Fur, Foam, Fabric

My craft room is stuffed to the gills with fake furs, foam, and fabric. I have been making puppets for a little over two years now and it is a totally nerdy hobby. I avoid telling people about it because I am usually labeled as the crazy puppet lady. Most people think of scary marionettes that come to life at night. Don't worry. Mine skew more towards the Muppet end of puppets.

I have always loved puppets. It didn't dawn on me until a couple years back that I could actually make them. I needed a craft project to bring on a weekend retreat. My mom and sister go annually on a quilting retreat and it always sounded so fun. A weekend of sewing, food and gossip. Sounds great! But, one problem. I am too spastic to quilt. I can't follow patterns because I would rather just "figure it out." So, instead of staying home and moping about my lack of quilting skills, I researched ways to make puppets. I was all set and joined the next quilting retreat. 

I was a little nervous showing up with foam, old tee-shirts, ping pong balls, and a tool kit. But, the ladies were very interested and embracing. I have gone back every year since. 

Fast-forward to present day puppet land, I have been trying a bunch of different methods to make different characters. My latest one has a new body shape. 

The fur is just tacked on with pins for now. 

I gave him a little buddha belly. 

He also is going to have a new head shape. Really tall and cone-like. 

So there is a sneak peak of what is going on in my crafty world. The skeleton of the puppets are made of foam, and are "skinned" with fleece or fur. With my new one, I am going to use a combo. His body is going to be fur and his head, arms, and legs are going to be fleece. Stay tuned for the progress. 

Here are some of the other characters I have made. 

Franklin. His body is dyed foam. Not skinned. He was my first attempt. 

Shádynasty naked and no makeup. She is made from carved foam.

Airbrushed the makeup and gave her boobs and a dress. 

Added glitter to the makeup. 

Profile of her hair.

Fritz. Naked. 

New silky shirt.

Fancy vest

Profile of his goggles. 

Coco's Bones

Mid-build

Coco finished and ready to be given to my niece. 

-Laurie

PASSING IT ON

I've been waiting for this day. It's taken everything in me to not push. But the day arrived. I formally sat down with Addison and gave her her first sewing lesson. She's been showing signs of readiness for a while now. She asks to help every time she sees me sewing (either by hand or machine). She is fascinated with pin cushions, and handles them very carefully ( a favorite past-time is transfering all of my pins from one pin cusion to another...odd, I know).  And she has expressed interest in doing things like a big girl. In the case of sewing, this means she's tired of cardboard lacing cards and shoe laces. I've found with other things (specifically gardening), when Addison is given real tools, she takes great care to complete tasks. Her attention span is at least double, and she really seems to feel a sense of pride in doing a good job. So I decided to go for it and put some sewing supplies in one of her preschool workboxes today.

I waited patiently all day for her to choose that box, and she finally did after her nap. She coudn't believe her eyes when she opened it and saw REAL sewing supplies.

I kept this "lesson" as simple as I could. I cut a heart out of pink felt, threaded a tapestry needle, and let her go to town making giant stitches all over the heart. There were two goals in my mind today.

1. Don't poke yourself. (We were using a real needle, after all)

2. Get the basic idea of stitching up and down through the fabric without going around and around or making big ol' knots.

Over all, Addison did GREAT.

She concentrated on what she was doing, and understood the concept of making up/down stitches. She didn't stab herself with the needle, and she kept at it far longer than I expected.

As she was working, I asked her if she'd like to make her heart into a pillow for her dollies. Oh boy. WOULD SHE? She helped me stitch her heart to a second one I quickly cut, and she stuffed it full of polyfill.  Then I quickly stitched up the rest, and our lesson was done. Proud? I think so.

And maybe a little cheesy too :)

I think sewing projects will become a regular past of our preschool workbox rotation. 

-Lindsay

WEDNESDAYS WITH GRANDMA.

