A tote for summer days

Last week I tried out stencil printing and i have to say, it's pretty darn easy and fast. Sketch, cut, ink away! I printed over a meter of fabric in preparation for this cute tote bag.  As you can see, I'm discovering a very feminine side of myself that I never knew I had. Flowers? Baby blue? You must be joking! But alas, now I think it's cute.

I had found the patterns online from The Long Thread, a lovely source of inspiration with sewing tutorials. For those who wish to also create such a tote, be mindful that steps 3 and 4 appear to be reversed and inserting the lining is easier done by creating a tube (inside out) and then reversing it to right side out before attached the bag's two sides together. Confused? I apologize, my lack of sewing terminology is keeping me from explaining this with any coherence.

So, with a little tote bag, we're all ready for summer days spent by the pool, the beach, the park or wherever else the warmer days may bring you.

The cutting of the ribbon (in cyberspace)

My Etsy store is open! Yay! Hurrah! So exciting! The ribbon has been cut and now it's shopping time! Please imagine many people milling about, nibbling on cheese and sipping wine while perusing my lovely products and buying lots of aprons.

*Ching, ching, ching* I feel like I should say a few words...ahem, first off, thank you to everyone who has supported me over these past months of hard work, soul searching and reinvention of myself. Friends, family and yes, even my new Twitter/Etsy colleagues have made all this so much fun and much more enjoyable.

For those who are unfamiliar with Etsy, it is an online commerce website filled with all things handmade, vintage and supplies to make more wonderful handmade things. When you're tired of the mall, Etsy is a great place to find cool, nifty items.  Plus, it's super easy  and provides hassle-free purchasing. Etsy is an incredible community of hard working individuals, all doing something with passion, dedication and hard work. I know this, because believe me, it might look easy (all those pretty colors and cute things throw you off) but trust me, "handmade" is a synonym for long nights, dining rooms turned into sewing studios, and paint stains and paper cuttings on the living room floor. There is no Crtl + Z in handmade! You either love it, live with it or start from scratch.

Needless to say, I think everyone deserves a unique apron.  And what do you know, Mother's Day is coming up. There's birthdays and wedding presents and even Easter (hey, better late than never and why not give presents at Easter?). The aprons pictured are just a handful of the ones printed. There are plenty where they came from!

Once again, thank you for your continued support and enjoy the cheese and wine (in your mind!)

Enjoy!

Printing, printing, printing

So, to celebrate that the Vespa has been brought out from its winter storage I thought it was an appropriate image to try out stencil printing. Also, I needed to get away from my regular screen printing extravaganza.

There’s something fantastic about printing which I believe comes down to all those tedious steps I so criticize. You start at one point, presumably with an idea. Then, perhaps you sketch it on a pad of paper, and with that it changes. Your idea becomes a reality and the lines aren’t quite what you had imagined but a version of them. You correct, amend and finalize the sketch to your liking. Again, it has changed. In the case of stencil printing, you would then cut out the design from card stock or, as in the images here, from a plastic sheet. Again, the design changes as the exact-o knife slips or your hand wobbles. 

By the time you add paint, fill out the empty space and lift the plastic to reveal the final print your idea has morphed into a beautiful creation. It is somehow removed from you personally, making it easier to look at it objectively. 

For me, because I am my own worst critic and I’m exceedingly hard on myself, I enjoy printing, in whichever form, because of this objective view. The final creation is a version of my original idea but I like it even more!

A Handmade Stamp

As you may have noticed the Little Viking is gone. Last I heard she's out biking somewhere in the sunshine, drinking beer and trying to prove that the earth is indeed flat. In any case, you can't trust Little Vikings with your business.

So, I guess it's just you and me now.

I'm back to creating a logo/stamp for my products with the new shop name, You & Mia. I decided the best way to get a truly handmade feel is to, well, make it by hand. Go figure.

Linocut is pretty self-explanatory.  You do need to pay attention though or you may inadvertently cut out the wrong part of the pattern. Also, keep your free hand behind the cutting tool. It's easy to accidentally jab your hand as the tool slips out of the linoleum. Not a nice feeling. The natural thing to do is to mark the linoleum with your design and carve out the marks, only to realize you want to carve our everything else except the markings. It's that whole negative/positive print thing. Don't be confused. Just look at the photos below.

ABC's of Biking Tuning

It's Spring, which means Summer comes afterwuuuurds and that means beach, bikini, longer days and shorter pants (also known as shorts). Perhaps you've been cooped up inside all winter and if you think the gym is an unmentionable institution of the modern world, then go biking outside. But, besides the exercise benefits, do you really need an excuse to bike? I really can't say anything negative about biking. I love it. So, for practical purposes I'm posting this How Tuesday video from Etsy because I realize not everyone knows how to tune their own bike (me included, ahem) and having a bike with functional breaks is a good thing in my book!

