The passionate maker

Apply Creativity to Marketing

2012-01-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

Sussy Flanigan, Fins Coffee, Recycling and Local Charities All Join Hands in Selling Imaginative Crafts

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 7, 2012

Santa Cruz County finished 2011 with dispiriting job news: a 10.6 percent unemployment rate persisted in November—2 percent higher than the national average—which means there are about 11,000 people looking for work.

Amazingly though, 2011 was also the year that Santa Cruz/Watsonville was ranked 5^th on a Most Artistic Cities in America list by The Atlantic Magazine. Our small metro area was rated comparable to major metropolitan areas such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles because The Atlantic rating took the number of artists relative to population into account. The only small population that ranked higher was Santa Fe.

So what does this say about the resilience and creativity of our artists, who continue to survive in remarkable numbers despite a depressed economy? Equally significant, what does our ranking say about the loyalty of a community who supports the arts, even in tough times?

Flanigan shows some of her embellished aprons for sale at Fins Coffee.

What follows is the of story of one such resilient Santa Cruz artist, struggling to do what she truly loves in a creative and resourceful new way. Her idea has the potential to benefit many others besides herself in the 5^th most artistic city in America.

Sew Sweet-N-Simple, Santa Cruz, CA

Sussy Flanigan has always kept her hand in crafts, even when job and family seemed to be leading her in many other directions. While raising her three children in San Jose and operating a medical records retrieval and management service in Almaden Valley, she set up a retail vintage clothing boutique—selling her own designs—on the street side of her office space. When she sold the medical business to renovate and run a bed and breakfast, the Dutch Flat Hotel, in Placer County, she opened a gift shop at the B&B to sell her handmade items and also hosted art retreats.

Flanigan moved to Santa Cruz in 2005 so her daughter and husband could be closer to the ocean and surfing, and loves it here. “Every time I walk to the Marina it never ceases to fill me with a sense of joy just to be able to live here,” she says. “I grew up in Indiana, and I’d always see California and the ocean on television. After college I bought a one-way ticket to California.”

For almost nine years, Flanigan has divided her time between Santa Cruz and her B&B in the Gold Country. She now intends to turn her attentions away from weekend innkeeping and occasional professional opera singing, to fulltime crafting.

“I make a lot of cards and I love glitter,”
says vintage crafter Sussy Flanigan.
She also sells “Emergency Glitter”
at craft fairs “in case of sudden onset
of melancholy,” she says.

“My bed and breakfast is on the market and I’m no longer going to be running it,” she says. “The economy just killed me so I decided to go back to what I truly love and I always end up going back to, which is sewing and crafting and try to make actual money. I’ll probably make more money than I did at the bed and breakfast,” she says laughing.

Flanigan describes herself as an “ADD crafter.” “I’m all over the place,” she says. “In fact, my girlfriend told me the other day, ‘Girl, you need to focus on one thing.’ And I thought, if I focus on one thing, I’m going to miss so much stuff.”

Her crafting style and product line also attest to her “all over the place” approach. She designs and repurposes vintage clothing; sews and decorates cuffs, shirts, hats and aprons; sells banners, cards, scrapbook supplies, glitter and antique photographs; and creates mixed media collage. And everything she makes is embellished with lace, buttons, rick rack, and embroidery—large quantities of which she stores on shelves, racks, bins and tables in her small, upstairs studio space in the Old Sash Mill. “This pretty much is my life’s collection in here,” she explains. “I’m an organized hoarder.”

Flanigan sells her creations at craft fairs but says she does better in large wholesale venues such as the California Gift Show. “A lot of time when you go to these art and wine festivals, they’re there to drink or just walk around and look,” she says. “I do well at a big gift show like in Los Angeles because there are a lot of people [wholesalers] and they’re there to buy stuff. They feature a vintage section and I now have stores that actually look for me.”

Nearly everything Flanigan makes is embellished with lace, buttons, rick rack, and embroidery—large quantities
of which she stores on shelves, racks, bins and tables in her small, upstairs studio space in the Old Sash Mill.
“This pretty much is my life’s collection in here,” she explains. “I’m an organized hoarder.”

To start selling more products locally she’s just developed a project called “The Shirt Off Your Back,” with Fins Coffee on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz as her first venue. Flanigan has placed a box and posted a sign inside the restaurant entrance, asking customers to donate used shirts. She then cuts up the shirts to make beautiful embellished aprons, which Fins sells for $25 each. From the proceeds both she and Fins each donate a dollar to a local charity, such as Ride AWave–which hosts beach camps for kids with special needs. Starting the project just ten days before Christmas, they’ve sold 13 aprons.

Flanigan also makes and sells coffee “cuffs”
with Fins’ logo at the register, for keeping
coffee cups warm.

Flanigan envisions her business providing jobs to many others in the future. “My goal is to create several jobs with this project because it’s a process, you know,” she says. “You make the apron, they buy it, then I have to hire people to help me because I’m so busy.” Her seamstress friend Melanie Vizzusi, owner of Free Form Fashions in Santa Cruz, is helping Flanigan produce the aprons and her other clothing designs. “Like this tunic. I give her a design, she makes me a pattern and then sews it for me. Then I bring out all my beautiful adornments and I tack everything on.” says Flanigan.

She says if the apron project is successful at Fins, she’d like to get in to other local venues like Santa Cruz Diner or Seabright Café. “And, I am trying to get Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown to donate shirts to help jumpstart the project,” she emails to me after our interview. But she’s very grateful to Fins Coffee owner Brian Neuschwander for giving her a start. “He’s one of those people that have the compassionate mentality that says ‘I’m going to give someone a chance,’ which is very rare these days. Because if there are people out there creating their own jobs, which a lot of people are trying to do, they can’t do that without someone giving them a chance.”

Finding inspiration where you least expect it

2011-12-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

Seeking inspiration: Take the “Work of Art” challenge

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 3, 2011

“La Fille aux Yeux Verts” by Henri Matisse

There are things about Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” that really annoy me—like mentor Simon de Pury’s forced enthusiasm (Be bold! Be amazing! Go for it!), host China Chow’s icy goodbye send-offs (“It’s time for you to go.”), and petty clashes between the contestants. But, on the whole, I’m fascinated by the weekly challenge to create museum-quality pieces in a relatively limited amount of time and space.

Typically the hosts take the remaining group of young artists somewhere in New York City, to a location or experience that will generate inspiration for their work of art. This season, their inspiration has come from some pretty diverse sources: kitsch, creative movement called Parkour, children’s art, pop art, newspaper headlines, a brick wall in Brooklyn, and a disassembled Fiat 500.

Although the source of artistic inspiration can be just about anything, I’m intrigued by the notion of an imposed source of inspiration. A group of etsy.com artists are actually playing along each week with “Work of Art,” taking the same challenges and posting their results at etsymetal.blogspot.com. (What will these metal artists do with a brick wall in Brooklyn?)

In the same spirit, I decided to seek my own artistic inspiration from some unlikely sources. I chose three new books as my point of departure, and created three crafty projects. Here are the books—all of which I highly recommend—and the results:

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web."—Pablo Picasso

Book #1: PARIS PORTRAITS by Harriet Lane Levy

When she died in 1950, Levy left the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art a trove of art, including La Fille aux Yeux
Verts (The Girl with Green Eyes) which she bought from
Matisse in 1908. I used Web images of this painting and several
others to create Matisse-inspired pendants on Scrabble tiles
or in small frames.

My favorite movie of 2011 is Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” in which Owen Wilson’s character is magically transported back 100 years to a romanticized Paris where he meets and hangs out with the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Degas, Dali and many other artistic giants of the era. San Francisco native Harriet Lane Levy had her own real-life close encounters with Matisse, Picasso and other legendary artists when she and Alice B. Toklas, joined their friend Sarah Stein in Paris in the summer of 1908. Levy recalls her 2-year Paris adventure in, “Paris Portraits: Stories of Picasso, Matisse, Gertrude Stein, and Their Circle,” a beautiful little memoir that has not been published in its entirety until now. In it, she recalls the eccentricities of her Paris friends, her regret at not buying a $50 Picasso from Sarah Stein, and learning to love modern art—Henri Matisse’s paintings in particular. Like Woody Allen’s movie, “Paris Portraits” is an enchanted portal to a time of unequaled charm and luminosity

Project #1: An audacious pendant

When Harriet Lane Levy died in 1950, she left the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a trove of art, including “La Fille aux Yeux Verts” (The Girl with Green Eyes) which, when her friends declined it, she bought from Matisse in 1908 while in Paris. Like Harriet Levy, I didn’t initially take to Matisse’s modernist style; but the joyous, audacious color in his portraits of women gradually won me over. So, I made pendants using printed images from Matisse and Matisse-inspired paintings, reduced to a size tiny enough to fit on the back of a Scrabble tile. There are several websites and YouTube tutorials that show you how. Just Google “Scrabble tile pendant” or “resin jewelry” for instructions.

"The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Book #2: JUST MY TYPE: A BOOK ABOUT FONTS by Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield likes to tackle topics that make people wrinkle up their nose and ask, “How could that be a good book?” Among other historical topics, he’s written about postage stamp collecting and the color mauve. Reading his latest book “Just My Type: A Book About Fonts,” I found myself unexpectedly absorbed in the history and evolution of the ampersand, the controversial switch by Ikea from Futura to Verdana, and a typeface called Gotham, that has been embraced by both President Obama and Sarah Palin. Fonts carry a wide range of subliminal messages that go way beyond mere words, and Garfield has wisely included lots of visual examples to demonstrate the subtle powers of type.

“Retrofonts” by Gregory Stawinski is a good follow-up that allows you to simply bask in the lovely inventiveness of over 400 classic 19^th and 20^th century fonts. It includes a CD with 222 featured fonts, although many of these can be downloaded for free from the internet.

I used “Retrofonts” to find the distinctive font “Renold Art Deco”
which had great Fs, Is, Es and Ss, and downloaded it onto my
computer using www.azfonts.net. I then created stencils so I could
spray-paint the letters for my address along the driveway fence.

Project #2: A distinctive address

To make your address more distinctive, spell out your numbers with letters in a distinctive font. Flip through “Retrofonts” to find fonts with good capitalized letters occurring in your address. Use www.azfonts.net to downloaded your font, then enlarge and print to the desired size, taping pieces of paper together if necessary.

Create a stencil by taping each large letter to poster board and cutting through paper and board using a craft knife. (If you have an “O” or “R” or any other letter with an island in the middle, leave narrow connecting bridges to hold the center of the “O” or “R” in place.) Tape or tack the letters to your fence or wall and add newsprint extensions to catch any overspray. Apply three layers of spray paint for good coverage.

"Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks."—Johann Gottfried Von Herder

After an afternoon of cutting and folding two
2011 calendars, I had created three sets of
origami earrings and several origami gift boxes.

Book #3: TRASH ORIGAMI: 25 PAPER FOLDING PROJECTS REUSING EVERYDAY MATERIALS by Michael G. LaFosse and Richard Alexander

Origami can be complex and intimidating at times, but the projects in this book are refreshingly simple and practical. The authors show you how to make useful objects such as boxes, checkers sets, photo cubes, bowls and envelopes out of found papers. At a time of year when calendars, catalogs, gift wrap and greeting cards are quickly filling up your recycling bin, Trash Origami offers these paper products—and just about any other kind of waste paper—a great second life.

Project #3: The gift is origami

Use the instructions in “Trash Origami” or search origami-instructions.com to make gift boxes with lids from 2011 calendars, used gift wrap, or other colorful, not-too-thick source of paper. Take “Trash Origami” one step further by also folding a gift to go inside the box. Search the Web for instructions on making an origami pendant or earrings. Use shredded paper as fluff inside the box and fold an origami decoration for the top and you’ll have a completely upcycled, handmade gift.

"When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best -- that is inspiration."—Robert Bresson

2011-12-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

4 Ways to Feel Good About Sewing Again

Originally published November 5, 2011 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

My completed duct tape dress form.

This column is for those of you who, like me, used to sew clothes. But somewhere along the way you became disenchanted with the process due to one or more of the following:

1) lack of style in commercial patterns

2) low quality of readily available fabrics

3) bad fit of clothes you made, which always looked like you had made them

4) high cost of patterns and fabrics.

Mrs. Woods taught me to sew in her home economics class in junior high and I made lots of my own clothes throughout my teens and 20s. In college, I distinctly remember the dank basement sewing room in the girls’ dorm, where I spent Saturday nights sewing and listening to Elton John sing about a much crazier kind of Saturday Night. When I graduated from college, my parents bought me a really nice, indestructible Necchi sewing machine—which I still use to hem pants and occasionally make quilts.

My husband applies the 3 layers of duct tape.

But gradually my enthusiasm faded as I realized that I could buy clothes for less than I could make them, in fabrics and styles that were trendy. And I didn’t have to buy anything that didn’t fit right—or at least could be easily altered when I got home. So, this summer when I got a fabric store coupon for five patterns for $5, and I needed a cocktail dress for a wedding reception, and I didn’t want to spend a lot for a potential one-use dress, I decided to flip through the pattern books and roam through the fabric aisles, like I used to.

I did end up buying five Simplicity patterns for $1 each (I saved $80?!), but no fabric. When I got home, I put the patterns away for another day, and borrowed an appropriate dress from a friend for the wedding. Sewing still seemed like it had too much potential for disappointment.

But I am reminded of how much I used to love sewing every time I watch Project Runway. As a devoted fan and fantasy-league fashion designer, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a bulging envelope of money to spend at a high-rise New York City fabric emporium? (How challenging it must be to spend $500 just to make one dress!) Wouldn’t it be dreamy to drape fabric on a dress form, to lay-out and cut fabric on a huge table in a spacious workroom, and sew on a powerful machine like an 8-spool serger? The spin-off show I would love to see--“Project Sewing Secrets”—would, unfortunately, lack the interpersonal drama demanded for prime time.

Perhaps due to the popularity of Project Runway, there has been a renewed interest in sewing and clothing design. In September, the annual runway event, Santa Cruz FashionArt, thrilled a sold-out crowd at the Civic Auditorium, debuting avant-garde fashions for both men and women. Nationally, applications for fashion design colleges have increased steadily over the last ten years. And, as further proof, a burst of books on repurposing, fitting, and sewing techniques have displaced some of the abundant knitting and quilting books on the shelves of libraries and bookshops.

This renewed interest in clothing design has prompted remarkable improvements in the home sewing realm as well. For example, commercial patterns have become more customizable, each one including four or more sizes. And even if Butterick or McCalls don’t have the style you’d like, many patterns now include tips on fitting which make it much easier to modify a pattern and make improvements. In addition, books on sewing techniques are now available on very specific topics, such as fit, adapting patterns, and couture design. And the internet—which didn’t exist when I first learned to sew—is full of free sewing tips and products, including printable patterns and YouTube sewing tutorials. The Web also provides unlimited sources for finding the fabric you want at a price that’s affordable. (You can even bid on fabric on eBay.)

Here are a few more reasons to feel good about sewing again:

A new line of dress patterns created by Simplicity called “Amazing Fit,” actually walks you through the process of altering a pattern to make it fit your own unique body, step by step. The process involves taking accurate measurements of your body and using those to select individual pattern pieces before cutting fabric. Seam allowances are larger and machine basted until there is enough dress to try on and check for fit. Once adjustments are made, seams are permanently sewn and trimmed to 5/8-inch. It’s a longer process, but by the end you will know your body dimensions and exactly how future patterns need to be adjusted before cutting and sewing.

There are lots of books about making clothes that fit and flatter. One that I found easy to follow is, “How to Use, Adapt, and Design Sewing Patterns” by Lee Hollahan, which walks you through altering commercial patterns and designing your own patterns. I learned useful techniques such as how to line up the grain correctly, how to download patterns and print them on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper, and how to measure a body accurately. This book also names and discusses body shapes and what styles complement a “top-heavy triangle, a circle, an oval, a narrow rectangle, an hourglass, or a bottom-heavy triangle” body type.

Websites can also offer sewing tips and free patterns. Check out:

http://diyfashion.about.com – for free printable patterns for classic styles http://www.threadsmagazine.com – for instructions on making a duct tape dress-form (also papier-mâché or paper tape)

http://www.thunderlily.com - for styling practice by dragging and dropping a variety of separates and fabrics to a model to see how they look together. The monthly blog also contains fashion design tools for making or selecting clothes that flatter different body types.

“Little Green Dresses” by Tina Sparkles, offers a new take on fashion repurposing. Instead of being another book on how to turn jeans into skirts or tee-shirts into shrugs, this one is about actually drafting new patterns and creating very polished finished pieces of clothing. It encourages the use of thrift store and garage sale clothes and linens that will have the yardage necessary to completely remake them into something very wearable. After roaming the aisles of Jo-Ann Fabrics and seeing lots of Prop 65 signs warning about the formaldehyde content in an unspecified number of their fabrics, I’m more sold than ever on reusing thrift shop apparel that may have already been washed a number of times. (You’ll be relieved to know that I haven’t seen these warnings signs at any of the fabric stores in Santa Cruz County.) There’s also a good chance you’ll find higher quality fabrics at a very reasonable price at the thrift shop. I recently purchased nine long dresses with enough fabric to sew nine tops, for about $30 at Salvation Army.

