I'm not "over Germany", in fact I have vague plans in the work to sneak my way back there next winter. Actually had an odd dream last night that I was going there again for another class....
Anyways, here are a few snap-shots of how my book came out. I organized the photos I took over the trip, some sketches from my journal, and made a fairly decent layout. Then I got it printed through Mac. Absolutely wonderful print job, from the quality of the printing to the very texture of the books and paper. :)
Over the last few busy months I pushed this aside, but I realized I really do need to record life some where-- and it won't be happening in the privacy of a personal journal.
Here are the wonderful Christmas gifts I received, it really does help having a mum that works part-time at a bookstore. I also received some very much appreciated gift-cards. :}
The PopGun anthology and the James Jean Covers have been my favs so far, but "Apollo's Song" has been an engrossing read.
i found a $1.29 store yesterday, they sell cheap food-household items. i got a large canvas tote there with the store's logo on it, looks pretty camp. i love it. its my food bag now, and i carry food in it. been mostly surviving off of sandwhiches i steal from breakfast, and small packets of nutella. so far the only german food i've eaten are these amaying hazelnut-chocolate wafers and a hot dog. the rest has been sandwhiches and asian food. i love the bacon bits on the side and am going to buy a large can before i go. no huge culture shock here yet. a lot of the pop culture here is american, and most people speak english. the only disappointment is that there are so few historical buildings left, and when you think you've found one, there's some plaque that tells you it was rebuilt in the '50s. although its seriously amazing how fast they rebuilt things here i guess. will upload photos in a couple of days. tomorrow we leave for Nuremberg and i'm really sad to see Berlin go. i had just gotten used to navigating around it.
Well um, here I am, still in Berlin. I think I’ve finally figured this city out. It’s not one I’d like to tour so much as I’d like to live in. Does that make any sense? I think so.
I love how it’s flat here and bicycles have their own lane on the sidewalk, and that everybody rides them. There are so many trees and pockets of greenery here, it doesn’t feel like an over-urbanized city. Also, the public transportation is just amazing and clean. And the subways are painfully simple.
However, the city is an empty one. For being so big, there is a decided lack of energy, especially anywhere outside the main touristed areas. My prof called it a city of ghosts, and I’d have to agree. The few old buildings left are usually scarred by bullet holes and stray shrapenal.
So far we’ve toured only old stuff. Today we finally made it past the ancients and looked at medieval and northern paintings up until the 17th century. Eh. I was hungry and my feet hurt through most of it. Although the Rubens collection was nice.
Go to my flickr account to see the photos, there are way too many to post here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24279148@N05/2557094724/
Well here I am, my first day in Berlin nearly drawing to a close. The flights were okay, as I slept through most of them. In fact, I don’t remember the first one, but I suppose it happened because I did end up in the New Jersey airport one way or another. I even managed to sleep through most of that flight too. After dinner and watching “Horton Hears a Who”, I slept until about 30 minutes before we landed in Berlin. Not bad considering it was an 8 hour flight. That medicine you take for motion sickness makes you drowsy, by and by, and so that might have accounted for some of it.
I’m thinking Berlin is an interesting enough city, although I haven’t made up my mind on it one way or another. It’s more contemporary in landscape than I would have thought. But they have interesting bicycles.
Wi-fi here is 7 euros per thirty minutes, about $14 in US dollars, so I’ll probably be updating every other day until I can find something cheaper.
We took a bus tour, for which I was mostly sick and drowsy on and so I only took a couple of photos. Now is some down time before dinner.
And dinner took way too long, assuring that I would have nothing to do afterwards, everything being closed. The food was uneventful, and I was bored for 3 hours.
I have become distracted tonight, I keep thinking this project will take less time than it will. And it will be the last! It's a drawing final, cum-throw together a graphic layout.
This was my fibers final. Entirely crochet, with a bit of dilapitated felting on the tentacles. Two weeks ago I couldn't put two stitches together with a hook, and now I have a very large....hat. I wanted it to appear as though he was eating my head. I plan on doing a photo shoot with a friend once I am grounded in the 'States again.
