peek inside :: Jengs Shop

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.

Hello, it’s been so long again. I’ve been busy with life in general and sort of working and brainstorming ideas for some new Jengs Shop goodies. I hope everyone has been well and thanks for those who have joined my mailing list recently. I have a mailing list by the way, if you didn’t know. You can sign up on my website. I won’t bombard you with junk so don’t worry. I’ll only inform you of product updates and sales, you know the good stuff.

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.

I hope every one had a fun weekend. I ended up in New Jersey on Saturday and hung out with my very good friends Despina & Greg. She is actually now very very pregnant (9 months) and judging from her baby bump it looks like it’s about to bust. It was really nice seeing them and I was able to give them the mobile of birds I made a while ago along with a few eggs. The nest is for a bird house that she had in the (soon to be) baby room. She has this whole bird theme happening and it looks great. I hope to get pictures of the mobile hung up in it’s space so you can see what an awesome job she did decorating the room. So here’s a glimpse of the finished piece (thanks to my sister’s assistance). Aren’t they cute? I made one have a branch in his mouth :)

Sitting here in my hotel room and I notice that there were two telephones here. Thinking about telephones and how many we all have, do any of us have only one? No, we have multiples, whether it be cell phones or regular land lines we never just have one. If I’m wrong let me know.

I started just with one little sketch, grouped them together in photoshop and it’s turning out to be a work in progress for a nice pattern series I’ve been wanting to trying.

My submission for Illustration Friday - “I’m a plain plant but someone thinks I’m pretty.” It was originally done with pen and paper. After finishing this little piece, I realized that I never really work with the color purple. Sort of ironic, considering the topic, because it’s a very uncommon color in my world. Thanks for peeking.

Love Doves.

Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s in front of you until someone else points it out. I basically sell prints and paper goods in my etsy shop, and never really think of combining my designs. I guess I always saw them as two separate lines. Well, within these two weeks, I was asked to create two custom blank notebooks. One was for my poppy note card design and the other was for my lonely bike print to be the covers. I only have a picture of the lonely bike one (it looks really cute), I was so excited about the first one that I forgot to snap some shots of it (that one was a nice one too). That’s what inspired me to make these poppy mini notebooks.

So here’s the lonely bike notebook (I hope you like it Laurisa of KumoKumo):

There may be some more design intertwining after this one.

Sometimes we just have to accept the things that we are incapable of.

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.

I will be doing a little updating in my shop today. You will find some newly designed blank notebooks. I hope to be adding more this coming weekend also. Here’s a little peek.

Like I said a few posts ago, that I was trying to learn how to silkscreen, I finally got all of my materials in order and I’m about ready to go. Before venturing into the photo emulsion process I figured the best way to start was to begin with the drawing fluid and screen filler process.

I guess I’ll try to take some photos as I go but it may be too hard. I’ve never done this before so we’ll see :) it might just be a real mess.

Above is my illustration for Illustration Friday. I drew it out using a pen, took a shot of it (no scanner because I’m not home, on vacation), and digitally colored it. It’s a plant my mom has growing in her yard. I hope you enjoy it.

It’s a cloudy day here in Florida. No swimming for us today =( Hopefully it’ll be a nice one tomorrow because we’ll be leaving here on Saturday. I can’t believe a week has gone by, well almost. Soon we’ll be home…back to NY…back to our normal lives…back to the hustle and bustle of our daily routines.