So dust off the ol’ Singer and give sewing another try. Dank basement and Elton John are optional.

Concrete as the main attraction

2011-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Concrete: It's not just for sidewalks any more

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, October 1, 2011

SKYBALLS: Concrete balls come in many sizes. “Skyballs” at Anna Jean Cummings Park on Old San Jose Road in
Soquel, features four HUGE sky-blue balls which appear to be rolling down a hill, about to crush cars in the
parking lot. “Skyballs” was designed in 2001 by Oakland artists Steve Gillman and Katherine Keefer.

Up against all the Smithsonians, monuments and memorials, the United States Botanic Garden is one of the lesser draws on the National Mall, tucked away on Independence Avenue, just a stone’s throw from the Capitol. Like most of the DC attractions, it’s free, informative and fascinating. But—unlike the rest of Washington—it’s a surprisingly crowd-free oasis.

US BOTANIC GARDEN: Here’s the ball in the United

States Botanic Garden that got me rolling.

Strolling along its pathways this summer, I was inspired by the decorative elements: upright plastic tubing that held gravel paths in place; colorful pyramidal plant supports; and multi-level arbors covered in plants from top to bottom. But what stirred me the most was a ball of concrete. Nesting at the base of a plant, this bowling ball-sized, cobalt blue sphere was a distinctive feature among the greens, pinks and reds of the surrounding regional plant-life.

ROCK ON BRAH: Terri Ryan recently took

first place at the Santa Cruz County Fair

for one of her signature concrete bras.

Concrete typically plays a utility role in most gardens—to invisibly anchor fences and decks, or just as subtly, provide low-cost but highly functional patios, sidewalks, curbs and retaining walls. Concrete is not there to be noticed, much less admired. It’s the stemware holding the fine wine: the clearer the glass the more its contents can be appreciated.

When concrete is used in a decorative way, it’s often encrusted with grouted mosaic pieces or textured plaster. But the blue sphere showed me that relatively unadorned concrete can also be attractive.

To find out more about concrete, I contacted Terri Ryan, who recently took first place in the Capitola Soroptimists’ annual “Bras for a Cause” competition which benefits two local women’s support groups. Her imaginative entry, “Rock on Brah,” was constructed of molded concrete and rocks—a wonderful tribute to the possibilities of concrete.

COURTYARD ART: Terri Ryan’s courtyard is a concrete art showplace

featuring planters, pots, wall hangings, XXs and OOs, and pedestals,

all made from concrete.

A hair stylist with a degree in design, Terri said she started working with concrete about 6 or 7 years ago. “I needed to be around the house for my teenagers. These art projects are a great way of being home and being there for them,” she said. She learned much of her technique from Coleen Sands, whose mosaic work she had admired on her house numbers when passing by her home. The two have since become good friends and have regular “concrete play days” to get together and make things from concrete. (To see Colleen’s amazing mosaic work go to www.flickr.com/photos/colleensands/)

Terri’s Live Oak home and especially her yard is a showplace for her stepping stones, planters, pedestals, wall hangings and more—all made from concrete. Her courtyard workspace has shelves, bins and buckets full of objects and materials perfect for forming and shaping concrete. Inside her home she even has a bathroom backsplash make from concrete and river rocks.

SLURRY: One of the pleasures of working with concrete

is the lovely texture and feel of slurry—a melted-chocolate-

like mixture of cement, polymer admix and water.

Hollow concrete spheres can be made by covering a

ball with self-adhesive fiberglass mesh tape, slurry,

and then a thin layer of concrete. To work safely with concrete,

always wear a face mask and gloves, especially when mixing.

On a recent Friday, she showed me how to make two concrete spheres and two stepping stones, while she continued work on a gigantic round planter formed around an inflated exercise ball. My much smaller spheres were shaped around a soccer ball and a school-yard rubber ball. We made stepping stones without a mold by adding a thin layer of concrete to the top of purchased concrete stepping stones, and stamping a circle into the concrete while still wet.

From working with Terri and from Sherri Warner Hunter’s book “Making Concrete Garden Ornaments” I got a better understanding of concrete’s properties.

Concrete is a mixture of cement, water and aggregate.
Aggregate is used to inexpensively bulk up the mixture. Common aggregates are sand and gravel, but lightweight material such as vermiculite, or more colorful material such as crushed shells or glass, can also be used. Rough, flat aggregates create a stronger bond than round, smooth ones, and smaller aggregates create a smoother textured concrete than larger ones.
Water added to cement creates a paste that coats each piece of aggregate and hardens the mixture into a solid mass
Chemical admixtures such as acrylic fortifier can also be added to the mix to increase moisture resistance, workability and durability.
Curing is the process necessary for concrete to gain maximum strength. Concrete cures gradually in a moist, controlled environment. So, at the end of each work session, the concrete must be covered in plastic and kept moist for a minimum of three to five days, and out of direct sunlight and strong wind. Most of the strength is achieved in the first week, though strengthening may continue for decades.

STEPPING STONES: Terri Ryan’s colorful stepping

stones, along with her dog Daisy, brighten a corner

of her yard. Terri creates a circle in her stepping stones

by pressing the rim of a bowl or pot into the wet concrete.

She paints the dry stones bright colors using

Smith’s Color Floor stain, available at Central Home

Supply in Santa Cruz.

What amazes me most about concrete is its versatility. Concrete is often shaped by being poured into a mold (casting). But it can also be pressed into or on top of a mold; or sculpted with the help of armature, which acts like a skeleton to support the form; or carved while wet or dry. By controlling the amount of water added, concrete can even be mixed to a consistency similar to clay for relief modeling. Surface treatments for concrete include incising, stamping, polishing, painting, staining, embedding and mosaicing.

Here are some suggestions for get started with concrete:

1. Seek out Sherri Warner Hunter’s books at the library—she will help you see concrete in a whole new way. Her 2005 book “Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden” will be available in paperback in March 2012.

2. Consider these new books: “Concrete Crafts” by author Alan Wycheck will show you how to make tiles, tabletops, stepping stones, bowls and planters cast from molds with lots of great step-by-step photos. “The Revolutionary Yardscape” by Matthew Levesque will give you radically new ideas for repurposing materials, such as garden walls made from wine bottle corks and pathways made with tumbled dishes. Levesque makes concrete bowls incorporating decorative materials such as tumbled glass, marbles, and even old keys.

3. Learn several different techniques for making concrete spheres by Googling “How to make a concrete sphere.”

Fall, a great time for outdoor projects

2011-10-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

This beautiful rose arbor at Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville, is actually
a pergola because it shades a long walkway. Note the pointed roof shape.

7 Secrets to the 2 hottest, dreamiest backyard projects yet

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 10, 2011

Throughout the spring and summer,
Sunset uses fashion/beauty lingo to sell
magazines:

March: Makeovers for small backyards

April: 7 secrets to beautiful backyards

May: Get your backyard ready for summer

June: Create a dreamy backyard retreat

August: Hottest backyard looks

Obviously, Sunset has to compete in supermarket check-out lines with the glamorous covers of Marie Claire, Seventeen and In Style. The difference is, as the weather starts to cool in September, so does the intensity of Sunset’s backyard teases.

September: Easy-grow gourmet lettuce

But September and October are actually perfect months to start new backyard projects. The warm days start with sunshine instead of fog and still last well into the evening. The two “hot” projects I propose also make practical sense as fall projects. The first, an arbor, will add a beautiful focal point to a yard that may not be as verdant and colorful as it was in the spring and summer. And the second, a compost bin filled with spent annuals, fall leaves and kitchen scraps, will save you money and time because you won’t need to shop for garden soil and amendments in the spring.

All About Arbors

Painted red, black and turquoise, this arbor serves as a
gateway to the Japanese Garden at the Sesnon House at
Cabrillo College in Aptos

Although arbors generally play supporting roles (for plants and vines), they can also be the mood-setting stars of the show. An arbor—especially a colorful one—can provide a splendid vertical highlight in an otherwise placid garden. Or, when fitted with a bench or swing, can draw you in to a relaxing getaway. A gated arbor can offer a warm friendly welcome in front of a home, or add a sense of wonder as you enter a private garden retreat.

Although arbors are typically made from pressure-treated lumber, eye-catching arbors can also be made from a variety of unexpected or cast-off materials such as curving willow branches, rough hewn logs, or even iron rebar.

The graceful arc of this arbor complements
the round shape in the gate to this
apartment complex entrance in Gilroy

Larger than a trellis but smaller than a pergola, an arbor usually consists of two or four upright posts connected overhead by a horizontal lattice which offers shade below and a climbing structure for plants. The overhead connection is typically flat, but can also be rounded like an arch or peaked like a roof.

Arbors are often designed to complement the style of the surrounding home and garden. A traditional design will feature crisp, symmetrical lines. A cottage design will typically have curving lines and liberal embellishment. A simple, contemporary design will make use of sleek industrial materials like metal and concrete. A rustic design will be more freewheeling and one-of-a kind, sometimes making use of found, rusted or improvised materials.

The Garden Company Nursery on Mission Avenue in Santa
Cruz is a great place to see lots of different arbor designs.
This one supports hanging plants and provides shade
to seedlings below.

You can find lots of free plans and instructions for arbor-building online or at your local library. The ideal money-saving arbor would be made from recycled materials. But a simple, yet sturdy arbor can be made from new lumber for about $100. Start your Website search with “how to build an arbor” or flip through the pages of “Making Arbors & Trellises” by Marcianne Miller and Olivier Rollin for lots of ideas, plans and instructions.

Surf City Coffee Co. in Aptos has a thick, asymmetrical arbor
to support a beautiful, mature wisteria.

Compost Bins

My favorite DIY Website, Instructables, has plans for several compost bins made from recycled products like garbage cans and pallets. I've used a black plastic orb for composting for years, but it gets too heavy to roll around as it fills up with moist material. I wanted to make a sturdy bin that was easier to use, would not compost itself, and could accommodate more waste, without spending too much on materials.

Wooden compost bin plans often call for pressure-treated lumber, but I don't like the idea of pesticides in the lumber leaching into my compost and soil. So I decided to use recycled redwood, which I had in abundance from a play structure we built for our kids when they were young. Redwood or cedar are the best choices since they are rot-resistant, and will keep the garden organic and safe.

Although the triple bin I built uses lumber, the sides are made from wire hardware cloth, so this cuts down on the expense of using all wood. You'll need a 3x9 foot space in your yard to accommodate this bin. The large size will allow you to compost everything you've got—from garden trimmings to kitchen waste. Ours is place in the vegetable garden but not too many paces from the kitchen door, to make composting as convenient as possible.

The triple bin will also allow you to compost in stages, moving the contents from one bin to the next as the material breaks-down. With removable wooden slats in the front, the compost is very accessible and easy to turn, stir or shovel to the next bin or the garden.

For my step-by-step instructions with photographs, see www.instructables.com/id/The-Best-Triple-Compost-Bin/. There is also a lively discussion in the comments section on the best methods for effective composting. Incorporating recycled lumber will cut down on the cost, but with purchased hardware and Con-Common grade redwood the total cost would be about $220. If you don’t have space for such a large bin, you can cut down on the materials (and cost) by building just one or two bins with the same basic principles of construction.

Turning Consumers into Creators

2011-08-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Maker Revolution revs up in Santa Cruz
as new MakersFactory plans to open in October 2011

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 30, 2011

Let’s say you have an idea for a product, maybe even one that will enhance or improve people’s lives: a remote-controlled lawnmower for the elderly; or a combo lightshow/breathalyzer your party guests can enjoy/consult before driving home; or a stylish laser-cut table that breaks down quickly and packs flat for storage or easy transportation.

What if you could design your idea using free software? What if you could produce parts for your product using machinery you build from free blueprints or a kit, and could actually manufacture that product on your own desktop or in your office, without a factory? What if you could easily customize your product—making each one slightly different—at almost no extra cost?

The founders of MakersFactory want to show you how to do all this and more.

MakersFactory founders Dave Britton (left) and Chris Yonge, plan to introduce Santa Cruz to the affordability and accessibility of open
source hardware like the MakerBot 3D printer. Yonge built this desktop 3D printer at home from a kit. (jpg provided by Chris Yonge)

Chris Yonge and Dave Britton will be leading the way to the maker revolution in Santa Cruz. They hope to open the doors to the first phase of their MakersFactory—an 800 square foot space in the Cruzio building in downtown Santa Cruz—in October of this year. The emphasis will be on learning the basics of DIY fabrication, by providing classes, software, hardware and workspace for members and the community.

“We’ll concentrate on classes immediately,” said Yonge, who teaches 3D computer modeling and animation at UCSC, “and hardware will gradually build up as we get it.” Dual monitor workstations and computer-controlled machines like a 3D laser scanner, 3D printers, a vinyl cutter and a laser cutter and engraver will be available from the start. MakersFactory will offer several levels of monthly membership, plus community classes, for users at all levels.

By creating MakersFactory, Yonge and Britton have embraced the new maker movement catch-phrase, “If you think it, you can make it.” Yes, people have always made things. The difference is, with today’s simpler more accessible technology, we can all become makers. “The maker movement has exploded,” said Yonge. “Several waves have crested at the same moment pretty much.”

The typical commercial manufacturing model has been to make products that are sleek on the outside with invisible components inside. There was no way to tinker—no way to see or understand or repair the inner workings of a product—and if you tried, you inevitably broke the product altogether. But the new “open source” maker model is to share not only your product, but your process in a collaborative environment.

The sharing of process will be championed at MakersFactory. Instead of commercial programs such as PhotoShop and 3D Studio Max, they will teach from open source and/or free software such as Gimp, Blender, SketchUp and OpenOffice—which Yonge says are just as good as their commercial counterparts. “In the past, open source software has had rather a bad reputation. It’s been difficult to use, it’s been buggy. That’s not the case anymore,” Yonge said. “If you use Gimp, which is a photo editing program, it’s very much like Photoshop was maybe three, four years ago, with the added advantage obviously that it’s free and also that it keeps getting better.” Open source software allows users to access the code so they can actually change or customize the program.

MakersFactory will also embrace the open source hardware movement, which Wired Magazine recently predicted, “may soon join open source software as a world-changing phenomenon that reinvents everything from business models to invention itself.” “People don’t realize it, but blueprints for open source hardware are available on the Web,” Yonge said.

The MakerBot Cupcake can make small plastic
items such as whistles and logos from a
thermoplastic filament. An early 3D desktop
printer, the Cupcake has now been replaced
by the Thing-O-Matic, available from MakerBot
Industries in two sizes starting at $1,299.

Yonge built a desktop 3D printer from a $600 kit to demonstrate the availability of open source hardware to his New Tech Meetup group, of which Yonge and Britton are organizers. The MakerBot Cupcake, shipped as what Yonge calls “a box of bits,” took him a few weekends to build, but will turn a virtual 3D concept into real world reality. Once the object is designed using 3D software, you press “print,” and the Cupcake builds up the object gradually, in layers, by depositing plastic from a nozzle. So “print” has a whole new connotation. “It’s not [about] a piece of paper any more, it’s [about] a real substantive object,” said Yonge’s partner Dave Britton, a former Silicon Valley CEO.

Britton and Yonge believe that no-waste additive production machines like the MakerBot Cupcake and learning centers like MakersFactory will help bring high-tech manufacturing back to the U.S. from China. “What we’re doing is teaching people how to use these machines and we’re also enabling them to produce working prototypes of physical products,” said Yonge. “If you go to NextSpace or Cruzio you’ll see people working independently, making a living as consultants, writing software, doing all kinds of things, but they’re not producing anything physical. Everything has to be virtual, everything has to be emailed. We’re now giving people the capability of starting a business as a designer and a manufacturer and making the articles locally—making articles which can be sold over the web, which can be sold locally and they don’t need to go to China for supplies.”

The second phase of MakersFactory, which, according to Yonge, “may be happening sooner than we thought,” will include a larger building with noisier machines in a more industrial location. “We don’t want to be a clone of TechShop [in San Jose] because that wouldn’t be suitable for Santa Cruz,” said Yonge. The smaller Santa Cruz demographic won’t support the equipment-rich TechShop model. However “Santa Cruz has got an unusually high proportion of creative professionals,” said Yonge. “[So] MakersFactory is going to be more geared towards a) education and b) creative professionals.”

Yonge says that phase two will feature larger computer controlled machines, such as a computer controlled router. “That would be a machine that can take an 8x4 sheet of plywood and cut it up into parts which can be used for a boat, or a piece of furniture, or a sculpture or whatever you want,” Yonge said. “There would also probably be metal working equipment, welding equipment, metal cutting equipment, everything you’d need really to go to the next level with an interactive product that includes electronics or a product for the home.”

MakersFactory will initially concentrate on learning in the Cedar Street
location. Their shop design includes two windows with interactive
displays so that pedestrians walking by get a taste of what goes on inside.

