Working...shivering & working

[merimask]

Oh wow...I just hate snowstorms in April.  Hate them.

Snow last night, snow today, more snow tomorrow too.  WTF nature?  Why did you taunt me with one day of 67 degree weather if you were just going to snatch it all away?  My crocuses are confused. 

Well, I worked on some new things anyway, because I am a stubborn monkey.   I finished a new Haku mask (Haku from "Spirited Away"...the Japanese river dragon) and it's even better than the last one I did...

A special commission on Etsy.   Heh...you can see the snowflakes falling on my black board, there.  I ran out this afternoon between flakes to take the pictures & they were starting up again as I quickly snapped this.  Oddly, for a rushed pic it's miles better than the ones I took of the last Haku I made.

 

I also made a couple small half-masks with dragons on them...
 
I guess you could call them "busywork" but I do like doing them...they are relaxing & fun for me.  Plus, I needed some new low-end masks on my site.  That last SCA event I did kind of wiped me out of little stuff.
 

So, thank you for the feedback on my "Etspirations" idea  (is that really a good name for it?  I'm still not sure).  I have contacted a few of my favorite Etsy artisans (LittleCookie, Batikwalla, and MaryJarvis so far) and they are all excited about the idea & willing to let me use their motifs in a mask...I'm excited too.  I think it's going to be fun & also, potentially really good for all kinds of exposure.  If these turn out nice, I'm sure it will become an ongoing project.  Mel, I want to do some collaborating with you too...I think hairsticks are a perfect compliment to a mask anyway (so glamorous) so a FarGrove / Merimask ensemble will be a wonderful pairing. 

I'll also be open to suggestions.   Eventually.  Once I've tried a few of these & worked out the kinks.  Input is also VERY welcome.  New ideas are scary...I kind of want to bounce these off you guys to figure out the best way to do these listings/collaborations/promotions.  Scary, scary.  But also fun.  And hopefully, rewarding. 

*hug*  Love you all.  :-)

Back to work...

 

Comments

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

It is doing so quite simply to confuse your croquetshoes. Or crocuses. ::nods::

[merimask.livejournal.com]

And now the sun is coming out AND it is snowing sideways. So, so confused. O_o

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

I don't think I commented on the Etspirations idea (I think that's as good a title as any!). I think it's a fabulous idea. It's a great way to support your fellow artists, as well as gain visibility to folks who might not otherwise seek out your stuff.

Weirdly, we have managed to avoid any additional snow here, though it has been rainy and crappy. Grey and blah. Not exactly what I think of when I think of Spring!

Heh. This article was in the local paper yesterday. It definitely captures the feeling of Spring in Maine: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/103189.html

[merimask.livejournal.com]

"Here, spring is more like coming to after being knocked unconscious in combat. The snow is slowly receding, and everything that was frozen comes into focus in a state of silent ruin. The yard appears to have been shelled by artillery. Scraps and shards of shingles litter the porch and walk. Gutters are broken. Sticks and branches blasted off trees by wind and sleet are everywhere. The snow is turning black as it shrinks, with the accumulated residue of dirt and debris and rotting bird seed shells."

ROFL!!! GREAT article & yes, that is SO what spring is like here too. My bike trails even on the warmer sunny days look like a crazy person with a woodchipper and a lot of garbage decided to decorate. It's like an obstacle course.

I'm going to start my first Etspirations mask tonight...probably the Beach Heart mask. Hope it turns out as neat as I think it will! *fingers crossed*

[kelkyag]

I would've been surprised if Beach Heart weren't your first etspirations mask. I'm curious to see how it is and isn't like the beach-and-shell masks you've done before. :)

[merimask.livejournal.com]

It's half finished...I'm doing a simple half-mask with a really literal interpretation of Mary's heart on it, plus some swirly water & star motif on the other side. I wanted to avoid the Beach mask I did & also, keep the heart shape in there. I loved those beach masks, by the way.

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Yay! Can't wait to see the Beach Heart mask!

Isn't that article great? It's so true!

There was an even funnier (well, to me, probably not so much for the person involved) picture on the front page of the paper this morning of a car half fallen into a giant sinkhole in the middle of the road. Hey, they were stupid enough to ignore the "Road Washed Out" signs, so... ;)

Yep, loads of potholes, sinkholes and wash outs. I just *love* Spring! LOL

[golden-meliades.livejournal.com]

April is ALWAYS a kick in the teeth, yet it's never any more bearable even though you know it. We now have six or seven inches of fat, wet snow, heavy as hell, and it's supposed to snow on and off all day today, tomorrow, and the next day.

But then it's not supposed to snow at all any more. We'll see. It's not that weird here to get snow in May. Horrible, but not weird. But it still feels like hell. Winter is evil, I despise it. It feels worse every year. One month, or two months maximum...there should be no more of winter than that. But it lasts FULLY HALF THE YEAR. I cannot bike in November, December, January, February or March, and most of the time I can only do half of October and April...it's rare to be able to bike for most of those months, here. So literally six months where it is too cold to go biking. So getting this horrible, length tease through March and April...it's just cruel. Nothing less, imo.

