The Adventures of DA BONE

Aloha!

I am going to post a fabric - design - work related entry every Wednesday so keep checking back as I relay some of the goings-on of the past year, and get you up-to-date on what can be expected in the coming year.

I was thrilled when Kathy, co-owner and Head Stylist of Michael Miller Fabrics, agreed to allow me to display my new Halloween group APOTHESCARY at Quilt Market in Houston this past fall. It's a nine-piece collection of prints geared for the little mad scientist in all of us, and our junior chemists and pharmacists in the family. The great aspect of the collection (from a merchandising standpoint) is that the group transcends the frightful holiday and individual designs can be placed in other categories. Here's the link to the collection on the Michael Miller Fabrics website:

http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/MMF/Swatch4.cfm?&Gnam=Halloween

Also, all of the designs in the Halloween category are mine, and it's going to get bigger as I have a few more patterns which I am shooting to debut at the Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City this year.

Once I got the okay to proceed, the process of designing my space began. I, at first, wanted to do a mad scientist's lab - stone walls, bubbling beakers, etc. but it just didn't settle with me 100% - there seemed to be something lacking. Then I remembered that MMF had 2-color damask patterns in an array of combos, so I hoped to find one in red-and-black... BINGO! And better yet, there was one in a black ground with a charcoal grey metallic design. This what it!! Suddenly Sweeney Todd meets the Addams Family meets Dark Shadows came to mind and the design of the booth was born.

As a designer I'm always saving pages from magazines that are inspiring, and years ago I came across a project technique in one that took newspaper, formed into the basic shape of a bone, and then was covered in plaster coated gauze bandage (similar to what would be used for a cast). The article also showed a very large bone resting against a wall, and it was then that I knew I was destined to create this dino-sized femur.

So, the process began. I enlisted the help of a couple of my very talented and artistic friends Keri and Penny. What do we use for the inside armature? How to we make it rigid and shippable yet light enough not to be cost prohibitive? Plaster vs. foam? Soon, the answers came to us.

The long portion of the bone would be wire window-screen stuffed with air bladders used for shipping. How big should we make it? I don't know... let's use the entire roll of the screen (approximately 7'.) The ends would be papier-mache balloon shapes, held together with glue and masking tape. The entire structure would be covered with strips of muslin soaked in plaster of paris.

DA BONE

Pre-Production: Paper-mache globes (Penny trying them on for size), roll of wire window screen.

After the center was wrapped with the fabric-and-plaster strips, the ends of the screen were slit and the globes attached to the ends of the bone. Here's Keri who was fearless about making a mess and getting her hands dirty.

The bone, drying, on my design table (the table is 60" long.) Photo taken one morning from outside of the lanai where my office and studio is located. It was finally sealed with gesso and tea-stained to give it an aged appearance.

Fitting the bone in its cardboard casing for shipping. I wrapped it in bubble wrap, and Penny suggested using insulation foam in a can to secure it even further. Brilliant packing idea!

The bone arrived safe and sound in Houston. It was my second piece of checked luggage for the $25.00 luggage fee (it measured 7'3" packed and weighed 25 pounds.) You should have seen the spectacle I caused at the airport checking this in!

Unwrapping the bone at the convention center.

The bone on display in my APOTHESCARY space in the Michael Miller Booth. The black-and-charcoal metallic damask fabric was adhered to the walls using liquid starch. The picture frames display the fabric collection, and strangely enough, most of the props in the booth are things that I own and have collected over the years :/

And thus ends the saga of the 6'9" plaster-of-paris and fabric bone's journey from Haiku, Maui to Houston, Texas. It now lives snuggled in it's packaging in a warehouse in New Jersey.

01/29/12; CNY; Saturday Dinner; Sweet Potato

Aloha!

I hope everyone had a great last week of the first month of the new year!

Why you would chose to come back and participate in the recounting of my life of the last 7 days is a wonder to me - maybe I am entertaining or have something interesting to say. As I mentioned before in a previous post, I am doing this mainly to have a journal of my accomplishments of the week prior to writing this post. I need to... I HAVE to - because I get involved in my life, and sometimes - okay, many times - can't remember what it was I did on a particular day only a few fleeting hours ago.