(jpg provided by Chris Yonge)

Yonge and Britton envision a diverse group of users: inventors, designers, artists, parents, students, hobbyists, innovators, and career changers. “[It won’t just be about making] physical items either, because much of MakersFactory is also going to be a robotics and electronics teaching space,” said Yonge. “If you know how something works, then you can understand when you buy your next one, ‘oh, this one is better because,’ or you can think, ‘oh, there’s no product that does exactly what I want. Maybe I can change the code of this, or maybe I can find somebody to help me modify it.’ And then, who knows, suddenly you’ve got a new product on your hands, and somebody offers you a million dollars for the idea. You just never know” said Yonge

They also want to collaborate with local groups, such as UCSC, Cabrillo College, Tannery Arts Center, Santa Cruz Geeks, and the Museum of Art and History, to help fill the tech gap in Santa Cruz and make their classes relevant and useful. They hope to recruit a younger demographic by demonstrating the MakerBot Cupcake—along with robotics—at local elementary schools. “This is not geeky stuff,” Yonge said. “It’s not that complicated and the basic principals aren’t that difficult.”

Is this new way of making revolutionary? “I think people will see it as revolutionary, but, if you’ve been following the technology as we have, it’s evolutionary,” said Yonge. “This has been coming for a long time. People want to be in control of what they use and what they’re surrounded by. I would like MakersFactory to be a factory of makers…turning consumers into creators.”

High Tech for the Masses

2011-07-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

TechShop opens San Jose space, giving do-it-yourselfers access to cutting edge tools and machines

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 2, 2011

Ella Vallejo of San Jose checks her soldering of a circuit board in the Solder and Basic Electronics class at TechShop Menlo Park.

Just to see one of Moto Ohtake’s shimmering stainless steel kinetic mobiles spinning in the wind is worth the drive to Sierra Azul in Watsonville. Or to see Kathleen Crocetti’s radiant multi-panel hanging mosaics made from thousands of tiny pieces of stained glass. Or the fascinating eroded sphere made by David Mudgett, made from what looks like rebar for giants. “Sculpture Is,” the 6th-annual June-October sculpture show at Sierra Azul Nursery and Gardens, once again has an amazing array of incredible large-scale pieces.

As a maker who leans towards materials I can safely work with on my kitchen table, I can certainly appreciate these sculptors’ facility with materials as daunting as steel, concrete, bronze, and glass, and techniques as demanding as soldering, welding, grinding and sandblasting.

Your creative endeavors are always limited by know-how and access to tools and machinery. And even with training and tools, you might not have an appropriate workspace or the high tech machinery to work as efficiently as possible.

“Build your dreams here” prominently greets open house
visitors at the entrance to TechShop San Jose.

But now there is TechShop. The equipment-rich DIY Bay Area workshop has just opened a new location in downtown San Jose, near the San Jose State. Seven days a week from 9 am to midnight, members have access to tools and machinery to create just about anything they can think of. TechShop classes are also open to non-members to learn techniques, master the safe operation of high tech equipment, and get a taste of the possibilities.

Classes offered by TechShop such as sewing, wood shop, embroidery and silk screen printing, might sound conventional. However, TechShop teaches these crafts using expensive, state-of-the-art machinery, which is (in the case of the San Jose shop) brand-spanking new.

TechShop’s pride and joy is a state-of-the-art
3D printer, which can make three-dimensional
items out of sturdy ABS plastic from any
3D CAD file, layer by layer.

For example, in “Industrial Sewing SBU” (SBU stands for Safety and Basic Use) you’ll learn how to safely sew thick fabrics like canvas, leather, sails, tents, and nylon straps on an industrial sewing machine. In “Wood Shop SBU,” you’ll build a bench using all the standard woodworking tools and equipment, and be introduced to the CNC ShopBot—an amazing computerized router that carves in every direction for making 3D projects like signs, instruments and furniture.

Take “CNC Embroider SBU,” and you’ll learn to use a computerized machine that creates digitized stitches based on monogramming and logo art as well as clip art style designs. Or take “CNC Vinyl Cutter SBU,” where you’ll make use of software like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, FlexiStarter 8, and machinery like the CNC Vinyl Cutter—a great tool for making screens for silk screen printing, signs, banners and decorating t-shirts.

I took “Soldering and Electronic Basics” at the Menlo Park TechShop location last week and learned how to solder electronic components for electronic printed circuit board
assembly by making an LED Blinkatron 2000. (!) With a six-student limit, the instructor was able to give individual attention to absolute beginners like me. This is also one of the classes which allow young adults aged 12-17 to participate without a parent. Upon request, I was also given a tour of building by one of TechShop’s Dream Coaches who are always on site to help members with their projects and answer questions.

TechShop Menlo Park describes their bin wall as the world’s
largest shared junk drawer. Members bring in their surplus
items and materials and add them to the appropriate
bin for other members’ use.

TechShop was founded by Jim Newton—formerly a science advisor to Discovery Channel’s MythBusters—who rounded-up lenders and opened the first TechShop in Menlo Park, California in October 2006. Today there is also a TechShop franchise in Raleigh, North Carolina, and TechShop San Francisco opened in January of this year. TechShops Detroit and New York are in the planning stages.

One of TechShop’s success stories is Patrick Buckley, who used the Menlo Park shop to develop a prototype for a handmade iPad case. Today, his San Francisco-based company DODOcase, has sold $1 million in product, or about 10,000 to 15,000 cases. Joe Menard, TechShop’s chief operating officer, said that another member developed a bamboo knitting needle gauge, and today has a $300,000 business. A third is building a lunar lander for an annual NASA-funded amateur contest.

Menard said TechShop’s membership ranges widely, “from kids, to whimsical adults, to serious adults to people with business ideas.” He himself used TechShop equipment to make an audiophile-quality stereo amplifier for his home.

Members work on the vertical knee mill and the metal turning lathe
in the machine shop at TechShop Menlo Park.

San Jose Dream Coach Kasey Kvamme led tours at Saturday’s open house with obvious enthusiasm. “Our instructors will get you using machines in a matter of hours,” she said to the crowd. “It’s easy and it’s so much fun,” she said about welding. After the tour, she described Menlo Park as TechShop’s “Millennium Falcon,” in that, San Jose incorporated the features that worked at Menlo Park, and improved upon the one’s that didn’t work as well. “We’ve learned a lot from Menlo,” she said.

Before becoming an employee, Kvamme first came to TechShop Menlo Park for a laser cutting class. In the future she hopes to use the longarm computerized quilting machine (which hadn’t arrived for the grand opening) to make a new bedspread. And, as a dedicated Arkham Horror player, she’d like to build a glass-topped game board.

Memberships are priced at $125 per month or $1499 for an annual membership, and include free Autodesk Inventor classes. TechShop Menlo Park has about 800 members and San Francisco, about 675. Non-members can take most classes, which range in price from $45 to $90, plus materials fees.

TechShop Menlo Park’s main workshop area accommodates classes and provides workspace for members.
At the far end of the workshop is a kitchen always stocked with free popcorn and coffee.

Botany and desire in my own backyard

2011-07-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

Humans vs. plants: Who's calling the shots?

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 4, 2011

Our completed arbor is simple and relatively inexpensive, constructed of
brown-stained pressure-treated lumber, deck screws and 8 lag screws.

Are humans in charge of plants? I was recently reminded of the power of plants in my life by “The Botany of Desire,” the PBS documentary inspired by Michael Pollan’s book of the same name. In both the book and the film, Pollan makes the case that, although we’ve always thought that we are in charge of plants, in fact, they have been shaping us. In the film he says “We don’t give plants nearly enough credit. They’ve been working on us. They’ve been using us.” He points to four common plants—apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes—and shows how these plants, by satisfying our desire for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control, respectively, have gotten us to go to great lengths to ensure their survival and abundance.

Desire, of course, is a powerful force—sometimes leading us to seek gratification at all costs. In our quest for sweetness, for example, Pollan says that we have grafted only the sweetest apple varieties over and over until they have lost their genetic diversity and ability to naturally resist pests and diseases, thereby increasing the need for pesticides and even genetic engineering.

And so I now realize that this complex relationship between plants and humans has played itself out in my own backyard. The needs of plants have been shaping the content of my weekends for months, maybe years. The following series of events shows how my own desires for sweetness, beauty, and control (we’ll leave intoxication out for now) have caused me and my husband to go to back-breaking lengths for plants—sometimes with unexpected results.

DESIRE #1: CONTROL

Hammering the boards in place goes quickly after figuring out how to dig
post holes in root-infiltrated soil with a "tamper head digging bar," which
we dubbed "the root-buster."

September 2010: The seven native cottonwoods growing around the perimeter of our front yard are ruining everything. My garden is losing light as the huge, leafy trees grow dramatically each year. In the spring, they drop their sticky seeds all over our deck, lawn furniture, and cars, leaving a glued-on black residue. And their invasive roots are sending up shoots, crowding out plants, and pushing up stepping stones all over the yard.

Saturday, September 11: We hire my cousin’s daughter’s boyfriend—an on-call CDF fire-fighter—to come cut the trees down. After traveling from Sacramento, he realizes he doesn’t have the expertise or the equipment to drop the largest trees without hitting structures and wires, so $500 later, we are only rid of two small trees.

Wednesday, September 29: We hire a local arborist, whose crew reduces the five remaining cottonwoods to stumps.

Sunday, April 3: With the cottonwoods gone, we lose some privacy in our front yard. My husband and I decide to build a 13-foot stretch of fence along the road. It’s our first fence and we are immediately hindered by enormous, unyielding roots (from the cottonwoods, of course) which make digging three post holes impossible.

Saturday, April 9: At Lowe’s I am directed to a root-severing device: a simple cast-iron pole, blade-like at one end, and so heavy I can barely lift it into the cart.

Later that day: By hurling our new “root-buster” downwards, over and over, the offending roots are severed one by one by my husband, the holes are finally dug, and the posts are Quikreted in place.

Saturday, April 17: We finish the fence and pose for a proud “We did it!” photo moment—which is somewhat bittersweet, because unstoppable cottonwood shoots are still erupting from shallow roots all over the garden.

DESIRE #2: SWEETNESS

Backed by our new concrete block retaining wall,
the new tomato plants have plenty of virgin soil
and room to grow.

Week of May 6-13: In an attempt to grow tomatoes more successfully in my backyard (see Love Apply Farms’ recommendations at http://www.growbetterveggies.com/), among other things, I need to:

1) Create a new planting area in soil that is not exhausted.

2) Dig several 2-foot holes in root-infested soil.

I choose a space at the base of a hill, not too distant from a large oak tree. I trim back ice plant, lug it away, and extend an existing retaining wall using concrete wall blocks—97 of them to be exact. It takes four trips to Home Depot to transport the heavy loads in my small trunk. I beg/bribe/bully available family members each trip to help carry the blocks from the car to the backyard.

Sunday, May 15: The wall is finally done, and my husband hurls the root-buster once again to dig the holes for the tomatoes—which are finally planted in nutrient fortified, gopher-wired holes. If the gophers don’t infiltrate the wire, we’ll know by August whether or not all that effort was worth the sweet taste of a ripe heirloom tomato.

DESIRE #3: BEAUTY

Friday, May 20: Not far from the tomatoes, an innocently planted piece of wisteria root has grown into a thriving vine that, in the spring, sprouts a lovely profusion of hanging white flower clusters. However, now that it’s May, the wisteria has morphed into a green leafy alien-monster, sending its wavy tendrils out into space, looking for something—anything—to grab a hold of.

Weary of hole-digging, I wonder if an arbor can be built without sinking the posts. Online I learn that it is possible to attach posts to concrete piers, but it doesn’t sound very attractive or very stable.

Our completed arbor, from plans in
"Making Arbors & Trellises" by
Marcianne Miller & Olivier Rollin

Saturday, May 28: I purchase lumber and hardware at Monument Lumber in Freedom. My husband digs the holes (more root-busting, of course) and I begin cutting the lumber.

Sunday, May 29: We attach the posts to the cross beams, then lift the two heavy structures up into the holes. We adjust the relative height of the four posts with rocks until they all match, then attach the side beams and roof pieces. Finally, towards the end of the day, we secure the posts and I stand back to admire our handiwork. Aching all over and dead tired, I’m trying to envision one of my daughters underneath a lovely flower-draped arbor on her wedding day, when my husband asks, “What if the wisteria doesn’t use the arbor?”

***

So what exactly have we learned about our relationship with plants? Perhaps it is recognizing that we do have a relationship with plants, and, in fact, we are rather dependent upon each other. Or as Michael Pollan puts it, “to the extent that you can put yourself in the place of these other species and look at the world from their point of view…we become members of the biotic community, one among many species, all of them together creating this wonderful web that we call life.”

Book reviews

2011-05-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Unconventional books for the unconventional mom

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, May , 2011

Mother’s Day will be a time of adjustment for me this year. My mom, who is 83, and her siter, 85, don’t live near each other, but they travel o my house every other year for a reunion on Mother’s Day.

However, my aunt has had severe back problems lately and my mother had major surgery just last month—so there won’t be any traveling for awhile. In lieu of the reunion, I’ll be spending the day with my two teenage daughters—both of who have plans to be another state or country by next May. So Mother’s Day this year will be transitional and bittersweet—missing my mom, and enjoying my daughters before they fly away.

I have stumbled upon three books recently—with bittersweet aspects themselves—that I just have to recommend. They wouldn’t make conventional Mother’s Day gifts; they’re not about great, self-sacrificing moms (although all three were created by incredibly talented women), and there’s no sentimental storyline. But, speaking as a mom myself, I wouldn’t want to miss their visual wit and dazzling inventiveness.

Book #1: “infinite City—A San Francisco Atlas” by Rebecca Solnit

You may associate the word “atlas” with an over-sized reference book filled with a variety of detailed maps, which, before GPS and Google Maps, you may have grabbed when looking for the location a particular street, city or region. A good world atlas will give you a sense of perspective as it shows you the relationship of different country’s land areas, elevations, climates, resources and vegetation.

“Infinite City—a San Francisco Atlas” is a whole new kind of atlas—one with inventive maps and well-researched text that makes unexpected connections, and thereby rewrites the history and reshapes the character of this famous city and the surrounding area. Various cartographers, artists and writers have contributed the 22 maps and accompanying text, although Solnit’s writing is some of the best. Two of my favorite maps are:

“Poison/Palate—the Bay Area in Your Body” in which Bay Area culinary venues are juxtaposed against potentially poisonous ones. Boudin Bakery, Ghirardelli Square and Anchor Brewing are pinpointed on the SF map, while, just across the Bay are the former Dutch Boy Paint factory, Mount Diablo mercury mine and Shell’s Martinez refinery. In the South Bay, artichoke fields, a Gizdich pies, and farm stands, are identified along with surrounding cement plants, nuclear waste disposal sites (in the Pacific), and semiconductor factories. To drive the point home, the map is also graced by “exuberantly mutant” mermaids, swimming off the coast.

In the chapter “Cinema City—Muybridge Inventing Movies, Hitchcock Making ‘Vertigo,’” Solnit makes the case that San Francisco was the birthplace of moving pictures, since photographer Eadweard Muybridge laid the foundation for this new technology while living intermittently in the city during the 1870s. The map shows sites related to Muybridge’s history-making sequential photographs, as well as his wife's extramarital exploits. On the same map, Alfred Hitchcock is also featured, having filmed “Vertigo” in various locations throughout the city in 1957.

Solnit has expanded the definition of what a book can be and how a story can be told in mesmerizing, revolutionary new way.

Book #2: “Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WT*” by April Winchell

“Regretsy” has the potential to offend perhaps every segment of society in a variety of ways. For one, the language is so coarse, even the title needs some cleaning up. For another, folks who earnestly handcraft to the best of their ability probably don’t deserve to be subjected to Winchell are biting criticism in such a public way. And lastly, who is this April Winchell anyway, and why is she the self-proclaimed arbiter of artistic value and good taste?

These are all valid objections, and yet “Regretsy” is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read about art—or any subject for that matter. Winchell’s book is an extension of her blog, in which she plucks e-commerce listings from Etsy (“ugly crap” as she calls it) and then shares her snarky commentary.

Log Purse,” Lynn Cyr Art

April Winchell’s commentary: “If you don’t mind

carrying a piece of wood around at social functions

, this is a great purse. Oh, you’ll still have to find

matching shoes, but as long as you’re Dutch,

it shouldn’t be a problem.”

In her defense, Winchell claims that Regretsy.com ultimately became a powerful selling tool for these Etsy merchants, linking their unconventional products with an audience of unusual tastes. As Winchell explains in her book, “When you make coats for farm animals…people aren’t going to find you with a keyword search.”

You will gasp at the photos (like “Glow in the dark zombie brain cameo” or “Obama toilet seat and tank lid cover” or “Jesus was a Yankee fan”), cringe at the prices, and then laugh guiltily over Winchell’s acerbic commentary. If Mom is okay with salty language and a little mean-spirited fun (and doesn’t crochet toilet roll covers), this is the book for her.

“Double Hummingbird Feeder Hat,” Roy Road Fish Company

April Winchell’s commentary: “I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this. And then I saw the YouTube video of this thing in action, and it was all over. The double hummingbird feeder hat immediately rocketed to my top 5 finds, ever.”

Book #3: “Radioactive—Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout” by Lauren Redniss

Lauren Redniss and other writers/artists like her are going to save the book-printing industry. She creates biographies that are an extraordinary pairing of words and pictures, with a gravity and sophistication that may launch a whole new genre. “Radioactive” is Redniss’s second book and it’s even better than her first, “Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies” (2006), which was also ground-breaking.

