Moving house and home this week. Super excited for the next chapter...
Seattle Magazine hits news stands this week...
Also It has been quite a long while since I have posted up any Internet findings over on the weekenders....
Oh, and if you are not familiar with Forestbound you need to go over and check out her goods! Girl has skill and builds some really nice bags.

'Keep 'em Flying'

Cheers.

Somethin' To Think About...

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
-Ayn Rand

R/Co. Project: Wood Block Layout pt2.

Finished up the wood block the other day. Quite pleased with how it turned out.

Still messing around with the right consistency of ink for printing on fabric, more on that later.

Cheers.

R/Co. Press: Seattle Magazine.

REDCROW & Littlecrow Seattle Magazine Sep. 2010.
Photo: Howard Petrella

 Our first little bit of press. Not too shabby if you ask me. The boys were a little crazy that day since we did a little local TV show action in the morning then headed out to Sea Mag office for the September issue shoot that afternoon. Good times!
To see a little interview pop on over here and scroll down to the bottom. Don't forget to watch me make a fool of myself by checking out the video while you are there....

Cheers.

A little here and a little there....

Cheers.

Somethin To Think About...

"If you can't keep up, how are you going to catch up?"
Dan Hinkley, 
on discussing the need to really learn all you can about what is involved in going into business on your own, before a total commitment.

On The Move.

The family and I have started to out grow our current abode, so a few weeks back the significant other, Mrs.P, found us a new spot to hang our hats. I of course just wanted to know if it had a suitable garage space for the studio... Alas it does not.... It has something better, a SHED! So last week the landlord (we're still renting) had the electrician put in some electrical outlets and an overhead light! It will be a little cozy moving from a 2 car garage to a 9"x7"(2.7432m/2.1336m) wood shed out in the back garden but it is just awesome! So Excited!
I am not sure how all of the fabrics, machines, patterns, paints, etc. are going to fit but it will be a good excuse to clean out some boxes of goods and really organize the mess of a workspace that I putter around in now.

I know it does not look like much now but it will be fun to watch it take on a life of it's own as I move in and get set up and back to work and give it an R/Co make over. Stay tuned.

Still have heaps to do to get ready for the show in Sep. along with Packing up the house and garage, and making some tweaks on the side project that I have been working on for some good folks back east. Also need to get onto turning in an application for some holiday craft fair coming up in Dec. So back to it....

'Keep 'em Flying'
Cheers.

R/Co. Project: Wood Block Layout.

As a winner of the SeaMags Design Competition I get to be part of this years Fashion First Runway Show in Sep. So doing some work on building out a small collection for the show. One of the pieces I plan to do some block printing and print my own fabric. More on what it is going to be used on later. But here is a peek at the layout that I worked up

and transferred onto the wood using the "photo copy" transfer method.

Now go wreck something of your own....
Cheers.

Northwest Railway Musuem Pt1.

A while back the significant other and I decided to take the two wee ones ones on a little adventure to ride the old rickety rails up in Snoqualmie WA. usa, at the Northwest Railway Museum.  It was wet and fun and very, very rickety.... But filled with rundown history of the rails.

Shot heaps of images with the ol photo shooter and got way stoked on all the amzing worn out box cars, steam and diesel engines along with heaps of great logoing and number 2s (have a thing for the number 2, well 22 to be exact) and since I am way beyond busy with trying to tackle life head on will just do a few post filled with images of the adventure of the past. Who dose not get a little excited when he hears the shrill cry of a train whistle in the distance or the rumble of the monster engine as it passes by???!!! I would not call myself a fanatic but a fan for sure.

A Few Pages

A short while back put together a little layout of some images and graphics for a little booklet hand out.

There were a few copies that I did on hand tea dyed heavyweight drawing paper but they kept jaming the printer so had to go back to the nice color copy paper.

My significant other took charge and put the booklet together by sewing a piece of red string through a few holes she popped through with an awl.

I have been meaning to do a downloadable PDF of the layout. Hope to do it soon when I get some time to build out the actual redcrowgoods.com site. Soon, I will do that soon. Till then I have some new patterns I got to go hack at.

"keep em Flying"

Cheers.

R/Co. Project: Hand Carved Toggle N' Button

I thought I had already posted up the little segment on carving some buttons & toggle out of a wooden dowel... Guess not so here it is.
Get a nice dowel, in this case a 3/4"(19.05mm)

Measure it out on the dowel how thick you want your buttons to be.
Mark it off.

Then cut along the line.

I decided I wanted to do a rim around the edge so marked it off.

Clamped her down..

and got out the rotary tool with the super small carving bit and went to town.

didn't like how it turned out though. so didn't do the rest of 'em.
Instead just got out the sand paper and smooth out the edges and give it some shape.

Next mesured out the length of the toggle and cut.
Note the extra lines, that is were I wanted to taper out to zero when shaping the toggle.

did most of the work with a medium grit sandpaper on a sanding block.

When got the shape I wanted..

marked where holes will go and drilled it out.

The final touch is adding some wood stain and wiping them down.
Note the additional shaping on the toggle that is so when it is threaded it will not stick out so far.

Attached to garment ready for some use...

 Good times!
I know that you could just go to any old fabric shop, even walmart and get a wooden toggle but they are just so mass produced....

Back to it.

Cheers.

R/Co. Project: Shawl Fleece.

 In most of this good 'ol USA it is rost'n and toast'n so a cold weather piece is not something on the mind, but the cold will be upon us again soon so a short while back decided to built a poly cotton jersey fleece shawl neck with a chest pocket and two side seam pockets (can't stand when fleece does not have hand pockets) for when that chill comes creeping back. Also used some hand carved wooden toggle and button that I built out of a wood dowel that was laying around. The Fit turned out a little slimmer than I would like but for a first go I think it's not to shabby. Helped REDCROW be one of winners of this years Seattle Magazine's  Seamless in Seattle design competition.

 More details when you...