Behind the Scenes: Mouse in the House

308 Maple Street has a mouse… but this is not like your normal  house mouse, our mouse is kind of like Ratatouille… except he can do a whole lot more then cook… AND he doesn’t sit in our hair. [eww]

Cheese, who is illustrated by Laura of WatercolorTales

{http://laurawinslow.blogspot.com/} and {https://www.facebook.com/WatercolorTales},

 is a very personable mouse who’s best friend is a duck named Quackers.  I can’t tell you exactly how Cheese came into being, since I am not his creator, but I do know that it was developed through Laura’s love of mice. [Side note: She thinks they are cute when they are in their own habitat not necessarily when they are in her house]

Cars

So some of you may know this, but I will be going to Ducktail Run next week.
What in the world is Ducktail?? I am not supprised if you dont know, i didnt know until two years ago when my boyfriend took me to the annual show.
 Ducktail is a Car show [ Click ] in Gas City, Indiana.
 Its a four day event starting with "Early Duck Cruise-In" on Sept 22, next thursday and lasting until the 25th. It is HUGE! It is one of the largest car shows in Indiana, and possibly the midwest.

Me:  Why is it called Ducktail?
BF: ducktail was a "cool" haircut in the 50's,
 the show supposed to be classic hot rods
 and mixed with james dean rod run which is home for all mercury customs

You will see ducks everywhere, including people dressed up! 

Like any car show there are contests: 

Best Car Name

Best Neon Lights

Best Idle Drags

Best Flame Throwing

Best Muffler Rapping

Best License Plate Name

Best Duck Display

Chrome Duck Award

So with a place like that I could not pass up the opportunity to make some scarves. I am sure that most of you have seen my first scarf that I made, Classic Cars. What you may not know is that the four cars [painted twice for 8 cars on the scarf] are my bf's family's cars and they take them to shows. 

Ok so i think you know where i am going with this. 

full length car on a 14x72" fringeless scarf with purple background

Front of car on a 14x14" Silk pillowcase with Kelly Green background

So far i have made one new scarf and my first pillow case! BTW if you dont believe me: 

Me on graduation day with my favorite car

Rawr... Part Two sneak peak

Ok so its back to the sketch/doodle pad for this next scarf. I am not a huge dino-fanatic... but I am someone that thinks the Phrase Rawr is pretty darn cute.

So I am back again with my little dinos, this time looking at the very popular. T-REX!

So after making SERVAL attempts, I finally got the essence of a T-rex I wanted: realistic yet kinda cute/friendly

Now I just need to figure out the colors. Now usually, I just "See" the colors in my mind's eye and don't really need to plan ahead. But sometimes [very rare] I do actually get out my colored pencils and lay out the full design. This idea is in fact one of the puzzling ones for me and got colored. [I think some of the reasons that I don't color them on paper is that dye colors are hardly ever the same color and I like to me flexible with how things turn out... and I usually don't take the time to "blend" colors on paper... since dyes on silk flow and bleed very easily] 

  So you see my beautiful sketch here, with three colors surrounding Rexy... those are my current visions of background for the main part of the scarf. The camera does change the colors slightly but the three I am considering is dark Red, dark purple, or dark green

The Red in the photo is not nearly dark enough... but looking at what I have here, Im leaning towards the green.  I really wanted to keep Rexy in "traditional" colors of brown, orange, and redish tints. Although real dinosaurs could have been neon yellow for all we know... You would really see that coming at you. no wonder they went existent.

Rawr... Part One

Well the newest scarf is fresh off the stretcher

"Rawr" in Royal Blue with a "Large Plant Eater" [Shunosaurus? Saltasuarus? Jobaria? Yeah I not sure which dinosaur you would say it is]

For those of you who have not ever heard "Rawr", its a 21st centry phrase: "Rawr means I love you in Dinosuar"

Some people say it comes from Michael Gondry's The Science of Sleep, Or a children's movie from the 90s... others say the origin of the word is uncharted since it dates back a few hundred million years. 

Either way you look at it, its still a cute phrase and very cute scarf if I do say so myself.  So expect to see Rawr in Royal Blue on the website under "For Sale" soon. Also keep your eye out for Rawr Version Two sometime soon.

Mystery Box

So at 11:30pm on Friday, I was checking my UPS status on my newest art supply order. And to my delight, it said that it had been delivered. Thus, one could have found me in my pj's in the middle of my yard in the middle of the night. :) Yes I was so excited that I could not wait one moment to open the box. {Anyone who knows me, can testify that I was not born with patience}
So after what seemed like 5 minutes of tugging at the tape, I Busted the box open, and voila ...
Yeah I have a really big happy face now..... and a really empty wallet [Come on rain!!! I need mowing money]
So for all of you really eager readers and future MarissaInk owners, there is much to rejoice in!

• 30!! six foot scarves!
• 3 new colors of resist: antique gold, red gold, and russet
• 7 more bottles of dye, with some unique colors: apricot, kelly green, and scarlet red
• 3 more bottles of resist: black, silver, and clear
• And 10 more scarf clips!

Ok, so now I need some wonderful people to get the word out that MarissaInk is ready for orders!  Maybe there will even be some kind of reward for those that recommend MarissaInk to their friends. Hmmm.... Possibly a "Buy One Scarf, Get One Half Off"? [I will point out that this does not imply that I will be cutting the second scarf in half... wink] Yeah that might be fun to try. So your mission should you accept it,  is to find one other person who wants a hand painted silk scarf and you could get yours for half the normal cost.** Or you can purchase two for yourself, why not? So send me an email at MarissaInk.

**MarissaInk creations are priced by: supplies + labor time [design difficulty].
Price varies from $25 to $60+, highly dependent upon the design difficulty.   In this BOGO1/2, the Scarf discounted must have a design equal or less complicated then the other.  At this time, prices are determined at finish, but an estimate will be given before project started. Please contact MarissaInk for more details.

First Special Order!

Ok, so currently I am hot and sweaty [Thank you Indiana Summer!]. I just ran across my field to deliver my first official scarf special order. [Four weeks ago I did have my special order tie, just in time for Father's Day but i will back track to that at a later time]. But anyway this is about my first Scarf special order.

My mother came to me wanting something special for her best friend Betsey [Betsey if you are reading this, Everyone was so happy to see you and thank you for joining the MarissaInk experience] So she came to me and asked if I could create something for her. I told her that it was on one condition, that even though  I have not sold any of my other scarves yet, that I could order more. [we will revisit that topic later, too]

Mom was kinda difficult to work with on the premise that she liked EVERYTHING I sketched up for her. [That's a mom for you :)] After settling on the color blue [I love working with my favorite colors, makes it even more fun to create], Mom gave me the following information about Betsey: she loves the water, boating, being outdoors, nickname Doodle.
I came up with about 6 sketches [and there are some that I will be trying out later, so keep your eyes open for more coming soon].
The final idea chosen was really simple and yet now that I have seen the finished project, I LOVE it! [I'm kinda jealous, Betsey, but I'm sure that you are enjoying it too]
Anyway, so here are some photos of the finished scarf:



Does anyone see the hidden image/word? Leave a comment if you know what it is, maybe you will win a prize.