Capitol Hill Block Party: Day 1

       

   

Yesterday, Cheryl, Shawn and I hauled our asses across the border and into Seattle for the Capitol Hill Block party music festival

Trader Joe's is the best!

  

In Line up, looking PIIIIISSED. 

. After what turned into a 4 hour trip into the city, we made it to the festival to be greeted with what appeared to be an hour-long line-up for will call tickets.    

                                                                                   

                             

 Okay, it wasn't... and we did make it in to catch the last half of Bear in Heaven's set, which was pretty fantastic. They sound like an eerie version of Grizzly Bear, and their album Beast Rest Forth Mouth is worth a listen for sure. 

Bear in Heaven, yo. 

OHMYGOD, YEASAYER WAS SO GOOD!

LOOK THEM UP: YEASAYER!

They are all fantastic musicians, with a 

fantastic live perfomance...

and they are all really fucking hot. 

That didn't hurt. 

This is what I have been working on

More to follow.

Later.

Fun with Rodents: My first experience with Taxidermy

Sabrina is my best friend. One of the reasons this is so is because we have similar interests. Our mutual interests include fashion design, eating (like there is no tomorrow), The Libertines, yesyesno, art faggotry, and most recently, taxidermy. 

just for the record..

We're not sick;

We are artists (lol).  

But really, the reason we finally decided to sit down and cut up dead animals was because of a fashion school project I had. The assignment was to expand our creative horizons. We were encouraged to experiment with new ways of being creative. Lots of people tried land art, embroidery, figure drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, you name it. So I'm a bit eccentric... and I wanted to do something nobody had done before for this project, hence the taxidermy. Word got out that I was planning on stuffing dead animals, and whaddayaknow... another fashion student jumps on board. So Serena, Sabrina and I got together on a quiet day in April and stuffed us some rodents. 

If you don't wanna see pictures of dead animals being cut open, you better stop here. 

COMMENCE DEAD ANIMAL PHOTO MONTAGE:

Supplies: Borax (to dry out the pelts), dollar store scalpels,

 latex gloves, bulletain board, push pins, thread, cotton batting,

garden wire, sequins, false wings, embroidery thread, 

2 jumbo rats, pack of 3 mice (dead as doornails, would have been pet food)

Saby found a mouse!

First incision: we sliced down the back, and peeled the skin 

off, scraping the fat away as we peeled. 

"Don't you just love it when you get a good peel?"

Serena holds up her work. 

Mouse = skinned. 

Rat time!!!

So this is the skin of the rat being pulled off of the flesh.

I love how you can see the eyeballs in the body mirrored with the

eye sockets in the hyde. It's eerie. 

To dry the rats off quickly, we blow dried their skin until it was

slightly stiff. Not too stiff thought... you still need to be able

to sew it up. 

I started sewing up the pelt before I put anything into it.

Then I stuffed with with a wire shape, wrapped in cotton batting. 

I also sewed butterfly wings onto it. Isn't she pretty?

Rats are done.

From left: Serena's Rat, My rat (Esme), and Sabrina's 2 headed monstrosity of a mouse. 

Let's fall in love

<3