I received the latest Color Ink Book this week where I have around 6 pages of GingerDead black and white line art ready for you to color…or not.  That’s the idea behind Color Ink Book.   Many different artists contribute and the end result is either the most awesome coloring book of all time or just a really neat art magazine, you choose.  It generally has no words but I haiku’d up my section, of course.  Anyway, it’s available now (Volume 3 CIB) for purchasing or fondling in aisles. 

Speaking of buying stuff, I’ve been really busy trying to figure out cool ways to merge my illustrations into affordable, fun, wearables – tiny bits of accessible art.  First, I experimented with an art print using a marker drawing I did for Color Ink Book.  I added a splash of red to it and framed it in chrome and glass to be worn as a double-sided pendant.  Here’s how it came out:

I only did two of these and I’m not planning on doing a ton more so if you like it grab it from my Etsy Store.  It comes with a silver plated super long chain that you can make whatever length you desire.  I prefer my jewelry to strangle but to each their own.

Next, I experimented with rings using teeny prints of teeny drawings in these rings with little wells on them that you fill with resin or the like.  I hate the toxic aspects of resin so I tried something else which bubbled and would never ever completely dry and basically just sucked and wasted my time and money which brings us to now.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing with materials and I am definitely at a point where I’m getting results I like.  I’m hand forming polymer nubbins (that’s what I call them because I’m silly, basically just button-like shapes) and after they are baked and sturdy I make little illustrations on them.  It’s similar to doodling because I can fill a page with doodles and only end up with one or two things that grab me.  I end up with plenty of unworthy nubbins but a few that I feel are special enough to turn into rings.

Side-view shows the bases I’m using…
nickel-free, adjustable shiny round goodness.

Here are close-ups of the first batch of rings.  The actual sizes are around the size of a nickel or sometimes between a nickel and a quarter.  Each one is hand formed so it varies a bit.

The experience has been frustrating as I’m figuring out what combination of materials works best, how to protect the artwork and adjusting to drawing on wee surfaces.  I’m using pen and ink – the old school dipping kind that cartoonists often use – which is more or less new to me so it’s all been experimental but really fun.  I’ve been pretty obsessive with this project and now that I think I have a method down all I want to do is make more but stuff like graphic design for pesky clients pops up and keeps me and my nubbins apart which makes me sad and cranky.  

I committed today to bring a bunch to a fantastic ecclectic shop called Cherie’s here in St. Pete where you can already find my GingerDead greeting cards.  I’m just getting some display options sorted and making sure I have nothing else to fine tune.   For something so cute, there is a lot more thinking and stress involved than you might suspect!  With the shop commitment, I’m not sure if I’ll get any of this batch up on Etsy.  If there’s one you want you can always email me – calanGingerDead(DOT)(com). 

I’ve also been working on other wee sculpted things but I’m not 100% sure I’m happy with those yet, so no pictures.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately.  For someone that’s been up to way cooler stuff, check out Juxtapoz magazine’s article on Banksy’s latest and largest project  “Banksy versus Bristol Museum.”

<3 calan

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.