{PLAITRAITS}© plate portraits!

Recollection of the recently past {PLAITRAITS}© at Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK Craft Night! First we drew portraits on styrofoam plates Then we rolled ink on them And printed them! *The tricky part is that the plate is actually a negative, so you have to print light on dark in order to see the same type of contrasts without inverting it. We printed silver on black with brayers and water soluble block printers ink spread on waxpaper, using multiple plates stacked up while braying for support, and spoons to print press. Print results depend on the amount of ink and pressure. Craft Night returns after a 2 week sabbatical. Get ready for {FLAURETTES}© floral aura barrettes Saturday October 1st, and {WINDWELLERS}© wind telling dwellers Saturday October 8th! Best, Madam Chino

{NINE WEST VINTAGE AMERICA!} Denim Customization Booth!

Come to Boston Store at Brookfield Square Mall this coming Saturday September 24th between 11am and 1pm for the {Nine West Vintage America Fashion Show}. Customers will be able to custom-ize (or have me execute based on their design ideas) their newly purchased denim with the following preparations provided by yours truly Madam Chino. The National Cafe is catering the event!

SHOW BILL:


PRECUT FLORAL APPLIQUES and PUFFY PAINTED EDGES:


PLAID, LACE, or VYNIL POCKET FILLS with BEDAZZLER STUDS or RIVETS:



PLAID, LACE, FLORAL or VYNIL KNEE PATCHES with BEDAZZLE STUDS or RIVETS




Also, LARGE SILVER DIAMOND STUDS using flathead screwdrivers to fold the prongs, and GROMMET/EYELETS with WHITE LEATHER LACING:


JOIN THE FUN! Learn new tools and techniques for NO-SEW transformation of your denim and other fabrics!



SEE YOU SOON!
xx, v

{WCAP} Waukesha Community Art Project!

I am excited to be teaching two afterschool courses this semester at WCAP!
WCAP is a non profit grant funded afterschool art program for Waukesha middle school students.

I will be leading 2 eight week programs that meet twice a week in consecutive terms!

The first 8 weeks are dedicated to creating a large mural in the space dedicated to Heros. We will not only be painting, but patchworking a quilt with paper, decoupaging, printing, drawing, making wallpaper, writing and doing math!

The second 8 weeks are all about Tshirt Reclamation, my favorite topic. We will be drawing, screen printing, fabric dying, pattern making, draping, and sewing.

Take a quick tour via my {WCAP SET} on flickr, or browse these couple of fav photos.

WCAP is in a storefront in Downtown Waukesha with lots of creative space






In addition to a healthy attitude towards recycling!


WCAP hostessed 'YARN BURST' a yarn graffiti project inspired by "Knitta Please" in downtown waukesha.


Don't forget our holiday craft sale! I will remind you :)


And stay tuned for progress reports on the mural and clothing designs!

x o, v

TCDIY: A visit to Madam Chino's Look Nook | ThirdCoast Digest

TCDIY: A visit to Madam Chino's Look Nook | ThirdCoast Digest



This article is written by Carly Rubach. Carly is not a native Milwaukeean, perhaps that is why she doesn't take quirky Milwaukee events such as my weekly craft nights experience for granted, and broke out of her curious little shell. The same curiousity that brought her to travel in the first place, landed her right at the LOOK NOOK!

Read what she wrote and let her teach you the techniques of {CHOP TOP!} pony beads and ladder weaves.

TCDIY: A visit to Madam Chino's Look Nook | ThirdCoast Digest

"I met Vanessa Andrew when she kindly offered up her space and skills for the 2011 Etsy Craft Party in Milwaukee. I arrived early to the Brewer’s Hill warehouse just off Pleasant St., climbed a few flights of stairs and found myself in a tight, imaginative space. I felt like a woodland creature in a whimsical paper forest.

The storefront section is filled with vintage and handmade goods, the walls are covered in painted foliage and several shelves of fabric lead you into the office/chill area. We set up tables covered with cutting mats and supplies in the dim hallway, lit by a few spotlights.

I put out snacks while Vanessa used black permanent marker and brown craft paper to create a rug for the small space off the hallway. She was looking for a way to tie the room together and she totally nailed it. Who does that?

What struck me most about Vanessa was her willingness to share not only her ideas, but her supplies and equipment as well. Each Saturday, she hosts a Craft Night in her space. Some nights, you bring items to work with, and other nights she’ll have everything you need. One evening, for example, involved pieces of sliced tree limbs and wood burning tools—Vanessa guides you through techniques and encourages spontaneity in the process.

