Storage, Inspiration, and Charm

(Quaint Handmaid)

In my studio you will not find shelves with neatly stacked boxes, all labeled and organized. You will not find vast shelving units, and large clear workspaces. You will be sure to find something so cluttered and horrific that I am not willing to share any photos or go into any further details. :) I will, however, share these inspiring images of what I dream of my craft room/art studio becoming someday!

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STORAGE UNITY

(Lovely Days)

Ah the vast shelving unit. It makes me so happy to see everything put away, when it actually has its own place. In my studio there is no such unit. But there are plans and dreams of making one.

(Zukes Us)

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"Tacked" and charm

(Zukes Us)


All art studios need an inspiration board. This is something I do have but it lacks beauty and charm. I dream of something that is beautiful even when nothing is tacked on it.

(Lovely Days)

(Quaint Handmade)

(pottery barn)

Fashion Friday: New Love

I don't claim to know a whole lot about fashion, in fact I am pretty naive about it. One thing I DO know is that I'd like to know much more about it than I do now. A few days ago I followed a link on Mer Mag out of curiosity, thinking it wouldn't really be my cup of tea, but ended up saving files and files of images I just loved! It really surprised me how many looks I adored.

Milly By Michelle Smith

I had become a little bored with my wardrobe and have now found a new hobby of looking at runway fashion shows for inspiration on how to mix up my existing wardrobe to be more interesting. It has been really fun and rewarding. Since I have so many beautiful styles saved up I will be posting more fashion love in the future. Enjoy your Friday every one! ;)

Featured Artist: Claire Mojher

Claire had just opened up her Etsy shop, Sunday, when I stumbled upon her beautiful work yesterday, via Etsy's Pounce feature. I took a look at her blog and saw even more beautiful art. I Truly loved every single piece! It was then I asked If I could feature her art in my blog, and she very kindly consented! Claire's art takes on many forms, hand drawn paper dolls, Original paintings, prints of paintings, original sketches, and digital works. Each one individually stunning yet they all carry the same emotion and beautiful drawing technique only Claire's' art has. “I tend to make an attempt at subtle humor in my more gloomy concepts.” Claire says in reference to her style and subject. She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design and is currently working as a designer at American Greetings World Headquarters. To see more of her work and visit her Etsy shop take a look at these sites- Etsy Shop, Blog, Web Site

Lorajeans magazine, “Where do you live?”
Claire Mojher: Near the blustery shore of Lake Erie is where I find myself living at the moment, in Rocky River, Ohio. I share an apartment with my boyfriend, John, who is also an illustrator. Originally, I was born and grew up in Central Florida, but I didn't appreciate the Sunshine State until I moved to Ohio. Although I love the true change of seasons up here, I miss the lush, humid green of my hometown.

Lorajeans magazine: “What inspires you to create?”
Claire Mojher: Actually, I'm known among my coworkers to be the girl with "stuff all over her walls." I'm an avid collector of visual reference. Every surface of my office at work, except the floor, is simply covered in paper squares and rectangles of things I've gathered over the years. I try to change it out every once in a while to keep my ideas fresh. I know that when I've stopped "seeing" the reference around me that it's time to take it down and pin up something new. I was actually featured in an article of the magazine Marie Claire for my "elaborate" office decor. My inspiration comes from antiquated book illustrations, Victorian photographs, children's stories, album art, theater posters, brand new outsider art, etc. Basically anything I immediately love. Sometimes, it's difficult to say why I'm attracted to a specific thing - it could be a pattern that sparks an immediate idea, or the suggested story behind an unusual portrait, or an astonishing combination of colors. I also tend to get very complex and offbeat ideas from music, usually from lyrics, but also occasionally from classical melodies. Songs with peculiar, intricate verses tend to be my favorite.

Lorajeans magazine: “How long have you been drawing?”
Claire Mojher: My father is a freelance illustrator who has a studio in the home in which I grew up, so as a small child I sat in his studio with him and scribbled and sketched to my heart's desire. He's the one most responsible for teaching me how to really "look" at the subject I was drawing, whether it was a chimney or a person. He also infused me with his strong sense of design. We had shelves and walls weighted with art books of all kinds, which I'd thumb through over and over again, sometimes until they fell apart! I took some art classes in High School, but I felt like it wasn't until my Senior year at Ringling College of Art & Design that I really began to develop my own style.

Lorajeans magazine: What does your workspace look like?

Claire Mojher: While in the limiting space of my apartment, my workspace usually consists of me scrunched down or splayed out on the floor and the sum of the surrounding area scattered with brushes, pencils, scraps of paper and whatnot. For some reason, I'm not the biggest fan of drawing tables. I feel like I can't get my arms or fingers at the right angles or something. Perhaps because, as I remember, I started out drawing on the floor when I was little. When I actually do use a table, it tends to be a brawny wood dining table that was my mother's when she was young. When I moved out,

it was given to me, complete with the paint spatters and rings from the use of my parents when they were young. I feel comfortable using it when I paint, as a tiny drop or smudge of a new color only adds to its character. The blotches I've left on my apartment's carpet isn't quite as charming.

clairemojher.etsy.com
clairemojher.blogspot.com
clairemojher.com

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Thanks a bunch, to Claire for participating in my very first Artist feature! I hope you enjoyed it as much as i did. I definitely plan on continuing these features in the future, so keep checking back.

