SmrtArt

03/04/2025

Four bears, a bucket full of shirt scraps and some good tunes tonight will get me through.
Sometimes I worry about all the fabric scraps I’ve just thrown away over the years.
How many bears could I have stuffed with them?
When did our culture turn away from teaching our children and grands that “everything”could NOT be replaced?
Throw away culture has pushed us to the brink. Fast fashion and capitalism has brought us to the very edge of destruction with the speed and force of a Japanese bullet train. It will only take a gust of wind to push us past the threshold of what our earth can tolerate and we have to create the wind breaker NOW!
How are you looking at your own waste? How are you holding yourself and corporations accountable?
You have to choose. And you have to act upon it.
Sitting around whining will change nothing except the respect your children have for you when they have nothing.

01/15/2025

Behind the scenes is where soooo much work is getting done. Finding the tools I need to use is prolly ¼ of the battle most nights I’m working.
I work with a lot of different mediums and keep so much. Then, when I don’t use that medium for a while it’s like finding a needle in a hay stack for ONE BRUSH! 🤪🫠
Tonight is more prep and testing work for protective layers and paints for the title page in the Grimoire by .camp
Also, keep up with me on Threads for both accounts for some juicy dialogue on art and witchery!

01/10/2025

This week’s art foray has been practicing with my calligraphy pens.
I’m sketching and gearing up to ink in my personal grimoire finally. The last two years I’ve been compiling notes and organizing my witchcraft information into various notebooks (of course they’re not all in one, who do you think I am?! A heathen of course! 😈💁🏻‍♀️)
But as any “together” witch would have it, this info should all be kept in one neat place for referencing, right?!
Well the other reason is because well, with the video make of the grimoire itself, I realized it wouldn’t be complete without having at least a few pages decorated and finished 😅📖
So here we are, making more fun!
Follow me over .camp to get updates on my activities and notices when the Grimoire epi on ye’ol-tuberinos is posted, for the full effects!
Back to the drawing board babes! 🖋️

01/07/2025

That’s the actual mend pile my babes.
The blue bag is for a client, and the tall laundry bag is old t-shirts from family they want me to make into other items, like blankets or robes and such.
How are you buying less clothes this year and reusing or remaking what you already have into something cooler?

01/06/2025

These are not resolutions.
They are commitments to myself that I have been building for a long time.
They are promises long over due.
They are parts of me and you that needed to be glued.

As a seamstress/artist that is often pushing my own projects aside in order to take paid work, like the cobbler’s children without shoes, I often have to put my own mending pile on the back burner. And they get piled high. I’ve set some mini tasks for myself this month to help build consistency in my own routine. I must work on mending one thing every day.

I have this beautiful keepsake box I was gifted that I’ve stashed the “small mends” in for this past year. Gloves, toys, jewelry etc. the other night I pulled out all the glues and got to work on the tiny items, fragile pieces, that needed time, TLC, and patience. My entire table was strewn with glued pieces by the time I was done working that middle of the night. I managed to only glue my fingers to one item and I still have blue peacock feathers embedded into my finger nails. 😅🦚
This week will be tackling the sewing small bits. Bells, finger holes, tails, and itty bitties.

12/31/2024

Now that this season is over, it’s time to start making for next year! 😅🤪
I made three of these four holiday stockings. My mom made mine in the 80’s. And Snoopy has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It’s no wonder dogs are my babes!
I just finished the Krampus stocking in time for the holiday! I’m working on editing the make of it and telling Christmas ghost stories of all the dark time baddies for over .camp I had planned on having the episode out for the solstice, but the big C had other plans for me and I had to sleep all that week I should have been editing and my voice was too shot from all the coughing to be recording any audible 🤪🤦🏼‍♀️😑
So I’m contemplating waiting to post it for next year, but I think I’m gonna go into this new year with the intention to just FINISH projects and not care whether they are relevant to the season or not 😈 This year is all about transformations and making it work for myself and everyone around me. Year of the snake in a few weeks begins. Let’s do this! 🐍

