Down with the Sickness

I have been ill lately so as a result the doins' and whatnots' have been less than exiting. Its hard to me to rest and do nothing. When forced to do so due to illness, I tend to be plagued with depression of "what could have been done".

I have begun a pirate-esque corset for my mom as part of her Halloween costume and have also started working on my costume. I'm having fun with it even though at this time I have no killer Halloween plans.

I turned my contact lens case from something so horrid & gross that I almost liked it....


Into something that is much more fun and appropriate to hang out in my bag.

That was a few minute good time with some plastic sealant and the wrapper to a particularly delicious Japanese snack lovingly bestowed upon me at the Melvins.

I have also been studying up on Japan and beginning to learn the language. Travel to Japan will commence next June. I am overly exited about this as you soon will see and I will wallow obscenely in the glory of the journey. It would not be false to say that this will be a fulfillment of a life long desire. I have wanted to see Japan since I was young. I used to cut out photos of the country from National Geographic when I was a kid and paste them to my walls. There will be many post on this to come, I'm sure. Stay tuned.

The latest pinhole camera is made from a Dragonfly Wafer Stick container. Coconut flavor- to be specific.

This sweet mama has produced the best picture to date, Bien Sur.

I know, I agree..Photography really is witchcraft.
Bonus Photo from out the window at work. This one was from the ol' oatmealcam.

On the horizon comes a few projects. For the first time since its purchased the Elmo Super 8 camera will be used as a contrabution to a video music short for Rust.

I'm looking forward to seeing the products of that. I ordered some black and white super 8 film around a year ago and there it is still sitting....waiting.
I guess the Elmo and I were waiting for just the right occasion.
The video footage will be blended with some stop motion to bring the awesomeness to a level 11.

Gathering of the Minds

If anyone knows locations of Photobooths here in Portland or anywhere in Oregon for that matter...please let me know. Im on a mission. I know of the one at the roller rink obviously and also at Red Light. If you see one...holler.

Two Miracles

Not much to report lately since I've just been working diligently to get this dress finally d-o-n-e.

Very exiting to report that last night the dress is complete. We shall cross our finger that the final fitting did the trick. Now I can move forward with other projects like my EL wire corset, more photos, and a sprinkle of silk screening.

The other miracle is the photo that I shot at work turned out. This was in direct sunlight out a window for 33 minutes exactly. Im planning to do another run at work on a day that I will have more time to develope. Next time I am going to shorten the time to 25 minutes.

Interesting

Through my various pinhole attempts (its all about experimenting), I have not got much to show for it except a sink full of white and black pieces of paper.

However, I at least every once and awhile get something that at least looks interesting. Ill post those too when they arise.

Camera Obscura

My latest project was building a pinhole camera out of shit in my house and take some awesome photos. I bought all the supplies a couple of months ago (chemicals and RC paper) then never got around to it until the thieves stole my camera. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get in touch with the roots of photography while I wait for my new camera to arrive like a well behaved squirrel.

I built my first camera out of a bread crumb container and a beer can.

Go learn for a moment...

I set up a mini dark room in the basement.
My first two attempts were blank. Alas, the paper hinting for the need of a longer exposure time.

Today for Pinhole Test Run #3, I placed the camera outside for one hour.

Self high five because this shit worked finally.

I also took the opportunity while this photo was brewing to construct two more cameras for tomorrows pre-Melvins photo experiment time.

The larger one on the left is from coffee can and the one on the right is an Altoid tin. I plan to use the tin as a portable means of capturing one specific moment. Maybe if I am close to the stage tomorrow night, We'll see what happens.

Artist formerly known as Plusiotis

Special delivery in the mail today.
The PLUSIOTIS/CHRYSINA BEYERI

Papilio protenor euprotenor

It was pointed out that I receive a lot of odd things in the mail. I dabble in a lot of stuff. Thus resulting in some interesting packages awaiting me after work. This week alone I got a Crystal Gayle t-shirt, cookie cutters shaped like a rocket and panties, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, and this....
From China,

All snuggled up tight,

The Papilio protenor euprotenor.

