The Loch Ness Monster Message Holder & An Etsy Treasury

I just completed this guy, he came out pretty cute ( in my opinion):



I added a pocket at the bottom for messages



You can see imgs of that in the listing,

Loch Ness Monster Message Holder on Etsy


But I think I'm starting to get sick again :( (I started off the month sick and I'm ending it sick too!). Also, my internet is SOOO SLOW right now so it's probably a sign that I should curl up with this,

A vintage find, print date says 1943

The description is pretty funny, also I love the reminder for sending "a boy in the armed forces" a book

Oh and also, here's the latest Etsy Treasury I was featured in :),

"It Tops The Cake" by OWDJewelry

More Papercuts / Attempted banner

"Maybe I'll continue with it?"
- I should have said "Yeah, ok, I'm kinda obsessed now."

Here is a little friend I made,




I thought I'd try him out as a banner but stylistically, I think it's a little too strong to be an opening banner for a primarily "picture blog".

He looks angry that he's not the banner.

I like this one but it'll need some work, it's getting worked on as a logo as well:

Transitional till I do some tweaking

And I leave you with this adorable mv by Elizabeth & the Catapult - "Perfectly Perfect". I love the quirky song, the stop motion style videography, the vintage toys, the meta-ness of the doll house and dark undertone.

Another Papercut & A Lot Of Snow

I decided to make a "creature" that I had conceptualized a few years ago, a skeletal butterfly. If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of obsessed with bones and the idea of them. I still love the idea of making one out of real bones but till then, paper cuts are fun and faster than sewing. I plan on doing some photo compositions with the finished piece but I took a snapshot this morning since I'll have to set it aside to finish some other projects. Here it is:

The loops are meant to be rib bones. I want to make other variations when I find time too.

And yes, there's a lot of snow behind that butterfly. Quite a bit came down last night.
This is a shot from the morning,



and one from the afternoon when the sun finally decided to show it's face,
 

 and "Yes," the banner is different again. We'll see how long I keep it- but it's def more visible than the first version.

Paper Cutting- banner & cards

So as part of my attempt to tart up the blog a little bit, I tried out some designs for banners. I didn't necessarily want to use doll imagery so I decided to start with paper. I love paper, love it. I practically hoard it but I don't have a lot of experience in paper cutting. I've helped my sisters with school projects, but those were more along the lines of chunkier "SouthPark"ish construction paper shapes.

I took the opportunity to recycle some book pages I had previously set aside. I cut out the letters and decided that before I glued them anywhere, I would play around with them first.

Kind of hard to read, yeah. But fun, no?

I pinned them to paper to play with shadows.

Both words once I finished the cutting

In the morning, I wedged some rocks in there.

Still not that easy to decipher but I like the look overall.

And of course once I got cutting, I tried out some shapes,

Excuse the stars, I'm using big, clumsy scissors for this.

I had been considering making cards/postcards available for sale in my shop (mostly composed photographs) but I'm also considering some cutout scans/ collages. I tried out a design from an old sketch,

Possible future Valentine's Day card characters?

Maybe I'll continue with it?

And of course, I'm still not fully decided on the banner itself but I'll try some other designs. In the meantime, I'm using one of the more legible first attempts.

In Progress: Koi

Ok, so when I say "in progress" for this, I mean the koi doll part is finished but that it will probably be part of something else.



My thinking right now? Bag accessory. This is subject to change but I've been wanting to make several bag accessory sketches come to life and this is one that involved the needlework I've been diving into so it was a natural first choice.



I have some gold hardware for this but I'll have to go shopping for some connecting pieces.



If I don't find the right ones for this particular fish, it'll live another life as a regular doll or scenic piece.

Etsy Updates

Presale has closed for the previous birds. White w/ flowers has sold but I decided to alter the pink w/ hearts at the last minute (sorry!). It will be available on Etsy at the beginning of next week. I'll announce it.

In the meantime I listed a felt fox, "Foxy Fox" on Etsy

I had to rush through the pictures, they're on the lazy side but believe that she is very stylish and creamy.

A detail shot of the now *sold* white bird.

