Balzer Designs

Adventures in Arting Podcast: 3 Customer Questions

I had so much fun recording today's podcast. Mom and I were actually in the same room and that gave the whole thing a different feel. I have to say that I feel so energized and excited after our chat and I hope that you do too! If you do not see the podcast player above, please click on this link. On the off chance that you've never listened to a podcast or don't get why anybody would want to, here are some facts: (1) Podcasts are convenient. It's a recording that is available to you whenever and wherever you'd... Read more →

100 Days of Gelatin Printing: Days 59-65

Hey friends! Here are my most recent layered monoprints for my 100 Day Project (These images are embedded from instagram. If you can't see them, click HERE.): I was feeling a little bit lost at the beginning of this week in prints. But now that I've brought some leaves into the house, I feel reinvigorated and excited. I'm really enjoying working with all the plant matter. It's making my brain have to think differently and I looooove that! I'm more than half way through this project and I still haven't tried all of the gelatin printing techniques that I want... Read more →

Shibori: Family Party

We had a little quarantine pod shibori party a few weekends ago and now we look like a singing group. I set up my studio so that we could all have some inky blue fun: There were seven of us: my brother, his partner, their son, my Mother, plus Steve, me, and the baby. The babies were not very helpful. My Mom and my brother's partner ended up mostly doing childcare. Nonetheless, we pumped out tons of blue tie dye (we didn't use real indigo, even though we used shibori techniques). Take a peek at what we made: There were... Read more →

Dancing with the Wall: Quickstep with Irene Roderick

I took a live online quilting class with Irene Roderick last week. Over the course of a week, we were to create a two-color improv quilt top. Take a peek at my progress: And here it is all stitched together: I'm quite pleased with where I ended up, even if I did end up grabbing a third color. Rules were meant to be broken, after all. You can see that I completely dismantled my design between photos 3 and 4. It looked too much like houses or silos or something recognizable. I wanted something truly abstract. I haven't determined whether... Read more →

100 Days of Gelatin Printing: Days 52-58

Here are my seven most recent layered monoprints for my 100 Day Project (These images are embedded from instagram. If you can't see them, click HERE.): I didn't realize how similar days 56 & 57 were until I saw them here side-by-side. It's interesting because I actually made them several days apart. I took a few days off from gelatin printing in order to focus on some other priorities. And yet, they could have been made on the same day with the same ideas. Isn't that crazy? Totally unintentional and yet so close to being identical in composition and form.... Read more →

ScanNCut: So Many Techniques to Try

I'm always thinking about how to help you get the most out of your ScanNCut. Today I'm sharing lots of videos with techniques for you to try. First up, a fabulous new feature that you've been asking for for years: the ability to curve text in CanvasWorkspace. This function has been added to CanvasWorkspace for PC and CanvasWorkspace for Mac. Find the instructions for CanvasWorkspace for Mac in this video: And here is the clear place card I shared in the video: I also like it with a line of acrylic paint across the back: And now, did you know... Read more →

Pom Poms Please

Over the weekend I had a ball (pun intended) making yarn pom poms! (And I looked up the spelling -- one word or two -- for this blog post and let me tell you, there are a lot of strong opinions, but no clear winner.) Quite a while ago, I bought some pom pom maker tools with big plans to make a bazillion pom poms for a Christmas garland. However, I never even took the pom pom makers out of the packaging. Fast forward to last week. I decided that it would be super fun to make pom pom earrings!... Read more →

USPS Collaborative Art Project

You guys, I found a really interesting art project online that also helps to support the US Postal Service (USPS). Read all about why we need the USPS. The project is called "USPS Art Project" and in essentials you create a collaborative artwork with someone. You create an unfinished piece of art and mail it to them. They finish it and post the finished work online. It seemed like total serendipity to find out about this project after wondering (in Friday's post) if I could swap an entire sketchbook with someone. A single piece of half-finished art seems like much... Read more →

It's the Summer of Tie Dye!

This is definitely the summer of tie dye and I couldn't leave the baby out of it: I made him a super cute sun printed shirt with some heat transfer vinyl (HTV) words across the front. Here's a look at the stencil I used for the sun printing process: Check out the details: I love how the t-shirt came out! It feels like summertime to me! And the baby is happy with it (even if it is a little bit big on him): This was a fun and easy project to make. It would work for kids or grown-ups. Also,... Read more →

Around Here: May 2020

Hello, friends! I have to confess that I've been trapped somewhere between burnout and depression lately. But I'm rallying. So let's focus on the positive! source Here's a little bit about life around here right now: What are you wearing? FYI: DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE WORD T-SHIRTS. I DID NOT PUT IT IN THIS BLOG POST AND I CAN'T SEEM TO GET RID OF IT. Pajama bottom like they're pants, ice-dyed t-shirts, and lots of handmade masks: What have you bought? So. Many. Baby. Things. Our most recent purchase: a bag full of silicone balls and... Read more →