Crafty Cipote* at CAFAM Part 2

... returned to the that wonderful treasure along the miracle mile, the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), for this month's "Etsy Craft Night". I was excited when i found it would be a night of making personalized journals. This was my second Etsy Craft Night; last November i attended a holiday paper ornament workshop led by Mark Montano. Tonight's personalized journal session was led by Letterista, Lisa Engelbrecht. She's super skilled with a calligraphy pen and i was impressed with her unique letter styles--fused from calligraphy, graffiti and tattoo lettering.

All the materials i needed were provided: scraps of paper, magazines, glue sticks, scissors, pens and colored pencils. I felt like an anxious kid about to make a mess and have fun doing it ... which i did. Enjoyed an Indian pale ale and pretzels but worked slow taking my time to cut (from a book on Hindu art) and tear and paste the scraps to my journal (which were pre-made, the only downside). I'm still way too methodical--and, like the last craft night, i brought some scraps of paper home to finish and add further personal touches with some materials of my own. I marveled at the crafty folks at my table at how free they seemed to work, creating wonderful, even whimsical, journals. It was like sitting at the table with my loud jokester tias ("Oh my god i've desecrated the Virgin!", exclaimed one woman when she colored in a photo she had cut out of a sculpture of the Virgin Mary).

I love collage. I think the reason i've always chosen the medium to express myself, to make crafty personal gifts, is because of the beauty in its freedom, texture, and inimitability. There are no mistakes. And every person who sits to compose a collage is an artist.

The highlight of the night was seeing my friend Marisela Norte, poet, photographer, and Admissions Assistant at CAFAM. Not only did she give me the heads up on tonight's craft night, but she so also gave me a beautiful cadmium yellow sheer throw, and an old school MTA bus token! What a treasure ... and what lovely gifts.

Can't wait for the next Etsy Craft Night!

*Cipote: Salvadoran term for boy.

Jorge y Jesus

... i met Jorge on the Red Line to Union Station this morning. He was holding a centaur (still in progress) made entirely of copper wire wrapped around a copper scrubber. I've seen artists handcraft beautifully original jewelry pieces out of copper wire (especially at Venice Beach), but i hadn't seen sculptural works before. The beauty of copper wire art is how its color changes from its original polished shine to a dull almost rusted look in a short time. This weathering gives the piece not just a vintage look but also a certain solidifying power.

After complimenting his intricate wire sculpture i asked if i could take a picture. He held up one of two crucifixes he had ready to sale on 6th Street and Alvarado.

Change

... hadn't visited a Coinstar machine in a long time. Sure needed all of this $27.44. From my pennies, nickels, and dimes*, i got back everything I spent at Target last night. Even cashed in a winning $2 lottery scratcher ticket that had been in my wallet since Christmas.

I have a box on my dresser where I throw in all my loose pennies and nickels. All dimes go into a glass bottle my grandmother, mi abulla, gave me years ago. Filled to the top, the bottle holds $60 in dimes. I love this bottle not just because mi abuelita gave it to me, she was always filling up some container with coins to give to her grandchildren; but because she covered the bottle with stamps for magazine subscriptions that would come in Publishers Clearing House mailers (remember those?).

My crafty grandmother ... I know now where i get it from.


*Coinstar did not accept my dimes from the following years: 1949, 1957, 1961, 1963. Never has. For sentimental and superstitious reasons, i've just thrown those dimes back into the bottle every time.