“Radioactive” is hard to categorize. It’s part biography, part history, part science textbook, and part love story—all immeasurably enhanced by the author’s imaginative illustrations. There’s something impressively all-encompassing about Redniss’s montage-like approach to storytelling—right down to the invented type font and phosphorescent cover art. The picture-book style and haunting imagery are absolutely essential to telling this eye-opening, heart-breaking, history-altering story. As one reviewer puts it, “Like radium itself, [this book] glows with energy.”

The Curie’s lives, faceted with episodes of passion, scandal, Nobel Prize-winning brilliance, and untimely death, would be story enough. But Redniss also weaves in the history of radioactivity itself, and how its discovery by the Curies shook the very foundation of modern chemistry and physics, which ultimately led to a greater understanding of atomic structure and energy.

“Radioactive” was released in March, uncannily coincident with the devastating tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan—and will have you pondering your proximity to the nearest nuclear power plant all over again. Of course the Curies realized that radioactivity had the potential to be both lethal and life-saving, and so Redniss also explores the medical benefits in addition to the long-term hazards of radiation exposure, through poignant personal narratives.

I’ve never seen a book quite like “Radioactive” before, and I’m hoping its artistic genius will spark a string of books like in the future.

Project: Repainting a kitchen chair

2011-05-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

Five myths about house paint

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 9, 2011

My kitchen chairs are old, purchased when my family was young, along with a matching table. They are natural pine, coated with clear varnish, and—after 15 plus years—an additional layer of grime and wear. Rather than strip and refinish, I decided to paint my chairs using lots of color; and, in the process, I learned a lot about paint.

Myth #1: You don’t need to apply primer before painting wood furniture

The problem with painting over old varnish is that paint won’t stick to a shiny surface. If the varnish is so old that it’s lost its shine, painting directly over the varnish might work. But it’s a better bet to give the surface some “teeth” by sanding the varnish first with fine grit sandpaper, and then applying a coat of white primer before painting.

Myth #2: You should always use oil-based paint on furniture, and in kitchens and bathrooms

In California, all house paint sold today is water-based (commonly called latex), since oil-based house paints were banned because they contain toxic solvents. (The only exception is paint designed for special purposes, like RustOleum for metal.) Water-based products are less hazardous, clean up easily with warm water and soap, and perform well in high-use or damp environments like kitchens and bathrooms. They dry quickly, but take about one week to really cure to a final hardness.

Primer, on the other hand, comes in water-based and oil-based versions. Oil-based primer dries slower but harder and is typically more resistant to moisture and wear. It will also adhere more reliably to an oil-based surface like varnish. Oil-based primer contains strong-smelling solvents and preservatives such as formaldehyde and benzene, which are flammable and carcinogenic, and require more solvents for clean-up. If you use oil-based primer, work safely and do all your painting and clean-up outdoors or in the garage with all the doors and windows open.

My daughter, Quin, started painting her kitchen chair
with a more intricate design.

Myth #3: Paint can labels will help you choose the right paint

Go to three different paint stores and try to compare paints just by reading labels. It can’t be done. Labels on paint cans can be inconsistent, incomplete and misleading. Here are two examples:

Enamel, which used to mean oil-based, now means water-based paint with some amount of sheen. The greater the sheen, the more scrubbable the surface. There is no industry standard for paint sheens, so one company’s eggshell can be another company’s satin, matte or low gloss. The confusing array of enamel finishes includes matte, velvet flat, pearl, low luster, eggshell, satin, mid-luster, low gloss, semi-gloss, gloss and hi-gloss.

Acrylic is a synthetic polymer (plastic) found in most water-based paints. Acrylics improve paint quality because they are more resistant to staining, mildew, cracking, peeling, and blistering. Latex house paints tend to be a “co-polymer” blend of binders (acrylic, vinyl, PVA and others), filler, pigment and water. Paint labels typically will not reveal the percentage of acrylic (or any other ingredient) used in a latex paint. Some do not list the ingredients at all.

Myth #4: Latex paints contain latex, oil-based paints contain oil

Natural latex comes from the sap of tropical trees, and is used to make rubber gloves, swim caps and condoms. Latex paint is a synthetic version of natural latex. There is no natural latex in latex paints. Oil-based paint is an alkyd resin base thinned with mineral spirits (paint thinner) and contains no oil.

Myth #5: Only oil-based paints are hazardous

VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compound. The VOC rating shows the level of emissions generated by the product over time and at the time of application. Oil-based paints, which have the highest level of VODs, can trigger asthma attacks, create throat and eye irritation, nausea and headaches. Long term exposure can lead to cancer, kidney and liver disease. However, most latex paints also contain VOCs, so take warnings such as “USE ONLY WITH ADEQUATE VENTILATION” seriously. In general, flat, pastel paints have lower VOC levels than bright, high-gloss paints. Large paint companies such as Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore carry a line of zero VOC paints.

Milk paints are a re-creation of a very old paint formula which are made from natural ingredients such as curdled milk, lime and pigment, and have no VOCs. You can mix your own milk paints, or buy them in a powdered form, but once mixed, they need to be used quickly before they spoil. Frequently used on furniture, milk paint is valued for its saturated colors, durability and antique look, as well as its environmental friendliness. Don’t be fooled by cans of pre-mixed paint labeled “milk paint” which are actually a synthetic version of the traditional milk paint colors, but not the safe formula. Greenspace on Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz carries powdered milk paints and other paints that are low-odor and low or zero VOC.

To transform an inexpensive plastic chair
local artist Linda Levy teaches decoupaging.

Experience is the best teacher

Local artist Linda Levy teaches workshops on decorating outdoor plastic chairs, but has also painted many wooden chairs in her time. “For any surface,” she says, “you have to prepare it first.” The best preparation is to remove any dirt with steel wool and then sand with a fine-grit sandpaper. “For a hard, smooth finish, the finer the (grit) size, the smoother the surface.”

She suggests using white primer because it seals the wood, adheres better and, as a base coat, makes the paint colors brighter. She says it’s always best to work outdoors so you won’t breathe the vapors. She usually uses acrylics (they’re more “artful”), extended with a gel medium, which keeps the paint from drying immediately. If the chair is going to be outdoors or in the sun, she suggests a final coat of polyurethane, for moisture and fade protection.

What is Steampunk?

2011-05-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

Steampunk Style: Mad Max meets Jane Austen
Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel March 2011

2011 Nova Albion Exhibition moves to the South Bay

Photo by Gar Travis/www.garphoto.com

If you’ve ever been to a Renaissance or Dickens fair, you know the feeling of being almost transported back in time. There are always those anachronistic incongruities: patrons in jeans, vendors accepting Jacksons, paper plates and plastic forks at the food court. But for the most part, it’s a fun chance to pretend.

For those who love Victoriana, the upcoming Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition (March 25-27, Santa Clara Hyatt Regency) will attempt to transport you to that period from 1839 to 1901 when industry was redefining the work world and Queen Victoria reigned over much of the planet. Or at the very least, it will give you a taste of 19^th century style under 20^th century conference room lighting.

Photo by Gar Travis/www.garphoto.com

Perhaps the Silicon Valley hotel venue is oddly appropriate, though, because Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition isn’t trying to be a quaint Dickens Christmas fair. Steampunk is not about quaint. It’s more of a 19^th century time machine to the future—a fantasy of technology to come, as viewed through vintage brass goggles.

For those unfamiliar with steampunk, it’s a sci-fi subculture that offers a fresh, romanticized view on technology by making it retro. Steampunk style has been around for more than 20 years and takes its inspiration from the science fiction of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne (the fathers of science fiction) and cyberpunk. It’s a unique combination of romance and technology, fantasy and history, or as writer/crafter Jean Campbell puts it, “Mad Max meets Jane Austen.”

Neverwas Haul entertains crowds with their fabricated
steam-powered art pieces at the 2010Bay Area Maker Faire

Steampunk has influenced all aspects of pop culture, including fashion, films, literature, bands, music videos, video games and comics. Notable steampunk bands include Rasputina, Dresden Dolls and Gogol Bordello. Movies with a distinct steampunk style include “Steamboy,” “The Prestige,” “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Wild Wild West.” Annual creative gatherings like Burning Man, Maker Fair, and Dragon Con are showcases for amazing steam-powered machines and other retro contrivances.

Nova Albion draws steampunk fans with differing passions. Santa Cruzan Savi Savinovitch was attracted to the costuming at the Renaissance and Dickens Fairs. “My wife and I both worked the Renaissance Fair and there was a [steampunk] theme party at my booth,” says Savinovitch, who leads the Volunteer Security Team at Nova Albion. In 2007 he and his wife also attended a New Years Eve steampunk-themed party in Santa Cruz. “We jumped right into it after that,” says Savinovitch. He’s also “heavily into Star Wars,” and says he loves to tinker and use his imagination.

Vanessa Applegate, also from Santa Cruz, is likewise a fan of bay area costume fairs, but is even more drawn to the aesthetic and crafting opportunities of steampunk. “I’ve always been interested in things made of metal, and more solid construction.” To her, the steampunk aesthetic abhors the built-in obsolescence of modern products. “I like making things that are solid, built to last and that draws me towards the whole steampunk thing,” says Applegate, who is Director of Operations for this year’s exhibition. “It’s both hard and expensive making things out of good materials,” adds Applegate.

Photo by Gar Travis/www.garphoto.com

Modifiers of gadgetry and other steampunk artisans typically create their wares from uncommon materials. In the forward to “Steampunk Style Jewelry” by Jean Campbell (a great DIY introduction to all things steampunk), writer Paul Di Filippo says that the steampunk artist instinctively seeks materials for which the modern day counterparts are often “inferior or ugly”: cast-iron and wood instead of aluminum; silk and linen instead of polyester; brass, glass and rubber instead of plastic; welding instead of superglue; buckles, buttons and laces instead of Velcro; decoration instead of utilitarianism.

When searching for found objects for steampunk jewelry, Campbell suggests bead shops, hardware and thrift stores, flea markets, Ebay and Etsy. Large craft stores sell suitable charms and findings under the names “Industrial Chic,” “Altered Art” and “Lost & Found.” Some antique stores have baskets of dismembered dolls, dismantled clocks or small toys.

Classic steampunk bling uses watch parts, skeleton keys, gears, compasses, and vintage charms made from copper, brass, pewter or tarnished silver. Steampunk fashion sticks to a muted palette of browns, blacks, grays, purples and reds—reminiscent of the Queen’s dark mourning attire after the death of her beloved Prince Albert.

Photo by Gar Travis/www.garphoto.com

Ariane Wolfe, co-chair of Nova Albion, says that when the event started in October 2008, it was the first of its kind. “There had never been a steampunk exhibition anywhere in the U.S.,” says Wolfe. “Since then, there have been 10-12 opening up across the U.S.” Besides conventions, other steampunk gathering places include nightclubs and tea houses.

Last year’s attendance was about 1,200, and “80% got dressed up which is really phenomenal for that kind of event,” says Wolfe. “We had all ages, from infants to very elderly people.” The event has moved from Emeryville to Santa Clara this year to accommodate a larger crowd. Wolfe attributes the exhibition’s growing attendance to the wide appeal of Steampunk. “It has a literary following, who show up to see their favorite authors, which is something you don’t usually find in sci-fi fandom,” says Wolfe. “Then there is the DIY contingent and the alt history folks, into things like Civil War reenactments.”

To keep everyone’s creative juices flowing, the theme for the 2011 Exhibition is “Wild Wild East.” Savi Savinovitch admits coming up an Asian-flavored steampunk costume has been a challenge. “I’ve been thrown for an absolute loop,” he says, but has been searching through books for ideas. Motifs to avoid? Savinovitch says goggles have been overdone. “I stopped wearing mine completely,” he says. Vanessa Applegate says the quintessential steampunk cliché is clothing covered with gears. “If it’s covered in gears, I want them to do something,” she says. “I like functionality.”

The term “Nova Albion” comes from an early name for northern California, bestowed on the region by the explorer Sir Francis Drake after he landed somewhere north of San Francisco in 1579. (Albion, literally “the white,” was an archaic name for Great Britain, referencing the white cliffs along the English Channel.)

The Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition is a regional event, moving closer to Santa Cruz this year (from Emeryville) for a larger venue at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, March 25-27. The three-day event will feature hands-on workshops, music, a museum of curiosities, venders, speakers, outdoor kinetic and steam-powered device demonstrations, featured artists/makers/mad scientists, and a Victorian ball. For tickets and information go to steampunkexhibition.com

Steampunk style films (from “Steampunk Style Jewelry”)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Around the World in 80 Days (1956, 2004)

The Great Race (1965)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

The City of Lost Children (1995)

Dark City (1998)

Wild Wild West (1999)

League of Extraordinary Gentleman (2003)

Hellboy (2004)

Van Helsing (2004)

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

The Prestige (2006)

Stardust (2007)

The Golden Compass (2007)

Art for the Moment

2011-02-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

Making Art That Won’t Last

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Feb. 5, 2010

Jim Denevan spent two weeks living in a yurt on a huge, frozen lake in Siberia last spring in the name of art. He left the warmth of his Santa Cruz home to create the largest piece of art in the world. Commissioned by the clothing retailer, Anthropologie, he created an enormous drawing on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal, in southeastern Russia. Lake Baikal is the world’s oldest and deepest lake, containing roughly 20% of the world’s fresh water fish. In winter, the air temperature drops to minus 10 degrees and the surface of the lake freezes solid enough to drive on—the perfect canvas for Denevan’s artwork.

Denevan is best known in Santa Cruz for his outsized beach drawings. With just a stick and sometimes a rake, he draws huge circles, spirals, and other geometric shapes in the sand that are best viewed from a high vantage point like a cliff. These works are temporary and usually last no more than a few hours until they are reclaimed by the tides.

On the beach, Denevan normally works alone, but for Lake Baikal, he took four friends to help him execute the huge drawing. The team used sticks, brooms, shovels, a Russian Bobcat fitted with a large rolling brush, and GPS, to draw by pushing away the snow resting on top of the black ice for a high-contrast result. Denevan’s design—a series of circles along a spiraling Fibonacci curve—grew in size from circles 18 inches in diameter to 2 miles wide (10 miles in circumference). An unexpected snowfall and hurricane-force winds created two significant set-backs, and sub-zero temperatures had to be endured throughout their stay—not easy for a bunch of weather-spoiled Californians.

The finished piece spanned over nine square miles. The team departed in a giant Russian helicopter that finally allowed them to see their finished work of art from the air. “It was pretty spectacular,” says Denevan.

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Denevan often works in lonely, isolated places, without an audience, and doesn’t mind that his finished work is quickly reclaimed by nature. He recently traveled to South America for a commissioned public performance of his beach drawing, but prefers a more private, spontaneous approach. “I like it when people come accidentally upon the drawings,” says Denevan. “But 70-80% of the time I head for a beach where no one else is around. I can go to the beach with nothing but a stick. It’s so freeing and uncomplicated. I’m doing it for myself. It’s soothing and meditative.”

Contrast Denevan’s preferred no-hassle approach to that of another land artist, Christo. Christo (along with his wife and artistic partner, Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009) rose to prominence in the 1960s for wrapping enormous manmade objects like fountains, bridges and buildings. But his work became more about the land when, in 1969, he wrapped 1 ½ miles of Australian seacoast with one million square feet of synthetic fabric.

Like Denevan, Christo’s work has always been large-scale and temporal—but there the similarity ends. Christo adds materials to the landscape—usually fabric and steel—and his works have to be dismantled after a short viewing period. In contrast, Denevan’s works—fabricated from nature—grow, stay and decay in a cycle more reminiscent of nature itself.

But perhaps the greatest difference between the two artists is that, while Denevan prefers a simple, spontaneous approach, Christo’s projects, by design, involve complexity and controversy. Californians may remember one of Christo’s more ambitious projects from the 70s—a glowing white-fabric fence that crossed 24 ½ miles of rolling hills in Sonoma and Marin counties. Gaining permission from private land-owners after 42 months of haggling (including a 450 Environmental Impact Report, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, and 18 public hearings featuring strong, organized opposition), “Running Fence” was finally installed over four days and remained in place for two weeks.

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In May, the Bureau of Land Management will make its final decision on whether to allow another Christo art installation, proposed for a wild section of the Arkansas River in Colorado. For 18 years, Christo (now 75) has had his sights on this dramatic waterway for a project he calls “Over the River.” The proposed installation would suspend horizontally, a total of 5.9 miles of reflective, translucent fabric panels, above a 42-mile stretch of the river at eight distinct areas. The panels would be viewed not only by those traveling along US-50, but also by vacationers white-water rafting and kayaking underneath it.

Those who oppose the project and its two-year construction phase, say the highway congestion along the river would be dangerous, the beautiful landscape would be scarred, and the area’s wildlife would be severely impacted—particularly the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. Surprising many, the local Sierra Club chapter has endorsed the project, chiefly on the merits of its temporariness and the artist’s willingness to mitigate environmental impact as much as possible. As with all his massive projects, Christo promises to finance the project himself, recycle all materials used, and leave no lasting sign of the artwork’s presence.

