional bead work. I can't bead when I am feeling crazy or for certain other reason I do not care to share with the population at large, kind of personal spiritual reasons that I just do not feel like explaining. Basically, when you are in a rotten mood, the beads seem to know and they will hate you for it and not do what you want them to then the item you are making is just going to be a source of frustration for you and you will resent it the whole time you are making it. This is why it took me so long, I didn't want to resent it. It isn't necessarily a pattern I would normally do, it is very different and one of a kind. Kind of like the person I made it for. He really is a great guy. So here is the hat band I made for him to wear with his cowboy hat. The photos are progressive and I made it with nylon thread, beeswax, seed beads (size 11), card stock, felt, and backed it with leather.






That's my son holding it for me. I think he would kill me if he knew I posted his picture somewhere, he is kind of shy lol.

Now that I have that finished I can start on another piece. Well several pieces actually. They will all be part of a traditional grass dance outfit for my husband. He is going to start dancing again and we are hitting the pow-wow circuit hardcore this summer so of course, he wanted brand new bead work. Here is kind of a sneak peek at it and a few pics of the beginnings of his cuffs:




Please, this is a family design so no stealing it. As in, everyone in my family has this on their regalia so if I see it on yours I will shame you out. You know what I mean. Use it for inspiration all you want, just don't blatantly rip it off. I will have some more updates soon, shoe related ones! EXCITED!!!