Speaking of which, it's moving time! I am being kicked out of the dorms Friday morning, and leaving Monday morning for Berlin. This gives me a full two days at home. I found out my thesis paper for the study-abroad is on the history of design of motorcycles. More specifically German ones.
Mostly I wrote this out of a nagging guilt in the blog's neglect. And thank you Wendy, it really makes me happy knowing someone out this is reading it other than my mom. :>
Now. The last Final.
the paper mill smell is seeping as if to say a last good bye
Just a quick post to get into the swing of things. Here are a few things done over the weekend as Fibers homework. Except the hive piece, that was my first fibers project. A woven project. The last is a caterpillar weaving his cocoon.
Well I tried to go to the sidewalk chalk arts festival yesterday, but it rained and so I gave up and went to the bookstore to read a comic I didn't want to buy.
Speaking of which, I'm in the midst of making a four page or so, contemplative minicomic. I hate the writing of it though. I can't write. This is my newest realization. Was in a huge art rut, but I think I'm slowly coming out of it. I have a couple things I've done recently that I'm quite happy with. Here are a couple. My latest, drawn last night, hasn't been scanned yet. So you know how that goes...
Also bought new shoes, reserved my storage space, and am seriously thinking about how I need to buy my Euro rail pass.
So today was good, I had to get up a bit early, but it gave me an early start on the day. Hm, haven't done much since sketcharobics though, so I'm not sure how helpful it was.
Anyways.
We learned how to draw the "15 second" car, which was fun. I kind of fail at drawing cars though. They all look like toys. Which isn't so bad considering my next point.
The visiting ex-prof now works for a toy design company in Atlanta, and after a few inquiries made by me, he told me they were looking for a summer intern. Also, that the company was attempting to establish a toy design class here. I am, muchos excited. :> I don't think I'm ready for an internship yet (and the time? I won't have it!), but perhaps by winter break?
I also received positive feedback from the guy which was all sorts of encouraging.
I'm drinking "Montagne de Jade" (thé vert parfume´fruité & fleuri) and it is a wonderful looseleaf tea that was a bit overpriced, but perhaps not if you consider it is looseleaf, in a lovely can, and will last me for the next decade.
So. The blog that was once updated bi-daily has been neglected. Well, that's not entirely true as I do come to it quite often to look at and see if I've posted anything (I haven't).
Here are a few things from my life lately:
+ A growingly absurd collection of yarn. In my defense the two white ones were used, albeit extra balls of them were left over. The orange one has an intended purpose.
+ Me peeking into an abandoned house that is in need of repairs. Its amazing that it's somewhat neglected though, its on one of our main streets...
+The mouse, and his message, to the many people who pass by our dorm room. Some people are absurd in the number of times of their coming and going, not that we take note, of course...
It is absolutely shameful how I haven't posted in forever.
Here, have a photo of the piggie I made.
Postings will become more frequent now.
I should be freaking out about finals right aaaaaaboooouut...now. There's so much due for next week. While talking with a class mate I ran into today, I found out about yet another Big Thing due a week earlier than expected. But yet some how I feel calm about the entire thing. I think I have come to accept the fact that I will be pulling all nighters at least twice next week. And I should be doing more now, but I'm choosing instead what I am more interested. Drawing and surfing the internet. Oh hohum, I'll pay for it later.
I'm trying to bring a little bit more color into my palette of black and beige. Didn't turn out bright, but I didn't think that fit the mood anyways.
Oh, and today I had the pleasure of biking to Krogers and buying groceries. Hadn't loaded up my bike quite so heavily before. And also, I bought "The Darjeeling Limited". Will be watching tomorrow, and rewatching over the break. It's epic, on the level of "Garden State" and "The History Boys" epic.
So yesterday I finally opened up an Etsy shop to sell some small felted things I like to make, and which are made quickly. Really I only had one item to sell, and so I snapped a few photos, payed 20 cents to post it, and up in my shop it went. After refreshing the page a few times over the next hour, I left for studio to continue working on my finals. Then around 3 I went with my roomie and a couple of her friends to see a movie, a comedy, and eat dinner. By the time I got back that evening the little owl had sold. Unexpected, but I was delighted. I hadn't advertised for my shop, hadn't participated in the forums, and hadn't even told anyone I had signed up for it. From what I can gather it's highly unusual to make the first sale so quickly. Most of the people I had heard from had taken weeks or month, with selling in one week being highly unusual.
