Grimm Fabrications- Photo Credit- Of' Storms Creative Studios

Monday 28 April 2014

Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo

This past weekend was the 2014 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. This year was four days of excitement, fun, fandom, and all of the good stuff that I look forward to every year. I ended up doing really well. 

This was my booth on Sunday (pirate themed), with Wendel having a great time. 


I got lots of great stuff.


And the whole weekend ended with me being the proud owner of a katana (twas a gift. It's not a good sword, but it's a katana, and I'm delighted by it). 



Now, I'm still really tired (we slept until almost noon), so this blog post isn't terribly exciting or motivated. However, I had promised that I was going to do a blog about what booths and people I was excited about. I fell through on that (sad. Sorry.), so now I am going to link to different artists and people that I met, and what I found most exciting.

Akumu Ink- T-shirts with cool designs. They're one of my all time favourite t-shirt companies. I grabbed their 'Dead Riding Hood' ladies tee.
Ragnaroth- 3D Printed items. I am the proud owner of one of their 3D Printed Fluttershy figures.
Elle Is A Monster- Portraits, buttons, and other bits of magic. She had these fantastic fandom themed floral crowns, and I grabbed one of her 'Ravenstag' floral crowns (pictured in the photo of me with my katana). 
Wasted Talent- Web comic by Angela Melick. I purchased a sketch from her (she drew my face!). 
Cute Glass- Amazing glass work. We traded items. My Game of Thrones hood went to a proud home, and I gave home to an amazing glass fox pendant. It's so cute! Not to mention the fact that the artists are some of the nicest people I've ever met.
Story of the Door- Beautiful art. She designed these fantastic knitted scarves, and man, are they cuddly and warm. 
WolfCop- WOLFCOP!
Camilla D'Errico- She is probably the biggest name artist that I talked to and purchased art from. I decided to go with two small postcard sized prints, because otherwise I would have bought all of her art. It's so beautiful, and she seems like such a lovely person. 

There are probably way more people to check out... but that's all that I can think of for right now. I can't wait for next year! This year was unbelievable and surprising. Thank you to everyone who came out, enjoyed my work, and visited my booth!

Sunday 20 April 2014

Sunday Fun Day: Happy Days 40-46

Last week of school! Happy days! And one really bad day... but other than that, a good week! By the way, happy Easter everyone! Have a beautiful day. Sparkle sparkle sparkle.





Lots of selfies this week... Sorry about that... actually, kidding! I'm not sorry. I don't need to apologize. The last photo is my happy face, and I shouldn't feel any remorse for showing that off! Any who...

The Comic Expo is in just a few days. It's going to be crazy. I still need to finish some things, and on Wednesday I have to go into school to drop off my grad piece and go to a grad meeting. Not really excited about that... but such is life. I think I'm just less stoked because the comic expo starts on Thursday, so I feel like I have better things to work on. Ah well! I'm excited. Yesterday I played around with display on one of our tables. Good news is, the comic expo tables are two feet longer than the table I was playing around with. Good news... otherwise I wouldn't have enough room for everything! Tomorrow I make a quick run to Staples and the dollar store (if they're open... Otherwise I'll go on Tuesday) to pick up binder sleeves and safety pins and stuff. So much to do! So little time! Butterflies with combat boots stomping around in my stomach and flapping their wings! Aaaauuugghh!!! Squeeeee... I am really excited. I think it'll be a good year. Soon I'll be posting about what I'll definitely be seeing at the Expo, and who I intend to meet. Akumu Ink and R.L.Stine are going to be there, and both of those entities are exciting! 

Friday 18 April 2014

Fandom Friday: The Munsters


For the longest time, I only watched The Addams Family, and don't get me wrong. I absolutely adore The Addams Family. However, lately we've been watching The Munsters. My husband's parents gave the complete series to him for his birthday, and we've been plowing through. May I say that it's hilarious?


In case you're unfamiliar, The Munsters follows an American family of monsters. All of the family members are based off of Universal monsters (Frankenstein's monster and  the monster's bride, the Wolfman, Dracula, and so on). In many ways, it's very similar to The Addams Family, except that  they actually are monsters, and there is some incredibly dark, subtle, humor. It's fantastic.

One thing that I really enjoy are the aesthetics of the show. Even the cover of the DVDs fascinates me. The colour palette is perfect, and is exactly what I want everything to be right now (I'm really interested in pastel goth right now), and the font used for the opening credits is fantastic (oooh dripping letters!). The costuming in the show is wonderful, particularly Lily Munster's clothing. It's all very wonderful.

I recommend that you watch it. It's amazing. The writing is amazing. 


It makes me feel better about being a weird person. It's great.

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Fancy Stickers

The stickers are printed, and fully cut out. Took me several hours of cutting, but it's well worth it. They're fantastic!

