22.03.10
Archive for the ‘Issue 2’ Category
Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter is Dead
Monday, May 4th, 2009
Ralph & Duchess’ Rochelle Goldberg
Monday, May 4th, 2009
As a kid, designer sculptor and practicing visual artist Rochelle Goldberg would spend hours rummaging through her mother’s collection of costume jewelry. She would drape long pearl necklaces around her neck, adorn her fingers with over sized cocktail rings and fill up her arms with bangles and bracelets. It was then she knew she would make jewelry.
A few years ago Rochelle finally decided it was time to sculpt pieces herself, so she started taking metal-smithing classes. With her newly learned skills, she designed and produced a full line of jewelry and named it Ralph & Duchess after her childhood pet bunnies. Ralph & Duchess is already selling in charming shops like Albertine in the West Village in New York. Her work has been so successful that Rochelle just released, Bark, a unisex line. ‘I felt I needed to provide similar designs in bigger sizes for all the boys that kept nagging me for cuffs that would fit them,’ Rochelle says. She has zero consumer biases and would love to see any and everybody wearing her jewelry.
Recently, a little girl from Oklahoma sent Rochelle Goldberg a handwritten thank you letter for the Ralph & Duchess piece she bought as a gift for her mother. When Rochelle received the letter she was immediately flattered and—because of her modest ways—probably blushed a little. The little girl’s gratitude epitomizes true success to Rochelle: ‘It’s weird when something you hand-make can be worn anywhere by anyone, so it’s nice to have a connection with the people that like your stuff.’
Lemar and Dauley
Monday, May 4th, 2009
When Kareem Blair and Manhattan launched Lemar and Dauley in 2003, they quickly started gaining the recognition they needed to develop, even though the marketplace for streetwear was still quite small. Kareem says they were ‘filling an emotional void and visually expressing a collective consciousness that suddenly had the ability to express their interest or ideas through their clothing and footwear.’ The brand grew quickly and three years later they launched the women’s faction, Hiqee. Kareem says they offered females the opportunity to be involved in streetwear without looking to masculine or boyish. ‘It was instantly successful perhaps due to its association with L&D,’ he adds.
But then, even though Lemar and Dauley kept up with the streetwear calendar, things slowed down and the guys seemed to pull back from the industry a little. Hiqee disappeared. They had spent more money than they were making. They needed to regroup and take it back to how their roots–using the outlet to express themselves and make a living.
Now, Lemar and Dauley seems to be back at it, having just launched a new website, recently dropping their third shoe with DC, and most importantly (at least in our opinion) making women’s gear again (women’s Fall ‘09 will be their first collection and will be available online).
What happened to Hiqee? Why did you stop doing a women’s line?
Kareem: Unfortunately L&D was growing faster than we could accommodate at the time, so we were unequipped to handle the responsibilities that were involved with two developing companies. We were quickly facing a lot of obstacles in menswear that required greater detail and decision making, so we decided that moving forward with a women’s line would be a disadvantage for both L&D and Hiqee.
What made you decide to start designing for women again? Why now especially given the economy?
Kareem: The demand in our inboxes. [Laughs.] It wasn’t exactly a moment of discovery in our abilities as much as we learned females desired it. The current economy will not hurt the female launch as it was planned as a small launch to begin with. We had no intention of designing prom dresses, so it will be a natural extension of L&D. In fact it will actually assist with the factory minimums, so it’s a financial benefit in more ways than one.
What is the biggest difference for you between designing men’s and designing women’s?
Kareem: As of now, there is very little difference in designing for both men and women. We are only moving with designs that reflect the culture of L&D, so it is not a matter of separating the line into boys vs. girls. Its just L&D. The only difference really is fit.
Will the women’s line be under Lemar and Dauley or Hiquee? Will there ever be another Hiqee?
Kareem: It will be under Lemar and Dauley. It will cater to the L&D Boy who has a girlfriend or sister and the girl who is tired of stealing her boyfriend or brother’s sweatshirt. [Laughs.] As for Hiqee, that‚Äôs a subject we will ponder down the road.
What sort of look will women’s Fall ‘09 have? What women inspired the line?
