qtFunk

Were-rabbit

2010-02-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

So I have taken my were-rabbit to new levels, and added some colour to it. Guess I have been inspired by all those Vampire and Were-Wolf stories out there. If you're curious about how this pic will look on a t-shirt or mug, check out my website www.qtfunk.com !! I'm in the process of upgrading the website, so it's might not be in pristine shape at the moment!

Were-Wabbit

2009-12-03T15:22:00.001-08:00

My new character sketch, is a cross between a little girl and a Wabbit.

I introduce to you the
Were-wabbit :)

I'm busy with the drawing of this sketch, which Im planning to sell when finished....if I don't become too attached.

It's always difficult to get the final draft to look and feel the same as the sketch. I tried a different style with the hair, and the face is rounder. But it should look nice finished. Hope it will look as creepy as the first sketch when done :)

Easton,PA (2)

2009-12-03T13:50:00.001-08:00

Continuation of photos from Easton.

Bookstore, secondhand, no new releases.

Crayola store

Crayola LLC

Predecessor Binney & Smith
Founded New York City, New York (1885)
Founder(s) Edwin Binney
C. Harold Smith
Headquarters 1100 Church Lane
Easton, Pennsylvania 18044-0431

United States[1]
Number of locations Manufacturing:[1]
Easton, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Mexico City, Mexico

Industry Arts and crafts, Toys
Employees 1,250 (2006)[1]

Website http://www.crayola.com/

Crayola is a brand of artistry supplies manufactured by Crayola LLC—founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith—best known for its almost ubiquitous crayons. Originally an industrial pigment supply company, it soon shifted its focus to art products for home and school use, beginning with chalk then crayons, followed later by colored pencils, markers, paints, modeling clay and other related goods. All Crayola-branded products are marketed as non-toxic and safe for use by children, making the brand a perennial favorite among teachers and parents.[2]

The street my hotel is in

Some wikipedia facts about Easton :
The city is split up into four sections: Historic Downtown, which lies directly to the north of the Lehigh River, to the west of the Delaware River, continuing west to Sixth Street; The West Ward, which lies between Sixth and Fifteenth Streets; The South Side, which lies south of the Lehigh River; and College Hill, a neighborhood on the hills to the north which is the home of Lafayette College. The boroughs of Wilson, West Easton, and Glendon are also directly adjacent to the city; the first and largest of which, Wilson, partially aligns in the same North-South Grid as the city of Easton.

History

Colonial era

The confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers was a popular area long before it was settled by Europeans.[citation needed] The Lenape Native Americans originally referred this place as "Lechauwitank", or "The Place at the Forks". Thomas Penn was so inspired by the beauty of the place that he set aside a 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) tract of land here for a town. Easton was settled in 1739 and founded in 1752,[4] and was so named at the request of Penn; he had recently married Juliana Fermor, the daughter of Lord Pomfret whose estate was called Easton Neston, near Towcester, Northamptonshire, England.[citation needed] As Northampton County was being formed at this time, Easton was selected as its county seat. During the French and Indian War, the Treaty of Easton was signed here by the British colonial government of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Native American tribes in the Ohio Country, including the Shawnee and Lenape.

Revolutionary War

Easton was an important military center during the American Revolutionary War.[citation needed] Easton was one of the first three places the Declaration of Independence was publicly read (along with Philadelphia and Trenton). It is claimed that the Easton flag was flown during that reading, making it one of the first "Stars and Stripes" to fly over the colonies. , http://www.heritageday.org/ This flag, which is known to date to the War of 1812, currently serves as Easton's municipal flag.

Industrial history

Easton was a major commercial center during the canal and railroad periods of the 1800s, when it was a transportation hub for the steel industry. Three canals, the Delaware, the Lehigh, and the Morris, served to connect the coal regions to the north and west, the iron works to the west, the commercial port of Philadelphia to the south, and the New York City area to the east via the a connection with the Morris Canal across the Delaware River in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. When canal transportation was largely replaced by railroads, Easton was served by five railroads, and only lost its prominence in transportation with the rise of the automobile in the mid 20th century.[citation needed]

Like the Pennsylvania Dutch region to the southwest, Easton has a strong German heritage. The Pennsylvania Argus, a German-language newspaper, was published in Easton until 1917.[citation needed] As part of their heritage, the Germans put up one of the continent's earliest Christmas trees in Easton; Daniel Foley's book states that "Another diary reference unearthed recently makes mention of a tree set-up at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1816."[5] There is a plaque in Scott Park (along the Delaware River) commemorating this event.