Wednesdays meant two things growing up. One, Grandma would be over at our house to do her laundry and two, it would be an afternoon of craft time. We did all sorts of projects with Grandma. We painted, sculpted, glued, sewed, colored, dyed, googely eyed, and created. I didn't realize the value in this until much later when I was going off to college. For the first time, I had mixed with kids who were from all over the country and had all different backgrounds. And most of their backgrounds didn't involve Wednesday Craft Days. I met people who had never used a glue gun, couldn't hem their pants, and didn't know what a dowel was. This completely blew my mind. What did their grandmas do with them? How did they spend rainy days? How did they make it out of middle school without making a clay model Greece? Or what did they do for book reports without creating a puppet show of characters? 

I transfered to a big fancy art college and finally was around people who liked to make things as much as I did. But, even still, being surrounded by artists there was a lack of people who grew up "crafting." Sure they were kids who came from high schools with fantastic art programs and could paint circles around me. But not many of them learned about a variety of techniques and mediums like I learned sitting at the kitchen table on Wednesdays.

In fact, "craft" was often seen as a negative thing. "This looks too crafty." So, I evolved, refined, and learned the methods that would make me a real artist. And it was wonderful. But I still secretly loved to craft. During class I would sketch the fruit, paint the nudes, and learn how to use the computer for design. But, at home, I would knit, sew, create collages. And when I graduated, I was a serious designer and was now ready for a big time career in an advertising agency.

And then the economy crashed.

With fewer jobs out there, and a market saturated with talented people, I had to figure out what made me a better candidate. So for the first time, I embraced the craft. My portfolio evolved into a handmade book. I added images of not only my professional work, but also my crafty projects. I essentially sold myself as someone who could make things both physically and digitally. And it worked. Every interview I have been on since, I've gotten comments such as "It is so refreshing to see REAL ART and not just digital art." I say thank you, but think "Real art? Now crafty stuff is real art?" This makes me smile.

I went to college for art, but I learned to be creative from Grandma.

When I was 26, I got a bunch of boxes from my mom after she cleaned out my room. I had no idea she saved a lot of my craft projects. I opened these boxes and met friends I had long forgotten about. They are awkward and old, but they have so many great memories attached to them.

-Laurie

LOVELY LETTERPRESS

The two things I love the most in this world are antiques and design. (Yeah, I know, I need to get out more.) But groan all you want. I am a nerd. When creating the business system for Dewey Street I wanted utilize my two loves.

I chose to have our note cards letterpressed for a couple of reasons. For starters, letterpress is incredibly sexy. The combination of heavy paper, ink, and metal plates that actually imprint your design, elevate it beyond your normal 4 color print job. Letterpress is also really old school. Originally everything was printed in this manor. Typesetting was an art form. But as technology changed, so too did design and printing processes. Letterpress isn't widely used now but, the old machines and lead type evoke that warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia. I also chose to letterpress because I wanted to support local artists here in Las Vegas. We teamed with Somersault Letterpress who opened in June of 2011. They have produced the most exquisite invitations, stationary, postcards and notecards.

The proof is in the pudding. Check out our new notecards.

See what I mean? Sexy. 

-Laurie

What Gives?

Signs like this are EVERYWHERE in Vegas these days. It seems as though every strip mall in the city has at least one vacancy. Many are virtual ghost towns with only one or two small business occupying space. Just today the Las Vegas Sun reported that, "Newly released second-quarter statistics from brokerages show industrial and warehouse vacancies running at about 15 percent, retail vacancies at about 11 percent and office vacancies at about 23.5 percent." You'd think that with figures like this, realtors and property managers would be chomping at the bit to speak with prospective tennants. Sadly, that's not the case. We at Dewey Street have put in numerous phone calls to property managers and real estate agents on the west side of town with not a single call returned. What gives? We're anxious to get this ball rolling, yet no one will talk to us. So for now, we still do not have a projected grand opening date...but we're working on it. In the meantime, we'll be putting together a calendar listing classes, workshops, and open studio times. Here's to hoping we make some headway soon in the real estate department!

