My honest opinion on Posca Markers

I’ll be honest with you, reader, I put my painting gloves down in about 2010 because I was having confidence issues. Maintaining confidence as an artist is really hard, there are a lot of really talented people out there creating unbelievable art, and if you’re teaching yourself, it can be very intimidating.

If we let that stop us, we won’t get past the first few steps of our journey as makers/creators/artists though, so we push onward. Trying new things has kept me busy over the last 13 years, so I didn’t really think about what I was missing out on unless it was right in my face. Over the last few months Posca markers started showing up in my feeds and I caved after my last event and bought some.

With a lot of my impulsive purchases, I see something online, see someone doing something amazing with the product, buy it, and then when I try I am immediately disappointed because it either doesn’t work the way I thought it would or it has something about it that is just not what I’m looking for.

Not these markers, my dudes. I have bought about 4 different sets of them to get a variety of colors, and so far, only one set hasn’t worked the way I wanted it to, and that is only because I think it sat on the shelf at Michael’s for too long and the paint separated in the pens.

My honest opinion? Go get them and try them for yourselves. They have cheap packs at walmart that are 4 pens for about $11, and if you try them out and like them, there are so many colors my mind was honestly blown, and they are VIBRANT.

Tarot Card Deck

A big project always seems smaller in the beginning doesn’t it? When I got the idea for this deck a year ago I really thought 72 wasn’t that many cards to draw. I thought I could knock it out over one summer. Lol. The second I sat down to list out which cryptids I would use for which cards, the reality of the situation I was in blew up in my face.

The second I had to make an Excel sheet I knew this was going to be something different.

My business has run on things I find funny or that I like, and it’s always had a ‘random’ feel to it, but there is a process to it. I make a lot of lists and I have several notebooks and binders that I keep notes on patterns, ideas, etc. in, so the ‘random’ appearance is misleading, there’s a method to my madness…but this was different. This was an Excel spreadsheet of 72 categorized cryptids, organized by type.

Believe it or not, the spreadsheet is the thing that has taken me the longest, not the drawings. I really could sit down and draw these cards out fast if it wasn’t for trying to make sure I get all the details right. This is all building up to me writing the booklet out.

I don’t have the greatest attention span, so while I’m pretty organized, I tend to bounce from thing to thing and it’s hard for me to stay focused when I should be. This means that this one giant project is a lot more daunting than it actually is.

Why focus on the big projects when I could get instant gratification from a little embroidery?

So yeah, it’s really intimidating to think about having to do all this homework and draw all of these guys AND basically write a report, but I know in the end, it will be totally worth it.

Finally a new blog post

Wow I’ve neglected this blog. I’ll be honest, after the last post, my life kind of got flipped on it’s head and my depression got so bad I had to get medicated. My mom had a life altering stroke, my partner and I were in the middle of a custody battle for his son because he was living in unsafe conditions (we won, he’s safe now). Things were just not good, and I wasn’t doing well. I’ve always been really open with you all about my life because I think it’s wrong to put on a front for my social media.

With all of that happening, I spiraled. There were days where I just cried and couldn’t put my heart into much of anything. It took a lot of work and soul searching to get myself out of that hole. I am not going to say “back to normal” because, I didn’t go back to anything. The things I went through changed me as a person, I grew from the things I went through. Taking care of your mental health can be really hard, and really scary, but do it. It’s your responsibility to make sure you are okay. Sometimes you just feel terrible, and that’s honestly okay, it means you’re alive.

A lot has changed since all of this stuff started, but honestly, I’ve put a lot more of my heart into things now that I have addressed the shit I was going through. I can’t wait to get to my first event of the year so I can put some pictures of my new booth set up here for you guys that read this to see!

The Pandemic and Live Events

The world has changed so much in the last 2 years and most of us are just trying to stay afloat in the struggle. One of my main sources of income with my business is craft shows and other live events, which as you would imagine has been a bit of a struggle in a world where being around crowds is something we all have had to do to stay safe. Things have opened up in 2021 but you can tell tensions are still there.

