Winter 2024 Newsletter

Happy new year everyone!

I am writing to you in February, when helleborus, snowdrops and crocus are popping up everywhere and the sun is gracing us again.

My life has been extremely slow as I was injured while biking. I was actually hit by a deer that tried to jump over me! It sort of tripped on me and sent me crashing into the pavement. I am okay, I just can’t do my normal hiking and running while I recover. So I find myself cooped up inside and taking things a lot easier than I’ve taken them in years.

Having this extra time has allowed me to plan for my year ahead and one of the things I will be doing a lot more this year is library events! “Uno Más, One More” by Silvia Lopez comes out May 21st and so I will be doing a lot of publicity events for the book. I received my very first copy of the book today and I am so ready to share this book with the world!

Also, I have really been leaning into letting my work be as detailed as I would like it to be by not rushing my process. I sometimes get caught up in wanting to finish and share a piece that I don’t meditate with my work for long enough and let it become what it is meant to be. I feel very proud with how complicated I made the piece above.

Unfortunately most of my life right now is just waiting to heal so I can resume my normal antics, but here is a short list of what I am looking forward to in the next few months. Feel free to take these ideas!

  • The nettle patch by my house sprouting. I will be making nettle quiche, and nettle cordage!

  • Making a wreath out of heather.

  • Making a bread loaf shaped like a sun.

  • Starting the seeds for my garden.

  • Going backpacking and camping!

  • Napping in the sun.

Until next time,

Olivia

DIY Hand-Shaped Book

Hello! Today’s DIY is a bookmaking project! I was inspired to make a sketchbook for myself and a friend and I wanted to make a book that is an interesting shape. This project is relatively easy but does require a bit of patience.

You will need:

  • Cover Paper (Can be watercolor paper, bristol, a thicker decorative paper)

  • Interior Paper (Could be sketchbook paper, printer paper, just anything thin)

  • X-acto Knife

  • Waxed-String or any string

  • A large needle

  • A puncher tool, thumb tack, or nail

  • Hammer

Step 1: Print and cut out the stencil above. It is easiest to do this with an Exacto knife but you can also use scissors. Trace and cut out a front and back cover out of cover paper. Trace and cut out 20-30 interior papers. Remember that you will need a ‘left’ and ‘right’ hand for the cover papers.

Step 2: Align the papers together, including the front and back cover pieces. Using the stencil, punch holes into the four dots shown on the left side of the stencil. You can also use a hammer and nail, a hole puncher, a push pin- whatever you have.

Step 3: Follow this 4-hole Japanese Bookbinding tutorial to bind the book together. “Sea Lemon” on Youtube does a great job walking you through the binding process. Some tips I have are to make the holes pretty large, the ones shown above were really small and hard to work with so I would go a few sizes up. You also do not have to use a needle, I used the thread dipped in beeswax and was able to bind my book just fine.

This project makes such a wonderful gift and there are a lot of different ways you can change it from what I made. You could illustrate your own cover for example, or fill it with sketches of things you can hold on your hand. You can also experiment with making books of different shapes.

Have fun and happy bookmaking!

Warmly,

Olivia

DIY Wire-set Quartz and Gemstone Necklaces

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There is a place I know where you can dig for your own quartz crystals in the mountains. I have found some amazing specimens over the years and I have always wanted to turn them into jewelry. This Christmas, I was making homemade gifts for all of my friends and family and I wanted to finally make the quartz necklaces I had been dreaming of! These necklaces mean so much to me because I found the crystal and made the necklace.

So below is the process of how to wire-wrap a quartz crystal.

Materials:

  • 2mm or 3mm gemstone beads (I bought mine here: Etsy link)

  • .018 in (0.46mm) Bead Stringing Wire

  • 18-Gauge Flat Silver Wire

  • German Style Wire, Round, 24 Gauge (AKA thin wire)

  • Small Crimp Beads

  • Small Jump-Rings

  • Lobster Claw Clasps

  • Round Nose Pliers

  • Wire Cutters

  • Chain Nose Pliers

Step 1: Cut 3 pieces of 18-Gauge Flat Silver Wire to the same size, make sure it is longer that three times your crystal. Bind all three wires with German Style Wire, Round, 24 Gauge. Make sure the binding is as wide as your crystal.

Step 2: Bend your wires to a ‘U’ shape using your hands.

Step 3: Place your crystal inside the ‘U’ and alternately bend the wires over the top of the crystal. Make sure the wire is is interlaced at the top like the picture in the right.

Step 4: Fasten the wire together at the top using the German Style Wire, Round, 24 Gauge (AKA thin wire.) Its okay if its not perfect!

Step 5: Make a bend in the center of each exterior wire on both sides of the crystal.