12/30/2024

I am not a fast knitter by any means. I asked my 5 nieces and nephews what their favorite colors were about 4 years ago. Only one of them gave me one color. And so I started making these glove and hat sets for them. I finally finished them. 😅 Sans one glove I got delayed on because of having the c this year. And now I have to redo the youngest’s hat because he grew so much 🤪🤦🏼‍♀️ Luckily the hats are easy, I have no work this break and I can finish both before they go back to school. 🤗
I found both of these patterns through Ravelry and I’d adjusted the mitten pattern to be fingerless gloves on the inside. I personally love this style and two of the kiddos are outside a lot so I figured these styles would help them function better. They’re made from super wash merino wools, that will not shrink and “can” be put in the dryer, but I assured them if they just hung dry them they would last forever. I have extra yarn too so if they ever lose one I can make another 😅
Love these kiddos so much!
Now to make sets for me, the hubs and my own kiddo! 🤣🥰 Maybe they’ll be done for next winter. 🤣

12/30/2024

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12/30/2024

This set of three bears, made from two t-shirts, were cranked out in record time for delivery before the holiday!
I had contracted covid and tested positive the day I received the bears in the mail 🤦🏼‍♀️ Luckily my lovely client was very understanding when I messaged her that day and said I’d have to wait a week to make sure I was testing negative before I would work on them. When I get sick (with anything) I always steer clear of my office and close the door. There are waaaaay too many things and fabrics in there that can hold contamination. And so a full week later, the Saturday before Xmas, I was finally able to get in there and get to work. Each bear takes approximately 4-5 hours to construct from start to finish. With limited energy levels from my chronic inflammation, now exacerbated by my second round of covid, this bit took me quite a bit longer. I had to take more breaks and sit down for most of it. Which can be challenging for cutting and ironing. I ended up using scissors to hand cut most of the pieces, when I normally use my rotary cutter that cuts (ha, pun intended😅) cutting time in half or more. But I miraculously got them all done by Sunday night and was able to meet my client’s husband at work on Monday for delivery!
Woohooo! Christmas miracles can happen! 💫

11/26/2024

Another set of adorable bears to a family who lost their mum. Each bear was made from one shirt this time, not mixed shirts. When I do single shirt bears, I try to use different elements of the shirt to make them unique, cuffs and edges, pockets or button plackets, and name badges, to bring the personality of the person who wore the garment into the item.
As an artist that often gets tired of making the same kind of item, I honestly don’t think I’ll ever get sick of making these bears. They are too special when made from a loved one’s garments. They speak to the after and the on going of memory and love. They are not something that will be discarded easily and I can only hope they will be continually loved down the generational lines as mementos, like cherished photographs or jewelry or collections our loved ones cherished while on this plane.
There’s still time to get your own bears made before the holidays. DM me for deets.

11/05/2024

Working on a set of 6 bears from a gentleman Ben, who was quite the character from what I’ve been told.
This round of bears are turning out sooo cute when mixed with 6 different shirts! And I’ve made two adorable heart ornaments from scraps of the shirts!
If you’re wanting memory items to gift family/friends or self this holiday, message me soon!

10/15/2024

I always admired my grandmother’s hands. Clearly hands that have worked. Hands that get burned, cut, split, calloused. Hands that get lotion baths, massages from their partner hand when tired and sore. Skin tight with the loss of elasticity in older age. Scarred from knicks, cuts or breaks from accidents of a wandering mind, not necessarily careless, but preoccupied while trying to perform an important job. Chipped nails careful trimmed or filed so as not to snag the precious fabric.
I always longed to have those kinds of hands.
Makers hands.
Creationist hands.
The older I get I feel and notice and remember my scars more. I notice the strange callouses I grow from a differing particular kind of work I’m doing.
This week I grew some pretty painful ones on three of my knuckles while hand cutting “cabbage” for stuffing inside the dolls I’ve been making. This is prompting me to investigate how to use our paper shredder to do this work instead 🤪😅
Our hands hold the stories of our life that we forget to hide with makeup or surgery. And yet they are a part of us that everyone sees and comes in contact with first hand and secondarily (touching doorhandles or handing someone a coffee for example).

10/10/2024

These two beautiful boys are headed to a pair of brothers who lost their dad to cancer this year. I truly hope they bring the boys all the lovely memories and joy they had with their father before he left them.

