Monkey King Tunnel Book

Here's another book-type project I've been working on: a tunnel book! These books are flat until you open them up, spreading out the pages and giving the image depth. This one's about some sort of Monkey King that lives above the clouds. Here it is when it's flat:

And here it is when it's extended (sorry for the weird green sheet in the background.)

Aaaaand here's the back:

Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers Zine

OK guys, I know I haven't posted for awhile, but I've been busy making lots of new projects, so expect lots of posts in the next few days! The first one is this zine package I just finished; I made these an edition of ten, and here they all are:



So here's the story: these are made to look like corporate packages from a fictional company called Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers. I screenprinted everything in this package: all the box logos, coupons, letters, and the zine itself. Here's what the package looks like when it's being opened:





From the top left, there's a white chocolate box, two coupons that read "One free truffle redeemable at any Ghost Mantis location," a black chocolate box, and a sealed letter with the actual zine itself underneath. The letter is abaca paper I made myself, and I sealed it with red wax and a "G" seal; here it is unopened:



The letter reads: "Dear Loyal Customer, as a member of the ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY community, either you or someone you know has most likely been affected by the tragic events that occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday. Some have pointed to Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers as the source of this disaster, but we would like to stress that test results with the potential to substantiate this claim have not been released. As such, we must all remember that we do not yet know the cause of the accident. That said, although Ghost Mantis does not yet take responsibility, any disturbance to the ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY community affects us, too. That's why we have prepared these complimentary chocolates, coupons, and Collector's Edition Ghost Mantis Company History Pamphlets as a reminder of our concern for the community and as a sign of our goodwill. We sincerely hope these packages find you well. Happy Holidays, Mortimer Windle, CEO Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers."

That's right, these packages are sort of apologies for some sort of unexplained tragedy that was, in all likelyhood, caused by this company. Here are the chocolates that come in the package (white and dark chocolate, with painted chocolate G's on them.) I made these by painting G's backwards into a chocolate mold, then pouring the opposite kind of melted chocolate on top:



And finally, here is the zine itself, the company history pamphlet:





Text: "Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers
A history of painstakingly observed tradition"



Text: "In 1884, Gregor Mantodea, a wealthy Englishman and the future founder of Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers, moved to Warwick, Rhode Island, to make his fortune and to escape a father who had difficulties accepting his many eccentricities. One of these eccentricities was his fascination with the ghost mantis, a small African species of praying mantis. In these glossy, black specimens, he saw not only himself, but the decadent allure and polished aesthetics of chocolate."



Text: "Mantodea adopted the ghost mantis as his mascot when he founded Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers and began selling chocolates out of a small cart in 1886. The American public were willing to ignore his rather offputting mascot in order to get their hands on the delicious chocolate that he was making in his own home. By 1891, the Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers company boasted its own factory, situated in the heart of Swansea, Rhode Island. His fortune made, Mantodea retired early in 1893, leaving Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers to a series of individuals hand-picked to run the company."





Text: "Since Mantodea's time, Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers has altered neither its chocolate recipes nor its machinery, despite all modern advances in the field. We believe that this respect for tradition is the key to our success. Aesthetically, however, our company continues to improve. In 1902, company CEO Humphrey Carasik created the iconic "G" that now appears on all Ghost Mantis Chocolates when he discovered his daughter Isabelle painting in her room. He wasted no time in putting her to work hand-painting each chocolate. To this day, every "G" is painted by hand."



Text: "CEO Artemis Gadebush, too, developed our company's look when he introduced the black and white motif, based on the aesthetics of the mantis itself, that still graces all Ghost Mantis buildings and packaging. Today, Ghost Mantis Chocolatiers has nine factories and hundreds of specialty stores around the globe. We look forward to overcoming any obstacle that we meet and providing our customers with unparalleled service and quality."



So, at some point I'm thinking I'll don a Ghost Mantis representative uniform, take these babies to the streets, and hand them out to the unsuspecting public. Delicious!

Steampunk Leather Longstitch Journal and Handmade Abaca Paper

Hello everyone! Remember this picture from the last post?

Well, at long last, here's a closer look at the book on the bottom. It's a leather journal bound with longstitch, and I hope it gives off a somewhat steampunk vibe:







Now I just need to fill it, I suppose...
And here's a preview for a project I'll be working on this week. All of this is handmade abaca paper, and the pulp for each one was beaten for a different amount of time. The little tag on the top that says "7" means that I beat that stack's pulp for seven hours. If you're curious, the different time periods were, in hours, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 2.5, 4, 5, 6, and 7. This week I'm going to work on binding them into a book!