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Obviously, creating colossal land art requires tremendous courage and determination. How many artists would have the stamina to devote themselves and their finances to a proposed work of art for years on end without any guarantees? Another Christo project—an enormous pyramid made from 410,000 stacked oil barrels—has been stalled in the United Arab Emirates for over 30 years.

And how many artists would willingly travel to desolate, godforsaken landscapes, often at their own expense, just to create an impermanent drawing that virtually no one will ever see firsthand? For Denevan, who avoids permits and red tape, just finding large open spaces for a project can be challenging. He’s currently exploring robotic drawing, inspired by the temporary tracks left by Rovers on Mars. “Not on the moon because the moon is a permanent surface—you can still see the footprints of the astronauts,” says Denevan. “But on Mars it will make a very distinct drawing. It disappears within a few months.”

Perhaps more than anything else, it’s the transitory nature of these two artists’ work that makes it so extraordinary and so worthwhile. For those who are lucky enough to actually witness Denevan’s or Christo’s finished artworks in person, the experience is no doubt heightened by the fact that is a fleeting and often serendipitous one. Like seeing a rainbow, a beautiful sunset, or even an unspoiled landscape, the experience is made more precious because it will not last.

Postscript: Here's a little temporary land art in my own driveway, which I made hurriedly before work with the Fall leaves blown across the street from my neighbor's tulip tree. By the next morning it had all blown away.

Purely Decorative

2011-01-29T11:21:00.000-08:00

Art for the home anyone can make

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel January 15, 2011

When the weather turned cold about 17,000 years ago and humans took refuge in caves in what is now France, they painted pictures of large animals on the walls deep inside their caves. Experts have many theories about the purpose of the images, ranging from astronomical, to historical, to instructional, to spiritual. They also theorize that since these ancient paintings are never found in those parts of the caves that were inhabited or near daylight, they could not have served a purely decorative purpose.

If the foremost purpose of art in the home is decorative, so be it. Decorative art is a pervasive feature of the modern American home, and how this came to be is a fascinating story.

The fireplace makes room for art

In Bill Bryson’s latest book “At Home—A Short History of Private Life” he explores the evolution of the home in his beautifully fluent, humorous, and often digressive, prose. I love Bryson’s ability to turn a seemingly mundane topic into a fascinating examination of western civilization, and how world events and discoveries have shaped our private lives right down to minutest of details.

For instance, to keep warm in medieval England, an open hearth was built in the center of the living space (usually a single multi-functional room called a “hall”), filing the ceiling space with smoke. It wasn’t until about 1330 that bricks and chimneys were developed, which proved less efficient at heating the home and its occupants, but, by the diverting of smoke, allowed builders to create second and third stories, multiple rooms and private spaces.

More rooms, more walls, more art

As rooms proliferated, so did the overabundance of wall space. In Elizabethan England the well-to-do nobility acquired expensive tapestries, paintings, and mirrors to accent their walls. Bryson notes that mirrors, especially large ones, were “exceedingly precious treasures, more valuable than any painting.” Of course any consideration for wall decor was strictly limited to the rich and powerful, since only they had the walls and the resources to think beyond the practical aspects of day-to-day life.

It was not until the emergence of the so-called middle class—in the mid-18^th century—that interest in interior decoration began to spread to other social groups. This occurred during the age of European Imperialism, when exploration and exploitation created greater wealth and new job opportunities for the common man. Urban professionals, such as bankers, lawyers, artists, designers and merchants could now afford to dress their homes more lavishly.

“Suddenly there were swarms of people with splendid town houses that all needed furnishing, and just as suddenly the world was full of desirable objects with which to fill them,” says Bryson. Framed art of all kinds—drawings, paintings, lithographs and etchings—now became more commonplace in the middle class home. “The modern house—a house such as we would recognize today--had begun to emerge,” says Bryson.

Decorating your own castle walls

Today, those who are reluctant to choose art for their home—either because they are not sure what to buy or because they don’t want to spend a lot of money—have many choices. Those who can afford it can hire an interior decorator who will select art that complements a room’s color scheme and style.

A less expensive option is to visit a consignment store, yard sale, thrift shop, flea market or craft fair. Art in a consignment store is usually in good condition, framed and ready to hang. Thrift shops, yard sales and flea markets are especially good for great deals on wooden frames (if the art itself isn’t worth keeping), which can be repainted to your liking. Craft shows usually have art geared for pop culture tastes such as posters of musicians, photographs of movie icons, or drawings of sports heroes.

If you want to save money by putting together your own art, but don’t see yourself as an artist, there are ways around that as well. Here are a few ideas I gathered from bhg.com and other sources:

Pretty paper

Frame scrapbooking paper, available in an array of trendy colors and patterns, for easy and inexpensive artwork. Choose several papers that suit your room’s color scheme and hang them together in simple white frames with white mats. Also consider wrapping paper, handmade paper, wallpaper, book illustrations, postcards or note cards. Small items such as postcards or book illustrations gain instant impact when surrounded with an extra-wide white mat and a simple black frame.

Large photographs

Take some high-resolution digital images you’ve shot to Costco, where they can be blown up large and printed on canvas for a reasonable price. With “gallery wrap” your photos are ready to hang without a frame.

Wall curtain

Find identical plastic placemats you can buy in large quantities and create a wall curtain of repeating patterns. Use Fotoclips to link the mats together horizontally and vertically, then hang the whole curtain using thumbtacks or nails. Fotoclips can also be used to create a large wall collage of 4x6 photos.

Purely Decorative

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 15, 2011

Artistic kids

Give your kids markers or crayons in the colors of your room and let them create their own art. Choose your favorites and frame them with colored mats. The kids will love seeing their work displayed and you'll have a keepsake of their creativity.

Anyone can paint

Visit an art store where you'll find stretched canvas, acrylic paints and brushes. Paint abstract designs or use templates for geometric shapes. “DIY Art at Home: 28 Simple Projects for Chic on the Cheap” by Lola Gavarry has ideas, techniques and pull-out patterns from which anyone can make decorative art.

Holiday Gift Ideas for the Crafter who Loves Books

2010-12-03T10:17:00.000-08:00

Great books for the maker on your list
Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 4, 2010

For the crafter of any age or inclination on your holiday shopping list, books are a welcome gift. From home decoration to wedding planning to backyard fun to photo and movie making—books are full of innovative ideas and well-illustrated step-by-step instructions. The best of them encourage cooperative planning/construction and earth-friendly materials. Here are a few to consider this holiday season.

For kids:

Movie Maker

The Ultimate Guide to Making Films

By Tim Grabham , Suridh Hassan, Dave Reeve, Clare Richards, Garry Parsons (Illustrator)

Candlewick

If your child has ever put on a play, a puppet show, or knows who Steven Spielberg is, why not encourage his/her inner filmmaker? Movie Maker is a kit to help kids make movies using a digital camera or cell phone. Aimed at children age 8-12, the box (which doubles as a working clapper board) includes a CD of sound effects, small push-out costume accessories and props, a fill-in storyboard, and a 48-page step-by-step director’s handbook. Extras such as stickers for the director's chair, stars for the actors' dressing rooms, and tickets for the premiere of the movie make this a complete experience.

For parents:

Handy Dad

25 Awesome Projects for Dads and Kids

By Todd Davis

Chronicle Books

Here’s your chance to enter the hallowed ranks of best dad (or mom for that matter) in the world. Flip through this book with your offspring so that you can plan your chosen project together. Picture your daughter scaling a colorful Climbing Wall in her own backyard or your son flying from tree to tree on his very own Zip Line. Assuming you have the tools and the knowhow, the projects take 10 minutes, “one beer,” an afternoon or a weekend and there’s something here for children of every age and interest, including a lava lamp, a water balloon launcher, a dollhouse, a half pipe, a treasure chest, a go cart, a circus tent, and (my favorite) a stunt dummy/abominable snowman.

For the bride and groom:

Crafty Ideas for the

Bride on a Budget

Edited By Linda Kopp

Lark Books

A budget wedding doesn’t have to be a drab one, or even a noticeably low-cost one—as the elegant projects in this book attest to. You can save money by making your own invitations, bouquets, flower girl basket, ring pillow, seating cards, centerpieces, favors and thank you notes—especially if you’ve got the tools and a few crafty friends to lend a hand. “Budget” has included the essential and ephemeral in its 75 projects—even several wedding cakes—but made me question the budget premise. Another budget-wedding book, “The DIY Bride Crafty Countdown” by Khris Cochran, actually provides a “Crafty Calculator” comparing your cost vs. store cost for each of its 40 wedding projects, and avoids pricier materials like the satin ribbon and large silk flowers used in “Budget.” However some of the projects, such as “Groovy Owl Cake Toper” and “Gourmet Popcorn Buffet,” didn’t look groovy, gourmet, or even appropriate for the most economical of weddings.

For the techie:

Fashioning Technology

A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting

By Syuzi Pakhchyan

Make Books

When geek and designer get together amazing things happen. “Fashioning Technology” is a beginners’ guide to integrating simple electronics with wearables, home accents and interactive toys. The author is a robotics instructor with an art background, whose projects are both fashionable and useful. Wearable projects include headphones that keep your ears warm and have lights for added safety at night. For the home, you can make a luminescent tea table or an LED chandelier. “Smart materials” used in project construction include thermo- and photochromatic inks, magnetic and conductive paints, polymorph plastic and fiber optics. For forward-thinking crafters, it’s time to learn some a new vocabulary and put it to great use. (This isn’t a new book, but it’s the best one I’ve seen yet for teaching the basic techniques of technology-based crafts.)

For the photographer:

Photojojo!

Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas

By Amit Gupta and Kelly Jensen

Potter Craft

“Photojojo!” isn’t a book for would-be Ansel Adamses who painstakingly print, mat and frame their images for the gallery. It’s for those who love to be surrounded by lots and lots of photographs, everyday, in fun and unexpected ways. Access to a camera, a computer, and image-editing software are requisite, but most of the projects don’t require lots of shopping for materials. Create a mural-sized photo displayed in multiple re-purposed CD jewel cases, a photo easel from an old fork, or cupcakes crowned with edible photo icing. “Photojojo!” aims to get you shooting and using your photographs more creatively.

For the daydreamer:

Woodland Style

Ideas and Projects for Bringing Foraged and Found Elements Into Your Home

By Marlene Hurley Marshall

Storey Publishing

Even the cover incorporates wood (literally) in this book about home décor made from things found in the woods. Anything tree-related that can be preserved such as twigs, roots, seedpods, bark or logs is fair game, as well as greenery such as mosses. With an emphasis on lovely photos intended to spark ideas, the book also offers instructions for a few simple projects such as a moss wreath or leaf garland, and recipes for cooking with wild edibles. It’s a celebration of the dark, damp, woodsy side of nature, and an exploration of decorative ways to bring those rustic elements indoors.

Dia de los Muertos

2010-11-07T19:08:00.000-08:00

A day for the living

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Oct. 23, 2010.

“The Mexican…is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it…”

--Octavio Paz

I was fortunate enough to attend dancer/choreographer Tandy Beal’s multi-media presentation “HereAfterHere” last month at Cabrillo College, which attempts to “imagine the unimaginable” in exploring the question, “What happens after we die?” The performance explored the topic of death not only through spell-binding, thought-provoking dance, video, music, and theatre, but also, audience participation.

At intermission, we were asked to call another audience member on our cell phone—someone we didn’t know, but had been given their number—and share our personal view of what happens after we die. I was a little embarrassed by the experiment, but, with uncharacteristic optimism inspired by the performance, I plowed ahead, babbling something like, “if life itself is such an unknowable miracle, maybe death will be too.” When I asked my anonymous cell phone partner what he thought happens after we die, he offered, “I don’t know.”

Of course there are many cultures who embrace a very specific notion of the afterlife. The indigenous people of Mexico—the Aztecs—for example, believed that souls did not die, that they continued living in Mictlan—a parallel continuation of life. Mictlan was an ideal, peaceful place to stay until the day they could return to their old earthly homes and visit living relatives. Upon their return, relatives would not see them, but would feel their presence.

In Mexico today, the ancient traditions continue, woven together with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Each town and region in Mexico has its own way of celebrating the return of the dead on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), but the purpose is the same—to welcome relatives’ souls as guests, feed them, bring gifts and spend time with them.

In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigolds and candles, providing scents, colors and light to guide the souls home. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.

In the United States and in Mexico’s larger cities, families build ofrendas (altars of offerings) in their homes to commemorate their loved ones. The elements are usually decorative (like cut tissue paper), symbolic (like incense, bread, candles, and flowers), personal (like photographs or possessions of the deceased), or traditional (like sugar skulls and skeletons).

In contrast to the more personal, home version, ofrendas can also be a kind of public art, frequently invested with humor and irony. Elegant catrinas (skeleton figurines) and sugar skulls created for use in public ofrendas may poke fun at transitory possessions like money and social status. It’s as if to say, despite all our pretentions and the inequalities in this life, death will ultimately be the great equalizer. They also remind us of our own mortality. Sometimes the sugar skulls are painted with tears, to show that the dead miss their everyday earthly life.

Jose Guadalupe Posada , the early 20^th century Mexican cartoonist illustrator and artist, and after him, the muralist Diego Rivera, were the first to use skeletons in their work to make social and political statements. Posada’s best known works are his calaveras--whimsical engravings of elegantly dressed skeletons, meant to satirize the life of the upper classes. Since his death, his images have become associated with the Día de los Muertos.

Each year, all over the Bay Area, Día de los Muertos is celebrated privately and publicly on or near November 1-2 (see http://ofrenda.org/ for a listing). But you don’t really need to go any further than Watsonville for a wide array of events. The community celebration—including impromptu altar-building, a peace ceremony, music, art and dance—will continue all day at the downtown Plaza on Saturday, October 30. At 4:30, a procession will travel from the Plaza to the Pajaro Valley Arts Council (PVAC) gallery on Sudden Street, to view altars created by local groups.

The theme for the gallery’s annual Día de los Muertos display—Mi Casa es Tu Casa, Celebrating Community Diversity—is inspired by Día de Los Muertos, but emphasizes multi-cultural interpretations. PVAC solicits applications each September, holds an altar-building workshop in October, and then offers a small floor/wall space for each altar in the gallery.

At the altar-building workshop on October 9, many participants were still formulating the concept for their altar. José Ortiz, from Hijos del Sol Arts in Salinas, helped participants get started by showing them how to cut lacey tissue paper designs (papel picado), and make dancing skeletons and tiny coffins from paper.

More experienced groups have gotten started on their own, and embracing the multi-cultural approach. Representing the Corralitos Artists’ Collective, Ann Cavanaugh and Mary Manfre have emphasized their Irish heritage to create their altar. “The Celts’ were a nature-based culture,” explains Cavanaugh. “They saw the earth as being home to all of us, and the ‘other world’ belonging to all of us too.” In their ofrenda they have used a doorway, a river, and animal imagery to symbolize a Celtic sense of eternity. Death is about “a spiraling world, in and out, recycling,” says Cavanaugh. “We come out of nature and we go back to nature.”

Groups typically meet ahead of time to work out their concept and distribute the tasks involved. But some altars are amorphous and organic, and don’t actually take shape until the group finally constructs their piece in the gallery.

The VooDoo Ridge Collective, discusses their theme and approach ahead of time, but they don’t necessarily work from a blueprint. During September and October they gather on Saturdays to work in their mentor Tom Wolver’s studio. This group of sculptors has created two boats to symbolize spiritual journey, but various members will add their own personal ceramic pieces to the finished altar, reflecting themes such as transition and transformation. “We all bring what we think will fit in,” says Pat Taylor. “It’s like working in clay. You don’t have a fixed thing in your mind, but somehow the creative process takes over and this amazingly spiritual thing is created.”

Doctorow's "Makers" points the way to the future of art

2010-09-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Makers make the Future

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel August 7, 2010

Cory Doctorow’s 2009 futurist novel “Makers” is about people who thrive on labors of love. The main characters—Perry and Lester—are heard to say, “I just want to make stuff,” on more than one occasion. They are inventor artists…or junkyard engineers—however you want to look at it—who tinker and devise new ways of reusing and repurposing (and even glorifying) just about everything obsolete—from old technology, to abandoned malls, to homeless shanty-town residents.

Perry and Lester are okay with feeding the ravenous appetite of a public who is quickly bored and impatient for the next big thing. To their credit, though, they care much more about making stuff than about making money. (This is also a love story, so making good relationships is also a part of the happiness equation.) They also represent the sharing ethic of open-source hacker culture—allowing and encouraging fellow hackers and even users to easily change the content of just about everything they design.

Is Doctorow giving us a glimpse of what the near future will look like for crafters? Will the depressed economy encourage artists to down-size their lifestyles so that money-making doesn’t get in the way of creating? Will the future demand that we be more honest with ourselves, and recognize that most of what we make will ultimately become landfill? Will we happily embrace the restless nature of consumer demands and tastes, and become less proprietary about our designs?

Perhaps a distinction needs to be made between what Perry and Lester are making from discarded Barbie heads, conch shells, garden gnomes and Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls—and whatever we are making. But there’s a big macramé monstrosity hanging in my parents’ hallway that tells me otherwise. Not everything we make is a timeless masterpiece.