I attended my first craft night last week for the “Choptop” pony beads and ladder weave edition. I brought a few beers, an old Neil Young concert tee and we circled up on the floor and got to work. Vanessa casually taught us the ladder-weave technique, and we zoned out to creative la-la land with some sweet tunes to keep everyone humming along.

“How could there only be five of us here?” I kept thinking in my brain. Wake up Milwaukee! Craft Nights at Madam Chino’s Look Nook are the bee’s knees. Meet people who like to make stuff. What have you got to lose?

Check out the latest Craft Night calendar and find more information here. The Look Nook store hours vary, so feel free to check out Madam Chino’s Etsy page in the meantime, or visit her on Saturdays at the Eastside Green Market from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m."
-Carly Rubach



xx, madam chino

{HOVER CRAFT!} 2nd Edition!

Hover Craft is a Milwaukee Craft Fair taking place at SWEET WATER ORGANICS on Saturday DECEMBER 3rd, 2011 and supporting a roster of all local Milwaukeean Makers in order to bring an all Local Holiday Shopping Experience to our city.

Visit www.hovercraftmke.blogspot.com for all the necessary info! Booth fee is $40.00

How do I join?
Apply! Our application process is simple:
Please send your name, your business name and links to your stuff with a description on what you plan on doing for Hover Craft. Links can be to your Facebook profile photo album, Flickr account, blog, website, Etsy - any site that can give us an idea of what you do. If you do not have any of these, please attach 3-5 images of your work to your application email. We will work with individuals who have an idea and no pictures. We would love to hear your ideas!

ALL APPLICATIONS CAN BE SENT TO HOVERCRAFTMKE@GMAIL.COM

Czeck out the blog for all the necessary info.
http://www.hovercraftmke.blogspot.com/

{SAVE WETLANDS!}

Thanks to the folks Faythe Levine and Aaron Polansky at Sky High Gallery in Bay View, WI, who organized the Temporary Mural Project, for which I recently completed the 5th edition.

The mural will be up through November 2011 at 2105 South Howell Ave.

Check out the SKY HIGH Gallery BLOG and keep your eyes out for the project which will go on for 2 years, when there will be a retrospective show of the project.
To see more of my process, visit the PROCESS POST i wrote earlier.

xx, v

{BACK-TO-SCHOOL} VINTAGE SALE! 1 DAY ONLY!

{LIVING LARGE} Hover Craft Meeting at Ashley's

HoverCraft is in the works! Applications are going live September 5th-October 3rd on the HoverCraft Blog. Artists are announced the week after that! Stay tuned by visiting the HOVERCRAFT BLOG

Cortney, Alyssa, Ashley and I met at Ashley's 3rd floor loft apartment in Walkers Point. When you enter a room and expect your eyes to stop at a wall, it is always a pleasant surprise to not see one inhibiting your view. The walls around the outside were more like eye asprin than regular old eye candy. Ashley and her fiance must have been curators of a museum in a past life.

Forward


Going Global


Diner


Lounge


Flu Clinic Parking Only



Window to the World


High and Mighty


See more pics HERE

{SAVE WETLANDS} Sky High Skateshop/Gallery Temporary Mural Project 4th ed.

Around 10 months ago I began a weekly project to draw portraits of endangered species using a specific centrally balanced format and limited pallette that formulaically popped and included a garland frame associated with identity shields. EGRET, POLAR BEAR

Not being able to decide what animal deserved the most attention, I instead went to biomes.

I researched a list of Wetlands Habitat plants and animals.

My final image starts with individual elements that are pencil sketched and then inked, then scanned.
The resulting images must be "closed configurations" which means that they have a "closed circuit" contour line enclosing the entire "object." If they are not, they can be corrected in photoshop.

In this way, objects can be individually selected by selecting the negative space around it, then selecting the inverse of it.

Each object is pasted into the new composition on its own labeled layer, transformed and arranged, thus "knitting" the composition together in photoshop. This was a progress report on the image layers


Final images can have hundreds of layers, which i keep separate the entire time rather than flattening any of them.


This image was then saved as a flattened object, and taken to kinkos to get a transparency made.


Luckily i have a pretty sweet hallway to work on this. The wood needed to either be installed somewhere or stretched on a frame. The projector has to be far enough back to focus properly. I drilled it in to the brick. Now for the fun part. Actually painting!!!


