I realized that I’ve never posted these! These were inspired by a comic I read regularly titled 「メンタル強め女子白川さん(Shirakawa-san, The Girl With A Rather Strong Mental Health)」and the titular character, Miss Shirakawa, makes herself self-affirmation cards and stores them in a cute tin. She flips through these cards whenever she feels a little bleh. Anyways, I wanted to start that ritual and did a draw-a-bird-a-day exercise with intent to print these.
2022 was the year of reading! I READ THIRTY BOOKS! I finally got a Libby account and was able to listen to more than a book a month!! Also I made book friends on twitter and we bounced recommendations off of each other.
My absolute top three of the year –
The Grace Year – Kim Liggett. Handmaid’s Tale but Ya. It was a bit of slog at first because there’s this permeating sense of dread throughout most of the book, but it was worth it.
A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking – T. Kingfisher. This was a quick read and very easy to emphasize with the main character, she’s hilarious and I love her.
The Witch’s Heart – Genevieve Gornichec. If you enjoyed Madeline Miller’s Circe, this one is for you. A story about the giantess who fell in love with Loki the trickster.
Listed in chronological order
I forgot to post these! Avian August is a doodle event hosted by the Cookie Dove. I’m a sucker for these drawing prompts; they’re good for studying coloring and form, and I get to draw birds. My goal was to work on an ill 30-45 minutes per day max. Made it through the month and I’m glad I did it!
The prompt>>
The doodles (in no particular order)>>
This is a mini comic I made for the cryptic anthology by Wildstar Press. It’s about a first-time exhibiting artist and her unlikely mega fan.
I read so much last year! Mainly because I started the Expanse series (which is AMAZING). Turns out I am just a sucker for space operas and war stuff. I learned a lot about world building last year and hope to incorporate that into my writing.
Expanse – James S.A. Corey
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban’s War
Abaddon’s Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
Babylon’s Ashes
Tiamat’s Wrath
Persipolis Rising
The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang
The Poppy War
The Dragon Republic
The Burning God
Teixcalaan – Arkady Martine
A Memory Called Empire
A Desolation Called Peace
An Enchantment of Ravens – Margaret Rogerson
Verspertine – Margaret Rogerson
Sorcery of Thorns – Margaret Rogerson
Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
After The Revolution – Robert Evans
For New Years, I usually make my friends and family figurines of the upcoming year’s zodiac animal. 2022 is the year of the tiger so I made these modified sarubobo dolls – or as I call em, torabobo dolls!
The sarubobo doll hails from the Hida region in Japan and means “baby monkey”. It’s an amulet that’s said to bring you good fortune. In 2008, the sarubobo was registered as a cultural handicraft of Gifu prefecture alongside other products like Mino ceramics and Neodani chrysanthemum stones. They’re seen in all over the region at souvenir shops and temples.
These little tigers are good for getting rid of your scraps! As long as they’re kind of stripey, anything would work.
What you will need:
– Torabobo pattern (download)
– Patterned scrap fabric
– White scrap fabric
– Stuffing
– Embroidery floss
– Thread and needle
Cut fabric according to pattern.
First: the head. I sew with an allowance of about 1/4 inch. Sew around the edge and leave the string in.
Pull the string a bit to make a little pouch. Stuff with fluff, until it seems impossible to close; this will insure a nice, round head.
Repeat with the white circle, which will become the snout.
On the snout, stitch a big X and then satin stitch in the nose.
Attach snout to head. I do a ladder stitch and then pull it tight to hide the seam.
Then stitch up a cute face. I like my tigers to have ferocious little faces but you do you.
Sew up the ears. Make sure to make little nicks around the curve!
And then attach it to the back of the head!
Next we make the body. Basically you sew up the corners. If you look at the pattern, you can see that you’re suppose to sew line A to A, then B to B. It’ll make a weird opening in the middle.
Flip the body inside out. Maybe use a skewer to make the leg points come out nice. Stuff to the brim, then ladder stitch it up.
Secure head and stitch it on. Again, I do a rough ladder stitch and then pull at the string hard to hide the seam.
Next the tail. Fold and crease the tail piece so that it looks like a bias tape. Fold in the edges so that you don’t get any unraveling. Experiment!
Ladder stitch the creases together so the thread doesn’t show too much.
Attach tail to bum.
Voila!
Pretty soon you’ll have a streak of tigers. Have fun!
For those of you who don’t know, I also “do” dollhouse miniatures. “Doing” is a very loose term because for me, because it is a collection of activities serving one goal: to tell a story.
Growing up, Sylvanian Families were a luxury toy that I could only get if I asked my Grandma in Japan to mail me some. They had always been a notch more special than Barbie or Legos to me, because the attention to detail of the toy line is out of this world. Nowadays you can find it sold under the Calico Critters brand in the states, and is much easier to obtain.
I started this hobby back in January of 2019. It started out as a family of Sylvanian Families owls, called the Treefellows, whom I fell in love with and purchased from England, and my pursuit of making them the perfectest little house. Since then my collection has grown, and includes other vintage brands like Baerenwald Forest and Simba Bears. In short, I just like tiny, moveable, flocked dolls and the world they can display.
The hobby is all-engulfing. You can just make wooden dollhouses from a kit and collect pieces to fill it, discovering the world of vintage Lundby and Petit Princess. Fill it with weird Japanese gachapon like J-dream, or Re-Ment miniatures. Or you can make them, with all sorts of materials! Like woodsy whimsy styles by Ann Wood. Or crisp IKEA style furniture using a precision cutter, like Dilly Dally Dollhouse. I do all of the above.
What started as a creative hobby and a storytelling exercise eventually became a learning journey. I’ve learned so many techniques – UV resin, using a Cricut, grouting, too many to fit in a tiny office that I share with my husband in this work from home climate. It’s also been a lesson in organizing and cleaning up after myself.
Since that fateful January when I welcomed Aristotle into my home, I’ve made A LOT of dollhouses – and even sell them through my local art gallery, JCO’S Art Haus! I even made a minizine about my dollhouses, which are currently still available over at my shop.
Anyways, I’m inviting you to check out Flocking Street, a tiny corner of make-believe San Francisco. I’ll start posting here too, since I want to consolidate my sites in order to tidy up my digital and professional life.
This was a pitch for a “death positivity” comic anthology that didn’t make it. But I sure do love me a good yokai comic! I went for a nature documentary narration instead of a dialogue, resulting in me watching hours of David Attenborough shows to pick up his “feel”. 2019, digital, printed for SFZF only.
I made this mini comic during my kids’ winter break. It was originally for an anthology about the element of Earth, and naturally I went with the concept of earthy flavors. I unfortunately didn’t get a spot in the anthology but decided to finish the comic as a warm up since I haven’t done a comic in a while. Enjoy!
