Summer Break Shenanigans

Looks can be deceiving…

Other than the occasional repost about shifting our cultural mindset about gun laws in this nation, my socials have been pretty quiet lately. But I’ve been a pretty busy bee behind the scenes.

Ordinarily, I’m a huge sharer. When I work with individuals, or do a project for a family member, they get a kick out of seeing how their project takes shape on the blog.

But, when working with agencies and for brands, sharing usually happens as a reveal when the project is complete and the agency or brand gets to share it first.

So, right now, I’ll just have to entertain you with my summer break shenanigans. 😂

I give you Exhibit A.

As y’all know, Father’s Day is coming up soon (as is Juneteenth). My husband needed a bottle for his summer bike riding. I wanted this to be a really nice surprise for the holiday. Take a look at how it went below.

On to Exhibit B.

Yup. I’m still working on my calligraphy, flourishes and florals.

A couple months back, I signed up for a class with Younghae Chung of Logos Calligraphy. I say ‘signed up’ because it was close to the end of the school year when the course re-opened for enrollment, and that’s basically all I could do…enroll. I was able to get to Homework 3 and 4. But I’m so stuck on being able to control my nib pressure, I haven’t gotten much further yet. It’s all good though…that’s what summer break is for, right? 😉

Of course, I believe in education, so I’ve been gathering some learning resources and eye candy. Younghae’s first book is not due to be delivered until July. But, in the meantime, I have plenty to drool over until then.

I also have a few Etsy items and online resources I use too. Some of them are so comprehensive, I use binders to keep them organized.

Dorky, I know. But, it works for me.

And…Exhibit C

Er, there’s no photo here, just a ton of links…

I want to get back to my classes that I had been taking at the start of the school year…and some others I’ve picked up since, like Younghae’s class. But, they are on pause for just a moment while I am working on other projects.

However, I did get to attend a few classes from Workshop Week this year.

If you don’t know, Workshop Week is a full week of free workshops hosted by the Happy Ever Crafter, Becca Courtice. She invites a ton of other artists to share what they know in specific, bite-size workshops. They are free to watch for the week with the option to purchase the collection for replays.

The workshop I was most interested in this year was by Telisa of Rossein Art on heat foiling. Telisa is a Toronto calligrapher and engraver who recently released her own class on engraving on my favorite learning platform, Craftsman’s Creative. (I do intend to purchase this class among others so that I can refer to when needed. But, for now, my class purchasing is on hold. These classes are like three whole bills put together, y’all. 😂) But, aside from engraving wood, heat foiling was one of the reasons I got a wood burner. I had already gotten the We R Memory Keepers Foil Quill Pens. They work well enough on paper. But, I wanted a more reliable tool for leather. Telisa demonstrated the pen on leather and them showed how to use a wood burning tool on leather with minimal fuss.

I had already played around with it on my own and, through trial and error, figured out a heat setting that worked for me. But, hearing her talk through her projects and demonstrate why she chose the settings she did for the materials she was using, was so very helpful at a time when I’m just starting to experiment. Loved it!

At any rate, summer break has gotten off to a very, not so boring start!