Historians of angling believe that Samuel Phillipe, an Easton gunsmith, invented the six-strip split-cane Bamboo fly rod. A Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission plaque near Center Square commemorates this event.[6]

Refuge from Prohibition

During prohibition, Easton earned a reputation for nightlife in an age when the rest of the nation was dry, and Easton was referred to colloquially as "The Little Apple."[citation needed] Easton was a speakeasy town where liquor flowed freely, brothels were common, and the local police were known to turn a blind eye[citation needed]. Following the end of many Friday night fights in New York City's Madison Square Garden during this era, crowds were known to chant "Going to Easton" before boarding trains en masse for the short 67-mile (108 km) trek to where nightlife flourished[citation needed].

Easton was also once known as the "City of Churches". At one time, it had the largest church-to-population ratio in the nation[citation needed].

I'm also quite impressed to learn that both Jack Coleman - actor, NBC's Heroes.
And
Daniel Dae Kim - actor, ABC's Lost.
Lived in Easton, PA
And also
Christopher Lennertz - film, television, and video game music composer, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Supernatural.

I used to love Alvin and the chipmunks when I was a child. We even called our cat Theodore.

Easton, PA area

2009-12-03T12:58:00.001-08:00

So my hunt for the next book in the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, was fruitless. I did however take some happy snaps of the area.

While I was taking photos of this building a man stopped me and excitedly asked me if I was a tourist.Such excitement for meeting a tourist I have never seen. I felt like I was this man's tourist attraction. It was almost like he wanted to say, 'so the legends are TRUE tourists do exist in Easton!'

As a tried to side step the man I answered, yeah sort off. Not fully considering myself a tourist since I am only here because my husband is consulting at a client nearby.

The man whom I viewed with my normal suspicion and avert-ness I have towards 'stranger danger', continued by telling me that the building had gargoyles, and there was another building down the street that also had gargoyles.

Why the gargoyles was important, I'm not sure, I'm not even sure the building had gargoyles, unless my concept of gargoyles differs from his. But I smiled my 'stranger danger' smile, and moved on. My shyness stand in stark contrast to the outgoing and confidant Americans.

But Im happy I could bring pride to the city folk by them thinking they're getting tourists. Luckily the stranger did not notice my accent, otherwise the thought of foreign tourists might have overwhemed him :)

I continued my walk to the Lafayette College. The campus has an array of beautiful historical buildings. From a time when American architecture was attractive, I have no idea what has happened in the last few years especially on the west coast. The innovation just seems dead in most parts. Anyways It's been a dream of mine to live in a historic house, they just cosume my imagination. And the detail those homes have are exquisite.

Here are the snaps from the College :

I found this (above) across from the Visual Arts building.

The studios in the visual arts building looked so awesome, the word envy comes to mind. What's cool about this building is that the bricks are warped and slightly curved. It brings to mind Salvidor Dali's melted clocks. And makes the walls look slightly warped.

The university is on an elevated piece of land. If it was Europe there would probably have been a castle.

Homes around the university

This Hogg House made me think of Harry Potter.

My blogger lite keeps crashing when I load more photo so I'll post the rest in a new blog.

East coast trip

2009-12-03T08:42:00.001-08:00

I find myself in a town called Easton, philadelphia. My husband had to travel to the east coast of the U.S. To consult, and I decided to come with to spare him the back and forward flying and to see what the east coast has to offer.

The hotel we're staying in for a couple of days called The Grand Eastonian has such lovely ceilings, I love how the the cement and pipes are visable.

The town however is quite strange, the vibe is peculiar and people dress badly. It's deathingly quiet and hosts a large amount of tobacco shops. It's also home to the crayola factory and museum. I visited the factory but will probably skip the museum. I think what this town needs is to make the largest crayon in the 'world'/U.S. ;) bring the tourists in. The downtown architecture is lovely lined with buildings from the 1700s.

Anyways I'm not sure if the town's creepyness stems from the fact that I was reading New Moon. A great read suggested to me by my sister, that I finished and gobbled up greedily in a flash. I havent been able to finish a book like this in a long time, and i used to enjoy reading when i was younger. It's just annoying how
commercialized the series has gotten and I refused to see the film until I finshed the book. I've also read Twilight and have not seen the movie yet. But I am burning with curiosity. It will however probably be a great disapointment... Like the movie Stardust, the book was amazing, the movie was great but it's annoying how they change things in the story.

So my mission today is to pull up google maps on my phone, and locate a bookstore before I set off to wander down the streets of this strange little town. I need to get the third book in this twilight series. My husband is using my laptop for work, his is in for repairs, and I refuse to watch senseless TV, which is more commercials than actual content.