Here is the border finished with and without the projector.

Fun to see progress when you turn off the light.


Stay tuned! The mural goes up next week Thursday, ready for the friday Fine Line 4th Edition party at SKY HIGH

xx, v

Aug-Oct CRAFT and EVENT CALENDAR at LOOK NOOK!

Craft Nights at LOOK NOOK are free, and may require some basic supplies. Please check the calendar descriptions or bring a project of your own!
**please NOTE: No Craft Nights Sept 3rd and Sept 17! Please see alternate
events in chronological order below.

SATURDAY AUGUST 13TH
CHOPTOP™:
Ponybeaded fringe trim and ladderwoven slash mesh, makes a no sew bandana or croptop. Bring your own tshirt.

SATURDAY AUGUST 20TH
INTERSECTERS™:
Intersect insects with the intersecter. Back yard fun for hours with a stick, a wire, and some stitched mesh. Supplies included.

SATURDAY AUGUST 27TH
KURTSY™:
Kutely Kut Kurtains (AND BANNERS)! Chop old sheets into new cool curtains in a snowflake manner with scallops and cut-aways! Bring an old sheet or hankies will be provided for a small banner.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3RD
NO CRAFT NIGHT!
MADE IN MILWAUKEE FASHION SHOW AT CATHEDRAL SQUARE PARK

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH
CORTNEY Heimerl ART OPENING AND CRAFT NIGHT!
PLAITRAITS™:
Pen engraved portraits on small styrofoam plates, ink brayered, stamped, and embellished. Bring a loved one or a portrait of one.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17th
NO CRAFT NIGHT!
**NINE WEST VINTAGE AMERICA
DENIM CUSTOMIZATION BOOTH AT
CARSONS YORKTOWN MALL IN CHICAGO 11AM-1PM

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH:
FLAURETTES™
Faux flower and feather flair! Use deconstructed fake flowers, feathers, felt and hot glue to make fresh barrettes! Bring what have you.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 1ST
BLANGLES™: Beaded bangle bling. Pile beads on a spiral wire strand to look like many bracelets in one! Bring beads to share.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 8TH
***Last day of EAST SIDE GREEN MARKET!
WINDWELLERS™
Wind telling dwellers! Make a mini windsock! Turn it into a creature. Then, laugh.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 15TH
Regular shop hours resume!
HUGE FALL VINTAGE SALE!


FRIDAY OCTOBER 21st and SATURDAY OCTOBER 22nd
GALLERY NIGHT/DAY
Cortney Heimerl


All coined phrases, but not necessarily the projects, are trademarks of Madam Chino, rights reserved.

{QUEEN ANTIQUES LACE} Ann and Flame's House

Ann Powell is a local lifetime collector of antique and vintage clothing, textiles, paintings and housewares. Over the years she has graciously imparted many items to me, knowing that my appreciation for them will not set them to waste. Yesterday I came to her house to help her set up her online shop Queen Antiques Lace on etsy, and enjoyed roaming her home and yard gawking at the items in and around her eastside museum of a home.

{BABY and MAMAGURUMI} show closing this weekend with special hours!!

Amigurumi's will no longer be featured at LOOK NOOK after this weekend!
Please visit this adorable tiny handmade crochet animal adoption center and take one home or ask the stork to make you a new friend!

Open special hours this Friday July 22nd from 5pm-7pm, drinks, snacks, learn to crochet!!!

Regular summer LOOK NOOK hours are as usual Saturdays with traveling showcase at the Eastside Green Market from 10am-2pm, and Craft Night at LOOK NOOK from 4pm-7pm. This weekend we are having a review of all the crafts we did in July, so if you missed a night its not too late.

Amigurumi show at LOOK NOOK! With handmade slat pallet splalletwall™ by Madam Chino


Hope to see you!

All the Best,
Madam Chino

{Sticklaces™} Craft Night at LOOK NOOK Sat July 16, 4-7!

Stick it where the sun shines! Join Madam Chino at the LOOK NOOK to make these fun necklaces (or whatever jewelry you want!) *Please see this POST

Here is a brief preview!
Stick hunt:


Pruning Sheers, a drill with a tiny bit, and some nylon thread


tada! a Sticklace!


I will also have paints, brushes, snaxxx and drinxxx!

xx, v

{POTATOTES} Craft Night at LOOK NOOK Saturday July 9th

{POTATOTES} Carved potato block printed totes! Totes carvin' potates and makin' totes.





xx,v