10/01/2024

Finished up these memory shirt pillows for a client last week. She wanted to keep the collars like I’ve done before so I used a bit of the sleeves to close the head opening and finish the pillows up.

This week I’ll be making bears from a dad’s two jerseys for his children. I might cry doing this one.
Memories are hard, and I love making these kinds of items for my clients. It provides a tangible item for them to have to hug and love every time they think of their loved one who has passed through the veil.

I am available to do these items all year round. Pillows and bears/animals are not the only items that can be made for memory items. I can also make robes, blankets, handkerchiefs, you name it, it can be done.

DM me here to set up your memory makes.

08/29/2024

I just shared a great clip in my stories of an old Chanel sweater that was eaten by moths being repaired. It reminded me that I don’t share my own repairs that I do on our family’s clothes. And I had a client who had a bag that I would pick up monthly to repair items for him. Here is my most recent fix. My grandpa’s sweater had a run in it and I noticed it and told my gram I could fix it. So she washed it and packed it up for me to do. Before and after pics of both the outside and inside views. This repair was fairly easy using a small crochet hook and re-working the knit pattern through and then hand sew/tying the end back into the collar edge. I did not have grey yarn this thin to make the repair seamless, but I had a nice heavy thread to hold it all in place.
Do you have a bag/box of clothes you love but need repaired? I can fix nearly anything, and sometimes even alter the clothes if you’ve fluctuated in weight. Don’t throw your favorite pieces away! Message me and let’s fix it up and make it new again!

08/06/2024

In my 20’s I had an early morning desk job at a gym in the city and it was really boring 😅🤪
I often did my embroidery when I was at that front desk and I made friends with a girl who often ran on the treadmill next to the front desk and chatted me up. We became good friends and she invited me to a Stitch n B*tch group! I explained I didn’t knit or crochet. She said no worries, bring your embroidery! That evening I learned HOW TO KNIT!
Not clothes right away, I thought those would be too complicated. I started with dolls! I made A LOT of dolls! As my family was growing and my cousins and brother began to have a million and one littles, I found knitting was just the perfect gifts for all the little angels! Custom knitting is not cheap, but well worth the price as an heirloom present for generations to come! I’ve knitted ornaments, socks, gloves, mittens, hats, pants, dresses, trims, shawls, blankets and body sacks! For babies to adults! Send me a PM for quotes on custom knitting or crochet projects! Be sure to factor in time spans. If these are holiday gifts it’s always best to get your order in as early as possible, sometimes as early as January, depending on the size of the project. 😬🤪

08/05/2024

Did you know I didn’t start my art career as a seamstress?!
I actually went to college and got my degrees in illustration, painting and photography! When I decided I couldn’t work in a cubicle my whole life I started branching my skills out and was hired to do all kinds of painting in and outside of “cubicles” 😅🤪 From basic room painting to simple word murals and then to extensive scenes and themed rooms. I’ll make a future post about the Tim Burton bathroom that was definitely my favorite piece ever, showing more images of the different movies in it and how I joined them together. The murals and furniture painting I provided for is my most recent work over the last two years! For the warehouse doors to the inside of the shop and the furniture and doors there in as well! I can do indoor room painting as well! I’ll make another post of those jobs soon!
If you’re needing a refresher in or outside of your home or business contact me for quotes! Smaller murals can be painted in canvas to be removed easily for storage or transfer to another home if needed.

08/04/2024

Our homes are our sanctuaries. The places we come to to be our complete selves with no one watching or judging us (without our own invitation anyway😉)
And so, I always feel special and honored when I am invited into someone’s home to help them create a a more pleasant space for themselves. Whether it be the bedroom with functional curtains for your own special needs, or just enough cover with simple ancestral laces or privacy covers, or cushion replacements for your outdoor patio furniture; I can make it happen for you. I can make from scratch or repair/replace what already exists for you. Difficult or odd sizes are 99% doable. If I can fit it in my machine, we make your dreams happen! I have a plethora of fabric places(local to chicago or online) to find exactly what you’re looking for, even genuine vintage fabrics from the 60’s-90’s. Message me for your next home project!