One of my favorite design tool is not the Mac computer but the X-acto knife. I could be called old school but tools like the T-square and triangle rulers are still used by me, more so now because of the carving.
Recently I bought a new blade, an X-acto #16 to replace the #11 and to supplement my other carving tools and I must say, I love it!
The angle and its size is just perfect to etch the tight spots of the balsa wood. Carving just got more fun! Whee….
Last week, we intended to leave town on Friday morning but there was a hitch. A big hitch. I had mention we will arrive when we arrive but little did I know it would be 12 hours later that we began our journey…
It all started from that last minute publication design project that I was working on. The original deadline of Monday set by the client was not met (not because of me but them). Then it got pushed to Wednesday but the client still could not finalize the editorial. What happened thereafter was just a designer’s nightmare. It’s been a long time since I have been subjected to such a situation.
After being informed that Wednesday night’s handover to me was good to be worked on, a Friday deadline was given and it couldn’t budge. Not even an inch. So I basically had only a day (Thursday) to work on the new stuff. One day to redesign what I had done earlier because there’s so much more information! The design ended up being revamped and expanded from the initial 60-pager to 80-pages. My team helped wherever possible.
And as if the situation wasn’t stressful enough, things were still under edits that Friday morning and more new materials to include came after the redesign was done! Can you believe it? Leaving town that morning was not an option because I don’t think I can leave with a peace of mind if this wasn’t completed properly. Thank goodness we were driving instead of flying.
To cut a long story short, after a flurry of phone calls on Friday morning, the client came over, at 3.00pm and not earlier unfortunately. They sat with me and together, we finalized all the details of the publication. It was 6.00pm when we eventually completed the task in hand. What a day Friday turned out to be!
Twelve hours later (9.00pm) from our intended time of departure, we started our journey. Traffic was heavy at certain stretches but thankfully not bumper to bumper due to the holiday break and took the usual time because of the distance. It was 2.40am when we finally arrived at the grandparents’ home up north.
Today we head back home and hopefully traffic will be kind. All in all, it was a good break despite the unexpected circumstances to the start of it.
A few weeks ago, hubby had a huge and colorful air plant hanging on the frangipani tree in the garden. From that big fella, he harvested many little ones to create interesting displays on driftwood pieces or simply by themselves with just wires that he would bend with a plier. Like me with an activity interspersing painting with carving, he’s into cactus and air plant creations.
I ventured into the garden upon his insistence and lo and behold, a whole lot of them are hanging on the tree! The green fingers in him certainly makes the garden more interesting. And the tiny air plants sitting on wires are just as appealing indoors.
It’s been a busy and stressful week for me. I have been working late the past few nights on a super duper urgent design project. As the deadline looms without negotiation for an extension, it doesn’t help when the client gives the material to me late. I have a responsibility then to do my part.
Because of this, the carving has stop for the time being but last night, I managed to squeeze one in as a stress reliever. The new balsa wood was extremely soft and it was easy to carve.
Citizen #23 was born and now Gigglesville is just so crowded! Pretty soon, the ‘O’mobile cannot be parked in there anymore. When the house is full (I have space for one more), maybe there will be a migration. Some citizens of Gigglesville will leave for adoption and spread their giggles elsewhere on earth.
As for me, working on this project, I draw the giggles and positiveness from the citizens of Gigglesville to stay sane and cool. I can do it.
The thought of getting another tattoo cropped up last year and again, right around my birthday in April. It is both exciting and worrying. Exciting because it’s something new, akin to a new toy. Worrying because I may not like it. At a crossroad…
What should I get?
Seeing that I am a dinosaur nowadays, maybe a tattoo of one would be good…
Hmm…
I am so in the thick of carving, I bought a new piece of balsa to carve besides some new canvases as I have promised a few pieces for friends. A promise is a promise regardless of the tennis elbow. I just need to find the inspiration to get that going.
In the meantime, I have given much thought to the township of Gigglesville. But before the town blooms, I think it needs a mayor, hence this character.
Now in my world, mayors in general are usually short and stout, so naturally the mayor of Gigglesville is shorter and wider than the usual citizens. But he has to also be different, therefore the cool shades instead of big round eyes.
It’s inevitable for every storyline that has happy giggling citizens living harmoniously and superheroes maintaining peace to have a nemesis who does nothing but wreck havoc and create fear. Hence, Gigglesville has EB to content with. EB as in Evil Buster.
So who is EB? He’s obviously an evil one with a name as such and he brings glum to the citizens, taking away their giggles and happiness.
Now all I need is to create the whole township! Carving has never been this fun!
I got so engrossed in this carving activity, I spawned off another batch of carvings, this time a line of superheroes and call them ‘Defenders of Earth’! These fellas are kinda like Avengers, a group of super beings that protect Earth from evil and what nots.
And unlike the citizens who only has serial numbers, these superheroes have names because they are well, superheroes and for practical reasons. Imagine rattling off a series of number to announce their arrival? Not very hip.
We have SuperOwl and his sidekick, SuperOink and they report to Lord Bubba. Together in their ‘O’Mobile, they traverse Gigglesville, Earth and the universe to maintain laughter and happiness.
Honestly, it’s quite fun to carve and build the story along…
Lately I resurrected the carving hobby because I ran out of canvases to paint. Although I enjoy painting, in truth, I find the sweeping motion of the palette knife across a two feet canvas to be quite an arduous task. And I paint only once a week. It looks like the tennis elbow right arm is never recovering anytime soon and taking a long time to get well. Sigh…
But carving is okay. The arm doesn’t move that much and the balsa wood is not that hard to tackle.
The last batch of creatures created was back in July last year and recently, I labelled them ‘Citizens of Gigglesville’ and painted them all up. I must say proudly these creations of mine, all about an inch tall or thereabouts are rather cute little critters that bring a smile or giggle to whoever looks at them, hence aptly named citizens of this imaginary township.
Each and every character has a serial number instead of a name. With this, I see an interesting story developing.
These are not my drawings, they are M2’s. Yes, you read that right, they are M2’s efforts, my second child. What can I say? She draws better than me!
The subject matter may be copied but that’s how one gets started to learn, fine tune and hone the skill. The strokes, the effort and the confidence in executing the style just amazes me!
Angieneering 
Remarks