Blue Monday Bunday

We are sad to have woken up this morning to find that our friend all the way round the world in Nottingham, England, the lovely and lordly Hugo, lagomorph partner of Dutchie girl Miss Eve, has passed from this physical plane. 

Wrapped in angels

Snowy Hugo

Winks his ruby eye

We wave our paws

And whisper through our tears

"Until we meet again"

Year of the Ox Proofings

Been working on the Year of the Ox print. Actually this is the second one, I started over having had a bit of a slip with the big chisel. I took the accident as an opportunity to re-design the whole thing. The first image here is a proof of the re-design, it's OK but I don't really see anything in it that would keep people from throwing it away. It's just a bit flat and maybe even a bit boring after a minute or two.

This is four blocks and four impressions.

Mr. Ox got a makeover with some carving and fancy printing techniques. Somewhat jazzier, though the moon is not quite round, I think I can fix that. Hmm, just a bit more carving here and there and maybe this Ox will be ready to fly!

Here I carved away the green that was inside the Ox, added some flecks and did Bokashi (gradation printing) on the mountains and the top of the sky. Four blocks and six impressions.

.......And to All a Good Night

Rose photo dates from early Summer, I took it thinking that it would be nice to remind me of warmth, light and flowers sometime in mid Winter.

Have just listened to part of an NPR program that informs us  Christmas was singlehandedly popularized by Charles Dickens. Before "A Christmas Carol" it was a sort of minor holiday; the power of the word and of some clever ad men is awesome. But do not think that I am such a terrible curmudgeon regarding this season. Just today I have been cleaning house with holiday cheerfulness, accompanied by rabbits thumping behind the sofa. Only the restocking of a new bunvention with three kinds of hay has soothed injured feelings. As far as spiritual inspiration, for me this time of year seems to call for Lord Buckley's "The Nazz" and you can hear it here. 

Don't eat with your mouth full, share your food, may all buns have good appetites and plenty of greens.

Special get well soon wishes to our bunfriends in Nottingham, Hugo and Miss Eve

May all our Blogosphere friends and buns stay warm, be happy and dig infinity.

Monday Bunday; Art Project

"This is not a treat induced pose, I am naturally cute."

PJ from here asked me to make her a custom mat using sloppy seconds. Tyler sure hopes she likes it, and so do I because it's going out today. 

Happy Bunday all.

Monday Bunday; Book Review

The top is quite tasty, but will it make me grow taller?

The Spots bought a book at the local bookstore. It was of reasonable price because it was a "remainder". What we used to called in the record business an "over pressing", which means it didn't sell so well at the original list price. This book has a catchy title, so it was purchased. It is comprised of Chinese sayings mostly from that 6th century BC classic,  The Art of War. 

Could we learn something from this book, or could it learn something from us?

The first part of the book goes through the sayings and elaborates on them. For example the favorite saying "A clever rabbit has three hiding places" is further explained thusly, "The world is full of hunters and each hunter brings danger. The hunted have their hiding places, but the hunter knows them too. That is why it is necessary to fool the hunter and offer him an empty hiding place while you have secretly prepared another place of safety." 

I think I can hide use it to hide behind  (not quite, Sydney)

The second part of the book offers an A-Z of everyday situations and relevant stratagems. Success is just a quote away. Under  C we find Conscience and one of the situations reads "I have a bad conscience and want to feel better." Here the advice is to  "scold the goat because the milk is sour" or in other words if you have made a mistake and want to avoid punishment shift the blame to someone else. 

This is an excellent hiding place, I sure can't see you......

Hmm, but then wouldn't you just find bad because you'd caused a possibly innocent person to be unfairly blamed ? Well, the book doesn't quite all fit together, but it is a good introduction to some classic Chinese sayings such as: A good horse runs by itself:  Learn from the teacher and the tinker: Let the meal cook slowly: (and finally) Make everyone happy.

We Are Pleased With Ourselves

Tyler and Sydney are pleased to announce that they have been featured on another blog, that of  Junk Style Diva and you can see it by clicking HERE. And check out the rest of her blog while you are there.

The Bus Was Late

Pay no attention to the rabbit behind the curtain.