Kareem: The line will consist of tees, fleece sweatsuits and flannels. It will get filled out with accessories such as backpacks, socks and work-out duffles. I can’t really say we had any particular girl in mind, but Lauren London and Christina Milan fit the type. If we overlook their fame, they both have a ‘cute girl on college campus’ vibe.
Who are women you consulted with?
We didn‚Äôt, we just went on our instinct. We’ll see if that was smart decision later this year. [Laughs.]
What can we expect after Fall ‘09? And where are you hoping to take the women’s side of things?
Kareem: We will continue to build on its success determined by Fall ‘09. If everything goes as planned, it will be an extension of the L&D culture, regardless of whether it was designed for men or women. We will build on the interest of our audience.
What do you think the female streetwear customer is like today?
Kareem: Wow, that’s a tough question, because she is just as hard to determine as women naturally are. [Laughs.] I wouldn’t even attempt to categorize her. I’ll say that she is very perceptive, intelligent and ambitious to develop her own ideas in business. This has been the overall consensus between the women we have had the pleasure of knowing and the females who contact us online.
Top 3 female artists/musicians:
My partner Manhattan would have been better to answer this question as he has a more extensive knowledge of music, but ill take an attempt. In no particular order:
Anita Baker
Sade
Ella Fitzgerald
Honorable Mention: TLC (Crazysexycool Album)
Top 3 favorite female brands:
Rugby
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Juicy Couture
Kareem: Not sure if most women would agree, since I don’t actually wear any of the brands listed, but I based the answers on a consistent brand message and each company knowing who their customer is.
Is there anyone you’d like to collaborate with as far as the women’s line?
Kareem: Probably Betsey Johnson on a prom dress. [Laughs.]
What kind of aspects on the new site will be for the ladies?
Kareem: We will provide detailed access into the activities of the L&D Boys in business and sometimes personal, while providing great interviews and video segments with artist that women admire and appreciate. We are aiming to fill voids between boys and girls. There is too much mis-communication between us.
Where’s your heart at?
Kareem: Great question. Truthfully my heart is in a weird place because the desire came sooner than expected. My heart is in teaching. I feel so much information has been lost due to the amount of distractions that are present. I don’t wish to remove the distractions, because that is way beyond my power, [Laughs.] but I would like to begin to lead kids towards a better means in which to transfer their distractions into setting positive goals and ultimately having careers. When we started L&D it was a distraction to school, but along the way, the desire to be successful helped me place my goals, ideals and passion into the proper context. I would like to offer younger people a direction in how to begin to channel their energy.
Jugrnaut
Monday, May 4th, 2009
Opening up their shop a mere two years ago, the owners of Jugrnaut saw the figurative water, ‘jumped in head first and have been swimming since.’ These Chi-town boys know what they want, and as it turns out, they want to figure out what women want. Using their business smarts, Jugrnaut recognizes females make up half the population and tend to shop more than men–their store brand even includes women’s tees. But it’s not just about dollars making sense for Jugrnaut, they throw special events for women, including most recently, Dress You Up, an event for females with MTTM and photographer Lynette Astaire. Their first female brands included Mama, Yours Truly, and DimePiece, and they soon landed Married to the Mob, with Hellz Bellz following close behind and their clientèle is described as “eclectic,” ranging from high-school girlies to ladies in their thirties. To see if the Jugrnaut fellas really know what the females want, we asked what they think we look for in a man: ‘[Someone who] keeps it clean, classy, and true to their own personal style.’ Not bad. Not bad at all.
Name: Jugrnaut
Employees:
Co-Owners: Brian Nevado aka B.Easy, Arthur Banks Artie McFly, Roger Rodriguez aka Mr. Rhagers, Manuel Rodriguez aka Manny Muscles Math/3M
Interns: Matt Solida Vaughn Rolan, Andres Hernandez, Christine Marie Borda
Location: 427 S. Dearborn, The Loop, Chicago IL
Brands: Jugrnaut, 10 Deep, Married to the MOB (M.O.B.), Hellz Bells, Stussy Women’s, Yours Truly, Toki Doki, Mama, DimePiece, Mishka
Nearby Lunch Spots: Edwardo’s, Subway, Standin Room Only.
We Think: That we are trying to cater more to women.
Want More: Awareness of our existence in the female sneaker scene.
