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Writer's Guild Featured!

The St. Louis Catholic Writer's Guild was featured in the St. Louis Review, a publication of the Archdiocese of St. Louis!

Yes, I know, you're wondering what I'm doing at a Writer's Guild. I'm an artist, right? Well, writing is still one of my passions (I wrote a novel when I was 13! It's absolutely horrible!). I do a lot of writing, although I rarely post it online-- multiple essays and articles each week, along with fiction stories written with friends-- and I would do much more if I didn't set artwork as a higher priority during my free time! However, the Guild is not just for writers. We've had wonderful discussions on the role of faith in any creative outlet and since I'm wanting to study graphic design in college, I enjoy listening to them talk about the publishing process.

So, once every two months I drag two of my friends down to this cute coffee shop for the Writer's Guild meetings! We're the youngest, but that just means that we get to learn from everyone else's experiences! Unfortunately I haven't been able to attend as often as I would like (things like SAT exams and visits with my cousins always seem to happen on the same day as the meetings). The reporter attended the July meeting and spoke with everyone in attendance.

She then called me for an interview since there was not a lot of time at the actual meeting, and she was so sweet that my nerves calmed down pretty quickly.

(I have a very hard time understanding people when I can't read their lips and body movements, or at least know what color their shirt is-- yes, that's a little weird, but... yeah. When my cell rang with an unknown number and I realized it was her, my heart starting doing a little giddy dance. I just knew that I would flounder and ask her to repeat herself a million and one times. However, she was really easy to talk to!)

I was worried that I'd sound strange in the article; after all, talking to someone on the phone doesn't give you a ton of time to plan out what you're going to say! But it's a neat piece and I am so honored and humbled to be a part of the Writer's Guild and that we were featured in this newspaper!

They asked me to bring some artwork to the meeting, and the photographer snapped several pictures. Then, they went and printed my Phoenix painting full-page! I'm honored, humbled, and a little overwhelmed about that!

The only thing is that there were only three of us who were really featured; there are several more people in the guild and they are all really nice and great writers.

I just wanted to say thanks to Ms. Brinker for writing the wonderful article (which you can read online right here), and I hope that more people will find out about the Guild and join in the fun!

There are a few shout-outs in the article, so here are the links: A Plan for Joy in the Home by Laura Dominick, Regina Doman's awesome fairytale-retold YA novels, Mater et Magistra magazine, Gilbert Magazine, and Ink and Fairydust. And, of course, the St. Louis Catholic Writer's Guild and the St. Louis Review newspaper.

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Speaking of Gilbert (which is an awesome magazine, by the way), I don't think I ever shared the second Chesterton doodle that I drew at the Chesterton Conference and which they published! G.K. just looks like the perfect kind of guy to be riding a unicycle, doesn't he?

(The first doodle is here)

Ear Cuffs: The Bow Tie Technique

Bow ties are cool.

(I'm not going to stop quoting the Doctor until things stop reminding me of the Doctor. I should have made this cuff out of blue wire, then I could have called it the TARDIS Ear Cuff!)

In case you haven't heard of ear cuffs before, they are basically jewelry for your ears that don't require piercings! They are comfier than clip-on or screw-back earrings, and they can range from elegant to funky. You can see a few here on my Shoppe.

Whenever I have a smidge of free time, I'll head to the craft room to tinker. I've been experimenting with different kinds of ear cuffs, and thought I'd share some behind-the-scenes photos! I've got three new techniques and variations figured out already. These posts aren't going to be full tutorials, but hopefully they will inspire you to do some creative tinkering of your own!

Before you go any farther, you'll need to check out the basic ear cuff tutorial and the swirly ear cuff tutorial. You need to be able to make both of those designs with a decent amount of ease before you tackle this not-TARDIS ear cuff.

You'll need:

- 6 inches of 18 ga wire

- needle-nose pliers

-flat-nose pliers

- (optional) 24 ga wire and beads

Cut 6 inches of wire

And create a double-loop bow-tie with your pliers. Use the bottom of your pliers, the widest part, to create the loops. The overlap from both ends should be on the same side.

Experiment with the placement of the bow-tie. The ear cuff will look really different depending on how long those ends of the wire are.

(I did mention that this is not a full tutorial, right? You're on your own to figure out how to make the loops. It should take less than 5 minutes of playing with the wire to get the hang of it, though, it's really easy).

Take the loose end of the wire on the top of the ear cuff and fold it over along the backside of the bow tie.

Fold the other loose end of the wire (in this case, the 'other loose end' is very clear because it's longer) up along the backside of the bow tie.

(Optional) Fold that same end (in this case, the long length of wire) back down across the front of the bow tie.

If you leave the end of the wire sticking up, the ear cuff will climb up and down the length of your ear. The ear cuff I'm making in this semi-tutorial is only going to climb down the ear.

