Posts from — January 2009

This is another sketch from Comic Nurse and it seemed very appropriate for today. Change has certainly come to America.

The awesome machine embroidery patterns that Nancy Cochrane offered for free on this site have proved to be VERY popular. So much so, that  a discussion ensued on that post, and another stitcher programmed an Obama portrait for use on a digital embroidery machine. This one is offered in PES (Brother) format. If you are able to convert this file into other formats, please send it on to me at obamacraftproject@gmail.com and I’ll post it here for download. Thank you so much to Kathy Dederich for this design!

Click here to download the final.

As with this first embroidery patterns, please do not use this file for commercial purposes. This is the honor system, folks, and we have to trust you here. This is design is not available anywhere else, and Kathy has provided it here on the Obama Craft Project site so that machine embroidery enthusiasts and Obama supporters can enjoy it for their own personal use. By clicking the download link below, you agree to these terms. Thanks for understanding.

When I saw this beautiful stencilled skateboard photo by STENZSKULL pop up in the Obama Craft Project flickr pool, I could hardly contain my excitement. You see, while I’m not a skateboarder myself (although I do own a sweet longboard that I can stay upright on, believe it or not), I believe deeply in supporting facilities for skateboarders, and eliminating the ridiculous anti-skateboarding laws which abound in many, many cities and towns across the U.S. Really, skateboarding is not a crime, and skateboarders are very often the victims of harassment and stereotyping. Skateboarding, like my other favorite sport of basketball, can be a very healthy, lifelong activity that is particularly special because its very nature encourages self-expression and creativity. I could go on and on, which wouldn’t be appropriate for this venue, but just think about this skateboard if you see a group of skaters and find yourself jumping to conclusions (as I used to do).

Anyway, on to the piece. It was created using Montana spraypraint and layers of stencils. It’s very impressive how much shading was achieving using this technique. STENZSKULLS created this awesome board for a contest sponsored by Coalition Skate Shop in San Luis Obispo, California.

STENZSKULLS will also be showing the above piece–created with multi-layer stencil work, wood staining, adhesived on stencil on paper then distressed and wood carving–at the Manifest Hope show in D.C., opening this weekend. I love this one because it really shows a moment of quiet introspection, completely different from the design on the skateboard.

Can you believe that inauguration is only a few days away? Wow!