Keys N Krates
Monday, May 4th, 2009
Artwork: Gillian Hurd
With a lot of recent negative energy in the music industry, people don‚Äôt seem to enjoy hip hop shows anymore. But Keys N Krates is hopefully changing that. They‚Äôre bringing back a positive vibe‚Äîthink basement or summer block parties‚Äîwhich is fun, energetic and fresh. Playing tracks you used to love to get down to at your high school dances, mixing them in with recent chart toppers and adding their own rhythms and instrumental sounds–all part of their much-lauded ‘live remix’ approach. It‚Äôs a recipe for success and the packed sweaty dance floors are the proof.
My interview got off to a rocky start: Between three talented musicians, namely Jr-Flo, Matisse and Tune, and one journalist–all with formal educations–we can‚Äôt figure out how to work a simple three-way call. Finally between myself and the other two members on speakerphone, and Jr-Flo mediating, we think we have a breakthrough–If I yell just loudly enough and they yell back and poor Flo in the middle maneuvers the phones speaker to ear piece we can finally hear one another. We talk (er, shout) about their talents, training, idols and music collections. They tease each other like brothers and there is a chemistry between these guys that just seems to work. Perhaps most importantly, the guys seem like true friends.
Jr-Flo: Despite the fact that we have multiple music talents, people in school, none of us could figure out how to do a three-way call.
Hana: I have a degree you know.
Jr-Flo: No, I know. We all have one.
Hana: So like four degrees, no conference call.
Jr-Flo: Yeah, no conference call.
Hana: The first thing I want to know is how you guys all met?
Jr-Flo: Matisse.
Matisse: Where do I start? I picked up Tune off the streets he was broke and he didn’t really have any gigs coming through, so you know. I’m playing, I’m playing, I’m going to start over. Me and Flo kind of met through a mutual friend Abby, he put us in touch with each other and Tune has been playing with me in my band for years and we got into a room together and the three of us started jamming out ideas for six months straight and what we were coming out with was crazy and we were just trying to figure out how to do it. There was a lot of head knocking and arguing and inspirations and high fives and stuff and finally we eventually decided to do a show and our first show was sold out and everyone was going crazy so we kind of thought we had something, so we kept doing it.
Tune: For the record I have never given either one of these guys a high five.
Jr-Flo: I don’t know where the high five thing is coming from.
Matisse: Yeah, just give me a sec, I don’t like answering the first question.
Tune: Ok, now I‘m in a good mood because Matisse just said high five.
Hana: That put you in a good mood?
Matisse: Can you take the high five shit out? Just take that out, I didn’t say that.
Jr-Flo: The gist of it is that we met through a mutual friend.
Hana: What is band practice like?
Matisse: Flo comes in with a couple samples that he is into and I basically try to build a melody around there. Tune will try to build a groove underneath it and from there we just build it up, jamming out over and over again. New ideas come out with it and then after our rehearsal hopefully we have something that we can kind of try on stage until it becomes its final form and that’s kind of how we do each song now.
Jr-Flo: We basically go through a pretty non-traditional composite process. I mean nobody has really done what we do so we don’t really have a blueprint to follow so every rehearsal is kind of a bit different. We come in with these ideas and sometimes we end up not composing anything ‘cause we end up completely reworking the way a sample sounds on the spot, cutting it up differently or we end up going in a completely different direction with something so I mean were kind of creating the blueprint for how our rehearsals are supposed to happen as we go along.
Hana: Is any of the stuff remixed live or it’s all rehearsed?
Jr-Flo: It’s all pre-rehearsed and pre-composed songs like the way any song would be but there’s definitely, like, we sometimes leave room for improvisation within the predetermined structure but it’s definitely structured cause otherwise it would just sound like a jam band or a real mess which we don’t pride ourselves on being either one. Not that there’s anything wrong with jam bands, we love the jam band but we’re not really a jam band.
Hana: Do any of you have formal training?
Matisse: Yeah, I’m classically trained although I kind of had to un-train myself. Tune do you-
Tune: No.
Matisse: Tune has no training. Um, Flo.
Jr-Flo: I mean I definitely have no formal training except for, I mean I come form like a battle DJing background, so that’s my training but that’s anything but formal training.
