the broach

this is a hat pin. if you don’t know what a hat pin is, then that makes the two of us. I guess it’s something you put on your hat. Maybe it’s something to keep your hat in place.

I grew up with this thing as the price of my mothers jewelry collection. I can’t remember her ever using it, but I was deeply fascinated by it. I thing this fascination stemmed from the fact that it kind of looked like a fancy wand.

I was never allowed to play with it, for good reason, but it still fascinates me to this day.

train stories

 My daily comute to and from work varies from 30 mintes to two hours on any given, so I usually have allot of time to just sit around.

One would thing this would give me ample time to draw and be creative, but since I mostly ride the train, I never seem to get around to it.

I think it’s the combination of a bumpy ride combined with the fact that IU love sitting by the window listening to musc and watching the world fly by, that makes drawing a chore.

Still, there are days like yesterday, where I broke my “no drawing” rule.

I sat next to a family of three (two kids and a mother). The mother had chosen to spread the belongings of this entire family all over the table we shares, to the point that I did not even have room for my hat. Honestly, I was kind of annoyed with her, but because I had to sit there for two and a half hours I didn’t say anything.

About 1 hour into the trip, the daughter, who I sat next to, Decided to further clutter the table, by bringing out her art supplies.

It’s not like she was painting in the middle of the train car, it was only a block and a couple of markers, but as she drew I decided to take up the chalenge and duplicate her drawing.

She would draw something and I would draw the same thing, but in my style.

This game became kind of fun as she would keep up switching the drawing up and I would be forced to redraw and re-think decisions I had made.

She didn’t notice me at first, which was the most fun. eventually though, she realized what I was doing, got self-conscious and stopped.

Luckily at that time I had plenty of material to work from, so I spend the rest of the trip drawing.

the Christmas bazaar

Every years at the design-school that I attend (Kolding school of design in Denmark) we have a Christmas Bazaar. The arrangement it quite simple, for a small fee you are able to put up a stand in the middle of the cantina and sell your goods to unsuspecting civilians. For most of my fellow students this is an opportunity to hone their skills and maybe make some money, for me it is a desperate attempt to keep my apartment.I am quite broke. Actually broke might be putting it lightly, as I am completely out of money and have no new prospects on my horizon. So the Christmas bazaar is kind of a big deal for me.

The attendees at this event rarely vary; it is a mix of 50+ grandmothers and 30+ mothers who have dragged their families along.

Needless to say, the audience for this thing is prominently female.

I had this in mind last year when I made handbags, teddy-bears and postcards. I thought I had cracked the code to easy money.

Well, It turned out that I was not the only person who had come up with these ideas. As a mater of fact the Christmas bazaar last year was filled with people who had had roughly the same idea as me and were much more skilled than I am. So, needless to say, my booth did not all that well last year.

That is why I have decided to go in another direction this year.

I am going macho… or well as macho as I am able to go.

I have decided to create a number of Christmas tree ornaments designed like guns (why? Just because) and a batman paper doll. I figure if nothing else, plus I plan to give these things away practically for free, so I might have a shot this year.