Vintage El Valiente – New Design Sunday, Jul 19 2009

I spent last night creating this new design for my CafePress Shop.  This is a pretty unique version of El Valiente (The Brave One) from a vintage loteria game.  I had to clean up the colors first – the images are pretty murky.

I am trying to refine my formula for these images so that they are more standard. I basically have five sizes I put up right now, because the posters have different proportions.  The files are maybe too big, because I want the best resolution possible.

That means that uploading them to CafePress to store in my image bank is a big pain in the behind.  It takes forever.  Last night, I crashed all of our computers trying to upload while watching a streaming video on Amazon Unboxed.  My husband was watching Hulu.  I didn’t know that we couldn’t do all of that at once.

So today, I had to try at least 5 times to upload things this afternoon.  I realized that I could not upload all five at one time, so I split it up into 3 separate uploads.  During each one, I had to go away from the computer and do something:  take a shower, clean the kitchen, write some e-mails on another computer…

After I got the the images in my Image Basket, I set up a section in the Vintage Loteria section of the Maison Celeste shop.  I have some product set defaults, but I still have to make some adjustments of layout and size and color.  Then, voila!  Done.  Check it out!

I have to mention that, while I was working on this design, I happened to be watching the third season of Dexter – there are many El Valientes in that show!

It is true that CafePress is still messing around with our commissions, but until I can find a viable alternative.  I am thinking about buying some and selling them on EBay…

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Make your own Loteria Deck! Monday, Jul 13 2009

So, I said on Mondays that I might start posting entries about Loteria art.  If you don’t know what Loteria is – here is a link to read.  I love creating new Loteria decks – so far, I think I have made or started about 4 0r 5.  Below is a card from a deck I was manipulating in PhotoShop a couple of years ago.  I think the focus was on artesania – or Mexican arts and crafts.  I like fooling around with those things.

So, how does one go about creating a loteria deck?  One thing I like to do is to print out a list of images from the traditional Don Clemente game and use that as my guide.  Here is a list of the images for you to peruse:

1 El gallo (The Rooster)
2 El diablito (The Little Devil)
3 La dama (The Lady)
4 El catrín (The Dandy/Fop)
5 El paragüas (The Umbrella)
6 La sirena (The Mermaid)
7 La escalera (The Ladder)
8 La botella (The Bottle)
9 El barril (The Barrel)
10 El árbol (The Tree)
11 El melon (The Melon)
12 El valiente (The Brave One)
13 El gorrito (The Bonnet)
14 La muerte (The Death)
15 La pera (The Pear)
16 La bandera (The Flag)
17 El bandolón (The Citar)
18 El violoncello (The Cello)
19 La garza (The Heron)
20 El pájaro (The Bird)
21 La mano (The Hand)
22 La bota (The Boot)
23 La luna (The Moon)
24 El cotorro (The Parrot)
25 El borracho (The Drunk)
26 El negrito (The Little Black Man)
27 El corazón (The Heart)
28 La sandía (The Watermelon)
29 El tambor (The Drum)
30 El camarón (The Shrimp)
31 Las jaras (The Arrows)
32 El músico (The Musician)
33 La araña (The Spider)
34 El soldado (The Soldier)
35 La estrella (The Star)
36 El cazo (The Bean Pot)
37 El mundo (The World)
38 El apache (The Apache)
39 El nopal (The Cactus)
40 El alacrán (The Scorpion)
41 La rosa (The Rose)
42 La calavera (The skull)
43 La campana (The Bell)
44 El cantarito (The Water Pitcher)
45 El venado (The Deer)
46 El sol (The Sun)
47 La corona (The Crown)
48 La chalupa (The Canoe)
49 El pino (The Pine)
50 El pescado (The Fish)
51 La palma (The Palm)
52 La maceta (The Flowerpot)
53 El arpa (The Harp)
54 La rana (The Frog)

Next, begin thinking of a theme.  If you have a theme or subject, such as your own culture, or your town, or your own group of friends, you can begin to conceive of your own images.  If you are doing a Loteria about Christmas, for example, El Venado (the deer) can be a Reindeer, El Pino (the pine tree) can be a Christmas tree, and El Arpa (the harp) can be played by an angel.