Hana: What experience do you want the audience to have?
Matisse: Let Tune answer this one.
Tune: No, no, no.
Hana: Yeah. Come on.
Tune: Uh, I hate this question, this is the second time I got stuck with this one.
Hana: Oh, I’m sorry.
Jr-Flo: Ah, that’s hilarious.
Tune: I still haven’t come up with a good answer except I like to see people having a good time and dancing hard.
Hana: That’s a good answer.
Matisse: And you like to look at the girls.
Tune: I like to look at the girls and that’s my only answer I’ve been able to give for this one. I just like to hear that people had a good time, when they leave which so far ninety percent of the people that I’ve brought have. Or a hundred percent I should say.
Matisse: [Laughs.] Except the only guy that was upset was your Dad.
Tune: Yeah, except for my Dad.
Hana: Why was your dad upset?
Tune: Well he wasn’t upset, it was pretty rammed, I don’t know.
Jr-Flo: It was too crowded for his dad.
Hana: Well that’s kind of understandable.
Jr-Flo: His dad’s older, he wants to be comfortable.
Tune: Add that into the article, he’ll love that.
Hana: He’s maybe not your demo per se?
Tune: He really dug it, he really dug it.
Jr-Flo: Yeah, Matisse do you agree? Good time.
Matisse: I want us to be like the best ever live performing band, ever. Like at the point where people years from now when they look back on when they were younger and what they did they’ll remember going to a Keys N Krates show as one of the most fun times they’ve ever had.
Jr-Flo: Some girl said to me last night when I was DJing she was like, ‘I came to your Keys N Krates show in New York a few months back at SOBS when we opened for Questlove and I hadn’t been out in months because I was sick of going to shows and then when I saw you guys it reminded me of why I love music and why I love going to shows.’ And I was like that’s awesome. You know if people can walk away with that experience, like if we’re breathing some kind of new life into music for them that’s a big goal. That would certainly be attractive to me.
Matisse: You know if someone has been to our show and they bring a friend the next time, they’re not going to tell their friend to come out and see a great show and then be disappointed. That they feel like when they come back again they’re getting their moneys worth and they can tell their friends. We really try to make sure that every show we do whether it’s in New York City or, you know, Idaho, we’ll play a hundred and ten percent no matter what, we really truly get off on playing… [Laughs.]
Hana: Can I quote you on that too?
Matisse: I just realized how it came out but we’re big on the interaction with the crowd and when they get hype we get hype and it just goes back and forth this energy. Our relationship with the crowd is probably the number one thing I enjoy on stage. Just how to get that crowd interaction and that relationship going between us and them and I think that’s why the crowd responds to us so favorably for.
Hana: You’ve mentioned The Roots as someone you look up to. You opened up for Questlove what was that like?
Jr-Flo: Tune.
Matisse: [Laughs.]
Tune: I was petrified because Questlove is one of my all time greats, favorite drummers and to see him there, live, watching me play is pretty freaky.
Jr-Flo: We were all super nervous I mean-
Tune: Yeah, especially he walked in right during our sound check and nobody else noticed him expect for me. I was just grooving and everybody was fine and I got a bit of stage fright and I don’t get star struck very easy but that day I did.
JrFlo: I mean Questlove is probably one of the most relevant opinions in hip hop and just music in general today. And if there’s something that we’re similar it would be The Roots, so his opinion would obviously matter to me probably above anybody else’s opinion in music about what he thought about our stuff so to have him in the room was just like kind of crazy. Then after our set he came up and said, ‘Yo, that was really incredible’ and he really liked it so we were really all super relived and stoked cause you know it means a lot coming form somebody like that.
Hana: Yeah that’s awesome that’s a huge compliment especially from an idol.
Jr-Flo: Hell yeah.
Hana: Would you get star stuck again or are you good now?
Tune: I’m good. I’m good now, now I’ve gotten over it.
Hana: Now you can play in front of anyone?
Jr-Flo: [Laughs.]
Tune: Yeah I literally can, yeah.
Jr-Flo: [Laughs.] So we’ve gotten through the worst-case scenario.
Hana: Yeah, life is good from now on. How many songs would you say you each have in your playlists?
Jr-Flo: I don’t know about you guys but I have like a million. I know you guys listen to a lot of shit too.