Thanks for visiting,

Lindsay

LOST SOCK SIGN - TUTORIAL

Pinterest is currently one of my favorite online resources. It CAN be a huge time suck if I'm not careful, but it is also full of amazing and adorable ideas for every area of my home and life (I sound like a commercial, right?) Anyhoo, I found something similar to this on Pinterest, but I wanted to make it a bit more...contemporary. The lost sock sign. I think every single home across the United States of America probably has a use for one of these babies.

Cute, right?

Here's what you need to make one yourself:

MATERIALS

Wooden board (new or recycled)

Craft Paint

Mod Podge

Scrapbook paper cut to desired size

Flat-edged tool (I used a pan scraper from Pampered Chef)

Letters (paper, stickers, chip board, etc...these are stickers)

Clothes Pins

Super Glue

METHOD

1. Paint the board in the color of your choice. Let it dry thoroughly.

2. Apply a coat of Mod Podge to the board and lay scrapbook paper down. Smooth it out using your flat-edged tool. Make sure you get all the air bubbles out. Let the Mod Podge dry. Then apply a coat of Mod Podge over the paper. Cover the whole board. Let it dry thoroughly.

3. Place your letters on the sign. If they are stickers, apply a coat of Mod Podge over the top. If they are not stickers, use Mod Podge to stick the letters to the sign then apply a top coat.

4. Decide how many clothes pins you want to include. I used five. Paint the top of each clothes pin the color of your choice. Let the paint dry, then attach them to the board using super glue.

5. To hang the sign, you could use some super glue to attach a ribbon to the board and hang it on a nail. I used four penny nails. Mark the bottom nail placement using a level to make sure they're straight. Hammer the bottom nails into the wall. Set the sign on the nails, and hammer two more nails into the wall just above the sign to hold it in place.

And there ya have it. This is actually a stray sock that was sitting on top of my dryer. I'm already putting my sign to good use.

Thanks for visiting!

Lindsay

SO, HERE WE ARE

From the time Lindsay and Laurie were little, Cindy was always getting hair-brained ideas...usually during church... about things they could do as a family. Most often these ideas took the form of day trips they could take, but often the ideas were craft projects that she thought would be fun to work on together. Her most recent hair-brained scheme was the driving force behind the creation of Dewey Street. While sitting at the dinner table one day, Cindy announced that she would love to have a shop again (she owned her own embroidery and long-arm quilting shop for 20 years). But this time, in addition to offering her quilting services, she thought it would be fun to create a space where people from all over the city could come together to create. And so the idea of Dewey Street took shape.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Dewey Street is an actual street in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Joan Faust (mom to Cindy and grandma to Lindsay and Laurie) lived on Dewey Street for 86 years. She spent the majority of her life there raising a family, tending her garden, and literally turning trash into treasures. Her creative interests have influenced us all. Dewey Street is a place for our family to come together, create, and imagine. And we want to share it with you.

Back: Laurie, Cindy, Lindsay Front: Addison, Joan

CINDY
Cindy inherited Joan's green thumb and crafty streak. Cindy has been sewing her entire life, and has dabbled in every form of stitchery from doll-making to dress-making, from home furnishings to quilts. She is a gifted seamstress and a perfectionist when it comes to her craft. Her passion is evident in each piece she creates. She also ran a successful embroidery business for 25 years, and now works as a long-arm quilter in Las Vegas.

LINDSAY
Lindsay is the Queen of the Burden Roost. In addition to raising two small children, Lindsay successfully grows her own vegetables in her raised garden beds. (Yes, vegetables can grow in the desert.) She has mastered urban chicken keeping, sewing and quiltling, and she creates and sells vintage spoon plant markers.

LAURIE
Laurie cannot sew in a straight line. Instead of being excluded from all things sewing, she decided to give textile design a try. She works as an Art Director for an advertising agency in Las Vegas and creates patterns and textiles for Dewey Street on weekends.