What's New?

I've been so lucky to pursue my interests, and several very unique career opportunities over the years. Well, I'm at it again. A few weeks back I started coding, and it's going splendidly!

It's a pleasure to use my artistic sensibility in a completely different setting than I'm used to. Gathering information and putting it together to form something great. I'm in the midst of building my first responsive website, which is of course a little humble like most beginnings are. I anticipate building my portfolio while I continue to take classes on coding and styling.

Treehouse is a wonderful asset, and I'm simply blossoming with the use of their program. I've finished the website building course, HTML, and I'm half way through CSS foundations. After that I'll be on to JavaScript foundations, JQuery, AJAX, and Git basics. After that, who knows-- I'll probably just go out and conquer the whole gosh darn world.

Demo Reel 2013

Check it out, friends and employers. You can find my demo reel on Vimeo right >here<. 

Demo Reel 2013 Elisabeth Meyer from Lisbeth on Vimeo.

I Have an Etsy Shop!

You should feel free to check out my unique and interesting handmade goods at my Etsy shop, Hungry Comforts.

My shop currently features vintage cut aprons, coffee and tea cozies. I am thinking about expanding my products to include some nice pieces of my illustrations and food photography.

Since I'm still looking for work, it seemed like a good idea to put myself to use in my free hours and keep up with my skills. I've just started experimenting with needlepoint, after inheriting my great aunt's collection of supplies, and I find it's a fun challenge much like sketching. 

I'm excited to join the local PDX Etsy team and make some new friends. I can't believe the talent around here, it's both intimidating and inspirational.

Until next time,

Elisabeth

Sugar Art

I have come to the end of my course on sugar flowers, and I thought you would like to see my bouquet.

It turned out very well! I had to take a DIY approach to completing this project. My local craft store did not cary hydrangea petal cutters, so I had to make my own from recyclable tin baking pans. With my food gel colors in storage I wound up coloring the gum paste with turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves. Without a petal or leaf veiner I had to sculpt the subtle details onto my petals and leaves, but I had fun doing it and I was very pleased with my detail on the flowers.

I'm really excited to do this again in the future, gum paste was an exciting new medium to work with. Next I think I'm going to do some experimenting with marshmallow fondant, I've read that it's superior to traditional fondant. 

Hand Crafted Sugar Flowers

I thought this class might be a waste of my money. Why? Because I knew the supplies were going to be hard to get, and I was apprehensive about taking the time to carefully watch and practice the tutorial videos. I'm in the middle of relocating to a new city where I know absolutely no one, finding an apartment, and a job.

Sure, it's an online course and I can watch the pre-recorded lectures at my convenience. I could wait two years if I wanted, before actually taking a whack at it. But my brother is getting married this December, and I'm doing their cakes. And so help me, I really want to be able to decorate them with beautiful hand crafted sugar flowers.

Carefully sculpted flowers drying with the support of an egg carton.

But things took an unexpected turn last week. We finally found our new place and signed a lease, and with my job applications all sent out, suddenly I was looking at a whole week of potentially free time. I had to do some creative thinking to make it work in my little extended stay hotel room kitchenette, but once things got going it really wasn't hard at all.

I'm thrilled that I was able to start my course so early, and I'm really pleased with the work I've done so far. I shouldn't be surprised, I'm pretty good at sculpting things.

Fun fact: My gel color pastes are in storage right now, so I mixed 1/8 teaspoon of turmeric with 1/8 teaspoon vegetable shortening. Mix well and kneed into 1/2 lb of gum paste for this cheerful light yellow. I actually like the small saffron colored flecks in the gum paste, the subtle variety makes for a natural looking pedal.

Are you interested in taking this course too? Find it at Craftsy.com

Demo Reel 2012

It's high time I give you an updated demo reel. Here you go:

It's a Hobby

I sew in my free time, I get a kick out of it. And until recently I hadn't gotten any of it online, but now I'm starting to post my creations on BurdaStyle.com. Check it out if you want to know what I'm up to!

http://www.burdastyle.com/profiles/prettylissy/my_studio