Filed under: clothing, design, favorites, friends, gift by ramune

Crystal Stilts – Departure

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My friend Dirk moved with his family to DC from Luxembourg three and a half years ago for a temporary work assignment and this past weekend his stay here came to an end and he moved back to Luxembourg. I met him two years ago when I was getting more interested in photographing abandoned places and have really enjoyed getting to know him and going out on photo-excursions with him. He will be missed but I fully intend on making it out to Luxembourg sometime to visit.

As a going away gift, a group of us decided to make him a t-shirt. There were several design ideas going around, but the one we settled on was a graphic of his face in a comic book “kapow!” style. Here is the original design I created and a photo of Dirk wearing the shirt. We had the design printed at CustomInk and were really happy with the results.

Filed under: design, food, gift, holiday by ramune

Mucca Pazza – Modutrongulous

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Where did December go? I was all wrapped up in family/holiday/travel craziness and never got around to updating my posts.

I hope the new year is treating you well so far. I spent my New Years Eve in Chicago cosmic bowling with family (there were more than 20 of us) and seeing Mucca Pazza (probably the greatest band to see on New Years Eve, and one of the greatest bands to see live). The following morning my sister and I were the support crew for my brother and cousins who ran the polar bear 5k and plunged into Lake Michigan. After photographing them, I stripped down to my bathing suit and went for a quick dip as well. It was cold. Crazy cold . . . 22F with a 20 mph wind (so it felt like 2F). My feet and hands were so numb when I came out of the water that my sister had to help me get my clothes back on. Although it is one of the more insane things I’ve done, I felt pretty great after thawing out.

We followed the insanity at my brother’s friends’ place, where his chef friend (who also ran and plunged) fed us with delicious (warm!) matzo ball soup. It was the perfect thing to eat after a freezing dip in the lake. That evening was my aunt’s wedding, which was full of good times, and now I am back to reality . . .

Before Christmas I jarred and designed labels for the “Lithuanian” cherry liqueur I made with my mother this summer/autumn from tasty farmers market sour cherries. Here is the result . . .

Filed under: card, commission, design, holiday by ramune

Ultrafox – Ice Skating

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Ultrafox – Ice Skating (Glacier Mix)

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Firstly, I posted two versions of the same song because I still can’t decide which version I like better, so why not share them both . . . Secondly, I present to you this week’s project. I wish I could say these are the cards I am mailing out this year, but they are not. They are actually an office holiday card I was asked to design. They were pretty specific about what they wanted (lone tree in a snowy field with the company logo as an ornament hanging off the tree), and I was pretty excited to do it since this is something I’ve had in my mind for a a few years. They chose the top version (all white) over the version with the black trees. Normally I don’t post “work” stuff, but I like how this came out, and it’s a look I want to continue to develop. Enjoy!

Filed under: design, doodle, enamel, jewelry, process by ramune

The Shins – Sea Legs

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Well friendlings, it’s been two years and I’m still here . . . plugging away at a project a week, or something like that. Thank you to those who have dropped by and commented or silently perused through my projects. Thanks also to those who were patient and collaborated with me, I would like to do more projects with friends in year three. This might be a good time to mention that on the right side of the page you can send me suggestions for new projects, since I like a challenge and also run out of ideas. Back to this week’s project . . .

A while ago, a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless for the time being) asked me if he could commission a cloisonné pendant for his significant other. He wanted something that was Art Nouveau inspired and that included vines and floral elements. These are the four sketches I came up with that were both Art Nouveau inspired and true to my style. In other words, not only will he and the recipient hopefully like them, but I will too and it’s always nice to like what you’re making (please don’t ask me to enamel a portrait of you and your cat . . . I won’t do it). The sketches are a bit light, but the colors on the actual piece will be much more vibrant and all the black lines will actually be silver.

During the coming weeks I plan to post my progress on the design he chose. I was hoping to get a decent amount done this week, but because my materials were not what they were advertised to be, I ended up wasting 3.5 hours trying to figure out what was wrong and eventually had to admit defeat. Now I have ordered new silver (from a different and more trusted vendor) and hope that things go smoothly from here on out . . .

Filed under: design, doodle by ramune

Fujiya & Miyagi – Dishwasher

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I like subtlety, paper-cuts (not the kind you get on your fingers) and the computer. More on this later . . . for now here are some new changes to my earlier posted original. I am pretty sure I have a long way to go before I get this where I want it, but this will have to do for today.

Filed under: design, doodle by ramune

Helios – Coast Off

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This image is not done. I was fiddling with it a bunch and not getting the results I wanted, so I figured I could post what I had and will save the rest for tomorrow . . . It might look familiar.