One step forward, 3 steps backwards

Well, I unveiled my fabulous line of aprons on Monday before a group of about 20 classmates and I think the overall response was positive. "Good colors", "nice patterns", "great hand made quality"...an all around "compelling presentation"  which included my Process video, 3 models and me blabbering.

But...yes, there's a but...no one agreed with my "Little Viking & Bike" shop name. At all.

Hm. I pondered momentarily whether it was worth it to argue against them in an attempt to explain my branding and image.

OK, yes, yes, I know! "Little Viking & Bike" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue and when you think of vikings you really don't picture a cheery girl on a bike, but perhaps more accurately a giant red-head with a horned helmet, possibly even running at you, yelling, swinging a large weapon. Fear is not really what I wanted to instill in people's hearts as they peruse my creations of love.

Fine. I will change my "shop name". Just when I thought I was about to launch my crafting career.

No one said branding and creating a logo and coming up with a style guide, a shop name and a "look" was going to be easy. This is why you hire a team of marketing specialists, a logo designer, a webmaster and a business guru. 

But alas, these "luxuries" are beyond my reach for now.

I did, however, call upon some friends for advice on how to shift away from "Little Viking & Bike" and over to a name that associates it all to me. There's no more hiding! With "Little Viking & Bike" I felt more at ease and the whole experience was somehow removed from me personally.  And yet, I was able to break down, in themes what it all stood for: me! Recall my blurb:

"Little Viking & Bike" is me! Viking stands for traveler, discovery, merchant, adventure. (Uhm notice I don't mention the usual viking activities of attacking and pillaging of villages, let's just say I'm skipping that part). The bike is my main mode of daily transportation. It's fun, eco-friendly, healthy, sporty and it gets me outside, rain or shine! Little Viking & Bike represents all this (aforementioned fun, healthy, adventure, etc.) and I try to incorporate it in my designs.

"Mia Prints" "Mia Design" 

"Mia Studio" "Made by Mia"  

"Mia Mania"

"Stuff Mia Makes" "Mia Land"

"Mia the Viking" "Mia is Awesome"

Gah!

 I finally went with You & Mia, which came from my good friend, Simon. I like You & Mia because of the fun play on words and it makes it almost impossible for someone to mistakenly pronounce my name Mah-ya when it is in fact Mee-ah.Who says "Mah-ya" you ask? Believe me, those three little letters have been twisted and turned to come out in all sorts of manners. Don't even get me started on my last name!

So, one step forward and three steps backwards but I continue to learn and I haven't given up yet. I do sincerely hope that all this is somewhat amusing (perhaps in a comic way) to those who follow my (mis)adventures in my new found entrepreneurial world.

Tomorrow is  a new day.

The never ending Apron Journey

It now seems many weeks ago that I embarked on this Apron Journey. I set out to make 80 aprons, but due to some mathematical errors and my limited experience in sewing, I miscalculated how much fabric it would take to make a 55cm wide apron. And for those who, like me, do not know much about sewing, the answer is not 55cm. I should have added in the extra 1-2cm on either sides for the double folds that make the apron look nice and finished. OK, so now we know that. It takes at least 60cm to make a 55cm wide apron. So, I'm making 76 aprons. Three of them turned out as rejects, so the end result is 73 aprons. Not bad, for my first go at "mass production".

There's a great hand-made movement going on in the western world today. Community Markets are springing up everywhere and there's no excuse to buy factory-made if you wish for something with more character and story behind it. Etsy, Got Craft?, ArtFire, Made It, are just some of the few online stores and sources. I have perused these sites for months with a mixture of awe and (sometimes) a feeling of "hey, I can do that". 
 
I jumped into this venture head on, with both feet, flop! I did not think it would be easy, because if it were, everyone would do it (I mean more than those already on Etsy, Made It, Big Cartel, etc). But I thought it would be easier. I thought the hard part was behind me once the decision had been made to give it a go. But, so many steps! All the preparation! You cannot print and sew an apron (or anything else for that matter) on a messy kitchen table or on your way home on the bus or while watching TV on the couch. This is not knitting. No, screen printing and sewing and ironing and counting and measuring fabric and burning screens and re-stretching silk mesh, takes your full attention and requires some prep time before setting up. Gah!

 

Due to my lack of sewing skills/ knowledge, Little Viking & Bike has recruited an employee! Or perhaps he is an intern? Hopefully he's a volunteer. Maybe I should clarify this with him. In any case, he has already been awarded "Employee of the Month". I have the feeling he will also be the recipient next month. Below you can see proof of  why my new volunteer (really, who has overhead for paid employees nowadays?) has received the "Employee of the Month": hard at work, sewing away, both day and night.
 

