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...

R/Co. Project: Push Project

You never know what you got until it is gone, Right?...
Since moving away from SoCal to the P.N.W. I find that to be so true when it comes to some summer time beach action. When we lived down in Venice Ca. we would be at the beach almost every Saturday and most evenings / nights after the 9-5 and thought nothing of it. Even though we now live in a state with a full west boarder that sits right up in the Pacific Ocean it is well over an hour drive to get to that coast. This sudden obsession and longing for the single fin wave sliding is just killing me. It does not help much having a wealth of online content to fill ones days with images, posts and video of others having slide time while the closest body of wetness to us is a big ol' lake or a large salty sound... that has... tides...??? Enter my other water board sliding activity that filled no swell days at the aft mentioned beach time in SoCal... Skim Boarding. I guess when the tide goes out in the sound there is several options of thin pools of funtimes waiting to be had.
When we moved I left all the boards with my brother and went north empty handed. Long story short I miss pushing around on the wet stuff so doing what we do best here at REDCROW in our garage, why not build a wave slider of sorts?
Not wanting to get to far from the real desire of Surf riding decided to build an ohmage to a little fat fish.
Did a little ruff shape'n on the ol computer.
Printed out to size and pasted it all together.

Cut it out.

Somethin To Think About...

"The fifth and final Lopez rule: The best surfer in the water is the guy having the most fun..."
 Gerry Lopez.   
"Surf is where you find it"


I think this relates to a lot of things in life. At times it is so easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing or what they might think. It is also very easy to get caught up in trying to "be the Best"and out do or better what others have done....I know I fall victim to all of this at times as I am building things, it kind of sits in the back of the head, especially when something is not perfect or not working out quite the way I would like.... Really we should just go out do our thing, whatever that may be, and have a blast doing it, living in the now and not worrying so much about who it's going to impress.  Just enjoy the act of doing, and building. Everything will fall into place as it should. And oddly enough it will show in the product, be it art, fashion, or catching a glassy wave.  Remember it is all in your perspective and how you look at each situation. At the end of the day it is up to you and no one else on what you are going to do with the hand that is delt. Only you can 'make it FUN!'

Have a good week.

Cheers.

R/Co. Project: The Start of Something.

Started work'n some raw materials for a new project in the works.
More later. What is it? Well some rawness for sure!

Back to it.

Cheers.

Take a Trip.

Hopefully soon the little family and I are all going to pile into the toyota packed with our goodies and gear and head out for the first camping trip since moving to the Great Pacific Northwest a while ago. Being in the P.N.W. there are quite a few options around to just pull up and enjoy nature and all it's beauty. It has been almost a full year since we went out as a family and spent some time away, just our family. Last time was a few day stay over on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound.

I recently went back and took a peak at the foto's that I shot while out there. It got me stoked to go out and have another adventure. Since I did not post them all before I am just going to load them all up for all to see. Enjoy....

Somethin To Think About...

"If any of you who read this aspire to a writing or illustrating career (*or design or music or fotography or surfing or skating or bmx or anything else in this short but wonderful life) and are looking for guidance, I offer only these few words of advice:
Read everything. Experience everything.
Get to know and like yourself. Build up your own history, then
WORK
WORK
WORK
Persistence is always rewarded and I devoutly hope that it rewards you."

Jim Flora,
Artist, Illustrator, Writer. The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora, By Irwin Chusid & Jim Flora

*My own addition to the quote...

R/Co. Project: Hanger

For some reason I am just never satisfied with what you can go out and buy so like most things pertaining to what we are doing with REDCROW it is only natural that instead of using readily available hangers I had to go off and build some....

A long piece of 3/4" thick wood, a skil saw, a wood rasp, sandpaper and not enough time on my hands and we are ready to go to work late into the night...

Have this old wooden hanger that I like so decided to start there for a pattern to build from. Of course made a few modifications to fit what I was after.

Sketched it out on a scrap of Oak Tag and was ready to go.
Lay out the pattern on the wood.

Happy 4TH!!

Hope it was a good one for ya!

Cheers.

R/Co Project: Trouser Bag.

When I finally get around to building things, plan on put'n the ol' trousers in a nice bag for folks.