Filed under: design, favorites, friends, paper by ramune

A few weeks ago my friend Vaiva and I dropped by Philly for a night to visit our friend Rasa and help with any wedding planning/decompressing/relaxing. One of the things we did that day was help come up with themes for the tables at the wedding. After a few duds it was decided that the theme would be different kinds of leaves. I volunteered to make the leaves and the seating chart for the wedding and I am pretty excited with the results. At one point I sent Rasa a text message with a photo of the first two leaves I had cut and she asked if they were real.

The green leaves were for all of the guest tables and the gold leaves were for the head table.

In total I hand cut 39 leaves out of card stock. It was fun and completely worth it even if my wrist was screaming a few times during those spiky leaves.

Two of my favorite (and most difficult/time consuming) leaves to cut were the sycamore and chestnut leaves. Please excuse the distracting blur used to protect the innocent (and not so innocent).

I am not sure who suggested it or if it was a joke at first, but the leaf chosen for the head table was an Ent leaf. This posed a challenge because there is no one Ent leaf (well, there is no such thing as an Ent either . . . or is there?) and I didn’t want to make it too cheesy.

Len the Oak Ent

Rasa the Maple Ent

The seating charts were posted on a column in front of the garage (the reception was in a tent in the driveway and the food was served from a nicely disguised garage).

The centerpieces came together quite well I think. The wood bases were made by Aistis (a fellow friend of the family) and the Krupnikas (Lithuanian honey liquor in the little bottles) was made by my friends Vaiva and Aleksa earlier this summer when we were in Philly.

Since I was in the wedding I didn’t take too many photos, but I managed to get a few here and there. It all came together so well considering all the stress involved. Rasa planned the entire wedding herself with help from family and friends. The ceremony and reception were both at her parents’ house and her catering company catered the event. Those of us who were there before the wedding, from the locals to those who came a week to a few hours before, all helped out in the kitchen, setting up and doing pretty much anything else that needed to get done. All in all, it was a fantastic time!

Filed under: collaboration, design by ramune

My portfolio!

Since I am constantly looking for work now and (thinking of) applying to grad school, I figured it would be a good idea to have a physical portfolio. I also happen to have a wonderful resource called my (amazingly talented book binder/conservator/master of all things book and paper related) sister. Together we worked on a few ideas that were both professional and unique to my style. She sent me some links to materials and I came up with a few digital mock ups and picked out the leather (please refrain from splashing red paint on my portfolio). This was the winning design and I am happy with how it turned out . . . now I need to fill it and rework my website so they work well together. This design can also be seen in quite a few of my fig.ments pendants.

My name embossed on the portfolio spine

My original design/mock up of the portfolio

Filed under: design, jewelry, process by ramune

It hit me this morning that I only have three more enamels classes left for the Winter session. No worries though . . . our class was postponed so many times that the Spring session starts only two weeks after my last class . . . phew! How I long for a large studio in a barn in the middle of nowhere with a teleporter to a nice city loft. I can dream, can’t I?

I will work on those plans (and you work on developing that teleporter for me), but in the meantime here I am preparing some copper discs to be etched. I need to get better at focusing when I can’t actually look at the viewfinder.

Filed under: collaboration, design by ramune

This year my brother decided to take on the challenge of running the Chicago Marathon. The last time he planned to run it he broke his ankle several months before the race (ouch!). I had only been to a marathon once before and had a great time supporting not only my friend Ashley but the other runners as well. This year since a whole slew of my family members were planning on coming out I decided to design shirts and print them myself. I figured it would be fun for everyone involved.

The first step was to get the design done. After talking to Ashley about it she suggested I do something with cowbells since she had bought cowbells for her support team when she ran the Philadelphia Marathon last year. I had worked on several ideas along the Christopher Walken SNL skit theme (if you haven’t seen it, you are missing out on a classic), talked to my brother about it and he [being the excellent artist/illustrator/(insert other creative things here) that he is] came up with the idea of a cow coming at you with a bell bopping it over the head. He is a much better illustrator when it comes to things like this so he did the sketch and sent it to me (last minute).

My brother’s sketch for the t-shirts

As much as I loved the sketch of the cow that my brother sent me, I wanted to sharpen it up and smooth out the lines. I have come to realize that I really love vectorizing (don’t think that’s a real word) files and making all of the lines nice and smooth, point by point. It’s probably something that other people find tedious and time consuming but I find it calming and therapeutic in some strange way. Here it is below all cleaned up. The screen-printing project will be coming up next . . .

My vectorized touched up version of the t-shirt design (notice that is says MMVII and not MMVIII . . . a mistake I almost missed too late)

Screen shot of the vector points