Tony, thanks for modeling!
Photo by Graham Wheeler

FLOWERCLOUDS at FOO FEST this weekend!

The Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire will be within FOO FEST tomorrow on Empire Street in Providence. It begins at 1 PM and costs only $7 for SO MUCH FUN!!!

Something fun and new

I'm having fun making lasercut textile wig hats!
Photo by Graham Wheeler

An interview in Kansas City

The brilliant and diligent Miesha Miller of "What's Up, Kansas City?" interviewed me for the "On Top of Your Game" series. Unfortunately, the camera later goes out of focus, but you can still hear what we say.

Garden salad

Baby bok choy and its flowers, spinach, orach, purselane, fennel

I don't often post pictures of my food, but I'm excited that these plants grew in the Community Garden in Olneyville.

Tablet drawing

I recently got a tablet (the mobile kind.) It has a pretty fun drawing program, and a built- in stylus. I've been using it a lot in my travels, sketching ideas for FLOWERCLOUDS. It is much neater and easier than carrying around watercolor paint boxes (though I'll probably still do that, too.)

Maker Faire Kansas City

FLOWERCLOUDS in Kansas City June 29-30, 2013 (definitely!)

Well, hello!

"Hi!" from the Maker Faire in San Mateo!

2013 Bay Area Maker Faire

It's nearly that time of year! I'll be showcasing FLOWERCLOUDS lasercut textiles this year at the Maker Faire instead of flameworked glass. I'll even be presenting onstage! You can find me in The Yard/ North/ booth TY46. See you in San Mateo May 18th and 19th!

Illustrators in FLOWERCLOUDS

GUNSHO illustrator James Quigley sports a Flowerclouds piece
gunshoisalive.blogspot.com/

Living legend Lynda Barry in a Flowerclouds headband
www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/magazine/cartoonist-lynda-barr...

Earrings

I made a simple and lightweight birthday gift for my friend.

I liked these so much that I made a heavier and more complicated version for me to test drive. These are of lampworked glass, steel, and silver.

A new video is in the works!

Yesterday Graham Wheeler and I recorded a new tutorial video: How to Make Glass Chains! We may need a few more shots and editing will take a little while, but check out this funny image of the back of my head.

2 mic packs hang on my back as the wires snake through my hair to microphones clipped on the arms of my glasses.

New Glass

I have never owned a car, but for a while between 2011 and 2012 I was borrowing a car from my family to help dear hearts in different states. For six months I drove 500 miles a week, to New York and back, and to Boston and back. I enjoyed seeing my relatives frequently & being present with loved ones, and I wrote a lot of songs in the car. I used the car to get to my glass studio in Central Falls, where I would also sing a lot. I was not home often. (note bene- Central Falls is the smallest city in the smallest state in the US!)

Exactly a year ago I was hit by a drunk driver just 2 blocks from my house in Providence. The other driver hit me and ran, but she "luckily" left her license plate in the intersection. I was not hurt, but it was the end of the car.

It was a relief to not drive so much anymore. Providence parking regulation enforcers are relentless, gas is expensive, traffic can sometimes be frustrating. Providence is so small and bikable anyway (for the most part.) 

Last week my extraordinary sweetheart of a friend was kind enough to help me move my glass studio back to Olneyville, and as a result I've done more lampwork in the past week than I had in the last year. Today was the application deadline for some RISCA Fellowships, one of which I won a few years ago. Here are some new pieces from today's grant application.

A lampworked glass and leather cuff

Floral gradient earrings in blues

I'm teaching a one day laser- cut textiles class on February 2nd at AS220 and there are still some spots available. 

Sign up now if you want to learn!

Starting,

FLOWERCLOUDS. Still finishing the etsy listings 

and working on the website, but here's 

a facebook page, if you "like" those things. 

On it!

Sorry for the lapse in communication. Look for my new work at Craftland in Providence this Friday and at the RISD Alumni Sale on December 8th at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Thanks to Rah Adio of Wood Pusher Skate Shop, Andrea Schwalm of Wired magazine, Alex Schein of Skyhunter Media and the New School, and all the folks who are subscribing to my youtube channel!

LASERCUTTER

My future arrived! I am now the proud owner of a lasercutter and I'm starting a textile business, launching in late September at the World Maker Faire in New York!

Headband plus earrings

I only noticed after making the necklace

that the headband + the earrings

roughly equal the necklace.
(pompoms and lasercut fabric
on a computer cable)

Women on Money

The top two are new drawings-- ballpoint pen on dollars.

Fest

I gave up and it felt so good.

The first half of the day has been comically disappointing, but I'm not going to let that prevent me from enjoying the second half. I highly recommend patronizing the party supply store in Olneyville Square, (the one between Kennedy Fried Chicken and Keystone Printing.) They were so kind to me today.

Probably yes

I like thinking with my hands through play.

This necklace says MAYBE ANYTHING PROBABLY YES
Thanks to Kelly Eident for the acrylic, and Mike McCarthy for the photo.

Corpus Callosum

I made a poster for the show tomorrow at 186 Carpenter Street in Providence. Corpus Callosum is on tour all the way from San Francisco, and Speaker For The Dead is joining them for some New England dates. Corpus Callosum has an amazing glass harmonium of tuned wine glasses (okay, not a true harmonium but SUPER INSPIRING nonetheless) , accordion, mandolin, guitars, percussion, voices, bells, and found objects. It should start by 8:30 and be over by 10:00, and I guarantee it will be a lovely time!