Maybe turning an abandoned mall (or tannery) into a living/workspace for hundreds of people (even the homeless)—which, in turn, renders cars an occasional convenience rather than a daily necessity—seems too unlikely. But technology-enabled telecommuting has already begun to erode the paradigm of the centralized work place. Many more of us could do our jobs without leaving home.

Perhaps repurposing an empty Wal-Mart into a crowd-sourced theme-park ride, sounds too idyllic. But I’ve seen Halloween stores, health clubs, thrift shops, and charter schools pop up in these ghost store locations with more and more regularity.

The fact that “Makers” is not set in some unimaginably distant future, but in the teens and 20s of our own century, makes it seem much more ponder-worthy—and maybe even possible. The near-future world Doctorow paints is also rife with crime, poverty and unscrupulous boardroom “suits.” But optimism prevails in the boundless energy and imagination of open source hacker culture. If you’re a crafter/artist, you could be a source of that much-needed optimism in the future.

(In the true spirit of open source sharing, you can download “Makers” from the author’s website, boingboing.net)

(Long shop of quilt and close up.) Photographic images can be printed onto fabric without having to buy expensive commercial inkjet fabric sheets. The resulting fabric can be cut up and pieced into a quilt in a variety of ways. The images can be used very literally--portraits of family members, for instance, for a family tree quilt--or in a more abstract way. The resulting quilt can be like a fabric photo album, or simply referential, evoking a sense of time or place that might not be otherwise possible with store-bought fabrics. (see http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-photo-quilt/ for instructions)

Open source crafters’ haven: Instructables

I gave myself an assignment recently, to become a contributing member of the Instructables.com DIY community. I’ve perused the San Francisco-based website for a year or two, always amused by the variety of the projects and astounded by the ingenuity of its members. Now I appreciate even more these hacker/crafters who are so willing to share their expertise and great ideas, because I realize the extra effort it took to do so.

It’s not difficult to submit a project, but it takes time to photograph all the steps along the way, and then write succinct descriptions of each step. I made a photo quilt for my parents’ 60^th wedding anniversary (to replace that ghastly macramé wall hanging) and kept my camera near the sewing table at all times, so I wouldn’t miss photographing a step (I did any way). You can see my 9-step project at:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-photo-quilt/

If you become a member (free) you’ll receive the weekly project list. This week’s list includes:

Build an artificial reef

Easy Rain Barrel

Magnetic Rubik’s Dice Cube

Paper Wallet

Weld a Barbecue

How to Freeze Blueberries

Trash-Burning Car

Giant Bristlebot

25 Cent Ring

Clone a Tomato Plant

Beach Towel for Two

Stainless Steel Patio Heater

My husband made this beautiful plate for his parents by adding words to an image via Photoshop, printing and cutting out the image to fit the bottom of the plate, then adhering the image with Modge Podge glue. Rice paper was then glued to the entire back of the plate. Finally, a gold edge of acrylic paint was added around the rim and on the bottom of the plate.

August Milestones

Besides my parents’ 60^th wedding anniversary, our family will also be celebrating my in-laws’ 50^th wedding anniversary in Raleigh, North Carolina. So July has been weekend project month. For his parents, my husband made a great 15-minute video with music and voice-overs on his iMac, with the help of iMovie, other downloaded conversion software, digitized home movies from childhood, and lots of still photographs. His brothers, who live in North Carolina near his folks, helped by photographing all the homes the family has lived in over the years and filming short clips of congratulations from friends.

Other anniversary gift ideas

A personalized anniversary greeting from the white house (see www.ehow.com for instructions)
An anniversary greeting from another famous person (we got Clay Aiken to send his best wishes on an 8x10 photo, by writing to his publicist in Los Angeles)
A glass plate Modge-Podged with a special photo in the center and rice paper around the rim.
A scrapbook of photos and personal greetings from friends
A photo quilt, incorporating special people or places
A professional photograph of the whole family (we used A.K. Rowland, who took beautiful photos of us on a Santa Cruz beach at sunset)

Little Odors and Simple Pleasures

2010-09-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Making my home town--AROMAS--the subject of art.

Originally published in the Santa Cruz , August 28, 2010

My family’s home is situated on the Mexican land grant, Rancho Las Aromitas y Agua Caliente, which translates as “little odors and warm waters.” The rancho’s name was made official in 1835 when Juan Miguel Anzar received a grant of 8600 acres northwest of the San Juan Bautista mission.

The inspiration for the Rancho’s name is a bit of a mystery to those of us living in Aromas today. Many think that “little odors” refers to the sulfur/rotten eggs smell one encounters when driving west on Highway 129—not a very romantic notion. The bigger mystery is the whereabouts of the hot springs—which must be hidden on someone’s private property, since the location is not commonly known.

When the town of Aromas made its name official about 100 years ago, “Aromitas” was also a contender, and, in my opinion, a much lovelier sounding and perhaps less misleading word. But, despite the implied promise of olfactory delights, Aromas does not have any distinctive aromas I’m aware of—certainly none to rival its northern neighbor, Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world.

So “Aromas” is simply the name of our town, without any further implications. It’s a small country town with a funny name that tries to make its location more widely known once a year on Aromas Day. Perhaps it is a sign of my own ambivalence about Aromas, that I invited a friend to Aromas Day with the dubious sales pitch of “yard sales as far as the eye can see.” In fact, the downtown festivities are actually kind of special, in a low-key, small-town sort of way. There’s a parade with Girl Scouts, classic cars and tractors, horses and other livestock. The 4H sells plants and homemade jam. The Boy Scouts sell hot dogs. A horse-drawn wagon gives folks a free ride from the field parking lot. The Grange serves a warm pancake breakfast. And Aromas Hills Artisans (AHA) has an art sale in the rejuvenated downtown park. What could be sweeter?

My contribution to AHA’s art sale was pending until I decided to roam around downtown with my camera to explore Aromas’ identity through its civic architecture: the school, the library, the post office, the fire station, the water department, and the Rogge Lane Bridge. It seemed like a good idea: spell A-R-O-M-A-S with a photo of each letter. The letters wouldn’t be literal letters found on signs, but rather implied letters, found in architectural embellishments. But I soon discovered that, although a few of Aromas’ buildings are over 100 years old, they were all built with an emphasis on functionality. Only one building—The Old Firehouse, which was originally a K-8 school designed in 1925 by the famous Bay Area architect William H. Weeks—has tile work, wrought iron and a few other flourishes of the Mission Revival style. I had my work cut out for me.

So I widened my parameters just a bit. Aromas (pop. 2797) doesn’t have a sit-down restaurant (although the two markets make great take-out burritos and barbecue on Sundays), a city hall (we aren’t a city), a high school (that’s in San Juan Bautista), or a hotel. But it does have Aromas Feed (with lots of great garden ornaments), Marshall’s Grocery (with its creaky wooden floor and squeaky screen door), the Grange (our social event center), and Granite Rock Quarry (a little difficult to photograph without permission, but very visual in an industrial sort of way). Thank goodness Aromas is only six letters, or it would have taken me much longer than a weekend to find the requisite number of decent images.

After I printed each letter as a 4x6 black and white image I had several ideas about how to present them. The customary choice is a white mat with 6 openings and a black frame, and I found several of these online for around $20. A slightly less expensive idea is to use glass clip frames (the kind that don’t require a frame) adhered to a black strip of wood. I found clip frames online for $2 each. My bargain basement idea is to use small plastic Fotoclips ($10 for 100) and clip the photos together in one long vertical strip.

So, on Sunday, we’ll see if my A-R-O-M-A-S photo collage actually sells, or inspires any civic pride. I rekindled my own bit of hometown pride when I encountered some helpful fellow Aromans while making my photographs. One woman said she’d seen me all around town with my camera, asked what I was doing, and then told me about the yard sale she has planned for Aromas Day. Another inquired about my project and then suggested a place to find good “As.” And at the fire station, one young firefighter offered to open the bay doors of the garage where the fire engines are parked, then looked inside and outside the truck compartments, and all around the station yard with me, trying to help me find a better “A” and “M.”

One thing I love about photography is that it opens your eyes and helps you see things in a whole new way. Looking for ways to describe my small town through photographs, enabled me to see more clearly what Aromas has going for it. And despite our deficits in architecture, amenities, and aromas, I kind of liked what I saw.

What is Art? Who decides?

2010-07-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Three new ways to answering the age old question

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel July 10, 2010

Campbell’s tomato spray—an homage to Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup Cans--was one of the works featured in Mr. Brainwash’s LA art event, which made him an overnight sensation.

The question "What is Art?" always reminds me of the "I could have made that" reaction of some to the splatters and drips of abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock. It's not always easy to defend art--or even distinguich good art from bad. Should we trust that something is art just because it's in a museum or gallery? Is the measure of a painting's quality, what a collector will pay for it? Is a work of art good because an art critic teels us it is?

Obviously art has many different guises and not everyone is in agreement about what is art all of the time. Who would argue that what Michelangelo painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is not art? But what about Jackson Pollock’s large splattered canvases? Does art need to be difficult to make or pleasing to look at to count? What about Thomas Kincade’s mass-marketed paintings of bucolic, idyllic scenes? Does commercialization and appealing to a mass audience, taint the legitimacy of art? And what about street art, which is often crudely made, impermanent and irreverent—is it the real thing?

I like the fact that art has the power to take us by surprise, and cause a myriad of reactions, from serenity and wonder, to confusion and outrage. As I encountered a new book, a new television show and a new movie in June, all dealing with very different forms of art, I was reminded of how elastic the term “art” can be—and perhaps should be.

50 Paintings You Should Know

As I turned the pages in “50 Paintings You Should Know”—a new book by two Europeans, Kristina Lowis and Tamsin Pickeral—I tried to approach each work—even the tote-bag icons like the Mona Lisa or The Scream—with a fresh new eye. This book includes only art with a capital “A”—the great works which would be in any art history professor’s PowerPoint lesson. Without preface, the inventory starts in 1303 with Giotto’s Arena Chapel frescos and ends in 1962 with Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. A more honest—albeit less tantalizing—book title would be, “50 of the most recognized Renaissance to Modern Paintings by male European artists”—although a few works by new-world artists, including three women (Cassatt, Kahlo and O’Keeffe) and one printmaker (Warhol), did squeeze in between the covers.

To the book’s credit, it does attempt to explain why each individual work has its place in history. For the give-me-the-gist reader, each entry starts with one or two sentences that answer the question, “Why this painting?” For example, Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” is so universally recognized because “the whole drama of the Creation, and the longing for the divine, are concentrated into a small gap separating the fingers of Adam and God.”

But the breadth of this catalog is disappointing. Only a tiny portion of the world’s artwork is represented by these 50 paintings: there are no Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Australian, Middle-Eastern or African paintings here. The book presents exactly the same artists I studied in college in the 1970s. Hasn’t our awareness broadened and become more inclusive and supranational over the last 40 or so years? If this is a list of paintings we should know, shouldn’t we know more?

Work of Art

A new competition/reality show on Bravo TV (Wed. 10 p.m.) defines art as that which can be made by a handful of artists under pressure. The pressure comes not just from the fact that there are cameras in their faces 24/7, expecting them to be controversial and/or eccentric and/or titillating, but also from imposed restraints on time, materials, workspace, and assignment. It’s called “Work of Art—The Next Great Artist” and uses the successful “Project Runway” template to give a selected group of visual artists the chance to be judged as the best in the bunch. Episode one, which aired June 9, introduced the 14 competitors—mostly college-educated, award-winning young artists from a variety of media and styles. China Chow is the host, while auctioneer Simon de Pury is the seasoned mentor, appearing periodically in the studio to coach the artists. Each week a panel of three or four judges plus Chow, applauds one winner and dismisses one loser.

After the first assignment—to make a revealing portrait of a fellow competitor in 24 hours—it seemed that the painters in the group were at a disadvantage, when a silkscreen artist and a photographer came up with by-far the best work. When one of the contestants said he broke a light bulb he needed for exposing his photographs and that he was “screwed,” my head filled with fairness questions (or was this just a light bulb joke?). What materials are available to the artists in the studio? Why would there by only one light bulb? Are they really thinking on their feet, or did most of them arrive with 10 or 20 good concepts before the contest even began? Are the judges really honoring the best and weeding out the worst, or is there an over-riding entertainment-value mandate, such as keeping the controversial, back-stabbing ones over the nice, quiet ones? Who are these judges and what are their motives for being on this show?

Of course this is television and ultimately entertainment and I shouldn’t take it so seriously. Perhaps the show’s strength is in its ability to provoke questions. For example, the second show left me scratching my head when I couldn’t even tell the good work from the bad, the conceptual from the cliché. But I will keep watching, just to see if there are considerations beyond ratings—and, of course, to find out who is “the next great artist.”

Banksy’s trompe l’oeil hole in the Israeli West Bank Barrier was one of several protest murals created by the British graffiti artist.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

This remarkable new film focuses on street artists. Street art has escaped the confines of the gallery, and challenges all the conventional definitions of art. The film’s affable protagonist, Thierry Guetta, has a passion for documenting street artists, because, he says, their art is so transitory. Over a period of years, he creates a huge stockpile of footage. The artists he documents are not commissioned mural painters, or even bored teenagers, but talented bandits who deface the walls of large city buildings with their trademark brand of art. They work quickly, often with stencils and spray paint, or large panels of paper pasted up with a push-broom. There is forethought, planning, stealth and a point of view in this art.

One of the more brilliant street artists featured in the film is the mysterious Banksy, who Guetta idolizes and is eventually allowed to meet and document. Guetta becomes Banksy’s helpmate and friend, watching his back and concealing his identity on film. When Banksy proposes trading roles with Guetta—encouraging Guetta to take up street art while Banksy makes a movie from Guetta’s miles of film—“Exit” becomes a hall of mirrors.

Guetta adopts the name “Mr. Brainwash,” and hires a workshop full of graphic artists to start mass-producing his own brand of saleable pop/street art. He then stages a large-scale art event featuring his work, rakes in hoards of crowds and cash, and becomes an over-night sensation. As the line between radical street artist and commercial opportunist begin to blur, the veracity of the whole story comes into question. Is this still a straight-ahead documentary or something much more contrived and manipulated? If so, at what point did it switch over? Is Banksy breaking the rules of documentary movie-making in the same way street artists break the rules of conventional art? Is the whole point of the film to condemn the ignorance and susceptibility of the public?

It seems to me that the film’s more significant message—that you should always question what is real—helps us answer the “what is art” question—especially when it comes to a new book, a new television show or a new movie. Are these truly the most important 50 paintings you should know? Are these 14 overly-constrained artists really creating great art, or just great entertainment? Do rule-following and art have anything in common? You get to decide.

The third episode featured a commercial art challenge: to make a book cover for a classic novel, and this artist's "Dracula" was judged a little to "slick" for first place.

Julia Child was a hacker

2010-06-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Embracing DIWO—the better way to DIY—at the Bay Area Maker Faire

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel June 5, 2010

I just learned a new definition for a word I thought I knew: hacker. A hacker—the hobbyist kind—does not have a negative association. It’s someone who makes innovative customizations or combinations of retail electronic and computer equipment. Put more simply, a hacker creates by combining things in a whole new way.

Perhaps hacking is at the essence of all American invention and innovation. Isn’t hacking what Julia Child did when she decided that the American housewife needed to learn to cook like the French? And wasn’t George Washington Carver hacking when he created so many uses for peanuts? And weren’t the founding fathers hackers when they dreamed up a country governed not by a monarch, but by its population?

I just attended my third Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo and came away more dazzled than ever before. The big picture—what Maker Faire is all about—is hacking, and hacking in such a way that everyone is part of the process. Children are learning to solder circuit boards right next to adults. Men are learning to crochet right next to women. It’s one big collaborative making frenzy, inspired by exhibitors large and small, who are there to amaze, educate, and share their particular passion.

MAKING NEW COMBINATIONS

If hacking is all about making new combinations, Maker Faire exhibitors showed us how. Some great combinations I witnessed were:

· The Human Powered Stage, which hosted hourly concerts, with mikes and amplifiers powered by audience members pedaling several stationary bicycles.

· The Coke and Mentos show, where two guys got drenched in sticky brown soda, and taught me why 108 2-liter bottles of Coke Zero and 648 Mentos candy can make a spectacular, synchronized geyser show.

· Musical iPhone apps, where I learned how to turn a cell phone into a trombone or a piano, and ways to connect and perform with other iPhone players throughout the world.

· Kinetic Steamworks, where a snow cone machine was powered by a 75-horsepower traction steam engine that belched steam and whistled periodically like a locomotive.

FREEDOM TO PLAY

To get the audience on the road to hacking, Maker Faire gave its audience plenty of opportunities to learn and play:

Lego dumped a huge pile of their colorful plastic blocks on the floor, ready for assembly.
Sparkfun Electronics sponsored a SMD (surface mount device) workshop, with long tables and plenty of instructors to learn the basics of soldering circuit boards.
Lion Brand Yarn hosted beginner knitting and crocheting classes.
Singer provided sewing machines in the Swap-O-Rama-Rama room, where tables piled high with second-hand clothing and embellishments were ready to be cut, sewn and altered into totally new fashions.
The Maker Shed Store was full of how-to books and kits for sale—fun stuff like the electro-mechanical Blinkybug kit or more challenging stuff like the Daisy pocket-sized open source MP3 player kit.

