Here come the birds!

Hello Beautiful Person! Hurrah! I have finished the birds for the spade cards and am going to show you them all over the course of the week. Please note that I took these photos and plan to have the real deck professionally shot--I'm a fairly decent photographer, but a real pro will help eliminate the glare better and sharpen the focus so they look good card-sized and as 8x10" prints. 

The reason I assigned birds to this suit is that the spade cards are associated with the element of air when used as a tarot deck. I've already shown you the Snowy Owl, who will be the Ace of Spades card. Today, we'll start off with the Bluebird, which will be used for the Jack of Spades. I was originally going to have it singing to a big sunflower, but then hit upon this Brünhilde idea as a better storytelling image. Its chest and wing have a painted feather motif. 

The Flicker will be the five of spades card. He's a dandy, with his fancy feather pattern, and also sporting a bowler hat, monocle, bow tie, flower, argyle socks and dress shoes.

The four of spades is a blue Parakeet. I used to have one in my 20's named Guapo, although he unfortunately didn't play the kazoo like he will in this card. He heeded to perch on something, so the final piece will have him sitting on a little rainbow and I made a mock-up of what the card box will look like for you. 

Last, but certainly not least, I took on the challenge of making my first peacock, who will be the six of spades card. My studio shots show you how I made and painted each feather before gluing them onto the bird figure.

All of these figures are scaled to fit atop a wood box that holds the cards, typically no larger than 5-6 inches in any direction. I'm so happy how these are turning out and hope you love them too! Remember, you can own one of these by pledging to my Kickstarter at the $275 level, which is a great deal--they will certainly go up in price after this campaign ends. You can learn more about how that works on the Kickstarter page. 

Thanks again to everyone who has helped me spread the word! At the time of this writing, I am 69% funded.....not in the safety zone yet, but making pretty good progress. You can send your friends a link to my campaign easily via the Kickstarter site--they also make it really easy to like it on Facebook or Twitter if you're plugged in there! 

I'll check back in a few days with the crow, flamingo, pigeon and rooster!

Joker Bunnies!!!!!

Hello Beautiful People!!!!!  

I've been working overtime here at Bunny with a Toolbelt Headquarters because I know that showing process equals progress, my version of Form Follows Function.  I did hit the 2/3 mark yesterday on my Kickstarter funding, so fingers crossed I'll meet my goal this month so I can relax into this project a bit more.  More on that later, but I want to introduce you to my newest members of the Bunny with a Toolbelt playing card deck: the Joker Bunnies!  

I decided to revise the two joker figures a little bit from the original sketch so they would be facing each other on the uncut sheet, connecting visually to the butterfly diptych you'll see at the end. So...the bunny with a toolbelt became bunny with a tool. (Oh, the humanity!) Martini bunny stayed the same. more or less. I think you'll agree that it made for a more iconic image--what I'm striving for with each individual card in this deck. I'm even thinking that the final cut of this card might crop off bottom legs entirely and focus on a partial tail/upper torso image similar to the snowy owl card. I hope some of you appreciate this insight....it's sounding über nerdy to me as I write this, but I promised you an insider's look, so that's what you get, Beautiful Person!  

Fun Facts: These bunnies are about 3.5 inches high and their claws are made from teeny tiny nails! 

The process shot shows the bunny head and jester hat construction. This was a new challenge for me and I love the way they turned out.  Over the years, I have amassed a rather large collection of found wood objects and other tiny turned wood forms so when I need to make something like, say, a tiny jester hat, I see if I can't rework something I have in my inventory. Wood rings did the trick here--can you see it? The bunny heads shown here were originally made from a wood egg form, but I actually completely remade them later for a larger and slightly more angular shape you see in my photos of the finished pieces.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS PLEDGED SO FAR!!!!! I am so grateful for those of you who love my artwork and support these projects, send me sweet messages and have helped me spread the word.  The playing card collecting community has been very kind to me as well--this past week I was featured in a Spanish blog and a video review. The life of an artist certainly has its ebbs and flows, and I feel so lucky to be able to have a platform like Kickstarter to help me connect with you. 

  

butterflies!

Hello beautiful person! It's time for my first progress report about the playing card project I have on Kickstarter, which I'm thrilled to be 50% funded after only three days!  Thank you to everyone who has helped me reach my goal!

I decided to launch into the two butterflies that will be used for the diptych card first. They proved to be very labor intensive, but I'm happy with the results. Using my handy dandy Butterfly and Moth reference guide, I decided to us the shapes of the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly and the Common Blue butterflies. I created some large templates in paper first, then traced them onto my wood.

As mentioned previously, these are going to be used to create two cards that will work together as a diptych--the body will be split down the middle to make the two cards. I decided to cut out some general shapes of tools to set the foundation for the blue one, and used some rosette moldings for the colorful one.

