blog

Y'ALL

ok so at work we have a laser cutter, it's mainly used to etch name plates for clients

but guess what

GUESS WHAT. I've somehow only just realized the potential of me having access to a laser cutter? my managers are super cool and they've been helping me figure out how to etch and cut custom designs into acrylic sheets! at a glance it's a super simple process: design vector file, differentiate between raster (etching) and vector (cutting), send file to printer, printer does the thing, object is created. but the results??? are the COOLEST i am ASTOUNDED

I made these clear babies initially just for testing n practicing but they're just so darn shiny and neat! so naturally i'm putting them to good use as jewelry, keychains, and zipper pulls:

my big idea, inspired by these absolutely sick custom iridescent sword earrings, is to make Sting, the dagger Bilbo finds among the Trolls' hoarde in The Hobbit. I'm kinda a lil bit of a Hobbit/LotR nerd fyi and i've been particularly taken with the design and concept of Sting; a short-sword, perfectly sized for a halfling, glows blue in the presence of orcs so you know it's time to either hide, run, or fight, and i just love the shape and look of it overall. Plus Samwise uses it to completely wreck Shelob's shit in the name of his bestie and that's badass

I took a photo of a prop from the Weta Workshop and translated it using lines & shapes into a vector image file. then we did a test using scrap plastic which just kind of melted around the sharp edges, but i used that information to go back and increase the outer margin so the laser wasn't cutting such tiny little corners

(shoutout to Delvie's plastics)

After some more troubleshooting w/the laser focus, some teeny tiny hole drilling, and adding jump rings etc i am now very pleased to announce that I have FIVE (5) pairs of Sting earrings that will go on sale in my Etsy store... SOON!! watch this space and stay tuned for a new featured page

I already have my eye on a sheet of gorgeous fluorescent yellow and am cooking up some new ideas for that hehe... . .. . well, bye!

one of my podcasts, 99pi, released an episode last week called "The Lost Cities of Geo" (a good listen & read, relevant to us here in ~The Cities of Neo~ )
anyways they talk about the aesthetics of Internet 1.0 and how, as people were exploring the seemingly boundless limits of coding their little webpages by hand, they may have made some... . . questionable design choices like neon green font on a yellow background, "under construction" signs, twinkly star gifs, etc,,... .

well pals i just wanted to briefly say..

hello! i am here, just chuggin thru life
wanted to pop in and share a few artsy endeavors from here n there:

some fanart for one of my fave podcasts, Scary Stories To Tell On The Pod, a horror/comedy show hosted by two funny pals who read scary stories and dive into urban legends and it is very enjoyable and relatable

Quaranzine issue 3 is still... . under construction lol

a series of coloring pages i did for my church kiddos early in lockdown. i want to make more! they are fun and also i get to stretch my creative brain with questions like "what are good coloring page practices?"

some of these you can download, print, and color for free bc i do not own the commercial license for fonts i used, some of them you can buy for $1.50 to support your local friendly Internet Bee : ~ ) please click each page for more info!

in no particular order:

1. draw your outfit right now, i wear that large ridic tye-dye 75% of the time at home
2. a 2020 moodboard using clipart from a late 1990s graphic design program
3. self-portrait as Tokitama who is the mascot of Tokiwa Shopping Street in Kagawa, Japan
4. a friend's request to turn her friend's baby into a yogurt-eating cryptid lol
5. beautiful Amabie who wants you to look at her and wear your mask for good health
6. "Due to an inability to support a high-quality free digital service that derives 100% of its revenue from ever declining on-site revenues, ɔıdʎuıʇ has shut down its operations."
7. good old fashioned
8. radial rainbow eye-strain!!!
9. in the before times my gal pal, my sister from another mister, & i had craft Sundays and i was making a GOBLIN out of polymer clay!! i'm really pleased with the skeleton i built, it looks like a naked chicken and it was very important they have a butt lmao, he lives at her house until such time as we can interACT AGAIN!!! WEAR YOUR MASKS AND STAY HOME PEOPLE!!! please.. . . for our & the goblin's sake... i miss my friends : ' ( and my crafts... .

yknow, it's easy to wallow in the "weehhhhh i'm not being creative enough lately waaaahhhh" funk but upon reflection? i've done some stuff! look at all my stuff!!

~*~*~ creativity is a practice, friends ~*~*~

well i've been thinkin bout

zines

again!

I was poking around for some kind of online zine generator tool? something easy that just let me goof around for a bit yknow; whet (sp?) my appetite. I found a bloated over-designed super Corporate Brand $$ drag-n-drop WYSIWYG and thought "ok i'll get away with a rinky-dink free account", BUT ALAS (butt a lass heh) they put the export featured under paywall. anyways i'm gonna share a screenshot of my 1page zine and nobody can stop me

well i did find this actual masterpiece: Electric Zine Maker by alienmelon on itch.io, which might i just say has a beautiful landing page. i haven't actually DONE ANYTHING WITH IT YET but wow yes it is exactamento what i was looking for, great work alienmelon i will hug it often and whisper words of affirmation

what i HAVE DONE is some rl arts & crafts cut + paste collage zines using scraps from work (sign shop); went so far as to use discarded proofs from the recycle bin as print media

my plans are to:

1. scan
2. save digital file
3. publish my NEW INTERNETBEE.NEOCITIES PAGE: ZINES
4. submit: Quarantine Zine Club
5. distribute physical zines (safely & cleanly; plastic baggies?)
6. use my zines page to showcase my work, provide digital copies for printing & folding, infostructions, share links to zine content on the web

I sat down just now and started working on my "How-To" infostructional document--making some changes according to rl experience--but honestly i'm just.. . tired. work has been pretty exhausting these past few weeks with just lil ol me out on the floor. the irony is that i've been daydreaming about doing fun cool creative zine stuff all day while working but now i'm done i'm just. DONE

okay, signing off!

hello and welcome to my blog

here i will write about: website updates, arty & designy endeavors that i want to share, etc etc relevent to my internet presence. don't expect any hot juicy celebrity gossip sorry folks

I have a comment box attached to the most recent blog entry so as to get feedback about things n stuff

okay! thanks! bye!