Tail shot of the white bird.

And I was featured in a couple of very sweet treasuries:

"GREEN TO BLUE FASHION!" by mammamiaeme

"All my leetle friends....." by moosegirlmaria

I have a completed *portion* of a new project I'm working on so another post will be coming up soon.

Valentine's Day Sneakpeek/ Presale

Before I make listings for these birds (and other goods) in my shop, I'm offering them for presale here on a first come, first serve basis. They will be listed on Saturday (1/22) on Etsy and will be a slightly higher price to reflect fees (so get them now hehe).

White bird w/ flowers: 64 + shipping SOLD
Pink bird w/ hearts: *must now be purchased via etsy at a later date*


Shipping is  $3.5 u.s.a.   |    $4.5 international
Payment must be made via PayPal or personal check. Shipping within 3 days of cleared payment.
Please direct questions and orders to: crystalasuh@gmail.com

Obligatory New Years Post, 13 Days Late

Happy New Year!
You're over it already? Sorry.

I went home to Philadelphia for Christmas but got snowed in and spent 4 extra days there. With no creative outlets for a week, I lost my mojo. I made it through a hellish ride back to NY that lasted an extra 3 hours (I get very, very motion sick on bus rides and spent two days recovering), exchanged some awesome presents, seriously brainstormed, thought about my New Years Post, dove into finishing some things I started before I left and then caught the flu- the likes of which I had not suffered since I was a kid.
The past week I was achy, weak, had a constant headache, slept the days away and watched A LOT of movies (most of which I can't even remember). By the end of it, I could have sworn it was going to be warm out, Springtime, verdant and lovely- no dice.
It's ok though, there is a lot to be done before Spring and while I've never been a "resolution" person, I'm going to share them anyway, or at least the general ideas (my actual list is compiled of incoherent word strings).
I think these are pretty good fundamentals so hopefully I'll stick to them.

THE LIST

GET "WITH IT"- Prepare for holidays in a timely manner. Participate in the "craft culture". Promote friends, promote myself. I spent several rushed December days trying to make things for the holiday when the ball should have been rolling in November. The mere idea of even participating in a show didn't strike me until early December.
I'm not remorseful though, this year took a lot of soul-searching and research.  Time to implicate it now.

WEBSTUFF- Oh, I've been wanting to have a new website for a long while now but it was never the right time and I didn't have enough content. I made one a very long time ago for a digital art class [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cas361/ if you're curious but it is officially defunct] but I can't access it anymore and now I've actually got some work to show. It's very different from any site I would design now and was rushed due to class requirements so it's time to make something nice. 
And yes, I also want to stylize this blog because it's probably the most boring looking "art blog" you've ever seen.


GET CONCEPTUAL- I have a lot of concepts in my sketchbooks- A LOT and while I don't consider myself a genius, I barely touch upon ideas that could be very interesting (at least for me to make).
Being commercially viable and popular has (in the past) felt like a completely different monster from the things I'll actually produce, these deeper meaning ideas are also much more time consuming to execute but I'm realizing more and more I'll never get over my "weirdness" about making dolls, or shyness about considering it "art" without chalking it up and devoting some time to depth.

EXPLORE MORE MEDIUMS- Paper clay, paper, more drawing, more painting, getting back into metal, design fabric; as well as making prints, postcards and other media. I'm not going to cut out sewing but there is definite room for expansion and enhancement. Implicating more mediums will also help illustrate all those ideas I was talking about before.

All of these things are kind of related and build upon each other. They are all based upon developing craft but also interacting with others and I hope to do both. We'll see.


For now, here are the latest additions to my Etsy Shop:





Black Thumb Terrarium- Succulent No. 1


Black Thumb Terrarium- One Tree No. 1


Black Thumb Terrarium- Succulent No. 2




 
Black Thumb Terrarium- 1 Tree No. 3

And I also added a giraffe I made a while ago but am listing for the first time:


href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystalsuh/5352256818/" title="baby giraffe by crystal A suh, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5208/5352256818_e7d635cc16.jpg" width="400" height="399" alt="baby giraffe" />

6 Inch Baby Giraffe