You don’t have to remain stuck using all of the cards, as I hope you can see.  Staying with the Christmas theme, you might not want to have La Muerte (death) or La Calavera (the skull) – unless you are doing The Nightmare Before Christmas…  You can replace those images with ones that are not included in the traditional Loteria, such as Santa’s cap instead of El Gorrito (the bonnet), and a sleigh instead of La Chalupa (the canoe).

Your use of images is up to you.  I save images that I think I might want to use in the future.  One of my favorite decks that I did a few years ago was based on a multitude of mola images I had accumulated.  I also have my quilt loteria that I made using line drawings and fabric samples, available at my CafePress Shop.  And there’s the original Loteria Celeste and my Vintage Loteria.  See, I told you!

Using Loteria in the classroom lends itself to many applications.  My students created cards for a House of the Scorpion Loteria deck that we did after reading Nancy Farmer’s book.  At the same time, I also started looking for relevant images to use as loteria/flash cards in my teaching of the book.  I would pass them out to students and ask them what significance the card had in the story.  It is challenging and brings up the use of analogies, since students have to make connections and comparisons between topics and themes in books and lessons to see the connection to the card I chose.

Use of analogies, which have been scrapped from formal testing, is important in being creative with your own loteria deck.  If you are doing a deck based on New Orleans, for example, you would want to see the connection between La Sirena (the mermaid, usually bare-chested) and the “show me your boobs” girls on the parade route…

These are just some beginning guidelines.  The reason I like to start with the original deck and make analogous entries is so that the art form can be recognized as a variation on a Loteria deck.  If you were making your own Tarot deck, you would want to start with the original deck as a guideline, wouldn’t you?

In future posts, I would like to seek out original loteria decks and feature them in my blog.  Tonight, however, I thought that an introduction to the creative process of creating a deck would be relevant to some.  If you would like to start looking at decks, go to Elsewhere.com to look at the scanned collection there.

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Shame on you, CafePress! Tuesday, Jul 7 2009

I have been meaning to write a blog post about this for a week or so, but thinking about it bums me out.

In case you don’t know what CafePress is, it is a site that sells t-shirts and other items printed on demand.  Thousands of designers have bought into the concept, opening up shops and uploading their own original designs to sell to the public.  I was soooo happy when I discovered their service.  I have been a member since 6/25/2004, or so it says on my account.  I started out with the free option, opening up a separate shop for each design.  Then I decided to upgrade to a Premium Shop for about $60 a year, and have consolidated my designs into one shop (Maison Celeste).

Now, I will be the first to tell you that I am not making a living off of my earnings at CafePress.  I make from $30 to $120 per month.  But I have really appreciated having my shop up.  It’s great exposure, and I have sold my work not only in the United States, but also abroad.  Just recently, I have had triple the orders that I had last year, which was encouraging.  I plan on highlighting more of my products on my blog, explaining the creative process behind my digital work.  I have also planned some other promotional ideas…

But a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a problem with my commissions.  The way CafePress used to work, I would set the markup for my items in the shop.  I could either choose to set an exact markup price for all items, or choose an algorithm that produced a sliding (relative) profit scale.  There’s also a place where you can choose what they call tiered markup: low,  medium, high or premium.  I usually choose high, which gives me from $1.00 on small items to $6 or $7 on larger items.  Every time I sell something, the markup is shown on my report.  I got the same profit, no matter if the customer clicked straight on my shop or if the product was found through the CafePress Marketplace search engine.

When I last checked my sales report, I noticed two things. First of all,  the items purchased by customers through the CafePress Marketplace were more expensive to the buyer.  For example, my La Paloma Tote Bag is priced in my shop at $15.99.  The original cost is $12.99 without the design.  Therefore, I make $3.00 on that purchase.  On June 14th, however, someone purchased that same tote bag through the Marketplace.  The cost to the customer was $17.00 and my profit was $1.70 (a flat 10% of the newly elevated price).  I was aghast.

So, the other night, I started to do some internet research to see if anyone else had learned more about this strange change then I did.  I came across a very detailed report written by Jim at Irregular Times.com.  He not only commented on the change in policy, but detailed what happened when he removed his products from the Marketplace (yes, one can opt out of the Marketplace).  Even though some of his products were purchased from his shop, he still received the Marketplace 10% markup.  The post is very enlightening, and more information has been added through reader comments.  The basic idea seems to be that CafePress is, in essence, competing with its own designers.

