Pattern Blocks

Friday, April 7th, 2023

Studying ways to make medium hexagons. I bought two new different types of pattern blocks.

What I like about 21st Century Pattern Blocks:

new shapes

What I don’t like about 21st Century Pattern Blocks:

too many of the same old shape included (they are supposed to be new shapes!), not real wood, not as thick

What I like about Upscale Pattern Blocks:

same shapes, scaled UP!

What I don’t like about Upscale Pattern Blocks:

too many of the same old size included (they are supposed to be bigger sizes!), not real wood, not as thick

 

Pattern Blocks

Sunday, April 2nd, 2023

The floor is slippery, so we tried working on yoga mats.

Yoga mats are ugly.

 

 

If you spend any time looking at this (I don’t blame you if you don’t),

you can see that we started off with a spiral again.

It is not quite as uterine as the last one.

Pattern Blocks

Thursday, March 30th, 2023

We were trying to make a spiral, but the spirals always straighten out in the end.

This one reminds me of a uterus.

 

Pattern Blocks

Wednesday, March 29th, 2023

If an adult asked you to look at their coloring book,

what would it take for you to humor them and do so?

 

 

Pattern Blocks

Sunday, March 26th, 2023

Some adults like coloring. I prefer patterning.

This is the largest symmetrical pattern we can make with out pattern blocks.

 

 

Waterville Water Park (B&W Alternative)

Saturday, June 25th, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Violin

Wednesday, March 30th, 2022

Interview with a Mason

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021

Iris needed to interview someone about their profession then write up and illustrate the interview for school.

Here is Papi Gabi Fournier building a house. He is very good!

 

 

 

 

Here is the text of the interview. It says something to the effect of:

Papi worked as a mason for 40 years. He worked really hard.

He did not work [as a mason] in the winters, and he does not have a favorite color of brick.

 

 

 

 

 

The Tea Party Doll Dress

Saturday, February 15th, 2020

I don’t make many dolls anymore. Despite this, I got the itch to make a new style of doll dress. The pattern company Oliver + S has a cute little dress pattern for 18-inch dolls called “The Tea Party Doll Dress.” My dolls are neither 18 inches nor do they have the proportions of an 18-inch doll, but the style is adorable! I decided to alter the pattern to fit my dolls.

 

 

 

The problem with my dolls is that, unlike a factory-produced doll, they are all a bit different. I therefore have to make a dress for the largest potential doll I might make using my current pattern & let it have more wiggle-room on the smaller dolls. To alter the pattern correctly, I used my favorite method: trial & error.

 

 

 

The first dress I made, using the very last scraps of some lovely polka-dot fabric and a few tiny scraps of batik, turned out to be to small for any of my current, chubbier dolls, but it fits Iris’s doll Peggy quite nicely. Peggy is a beloved doll with a shock of orange hair. She accompanied Iris through the trauma of kindergarten and will forever be the doll I hold closest to my heart.

 

 

 

The second dress I made uses the very last scraps of an aqua batik that I used on a dress I designed for Iris, plus some scraps of an orange batik that I found in my large bin of tiny batik scraps. It fits my current, more full-bodied dolls quite well.

 

 

 

After a few weeks of agonizing over design and fabrics, sewing into the wee hours of the night, and ignoring my children in the name of entertaining them (don’t ponder the conflict of interest: art should not be reasoned out too much), I ended up with two lovely little dresses.

 

 

 

Most likely, I will never make this dress again. The true art is in the design. Production is mere craft.

 

 

 

Akiva was jealous that I was taking a lot of photos of Iris. Here’s one of you, too, Akiva!

 

     

Portraits of Iris & Akiva (Watercolor)

Tuesday, October 29th, 2019

Dan came to visit! We don’t have any photos of him because I’m going through a camera-lazy phase, but I did manage to take some photos of artwork produced during his visit. Iris sat first for a portrait (the date on the portrait is incorrect), & then Akiva sat in the same location. Iris, being older, sat for quite some time. Akiva’s ability to sit is a bit wigglier and thus he sat for a much shorter duration of time, but nonetheless he managed to get two portraits painted of himself.

 

Iris on the couch, illustrated by Danβ€”

 

 

 

Akiva on the couch, illustrated by Danβ€”

 

 

 

Akiva on the couch, illustrated by Irisβ€”