Now you've made the knot to tie the bow tie up nice and snug; just use some flat-nose pliers to flatten that knot so it's more comfortable.

Ta-da!

Next, wrap the bow-tie around a marker and tweak it with pliers to make the bow-tie grip your ear comfortably. (The how-to for this step is found in the basic ear cuff tutorial.)

Next, use needle-nose pliers to swirl the ends of the wire however you would like! (a la the instructions I gave in the swirly ear cuff tutorial).

Note that the knot sits on the outside of your ear. The swirls are the only thing that determine which ear the ear cuff belongs on-- unlike the swirly ear cuff, which has to be designed from the start with either the left or the right ear in mind.

Here's a nearly identical one on my ear; you can see that I added a small brown bead to the top swirl and I made the bottom swirl pointier.

You can also take thin 24 ga wire and use that to wrap coils, loops, and beads onto the ear cuff. In this photo, I let the ear cuff 'climb' both up and down my ear.

Voila! Hip hip hooray and happy day! You have a bow tie ear cuff, and bow ties are cool!

(As always, please be sure to reference me if you use this technique in making your own ear cuffs. Thanks!)

Why Unicycling Should Be An Olympic Sport

photo illustration by yours truly

Today I interrupt your ordinary arts-and-crafts posts to say, "UNICYCLING SHOULD TOTALLY BE AN OLYMPIC SPORT! While I love the fact that unicycling is very unique I certainly wouldn't mind it becoming popular and having talented athletes explore the depths of what can be done on one wheel.

I've been bit by the Olympic spirit, having watched every gymnastics event with my little gymnast sister. So of course I was thinking about it yesterday while riding on a hiking trail. I can barely ride my unicycle backwards, but recently I've been looking at videos of some impressive athletes who do spectacular things on one wheel. Unicycling could totally be an Olympic sport, and this is why...

Reason 1) Unicycles are awesome.

Reason 2) Unicycling is challenging, rewarding, and a very diverse sport. It's still a young sport-- it wasn't taken seriously by athletes outside of circuses until recently-- but already there are unicycling events that mimic (and often 'branch out' to the point where they only borrow a few concepts of) a wide variety of events such as trials biking, mountain biking, freestyle skateboarding, dancing, ice skating, hockey, racing, and slacklining. Plus, you have the typical unicycle tricks that people think of, like juggling while riding a giraffe uni.

Reason 3) THIS:

(extreme off road riding)

(beautiful dance, like ice skating...)

(street)

(cool show with a violin)

(another dance, and a favorite song)

(WHAT IN THE WORLD AND HOW DOES HE DO THAT?)

(crazy circus tricks)

(Can you tell I'm fond of the dancing? This starts getting totally awesome around halfways through).

That is all.

French Revolution Gown Photoshoot

One day I was visiting with a long-missed friend, and forty-five minutes before she had to leave we did a photoshoot of her in her gorgeous French Revolution style gown. My papa's loaning me his amazingly awesome SLR camera and this was the first photoshoot I did with it. Here's a sampling of pictures:

Just look at the gorgeous details on this gown! I remember her showing me the fabric rolls before starting the sewing project and sighing a little bit inside when I felt the silkiness of the silk (um, no pun intended?) and the detail of that lace.

We tried out best to avoid the poison oak in the woods. Actually, I'm used to just tramping through the stuff (I've only reacted to poison ivy). Maneuvering through the poison oak and thorn bushes in a big skirt... it's not an easy task!

Everything was so much greener before the drought. :/

These two are some of my favorites, although technically they are not the best. I'm still getting used to SLR cameras and in neither photo was the focus completely on her face!

She's a very joyful young woman, don't you think? :D

This unedited shot simply had to be shared... I accidentally let go of a branch and it swung into the frame!

Thank you so much for letting me share a few pictures from your photoshoot, dear friend!

School Artwork

By this time, most of you have already begun the school year. I was going through my assignments from last year so that Mom could send in my transcript, and realized that I did a lot of doodling. In the spirit of being bored during class (yes, it does occasionally happen to homeschoolers!), I present...

*great fanfare*

Random doodles from junior year!

Really, there are tons more. I just didn't bother to unearth them or else this would be a very long post.

I got to watch Disney's Beauty and the Beast for school! Since I was continuously pausing it to take notes for my research paper, I couldn't pass up the chance to do some minute sketches. And yes, I was using a fountain pen to take my notes. Fountain pens are fun. They help me think.

The grumpy Ebeneezer in the right hand drawing is angrily saying my rather ludicrous German assignment (I had to translate "I do not like to play." I mean, come one! Who would ever say that?)

Why yes, I draw pictures that are hanging on the dentist's wall in my notebooks. I'm sure I'm not the only one who 1) does schoolwork in dentist waiting room and 2) freaks out the receptionist by starting directly above her head to draw a painting.