I finished the Gingerbread House Quilt and Doll pattern based on my Gingerbreadtown collection for Michael Miller Fabrics. I'll post everything shortly - once it is a fait accompli - and have released it all to the public... I'm not teasing! I promise... there's just too much to post all at once.

I finished another round of corrections on my novel SHAG - a task which I thought was finalized 3 years ago but alas, things are never completely done. Once I have confirmation that the book is corrected, I'll post info about it. SHAG shall live again!

Also, as you are aware, I started blogging again. It's something I think is a great outlet for someone like me, who doesn't have the time to separate himself from time and space and enter the realm of a fictional world on a regular basis - and let me tell you - reality is scarier than any fiction I could ever come up with!

Most everything that I am depicting pictorially happened in the last few days. Yesterday I went to the Chinese New Year celebration in Kahului - mulled around for a while, bought a few sweets for dessert, and completed my weekly run into town.

There's always someone hidden under that sheepskin!

My "Koi with Lotus and Waves" design made into a small laptop quilt. I like it paired with the red!

Lions, and lions, and dragons, oh my!

Doesn't it look as if he's sizing her up for a meal?

I'm cleaning the house to within an inch of its life in preparation of my sister's visit... cooked a lovely meal for myself (a weekly reward) and watched PSYCHO - geez! I'd forgotten how incredible the movie is and hope more filmmakers chose to do their pieces in black and white - it add such a harsh brutality when there's just black, white, and as many shades of grey that light can create!

Charcoal-grilled Wild Scallops wrapped in Black Forest Bacon with a Cardamon-Fresh Ginger infused Soy and Balsamic Vinegar reduction

Grilled Tofu with Soy-Sesame-Scallion Sauce (I'm getting my grillin' down! Look at those gorgeous grill marks!)

My last thought for today is: do you or did you have any idea that a sweet potato flowers? I didn't until this morning... before I left for quilt market in October I stuck a sweet potato in some dirt outside as opposed to chucking it in the trash bin. Upon my return it had sprouted... and today - it bloomed!

Sweet potato blossom

I'm going to post mid-week as well. These posts will be bits and pieces of things that have transpired over the last year to hopefully, in a few months, get this blog and all of you (myself included) up to date!

Best,

Mark

Buddha's Hand 2

Here are a couple of photos of the flower and immature fruit on my tree. The flower is typical of a citrus flower, but the center of the flower (the green portion) seems to be the start of the fruit. The scent is citrusy, delicate floral perfume and

tropical - if that makes any sense at all :/

Since this fruit was on the tree when I purchased it, I hope it manages to hang on with the trip home from the grower and the change in climate but I am hopeful the new flower will produce a fruit that will reach maturity!

Dark Shadows 2012

There are few times that I am giddy like a little child, and this is one of them. The Tim Burton-Johnny Depp-Colleen Atwood-Danny Elfman collaborations are brilliant milestones in my life, and a great source of inspiration (my novel SHAG is a prime example, in which I practically pay homage to Tim. My dream would be to have TB direct the film version and Johnny to do a motion capture performance of Monsieur D'LeFolb).

I'm weak, so I had to post the newly released photo stills from the May 11 release of DARK SHADOWS! Can't wait!!!!

01/21/2012

This week, the third week of January and 2012, proved to be a very productive one with versital results.

Went to the Dr. to check out the tick bite. I was told that he couldn't really diagnose or confirm a tick bite four days after it happened and with the area scabbed over, but he said he trusted my instincts and educated opinion based on the info I gleened off of the Web; it was healing nicely, so obviously my body was taking care of it on its own... Therefore he wanted to let it take its natural course (no probing the wound to see if indeed the tick head was still lodged in my inner thigh). Luckily Lyme disease doesn't exist here on Maui BUT there is a bacterial fever that could arise within 3 weeks of the bite... so I'm on my guard for any of the symptoms which are very alike Lyme disease.

When I lived in Pukalani I tried growing nasturtiums to no avail. They were infested with a small bug that attacked the newly sprouting leaves and the buds of the flowers. Being one of my favorite flowers, liking them for their citrusy blaze of color and their culinary attributes, I was not daunted in my attempt to try and grown them here in Haiku... well, they love it here and both varieties - the crawling or vines and the bushy, vareigated leaf - are doing very well. This past week I was gifted with an abundance of gloriously colored flowers. How many could I eat in my salads? Not as many as I thought... so I hopped online and found a wonderful recipe for a compund butter of chopped nastrutium flowers, fresh lemon juice and zest mixed into creamy sweet butter. The flavored butter log now sits in the freezer awaiting some lucky grilled chicken breast, Maui Cattle Co. steak or fresh catch of the day.