As a vendor I want to wear a mask while I work, i’m fully vaccinated, but sometimes at loud events wearing a mask just isn’t doable. People can’t hear you over a loud room, so I keep my distance and raise my voice. At this last show I did this weekend I actually started to lose my voice just trying to be heard. I carry sanitizer everywhere and i’m a lot more careful of keeping space between myself and others than I used to be.

There are a lot of differences between now and past events i’ve done. A lot of people are avoiding spending, which is understandable, so the take home profit from live events is very different than before.

I also noticed that a lot more people found fiber art hobbies during quarentine and lock down, I'm really excited about that! I hope I get to make some more amazing friends!

Mostly though, people are just happy to be out and seeing vendors. We all missed seeing strangers just as much as we missed our friends.

My Utimate Horror List

Ultimate list of horror movies you have to see

This is a list compiled of horror movies I love, good and some so bad they are good.

Halloween 3 Season of the Witch
What we do in the shadows
A girl walks home alone at night
Hagazuzza
Mother
Antichrist
The vvitch
Deathgasm
Murder party
Lords of salem
The house that jack built
Henry
CHUD
Evil dead
Army of darkness
Killer clowns from outer space
Shaun of the dead
Dawn of the dead
28 days later
Doomsday
Hard candy
Texas chainsaw massacre
Friday the 13th (the whole series even the fan made ones)
Trick r Treat
Terrifier
Demon wind
The stuff
Hellraiser
Candyman
Willard
The ring
Hannibal

Upcoming new releases!

I have been in the process of designing special limited edition products, and I am happy to announce that one of the products 2021 is bringing you is THEMED MYSTERY BOXES! I am so excited to be working on these and they will be starting to be released in February! The first theme will be Slashers! I can’t tell you what will be in them but what I can tell you is there will only be a few boxes released, no two will be the same, and each will have a finished hoop inside!

Stay tuned for more!

Our 2020 Handmade/Re-gifting Christmas

This year has been as hard on us as it has been for a lot of people, so my family did a lot of handmade gifts and re-gifting of old well loved things. Here are my 3 favorite things that were given (either to me or from me).

1. Flat File

As I was growing up, my mom got this Stacor Flat File. I don’t remember when she got it, or where, I just remember it always being there, full of my sisters’ little kid art. I have always wanted one of my own and had made a mental note to track one down, that is until my mom called and told me that hers was on her way to my house. I freaked. Joe and I immediately went to Lowes, got mineral oil and lavender spray paint to clean and paint it and tore this beast apart. This hulking cabinet went from the rust covered gray it used to be to the cute colorful thing that was missing from my studio you can see here!

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2. Juggalo Nativity Set
So obviously I’m going to talk about this thing I made for Joe. No one tell my super Christian Grandma that I did this lol. I figure it’s ok because Juggalos are just a big family of cool people anyway, tell me Jesus wouldn’t be down with the clowns. I kept seeing a Juggalo Nativity floating around online, and I knew I had to make it for him.

I started by painting their faces with a couple of basecoats of white, and then with my tiniest brush I started painting their facepaint. Then after I posted it, everyone kept telling me they needed Faygo, or it wasn’t a real gathering! So I went and found some teeny little bottles for Barbie dolls and painted the word Faygo on each one, of course Sweet Juggalo Jesus baby had to have the orange one, it’s the best one.

3. A horse anatomy book from 1865
My mom really out did herself this year by not giving me one family heirloom, but two. She has had this Horse Anatomy book since she was a teenager, and for my entire life I have thought it was the coolest shit ever, because of one page. You can tell it’s super old because the skeleton has a nose. It is so weird that I decided I am going to redraw it and feature it on a shirt soon, I just love it so much! If you want to know why I am the way I am, look no further, here’s why. For almost 200 years this bad boy has been popping a wheelie waiting for someone to say “HEY THIS DESERVES TO BE A SHIRT" AND THAT SOMEONE WAS ME.

“HEY THAT SHOULD BE A SHIRT”

-Rachelle