Coloresque

Tutorial: DIY pincushion (no sew!)

2012-01-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

So, a while ago I bought a sewing machine. A big one with 30 stitches, not the little one I reviewed earlier on this blog. Finally I have a proper machine for myself instead of using the old one of my mom, which is very loud and clumsy. It made me believe it was my fault, while it was just the machine. Being able to sew properly, I could use a pincushion. Click read more for the tutorial!

You only need something like an egg holder (anything that resembles will do), filling (I used the one they sell to fill teddybears), and something to hold it together. That's it!

Haul-idays at Chronicle Books

2010-12-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

Actually this is not sweet at all, this contest was US-only as I read on Emily's blog. Thank you America for leaving the rest of the world out again!

This is pretty sweet. With the holidays coming up, Chronicle Books is doing a give-away. Everyone with a blog can make a list of the books they would like to win up to $500. Everyone who comments on the post with the list can win the whole package too! So if you've got quite the same taste as me, just comment and you'll be able to win all of these books just like me. Great! Here's my list:

Reprodepot Flora, $24.95
Print & Pattern, $35.00
Handmade Living, $29.95
Creative Inc., $16.95
Amy Butler's Style Stitches, $29.95
Mastering the Art of Beading, $27.50
Handmade Weddings, $24.95
Paper + Craft, $19.95
DIY Fashion, $24.95
Letterpress, $24.95
Treasured Notions, $24.95
Stitchable Stationery, $14.95
Handmade Hellos, $19.95
Lotta Prints, $19.95
Lacy Crochet, $14.95
D.I.Y. deck, $16.95
Simple Sewing, $24.95
Sublime Stitching, $19.95
Paper Craft Kit, $24.95
Knitting Pretty, $19.95
1-2-3 Sew, $24.95
52 Creative Craft Projects, $6.95
________________________________
$498,5

I'm really excited!

Earrings

2010-10-27T10:53:00.001-07:00

I bought some supplies today to experiment. These came out of it:

I totally love to make them and at the moment I have no idea when I will ever get tired of making a lot of different pairs. I'm planning on making personalized designs too so that people can place custom orders. I'm still looking for a nice packaging for them so that I can also sell sets in a nice little box.

The building

2010-10-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

Just some photos of the building I've been living in for a few months now.
Please note that I didn't choose the wallpaper or anything, it's just the way it was when I arrived here. I love how all of the posters are at least 10 years old and the wallpaper changes on every other floor. The wood and the cracks have a lot of charm.

Moved

2010-09-03T04:19:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I recently moved to Ghent for 5 months, I'll be doing an internship and see what it's like to live on my own. It feels good. I love the place, I never lived in a city before and this is my favorite city of the country. I feel more alive in a way. I also like arranging everything into a new room and putting up photos and posters on the wall, it makes me feel kinda new.

I went to Made in Belgium a while ago, which is a market for handmade things and the people who like to buy/make it. I did a gig there for the first time which was very exciting, but what was also very nice is that I won a give-away. Here's what I won:

I love everything but my favorite is the necklace, it's really beautiful.

The people on the market were also very nice, I met Melissa and bought a book from her, had some fun in her photobooth.

Thanks to Made in Belgium I felt the need to make something myself, I searched for something that I was familiar with and got into crochet again. Made me an iPhone case:

I set the goal for myself to make a lot of things and open an Etsy shop with all kinds of stuff. I'm working on a little bag now, going bigger everytime.

Erlend Øye

2010-07-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

He's the guy behind The Whitest Boy Alive and also a member of Kings of Convenience, by the way. Go check out his music, I don't care which of the two bands you'll hear. You should probably hear them both.