DIWO (Do it with others)

If hacking is about working collaboratively, exhibitors also suggested some post-Faire ways to make that happen:

· Instructables.com is a virtual how-to and DIY community where people make and share step-by-step project instructions for free. Projects include just about anything you can make, and so, even if you consider yourself a more traditional crafts person, through weekly emails you’re exposed to everything from how to make Nutella cheesecake, to a mouse for people with hand disabilities, to an Altoids box barbeque, to a DVD drive iPod dock. Currently, Instructables has over 36,000 projects posted on their website, and they make it fairly simple to post your own. (I love this website.)

· Hacker Dojo is a non-profit actual community workspace for learning, sharing and making things. Located in their 600-square-foot facility in Mountain View, they hold classes, events, lectures, parties, DevCamps, DevHouses, and Hackathons. Their members make everything from code to robots to homemade bread, and believe in sharing not only ideas, but tools and materials. According to one member, “If it’s not nailed down you can use it.” They currently have about 150 members, and charge a monthly membership fee to cover overhead. Another Bay Area hackerspace represented at Maker Faire was Noisebridge in San Francisco.

· Make Magazine, who originally created the Maker Faire in 2006, publishes a quarterly magazine full of technology-oriented projects. Makezine.com, the online version, keeps a list of hackspaces, groups, and other DIY organizations at http://makezine.com/groups/index.csp. Also see its sister, Craftzine.com, for a wealth of craft projects and forums.

(As an aside to crafters without the technology background, don’t let wires and circuitry intimidate you. I threw my reticence aside, when I walked into a darkened exhibit hall at Maker Faire and saw a spectacular wearable computer fashion show, with textiles that sparkled and glowed with the help of conductive thread, fiber optic cable and LED beads. We can learn this stuff too.)

Some people might not find much merit in projects involving snow cones, Mentos or Blinkybugs. Of course Julia Child and George Washington Carver hacked their way into the history books with end-products as deceptively trivial as a cookbook and a jar of peanut butter. But I can’t help seeing the promise in the convergence of 80,000 people of all ages, over one weekend in May, gathering simply for the chance to learn, play, make and hack.

Note: If you missed Maker Faire in San Mateo this year, you can still catch the World Maker Faire in New York, September 25 and 26, 2010 at the New York Hall of Science. See makerfaire.com for details.

Create Ceramics for the Garden

2010-05-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Santa Cruz County has all the Resources You Need

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 8, 2010

It’s Spring, it’s warm, and I’m outside again, digging in the dirt, schlepping bags of potting soil, rearranging plants, looking for ways to make my garden look well tended, fresh and dazzling. Last August, after visiting the Sierra Azul Nursery sculpture garden in Watsonville, I got this crazy idea to make a ceramic totem pole. There were some great examples at Sierra Azul, including works by Carole DePalma, Jenni Ward and Jane Reyes. Although I love lots of large-scale garden art, it’s often made with materials, such as steel and glass, which I expect might require some expensive cutting and welding tools and a large workshop. But ceramics seemed more doable, although I had to first overcome my three-dimensional art phobia.

Perhaps my 7-step history with ceramics is not uncommon:

Had to take it in college (art major).
Struggled on the wheel.
Made lots of small, useless containers.
Took a summer class.
Learned to make pinched and coiled pots.
Liked the cool, squishy feel of the clay, but never made anything satisfying.
Convinced myself to stick with two-dimensional art in the future.

To begin my totem pole project I contacted an artist friend—Sally Diggory—who makes great ceramic garden sculpture and has a studio near my home. She was happy to teach me the basics in her studio. I brought in some photographs of shapes and pieces I liked, and we started with pinch pots.

Pinch Pots

Sally showed me how to start with two lumps of clay and end up with a rounded, hollow shape. The air trapped inside supports the shape until it is dry enough to poke a hole through. (Note: when creating a hole for sliding the pieces onto the center shaft of the totem pole, allow for shrinkage of the clay in firing.)

Slab-Building

Sally showed me how to roll out the clay with a rolling pin between two sticks to keep the thickness of the clay uniform. She then showed me how to drape the slabs over molds for shaping and drying a bit, before removing the molds and joining the two pieces into a hollow shape.

If you don’t have an artist friend with a ceramics studio, these two techniques can be easily done at home, on your own, without a lot of space. First, get a good book on hand-built pottery. One I really like is Handbuilt Pottery Techniques by Jacqui Atkin. Then, check in your kitchen, bathroom and garage for items that can stand-in for the ones you might buy at an art store, such as:

Cutting wire: An 18-inch piece of thin wire, with the ends wrapped around two short dowels for cutting off wedges of clay from the slab

Large (about 24-inch square) piece of heavy canvas: Porous, non-stick surface for rolling out clay.
Wooden rolling pin: The longer the better, for rolling out slabs.
Two 18-inch pieces of wood, ¼ to ½-inch thick: These will act as roller guides on each side of the clay. The ends of the rolling pin rest on each guide to keep the thickness of the clay uniform.
Rasp blade: Use to pare down clay surfaces, create surface texture.
Small serrated knife: For cutting and trimming clay.
Tools: For carving, cutting holes, modeling, poking.
Large, flat wooden spoon: For beating, smoothing and texturing.
Sponge (natural is better): To smooth clay, remove glaze.
Brush and jar: To apply water or slip, and glaze.
Tools for shaping, texturing and stamping: These are everywhere you look. Credit cards cut into shapes, old mascara wands, buttons, flea comb, zippers, meat tenderizers, shells, etc.
Paint scraper: Useful for cleaning work surfaces.

(Note: Choose a well-ventilated room and an easily cleaned work surface. Avoid creating airborne dust by cleaning work surfaces, floor and clothing before spilled clay has a chance to dry.)

All of these materials can be found at Phoenix Ceramic Supply, located behind Costco in Santa Cruz. They also have a very knowledgeable staff to help you find the right clay, glazes and tools. Best of all, they can also fire your pieces onsite, with rates calculated by the amount of kiln space your piece requires. Finished pieces require a bisque firing and a glaze firing.

Clay Creation, just down the street from Charlie Hong Kong in Santa Cruz, offers another alternative: for a monthly fee, you an work in a studio space with all the clay, glazes, wheels, and tools you need in one place. In addition, instructors and classes are available several mornings and evenings each week, and they have an onsite kiln for firing. You can work at your own pace, when it’s convenient, and benefit from the inspiration, experience, and successes of other studio users.

Several artists in the county offer private classes. One is Jenni Ward, whose ceramic work (fanciful totems, flowers, and hanging pieces) can currently be seen at NewGarden Nursery in Live Oak—a relatively new retail venue for outdoor sculpture combined with unique plants in Santa Cruz.

(Clay Creation instructor Geoffrey Nicastro also has lovely cats and abstract ceramic pieces on display at NewGarden Nursery.) Jenni teaches classes at her Earth Art Studio in Aptos, catering to school-age kids. Her students are currently working on slab-built birdhouses, which will be for sale as part of Ward’s spring studio sale May 1 and 2.

I also took a recent workshop form Elaine Pinkernell, whose specialty is stoneware and raku wall pieces. She uses roofing paper as templates and to mold slabs into rounded shapes, and loves to create high-contrast textures—both very useful techniques in my totem pole project. Elaine teaches at Blossom Hill Crafts in San Jose, and at the Corralitos Cultural Center, which offers art workshops and includes the Corralitos Cultural Center Art Gallery, which currently is showing work by numerous local artists in a variety of media.

Since I started in September, I was hoping to have my totem pole completed by now, but other projects have delayed its completion. I’ve got three sections bisque fired and ready for glaze, and two more ready for bisque firing. I don’t know how cohesive the whole project will be in the end, but a ceramic totem pole has proved to be a good project for a beginner like me, in a county as full of resources and inspiration as Santa Cruz.

Resource list:

“Sculpture Is: 2010” at Sierra Azul Nursery and Gardens, (May 31 to October 31), 2660 East Lake Avenue (Highway 152), Watsonville, http://www.pvarts.org/

Phoenix Ceramic Supply, 350-D Coral Street, Santa Cruz, (831) 454-9629

Clay Creation, 1125B Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, (831) 429-1645, www.claycreation.org

NewGarden Nursery & Landscaping, 2440 Mattison Lane, Santa Cruz, (831) 462-1610, www.newgardenlandscaping.com

Earth Art Studio/Jenni Ward, (Spring studio sale May 1-2), 767 Cathedral Drive, Aptos, (831) 818-9569, earthartstudio@comcast.net

Geoffrey K. Nicastro, http://galleryforrent.com/

Corralitos Cultural Center/Art Gallery, 127 Hames Road, Corralitos, http://www.corralitosculturalcenter.org/

Elaine Pinkernell, http://elainepinkernell.com/

Use #6 plastic to make jewelry

2010-04-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

Shrink and Be Merry

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel April 3, 2010

KNOW YOUR RECYCLING SYMBOLS?

Keep your reading glasses on and let’s take a trip to your refrigerator. Open it up and grab the first plastic container you see. Hold it up in the air and squint at the bottom until you can make out the tiny number inside the triangle. Check out a few more containers and you’ll find that there are a whole lot of #1s (soda, juice, salad dressing) and #5s (yogurt, syrup, ketchup), and an occasional #2 (the milk jug) or #7 (“other” like Tupperware). You probably won’t see too many #3s (PVC pipe, outdoor furniture, vinyl siding) or #4s (plastic bags). But there might be a #6 in there, holding a dozen eggs or those leftovers you couldn’t finish at the restaurant the night before.

Polystyrene (also known as #6 PS) comes in a white, foam variety (packing peanuts, Styrofoam cups, meat trays), but also in a clear, rigid form, most commonly used by the food-service industry for to-go clam-shells and disposable drinking cups. Because the foam variety is full of air and the more solid variety is molded into throwaway containers, it’s very lightweight and easily carried away by wind and water currents. For this reason, and because it’s so commonly used away from home, #6 is an abundant form of trash accumulating across the American landscape.

HOW IS POLYSTYRENE UNIQUE?

Stay with me here, as I attempt to explain why polystyrene, unlike many other plastics, is an amazing material for crafts (the clear kind, NOT the foam variety). All the plastics we create from petroleum are formed from chains of polymers linked together in a variety of ways. A thermoplastic is a polymer that turns to a liquid when heated and solidifies to a very glassy state when cooled. Thermoplastic polymers differ from thermosetting polymers (Bakelite) as they can be re-melted and remolded. Polystyrene is a unique thermoplastic, in that, when heated, its chains of polymers will stay in the same conformation as they melt and solidify. So, you don’t just end up with a plastic blob after heating, but a shrunken replica of your original shape. A rectangle will still be a rectangle—it’ll just be smaller and thicker.

FUN FOR KIDS AND ADULTS

Shrinking #6 plastic for crafts (again, not the foam variety) is a really cool thing to watch. As it heats up, a flat piece will roll up, twist this way and that, and finally, resume its original flat formation. What starts out as a flimsy piece of brittle plastic is magically transformed into a shiny, glass-like trinket. Colors can also be added in a number of ways, and become quite concentrated after shrinking.

WHAT YOU NEED

To cut the plastic: Scissors and hole punch

To decorate the plastic: Sharpies, stamp pad ink, acrylic paints, colored pencils, fine-grit sandpaper

To shrink the plastic: Oven and non-corrugated cardboard

To avoid breathing any fumes created in the heating process: Use a toaster oven and do your heating outdoors on a patio table.

To see what’s possible: Go to www.etsy.com/ and search for “shrink plastic jewelry” to see what artists are creating with shrink plastic.

WHAT YOU DO

Start with a clear, clean, flat piece of #6 plastic. Cut into any shape you want. Amount of shrinkage will vary, but count on a 3-inch piece shrinking to about a 1 ¼-inch piece, or to 45% of its original size. Use a hole punch (for stringing as jewelry), decorative scissors or punches as desired.

Color the plastic piece with rubber-stamp designs (heat set and permanent pigment inks hold best on the slippery surface) or Sharpies. To get color pencils, acrylic paints or other inks to adhere better, sand one side of the plastic with fine-grit sandpaper.

Preheat the oven to 300-350 degrees. Put the plastic on a piece of non-corrugated cardboard in the oven. Watch through the oven door and remove the piece (with a potholder) on its cardboard tray once it is done shrinking and is again flat.

A MILLION VARIATIONS

There are a whole lot of ways to vary this basic technique. Here are a few:

To make a bead, roll up a long strip of decorated shrink plastic on a thin, metal knitting needle, wooden dowel or skewer, securing it in place with a twist tie. Using a heat gun (found in craft stores for about $15), heat the rolled plastic on a tile until it shrinks completely. To add texture, wrap the hot beat with an unmounted rubber stamp and press.

To add texture to a flat piece of plastic, layer two or three pieces together and cover top and bottom with a Teflon ironing sheet (found in notions section of fabric store). Iron the plastic with a medium hot iron until it shrinks, waves and then flattens. Remove the top Teflon sheet and immediately press a rubber stamp into the hot plastic.

To make a ring, heat a strip of plastic about 7½-inches long by ¾-inch wide. Use a paper cutter for straight cuts, and round the corners off with scissors. Decorate the plastic. Find an object about the diameter of your finger to mold the ring around, such as the handle of a wooden spoon, market pen, or lip balm tube. Preheat the oven and heat the strip on non-corrugated cardboard until shrunk and flattened. Wearing leather gloves or mittens, take the cardboard tray out of the oven and quickly shape the plastic around your mold. If the plastic hardens before it is correctly shaped, reheat it in the oven.

Shrink plastic is also sold under a variety of brand names, with different opacities, colors and finishes. It also comes in an ink-jet printer variety. Some has a frosted (sanded) finish so that you can decorate your pieces with colored pencils, chalk, fingernail polish, felt tip pens, make up, spray paint, pastels, and other inks. Chalks and pencils or any water-soluble colorant will need to be sealed with varnish or lacquer after baking.

Other plastics that can be heated for amazing effects are Tyvek (ironed between Teflon ironing sheets) and sheet-protectors (beads can be made with yarns, fabric, or thin paper rolled up inside before ironing between Teflon sheets). A great book featuring these plastic crafts and more is Creative Embellishments for Paper, Jewelry, Fabric, and More by Sherrill Kahn.

Home Depot vs. DIY Academy

2010-04-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

Two cities; two days; two workshops

Which class teaches you “How to paint a wall” better?

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel March 6, 2010

The Home Depot class started out badly. First, the manager couldn’t allow me to take pictures. This was expected since I had forgotten to call ahead for corporate clearance. But then they didn’t start on time. The instructor seemed harried and put out. She was the only one working in the paint department on a sunny Saturday morning, there was still a long line of customers, and although she apologized, she wasn’t sure how soon the class would start. So I roamed around the store, and finally, 20 minutes later, she had set up a table and supplies near the color chip display, and was ready to begin the Interior Painting class.

Then things started to get a lot better. First, I was the only student in the class, so she asked me exactly what I wanted to learn—basic painting or faux finishes?--and she was willing to teach directly to that. Second, she shook off the distress of a busy morning of paint mixing, and expressed a very real enthusiasm for paint. “I’m really passionate about color,” she said. Kristina Revetria has worked in the Watsonville Home Depot paint department for 2 years and really knows her stuff. “I pretty much live here,” she said. When another shopper asked if she could join the class and learn about faux finishes, Kristina very willingly added specific decorative painting techniques to her basic demonstration.

By the end of the one-hour plus class, she had opened 6 gallons of paint, 2 containers of spackling, 1 pint of glaze, used several brushes, rollers, sponges and paint trays, and had answered every question her two students could come up with. She had clearly learned a lot about paint and painting from personal experience, but also from teaching the class itself. “The cool thing is, I get contractors in these clinics and they show me a whole new way of doing things.”

Not only did I learn the basics of painting a wall, but I also learned some painting tricks such as:

Although sponging creates an interesting decorative texture, just using a simple plastic bag for dabbing on a paint looks even better
Although you can buy expensive textured rollers for faux painting, you can also simply wrap an old t-shirt around a roller, fasten in on with rubber bands, and create similarly great effects
If you have a gallon of paint in a color you’re tired of, you can bring it back to Home Depot and have them add new tints to create a new color you’d rather have
From fellow student Judy Kirker: If you’re not sure what color will look good on your walls, the Buena Vista Landfill in Watsonville has a recycling center with cans of paint you can take home and try out for free (you can also bring unwanted cans of paint there for someone else to try)
As work permits, Kristina is willing to set up impromptu classes to answer customer questions with a demonstration

I took the Home Depot class to provide counterpoint to another class I took earlier the week called “Paint Like a Pro,” offered by the recently opened DIY Academy in South San Jose. This small, strip-mall facility offers classes in a number of home-improvement areas, including painting, tiling and wiring.

