More Wearable T-Shirt Art

Stencil Revolution :: View topic - Bleach on fabric tutorial






"First: bleach will not work on most synthetic fabrics. You will need natural fabrics. The good news is that even the cheap tee-shirts are generally 50/50 Cotton and Polyester, and they will work just fine. 100% cotton will also work well, HOWEVER, bleach really weakens the material. If you get big, wet drips of bleach on 100% cotton, they will quickly develop into holes in the material. I do know that, for at least one clothing company, this is actually the desired effect but I prefer the stronger 50/50 blends for bleach designed clothing."

"Second: I use Duralar material (.005) to create my stencils. Cardboard will only soak up your bleach and become a mess. Duralar is available at your art supply dealer or online and is only about $2.50 USD for a 32 X 40” sheet. It is thin, plastic, and clear and you will get a lot of mileage out of each of the stencils you cut out of it."

"Third: Cheap bleach is fine. It is still a toxic chemical. Wear a respirator or work in well ventilated areas, or both. Don’t wear anything you love. You’re spraying bleach."

"Fourth: Empty your spray bottle after you’re done. If you store bleach in it, it will expand due to softening of the plastic and gasses from the reaction between the chemical and the plastic bottle. This can be messy and dangerous.""

"With stenciling bleach onto dark fabrics, you have to think in the negative. This is opposite the general process of stencil work with spray paint or roll-on paints and inks. The light colors are going through the stencil and the dark areas are being blocked by it. Otherwise, this process is darned close to the spray paint stencils more commonly created."

"For this stencil, I created the stencil for the half-tone layer to be applied first. On the back side of the stencil, I used a repositionable spray adhesive. This is a 3-M product and makes the stencil sticky but easily removable. It leaves no residue on the substrate (fabric). This is used to prevent under-spray for those clean, crisp lines and edges. It is important to also select a spray angle with your wrist position and stick to it. The angle of your spray should remain consistent throughout the even application. If you roll your wrist at all, you’ll risk under-spray and inconsistent application."

Read the article to get the full process. It produces a very professional look, well worth it for your wearable art-piece!

True Inter-Species Communication

,

Wet nose to wet nose, let a gray dolphin and a black dog get together to bridge the gap between species, as shown in this photograph from the Indianapolis Zoo.

Never Too Old

Great wisdom! Thanks AngelAngel!

Remote Healing Mandala

Sample Remote Reiki Transmission


Reiki mandala

This site has a Reiki-charged mandala for your viewing pleasure (and health) so look on and feel better!

"If you take a moment or two to quiet your mind and ask that you receive Reiki as you are reading or while quietly meditating for a moment. You will receive a remote Reiki treatment if it is appropriate for you to do so at this time."

Plenty of energy-healing (it works, folks!) and other healing modalities links on this site to explore.

What Comes Out of Your Mouth Counts

Think of the Importance of a Word

(Thanks AKAPearlofaGirl)


The Careless Word

Harper's Magazine March 1853


"A careless word may kindle strife,

A cruel word may wreck a life,

A bitter word may hate instill,

A brutal word may smite and kill.....

A gracious word may smooth the way,

A joyous word may light the day,

A timely word may lessen stress,

A loving word may heal and bless"


(anonymous)

Animal Poison Control: Side-Stepping Tragedy

Voice of Experience- Roach Bait is Peanut-Butter Flavored and Smells Yummy to Dogs

If you're an animal lover, there's two things you might want to keep handy: the number to the National Animal Poison Control Center (University of Illinois) at 1-800-548-2423 and a bottle of ordinary 3% hydrogen peroxide like you buy at any drug store, in case you are instructed to make your animal throw up (amount depend on the dog's weight, breed and health). For some poisons, throwing up may not be the right thing to do, so call first. There is a fee for the service but they are actual on-site vets and let you make follow-up calls.

My Shelties and I tried out this service this afternoon when I returned from a meeting to discover them snacking on a package of roach baits I didn't put up high enough in the kitchen (I was going to put the baits out tonight). That's how I learned about the peanut butter thing and the peroxide.

We had a fun session in the back yard on lead tossing up whole wheat bagels soaked with peroxide and the remains of the baits. Smokey was the main culprit, a good thing since he's a heavyweight compared to my old lady Lacey. They tell me he will metabolize the poison and should be OK. I have a 24 hour watch and know the signs and symptoms to look out for. We had some animal-loving angel watching out over our household this afternoon, I'll tell you!