I have since been looking into alternatives to CafePress, although the thought of re-doing everything bums me out.  I found a very informative comparative article on Squidoo.com called “CafePress Alternatives and Competitors” .  I have gone to Printfection, but they definitely don’t have the merchandise range offered by CafePress.  I don’t think that I will miss all of the items, like the coffee mugs and notebooks, but I definitely need someone that prints posters, cards, and magnets.  On the upside, Printfection has a massive range of t-shirt styles and colors.  I don’t get the appeal of the cutting boards, though…

I am already a little familiar with Zazzle – I just didn’t see any advantage to their program.  In fact, last time I checked, there seemed to be no option to have a shop.  Looking at the site now, it does look a bit different, and it has a really large merchandise selection.   The article in Squidoo basically says what I had heard about Zazzle, that the markups are limited and no stores.  But when I just clicked on “Sell” at Zazzle, it looked like they had made some policy changes, perhaps to lure people from CafePress.  I will look into it more later.

Finally, there is Spreadshirt, which is a German company.  At the moment I am unable to access their site, because of maintenance.  But the range of products is impressive – as are the prices.  I think I looked at one wacky halter-like t-shirt that was going to sell for 75 Euros – not Dollars, but Euros!!!!!  I will go back later.

In the meantime, please go to my CafePress Shop and check it out.  I am planning on removing myself from the Marketplace, which means that I will need to do more promotion myself!

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Honk If You’ve Seen La Llorona… Sunday, Jul 5 2009

I have been cleaning up my studio and office and re-arranging my wall decoration.  I have all sorts of posters and things up there.  One of the things I came across was this bumper sticker.

I know it’s not big, but I cannot currently use my scanner, so I had to go out on the web to get an image.  I have not put the bumper sticker on my car (yet), but I bought it because it is so different.  I bought mine on a visit to Houston, Texas at Casa Ramirez in the Heights.

At the time, I had done a lot of research on La Llorona for one of my lesson plans (here is the blog post) and recognized the illustration from Joe Hayes’ book.  I bought it a while ago on Amazon.com, but the book and the bumper sticker can be found at Cinco Puntos Press, Mr. Hayes’ publisher.  Here is the cover from the book:

I believe his story is set in New Mexico.  I thought that it was interesting that the story is available on VHS and DVD.  I wonder if it is narrated by Joe Hayes, showing the pages from the book, or if it is a live performance that has been videotaped.  Oh, the illustrator is Vicki Trego Hill.

I may have to do a La Llorona themed poster for my CafePress Shop.

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La Vibora Saturday, May 30 2009

I am waiting for us to go and see Jonathan Coulton at the Variety Playhouse.  I have gotten some things done today, despite my exhaustion from packing up my room and doing ESOL record keeping for the past 4 days.  Tomorrow, I am going to the John C. Campbell Folk School for a week-long workshop on printmaking.

Later:  The Jonathan Coulton show rocked!  Paul and Storm, formerly of DaVinci’s Notebook, opened the show.  They are hysterical, but my husband pointed out that their act is 7o percent patter and 3o percent music.  I thought they would NEVER end their act – they have this pirate song, and all of the audience was saying “AAARRRR(G)!  without end.  They do have a fun bit about fighting nuns – I have to find that on YouTube.  Yep, the link is above.  Here are the lyrics – you don’t have to be Catholic to find this hysterical.

Jonathan Coulton went on a little late, but he still played a long set – we left before the encores.  After the Zombie Song, of course!  His stuff is great.  It’s not just joke music, like Ray Stevens.  It’s soulful!

The image to the right is one of my newer Vintage Loteria designs.  I love how I made that old viper look pretty!  Check it out at my CafePress Shop!

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Lover’s Eye Art Friday, May 8 2009

I had a little time on my hands today, so I thought that I would play around with Adobe Photoshop.  My inspiration was an 18th century art form known as the Lover’s Eye.  I found a few in a decorating magazine and used them in a collage a couple of years ago.  I don’t know what brought them up again – oh, I was doing a search for heart ex-votos, and this shop had some up for sale.  they run about $3000 to $6000!