The finished butterflies are 14 inches wide. I am going to attach hardware on the back so they can be hung on the wall alone, although I think they'd be quite nice in a shadow box.

The blue one has already been reserved by one lucky Kickstarter backer, but at the time of this posting, the colorful one is still up for grabs!

Here's how they will look as the cards--remember that one butterfly will be on each side.

 Both diptychs are also available as high quality 8x10" prints as a backer reward. (sorry--I know the scale is off on my in situ simulation below, but I wanted to give you the general idea.....) I'll have a limited edition of these diptychs available for sale after the campaign ends if you have your eye on another reward.

Again, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has backed the project so far!  I'll start launching into the birds this week, so stay tuned for my next update!  

woo! hoo! two! projects this summer!!!

Now that the weather has dried up a bit in Oregon, I'll be working on the totems for TriMet pretty soon!  It will be nice to learn some new skills as I turn these heavy logs into pretty art.

I also have a new Kickstarter project to create a deck of playing cards! If all goes well, I'll be creating over 50 animals to grace the card decks--learn more about this project here:

Jamie and Cameron

Hello Beautiful People! With only a few weeks left, we finally have our second entry in the wedding cake topper contest! This is from a couple who I met recently at Crafty Wonderland's Spring Wedding Extravaganza. Enjoy!----

We met playing Left 4 Dead on Xbox Live when Jamie was living in Michigan and Cameron in Washington DC. 

At first, Jamie thought Cameron was a pompous jerk and hated her, and Cameron thought Jamie was too awesome to exist (true), so he started calling her "SparklePony" because of her inherent unicorn nature. Haha. 

Eventually, after thousands of zombie apocalypses and lots of trivia, they began talking on the phone and then video-chat for hours and hours each day. Cameron would ride the train for an hour to go to the Apple store to make Jamie videos of him serenading her. Jamie sent Cameron mixed CDs with pictures of unicorns on them. After months of falling in love, Cameron got on a plane to Michigan because he couldn't stand being away from Jamie for one more second. They had an amazing weekend, but Cameron eventually had to get on a plane and go back to DC. After a week of being apart and miserable, Jamie got in her car and drove to Cameron. She never went back. Home is where your unicorn is. :)

After traveling thousands of miles together and making a beautiful son, they settled in Portland, OR  where Cameron grew up. Cameron proposed to Jamie by Xbox, just as they fell in love. He called her downstairs to play as usual, and she found the ring on her controller. He instructed her to open her messages where there was a message from him, a very familiar sight. She cried, which she only usually does when there's no more cheese.

We're getting married in September and are having a super personalized wedding. We wore zombie shirts to our engagement photos because they brought us together. The unicorn toppers would mean the world to us. It's a nod to how we fell in love and we would cherish them forever, just as we will each other. :)

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Aww--thanks for sharing your story! Got one of your own to share?  If you want to enter to win a custom set of your very own, click here to read the full details on how to submit your story! Not getting married? No problem! I'm holding a special drawing foranyone to receive a $250 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for all cake topper referrals between now and May 31st, 2013! If you know anyone getting married who too shy to enter the story contest and in the market for custom cake toppers and , or even if they want to choose from the over 100 designs in my Etsy shopmy Etsy shop, have them drop your name and email address when they place their order before May 31st and I will put your name in the hopper for that gift certificate! No limit to how many people you can refer -- you'll get one entry per couple who orders by the deadline! 

Neil and Laura

Hello Beautiful People! We have our first entry in the wedding cake topper contest! This is actually from a couple who I recently made a set of cake toppers for, just before the contest launched. So you get to see photos of the finished toppers and hear about why they commissioned this special pair based on the sari fabric in the wedding attire. Here's the story of Laura and Neil:

Neil and Laura might have met over a decade ago when Neil was working in San Francisco and Laura was an undergraduate in the Bay Area. Their chance of meeting diminished briefly, however, when Neil moved to Paris to study French literature. They might have met again when both of them moved to the University of Michigan for graduate school. 

They took classes in the same buildings and volunteered as ushers for the same theater program, but still somehow failed to meet. They also could have met when they both attended the AIIS summer language program in India (Laura made the mistake of skipping the orientation in Delhi), or when they spent a year there doing research for their PhDs (once again Laura made the mistake of refusing to go to Delhi). 

They came even closer to meeting after returning to Michigan where they wrote their dissertations at different branches of the same coffee shop, worked out at the same gym, and lived within blocks of each other.

Neil moved to Pittsburgh in 2010 to start teaching, and Laura followed one year after. Laura moved into the same neighborhood as Neil. On campus, their offices are just minutes away from each other. They still failed to meet until Laura substituted for one of her colleagues in a seminar on the difficulties of French translation. 