Books 'n Bananas

2010-07-18T10:19:00.001-07:00

I hope you're all having a great time, I'm making the best of mine. I've been home alone for one week now, my parents went on a trip so I got total freedom. I'll be moving to Ghent early September for half a year, so I've been able to get used to it for a bit now. Anyway, since I had a lot of freedom I chose to do things I don't usually do because of my parents. I played a lot of guitar in all of the house, at night, and put a big cushion in the garden to lay on. There's a lot of simple things I can never do when I'm not home alone. I also told myself to experiment a little more with cooking and stuff. One thing I did for example was to make ice cream from only bananas. Most people don't think it's exciting to make your own ice cream because it's simple, but how awesome is it to transform a banana into a little ball of ice with almost no tools whatsoever?

Here's the trick: you slice bananas in pieces, put them in the freezer for a few hours and then blend, put them in the freezer again. After half an hour of cooling it just turns into ice cream. I made a few photos to make it clear, but I found the recipe originally here.

I also did some bookbinding, which was not that new for me but it's only my third book and I really feel I should practice some more in order to get perfect books. There's a few things that always look like a little problem, like cutting the pages nice and plane. I don't really have a lot of material but I think I do a good job trying to make a nice book with really cheap devices and materials. Though, one thing I could really use is a book cutter machine. Anyone who has tips or tricks on this part really is welcome. The way I do it now is to take my block of paper and hold a ruler against the edge, cutting the sides with a Stanley knife one by one, until I'm through. It's not only hard and tiring that way, you can see the edges have choppy parts and aren't cut straight. I'll be a happy camper the day my pages look perfectly cut.

I really love the fabric I bought for this one, I've got plenty left and I think I want to use it to sew something. The little part along the back of the book (the piece of yarn that's got black and brown in it) is used for decoration. I had to make it myself, which is not recommended. I think it looks good enough though, but I hate how it's hard finding proper material in this town.

She & Him

2010-05-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm joining a give-away at Latanie's! Check her blog by the way, she's a graphic designer too.

Today I got the news that I passed this schoolyear succesfully. It was a relief to know that, and so I bought myself some presents. Not knowing what I wanted to get to treat myself, I came across the record store and found this!

She & Him is a band with Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. They make the most wonderful music and so I couldn't resist to buy this beautiful record. I'm in love with the graphic design and so I took some pictures from the details. It has a lot of pretty fonts and textures, colors and illustrations! I can't find one thing that's not pretty.

Ever since I saw 500 Days of Summer I got to know Zooey Deschanel's music because she's made her own version of the song 'Please Please Please, Let Me Get What I Want' by The Smiths, which is an awesome song and both versions are on the soundtrack album of the movie.

For people who don't know their music, here's a happy song!

I also got Elliott Smith's debute album Roman Candle, I thought this couldn't miss from my record collection because his voice really makes me calm, it's a pity he'll never sing again.

Give-away

2010-05-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Melissa is doing a give-away! Omg I'm really excited, it's wonderful stuff. I love how it's a bit of everything!

Emily & Dries

2010-05-14T00:51:00.001-07:00

Painting for Emily and her boyfriend!

The quick brown fox

2010-05-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

I just finished an experimental font for school. I've been working on it for approx. 3 days and in total there's something like 20 fonts all combined into one, the concept is about reproduction but I don't feel like explaining it all, it needs some visual presentation for my big jury later this year so hopefully that'll be more clear. I do hope you like it, feedback is always welcome..

In other news, I'd like to participate in the giveaway from Rood Met Witte Stipjes. This is a lovely blog/fabrics shop and I'd love to win the apple fabrics the owner is giving away! Click here to go to her shop.

Morrissey!

2010-05-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

I started painting yesterday out of frustration about my schoolwork. Apparently, I paint better (at least faster) when I'm stressed out or supposed to be doing something else. It took much less time than usual and I'm kind of accomplished about it, yet there's a whole lot more I shouldn't feel accomplished about which still makes me feel sad.

books books books!

2010-04-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've been buying a lot of books lately (maybe too much, but I worked hard so I guess I deserve them) and so I thought I'd share them with you because I really love them. Click the title for more information.

1. Sketchbooks: the Hidden Art of Designers and Creatives

As the title says, this is a book about the stuff from designers you never get to see because it's in their private sketchbook or they just never chose to show it. I find this book to be very inspiring, certainly interesting if you like to see how someone else tries to hunt ideas or work them out.