Better Lock Up That Wiki Cookie Jar

maltaStar.com



Student’s program sends PR chaos in Wiki-scandal

"One American student sent major corporations, governments and even the Vatican on the defensive after coming up with Wikipedia Scanner, a software program that reveals who changed Wikipedia entries.

What Virgil Griffith did was come up with a program that reveals who edits these articles, via a system where it scans the I.P address and cross-references it with the I.P. directory.

As soon as the software was launched on the internet, chaos erupted."

Everybody from the Pope to the Republican Party to the FBI got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Read the article for the extensive list.

Get An Idea Burst With These Tools, Writers

No More Hard Drive!
100 Free Software Apps to Go Online-Only



Of special interest to writers are these:

Brainstorming and Mindmapping

"Mindmapping software is great for brainstorming, organizing information hierarchically, creating advanced to-do lists, planning and much more. Unfortunately, brainstorming software can also be very expensive, and far less convenient because it can't easily be shared with other collaborators. By contrast, these webware alternatives are not only free, but also provide the added benefit of being accessible from anywhere."

1. Bubbl.us. Bubbl.us is a basic mindmapping app with an easy to use interface, is multi-lingual, and allows maps to be embedded in web pages.

2. Comapping. Comapping takes mindmapping one step further, allowing simultaneous use by multiple users.

3. Kayuda. Kayuda is a mindmapping-plus app, good for developing "campaigns". Maps are shareable and serve as navigation. Add text and details to each node.

4. Mind42. Mind42 ("Mind for two") is another collaborative mindmapping application that is a bit closer to its desktop cousins, and throws in web sticky notes as well.

5. Mindomo. Mindomo might make you forget it's a webware app in terms of interface and mindmapping functionality. It has non-real time collaborative features.

6. Mindmeister. Mindmeister offers non-real time collaboration and many of the import/ export features of Mindomo. The interface lies between Bubbl.us and Mindomo in feature quantity.

The Kindness of Stranger-Angels

My breathing has gone steadily downhill. COPD, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease does that to a body. First you can't walk quite as fast as you used to. Then not quite so far. Before you know it, you start skipping certain things you used to do because you tell yourself you just don't have the energy for it anymore. After all, we tell ourselves, we're aging. The truth is, COPD is gaining control over our very breath. And we need to start keeping up with that fact and monitoring it more carefully.

To that end I wanted to get an oximeter, a device that fits over your fingertip and measures the amount of oxygen in your blood. It tells you how well you are breathing. But the price is steep, nearly $300 US. And insurance usually will not cover it. My budget took a hit last March when one of my dogs fell gravely ill - he recovered - but the budget didn't. Buying one new was out of the question.

So I tried the FreeCycle Yahoo group. It's a marvelous program for people in your local area to recycle items rather than throw them away or sell them. I placed my carefully worded ad and got- nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, I got something: a lead to E-Bay where another FreeCycle member had found an oximeter for a more reasonable price, but still out of my range. I blessed her for contacting me however and sharing her information with me. She was my first Stranger-Angel. Her name is Laura.

Still I was without any real hope of getting what I needed. So I sent up a little peep of prayer, "Help Lord!", then went about my business. Days and weeks passed. I was blogging more and started volunteering on a newsletter for those with breathing issues. Kept me out of trouble and my mind off myself. Till one evening on StumbleUpon, a social networking site, I got this instant message.

It's my practice to acknowledge people who visit my site with a "Hi, Thanks for stopping by". I didn't know it then but I had been visited by my second Stranger-Angel. His name turned out to be Terry. And "Voila!" , he asked if I would like an oximeter. Out of the blue! By the kindness of strangers and the working of angels here on earth, God had answered my prayer through this kind-hearted man.

He had visited my blog several times because of my occasional COPD content. Both his mother and his wife had passed away of COPD within almost a year of one another. Yet through his pain he had the grace to offer a goodwill gift of such value to me, a complete stranger. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I got to see that close up this time. I am one blessed woman, with two new friends. And I'll soon have a much better handle on my breathing. So remember to be polite- you never know when you might be entertaining angels.