Corpus Callosum - Lullaby #2 from Dax Tran-Caffee on Vimeo.

Y'oughtta

laser- cut, spray- painted, and glued for a blue friend

Lightness

Usually, I am a cyclist or a pedestrian. Never have I owned a car, though for about a year I borrowed one from my family. I can't say that I've had the smallest carbon footprint because I have flown over 200 times so far.  Being above clouds is a familiar sight to me. I took this several weeks ago on the way home from California.

Roger Williams Park is certainly the hidden gem of Providence. It covers more than 400 acres and was landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers over a hundred years ago. (Frederick Law Olmsted the elder was the landscape architect for Central Park in New York City.) I like to visit the Temple to Music, the lakes, the Botanical Center, the Japanese Garden, the Museum of Natural History, the carousel, and the stables for the police horses. I took this photo there recently. 

I especially enjoy throwing sticks into the lakes when the surfaces are at least partially frozen because it can produce a good fake laser sound, like a tightly- stretched  spring reverberating inside a tube. 

Lately I am elated about actualizing a couple dreams. One has to do with music, and one has to do with a lasercutter. You'll hear more about it soon.

Fireworks and Honeysuckle

July Fourth in New York


Booming mortar ignitions 
black powder combusting 
rolling thunderous echoes
shooting sounds, sounds like shooting. 


inconsistent hammering 
walking on bubble wrap
resonating snaps pouring like lead shot 
cracking
staccato flashes
screaming
shrieking
loud silence
fading ghosts in every direction


Floating in a sulfurous haze
the bashful, blushed peach of a moon
hidden in plain sight.


To ride in a plane this very day,
below the clouds above here
witness to a neutral war
populated with flowers of light

Laser- cut diner placemat doodles as prototypes for AS220's 
soon- to- arrive Shopbot!

Some work in Warren

I have a piece on display at the Imago Foundation for the Arts in Warren. My "Swing for singing" is in the "Love in June" show. The swing was recently at AS220's Pop- Up Gallery on Westminster Street in Providence. I really like the direction this piece is going in, and you should check it out if you're nearby. I'll be making a costume to wear when performing on it, eventually. Photos soon.

Textile toys

My niece and nephew turned one yesterday so I made for them some textile playthings.

2 doodles

I just returned from a month in California visiting family, friends, 
digital fabrication spaces, and exhibiting at the Maker Faire. 
Sketchbooks are convenient to work with when traveling. The 
stationary store in the Kinokuniya Mall always yields new drawing 
tools and I like using ballpoint pens in soft, brushy ways. That red 
text above actually says, "Good people disobey bad laws."

Back in Providence, I'm playing around in the shared studio 
downtown. New friend Paul Brazio gave us each storyboarding 
moleskines. I made this image with pencil shavings and tape.

More and bigger

I made another pair of pom pom earrings. To make them yourself, follow the technique demonstrated in my most recent tutorial video, but make some smaller batches of pom poms in a variety of diameters to create a gradient of sizes for the finished jewelry project. To build the earrings just tie the pom poms onto existing hoop earrings utilizing the longer belts that should still be hanging off of each pom pom. If you accidentally cut off the belts, use a needle and thread to securely sew the pom poms to the hoop earring (simply around the metal or plastic.)
Ask questions if you have any! 

A neat reference is the book,  Tassels: The Fanciful Embellishment by Nancy Welch.

A new studio to work in! This one is for animation and collaboration

Flameworked glass and lasercut textiles,
some glass bees, eyes, and beaks for birds

MAKER FAIRE!

I'll be exhibiting again at the Bay Area Maker Faire on May 19th and 20th. This will be my tenth Maker Faire! (Six in the Bay, two in New York, one in Austin, and one in Rhode Island!) 

If you're able to go, DO!

Medium Format Polaroid

Graham Wheeler took these photos of me. 
He also recorded my pom pom tutorial!

How to Make Multiple Pom Poms!

WATCH THIS IN HIGHER RESOLUTION! Select 1080p under the cog icon!

AS220 Labs Spring classes

תודה על כל מה שבראת

Follow this link to hear a song I recorded!

In case you didn't know, I like to sing, I like harmonizing, and I like layering vocals. I'm trying to figure out more about recording.

This is part of a Hebrew song I learned in fifth grade. I translate it as:

Thanks for all that's been created.

Thanks for all I have been given:

for the the laugh of a child,

and the blue sky;

for the Earth,

and a warm house;

a corner to sit in,

a woman to love--

because after all

I am alive.




This is how I learned it:

Olivia Horvath and Katrina Clark  invited folks to draw on the walls during last week's Coffee Club as part of their installation in the gallery at 186 Carpenter Street (here in Providence.)

I drew with some super new markers from Texas. That sign was already there.

Hey, Jess.

More Women on Money

Ballpoint pen, I've been at it again.

Also, these are from a little while ago.

I'll be teaching Laser- cut Textiles again at AS220 on February 18th and 19th from noon to 6 P.M. both days. This is the last chance to take the class for $90!

OCCUPY PVD

A day shelter will be for everybody, not only people who are homeless.