Wordless Wednesday

keith's alley, Yellow Springs, Ohio

when one door closes, another one opens

Happy New Year

Pizza Indian Style

No Fair they don't do this at our local Pizza Hut

Apparently this is not unusual, quite a few Pizza Huts in India have dancing waiters.

Sketchbook Project Page
My favourite memory is the night in Hetton-le-Hole
when the sky was ink black and it sparkled with stars.
I sat in wonder on the doorstep as I ate the best chips in the world.
Mum's chips.
Mum had put them in a paper cone and sprinkled them with malt vinegar.
It was magical and all was right with the world.

Taipei Baby: knit graf in Taipei

"Taipei Baby"
A jafagirl camo barbie made its way to Taipei 101 district.

thanks to guest jafas Adrian & Belinda
woo hoo

UPDATE

I did my moans in the last few posts.
So here is some good news.
The owner of the shop said she will remove the cards that depict jafagirls artwork
since we did not give permission to the photographer to use our images for profit.

Smile!

I am experimenting with street art stickers and this didn't really work for me
but I thought I would post it anyway.
Do you ever feel like shouting at someone who returns a smile with a scowl or blank look
"OH go suck a prune"


Ethical question (not a legal one)
An out of town photographer has been taking photographs of local public art (including our jafagirl textile totems) and using them on cards she is selling in a local shop. The photographer has not included any information on the cards, or credited who, what or where? (The Textile Totems clearly state who did them with a name and a blog address.) I don't think it is hard to find a link to the Arts Council and asking who to credit the work to.
To me it is a matter of professional courtesy towards the artists of this small community, especially when said person is using local artists work to profit from. I also think it is important for buyers to see at the very least where the photo was taken.
Also regardless of where the art is it is still copyrighted to the person who created it and neither Nancy or I gave permission for anyone to photograph our work (whether it is in public or not) to use as a means to make a profit from. These are close up shots of the knit knot tree, the textile totems and Nancy's painted lion.
How would you feel and what would YOU do?

Happy Christmas

I always used to think the idea of a video of a fire was rather stuuuuuuuuupid until after 6 years of not having a fireplace and just craving one for Christmas Morning.
I got me some virtual flames

>

Happy Holidays Everyone

Hum I always thought Santa was a Geordie

Was shocked when I heard him with an American Accent

Christmas Boomwhackers

Jafabrit's Tree

I feel cheated

As many of you know I enjoy decorating rubber cockroaches for found art. I have had difficulty finding the same shape one's for sale but found one site and I was soooooooo happy. They are exactly the shape I need for my free art so I ordered 60 of the little suckers.

Well, what you see is NOT what I GOT. They sent me this.

NOT what was advertized on their website.
I can't use these.
So I send them an email, since they claim to care about their customers, with pictures and an explanation, and a question as to whether they have the one's advertized on their website.
I get this.

"if you are not satisfied with them you are more then welcome to send them back and your full purchase price will be refunded."

That's it. No sorry, no explanation, nada.
You know a little sweetness can go a LONG way to helping calm a customers irritation but curt indifference has another effect.
I feel I was misled into buying their product based on their advertized image and now I have to pay priority mail to ship them back in order to get my refund.
I will not be refunded the shipping costs (they haven't stated they would do so)
So for just under $20 I have NOTHING to show for it.

Is there a law that states an image of a product for sale should be the one that is sent?
Should it be incumbent on the customer to cover the shipping costs for an item they did not order?????????
What would YOU do?

She wore BIG knickers

Sketchbook Project Page

and
I thought they were scary
but
one night I had to sleep in her bed
and I saw her wearing them
and
that was REALLY scary

Who Knew I would become a member of the
BIG KNICKERS CLUB
arg

Odd stories in the News
Row over big KNICKERS
A FAMILY'S home was saved – by a pair of knickers.

Some fun sites to Visit
Yarn bombing which always has some of the coolest knit graffiti on it

I have a new link for a really cool video tutorial search engine called
Wonder How To
"WonderHowTo hand-selects and curates the best free instructional videos from over 1,700 websites."

Wonderful Wacky Food and Bento Art by Sakurako Kitsa at Flickr
I am happy to say Sakurako has agreed to exhibit in the art space that I help run for the Yellow Springs Arts Council.

Cor, I love Crackers

That's a Deluxe Tom Smith Cracker sitting on my table and you almost need a forklift to pick it up, which tells me they don't have cheapo plastic pressies. Still they don't compare to the one's that Wee Birdy showcases on her blog (oooh la la, those one's are primo).

History and Tradition of Crackers

Sketchbook Project: Page 2

"In fairy tales the wicked

always get punished, but she wasn’t

in a fairy tale. She was in Nana’s kitchen

playing at the sink, playing with the bubbles

and water. She imagined

she was serving tea.

