Illustrated Pride Flag

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creative, decorative, flag, flowers, hand lettering, healing, ideas, illustration, ink, LGBTQ, life, nature, peace, pride, rainbow, spirit, sunlight

I spent Monday wrapped in thought and prayers for all touched by the Pulse Nightclub shooting last year. Remembering so many times members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters have touched my life, inspired creativity and shared pride in personal expression, I took to my sketchbook, trying to express emotion and meaning for each of the stripes in the Rainbow Pride Flag.

Uniball Signo 207 Bold ink pen on 11″ x 17″ Borden & Riley sketchbook

Below is a colored pencil study on a smaller size copy to show my concept for the colors. I hope to eventually create a larger version and add watercolor.

Color study in Prismacolor pencil on an 8.5″ x 11″ print.

Being out-of-town and away from my scanner, I used my favorite scanner app, Scanner Pro by Readdle Inc. to capture an image of my inked page so I could print a copy for making a color study.

I make it a regular habit to capture every sketchbook page with Scanner Pro as I finish working on it, no matter where I am. This way I always have a library of sketched ideas with me on my iPhone as a resource I can refer to in further development of my ideas.

Laser Cut Luminaries

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cancer, childhood cancer awareness, creative, gold ribbons, graphic design, graphics, lantern, luminaries, luminary, Ohio

I wanted to learn more about designing for laser cutting. So I designed this paper lantern, or luminary that holds an LED candle using my artwork for Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation.

First I developed the 3D shaping I had in mind and constructed hand cut tests to refine the shaping. Then I drew the 3D pattern pieces in Adobe Illustrator as vector line art. Next I added vector artwork I had created for the Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation scholarships and childhood cancer awareness work and began cutting tests of my design in the Fab Lab at CCAD.

At first I thought I would be lining the insides with yellow vellum paper to create glowing silhouettes of Gold Ribbons; the symbol for childhood cancer awareness. But when I tested my design with the warm white battery operated LED candles I had ordered, their yellowish light worked perfectly with plain white vellum paper as the lining, giving off a soft golden glow.

After laser cutting several iterations to refine my design, I ended up creating a movable lid that slides up the handle to get the LED candle in and out, to turn it on and off. I then cut and constructed 8 lanterns from my final design to donate to Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation. And had fun taking pictures of them assembled all together before they left my house.

©2017 Alice Frenz  all rights reserved

Read more about my artwork for Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation in this post.

 

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Make a Paper Top Hat

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bristol board, card stock, creative, hat, how to, instructions, make, paper, punch, top hat

Click here for a pdf of pattern pieces and instructions.

Materials:

• 4 – 11” x 14” pieces of Bristol board or other light weight board such as poster board. One piece of the 4 is for making the templates. I used Strathmore 300 Series Bristol board for both my templates and hat pieces.
• 7.5 yards yarn or ribbon for lacing – I used worsted weight micro-fiber yarn
• blunt point yarn needle
• sharp 6H or 4H or 2H pencil
• scissors
• paper punch

I make templates of each pattern piece out of Bristol Board. I then use the templates to trace all pieces needed for the hat. I recommend sharpening your pencil frequently to have the most precise and easily removed lines to follow in cutting and punching. My thin pencil lines are removed when I cut out the pieces. For the greatest accuracy, I just barely cut off the pencil line; no more than that. The paper punch removes the traced punch guide circles.

Click here for a pdf of pattern pieces and instructions.

©2014 Alice Frenz All Rights Reserved

Read more about this hat in Sewing Card Top Hat.

Sewing Card Top Hat

Tags

bristol board, card stock, design, hat pattern, paper, pattern, top hat, white

I designed this paper top hat as part of a 5 day hat design workshop at Miami University “The Art of the Hat” with British milliner Dagmara Childs. My design was inspired by the sewing cards that children play with, where they use yarn laced through pre-punched holes to decorate or assemble pieces made from card stock or wood.

Test Sewing Fortunes

Tags

fortune, plastic, sewing test, wearable art

I’ve been collecting fortunes from fortune cookies to use in making an art hat. I’ve always saved my favorite fortunes and pinned them up in my work areas as inspirational messages. After I had quite a few, I had the idea to make them into a hat.

I did a few tests, stitching copies of the fortunes between layers of plastic. I’m saving the original fortunes for the final hat. The idea of a plastic covered hat appeals to me because it makes me think of the design as a rain hat. I think of the fortunes as being a positive outlook on a rainy day. I need their positive messages or sometimes odd humor when things aren’t going well; when it’s raining.

©2012 Alice Frenz