 

So, my hat's off to all the crafts people out there. The dedication and hours of work is motivational to say the least. My Apron Journey is still going strong. I am determined.  I have a n Intern. Or was that a volunteer? And, as much as I complain about the multiple steps and preparation, I love it. I'm really not complaining, but merely explaining my deep fascination and expressing my awe at the other crafts people out there. I am truly amazed.

Spring is in the air

This weekend there was a birthday to attend. We needed a present. There was a blank t-shirt, a box of printing supplies, some creative minds and a determination not to go out in the rain to  shop.

What should we print? A frog! A bunny! A flower? A peace sign? The birthday girl was turning 11. What would she like? The possibilities are endless with screen printing and I'm finding the only way to get started is to just pick a topic, pick a pattern, pick a color, just make a decision and go with it. So, in true spring seasonal spirit, we settled on a flower.

We were short on time, the birthday was at 5PM, so we used the stencil method.  Using an exacto knife, the flower was cut out from plastic film. The butterflies were cut from a separate sheet. First, we printed the flowers. Each one is meticulously printed. For every color, the screen and the stencil is washed and dried. This is why I cut the stencils from plastic and not paper.The frame is re-taped to prevent paint to seep under the screen and paint is poured.

Using a hair-dryer to dry each print speeds up the process. This is also how we dry the frame between each print. 

In under 2 hours we created a unique, one of a kind birthday present.

Show & Tell again

Here's a new video showing how to reclaim your silk screen frames. You can read about screen printing and the various methods other people use, but sometimes I find I learn the best tips from watching videos. It's the little things that make the process easier and more efficient. For example, you can use pushpins on the corners of the frame to ensure the screen doesn't touch the surface when you're drying your emulsion-covered frame. Or, you can put a Pony Clamp at the edge of your frame to rest it between prints. This, and many other things I learned by watching people's videos. So, I of course hope that you also learn something from my Show & Tell videos.

Home Cooking

I learned to cook one summer when I spent 4 months living on my own. I was working at a hotel, Siemsens Gård, cleaning the rooms in the morning and then I’d return in the evening to dish wash at the restaurant. As though that wasn’t enough, on my days off I started working at the local camping site, cleaning there too. I was young and full of energy (apparently) and was very determined to make a lot of cash as I was heading off to university in the fall.

 

Scandinavian summers are incredible and summer evenings, well, they are amongst the most wonderful. It never really gets dark so there’s plenty of daytime to fill with activities and socializing and in my case, learning to cook.

I was living in my family’s lovely summer house and so I had access to all the cook books my parents used when I was growing up. It was funny to see the original source of my favorite dishes and how my mom had changed ingredients over the years or how my dad had sort of just switched stuff around in the recipes. 

It was there, at the summer house that I learned to make pizza from scratch. I can say, without a doubt, that this has been my most successful skill to learn. While in university I not only mastered this skill but I did it faster than the delivery guy could get to the house. Two large pizzas? 45 minutes? No problem. And even if I was slower, isn’t a homemade pizza so much better than delivery? My roommates seemed to think so.

There’s a reason why most people love their mom’s cooking and feels that there’s nothing that can ever comes close to the apple pie they grew up with or their mom’s version of the Thanksgiving turkey. It’s not that your mom is necessarily the best cook (although she might be) it’s the association of something wonderful linked to the food. I do realize that not all family dinners were equally cozy and lovey-dovey (recall the awkward silences, the sibling rivalry across the table) but I still believe that the majority of home cooked meals result in something positive. A cooked meal brings people together, creating conversation, building relationships, and hopefully, bonding people. Plus, there must be a reason why parties always end up in the kitchen: the food.

I would like to say that I always cook at home, but then I’d be lying. Who has time to shop for groceries and cook and do the dishes when there’s so much great TV to be watched? Kidding! But seriously, work, family, extra-curricular activities, commuting, seeing friends, hobbies, your favorite TV show (is that really an excuse?), all of it can get in the way and make us think that it’s easier to hop in for a bite to eat at your local café, shawarma house, sushi place, pub, (depending where you live in the world). Unless you are single and you have no kids, this cannot be the most economical route to take, much less the healthiest. And I’m not even sure if it is that economical when you’re single. Economics aside for a moment, cooking a meal can seem a wee bit daunting for those who have trouble boiling water. But fear not, in today’s great world, we have Jamie Oliver! 

I don’t quite agree with or like everything Jamie cooks, but I love the way he presents it; very easy; very user-friendly. Jamie has an entire website dedicated to home cooking. How fitting to this topic, don’t you think? He explains everything, from how to prepare artichokes, to how to chop an onion while still keeping all 10 fingers. There are some great dishes worth trying out and for those who’ve just learned to boil water there’s an easy recipe, Fried Eggs on Toast.