Tune: 1000.
Hana: I’m sure you have more than that.
Tune: Literally 1,000…1,026. I get rid of all the filler.
Matisse: I have an iTunes with an iTunes list and then I have two different iPods so I got to kind of like think about it a bit probably like 50,000 I don’t know, does that sound right?
Jr-Flo: I can tell you that I have like about 1,000 gigs of music. So, if that helps.
Matisse: That’s a different question. We’ve never been asked before. We’re going to have to prepare for that one.
Jr-Flo: [Laughs.]
Shawn Kuruneru
Monday, May 4th, 2009
May’s featured artist, Shawn Kuruneru, has been experimenting with DIY publishing for about 8 years. In his most recent work—a zine composed of a select body of ink drawings created between 2007 and 2009—Kuruneru brings together punks, 19th century bust sculptures, fragmented sleeping dogs and nostalgic portraiture. ‘It’s almost similar to the way a photo album tells a story with pictures. It documents time and your surroundings and the things around you that have influenced you,’ Kuruneru says.
Using offset printing, Kurueru’s 16 page paper zine is staple bound and only 500 were printed. He evokes a unified aesthetic by using ballpoint pen, ink and pencil creating a world that is both black and mysterious.
Why zines?
I‚Äôve been making zines since high school. From fanzines for bands to semi documentary zines about Newmarket, Ontario where I‚Äôm from. For me it‚Äôs really just like spreading your ideas out on a table and getting a bit of clarity. Making a zine is simple–I‚Äôm not doing fucking Richard Serra, you know–anyone can make a zine.
What do you get out of it?
Putting my work in a zine is just another way of looking at the drawings. It’s a process of learning to see what you’re looking at, paying attention, with something that is not exactly ignorance but a kind of intuitive intelligence.
The drawings become something else in a zine context because all of a sudden the work is in one place and the printing aesthetics–whether it‚Äôs offset or Xeroxed or whatever– changes the work. With this zine I wanted it to be straight forward and let the drawings speak for themselves. There‚Äôs potential for narrative, which is implied in the nature of the imagery, but it never actually evolves.
Where does the imagery in your zine come from? Why do you use ballpoint pen to draw?
From anywhere. From looking at lots of books at the library. From record covers, comics, photo albums, and news papers. I appropriate and re-appropriate a lot. I sort, group, neighbor, overlap, add and accumulate elements and then translate it all with my own visual language.
Using a ballpoint pen is very much a part of my visual language. It came naturally starting from drawing in note books at school. Since then it’s become my notion of textuality. A ballpoint pen is very cheap and everyone can understand what it is, I mean compared to gauche or oil paint or whatever. I’m interested in materials as text themselves.
When are you planning on making another zine?
I got the next one on the go. It’s going to have a more comic book-like format. I grew up reading comics. I learned how to draw from comics and I used to be a comic book artist for a small publishing company in British Columbia, Canada. So it just seems natural that my zines should have that comic book aesthetic and feel.
What are your favorite zines?
My friends make good zines like Katie Lyle, Jimmy Limit, Ryan Foerster, Jesse Harris, Niall McClelland, Amber Albrecht, Gillian Willson, Julian Muratori, Sean Orena, Asher Penn, Julia Kennedy, Robin Cameron, Davida Nemeroff and Matt Koudys
Most of them have websites you can find by googling them, and more often then not they will do zine trades if you e-mail them and some will even just mail you one for free.
Where’s your heart at?
In my zine.
Vivian Girls: Cool Dude Attitude
Monday, May 4th, 2009
By: Mish Way
Whoever said “nice guys finish last” hadn’t spent enough time with the Brooklyn-based Vivian Girls. Not only have Cassie Ramone (guitar/vocals), Kickball Katy (bass/vocals) and Ali Koehler (drums/vocals) managed to generate a whirlwind of buzz around their 1960s girl group-inspired, lo-fi punk music, they are probably the most genuinely nice, new-fame rock stars you‚Äôll ever meet.
In a matter of months, the Vivian Girls have toured through Europe and North America, released five home-job seven inches and a wildly successful LP, all the while, receiving epic praise from critics all across the globe. Constantly in motion, constantly on tour, constantly in the spotlight, it’s a miracle that these three twenty-something skids were keeping it all together.