But otherwise I am feeling inspired and have been considering writing a book myself. An adult sized book with some illustrations ;) I always wondered why novels don't have atleast some illustrations. I always find myself intently looking at the cover every so often when I try to imagine the decriptions of the author.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Giclée Prints

2009-11-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered a printing method called Giclée, while looking for ways to transform my walls into my own mini gallery. There are such great artworks out there and walls should be filled with awe-inspiring creativity. If not only for the hope that surrounding yourself with talent... might inspire your own creativity ;P then for your human soul, because down to basics... viewing beautiful things makes you feel tingly and happy inside ;)

So to quote Wikipedia: Giclée (pronounced /ʒiːˈkleɪ/ "zhee-clay" or /dʒiːˈkleɪ, from French [ʒiˈkle]) is an invented name for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using any high quality ink-jet printing and is often used in galleries and print shops. Giclée is generally a fine art term, that has come to be associated with prints using fade-resistant "archival" inks (including solvent inks) and the inkjet printers that use them. These printers use the CMYK color process but may have multiple cartridges for variations of each color based on the CcMmYK color model (e.g. light magenta and light cyan inks in addition to regular magenta and cyan); this increases the apparent resolution and color gamut and allows smoother gradient transitions. A wide variety of substrates are available including various textures and finishes such as matte photo paper, watercolor paper, cotton canvas, or artist textured vinyl.

You can purchase these high quality Giclée prints at Allposters.com. A lot of well known and not so well known art is for sale using this printing method. And if you read the description next to any of the Giclée artworks for sale at Allposters.com it says: "This art print was created using a sophisticated digital printer. The Giclee printing process delivers a fine stream of archival ink on archival paper, resulting in vivid, pure color and exceptional detail that is suitable for museum or gallery display."

So to make things even more complicated for myself I also decided since I have to frame a whole bunch of artworks, including the ones I plan to make in the future... I should buy my own framing equipment. So I took out some framing books from the library like the Home book of picture framing by Oberrecht, Kenn.

It sounded like a straight forward thing to do however, framing equipment can get a bit complicated, you have miter saws, routers, matt cutters etc etc. And then you have to get the various materials to make the frames..wood, glass, nails, matting board, framing tape, corner clamps etc etc, and the materials that touch the artworks has to be acid free archival standard, so your Giclee's will last longer. It's a lot of tools especially if you're routing your own wood, but I thought as an artist it might be worth the effort. I did find out later that you can buy the wood online routed to size but alas I have my equipment already. I haven't tried out the equipment yet, but I must say I'am a bit nervous about using power tools with large blades...eek...Let's just hope the equipment doesn't gather dust...I will have to report back later on my success or failure...hopefully with all ten digits in tact ;)

My husband and I decided for our living room to get old commercial or advertisment type prints, like the ones usually found under the vintage tag at Allposters.com. .

These are the one's we've selected:

Poster Advertising an Exhibition of the Collection Du Chat Noir Cabaret at the Hotel Drouot, Paris

Giclee Print

Steinlen,...

Buy at AllPosters.com

This cat poster is quite popular, and I'm not the kind of person that likes going for the popular artworks, but I like cats...;)

Le Frou-Frou

Giclee Print

Weiluc,...

Buy at AllPosters.com

Cycles Sirius

Giclee Print

PAL (Jean de...

Buy at AllPosters.com

Copertoni Impermeabili Moretti

Giclee Print

Mauzan, Achille...

Buy at AllPosters.com

There are so many prints to select from a person could go insane with choice!

Unfortunately we move around so often I haven't had the chance to purchase any prints or make any frames yet....;)

And if you're looking for more original Giclée prints artist Shirin Sahba http://limonana.blogspot.com/ is selling limited edition Giclée prints of some of her paintings. Beautiful stuff!!!
also check out her website at http://www.shirinsahba.com/

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2009-08-15T11:49:00.001-07:00

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Frilly Lilly has arrived

2009-05-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

So the day has finally arrived, and my first Children's book has been published. I've taken some photos of the book. It is now for sale at Lulu.com and on amazon. The price on lulu.com is $12.72 excluding shipping and on amazon it's $16.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. I tried to keep the price as low as possible but colored books seem to be expensive to make.

qtFunk a dream come true!

2009-04-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

I am a person who just loves do-it-yourself type of things, the idea of printing on clothing and even making my own furniture has always appealed to me. I guess it's just part of my creative nature. So my qtFunk shop was started when I humbly, just wanted to by a super funky creative pillow for my home. Well the searches led me to cafepress.com, a cool site were you can make a print for your own pillow! It has been so much fun I've hardly been able to contain myself and the ideas has been flowing along with the coffee and the joy.