The bus was late so we missed Monday Bunday. In the mornings I often sit in the kitchen to warm up and drink tea. Sometimes I will hear tremendous crashings from the living (rabbit) room, as if they had suddenly sprouted uncontrollable wings and were bouncing off walls and windows. When I push through the door all is quiet. One morning after just such a commotion I found Tyler hiding behind a towel that covers fire wood and Sydney in a box that some nutritional supplements arrived in. Of course the event had to be documented. I thought I might use Sydney's picture as a Christmas/Solstice card, but I use it now to thank everyone who dropped by in last post and left kind, sweet and supportive comments. THANK YOU. Rabbits rule and we are cooking up some ideas for prints and such in the rabboratory.

Fragile bunns for peace, we will thank for treats and snacks.

Something to Be Learned

I was asked to make as a donation to benefit the Waldorf School, some sauerkraut. I carved and printed labels too. Here are the pints waiting for their ride.

I like to think there is something to be learned from a fiasco. Maybe fiasco isn't the right word, since that implies crazy mix ups, possibly some ironic humor, or a badly dramatic situation. So maybe my experience at the Winterfest was just flat bad. I had thought I was being cleaver by sharing a table with someone who has many connections in the community, this I was sure would bring some buyers my way. Unfortunately my half table was ill positioned and it seemed to me nothing could be done about it, so I didn't complain. We were outside and the table shape was an L, with the toe of the L against a wall. My part was the foot of the L. As far as real estate goes this was certainly a fine and private place, but almost hidden by the display trees of my table mate. The area where my potential customers might be standing and merrily looking through charming prints was encroached upon the chairs of my neighbor, although I made a point of telling them that I needed to maintain a clear access to my area. I made some signage and put my most fetching print on the wall, hoping Hugo and Miss Eve would reel in the buyers. Action was minimal. People, who I know, seemed not to recognize me behind the table, or thought I had some hand in making the misshapen, but  popular felt creations of my table mate. It is not as if I didn't sell a thing, I did sell 2 prints and 11 mini pics. I may live in a rabbit centered universe, but rabbits, it would appear are not universally popular. Yes, this is a shocking realization. One little girl wouldn't even look at the bunnies, even though urged by her grandmother, because  she was a "dog person". Lessons learned: 1-get your own table. 2-educate the public on how these prints are made. Everything is so instant and accessible it takes some knowledge to appreciate "Slow Art". I had made  slide show to this end, but couldn't show it because there wasn't power available. 3-Maybe offer a few non-rabbit prints (ouch). 4-Boyfriend urges me to add that I mustn't let myself be pushed around.

Close-up of sauerkraut. Labels attached with rubber bands from the New York Times.

Printing and Prepping

2 From Nottingham (one color way)

This Saturday I take my prints to an arts and crafts fair; I have half a table a the Santa Cruz Waldorf Winterfest. These last two weeks or so I have been consumed with printing new color combos of 2 From Nottingham (that would be Hugo and Miss Eve to most of my readers). 

And another color way with added bokashi (7 colors)

I've also been making things out of my sloppy seconds prints (quality control claims a certain number of works). To this end I made some, um, some, well I don't really know what they are. Cut out reject  rabbit heads are decoupaged on leftover mat board which is three and quarter by four inches and the top is laced with some ribbon to make for hanging. 

Desperate attempts to use up not so great prints and leftover mat board bits.

They could be appropriately used as tree decorations, pictures for a doll's house, an elf's yurt (you didn't know elves lived in yurts did you?) or a teddy bear's study. I think it is good to have something cheaply priced for kids, I'll sell these for maybe 3 bucks even though that in no way reflects the amount of work that went into them. OTOH they aren't perfect, if they were the corners would be rounded and the holes would have grommets. 

I made 22 of these and probably spent 4-5 hours doing it, so silly.

Since I don't have any Moku Hanga bizness cards I banged out a few of those using blanks, the rest of the chopped up prints and some decoupage. Since I used the heads for in my first print reincarnation project this left me with a lot of bunny butts for the cards. Oh well, I see no need to take myself too terribly seriously, not when looking at the big picture. What's wrong with a bunny butt anyway????? 

All parts of the bunny are attractive and socially appropriate.