New Mokuyobi Threads 5 Panel Hats Spring/Summer 2013

New Mokuyobi Threads 5 panel hats in some awesome new prints!  Ever wanted to wear a meat hat?  Now's your chance!  Also featuring 3 cat hats: our Cat Tint allover cat print hat with a spring color palette and 2 color blocked flip brim hats, Pop and Sherbet with a cat repping Mokuyobi on the brim underside & a black and white cat lining.  What could be better?  If you're looking for something with hidden awesomeness the vintage linen hat has a neon mountains patch, side tag, and adventure party monochromatic lining.  You can peep them now at Mokuyobi Threads!

Pop Cat Brim Flip Hat 

Sherbet Cat Brim Flip Hat 

Vintage Linen Mountains Patch Hat 

Meat Hat 

Cat Tint Hat

Topographic Watercolor Map Series

Lately I've been having an itch to get more into watercolor.  I do a lot of work on the computer or drawing with a pen and I've been missing making work with my hands and felt the need to jump in.  But what to paint?  I've recently been inspired by maps being used as an adventurer's tool.  Before we had our iPhones and GPS, people had to actually look at maps to figure out where to go, crazy right?!?

I wanted to explore imaginary places on maps and I love how topography maps have different colors to represent different elevations of land.  I painted a series of maps that all had a 3D element of looking like they were on actual pieces of paper and used different watercolor shades in each map to show the varying elevations.  I also incorporated some typographical elements to break up the maps.

I played with the idea of taking a trip on these maps and having to follow a path like a treasure map which made me think about adventures on land vs taking a mental journey.  I find myself doing this a lot: wanting to accomplish something and setting out steps to make it happen; it was a fun idea to imagine that as an actual map and a journey that you had to begin.  I've been working on a lot of adventure themed products to release on Mokuyobi Threads in the coming seasons so it all seemed very fitting.

Above is the final wall of all of the maps and painted type with coordinating spray painted frames.  You can buy prints of all of the paintings in various sizes at my Society6 shop.

Now for some work in progress photos...

Some progress photos from my instagram: JuliePinzur follow me!

I love this one with the neon yellow frame.  It totally rocks.

With these paintings up, the new studio is really coming together (we moved).  I love the look of them on the wall but the wall is kind of large so I plan to add to it.  We'll see where it goes...

Totally Rad Embroidery

With my awesome portfolio site up, the embroidery section was looking pretty sparse.  Illustrations, patterns, and sewing are all mega fast compared to doing an embroidery which is why my knitting section is non-existent.  But I've been seeing so much awesome embroidery lately and I need to step up my game.  What better way to do that than to make a TOTALLY RAD embroidery (literally).  Embroidered typography is the best (fact).

First I was running low on my embroidery colors and there's nothing worse than being in the middle of an embroidery project and running out of a color.  Such a creativity killer, so I made sure to stock up!

After spending forever to wind and organize my thread (it was so worth it though) I was ready to go!

When it comes to embroidery projects, air erasing markers are my best friend.  Draw to your heart's content and the ink will just disappear over time, no wash or water necessary!  How new the pen is, how hard you press, and how many times you trace over the same line will affect on how long the ink will last.  Could be a few hours to over a week if you get too carried away!  But it will erase eventually, never fails.

Picking colors was super hard, it's difficult to imagine how the shapes of color will work together when you're done.  You just gotta go for it.

And I did my fair share of cutting and re-embroidering the mess ups and change of color decisions.  Behind the scenes secrets, shhhh!

Many hours later... Totally Rad is Totally Done! (almost)

Close-up of the R with my fancy double row split stitch.

Teeny Cat is a Totally Rad sleeper! (You can see what a mess my erasable pen lines were).

After the ink erased I mounted the fabric onto stretcher boards used to make canvases.  

The final size of it is 9 inches wide by 6 inches tall which they conveniently (sarcasm) don't have as a standard size canvas or as individual stretcher board lengths at the Utrecht by my studio (the smallest one they had was 8") so I had to do a bit of DIY magic.

I think it turned out pretty well!  And I already uploaded it as a new project to my portfolio site, go me!

It looks so fancy when you stretch an embroidery over stretcher boards.  Like professional or something. Whoa.  Can't wait to hang it on the wall!  P.S. I have more embroidery projects in the works, stay tuned!!

Color Your World

There are so many colorful installations/buildings/photographs of things in the world.  I get super inspired every time I peruse the internet and find stuff like this, like whoa.  Behold! A mish mash of colorful images...

Church Mural Installation by Hence

Manarola- a small town in Northern Italy

Humlegârden apartment in Stockholm, Sweden    more photos

Christopher Janney installation at Miami International Airport

Koban Police Station in Japan by Klein Dytham   more photos

Reese Elementary School, New York

Bronson Caves Series by Brice Bischoff,  Los Angeles, Ca

Douglas Coupland's "second" home, Vancouver   more photos

1965 Plymouth Barracuda

Toy Car Installation, 2,500 Cars by David T. Waller