I truly enjoy drawing and messing around on graphic design programs. I'm also in the progress of publishing a cute children's book called Frilly Lilly on Lulu.com, which is also a great passion and joy in my life. I've sent it for approval and I'm still waiting for it to be officially for sale. I love creating characters and hope that my characters will bring a smile to everyone that sees them...So visit my online shop at www.qtfunk.com and browse around. I'm also selling Frilly Lilly merchandise there. Here is a sneak view of some of the items for sale in my shop.
Faeriebee Throw Pillow

Faeriebee Magnet

Faeriebee Flip Mino

Frilly Lilly Large Wall Clock

Mr. Sock in Love Infant Bodysuit, character from the story Frilly Lilly

Dragonbee Jr. Ringer T-Shirt ( This character is also in the picture book Frilly Lilly)

Retro Squirrel Throw Pillow (the pillow that started my shop)

Retro Squirrel Tile Coaster

VISIT ME! http://www.cafepress.com/qtFunk

The Dawn of qtFunk

2009-04-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

It's a very bone chilling day today, which makes it a wonderful day for writing a few words in my blog. I have recently finished my picture book entitled Frilly Lilly, I have hit the publish button. But as with everything in life there is a waiting period...so I have about another month or so to go before it will be for sale on Lulu.com and Amazon. Hopefully this time there will be no problems with the format and size.

But as always the creative juices are flowing and I am busy working on new ideas and new characters...it's all very exciting. I will also hopefully be able to upgrade my cafe press shop http://www.cafepress.com/qtFunk to a new fancy pansy site.

Frilly Lilly Calendar

2009-02-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

I'm still busy with my much anticipated Children's book called Frilly Lilly. The idea for the book came to me at the end of 2005, (when I learned about lulu.com after printing a photo album book on this website) so I do hope that 2009 will bring the completion of this project. I've learned the slow and hard way about Graphic and illustration programs and the various methods of drawing digitally. Unfortunately there are loads of things I would have done differently, like hand drawing the images instead of drawing them directly on the computer with a mouse...But over all this has been a very satisfying experience and getting the opportunity to attach my name to a fun project like this is a good feeling.

It's been interesting to live in this time period, where all artists are created equal, and everyone has the opportunity to publish their work. And instead of being judged by publishing companies, we have the option to be judged by our peers. That is democracy...even the shy ones can succeed.

But let me not digress...I have recently finished this book of mine, to find out that I did not upload the files at the right size...I was a bit sad because I was already having publishing parties...well in my head more than any where else, and thinking of new creative projects...I birthed it...it grew up and I thought I had reached the stage of letting it go into the wild world and fend for it self...but it was not to be, I had to change the size of the images and upload them again.

Well The thing was at that time I was in South Africa for a couple of months, very busy planning a wedding to my own Prince Charming/Love of my Life on top of that dealing with the South African Internet connection which is expensive and capped....and to top it off didn't feel like paying the postage to South Africa, since every time you make a revision to your book on Lulu you must purchase a revision to make sure it's correct. It is very expensive to change it after it's been published so printing the revision is important.

So after we were done with South Africa, my husband and I moved to the US. So the time was ripe to get back and finish this project...but then my clever husband started putting wild ideas in my head of adding extra things to the images to give it that little extra something...I groaned a little...and thought...This project has gone on forever...it needs to end...My life legacy needs to be more than one children's book....but alas...I thought he might have a point...so decided to rip out the Ol' white paper and pencil, and draw...and I must admit really loved it...it is millions of times faster than drawing on the computer screen...

But anyways...so out of my older vector drawings I have made a calendar for sale on Lulu.com. You can see it here:

And have today printed a copy of my revised Frilly Lilly with all the added extras! So as much as
I love this project, I'll be glad when it's done....cuz I still have so much more to offer this world...;P

Frilly Lilly Merchandise available...;P

2008-12-20T01:24:00.000-08:00

As another experiment I have opened another shop at Zazzle. They have some interesting items there like design your own skateboard and shoes.

The idea of designing a skateboard has now gotten me really interested in designing my own Snowboard....now that would be the ultimate in customization fun!

have a look at me Zazzle shop, it's still in the beginning stages
http://www.zazzle.com/faeriebee

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

In the begining

2008-12-18T16:35:00.001-08:00

I started humbly, just wanting to buy a cool and creative pillow for my home, and ended up with a shop at cafepress.com. It has been so much fun I've hardly been able to contain myself and the ideas has been flowing along with the coffee and the joy. I enjoy drawing and messing around on graphic design programs. I'm also in the progress of writing a cute children's book called Frilly Lilly on Lulu.com, which is also a great passion and joy in my life. I love creating characters and hope that my characters will bring a smile to everyone that sees them...So visit my online shop at www.qtfunk.com

To have a look at some of my designs

As well as my Frilly Lilly Merchandise shop at

http://www.cafepress.com/qtFunk/6657846