Creation Myth Installation and Hand-bound Books!

Happy weekend, everyone! I, for one, am taking a nice cushy weekend, as all week I've been working on this, an installation piece about the creation of a world. The pattern on the head and all the little individual parts are screenprinted, and the pieces were laboriously hand-cut-out by not only me but my amazing friends as well, who spent hours of their time to help me get this done. So Lauren, Beth, Megan, Naeha, Patrick, Jase, Stone (who also took these photos), and Collin, thanks from the bottom of my heart, you guys rock, and I couldn't have done it without you!

Other than that, I've also made a few books recently. From top to bottom, there's an accordion book, a coptic stitch book, and a leather longstitch book that isn't finished yet. I'll most likely complete it today and update later:

Here's the first one, an accordion book called "a tale of suspense followed by disappointment." The paper I used is paste paper I made, and the fish and boats are pen on mylar (a material I have quickly learned to love):





Here's the first page:



Many pages later:



The disappointing end:



And here's the second book in the pile, a coptic stitched book made with graph paper, tealish paper that I made awhile ago, and red/gold handmade paper that I bought:





Hopefully, I'll finish the leather one today and have it updated tonight or tomorrow!

Shrinky-Dink Goliath Beetle Necklace

Time for a weekend mini-update!

I liked drawing the goliath beetle that I printed on those lunch trays so much that I had to draw another one on shrinky-dink paper to make my own goliath beetle necklace. If you look closely, you can see that there's a pin sticking about 1/4 of an inch out between the thorax and abdomen, so it looks a bit like the beetle is pinned to my chest when I'm wearing it. How delightfully entomological!

Prince of Dogs Print, Monogrammed and Watermarked Paper, and a Book!

Well, I spent all of yesterday making this print, so being able to laze around in bed and write about it now feels pretty good. The prince of dogs doesn't really reference anything, but I guess it's part of a story in my mind. To me, it's about finding something awesome out about somebody that you never would have thought would be there. Fun fact: this is the first time I've used my own unaltered handwriting in a print. I wrote the words in the banner as a placeholder, but I ended up liking how they looked in my handwriting, so I went ahead and inked it in.



Changing gears, here are some watermarked pieces of paper I made by attaching a fun foam watermark (hi tech, I know) onto the mold before the paper sheets were formed. Perhaps it says something about my ego that all of them have my initials on them. Looks like I need to start writing some letters!



Here's the same guy on lighter abaca paper:



What kind of animal is this? I honestly don't know. A friend suggested "foxboar."



Here is some paste paper that I made and hand-stamped (which explains the wonkiness of the little skulls, I suppose.)





Here is a book I made recently. If anyone has any suggestion for what to fill it with, I'd love to hear! I have a couple ideas, but I'm a bit at a loss, as I feel like this is one of the girlier looking things I've made. I made all of the paper in this book except the cover paper. The first and last pages are cotton rag paper (shown in a previous post if you're interested) and all the middle pages are abaca.







Aaaand a Monday figure drawing bonus:



Whew!

Rock Idols Print

Hello everyone! Here's a print I did a few weeks back. I wanted to do something based on the concept of idolizing rock stars. The middle part is a few sheets of mylar I printed on, and the "frame" portion is regular paper. I love music history, so this was super fun to draw. I feel like the design and color choice could have been a lot better, but hey. Clockwise from the top, it's John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen, David Bowie as a sphinx and Ziggy Stardust, Jimi Hendrix, Iggy Pop, Elvis Presley, and Kurt Cobain.



And details of my favorite parts, Iggy Pop and Sid Vicious:

Entomological Lunch Trays

All right, to put a cap on last week's series of guerilla art, here's one last project: lunch trays printed in the theme of perhaps my favorite of all scientific branches: entomology, or the study of insects. I borrowed three trays from my dining hall for awhile, printed these three beetle specimens (the Pleasing Fungus Beetle, the Goliath Beetle, and one type of Tortoise Beetle) onto it, and returned them to the wild for dining hall patrons to enjoy. Here's what they look like:



And here they are being returned to the dining hall wilderness:



The tray return: