acrylic – Miseducated

Artist & Designer Features Design Your Life

Step into StoopidGerl’s Delicious World of Wonder

07/10/2013

Kim (aka StoopidGerl) is one of my closest online friends. We are both colorful artists that had adorable baby girls very close in time to each other, her Chloe Pearl was born several months before Colette Fawn and we learned a lot from each other along the way. Our pasts share many similarities as well so it’s no wonder that we hit it off immediately once upon a time. I’ve been planning a feature on Kim and her amazing creations and splendid aesthetic for WAY TOO LONG and here it is!

So as you’ve probably noticed I’ve been featuring a lot of my favorite artists and handmade mavens. I feel Kim (stoopidgerl) fits with the Miseducated way of life as much as anyone I know, her work reminds me what earth would look like if many of our rainbow-obsessed, candy-coated brains puked all over the place. Her style is no ones but her own and if you look into her world you’ll never want to leave. Please visit her gorgeously kitschy shop to purchase any of her works of art.

How long have you been crafting your world (your intoxicating-eye-candy photos and dazzlingly-saturated-with-color pieces of jewelry)?
I got started a few years ago. Working from home has been a dream come true!

When did you decide to turn that hobby into a business?
After I graduated from school I somehow ended up working a super crappy job at a Sears Portrait Studio. Going to work there made me want to kill myself! It was HELL on earth. I got pretty fed up with it and ended up quitting one day. I needed something to do and I needed money. I had been selling on Etsy for awhile and then I decided to take the plunge and try to do it for a living. I don’t know how it happened but it was magical! My shop took off quite quickly. I really love what I do and I think that is the key to my success!

All of us reach creativity blocks at some time.. where do you find inspiration when you reach a block?
The nearest candy shop~!

A lot of my inspiration comes from the past… movies I’ve seen, people I used to hang with, places I visited, my childhood…

Sometimes I find that browsing Flickr is inspirational. I love to just get lost in Flickr. I could spend hours browsing photos and adding them to my faves! There is some phenomenal shit out there!

Do you have a favorite piece of jewelry that you have made?
Oh my goodness it is hard to pick just one but if I had to choose my absolute favorite I would go with this~

It is impossible to be in a crappy mood when you surround yourself with so much color. This necklace is a sure pick-me-up when you need one!

Do you have any exciting stories about the purchase of one of your pieces?
I shit myself with glee when Courtney Love purchased a necklace from my shop several years ago.

What inspires you when decorating your space?
…the pursuit of happiness! I love all things that are sweet, rainbowy, clownlike, kitschy, and cool.

What sort of things are must haves on display in your home?
I have been a collector of cameras ever since I went to school. I took a short break from collecting for awhile and recently got back into it. I have a neat little collection of minty green vintage cameras that sits on a shelf in our living room.

I also have to have clowns… lots of clowns.

Do you have any tips for readers trying to design their world?
Don’t worry about sticking with any sort of theme… just go with the flow and hoard all the things you love!

You can purchase Kim/StoopidGerl’s amazing creations at her rad Etsy Store.

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Crafts DIY

An Introduction to Colorful Art Mediums

01/12/2011

Sometimes getting your hands (your clothes, your surroundings…) messy and covered with a rainbow of colors is part of the art/crafting experience. I’ve gotten pretty familiar with several different mediums and I’ll give you a little run-down of why I love them and how I use them. If you haven’t used some of these before, I hope I can inspire you to try them! Note: I’m not an art expert, just a lover.

Oil Paints

Creamy, dreamy, vivid. I love working with oils because you can do so much blending (they dry slooowwly) and the colors are so rich. In school, we got to stretch and prime our own canvases ourselves. You can go to the art store and buy a canvas all ready to go, but you can get some satisfaction out of doing it all yourself. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that you have to use turpentine to thin them and get the paint off of your brushes (it smells), but its a small price to pay.

Watercolor Paints

Of course, the first kind of paint I ever used. They aren’t just for kids though, as you can do so many different tricks with them! Since you can re-wet the paint once it is dry, you can blend existing colors. If you want to layer different colors without disturbing the layer underneath, you can use the next kind of paint on the list…

Acrylic Paints

I’m a big fan of acrylics. You can use them to paint many other things besides canvases. I’ve used them to customize wooden boxes, journals, jewelry, and I’ve painted wall murals with them. They dry very quickly and once they are dry, you can’t re-wet them like watercolors.

Oil Pastels

Messy, bright and beautifully blendable! These may be my favorite of all to work with. I keep some wet wipes handy to clean my fingers if I’m going from a dark color to a light color. I also like to use an in-between color to blend two other colors together. Blending them with my fingers is a lot of fun and makes me feel like I have even more control over the colors.

Colored pencils

They can do a lot in the way of blending, if you vary the pressure, use strokes in different angles and layer the colors gradually. The kind of paper you use will also determine how your picture looks. I like using paper with a smoother “tooth” (roughness), but if you like the gritty, textured look, a rougher tooth is the way to go. The more rough the paper, the more your colors with stick and, consequently, the sooner you will need to sharpen your pencils. Make sure your paper is acid-free so your artwork lasts longer!

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Design Your Life

Confessions of a Confection Obsession

10/20/2009

Everyone loves sweets right? But how long do those sweets last?

Well, I have stumbled upon a little secret to make them stylish, cute, and last forever; perfect for the sweet lover in all of us. Sprinkles, cupcakes, candies, and chocolates are so yummy, and look almost too good to eat. So now you can accessorize yourself with them and let the whole world know about your confection obsession. With all the colors, the textures, and the sugary goodness, who can resist? I know I cannot, so my inspiration is to make something that looks sweet enough to eat, and cute enough to wear.

My sweet goodies are kitschy art pieces of sweet eye candy. Mix together some sprinkles, glitter, crystals, and cast in clear or colored resin, and then you are good to go like the sweet diva you are! These yummy treats are made to be rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pins, and everything, to make a scene.

These are the sweets that won’t go bad, won’t give us cavities, or even the calories. These are accessories we can put on to make us smile and feel happy. My goodies, can remind us of the fun times we had when we were just kiddies. Like the birthday parties we went to, the ice cream shops we visited, and the treats we’d get when we were good little boys and girls. These times are often forgotten in the fast paced life a lot of us live. These were the simpler times in our life, filled with childhood dreams, rainbows, and sweets along the way,

So you too can go back to that place and live out your childhood dreams, or just relive them and have fun. I hope my pieces can take you back to that place. One of my favorite childhood pastimes were playing with jewelry and dressing up, and here I am today living that dream. This is what keeps me going, I love what I do and have fun doing it. This is my chance, a chance to love and be with my family, while I live out my passion to create. It is all I ever wanted, and I going for it.

If you should take anything from this piece, I hope you take with you the love and inspiration to live out your dreams. This is the very thing that will keep you going and not want to stop. It makes living that much more worth living. It is wonderful when you love what you do, and get to share it with the world. It makes living that much more sweeter ;o) and soo miseducated!!!

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