I complete a new design for my favorite holiday - Halloween - and it's signed, sealed and on its way to being delivered to the NYO. It's a complete panel project, and if it workes out to my expectations, I might have just yet again set precidence for a standard in the industry. We also finalized my collection - Paradize Cove - for February release. It has mermaids, dolphins, flamingos, a multi-colored stripe which reminds me of an electronic synthesized polygraph-like image called Siren Song, scallop shells, a floral and palm trees. We're all very happy with the results...

Finally got the 300+ CD collection (32 CDs per container and I have a total of 12 - you do the math, LOL - and I need more...) assorted and put away in the storage containers I recently purcahsed. This created a bit of a mess, and I'm glad to be moving on so I can start to get the house organized for Dana's trip in mid-February (we're at T minus 3 weeks).

Of course, I'll churn a batch of ice cream for her visit... don't tell her but I've decided to take liberty with her request for Chocolate Chip Mint (Chocolate Mochi-Chocolate Chip Wasabi-Fresh Mint)... should be yummy - haven't gone wrong yet - except there's been requests for no more Kim Chee-Chocolate Stout-Banana Bread Ice Cream - mostly I think the name turns people off...

Friday night I treated myself like a human being with a life and took myself out to dinner and a concert. Tried Saigon Cafe - Vietnamese food. They call it a Maui gem - I think the place came into being when the island was formed - stepping through the door is like stepping through a portal back in time. The place is complete with Formica table tops, gruff, surly waiter - attentive yet aloof - and fantastic food. I'll definitely go again.

After that it was to the MACC for an outdoor concert - HAPA by Moonlight. Of course (and I say of course because I was hoping they'd play my favorite song, which brings tears to my eyes for the intensity of the music alone ) they opened with it, and they played my sister Dana's favorite - so it was a great evening. I've vowed to do one event per month. February is Keali'i Reichel - and nothing on the roster thus far until May when they have the Maui Brewing Festival... I'll get my lone ticket as soon as they release them this month.

Today I have promised myself to sit and proof SHAG and get the corrections to the publisher and see where that leads me in the process of redoing the book block and reprinting of the novel. I've a hankering to do some more writing - I haven't done any in a while and it's interesting - at least for me - how this stuff kind of builds up... I feel like I need a good emotional release and spewing of frustration - let's kill someone in one of the collection of short horror stories I'm working on and get it all out of my system, LOL.

I plan on starting a new group this coming week. More cleaning and organizing. I've managed to keep the office under control for 3 weeks now and I feel like I can keep the dicipline up... it is easier with up keep than with letting it go and cleaning a huge mess...

Thus far...

Oh yeah, and I bought a dwarf Buddah's Hand citrus tree.

This is a photo of a Buddha's hand fruit taken from the web. I am using it to show the fruit my tree should bear.

Week No. 2 and Still Going Strong

The second week of 2012 has come and gone. It went rather quickly and reflecting upon my accomplishments, unless I jot them down, my recent memory seems to fade, or at least condense events into smaller units of thought, and I feel like I haven't accomplished anything...

I think I was bitten by a tick! Oh my!

Harvested the Hawaiian chili peppers from my container garden and made chili pepper water - WOW! potent stuff - I'm storing it in a glass jar as I'm afraid it might just eat right through a plastic one.

Made my own poke - I shall never buy store made poke ever again as mine was so onolicious! Now I want Sam Choy's (my favorite Hawaiian chef) Poke cookbook. I'll look for that when my sister is here to visit in February and we're out shopping.

Started some new designs... got storage containers to organize my CD collection, had a brilliant idea to make my hats with two slits in the brim and make them for dogs... soliciting new accounts (one is promising), and all in all, counting my blessings and being thankful for the existence I have created.

Moon Comes Up, Moon Goes Down

The first full moon of 2012 - rising about 6:45 PM HST 01/08/ 2012

and setting approximately 8:15 AM HST 01/09/2012