Guest Blog: Breathe

From CherishMe
(Aidin - 2007):

Breathe.

[sleazy, like smoke]

Breathe.

[easy, provoked]

Breathe

[cheaply, for granted]

Breathe.

[deeply, enchanted]

More on COPD For Your Viewing Pleasure

Cruised YouTube this weekend for more COPD videos and hit the Motherlode. Hope they prove helpful to you in your struggle with this disease, or will inform you about it. Here they are...

(Embedded version not available)
YouTube - COPD in the Summer

(Embedded version not available)
YouTube - Women and COPD



YouTube - Asthma COPD and Risk of Anesthesia, TIVA



YouTube - Living With COPD Part 3 Diaphragmatic Breathing



YouTube - Living With COPD Part 4 Stress Management Segment 1

One For the "Enough Said" Pile...

My sentiments exactly!

Army Dog Team Laid to Rest Together

Killed in Iraq, dog team buried together -
Military News, Army News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports -
Army Times



By Michelle Tan

"The first military working dog team killed in action together since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were laid to rest together July 18.

Cpl. Kory D. Wiens, 20, of the 94th Mine Dog Detachment, 5th Engineer Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and his partner, Cooper, were killed July 6 by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Muhammad Sath, Iraq. They had been in Iraq since January.

The cremated remains of Wiens and Cooper, a Labrador retriever, were buried together at Salt Creek Cemetery in Wiens’ hometown of Dallas, Ore., at the request of his family, said Master Sgt. Matt McHugh, the family’s casualty assistance officer.

McHugh added that based on his own research, the last military canine team to be killed together was during the Vietnam War.

“Kory referred to Cooper as his son, that’s now much of a team they were,” McHugh said.

Cooper was Wiens’ first military working dog, and Wiens was Cooper’s first handler, McHugh said."

Please read the full text of this very sad story at the link.

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I'd Be A Rich Woman...

If I had a nickel for every time I heard "But you don't LOOK sick"...

Lichtfaktor Really Shedding Some Light on Notions of Art

Color + Design Blog / Interview with LICHTFAKTOR:
Light Graffiti Artists by COLOURlovers
stairwell light graffiti





These amazing guys work with light and their surroundings instead of a paint brush and a canvas. It's challenging to think of something so ephemeral as art, but it certainly is. Thank God for film.

"The 3-man creative force behind LICHTFAKTOR is VJ sehvermoegen, graffiti artist jiar, and VJ 1"0X."

"To keep up with LICHTFAKTOR and see more of their creations, visit their Myspace profile(mostly in German) and be sure to check out their Flickr page for nearly one-hundred light creations."

Healing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Some Day Soon

Bad Memories Tied to DNA -- Lester 2007 (730): 2 -- ScienceNOW/>

In this article by Benjamin Lester:

"People haunted by traumatic memories could be missing a few amino acids, say researchers. A new study links a deletion in a neurotransmitter receptor gene to a marked increase in an individual's ability to remember emotionally charged events. The finding represents the first gene shown to play a role in emotional memory and could have implications for anxiety and other psychiatric disorders."

This may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with wide implications for victims of war and violent crime.

Crafty T-Shirt Stamping

Craft Chi » Blog Archive » Sneaker Stamps



Feeling crafty? Well stamp that T-shirt with the bottom of your sneaker! No, I'm not kidding.

The instructions tell you how to make a stencil mask and do the stamping to give yourself a unique wearable work of art. Check it out!

Phil Hansen, Internet Art Sensation

People of the Web -
Strokes of Genius by Kevin Sites

Phil Hansen

(This article features artist and Internet sensation Phil Hansen. Be sure to watch the videos on this site for an overview of his work.)

"Phil Hansen is not only tearing down the “gallery” walls that keep many people from seeing and enjoying art. He’s also showing us how it’s made -- all on the Internet.

Phil Hansen stubbornly adheres to one artistic cliche. He's willing to suffer for his art.

Take the giant portrait he made of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a protest against nuclear proliferation. He applied 6,000 adhesive bandages on a plywood backdrop. Then, using a quart-sized bag of his own blood, he painted Kim's face on the exposed gauze.

Hansen shrugs off the experience.

"Five hundred cc's of blood seems like a lot, but it's just nothing," he says from the basement of his brother's house outside St. Paul, Minnesota, where he currently lives and makes his art.

