Motion Picture: The German

The German from Nick Ryan on Vimeo.

A fine example of Motion Picture making. Please enjoy and if you like what you see go on over to Nick Ryan's Vimeo site for more of his magic making. I am a fan for sure.

Hope your week is going well and only gets better.
We are in the single digits till Christmas! The month is almost over, wait, the year is almost over!!!

Well back to it...

Cheers,
'MrRay'

Button Options

A collections of buttons that caught my fancy a while back while digging through my collection of old buttons that have been picked up over the years...
Wood, Metal, Coconut, Shell, Plastic, and Bone.
A little self portrait in pen and ink for sum fun.

Hope your week is going in the right direction and that your projects are coming together.
Back to it...
>>>--"Keep On Crow'N--->
Cheers,
'MrRay'

Wooden iPhone 5

Working on a few projects right now and one of them involves the I phone 5, which I do not currently have in my possession. Not sure when or if ever...

So like most things around here if I don't have it might as well make it, and make it out of wood. Jumped on the 'ol intro-net thing surfed around for a few and gots me the dimensions of the #5 and went to town on some old wooden fencing. A little elbow grease and we have a fine example of a modern convenience without all of the convenience and technologies. No calls, no web surf'n, no instagram. just wood.

More on the purpose later.
Well back to it... Hope your week has been productive and positive....
 If you are back east "god's speed" and we have you in our thoughts and wish you well.
>>>--"Keep On Crow'N--->
 Cheers,
'MrRay'

Inspiration: 1930's Japanese Wood Block Prints

Before I moved our family back south I really started to get into print making, even was set up to take a few classes at the local community art center. Funny how many things were available to the community up in the Evergreen state, in the Great Pacific Northwest, that I can not find here in SoCal. That is another story...
I am really interested in relief printing (block printing, lino cuts, etc.) Recently I stumbled upon a wonderful site that shares "100 Views of New Tokyo," 1928–1932, a subscription series by 8 Artists. 
It is really quite a wonderful web page. I really like how detailed some of them are and how simplistic others are. Here are a few of my favorites.

I recently picked up a few really good books from Amazon that show techniques for print making / woodcuts / wood etching.
Here is the list of goods picked up.

The Woodcut Artist's Handbook 

Japanese Woodblock Printing. Highly recommend this one if you like Japanese style woodcuts.

Print Workshop: Hand-Printing Techniques and Truly Original Projects

Angie Lewin: Plants and Places  This one is work form an amazing print maker out of England, Angie Lewin. More on her later.

Well time to go finish setting up my new shop space in the garage in SoCal.
So I can actually mess around with doing some prints myself. I am getting antsy to be getting back to building goods.


What are you stoked on right now?


"Keep 'em Flying"
Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'

R/Co. Project: Piston Tee.

 Huh, summer sure did come and go...
Been super super busy with all sorts of projects and recent travels including a quick jot down south to the 'ol home town of LA. ( more on that later) So needles to say I am way behind on sharing all the goods that have been built over the last few months. Such as this here tee...

At the beginning of summer built this graphic tee. All hand cut from stencils and hand sprayed to apply the ol' grafx.... Fun times.

A little detail of the back graphic.

If anyone out there is interested in one hit me up and I will pass it along.

So what have you been up to?

Cheers!

R/Co. Project: Wood Block Printing

 Time is fast approaching for the runway show so instead of packing snuck in a late night fabric printing test run with the compleated wood block.

The collection of goods that I am planning to send down the runway involves headwear that is built from a nice washed out navy canvas so I want the print to match back to that color. I do not have navy ink so did it the old fashioned way and just mix it up by hand.

 Got out some fabric screen printing ink that I have been meaning to use, eye balled it and went for it. A little blue, a dollop of black, a touch of red, some more blue and a touch more black and.... looks good to me (for some reason color theory dose not click in my head but if I just mess with it for a bit it somehow works out)

The hardest part about block printing fabric is getting a nice transfer onto the fabric. Smaller blocks seam to do better but that is not what we are going for here so...

Laid out some ink onto a large plate glass and rolled the brayer through it and gave the block a nice good coat of ink.

R/Co. Project:Arange Them Dots

A long while back put a hole punch to some card stock and built a stencil and did heaps of experiments to try and get a bandanna, something that I have wanted to build for a long time. Tried the wax, tried the paint and well nothing was quite right... well instead of trying to do resist style why not try the remove the color instead?

Took the stencil gave it a coat of enamel to help it not fall apart so fast.

Arts: Cynthia Meyer.

Just stumbled upon the work of Cynthia Meyer. This is what she has to say about her work.


"As far as subject matter, what interests me most right now is the parts of California that are disappearing. Bungalow courts demolished, water tanks torn down, even the cottage down the street won’t be the same when it’s been scrubbed clean and redecorated. And good classic things, like a beloved vintage bike or a favorite pair of sneakers. I worry that all of the things that have been used and loved and lived in are going away. So I paint them."


To learn more about here and to see some of her work check it out here.

Cheers.