Generally, they were miniature portraits of a person’s eye, set in a frame, box, or locket.  Usually, the story was that they were the eye of a secret lover, but they were also popular mourning pieces for the dead.  They were often made into brooches, surrounded by stones.  Pearls, in particular, are supposed to represent tears.

I started surfing the Internet, “collecting” eyes – well, entire faces, of course, but in order to use the eyes.  This one is – can you guess? – Edward Cullen.  Many of the girls in my class were able to recognize it, but my husband was not.  I found a photo of Robert Pattinson and tweaked it (a lot) in Photoshop, making his eye golden, then giving the piece a painted effect.

I used a fabric sample picture for the “gold” frame and settings.  I decided to use black pearls, just to be unusual.  I am sure Edward would prefer black pearls over white.  I found some garnet earrings set in diamonds and added them.  I really like the effect.  I don’t know what I will do with it next – it was just a fun exercise.

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Yet Another Loteria Project… Friday, Mar 27 2009

I know- it seems like I will never run out of things to do with loteria.  After working with my students’ cards for House of the Scorpion, I decided to take a break and make some of my own.  I had this idea of using these vintage loteria cards I found in Mexico.  I am assuming that they are copyright-less, but I could be wrong.  I really like the look of them, and they have quite a few images that are different from the more well-known Don Clemente deck.

I got this idea sort of out of the blue.  I like working with scanned fabric samples, and have used them in my Quilt Loteria and my Milagros collections.  Suddenly I had this image of the Diablito (devil) card framed by a pretty flowered pattern.  I have worked in Photoshop to alter the scans of the vintage cards a little bit, and then I chose coordinating fabrics.

The first one I did was El Leon.  I decided to make him number one because I am a Leo – and we all know what happens when we use the “G” word.  I found a pretty gingham print and altered the colors to fit the lion card I chose.  Then I framed it again in a simple checkered plaid in yellow and blue.  That was my basic design.

I think it has been a little while since I worked in my CafePress shop, so I first went in and deleted some images on the server that I am no longer using.  Then, I reorganized some of my image files and closed some shops that were either for my one-time use or were no longer relevant.  Then I added the new “Vintage Loteria” section.  I have done just about one design and one shop per day for the past 3 days.  My latest is the one to the left – isn’t it HOT?

Today, after setting up the Vintage Jarabe Tapatio shop, I did a little studying up on image sizes in CafePress.  Usually I work with one image and alter it to fit two different shapes:  One is a rectangle – which I make really big and use for everything from posters to refrigerator magnets.  The other is a square, which I use for square things, like tiles, or round things, like buttons or clock faces – I just don’t worry that they are not a circle within a circle.

The problem with this is that no one proportion of rectangle fits for every poster and frame size and all of the other rectangular things, like postcards, greeting cards, notecards and journals.  So, this time I made three sizes:  one 8 1/2 by 11 inch, one 11 by 17 inch, and one 11 by 11 inch square.  I also am keeping all of the elements of the design in a folder on my laptop, so I can alter a design or make another size.  I may have to store more of these things on my computer at home, because my laptop is getting pretty full.

So, go check out my Vintage Loteria Shop!

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Happy New Year! Thursday, Jan 1 2009

It’s been a pretty busy Christmas holiday – we went to The Northshore for the main event.  My husband, the dog, and I stayed in a little family house in Abita Springs with my dad and his dog.  The weather was bizarre: freezing when we got there and in the 80s by the time we left.  We had the requisite raw oysters, gumbo, pralines, and po boys.   I only objected to one thing:  the candy cane shaped kings cake.  That is – well, if not a travesty – overkill.  Are we going to now have kings cake all year around?  Can’t anything be seasonal?  Can’t we WAIT until January 6th?

I blame it on Peeps.

My Christmas gift card books were a hit.  I also managed to slap together a calendar for my Mom and Dad that includes some of my other collages.  I will fine tune it later.  I was able to have it delivered just in time to my sister’s house – cool!  I also instigated a little project for Christmas Eve and Day.  I brought along one of my blank Goose Game boards and a set of Sharpie markers and urged everyone to draw little pictures in the squares.  I plan on finishing it up and sending copies to the family later.

When we got back, we had a raclette party over at my in-laws house for a late Christmas.  I’ve been shopping for a new agenda (I think I have decided against a DIY one – too much process that could be used on other art).  I have mostly been taking it easy, but there are some things on my “to do” list that I will need to get done between today and Monday.