 

 

These will be available at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, and I'll probably post them to my Etsy shop as well. They're all fairly large, printed in black and white on matte sticker paper. There's a ridiculous variety of designs, and I enjoy all of them. For Pirate Sunday, I have several pirate and nautical themed stickers that will only be there on that day. The stickers will be $2 each, 2 for $3, and 5 for $5. Watch out, kids!

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Stickers


I like drawing. Drawing is a delightful way to pass time. Especially when it's bold, and graphic. Today I drew some sheets of designs that will be copied onto sticker paper, and then these drawings will become stickers. I'm excited about that. Because... y'know. Stickers are awesome. 




I'm quite pleased with the drawings. They're mostly done using permanent marker, with a bit of ink for detailing and finer lines. For the most part, they're inspired by lowbrow art, nu & pastel goth, creepy cute, 90s revival, and satanic images. The satanic images are kind of tongue-in-cheek. I really like "satanic" imagery, but for the most part, I think that satanism is kind of silly. At least in terms of how it's approached in popular culture and media. That is another story for another time. Hurray! Sticker awesomeness! I'm planning to make one or two more sheets, including a pirate series. There are a total of 15 sticker sheets, and 3 of each should be good. Or I'll stick to three pages and do five pages of each. We'll see!

Sunday 13 April 2014

Sunday Fun Day: Days 33-39

This week was full of awesome, including birthday awesome. 100 Happy Days, days 33 to 39. It's been a good week.



 



Website Launch


Drumroll, please!

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to announce that the official Grimm Fabrications website has been launched! Exciting!

The website is www.grimmfabrications.com.  It's fancy, and makes me excited for the future of Grimm Fabrications!

What you can expect from *the new* Grimm Fabrications

Hey, friends.

As you may or may not know, Grimm Fabrications (that's me!) has returned from a several months long hiatus. During this time, I did some self discovery, and really considered what I wanted to do with my future, and where I wanted to take Grimm Fabrications. Now, without further ado, here is a brief list of what you can expect from me, and my beloved Grimm Fabrications.

  • More illustration, drawing, and written projects. This will include things like zines, which I'm really excited about.
  • More wearables that I have carefully designed myself. Things like shirts.
  • Lots and lots of 90s revival stuff, nu goth, pastel goth, and lowbrow inspired art and clothing.
  • More videos.
  • Day to day updates about whatever I have made that day.
  • A stronger desire to  involve myself with my "fans" (that's you folks, who follow me regularly. We can discuss a name by which I will call you. "Fans" is kind of weird. So is "Followers").
  • Updates on my research, inspiration, and everything  that I'm working on in those regards.

Are you excited? I'm excited. I'm posting this because I want to make sure that everyone who was following me because of my hoods and fur things is aware of the fact that I'm changing direction, and moving away from my past stuff. I think that it's only fair. Hopefully, a few of you will stick around, and maybe even get more excited. We'll see!

Questions? Comments? I will respond to anything you send me! 

Monday 7 April 2014

Patches

I've started posting items to my Etsy shop again. I will be putting my shop on Vacation soon, within the next week or so, but for now you can see the shirts and patches that I've made. Adding a few things over the next week, particularly jewelry and collars. 

Any ways, here are some photos of the patches that I made. They will be available at the Comic Expo!



I'm getting so excited about all of this stuff! By "stuff", I mean my artwork and wearable pieces and jazz! I can't believe so soon the Expo is... First the Expo, and then... the rest of my life, making cool things!

Music Monday: Lorde


Lorde is a  New Zealand teenager, who has taken the music world by a storm (wow... I sound like someone who works for MTV). I started listening to her after listening to Puddles' covers of her songs. For a while, I wasn't terribly fond of the original songs, mostly because I was so in love with the 7-foot tall clown with the golden voice. Then, I started listening to Lorde, and all her songs just struck a chord with me. I like the hip-hop-like beats, her soft voice, and, ultimately, everything. 


She's also adorable. And I like how she dresses (mostly because it's how I'm trying to dress right now). 

Back to the music. Her album 'Pure Heroine' is  beautiful from finish to end, and all of the songs knit together nicely. Rather, they flow together nicely. It's a joy to listen to. The other day I bought the CD so that I could actually listen to it in the car. Sure, several of her songs are on the radio all of the time, but it's nice to listen to the songs on an album. I'm pretty sure that they're just meant to be listened to all at once. It's really lovely. 

Sunday 6 April 2014

Sunday Fun Day: Happy Days 26-32

Here are this week's happy day photos! Lots of Spring-centric joy.



 

 

It's been a good week! The weather has been beautiful!