It's not the suffering that really distinguishes Hansen's work (after all, it's hard to top Van Gogh) but his style and method for displaying it. Hansen eschews galleries, preferring to take his art directly to the eyeballs rather than bringing the eyeballs to the art — through the Internet.

An art school dropout, Hansen works as an X-ray technician by day, spending all of his spare time and money on his art. But his work, and his method of presenting it, has given him a huge audience.

His breakthrough piece was a time-lapse video of a two-day project called "Influences." He painted 30 pictures on his own chest, one over the other, with each picture representing an influence in his life. When he was done, he peeled the quarter-inch thick layer of paint from his skin and cut out a silhouette of his own profile. The video was streamed more than a million times on the Web — a cyber art phenomenon in which both process and final piece were revealed.

Hansen often uses the technique of pointillism, in which the canvas is dabbed with tiny bits of color, rather than fluid brush strokes, to create a larger image.

His works often have a political stance. Several years ago, Hansen devised an image of President George W. Bush by hand-painting the names of 1,700 coalition soldiers killed from the beginning of the Iraq War until April 2005.

"They're dying for George Bush," he explains. "They're dying for an idea that he had and unfortunately it wasn't a clear idea."

Covering the entire back wall of his brother's basement is a 7 x 14 foot mural of the Ku Klux Klan, made up from thousands of verses copied from the bible and individually cut out. It's a companion piece to an image of civil rights hero Rosa Parks — also made from bible verses.

Hansen says the idea was to show the far-reaching influences of religion for both evil and good.

Hansen's commitment to his own brand of pointillism is most evident in a portrait of the so-called Green River killer, Gary Ridgeway.

He made the piece by drawing one-inch portraits of each of Ridgeway's 48 female victims in various shades of light and dark. He then photocopied the drawings and cut them out into 12,000 tiny squares which he arranged, one by one, to reveal the killer's face.

Hansen says it's about remembering the victims — women all connected by the misfortune of having crossed paths with Ridgeway. The project took four months.

The detail work has taken its toll. Hansen holds up his right hand to show me a twitch he says he's had since high school, when he was first introduced to pointillism and became obsessed with it.

Hansen created his self-portrait 'A Moment' over the course of six days, oven sitting cross-legged for up to 12 hours straight.

His latest project used the Internet to connect his viewers to the art being created. He created a ten-foot, spinning, circular canvas in his brother's garage, then moved in there himself. Taking a week off work, he spent six days straight living in front of his web cam, sleeping on the floor, eating takeout and encouraging people to call him or email him with a "moment" that changed their lives.

He got over 600 responses. People from all over the world, from the United Kingdom to Romania to Botswana, told him their personal moments: their first time acting on stage; the death of a parent without being about to say goodbye; seeing the rainforest destroyed.

Starting from the center of the canvas, Hansen then painted their words, working out to the edges until the image they had collectively created was a face — Hansen's own — bordered by four hands.

Strangely, Hansen says the jitter in his hand that has plagued him for so many years went away while he was making the piece.

-See more of Hansen's work at his Web site."

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Write That Bad Novel Your Bad Self

Want to Write a Novel Badly? Here's How!

32 Tips on Writing a Crappy Novel- or Not!

"Do you want to write a novel? Most people try to write a good novel and fail. Dare to be different. Try writing a bad novel instead. If you finish, you will have either succeeded in writing a bad novel or failed and written a good novel. It’s a win/win situation. Here’s a guide to writing an absolutely terrible novel. The path is clear. All you have to do is follow it."

I especially like rule # 22:

"Don’t start your novel with an interesting event. Take a few dozen pages to explain everything that would lead up to that interesting event. The reader will gladly hand around until you get to the point."

Homeless Solutions

Web Urbanist »Creative Urban Furniture:
Convertible, Inflatable & Portable Homeless Shelters

"Helping the homeless means more than handing out food or coins on the street. The urban landscape of most major cities is unfriendly to the homeless population. Urban centers discourage homeless people from sleeping public spaces - without necessarily providing alternatives. However, some activist artists, designers and architects have developed clever solutions to this problem."

Check out the Unfriendly Vs. the Friendly solutions to this urban problem. Pretending that the homeless don't exist doesn't make the problem go away, contrary to what many urban planners think!

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