So now I have another fuzzy creature up in my shop awaiting to be bought. He's a derivative of my owl. I call him a dust bunny for now. I'm not sure what he is really. Because I was experimenting a bit it took me 30 mins to do, and so I'm charging $6.
I'm also entering a state of limbo on what I want to do major wise. I'm quite unhappy in industrial design right now, but that might just be my particular classes now. Ideally I would like to major in Fibers with a minor in Toy Design. But well, toy design hasn't been fully written yet, and so...Also not sure how high I would have to go in id to take classes in it. But the Conceptart minor has definitely been approved for this fall, and my that is also sorely tempting. Ultimately I don't want to graduate later than spring '11, no matter how tempting the choices are.
I can't stop listening to "Across the Universe OST", the songs almost slip off my tongue. They make me happy, except when they make me sad as in the case of "Let it Be". But, well, I'll let it be for now...
So I should be having lunch right about now so that I can go to studio and spend the rest of my day working there. But as always my mornings are slow. I went to Target this morning and bought a few more things to add to the "costume" I'm making myself for a photoshoot. Well, you'll see those later.
But here I have a pair of small white gloves that fit quite snug. I got them from a vintage clothing store on Broughton St on a whim. Well they are part of the "costume", but I really hadn't made plans to stop by the store. The same is true for the French perfume which cost $10 and was the last of its kind on the shelf. I like the smell of it, it's soft and lasting.
Yesterday was the zine fair and although it rained, it was quite nice. Well, quite quiet really. I was only there for a bit, as my companions were without cash. But this is what I got, and I am very encouraged to try it for myself next year.
So it's been a while and a day now since something's been posted. I could excuse myself by listing many sleepless nights, hours of work on projects, and just participating in a social life in general. But I won't. Instead I'll posted up a few pictures (mostly a catalog of Vday gifts) and get on with my day.
Speaking of which, if it goes as planned it should resemble something of the following:
+A bicycle ride
+Carving rin
+Lunch and dinner (not at the same time)
+And drawing for the fun of it
Yes that all sounds quite dandy indeed to me, and I can't believe it's only Saturday.
Well now that I have a moment to myself I wanted to add the actual words to this post (I posted quickly so a friend could see the photos before she left).
The alpacas at the top was my first Color Theory project. The guidelines were to create two identically objects, one showing discordant (clashing) colors and the other harmonious colors. It's a fairly interpretive project, but I hope most people can see which is which with mine. (hint: saturated turquoise and yellow do not go well on an alpaca). Part of the guidelines was also to try something new or to branch out in our major or interest. I'm doing a minor in Fibers, so I wanted to do something along those lines. Unfortunately I know nothing about sewing/knitting/crocheting so my options were rather limited. I had previously done little pieces with felt needling (palm sized), but had never approached anything bigger requiring a metal frame. Well, that was my undertaking and while it took many many hours, I feel I still learned and improved my skill on it.
The elephants (I think of them as oilephants) were for my second Color Theory project. Again, two of the same things. This time one had to demonstrate light (tints) colors and the other dark (shades). The selection of fabric is deplorable in this town (as any Fashion major will tell you), so I was challenged just by finding my materials. I didn't want to use black, which caused some difficulty as that's the about the only consistent dark fabric around here. But I'm happy with what I did find and how I incorporated it. The two things I gained was the experience of finding different fabrics, and learning to sew! I've never done it before so it was quite an experience. My roommate showed me how to work the machines down at the Fashion building, so part of the softies were made there and part were sewn by hand. The craftsmanship isn't where I'd like it to be, but I think for a first try it was good. The pattern I used was drawn out myself, but referenced from a book. I think i modified it enough though to be considered my own. Regardless, I'm not selling them that's for sure. The dark one is going to a class mate, and the light one is reserved for my mum.
Wow, that was long.
Toodles
And to the couple of commenters I found:
I am floored! Thank you! I don't know how you found me at all really, this was just something I started to keep in touch with a few friends.
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