Trying Something New

I love to sketch but sometimes I get bored of the same old thing, so I came up with a new way to present this one just for fun. I love the way she turned out, but I would really enjoy your feedback on it. Is she ready to sell as a print? Should I do a series?

Sneak peek: Claire Mojher

In all my blogging I have occasionally posted art that inspires me, but have never truly featured an artist. I am announcing the first ever "Artist feature" to my blog and Claire Mojher has consented to be my first featured artist! The full feature will be posted ASAP.

Heart snack

Happy Hearts are finding their way into everything we do over here. I just used a heart shaped cookie cutter to add a valentine twist to our sandwich lunch today.

Beautiful sweater

I just love the color and texture of this sweater by Hip & Zen. The doubled up buttons are so pretty.

Pretty things for my daughters room

I just adore the scalloped border in this room. I'm not sure it will end up in her room, because of so many other things I am doing, it might be too much in one little room.

Today I have been in the think tank pondering what I want to do for my 3 yr old daughters bedroom. I has been needing a face lift for a while now and heres what I've come up with.

(Image from Little Helpers)

(Image from The White Company)

My daughter Loves princesses, so a "princessy" canopy would really be great.

(I LOVE the chandelier ,Image from pottery barn)

Pink is her favorite color so that is for sure the wall color. At this moment she and her brother are sharing a room and he has a black crib. I love pink and black so that is the color theme!

(print by jaimers)

I am in love with chandeliers right now so I plan on stenciling a silhouette of one on the wall somewhere. Probably something a little more simple than that first one. Its a little messy in the middle where it overlaps. The red and white one is exactly what I'm going for!


(image from Martha Steuart)

Playing tea party is an every day activity in our house, so that will play a part in the design too.

(Images from pottery barn)

I would love to display some toys, books and stuffed animals on a shelf somehow too.

(image from paper source)

(image from Decor8)

And, lastly, using letters in the design is a must. I love these pretty variations on that same idea.

Fun paper craft

Making flower decorations out of paper bags was a fun treat. The kids really had fun helping me. I first saw these on the Something Old, Something New wedding blog. From there I got the link to the pattern and instructions on the Martha Stewart website.

I made a tutorial showing how to make this paper craft with your own paper.

I used book paper but newspaper, wrapping paper or scrapbook paper would all work great too.

Click the image below to see the tutorial.

I chose brown paper bags for a more neutral tone.

They turned out so nice. I think next time I'm going to use tiny colored bags for a different look.

Enjoy!

New and improved papier mache art

Hello everyone, I am here to introduce my newest friend. She doesn't have a name yet though. She is the first papier mache sculpture I have done with my newly acquired Paper Clay!

Lately I had become interested in making dolls out of Sculpey. I loved looking at the beautiful art doll creations of Black Eyed Suzie, Du buh du designs, Noodle and Lou studio, and Marmee Craft no patience...OK both. I couldn't get the polymer clay to do what I wanted and I couldn't get the details small enough. I got very frustrated and gave up; but not totally. Since I love working with papier mache I thought working with paper clay would be a good experiment. Plus it goes well with papier mache since it is, after all, paper. Paper clay is so much better for me than sculpey! It air dries, which I love (no burning) and after it's dry you can still add clay. Water can also be added to change the consistency of it. The experiment worked out really well and this pretty little girl is the result. I LOVE how she turned out. In fact I love her so much I'm afraid I cannot sell her. If I can get this great of results with the next girl then I may sell this one but you'll have. They inspired me to try my hand at sculpey, but sadly I have no skills at doll making, or I have to bribe me. I have three more girls in the works, with paper clay/papier mache, so be on the look out for more pretties! Let's hope they all turn out as cute and sweet as this girl did. Her dress and hair are papier mache; and her face, arms, and legs are paper clay.

Have a great Thursday!

A little more texture

(I love the body and layers in her hair, I also love the thickness of her bangs.)

Looking in the mirror and getting ready to go out has been the same old thing for too long. I need more body and texture to my STRAIT as dry spaghetti hair. I took the liberty of doing a google image search for hair styles and got a few good images but the search led me to two main web pages that really got my attention.

beauty.about.com

and

rasysa.com, long hairstyles

rasysa.com home

(this one is in Japanese but had the best photos)

After looking through too many pictures I noticed that what I wanted was really specific, very helpful for a girl who usually has too many ideas that she can't make up her mind. I learned that I want layers. And maybe some bangs, either sideswipe or thick and straight.

Pretty much the same hair as the first photo but shorter. Again loving the body.

I like that she swept her bangs to the side.

My hair would not flow as lovely as hers the way mine is cut right now, believe me I tried it yesterday.

Another image of pretty side swipe bangs.

I like her bangs and the "messy" body in her hair.

Links again for those lazy scrollers.

beauty.about.com

and

rasysa.com, long hairstyles

rasya.com home

(this one is in Japanese but had the best photos)