I did some screen printing and here are some shots from the session. I do everything in my little one bedroom apartment so my dark room for burning the screen had to be my bathroom. Ideas that I’ve had mentally stored and filed away are finally ready to be worked on. Here’s a little peek before introducing a new line of goods for the home. Here’s it is:

You can click on the images for more of a description. See you soon!

Along with my digital SLR, I was able to get my hands on some really nice camera equipment (tripod, flash, umbrella, etc.). Thanks to my brother, I had a very good photo session the other day! A Jengs Shop catalog is now in the works. Here’s a peek at some of the shots.

I’ve been working on finishing up my new collection. It’s extremely late for the season but finally complete. I now have eight new card sets, available in three colors each, that will go up in the shop first. I’m aiming for tomorrow evening. These cards will be perfect for the holiday shopping season.

psst…I’m on facebook, if you want quick updates become a fan of the shop!

Still trying to catch up and getting organized with this here blog. I feel like I’m always saying that. To tell you the truth, it never really gets easier when your balancing life, along with a full time job and the efforts you put in to the beginnings of your dream job.

Lately, I’ve been busy working on a mixture of stuff, revamping old designs and creating new ones. I haven’t yet decided when I will be introducing them to the world. It is still a little too soon right now, even though I haven’t really put anything new out this entire year. I know shame on me!! Really, I know! So I keep telling myself, great things have to be thoroughly thought out and time is needed to perfect the details.

What you see there is my very first silk screen test. I actually gave it a go over the weekend and it wasn’t that bad. I used Speedball‘s Photo Emulsion kit and I just followed the instructions. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, especially since I’m only doing one color prints. I so guessed on the timing of the exposure. I gave it 30 minutes under a 65 watt flood light (I couldn’t find a 125 watt flood light (as the instructions suggests) anywhere. So I just had to make do with what I had. One thing, next time I’ll probably expose a tad bid longer when I have a fine line drawing. The actual printing can get a little messy.

Oh this is so cool, the possibilities are endless.

So I’ve been brainstorming with ideas right now. I know I’ve been slacking physically (executing those ideas & producing final products) but my brain, along with my pen in hand, have not stopped. I’ve been toying with the idea of patterns, fabric, and illustration, all intertwined in some way along with my paper products. I’ve got some good ideas going and now I’ve just gotta sit down and make it happen. I’ve also been writing a lot. Just trying to write down everything that’s in my head (scary as it may seem, my feelings) at least once everyday. It’s working out so far and when I go back and reread them it’s a little reminder of what I felt that moment and I try to understand “How?” it all came about and the deeper meaning “Why?”. Anyways, it’s a good little exercise you should try it.

I’ll leave you with a cute little doodle, of all things it started as a coffee stain.

Keep your eye out for these bad boys! I hope to have them in the shop some time next week.

Here are a few shots of what it sort of looks like during and after me working in the studio. If there’s a drawer it’s bound to be open. I’m pretty organized but consistently fail to make labels, so when I’m in need of something I have to open up every drawer before I can find what I need. For some reason, I can never remember where it is (whatever it is I’m looking for). It’s pretty funny when I’m in a hurry. You’d think I’d have learned by now.

The white drawer unit is from Ikea. It’s great; small, durable and inexpensive. The flat file was bought from where I work. It was a return and my boss sold it to me for really really REALLY cheap. It was seriously an offer I couldn’t refuse, even though I knew I didn’t have the space. So I have this awesome flat file but I have no base for it and no table to put it on. It’s extremely heavy. The huge thing is sitting on my floor. I’ll figure something out one day…I hope. The downfall of having it on the floor it that it’s hard to get to the bottom drawer when my floor is a mess. All the cards you see on the top image were my babies (bye bye) that were sent off to Spa Habitat. I mentioned them in a former post.

It’s a rainy day here in NY (like cats and dogs) and it’s my chance to get some new things together so I can photograph them tomorrow, they say sun. Have a great weekend :)

Well, in this instance, I have come to the conclusion that as of right now I can NOT silk screen. I mean I tried and I tried and it just didn’t look as good as I want it to. I guess I just want it to be perfect. It’s sad :( I really really wanted to try to move into that direction but it’s just not going to happen. Maybe one day when I have the space, I will venture into this again.