Step 6: Using pliers, crimp together the wires that you pulled out, you may have to pull them out a lot if the crystal is not flat. Then, trim the tops of the wire to all be the same height and using the Round Nose Pliers, curl the top wires.

That is how you wrap a quartz crystal! Make sure the top wires have no gaps and are even.

Step 7: Cut a piece of .018 in (0.46mm) Bead Stringing Wire for one side of the necklace and loop it through one side of the crystal pendant. Secure the string using two crimp beads. Repeat on the other side and then string on the 2mm or 3mm gemstone beads.

Step 8: Fasten the necklace by looping the tails of the string through two crimp beads and a Lobster Claw Clasp, cut off the remains of the string. Repeat on the other side of the necklace but with a jump ring.

You can experiment with all different sorts of beads and you can use this technique on any kind of crystal!

Have fun making jewelry!

Olivia

2020 Thesis Project

This project, called “I give you a butterfly” is a collection of dinnerware designs and physical products that I made to sell and to be reproduced by retail companies. The collection consists of designs for six dinner plates, the designs of four mugs, a tote bag, and a series of long sleeve-shirts. I screen printed all of the articles of clothing and dinnerware designs myself using screen printing ink and a technique called monoprinting. The artwork I created to exist on these surfaces is symbolic, painterly, and natural.

The tote is an ombre of four colors, I designed the graphic to include a heart surrounded by birds, flowers, and calla lilies. It features the text “joy.” 

I dyed the shirts to be different colors within the collection and then screen printed on them. I wanted them to be very decorated, and have a design on each side. They have many butterflies on them and the text “sun, sky, moon.” Which is a very short poem I wrote when I was sixteen, it's basically just an acknowledgement of those entities and their beauty. 

Instead of making physical dinnerware objects, I just designed the art for them, so that the art could be printed onto ceramics.

Chestnuts and Acorns

Under a Rock

Vines and Bird

The overall themes I worked with throughout “I give you a butterfly” were: home, nature, and balance. The theme of the home was explored more broadly, as not only a place where one lives or is from but also as people most close to me and as the natural world in which I reside. The theme of nature was expressed heavily in the designs I made. Animals, flowers, leaves, and nuts decorate every single design. Lastly, the more abstract theme of balance was focused on theoretically. Through my color choices, I depicted a time of seasonal transition between summer and fall. I used bright blues, pinks, and purples alongside cool and warm browns and olive green.

La Gata y sus Gatitos

Floridian Homes

Talisman

Let's start with the side plate called Floridian homes. The day I drew this plate I was reminiscing about walking through the streets of my Tia Eddy’s neighborhood in Florida. All the homes in the neighborhood have red tile roofs, a bougainvillea plant creeping up a gate or a wall, and plenty of palm trees. I remember walking through this neighborhood at different times of my life, with my family or my cousins. In this design I layered several colors of crayon to achieve off white Spanish style houses coupled with friendly palm trees and a small scenery of a person walking their dog. 

The next piece is called Chestnuts and Acorns. Most of my designs are based on nature that I see around me. When I walk outside, even in Portland, I pay attention to all the forms, species, and stages of the plants around me. I'm drawn to, even obsessed with abundance. A tree that is full of chestnuts or acorns draws me in with curiosity. For that reason I wanted to create a plate that is an assemblage of different leaves, nuts and bugs. In this design I separated each element with a different color, but stuck to an earthy brown and green palette. 
In the piece La Gata y sus Gatitos I detail two memories combined. The memories I combined are of Casita Typicas- which are a mini figurine houses that are hung on the wall- and a time I fed baby cats cheese balls. The illustration depicts a mama cat and her four babies looking out over the top of a house protectively. The house is modeled after a Casita Typica, with a terracotta roof and decorative pillars. The symbolism of this piece goes deeper: there are five people in my immediate family, so five cats represent them. The spheres of the earth are also featured: birds are the sky, cats are the land, and fish are the sea. 

The piece Vines and Bird is more restrained, I designed it more with decoration in mind than story. In this piece the bird represents freedom as it belongs to the sky and air, it is unbound by gravity and can take to the sky and explore the vastness of empty space. I used a mix of blue and green to create magical vines, twisting and intertwining in a ring. There is much to be said about how the ring of vines represents the cyclical nature of life, they even look like DNA. 

The side plate called Under a rock is about the buzzing intensity of the forest floor. Over the summer I looked closely at the ground underneath a plum tree and found that it was not at all quiet or calm, but bustling with spiders, slugs, ants, and caterpillars. This moment made me reflect on how nothing in this world really is still, there is always movement and life. The butterfly in the middle is a metaphor for the cycle of life and transformation, as caterpillars go through chrysalis to become butterflies. 
The design for the Talisman side plate is based off the design imprinted into a sando strawberry cookie. With a ring inside another ring, it makes me think about circular calendars, like those which you can rotate and change the image that appears with every season. The way that the circles interlock feels very grounding to me, so I called it talisman. Talisman are objects that are lucky, like a four-leaf clover or yellow underwear. I am very interested in the idea of making my own talisman through art and iconography.

