26 Fluevogs

May 15th was Fluevog Day (John's birthday), sadly I couldn't go to the Abbot Kinney shop due to the money job.
Instead, I made a compilation image of this year's 26 Fluevogs A-Z:

Since Redbubble was having a tee sale last week, I uploaded the art and purchased one.

I got a men's cotton XXL:

No, your eyes do not deceive you: graphic crooked and not centered
Redbubble fail.

I also put the compilation into a repeat, to broaden the available products.

Here's the scarf:

Redbubble link

Is your favorite Fluevog in this year's compilation?

Any requests for 2019's series?

Creative Block [Printing]

Ha. No creative blocks here! I have an abundance if ideas and my problem is more trying to concentrate on one thing. 

Yesterday, I spent the day at Carrie Burkle's DTLA Arts District studio space playing around with block printing. I went with the intention to have some creative play time and to print up some yardage to use in my weaving project (which for some confusing reason I posted on my fashion blog).

The space, we paired up at six tables.

My work station. All clean. Not for long.

What was in the pink bags?

Bandanas printed by Carrie! Plus a blank to print.

Carrie gave us a brief intro about the concept of block printing, and things to think about as we designed our blocks.

Carving demo.
We used insulation foam, one end covered with flocked cotton, affixed with water proof Gorilla glue.

My blocks, including a never-used-by-me wooden Indian block purchased in Artesia.

We made our own reusable stamp pads.
Wooden block, dampened cellulose cloth cut to size, wrapped with cheese cloth that was T-pinned to back.
All elements reusable -- dismantle and rinse off.

Carrie demonstrates how to ink up the pad using my work station. [Still fairly clean].

First print experiment! 

The large yardage, in work. [Note workspace mess is building up on the right].

Deploying the Indian block on some striped cotton lawn.

It was a hive of creative activity!

Drying area. Many saved their brown paper that protected the printing station to repurpose.
In foreground, communal offering of ink and stamp pad. Lots of sharing!
[apologies for lack of focus in photo]

Our prints!

More prints, my yardage in foreground.
I'll do another post with more detailed pictures of my efforts.
There are enough photos in this post already!

This was another Textile Arts Los Angeles event.
Check them out if you love textiles and live in the greater LA area!

#AtoZchallenge 2018 Conclusion

Meet Zouk, a couples dance of Scheming Enthusiasts (Fluezie injoke) 

Did you enjoy year II of Fluevogs A-Z?
I did!
This year I traced the shoes, and was a whole lot happier with the drawings I had to work up the repeats with.
(I really struggled in 2017 with a few of them).

The above design came from a discussion in a Fluevog Facebook group.
I believe "S is for Schemes" was posted with a photo, and I remembered my Scheme redesign that I did for an Otis Extension Shoe Design class in 2015.

And I thought, why not post it to Fluevog Open Source.
Uploaded.
And as I was just about to hit the send button, I thought, would I wear that? No, probably not. I can do better!

I frankensteined the base of Enthusiast, the patchwork of Scheme, with the giant eyelet and ribbon laces of Templeton. YES!

My uploaded design. On Fluevog (upvote it!)

So waitaminute.
I'm supposed to be nattering on about the whole A-Z experience.
Okay, if I must.

It was good.
They had Google Doc spreadsheets, they were good.
I met some new blogging buddies, that was good.
I didn't have time to visit new blogs. Not so good, on my part.

Now, let me go back to my dreamland of fantasy Fluevogs.
Perhaps next year's A-Z theme!