2. New Retro: Classic Graphics, Today's Designs

This is very interesting if you like old design. Personally I always loved anything vintage, though it's always tricky trying to imitate something vintage or old. Often I create the risk of falling into the same old pattern, trying to create something old when it would just look fake and dried out. So this book has been a very refreshing breeze for me, it's the proof that making something old alive again really is possible in design.

3. Web Design Handbook

I don't believe the makers of this book have been spending a lot of time trying to think of a decent title, nevertheless the content is great. It's a very thick book full of modern web designs (559 pages to be exact!). I use it from time to time to flip open when I haven't got any ideas, webpages are almost always about a concept and it works great that way.

4. Illustration Now 3

Of course this can't miss from the row. I'm totally head over heels in love with it. I bought it a few months ago at a design fair and someone reminded me about the fact that these books always come in a big and a small version. I have to say, I was totally not interested in waiting for a smaller version when I had these fabulous pages in my hands. These drawings can't be big enough!

And of course I always have a wishlist, this is one I've discovered recently and really really want:

Creative Space: Urban Homes of Artists and Innovators

Featuring interiors created by people who shop in Colette in Paris, live on the Lower East Side in New York and travel to Tokyo; the domestic spaces are often DIY and strongly reflect pop culture. Filled with post-modern collectables, vintage junk finds, camouflage and graffiti, clothing and toy collections, contemporary art resting in bookshelves and crammed onto walls, these homes are an antidote to the sterility of minimalism.

coloresque.net/secrets

2010-02-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

This is a project for school I'm working on. I can't tell yet what will become of it because it is... guess what, a secret. It's anonymous anyway so don't be shy to post anything you want, really.

painting finished

2010-02-17T17:51:00.001-08:00

I managed to finish the painting within two days as I said in my previous blogpost. I'm very proud of that, and glad it's finally finished so I can start with something new. If anyone cares, it's acrylics on canvas and its dimensions are 40x50cm.

Please click it to see it bigger!

Furthermore, I watched Inglourious Basterds and absolutely loved it. I'm probably not the only one who likes the idea of the Jews taking revenge on the Nazi's. When it comes to blood, I only seem to actually like the movie when it's made by Tarantino, he has a way of making it all quite amusing. Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz did a great acting job and I just loved their dialogues, and in a total irrelevant note I was also baffled about how all the different languages were flawlessly mixed, nevertheless perfectly spoken.

DIY pencil bag

2009-10-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

button by bonnie&lily

Self portrait

2009-06-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hugo Claus sonnetten

2009-03-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

Dit was een opdracht van het tweede semester van vorig jaar. Het ging erom 10 sonnetten van Hugo Claus te verwerken op eigen manier ter herdenking van zijn dood. Ik maakte boekjes van lege theezakjes waarop de gedichten één voor één met typemachine aangebracht werden. Dit alles werd gebundeld in een houten doosje.

Linkerwoofer 2008

2008-08-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Allereerst excuses voor de langdurige voorlopige doodheid die deze blog ondergaan heeft maar hier is weer een nieuwe post vers van de pers, deze keer met foto's van het Linkerwoofer festival gisteren (enkel foto's van Foxylane en Mo&Grazz vermits het slechte weer dat een vroegtijdig vertrek met zich meebracht).

Concertfotografie

2008-06-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

Foto's van random optredens op random plaatsen (festivals), hierbij bent u gewaarschuwd voor de massive post.

Brent (Das Pop), Linkerwoofer 2007

Krezip, Pukemarock 2007

Tommy X (Enemy Rose), JOC Temse 2007

Arid, Puckemarock 2007

Schetsboek

2008-05-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Some old paintings

2008-05-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

I found some paintings on my hard disk I made a while ago. These are done from photo with a wacom.

Radiohead - In Rainbows (remake)

2008-04-16T14:01:00.001-07:00

Please click the above preview to see at actual size.
WARNING: not dial-up user friendly