Monoprinting is different from screenprinting in that there is more room for happy accidents, experiments, and play in the process, whereas normal screen printing is more about production because you already have separated the layers you want in different colors and are hand printing the designs you already made. When I was making monoprints I experimented with how much water I should add to the screen and how I should apply the crayon: should I use a brush or a crayon directly?

Autumn 2023 Newsletter

Hi everyone! I am writing to you in very late Fall! We are just 16 days away from the Winter solstice in fact. This Fall has been a little bit quiet but full of change. I spent most of September in Colombia with my Dad, October I was in Portland, and then I moved home to the Snoqualmie Valley in November.

Metamorphosis

Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting

This piece is a meditation on the love between relatives. These relationships share a deep love and understanding of each other throughout life and across generations. Their shared survival and care for one another heals generational trauma.

This month I finished up my artist residency with Centro Cultural in Cornelius. We had the showcase on the 2nd where I presented all of the work that I created! The showcase featured two other creators, Dez Ramirez and Juma DeJesus. Please check them out! Dez wrote some beautiful and honest poems and Juma did a live performance of their healing movement in collaboration with performance artist Yaara Valey.

The residency showcase was such a wonderful night of love, community, and vulnerability. It was such an honor to hold space for art with Dez and Juma who created art on subjects similar to my own project.

Meditation Candelabra

Medium: Ceramic Sculpture

The two figures seated embracing each other are a reflection of the self. On the top of the figures heads and in their hands are candle holders. When the candles are lit, the candelabra becomes a venerated object. It is a reminder to treat yourself as worthy of reverence.

Being an artist in residency with Centro Cultural this year was an incredible learning experience for me. I learned more avenues for economic growth for my business, held community events in collaboration with Centro, and created new work that expanded my practice and artistic theory. Centro Cultural is a vibrant center for the arts and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it.

Libertad

Medium: Cut-Paper, Dried Grass, Twine

This mobile of a flock of birds is a depiction of freedom. It is a hope that with enough time and healing, mental freedom can be achieved. 

The exhibit of work that I made for the showcase featured work on the subject of personal and communal healing. I drew upon my own experience, to expresses how in life we all experience many wounds and we may feel the need to resist them, however only by surrendering to being with our suffering can we heal. I captured small reprieves of beauty within deep pain, and illustrated objects of significance, metaphors, and mutually beneficial relationships. My multimedia sculptural work celebrated the act of turning inwards to achieve liberation from suffering. 

Mending

Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting

This piece is about how healing takes a whole community, it cannot be achieved alone.

I called my exhibit of work “From the Weeds Came Flowers.” “From the Weeds Came Flowers” is a sentence that came to me in the middle of the night while I was in my bed ruminating over my past mistakes, my hurt, and my regret. I was fed up with how much I let my past dominate my present and how much I let it destroy my peace. I thought of the past negative experiences in my life as weeds: dead, dry, and unwanted things, and I imagined a beautiful flower rising from within those weeds. The weeds remained in a circle around the flower but the flower opened and bloomed. Likewise, healing does not come from the eradication of our problems but from accepting our suffering and working towards growth. That visualization gave me the insight to make work for this residency.

I Will Love You Throughout All Of My Life

Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting

This piece explores how death does not separate loving souls. Our loved ones guide us and we enshrine them in gratitude.

I was very ambitious with this project as it was my first residency and my first public showcase of work. I had proposed to do just three illustrations and ended up making six ink paintings, a ceramic sculpture, and a mobile.

Embracing the Weeds

Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting

The piece Embracing the Weeds features the subject hugging a Dahlia, however the intention was to have the subject hugging a Dandelion. To embrace your weeds is to love the parts of yourself that are undesired. The replacement of a Dandelion with a Dahlia is a hope that one day a flower will bloom from within those weeds.

I experimented with different mediums such as using woven dry grass as a hanging device for my mobile. I also experimented with creating a ceramic sculpture. I have taken two ceramics classes in the past but I have never made a sculpture in either of the classes.

Dahlia and Colombian Hot Chocolate

Medium: Ink, Hibiscus Tea Painting

The geometric patterning of the flower represents introspection and the warmth and smell of hot chocolate represents comfort. The mesmerizing geometric perfection of Dahlia flowers is a wish painted. Colombian hot chocolate is an invitation to be soothed.

I love the work that I created for this program and I am so proud of what I have done! I think my trip to Colombia really inspired me and so did my own healing journey.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a Happy Holidays and welcome in this new year with grace and light.