As she sat down to deliver her comments she was introduced to Neil. She quickly realized that: 1- He was much more qualified to discuss the difficulties of translating gender in French and Hindi than she was, 2- this was a problem because she really wanted him to like her. Neil graciously forgave the flaws in Laura's talk and invited her to lunch the next week. They went to the theater together the following night and haven't spent a day without talking since then.

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Wow--that's an amazing story. Got one of your own to share?  If you want to enter to win a custom set of your very own, click here to read the full details on how to submit your story! Not getting married? No problem! I'm holding a special drawing for anyone to receive a $250 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for all cake topper referrals between now and May 31st, 2013! If you know anyone getting married who too shy to enter the story contest and in the market for custom cake toppers and , or even if they want to choose from the over 100 designs in my Etsy shopmy Etsy shop, have them drop your name and email address when they place their order before May 31st and I will put your name in the hopper for that gift certificate! No limit to how many people you can refer -- you'll get one entry per couple who orders by the deadline! 

Woo Hoo! Two wedding contests to put a little spring in your step!

 Hello Beautiful People!  I'm excited to announce that I reached a personal milestone last week and now have over 100 designs in the weddings section of my Etsy shop!  And to celebrate, I think it's high time we have a little contest. Oh, did I say "a" contest? How about adding in a little $250 drawing on the side just for fun that anyone can enter as many times as they want?

 The first contest is for couples getting married who want a custom cake topper to grace their cake. I love hearing stories about how couples met, so bring them on! 

Tell me your cutest, goofiest, or most swoonfully romantic story of your "I do moment," the moment you knew you had to spend the rest of your life with your partner, or a sweet story that will make me smile. Then choose one or more of the designs on my Etsy site or one you spotted hanging out at the Chapel of Bunny Love that I can use to illustrate your saga on my blog. Send a picture of the two of you to sweeten the pot. I'll publish your stories between now and 11:59 PM, Pacific Standard Time on May 31st, 2013 and then we'll open it up for the readers to vote on which story made them go "awwww!" or "ohhhhhh!" or "mmmmmmmmm!" 

The grand prize winner will get a custom cake topper set that I'll make with whatever critters make their hears go purrrrrrr!!

Please limit your entries to 500 words. This contest is intended for currently engaged couples. I'll post them as they come in. Email them to me at bunnywithatoolbelt@gmail.com. 

Not getting married? No problem! I'm holding a special drawing for anyone to receive a $250 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for all cake topper referrals between now and May 31st, 2013! If you know anyone getting married who is in the market for custom cake toppers, or even if they want to choose from the over 100 designs in my Etsy shop, have them drop your name and email address when they place their order before May 31st and I will put your name in the hopper for that gift certificate! No limit to how many people you can refer -- you'll get one entry per couple who orders by the deadline!  

Arfabet opens tonight at Velvet da Vinci Gallery!

Here's a few images from the Arfabet installation at Velvet da Vinci Gallery

Arfabet launches this week!

If you're in the San Francisco area this weekend, I hope you can make it to the official opening and book launch of Arfabet!  The show runs from October 24 - November 25, and the opening event is this Friday night from 6-8pm at Velvet da Vinci Gallery.

In the meantime, here's the animation I created to go with the book. Enjoy!

getting ready to animate

Hello Beautiful People!

I have an update as I prepare to shoot the sequences for my Arfabet stop-action animation! It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since I've done this, and I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to get into the swing of it this time.  For any of you who are new to this conversation, this animation is a companion piece to my forthcoming sophomore publication Arfabet, due out in the next month.  There will be some advance copies available in late October at my book launch at Velvet da Vinci Gallery on the 26th. I just got the postcard in the mail the other day and am soooooo happy with it. If you're in the San Francisco area, please come by and see the show and say hi if you make it on opening night!

But I'm here to tell you a little about my work on the animation. I am not sure if it will be completed by the time of the opening, but one thing is for sure: I need to film it before the show since it stars the pieces that grace the pages of Arfabet that will only be in my hands for the next few weeks! I have worked up a basic idea of how it will work, and it seems that most of the pieces I made for the book are perfect to use. There are, however, a few pieces that I decided to rework in order to animate them.

The Kookierhondje with the kumquat just needs to jump, so I made a stunt double so I could do this on a flat surface.

Similarly, that Zuchon just wouldn't be as fun if it weren't jumping over the Zuccotto, so he's also got a flatter version for the animation.

I decided to remake the Dachshund as well, so that it could show the layers being stacked up to make the Dagwood sandwich. The piece in the show is much larger and glued into one piece. I will eventually glue this one together if I decide to sell it, but I'm also thinking about keeping it in parts to use as a demonstration piece for the future--or possible April Fool's deli platter. You never know.....

I plan to start shooting this week, so will check back with more behind-the-scenes updates as this project nears completion! 

pssst! sneak preview of Arfabet!

Hey Beautiful People! I got my sample copy of Arfabet yesterday! Here's a sneak preview I made especially for you.