So, roll up your sleeves, wash your hands and get cooking! Oh, and don’t forget to wear an apron*.

More on aprons later.

Show & Tell

India Block Printing

Less thinking, more doing!

I'm currently completing a Certificate in 3D Design at the wonderfully inspiring Emily Carr University of Art & Design.The school is situated on Granville Island, which is not an island at all, but a peninsula, filled with artisan's stores, art galleries, a public market with locally grown veggies, terrific restaurants and basically everything and anything one could need to fill a whole day of "touristy" activities. I believe Granville Island is a good example of what the architect, Matthew Frederick calls "Denial and Reward" in which the built environment presents the user (that's you) "a view of their target - a staircase, building entrance, monument or other element - then momentarily screen it from view as they continue their approach. Reveal the target a second time from a different angle or with a interesting new detail. Divert users onto an unexpected path to create additional intrigue or even momentary lostness; then reward them with other interesting experiences or other views of their target."  Granville Island is very much like this, creating a playful place to wander and discover no matter what your age.

But I digress...I was writing about art school.

The building complex of Emily Carr University of Art & Design is built by Patkau Architects. Concrete, glass, and metal come together to create a great space to work and be creative in. There's a bit of the "Denial and Reward" concept in the building's design. Hallways lead to balconies overlooking open spaces. From the library you can see the South building. Interior windows gives you a view into workshops and tool sheds down below.  The main entrance gallery space is constantly changing, keeping you engaged every time you enter the school.  My current class, "The Business of Art Practice" lead by Chris Tyrell was the push I needed to get a blog started and actually produce, not just think. As inspiring as the Emily Carr building may be, thinking can only get you so far. For months I've been thinking, conspiring, pondering, wondering, dreaming...

Snap out of it: Less thinking, more doing! Who would've thought less thinking was a good thing?

The class, in a nutshell, is about how to turn your art into your career.  And who better to teach this than Chris Tyrell? Author of Artist Survival Skills and the upcoming Making It, Chris knows what he's talking about. (On a side note, Chris is about to embark on a walk from Paris to Montpellier. Yes, that's right, he's walking the entire way.  Talk about less thinking, more doing! To read more about this fantastic adventure, go here). So, as I was saying, of course not all 25 students will have the same life goals but Chris manages to weave in and out of topics that pertain to us all. Everything is covered, from taxes to entering galleries, to writing grants and applying to artists' residencies. Marketing, promotion, artists' health, insurance, sales, financial growth (or lack there of), it's all covered. After just the second class I got my groove in gear. There was no Step 1, Step 2 type of procedure but I felt that I could sit still no longer. I bought 20m of "shoe canvas", 160m twill tape, new needles, 3 new large frames, paint, a large squeegee, a bucket of emulsion and a great pair of fabric scissors. 

My plan was to make aprons. Many aprons. Mass-production. And by "mass" I mean a whopping seventy-six aprons! That's a lot considering the most I've ever made is five. I like the idea of aprons because it's a tool. I mean, who wears an apron unless it's because you're cooking or crafting or painting, etc? So, it kept in line with my "functional" design concept.
Will I succeed and turn my art into my career? Well, first I need to stop giggling when I say "my art". People make a living doing the strangest things, so why not screen printing on aprons? At this point, whether I succeed or not is secondary as I have already succeeded at one thing: I am giving it a shot. I jumped right into all of it and so far it's been great fun. If the world revolved around me, which, much to my dismay I discovered a few years ago that it does not, but if it did, then I would screen print aprons and pillows for babies and their parents, messenger bags and totes for bikers and tea cozies for grandmas and other wonderful creations and I would be content with "my art".

Connecting the dots

As with most people, I am drawn to a variety of things, liking this, that and the other.  I go through stages of fascination for a certain sport, a certain item in my closet, a type of food, a political persona or a TV show, then with the change of season something else catches my eye and I become slightly obsessed (for lack of a better word) with my new found love.  I always think my obsessive loves are independent of each other, each existing on their own, flowing in and out of my life. And yet, somehow they are all connected.

I came across the video below, available on the Marimekko website and I couldn't help but smile. To me, this fantastic little video reminds me of my other big love, experimental film. Hands down, Canada's Norman McLaren is my favorite. Without the use of a camera, McLaren created a unique animation style: wobbly lines, and dots that take on a personality, chasing each other across the screen. I am fascinated by the emotional effect these sounds and simple lines and dots have on the viewer. How is it possible for something so visually simple to make the audience laugh?

 

Although I cannot express in words the precise connection and why I am drawn to both Marimekko's large, colorful prints and McLaren's animations, surely one can see the similarities when they are presented as in the videos above.