Olivia

Spring 2023 Newsletter

Hello everyone!

March officially marked the beginning of Spring but it’s still not feeling like it, when will this rain let up?

Some announcements are that from May 5- June 26, I will be an artist in residency with Centro Cultural! My residency will be focused on illustrations, paper art, and mobiles.

This is such a special residency because it allows me to work on my own economic development, community events, and I get to make artwork on an issue that I am passionate about (to be announced later.)

I feel so strongly about the value of art in society: artists are always much further ahead than the rest of the world at being compassionate towards the varying experiences of being human. So I feel so honored to be working with Centro to bring this project to life and admire the work that Centro does within the arts so much!

Join me for an Instagram live Q/A session on May 3rd at 4pm, hosted by Centro!

Water Day

A joyful picture book from acclaimed author Margarita Engle about a young girl and her community celebrating the arrival of the water man who visits weekly to distribute water to the village.

Water days are busy days,
grateful, laughing,
thirsty days.

A small village no longer has a water supply of its own, but one young girl and her neighbors get by with the help of the water man. When he comes to town, water flows like hope for the whole familia, and everyone rejoices.

Also, you can now pre-order my debut illustrated children’s book, Water Day, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, and Bookshop.

I have also been taking a ceramics class every Wednesday. So far I have been making small vessels that could function as cups, containers, or flower pots. I have been illustrating them with flowers, butterflies, and birds. Very in theme with Spring. So keep your eye out for when I drop them on Etsy!

Shop my Etsy

Use promo code SOLSTICE for 15% off!

One last thing, I have listed some of my original cut paper illustrations on my Etsy for sale. So if you have ever wanted on of my original artworks, now is the time to get one!

Take care and happy Spring!

Warmly,

Olivia


Experiments with Black Bean Natural Dye

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Hello and happy Friday!

I have been experimenting with natural dyes (plant-derived dyes) for a while and a few days ago my friend brought some dry black beans home for dinner- immediately I knew I wanted to try to dye some cotton fabric with the bean water, I mean what a good way to get some dye and tasty beans at the same time! I referenced Fiber Artsy’s article (https://www.fiberartsy.com/natural-dyeing-with-black-beans/) for instructions but I also just improvised.

First I put my fabric in my dyeing pot- about half a yard- and poured a whole kettle of boiling water over the fabric. I then scooped up a cup of water in a paper cup and mixed in 1 oz of alumn until it was fully dissolved. Next, I poured that cup of water into the rest of the water and stirred to combine. Long story short, just mix 7.2 cups (1.7L) of boiling water and 1oz of alumn together and pour it over your fabric. I mordanted my fabric for one day.

Meanwhile, you can also be soaking your beans. Soak one package or 16oz (1 LB) of Good & Gather black beans in a bowl with enough water to cover all the beans and then some. Good & Gather are Target brand black beans and something about them brought out such vivid colors in the dye. I let the beans soak for a day and a half and then strained the beans and kept the remaining bean water in a jar in the fridge while the fabric was mordanting.

Once my fabric was mordanted I just wrung out the mordant water and thoroughly rinsed the fabric with fresh water. I then poured the black bean water over the fabric and some magic started happening- the dye reacted with the alumn and turned a deep dark purple, so pretty!

I let the fabric sit in the dye for two days and then rinsed the fabric with some dish soap and water until the water ran clear.

I hope this gives you some insight as to what I did to get such pretty and saturated colors from black beans! One thing I would note is that the dye is very saturated, and it did not cover my half a yard of fabric, so my fabric was blotchily dyed. I don’t mind that but if you do I would use less fabric. I was also able to make some beautiful grey/blue fabric by adding baking soda to the dye.

I can’t wait to get quilting with this beautiful fabric! I am going to make a mini quilt using only natural dyed fabrics and so far I have a light pink from avocado dye and a light brown from acorn dye. Next up I want to dye some deep oranges with onion skins.

Happy natural dyeing!

-Olivia

Saturated fabric after two days in the dye bath.

Saturated fabric after two days in the dye bath.

Top left: Wet black bean dye with baking soda. Middle right: Wet black bean dye. Bottom left: Dry black bean dye.

Top left: Wet black bean dye with baking soda. Middle right: Wet black bean dye. Bottom left: Dry black bean dye.

Left: Black bean dye dry. Right: Black bean dye and baking soda dry, dyed for one day.

Left: Black bean dye dry. Right: Black bean dye and baking soda dry, dyed for one day.

Synopsis:

Fabric: 1/2 Yard 100% cotton bedsheet

Mordant: 1.7L boiling water + 1oz alumn

  • Mordant for 1 Day

Dye: 1 package (16oz/1 LB) Good & Gather Black Beans

  • Dye for 2 days