Yes! She imagined

as she lined the glasses

up that some contained the poison

for THEM. Them! Even at five she

knew they were wicked,

only she didn’t really know just

how truly

wicked they would become".

by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

Stuck up in Taiwan

Photo by Adrian
五福路 和 中華路
in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Map
My sticker found it's way to Taiwan
thanks Adrian & Belinda

sketchbook project: Page 1

Since the theme is everyone know I figured it should start
with a pic of moi, jafabrit. Man I can't believe I spent three hours trying to figure out how I wanted to do one flipping page.

A typical irreverent Geordie
known for their cheeky wit, and friendly nature

and
A JAFA

Rufus was most perturbed watching me repair his toy

A Geordie Life

Doesn't look like much does it, but this car park is a famous landmark that was controversial from the get go. Of course my memories of it precede Get Carter (my cousin was in the dance hall scene as a extra). That brick wall on Jackson Street in Gateshead is hundreds of years old (I think it's from roman days) and I tinkled next to it behind a billboard. Yes that is my claim to fame LOL! Oh! I was only 6 and desperate, as was my nana and mum to find a loo for me, but alas nature was demanding. I loved going to Gateshead with my mum and nana, the shops, the old buildings, churches and pubs. Those are my good memories. As for the car park, that is where at 16 I was attacked. I was several floors up and waving to my sis in the square below. I was about to get on the lift when a man stopped me, grabbed me by the throat and started to drag me towards a car screaming he was going to teach me a lesson. It is almost surreal when you are attacked. Forget logic, your body and your brain don't connect or work too well. I couldn't even process for a few seconds what was happening, my body went limp and I tried to scream but no sound came out. It was only when he had dragged me a few feet next to the car that I gave out a hell raising scream and some shopper came racing up to rescue me. That is the bad memory.

It is one of many incredibly ugly building that went up in Gateshead and Newcastle during the late 50's 60's and early 70's, an architectural movement called Brutalist. Putting aside the aesthetics (that is always subjective) the architecture and surroundings proved unfriendly, cold and inhospitable. A classic example is the now demolished Newcastle Public Library.

Trivia: "1853 Police were forbidden to carry sticks and were ordered by the Watch Committee to "Control their tempers." 19th century gateshead

Geordie Life, where you can see some great videos of the city of Newcastle and its architecture and learn a little about the culture.

The Sketchbook Project: Front Cover

The theme of the Art House Sketchbook Project is "everyone we know"
Since the eyes are the windows to the soul
I thought it fitting to paint my eye

Traveling Exhibit
"your documents please"
CURRENT LOCATION
2B Galéria
Budapest, Hungary
November 28, 2008 - December 30, 2008
Publications
Amica Magazine

MadSilence has this really cool snow effect on their blog (I hope they don't me borrowing the idea). Mine isn't as good, but I think still fun :)

WOW!
Someone crashed into the street sign on the corner of Dayton and Corry street that has our knit graffiti on it. Nancy and I figured we would have to do some new knitting for it when the new pole went up. Well, I don't know which village crew did this, but bless their hearts. They actually slid the knitting off the destroyed pole and put it onto the new pole.
Thank You

Cutesy period is over ;)

well, err, hum!!!!!! NEVER say never. Who knows I might become overwhelmed with the desire to create a cute little owl or something. Right now my brain is going potty with ideas for the various projects lined up for 2009 and none of them are cute like the dickie bird lol!
I got my sketchbook for the sketchbook project at the Art House, YIKES it is tiny.

So here is a last pic for a while (I think) of my more whimsical work.

"nana's house"
mixed media on canvas

Connie at Dirty Footprints did a wonderful thing and donated all the monies from her paintings she advertized on her etsy shop to Women For Women International.
I was going to do a post on it but she sold out so fast
How wonderful is that.

I made a comment that seemed to cheer this blogger up and I was rewarded with a very sweet gift envelope in the mail from Bobby at Leberak Found Art with 3 wonderful images.
I really liked the lilac tree, but this one I particularly liked as it reminded me spending time watching the fishing boats at Seahouses in the Northeast of England. It is a beautiful photograph and I am really enjoying it. Thank you Bobby.

Jafagirls get up to mischief at 3:07pm

I blew the whistle and lots of kisses and cuddles On Saturday Dec 6th at 3:07 pm.
Boy did a huge crowd show up on the steps of the Presbyterian church in town
You can see the slide show of "the kiss" on our jafagirl blog.
I accosted people and forced Hershey chocolate kisses on them, poor things ;)
My dog Rufus seriously resisted a kiss from my daughter

It was fun day, with a lot of joy and jokes and smiles
A HUGE thanks to the Village of Yellow Springs for being such good sports and participating.
This is just for YOU