Saturday 5 April 2014

Horns



Today I made some horns. I've been interested in making horns for a while. I think that horns are really cute. I keep seeing them in the context of Kawaii, Sweet Lolita, and Dolly Kei fashions. I'm drawn to the pastel colours, pretty details, and just the fact they're horns. Of late, I've been thinking about creating a fawn character, and horns are an integral part of that. So far I have made six pairs, excluding two that didn't quite work out, and the first pair that I made for myself (which I will probably wear on the first day or two days of the Comic Expo). Each pair of horns will come with a mini-zine, giving explanation of how to wear, how to treat your horns correctly, and a few drawings of horned people. Along with the two pastel ones above, I have made two plain black pairs (one glossy, one matte), a pair that looks like glittery swampy marble goodness, and another pair of lavender ones that is smooth and has two types of ribbon on it. I'm kind of in love with all of them. Soon, I hope to learn  how to cast with resin. That'll give me the opportunity to make sets of horns that are lighter, and less fragile. Which will be nice! In due time...

Here are a few images of Lolita & Fairy Kei with horns that struck up my inspiration. Just to give context. I've just been really into these kinds of Japanese fashions of late! 


 



Counting down to the Expo... I can't wait! Even though I still have waaay too much to do.

Friday 4 April 2014

Fandom Friday: Marvel Movies

Continuing with naming every day of the week! Or at least making each day have a theme that encourages me to write no matter what. Fridays are now Fandom Fridays, when I will write about what I'm geeking out over this week. This will be everything and anything that's making me act like a nerd. Not a bad thing. For the next few weeks, I'll be trying to curb my enthusiasm a bit, and ebb my excitement. Why? THE COMIC EXPO IS IN THREE WEEKS! So.... I'm going to try to tone it down, so that when I write a Fandom Friday post, it won't be AHMAGAD THE COMIC EXPO IS SO SOON AND I CAN'T STAND IT!! every. Single. Week. Any ways. Now you know that I'm excited. And we can get on with our lives.


Yesterday, my husband, myself, and a group of my husband's friends went to see Captain American: Winter Soldier. It was the premier night (midnight showing! At... 8:30 PM...?), and my husband and his friend dressed up as Captain America and Winter Soldier (respectively). I even styled my hair to have Victory Rolls (it took me four tries). A three year old boy recognized them, and lots of people asked for their photos. Which is just fantastic. It was a fun night, and man. 

What. An amazing movie.

I don't consider myself to be a Marvel fan. I don't really read the comics, and for a while, the movies struck me as okay. Watchable, but nothing amazing. Ultimately, superhero movies aren't my favourite, just as superhero comics aren't my favourite. However, Marvel movies are just getting better, and better. I started to really love them after Iron Man 3 and The Avengers (fun fact: I just saw The Avengers for the first time on Tuesday). Captain America: Winter Soldier was absolutely incredible. I think what I like about Marvel's movies is that they don't feel like superhero movies. The characters are well-developed. Nothing feels forced. The fact that people have super powers is kind of incidental, and it doesn't feel unnatural to the world that's being created. It's nice to see that, and have that feeling. 

Any ways, I'm not going to talk much longer about this (it's tired, and I think I'm ready for bed), but I will say that if you haven't seen any of the Marvel movies, get out and start watching them. Guardians of the Galaxy comes out this summer, and I think it's going to be absolutely amazing (I'm in the process of making a Rocket Raccoon costume). So excited. 

Go watch Captain America. Right now. Please. If you want to.

*nerdity*

Thursday 3 April 2014

Throwback Thursday

I've decided that I need to get back into the habit of blogging every day. Thus far, I've been really bad at that. In order to get myself blogging, I've decided to do daily prompts to ensure that I blog about something. At the moment, these will be the internet-wide things like 'How Tuesday' and 'Throwback Thursday' and so on. That being said... Throwback Thursday! The day on which I will discuss past artwork from previous lives, or just the past in general! (Speaking of, today is 1950s Rockabilly day. Not officially... but as I write this I am wearing hair curlers.) 

Today, I am going to tell you about something that I did when I was in my last year of high school. All the way back in 2010 (wow!). For a long time I was really interested in singing, playing guitar, and writing music. I wrote a lot of songs, and would play my guitar every day. I used to have some wicked calluses on my fingers because of this. In 2010, I learned about an indie record label in Regina called 'Urban Planning Records'. To be honest, I don't know if they exist anymore, because I couldn't find anything last time I was looking. I sent them a demo, and a bunch of t-shirt designs (I was also into designing band t-shirts at the time). They were basically just recording out of their basement, and they were a great bunch of guys. One of the most rock and roll experiences of my life to date (kidding... but for an 18 year old from a small town, my mind was blown). We recorded four of my songs, full band and everything, and it was amazing. All of this was recorded under a name that I came up with in Physics class: Gravity Kills Children.


Why am I writing about this? Well, after I left high school, I played guitar less, and less, and less... Until I stopped. Recently, my fingertips and the fringes of my soul have been itching to feel those metal strings, the wood body, and frets. Today I picked up the guitar again. And it's amazing. I listened to these old songs of mine, because naturally I don't remember any of the lyrics. Well... barely. Maybe it's just time to write new songs. Either way... my soul is satisfied.