What else?  Oh, I finished New Moon.  Whatever.

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Viva Zapata! Wednesday, Nov 26 2008

No, I haven’t been totally lazy while I’ve been on vacation.  I have been half-heartedly cleaning house.  So far, I have cleaned the bedroom surfaces and dusted and folded clothes.  My husband is supposed to vaccuum and mop, but he’s been sick, so apparently he cannot clean house.  No comment.

I have not yet unpacked my laserjet printer, and we are now at the halfway point, holiday-wise.  I had been meaning to print out a whole lot of images I have stored on my laptop.  In particular, those heart ex votos and milagros I have been collecting for a year or so now.  I have yet to come up with a really organized filing system for the images.  I am sure I have duplicates of many of them.  And, truth be told, some of the designs are different by maybe one element.

Earlier, I tried putting them in files according to what shape they were and if they were silver-colored or painted.  Then, I just went ahead and filed them according to the source where they were found.  I don’t feel bad about copying the various images and designs because I do not plan on going into the ex-voto or tin ornament business.  The designs provide inspiration for my own creations.

Last night, I created a new heart “blank” and decided to work on an Emiliano Zapata theme.  I really like how it came out.  Now, you can see a little bit of his gun, and of course there are his bullet vests, but it’s not as violent as many of the Zapata t-shirts I’ve seen worn by my students.  In our school, of course now we have uniforms, but before that, we had restrictions on what sort of images could not be worn to school.  Those were mainly any reference to alcohol, tobacco, weapons, sex, or gang symbolism.

Because I am a connoisseur of t-shirt art, I often would notice things that were not notices all day by other teachers.  Such as:

• a drunken Chihuahua saying “yo quiero tequila”
• “homies” pouring a beer bottle onto a compadre’s grave
• scantily clad women on low riders OR being carried away by Aztec warriors
• Scarface carrying a pistol AND a cigar
• Soccer fan t-shirts with beer ads on them
• Zapata, riding a horse, carrying a shotgun (with the support of the Virgin of Guadalupe, of course)

Whenever I would call a student on the Zapata t-shirt, I would explain that we had no problems with the Revolution or with Mr. Emiliano and his friends.  Then I would point out that it was the GUN that cannot be worn to school.

Now, you may be thinking I am being nit-picky about this, but years ago the school secretary pointed out that I was wearing an inappropriate shirt.  I was dumbfounded.  I had purchased the shirt when my husband and I visited the Salvador Dali museum in Florida.  It was a painting called “Lively Still Life” – I think.  The object that was “objectional” was the knife, floating in the air.

So, please visit my Milagros CafePress shop to see the items available.  I think I am going to work on a Christmas t-shirt/card design next.

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La Sirena and The Sea of Trolls Friday, Mar 28 2008

Thank God it’s Friday!!!  One more week until Spring Vacation!!!  Then, 6 weeks left until school ends!  That’s 35 days – 18 B-Days and 17 A-Days to go!!!

Not that I am counting…

I have another new Milagro design up at CafePress.  It’s called La Sirena.  I happen to have an image of La Sirena (The Mermaid) of the Loteria deck that has a shell bra on – just to keep it family friendly.  I worked hard to use a different color paletta for this design and to keep up a nautical/Latino them.  That is why there are milagros and fish and shells!  I like it a lot!  I plan on ordering something at the beginning of next month.

This week, I am listening to a book on CD.  I am a huge fan of Nancy Farmer’s book, House of the Scorpion – I must have listened to it about 20 times.  Mainly, this is because I taught it as part of my ESOL reading curriculum.  It is a book that touches many levels – the reading level is supposed to be 6th grade, but the variety of themes and concepts that she touches on is vast.  I usually create a bulletin board with everything from cloning to opium production to soccer houligans to the Virgin of Guadalupe and more.  Still, for my Latino students that are unmotivated readers, there is a lot of information that they can recognize from their culture.  I love that book!

My husband asked if I had read any of Nancy Farmer’s other books, and I have to say that I haven’t.  So that is why I am currently listening to The Sea of Trolls.  It is epic – it took me a while to get into it, but I like it.  I just found out that there is a sequel, so I will read that next.  Then I want to move on to The Chronicles of Narnia!

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