I recently came across Pschh I Can Make That.com, a craft blog where Abby Elaina & her husband make cute videos showing how to create designer inspired garments at a fraction of the price. It looked like so much fun I said to myself, "Pschh, I can do that too!" 

And so I present my first attempt at sewing a garment.  I make bags (and I make 'em good too!) but I hadn't tried clothing yet, and this seemed like a good way to give my usual "learn by doing" approach a try.  

The inspiration garment was a baby doll dress from Planet Blue that cost $110.  I loved the style but it was a little too short, I didn't want the open back.  I also wanted the hem short in the front, long in the back, instead of short on the sides. Ok, so I basically wanted a completely different dress, but with a similar feeling.  Oh and mine ended up getting buttons down the front of it too because I wanted to try doing buttonholes by hand.

I found some cheap quilting fabric with a similar dip dyed feeling (cheap seemed like a good idea since this was a first attempt) and I made my own pattern by tracing a shirt I already had.  I went pretty good!  The only snag was that the first version was WAY too big, so I ended up taking the whole thing apart, trimming it down and reassembling it.

I started working with canvas because I like it and it was the best material for my board bags. Since finishing the first board bag collection, I've kept on working with the same materials to come up with some new bags and purses.

Each one is decorated by hand with desert-inspired, tribal style design. I just love drawing on fabric. I've been playing around with different ink on fabric applications for awhile and it may be my favorite medium at this point. See more of these creations in my Etsy and Storenvy shops.

Anyone who knows me knows I like to create. Even though drawing/art is my main thing, I take a lot of breaks from it to try other forms of creativity. It keeps my brain fresh. Working on the same thing too long tends to make it feel heavy, makes the project seem dull and its fun to try new things. That said, I'm SO excited to announce my latest project: Chapman Board Bags!

I have a WWII army bag that I inherited from my grandfather and it's one of my most favorite things. When I take trips it gets stuffed full of supplies and gear and off it goes. It's been all over the place and gotten lots of abuse, but the worse it's treated, the better it looks. The only problem is, even tho it holds a lot, it's not big enough for my surfboard. So I decided to make a board bag in the same style as the army bag, something that had the same old school vibe, and was well made out of durable stuff.

My grandmother taught me how to sew, so I had a pretty good idea what I was doing.  It turned out to be a lot of fun too, and I made a pile of them.  They're available for sale on Etsy or through me directly. So far, each one is unique even tho they all share the same old school aesthetic.

Check them out at the website: ChapmanAtSea.com and on Etsy.  I love making these things and am super proud of them.  I did a lot of research on the design, materials and sewing methods to make sure the quality would be awesome.  Customs are available: customer orders, custom colors & sizes, all of it. Let me know what you want. 

Still working on wooden canvases. I'm enjoying using my hands more in making art. Obviously working in photoshop requires hands too, but somehow it's not the same.  It's nice to put a pencil on a surface and whatever mark it makes is the one you're stuck with.  No erasing, line smoothing, adjusting.  It's honest.

This is a series done on pieces of balsa wood.  I also have a surfboard made out of balsa wood. It seems like there's a connection between sea & summer and balsa. So this series is a happy, bright set. Simple patterns and warm summer colors.

They're about 4 x 6 and are in my Etsy shop. Each one is matted in a bright white mat.

I did a design that I submitted to Threadless a couple years ago called "Best Knot Sail Here."  Part of it was a happy whale character that I really liked. A lot of times I'll have these characters that are cool on their own, but need to be developed more to make a good design.  This guy was one of them, and I didn't know what to do with him.

So I tried painting him in watercolor in my next wooden block piece and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I'm slightly less happy that I can't take a photo that makes it look as good as it does in person... but that's how it goes.  Still, he makes me want to do a series of sea creatures.  I'm going through my sketchbooks to find all the other abandoned critters from the past.

"Depths Below"
8 x 12 Watercolor and graphite.

It's been difficult to get real quality computer time lately. So more than ever I've been relying on traditional means of making art.  This is cool because it's gotten me to try something I've wanted to for a long time: painting on wood. It's one of my favorite looks, I love when the wood grain shows through the image. It just gives it an extra dimension, makes it feel warmer and somehow more "real."

I've messed around with wood painting in the past, but not seriously or for any length of time.  I have an attention problem. Something that makes me avoid sitting down and really working on a thing... Once I start, I'm happy, it's just before that that is difficult. There always seems to be something more fun to do...

Anyways, here is my first ever real attempt designing on wood.  I found these pre made wooden blocks at the art shop. They just under an inch thick, so they stand on their own and don't warp the way wooden sheets from home depot sometimes do.

It's simply called "Feathers" and is done in graphite.