LiPeony Shop

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Silhouette and Shadows

I had this crazy idea one day and went on a frenzy drawing up silhouettes and worked on them in Photoshop. These take so much more longer then my usual art but I really love how they retain the whimsy and playfulness of my Chibi Girl series but also allows me to create art that expands to other styles. Of course as always I doubted my work but after asking people, people really loved it and within two days of posting the above "FireFly Girl" Print it sold. SO I'm so happy. I still have a lot of unfinished drawings to do.

On another note BIM event went great! I made back my table fee and then some. Though it was raining on and off so that may have deterred people from shopping. I had a lot of complements about my work and I found out that people would pay extra for matted and framed prints. I'm definitely going to do that more often.
This one above is my newest work called "Little Composer." I got this idea from one of my favorite composers Joe Hisaishi. Actually for the few classical performances I've seen live and on the computer I love how the conductor just really let's it rip... bopping their heads, their batons their whole body shows how in tune they are to the music. I've been so slow with the updates because I've been microblogging on twitter. You can follow me here... http://twitter.com/LiPeony.

Until next time... don't stop dancing to your own beat. =)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

ACEO and Crafting Jitters

I just made my first ACEOs which are Art Cards Edition or Originals. Which is basically 2.5" x 3.5" little cards of art. This is the first time I made them and I think they turned out great! I also started taking pictures of my art against a wooden box I got from Kate's Paperie which is a pretty high end little paper, stationary, semi crafting store. Though the prices are a bit steep the collection of paper they have is wonderful! Rolls and rolls of colors, patterns and texture. Actually going inside the store and the website reminds me a lot of the Etsy aesthetic.

I've been making prints for the craft fair this Saturday and I'm very nervous. I got my wonderful sister to help again. =D . I also got some new displays and this time I'm going to try to aim to look more "neat" my other ones were kind of packed and messy due to all the little origami dolls I had. Well... we'll see! This November has been so packed... 10 page report which actually isn't much... it's the 25 papers I have to read for research, also need a new computer too... leaning towards a laptop create more space for my craftiness, midterm and my usual work, class and volunteer work. By Friday it'll be aaaaaaaaaaaall done! Woot! If you're in New York City on Saturday stop by BIM and mention my blog or twitter and pick up a little freebie =D.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Brr Chilly! Hot Soup!

Brr! It's November and it's getting chilly... it's times like these that I savor the many many different soups my mom boils up. Growing up there was hardly a day that goes by that I don't drink some weird concoction of soup that my grandma or mom makes. Now I'm sure everyone has heard of Hot and Sour Soup or Won ton Soup or Shark Fin soup but there are so many soup recipes that are passed down from family to family and shared among friends. Each one is made for a specific ailment. In fact there's a soup for every ailment. Though it's hard to near impossible to really find any Chinese restaurant that serves these homemade soups as there are far too many and their textures and tastes range from sweet "papaya and fish soup" to the bitterest soup consisting of an herb that makes my tongue want to run away from my mouth.

But there is one soup I love that's great for the winter it's sort of like the Chinese version of beef stew. It's called Oxtail Soup. Basically oxtail bones/meat, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes boiled. The meat is tender and falls right off the bone, the carrots and potatoes are soft but slightly favored by the beef soup base that has the pinch of sour and acidity from the tomatoes. My mom would make it in a huge earthen clay pot we have at home.

Li Family Oxtail Soup

1 large carrot (more if you like carrots/less if you don't like'em)
3 large potatoes (more if you like potatoes/less if you don't)
1 large tomato (adds a nice acidic sour taste but if you don't like it, don't add too much)
1 whole ox tail (usually the butcher will cut into large chunks)
4 quarts of water

Chop the vegetables into large chunks. Bring the water to a boil and put all the ingredients inside. Boil for 1 - 1.5 hours depend on how soft you want the vegetables to be (My mom does 2 hours and everything is very soft but not mushy) The great thing about this recipe is that you can add any substitute for the vegetables though this is the traditional one I have at home. It makes a great soup over rice or just by itself a awesome hot steamy meal. According to my mom it promotes the circulatory system... but who knows? It just tastes awesome to me.

Until next time... stay warm!