If you would like to reconstitute your butterflies you snip the corners off of the velum. Place them in a airtight container with a moist paper towel. Let them be there for a day or so. This will make them pliable enough to work with for any of your random bug projects.
Beetles are on the way.
Rope is one of my favorite movies ever. Its almost one entire shot through the entire film. I have found two.

Now, its time to go check the pinhole test run #2.
Fingers crossed.

Titter

This weekend was all a titter of busy work while I battled a haunting headache. I am working simultaneously on two projects. Both with detailed posts to come. One is a dress for a friend. Ive never really made a dress before. Theoretically, it should be much easier than corests. I will not be doing this again soon. She is worth it but, I'm too much of a perfectionist.

To ease the pain of silky fabrics AND since the burglers took away my future camera, i'm going old school with the homemade pin hole camera. This is crazy fun witchcraft. I am so far enjoying it tremendously.
I learned that I am more adept at working in complete darkness than one would have thought.
Test run #1 tonight was not exposed enough.
We shall see what tomorrows attempts bring.

For now, and ode to the busy work of this weekend.

I couldn't believe it myself. A "Get R Done" airbrush cowboy truck tailgate montage.
Even worse that this was on Hawethorne.
I guess if your going to be an asshole, you might as well do it right.

Things we learned this weekend:
Touching developer is irritating.
Blueberry PopTarts are superior above all other flavors.
Watch parts are more expensive that I had thought.
How to iron something properly,
and that Native American-ly speaking, the dragonfly totem symbolizes the fruition of works after a cycle of two years in change.
(I found one perfectly dead next to my car)

Dear Asshole, Thanks for fucking me

My birthday week was pretty good. I went to dinner, had some quite time, and then had the greatest evening seeing Band of Horses and Dinosaur Jr. play at the Ballroom.

The cherry on the top was A: having to get up from the warm snuggles after only sleeping for 3 hours and B: getting to my car to find out that burglers totally fucked me.

Behold the glory of thievery. They made off with my 1300$ Dell laptop (damn close to new), my web cam, my ipod, my contact lenses, my grass, my checkbook, my entire bag with my medication (including birth control you evil mother fuckers), and worst of all my camera. For being a chic, Im not overly possessed by my posessions however; they happen to take the things that link me to more creative things. Taking my camera is really the equivilent of stealing my child. P.S. breaking the window into thousands of peices is total crap.

All my photos are gone forever. No pictures of Italy, none of my artwork, no movies that were in progress for ya'lls entertainment.

Alors~ Damage contol is well underway. Checking account cancelled, med's being refilled, computers being shopped around for, window is being fixed on Monday.

All will come full circle in the end.

So this years birthday lesson is:
A: dont hide your laptop so well in your car even you forget that it is there.

B: backup all your electronic creative projects.

C: people are evil.

Ca Plane Pour Moi

This weekend kicked off the Horror Movie Halloween Countdown Spectacular.
My roomies and I enjoy nothing more than craptastic blood filled flics. We logged so many over the years that its hard to keep track. My horror movie collection is approximately 1/4 of my entire DVD library. I love them with a passion.
This weekend I saw the new Halloween Rob Zombie Remix. It was pretty good actually. Not so "Rob Zombie" as his other films however, this new Jamie Lee Curtis impersonator is not nearly as cunning and lacks the sense of control portrayed by the original Laurie. There were also a few small changes. Nothing that spurs a freakout.
After the new Halloween we immediately watched the original Halloween. You, I, and everyone else- All love P.J. Soles.

Its the house favorite and a classic that launches us every season. This year I will keep a list- Just for S's & G's.
Horror Log #666:
Halloween 2007
Halloween - original
Dolls
Sweeney Todd- The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
The Eerie Midnight Horror Show
It's pretty much porn. I did not know that. The Universe is good to me.
Currently viewing Phantasm.
Not a bad starting line up this season.
What to be for Halloween this year though?
Hummmm....I'll have to sleep on that.
Here, You sleep on this...