ARGH.

Hey, did you know that Ginkgo is a living fossil and supposedly the world's oldest tree? It has no flowers worth writing home about but the yellow of the leaves in autumn is pretty significant. I was considering doing a really simple ginkgo hairstick using simple sunshine-yellow glass beads (opaque) and your leaves on a wooden stick. I'm not sure how much people like yellow, though...but it would really represent a ginkgo tree awfully well.

I'd be happy to make hairsticks for any handful of your masks that you'd like matched up. Or you can take a hairstick of mine and turn it into a mask, either way.

You know what would be neat on a mask? A draping of beads across the forehead (such as the Childlike Empress wears...though it's a pretty common thing for fantasy ladies, she just came to mind first. Hers is more ornate and complicated than I was thinking, though, but if you don't remember: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-yWNMWcLo-Q/SKxjlW6o7JI/AAAAAAAAAng/RmYSEeZiJoM/s400/childlike+empress.jpg)

Oh, I always come up with random ideas. Sometimes they're just TOO darned random. But I still think moving parts on a mask would be awesome...a bit of glitter to accent the colours. :)

[merimask.livejournal.com]

I remember, April is always a pain in the butt. I like it better than January but not by much.

It's odd; looking at a map, you're not too much further North than I am, but you're almost always about 10 degrees colder than me. That would drive me crazy. :-( I like the weather/seasons in the Washington DC/Richmond VA region. It's always about 10 degrees warmer there than it is here & right now that'd be great. Their trees are getting leaves already (still a month away, here) and the cherry trees are blooming.

I LOVE ginkgo trees. The leaves in October were dropping all over Tokyo; they had the exact color & consistency of corn flakes. It was like kicking through drifts of corn flakes, walking along the streets.

I definitely want to do some mask/hairstick combinations with you. Especially with the leaves I sent; it'll be the perfect cross-promotional opportunity for both of us.

Also, I don't usually do this but I should send you a mask to be-deck with jewels on chains. That would be too neat. Not something I have the time or materials to do, but I bet you'd have fun draping dangly sparkly things on it. Let me know what you think!

[golden-meliades.livejournal.com]

I believe that in a straight north-south aspect, I live about 250 miles north of you. I looked at a hardiness map...looks like you're smack on the border of 5b and 6a. I'm firmly a 4a...so you're one and a half or two zones warmer than me (that's what I figured). So you're about 'month warmer' than we are, here. Wah. (I would love to be a zone 6. Heck, a zone 5 would be faboo, I could grow wisteria...my god the amount of plants that will grow in zone 5 that will NOT grow in zone 4 is huge!)

I have a pair of ginkgo sticks laid out...I just have to assemble and wire them permanently. In style they have things in common with both Amazon and Trespass.

I could easily drill the necessary holes with my dremel (I have a bazillion attachments...my dad bought me a 500 piece accessory kit. It's a happy day for a dad when he gets to buy his little girl power tools and accessory kits for her power tools...though I think he insists a LOT harder on ALWAYS WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR than he would if I was his son rather than his daughter.) and attach stuff. Depending on the style of mask you made, I could add things in different ways.

What kind of mask were you thinking of? Plain? Fashioned to look like a woman? Fashioned to look like a person of specific race/culture? Abstract? Patterned? And what do you want the end result to be? I mean, do you want to sell the mask? Have one for yourself? For both of us? (Etc.)

You know what would be awesome? And it could be done with masks or ANY type of art...a mass collaboration. More than two artists. Let's say we brought Eloise in as well. You could give her a simple mask, she could do some simple...er what is her art called? The fancy lettering stuff. Calligraphy...that doesn't seem quite right...

Anyway, she could do something to it and give it to me, and I could add my own type of embellishment to it. Or it could be on an even bigger scale to include more of our artist friends, though with each new person we'd have to be careful that each of us swears to only add SIMPLE touches so that we didn't wind up with a rag-bag.

Anyway, that's just an idea for the amorphous future. It'd be interesting to see how something like that turned out in the end. :) As for one with you and me, I'd be happy to.

[tallymark.livejournal.com]

Oohh! I LOVE the new Haku mask!! It's awesome! I've been making a felted Haku and have been finding it a tricky form to translate into 3-dimensional shape, so seeing this is totally inspiring. ^_^ I loved the last Haku too but I can definately see the improvement.

And I can't wait to see the Etspirations! I think it's an awesome idea. I especially want to see that beach heart one..yay!

[merimask.livejournal.com]

I love Haku, myself. He's so faithful and good; one of my favorite anime movie characters ever.

The Etspiration masks are coming along. I started with Mary's Beach Heart & it's half finished. Going to make a swirly Batikwalla mask next (I can't decide which color scheme of hers to use though...they are all so good!).