The fun thing about DIY Academy is that its classes are completely hands-on. Their website (www.DIYacademy.com) says “expect to get dirty,” and so everyone shows up in their grubbies and is assigned a partner and a tiny room to “finish” by the end of the class. The Drywall a Room and Trim Out a Room classes had obviously happened before ours, since there were nails to be set, holes to be filled and sanded, and gaps to be caulked before we could start priming and painting—just like in real life. Each team was given just the right amount of time to master each technique in their room, before gathering for the next demonstration.

The class was taught by a veteran paint contractor, Santa Cruz native Chad Buckner, with 17 years of experience. The two Academy founders, Jeff Vasek and Steve Gross, were also on hand to help late arrivals catch up, answer questions, and wash brushes and buckets between primer and paints. The class was geared to beginners, but even a somewhat experienced painter might be surprised by all the time-saving techniques practiced by professionals—things as elemental as using the appropriate brush or roller, or properly loading a brush or roller with paint. The instructor had a more efficient way of doing just about every step.

My favorite part of the class was learning how to clean a brush. I’d always considered buying expensive brushes a waste, since I could never wash out enough paint to keep the brush flexible for the next job. But in this class, the instructor recommended buying the $15 brush, and then showed you how to property wash and store it to keep it like new indefinitely. (Sorry, you’ll have to take the class for this trade secret.)

You can see a complete listing of classes and schedules, and enroll, on the DIY Academy and Home Depot websites. Some of the DIY Academy workshops, like Basic Home Electricity and Tile a Bathroom Floor, are all-day weekend classes, while others, such as Tile a Backsplash and Paint Like a Pro, are half-day or evening classes. By contrast, Home Depot usually teaches one-hour workshops that are repeated every weekend, and sometimes geared to the seasons.

Since the 1-hour Home Depot class was free and the 3 ½-hour DIY Academy class was $150, I was afraid the former would pale in comparison with the latter. But, they turned out to be two very different classes that actually complemented each other in content and style. I would recommend the Home Depot class if you have a very specific question about a painting technique or product, and the DIY Academy class if you want to improve your painting skills overall and become a more proficient painter.

Van Gogh and Vinyl

2010-02-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

The risky business of making art

As published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, February 6, 2010

Royal Talens, a Dutch manufacturer of artist materials, makes a line of student-grade paints, pencils and pastels under the brand name of the famous Dutch Impressionist, Van Gogh. “All Van Gogh products,” one vendor advertises, “are non-toxic—perfect for use in the classroom.”

Art supplies in use today that may still contain lead pigments include inks, dyes, paints and pastels, wax crayons, and colored glazes for pottery or glassware. Leaded solders are also still used in stained glass and enamel manufacture, glass-blowing, and jewelery-making.

Of course, lead isn’t the only hazardous material found in artists’ studios. The toxicity of chemical solvents, silica dust, and heavy metals contained in art supplies or in fumes produced in art processes, is well-documented, and art suppliers are required by law to label their products with warnings of acute or chronic health hazards (but not necessarily a list of ingredients). Wise artists take seriously the recommended precautions such as gloves, mask, goggles, and a well-ventilate workspace, when they choose to use potentially hazardous materials. But what happens when there is no warning label or material data safety sheet?

Today’s artists are not afraid to use all manner of unconventional materials in their work. For example, encaustic and fiber artist Daniella Woolf—whose large-scale pieces are currently on display in the Rydell Fellows exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History—has incorporated the humblest of items—tea bags, eucalyptus leaves, carpenters’ shims, drywall tape, and all sorts of found papers—into her work, often in massive quantities. Does she worry about exposure to toxic materials—especially undocumented ones?

“Yes, it’s a huge concern of mine,” she says. “In the 60s and 70s, before very much was known, I worked with resins. I dyed 100 pounds of jute sisal without a mask or gloves. I used to blow my nose and purple would come out. I feel lucky to be alive,” she says.

“There are some things that don’t leave your body. I have high cholesterol and no one else in my family does. So I went to an acupuncturist who said, ‘You’re an artist. You’ve been around toxic chemicals your whole life. Your liver is probably screaming.’”

Today, she’s very careful to use gloves, work in a well-ventilated room, keep her heated materials at safe temperatures, and avoid anything her nose, body, or someone knowledgeable tells her is unsafe. She admits that it’s a risky business, but “I know how to keep it safe,” she says.

I started thinking more seriously about the relative safety of certain art materials when I considered making crafts from recycled vinyl. I came across a how-to sheet on sewing a vinyl-pocketed charging station at Jo-Ann Fabrics; and then stumbled upon a series of beautifully painted bowls made from heat-shaped vinyl records at http://eyepopart.blogspot.com/. As I ventured father into the possibilities of vinyl, I discovered that there’s a whole section of differing thicknesses of vinyl for sale at the fabric store (what do folks make with all this?) and numerous tutorials online for making bowls, hair bands and clocks from vinyl records. But is crafting with vinyl—an extremely controversial, yet ubiquitous product—a safe thing?

Vinyl, also know as PVC (polyvinyl chloride), is an inexpensive plastic so versatile, the list of products made from it is exhaustive. Over 50% of PVC manufactured is used in construction—in everything from window frames to rain gutters to wall coverings to flooring to plumbing. The rest is in your clothing, your car, your kitchen, your office, your backyard, your children’s toys, your doctor’s office—even in your back pocket (credit cards). It’s impossible to avoid the stuff.

But, if you’ve ever seen the film “Blue Vinyl” you know that the production, use and disposal of PVC are not without inherent risks to human health and the environment. The California Assembly even approved a bill last June (AB 1329) to reduce PVC in plastic packaging. Reusing vinyl—as in keeping all plastics out of the landfill—can be a good thing. But what if, in the process of heating the vinyl (to mold a record), you were exposing yourself to harmful gasses?

One green writer, Umbra Fisk, recognizes the dilemma between the relative positives of reuse vs. the potential for harm on her website “Grist.” After reading lots of anecdotal and scientific evidence on the Web, I’m inclined to agree with Fisk when she says, “Can I find out if heating the vinyl enough to reform it into a bowl is harmful to the crafter or the eater? No. But from what we know about vinyl, its ability to offgas, and the poisonous additives that may or may not be in records (lead!), I'm persuaded that vinyl fruit bowls are a fun item we can do without.”

That said, (and please feel free to consider me stupid), I did go ahead and make a vinyl record bowl. I opened all the kitchen windows, turned on the range fan, used the second (mostly dormant) oven, washed every tool I used (hands, mittens, cookie sheet, metal bowl) in hot soapy water afterwards, and won’t use the record bowl to hold anything edible. In retrospect, it may have even been wise to cover the cookie sheet and molding bowls with foil, which could have been discarded afterwards.

Of course, whether the acrylic paint I added to the surface is also hazardous when heated is another question. The point I’m belaboring here is, do your homework, take precautions, work smartly and safely. You’ve got a world of information at your (gloved) fingertips that Van Gogh never had.

A Beginner's Guide to Aromatherapy

2010-01-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

The Healing Power of Plants

Originally published January 16, 2009 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

I’ve always associated the word “aromatherapy” with the fragrant booths at street fairs, displaying an array of scented soaps, candles, incense, potpourri or perfumes. When younger, my daughters would be drawn to these vendors, pressing the colorful products to their noses to determine their favorite scent. The sweet, pungent odors of coconut, gardenia, and pine were appealing, maybe even stimulating, but were they also therapeutic?

I’ve since learned that the source of these enticing aromas at street fairs was probably fragrance oils, which are not typically associated with aromatherapy. Aromatherapy makes use of essential oils, which are also fragrant, but used to treat a wide range of ailments, including migraines, PMS, hot flashes, arthritis, motion sickness, high blood pressure, A.D.D., asthma, depression, stress, and more.

Therefore, to understand the aims of aromatherapy—using plant oils for psychological and physical well-being—it’s helpful to know a little more about various oils.

Essential oils are extracted from the leaves, stems, flowers, bark, roots, seeds, or other parts of a plant. They are thought to contain the true essence of the plant and its immune system, in a highly concentrated form. By inhaling or applying diluted essential oils to the skin, aromatherapy seeks to provide valuable psychological and physical therapeutic benefits.

Essential oils are generally more expensive than other oils due to varying production costs and yield requirements. For example, it takes 10,000 lbs. of rose petals picked optimally at sunrise, to make 1 lb. of essential oil, compared to lavender that only requires 150 lbs. for 1 lb. of oil. As a result, rose absolute essential oil can cost 10 to 20 times as much as lavender oil.

Carrier oils are derived from the fatty portion of a plant, usually from the seeds, kernels or the nuts. Carrier oils are necessary to dilute essential oils prior to use. Some carrier oils are odorless, but generally speaking, most have a faintly sweet, nutty aroma. Commonly used carrier oils include olive oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, and jojoba oil.

Fragrance oils are made by synthetic means and/or with synthetic materials. Fragrance oils are typically used in perfumes, cosmetics, scented candles, soap and incense. They do not claim to offer the same therapeutic benefits as essential oils, and are usually less expensive.

At this juncture I should also add that there are important warnings and disclaimers typically associated with the use of essential oils. In their potent, concentrated form they can be harmful, and some even toxic, and therefore should never be ingested. For external use, they should always be diluted and tested on the skin for sensitivity. They should also be kept away from children, not be used near the eyes, and the dosage cut in half for use by young children and the elderly. Finally, essential oils are not a substitute for professional medical care.

If your approach to healthcare is more holistic, homeopathic or if you’d just rather see natural products in your skincare regime rather than a long list of unpronounceable synthetic additives, there are a lot of great books and websites that show you how to make your own bath and beauty products. You can use essential oils to make massage oils, lotions, mists, bath oils, bath bombs, liquid soap, and more. You can also simply add 6 to 12 drops of essentials oils to a warm bath.

One of my favorite books on making bath and body products is actually aimed at girls—“The Girls’ World Book of Bath & Beauty” by Allison Chandler Smith. One of its best features, besides lots of intriguing recipes, is a list of ingredients and where you will most likely find them (which can be challenging), be it a pharmacy, grocery store, craft store, health-food store or online. Although “The Girls’ World…” has its own recipe for bath bombs, I had more success with this one from one of my favorite DIY websites, www.instructables.com

What you need and where to find it

8 oz. Baking Soda

4 oz. Citric Acid (Seven Bridges Cooperative in Santa Cruz)

4 oz. Corn Starch

4 oz. Epsom Salts (drug store)

¾ tsp Water

15 drops* Essential oils (Elizabeth Van Buren or Monterey Bay Spice Company, both in Santa Cruz)

2 ½ Tbsp Light vegetable oil

2 drops Food Coloring

Whisk, bowl, jar, wax paper, cookie sheet, mold (opt.)

* Adjust essential oil quantity if using strong oils like geranium and be sure to avoid oils that are strong skin sensitizers like cinnamon (or be sure to only use a drop or two of such oils).

What you do

Blend the dry ingredients in a large glass bowl to a smooth consistency.

Blend wet ingredients in a small jar with a lid and shake to combine.

Slowly whisk small amounts of the liquid into the dry ingredients. If the mixture starts to foam, you are adding the liquid too quickly.

When all the liquid has been added, test to see if it clumps together like wet sand when you squeeze it. If not, add more wet ingredients, a tiny bit at a time.

Press the mixture into 4 to 5 round balls. You can also try using a mold such as a melon baller, candy or soap mold, or ice cube tray.

Let dry overnight, then store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag for storage up to 6 months.

When ready to use, drop in a warm bath and relax. The bomb will fizz slowly because of the combination of citric acid and baking soda, and the oils will disburse.

Suggested Essential Oils

Arthritis - Angelica Root, Coriander, Juniper.
Asthma - Roman Chamomile, Clary Sage, Cypress, Lavender, Petitgrain.
Bronchitis- Bay Laurel, Cajeput, Eucalyptus, Hyssop, Ravensara, Tea Tree, Thyme.
Immune System- Bay Laurel, Black Pepper, Cardamom, Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Niaouli, Peppermint, Ravensara, Tea Tree, Thyme.
Indigestion - Angelica Root, Coriander, Fennel.
Insect Bites - Cedarwood, Lavender.
Muscle Pain - Cajeput, Camphor, Ginger, Peppermint, Rosemary.
PMS- Geranium, Lavender.
Rash- German Chamomile, Roman Chamomile, Rose.
Reduce Appetite Fennel, Patchouli.
Sore Throat - Cajeput, Cypress, Lemon, Niaouli, Tea Tree.

A Place of His Own

2009-12-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

Learning to build with no prior experience

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 19, 2009

“We make our buildings and afterwards they make us. They regulate the course of our lives.”—Winston Churchill

All around my home are small and large scraps of paper with lists of words like “gutter spikes,” “shims,” and “Z-bar flashing”—terms I might not have even recognized four months ago. These were my weekly shopping lists, accumulated over the last three months as I built my husband a writing studio for Christmas.

Actually the “I” in that last sentence is a bit of a stretch—I actually had lots of help, but I did select the design, order and purchase the plans and materials, and do about half the cutting, carrying, lifting, hammering, etc. The other half of the construction (and all the heavy lifting) was done by my strong husband. And because neither of us is very handy or has the least bit of building experience, there were a myriad of others who came through when we had a question, a problem, or a disaster (remember that huge storm we had in October?)

So, for my fellow wannabe builders, I’d like to share what I’ve learned from this experience. Apparently anyone can put together a sound structure—the studio in our front yard is proof of that—but it’s going to take a lot of patience, friends, and bent nails before you really begin to know what you’re doing.

Another company, San Francisco-based Modern Cabana, offers pre-assembled panels to speed up the installation of their small, stylish buildings that they say can be built by two adults with construction experience (and fatter wallets) in a few days. By comparison, our Summerwood studio, which was basically built from scratch, took us three months of weekends.

The first order of business was settling on a design that included building instructions. There are books on building everything from a storage shed to a three-bedroom home with plumbing and electricity. The two that I found most helpful were, “Sheds—The Do-It-Yourself Guide for Backyard Builders” by David and Jeanie Stiles, and “Habitat for Humanity--How to Build a House” by Larry Haun. What we were striving to build was something the size of a shed, but more permanent and inviting, like house, so these books helped us meld the two concepts.

Although “Sheds” and a few websites provided plans for various sizes and styles of small buildings, I liked Summerwood, a Canadian company with an interactive website, from which you can order plans and instructions, with or without materials. From their selection of outdoor structures I chose “Urban Studio” and used their custom design feature to help visualize placement of windows, doors, and other add-ons.

Most of the big items (lumber, windows and a door) we purchased from Big Creek Lumber in Watsonville. The rubber roofingcame from Flat Roof Solutions in Tennessee; the redwood bevel siding came from McKinnon Lumber in Hollister; and the regular doses of inspiration were gathered from Michael Pollan’s book “A Place of My Own—the Architecture of Daydreams” about his own experience of building a writing house in the woods of Vermont. (You can view his beautiful studio at michaelpollan.com).

Pollan was especially helpful in bolstering my belief that my building was going to be more than just a shelter. I could have gone out and bought one of those inexpensive, easy-to-assemble shed kits if all I wanted was a roof and four walls. But this was going to be my husband’s oasis, a place where his imagination could flourish and his writing would take flight. It had to be more than just practical, and I was willing to spend a little more to make it so.

Pollan admits his 14x8 ½ foot cabin took 2 ½ years to build and cost “somewhere on the far side of $125 a square foot.” Since we’ve only finished the exterior, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but so far we’ve spent $54.26 per square foot on our building. I know it could have been done more cheaply, but we’re happy with the results (although, I’ll admit, my husband hasn’t actually seen the VISA bills lately).

So, three months after sawing the first piece of lumber, here’s what I’ve learned in a nutshell:

There are five ways to do just about everything—watch all the YouTube videos on installing windows if you don’t believe me.
You’ll need about 10 times as many nails as you think.
Lumber is not always straight.
Two people can have very different ideas about what’s good enough. One person’s “anal” is another person’s “sloppy.”
A 2x4 piece of lumber is actually 1-1/2” x 3-1/2”.
Building supplies/techniques used in Canada do not always make sense in California.
Buy or borrow at least two 8-foot ladders.
Invest in a good framing hammer, a tool belt, a longer level, a strong crowbar, numerous small drill bits (you’ll lose ‘em), a plumb bob, and a new blade for your saw(s).
Keep a steady supply of Band-Aids on hand.
Find/hire an experienced carpenter willing to serve as your construction hotline—as you build, you’ll have questions that need quick answers before you can go on.

As essential as it is to have one expert willing to act as advisor, there will be many others who help make your building a reality. To give you an idea of the depth and breadth of those we enlisted every step of the way, we’d sincerely like to thank:

All those at Ace, Orchard Supply, Home Depot and Lowes who shared their know-how and pointed the way to the right box of nails
Francisco at Big Creek Lumber, who patiently helped me order and reorder the right materials for the job
Grant, for going over the initial plans and designing a solid foundation from pier blocks and pressure-treated wood
Dan and Chris, who rushed over to help us lift our way-too-heavy first wall
Seal, for lending us his ladder and showing us how to tie his tarp over our roofless walls in the midst of a drenching gale
John, for installing the door and windows, and providing lots of ideas and encouragement
Mike, for being on call day and night, whenever we needed him.

Thank you one and all and especially to my husband. We did it together.