Relay for Life

My Reason to Relay

Honestly, I avoided joining the team last year till the last minute, because it hit a little too close to home at the time. I wanted to live in a state of denial, pretend it wasn't real. But that's how cancer wins: when we pretend that it isn't worth acknowledging and fighting against. And so, in the end, I decided to go, and I'm so glad I did. It helped me cope and find hope. My only regret is that I did not get a chance to raise $100 or more, so let's change that this year! Cancer hits close to home for everyone, and so I hope you will help me out.

Every person who donates, no matter how small the donation, will receive a 1-1.5 inch crocheted heart or awareness ribbon in the color of their choice (colors are listed in the 2nd picture on this event's page) handmade by me to put on their key chains or backpacks as a little thank you gift and reminder that you're doing a great thing. You have two ways to get it from me; either hand-delivery or with a letter in an envelope (send me your address in an e-mail!). For hand delivery: If you live in the Bay, I will get it to you during Spring/Summer Break, and if you live around LA, I'll deliver it sometime during this school year. Just keep in touch and let me know what color/type of thing you want, maybe in an email or FB message (or if you want my number and don't have it yet, message me too)! And if you would rather not have anything at all, tell me. I just really want to be able to raise $100 or more this year, and so I want to use the skills I have to thank you so that it's a win-win situation for everyone!

Donate here: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/LindaF  

Thanks so much! <3 Linda

Questions? Email me at littlewillowart@gmail.com.

If you want to see more of my crochet work, go to littlewillowart.etsy.com.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Once again, my friends and I are planning a party this weekend-- this time, for Valentine's Day! Any excuse to celebrate the end of midterms is fine by me. To prepare for the party, we decided to make goodie bags. My contribution was teeny crocheted hearts.

Aren't they adorable? I wish I had time to photoshop them a bit, but alas, it is four in the morning and I have yet to finish a 7 page paper as well as study for my Italian midterm tomorrow. Sigh!

For those of you who want to make your own cute little hearts, use this tutorial! It's super simple compared to other heart tutorials I've seen out there-- I made one every 6 minutes, and I'm a slow crocheter! The only difference between what I did and what they did was that I used embroidery thread so that the hearts would turn out super tiny compared to the original version! Love the pastel colors, and I can't wait for everyone to see 'em!

Sorry for being MIA, but it looks like school's going to be my first priority, so I'm going to be posting whenever I can, but expect to hear from me sporadically!
<3 Linda

The Ultimate Guide to Finding Your Own Artistic Style

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my own work, and I've come to the conclusion that I just haven't figured out what my "style" is yet. When I draw, I allow my idea to develop however it wants to, which isn't a bad thing, but has resulted in my work not looking cohesive. So fear no more! I have searched far and wide and come up with a definitive list for all of us who have been struggling with putting a piece of ourselves into our work.

Find a medium you love. Even for people who love experimenting with all mediums (like myself), it's important to find one or two hobbies that really get you excited. Once you are famililar with the medium, it'll be easier to dig down and do something innovative. However, if you have already found your "thang", stick to it but continue to push the bounds every so often. Who knows, you might stumble across something else that you really like to do! Try not to go too overboard, though, because that could result in feeling overwhelmed. Baby steps!

Gain inspiration, but stay away from imitation. Go to Etsy, Deviantart, Pinterest, or Tumblr to look for artistic inspiration. Are there any particular subjects or colors you like? Once you've looked through a whole lot of images, try to note which ones appeal more to you than others, or which ones inspire you to get creating straight away. When I'm done reading blogs everyday, I feel a renewed sense of motivation to begin working on my own projects. That's how I know what inspires me.

Experiment! Try new things. This is pretty much the key to most things in life. If you're looking for an answer, you've got to do something different than you've been doing before, or things will stay the same! Be the catalyst for change, and change will happen. It's as simple as that. It's a big step in developing your style, because you might come across something that sticks and is distinctive to you. Don't be afraid to fail, because there's nothing worse than being your own worst critic.

Consider what you want your portraits to say. What feelings do you want to invoke in a person when they look at your work? Do you want your pieces to be dark and conceptual, or light and fun? A touch of whimsy or a dose of reality? It's all lying on the table for you to decide. How can you convey your chosen qualities through your work? Once you have figured this out, try to create your desired look consistently.

Make it memorable. Creating a pretty design is nice, but won't set you apart. Gravitate towards things that will help you send a message or try to go for concepts that haven't been done before.

Ask for advice or look it up yourself. Let's face it, it's hard to get through this alone. Talk to friends, artists, entrepreneurs... practically anyone! Having a trademark style is important in most aspects of life, from fashion to business. If all else fails, seek the ever-so-wise Internet sages.

Helpful articles:

http://ask.metafilter.com/76657/How-do-you-find-your-artistic-style                           http://news.deviantart.com/article/42054/        http://www.finearttips.com/2010/01/finding-your-own-artistic-voice/

Be patient. I feel like reading all of these articles has helped, but I'm still at the beginning of a long road of development and transformation. And I'm completely okay with that. Elsie wrote a great post on how "It takes time (sometimes many years) to develop a vision and learn your "craft"...The more time you spend developing your skills and style, the better." And she's so right. 

It's all about learning and continuing to grow, right guys? :) Above all, do what you want to do, not what others want you to do.
<3 Linda

DIY: Board Game Piece Shrinky Rings

Hello hello! I was inspired to do a shrinky dink ring after reading this tutorial. Pretty, no? I've actually never used shrink plastic before, even though a lot of people used it when they were kids. I have a lot of board game pieces that go unused because they're leftover from old sets, so I combined them together to make a cute ring!

Materials:
Board game piece (I used an old checkers piece)
Shrink Film (I used clear, but any type is fine)
Sharpies or acrylic paint (many colors)
Newspaper
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Measuring tape/ ruler
Mandrel (or something cylindrical that fits the size of your finger)
Parchment paper, wax paper, or thick cardboard
Oven

Board game piece (The perfect size for a ring!):

1. Decorate it how you want to. Be as creative as you want! I free-handed it with a bunch of sharpie pens and did a cute floral! You can use paint too. If you're not the type to draw something, you can print an image and scale it down to size. I like the idea of an optical illusion ring with this pattern. If you want a floral print like mine, draw light lilac dots and surround them with fine-point sharpie lines to create teeny roses. Use a light green outlined in dark green for the leaves, and color in the background with light blue and pink stripes.

2. Surround the button with newspaper. Measure out the circumference of the board game piece and cut a rectangular strip of similar size. You can even pleat the paper so that more words are on the sides. Hot glue the newspaper strip to the button. Where the ends come together, you can cut a small section of newspaper, pleat it, and glue it on top to hide the ends.

Ring (You could always follow the tutorial posted above instead):

1. Measure the size of your finger on the shrinky dink sheet and double it. Approximate the width of the future ring you want and double that as well. For mine, I cut a 4.5 inch by 1 inch piece because I wanted a 2.25 by .5 inch piece.

2. Cut and curve the ends with a scissor so that they aren't all jagged and pointy.

3. Decorate the strip however you want to. Once again, I used sharpies, but paint works too. Test out different colors and see which ones you like.

4. Preheat the oven to 300. Pop that shrinky dink on a sheet of parchment paper or cardboard and throw it in the oven. 

5. Watch it; it will curl and then straighten. When this happens, pull it out and mold it to your mandrel after 5 seconds (since it'll be hot!). I messed up the first couple of times and put it back in to reheat and tried again. Don't let the ends touch! Once you succeed at getting a nice round shape to your ring, let it cool completely. I love the little air bubbles, although I'm not completely sure if that's supposed to happen...

Putting it together: 

1. Hot glue the board game piece to your ring piece, making sure that it's on the opposite side of where the ring ends.
2. Let it cool completely and you're done! (Sadly I don't have pictures at this step yet, my camera died during this DIY! Sigh!)

Tell me how it works out for you!
<3 Linda

Who's Going to Renegade?

I think the title speaks for itself. I went to The Renegade Craft Fair last year and it was amazing. I was so inspired by the beautiful works of each individual artist. I was introduced to Catia Chien (one of my now-favorite artists), saw the Red Velvet Art girls (as mentioned in a previous post), bought a print that I hung up in my dorm, and bought my first drawing journal (by Disconsolator)! I went with my friend Genna, and we made friends with two people who invited us to a party. We weren't able to attend, and I can't seem to remember their names now, but I learned it's definitely a good place to network with other artists, if you haven't visited before. It's also a great place to get lovely art for cheap while supporting handmade! I would highly recommend it. If you can't make it to the one in SF, they have other dates in Brooklyn, London, and Chicago, to name a few! I may just go down to the one in LA so that I can visit some friends down there.

Here's a picture of some of the things we bought/ gathered last year, to give you an idea of what's there:

See you there (possibly)!
<3 Linda