Sprawled out in the dark, dirty staircase of the back of the club we were all playing, I sat down to chat with the girls about their new album, bad kisses, Germs burns (late 1970s L.A punk band, The Germs, rite of passage completed by putting cigarette to skin) and their self-proclaimed ‘cool dude attitudes.’ After the first recording of our conversation malfunctioned, not only were Katy, Cassie and Ali able to fix the Garage Band glitch, but they were more than happy to do the whole thing over. Hey Vivian Girls, you really do have cool dude attitudes.
Mish: There’s been a huge craze recently surrounding bands from that Brooklyn/Williamsburg, as a band that is based in Brooklyn how has this affected you?
Cassie: It’s cool because there is a really good community there and a lot of great bands like The Beets, Cause Commotion and Stupid Party. It’s fun to be involved in something so collective.
Mish: Do you think that Brooklyn makes the band or the bands make Brooklyn?
Ali: I think it’s more that people who are into the arts tend to move to New York, then everyone is in the same spot.
Mish: There’s not too many all-girl groups, do you think being all girls plays in your favor or against you?
Katy: We try not to think about it.
Cassie: I think it’s worked both for and against us.
Katy: We understand it, you know? We’re not naive about it.
Cassie: Ideally, they [the media] would be like, ‘Oh there is a band of three people’, but you know, no big deal.
Mish: I think it’s one of those things you just have to be aware of and not stress over. I know you just got out of the studio. How was recording the new album?
Katy: It was really fun! We took a week and went to Costa Mesa, California – which is in the O.C – and we hung out with this guy, Mike at the Distillery, which is where Black Lips recorded ‘Let it Bloom’ and we loved that record and sound, so we booked time there. A lot of In The Red bands have recorded there and the Distillery was a great match for us.
Cassie: And Mike is also the coolest dude ever.
Mish: Why is he so cool?
Katy: Hmm, can you describe a legend in a minute?
Cassie: He lives off a diet of beer and burritos, he has a wacky sense of humor and he has this whole studio which he built that only makes sense to him. Yet, all his records sounds amazing.
Mish: Are you guys friends or business first?
Ali, Katy, Cassie: Friends first!
Mish: How much do you love touring?
Cassie: So much! Right now, we are planning a world tour which will include: the full U.S, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Puerto Rico in two months.
Mish: That is crazy! Which country are you most excited to play in?
Katy: Australia.
Ali: Puerto Rico, because my boyfriend lives there.
Cassie: Hawaii. I don’t think bands play there very often and plus, it will be a tropical vacation.
Mish: I heard one of you has a Germs Burn. How did that happen?
Katy: Cassie and I have them!
Cassie: I ran into my friend Johnny outside of a show in Brooklyn and I was like, ‚ÄòWhat’s new?‚Äô and he goes, ‚ÄòOh I saw the Germs last week and I got a Germs burn.‚Äô He actually asked Pat Smear first, but Smear denied him, so he asked Lorna Doom she gave him one. It was when the Germs were touring with Shane West. I was so psyched on his Germs burn, so I asked him for one and he burned me.
Mish: Did it hurt?
Cassie: Yeah, but I was really drunk so it wasn’t so bad.
Katy: Then Cassie burned me, and I burned a couple people including Cole from Ariel Pinks Haunted Graffiti.
Mish: Germs burn, pass it on.
Cassie: Yeah, it’s a chain! You got to keep it in the chain.
Mish: And I heard you guys all got matching tattoos this tour that say ‘Cool Dude Attitude’. Do tell.
Katy: We have Cool Dude Attitudes. That’s why we got them.
Cassie: Plus, it was one of the only tattoos that Mark, our tour manager, wanted to get and it was important that he wanted to get it, since it’s his first tattoo.
Ali: The cactus was originally supposed to have sun-glasses, but I’m glad we scratched that idea.
Katy: Yeah, we have enough cool dude attitude that we don’t need sunglasses.
Vivian Girls self-titled LP is now available through Mauled by Tigers Records and In the Red Records. For tour dates check www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc
Issue #2 Cover
Monday, May 4th, 2009Create Your Own Starry Nights
Monday, April 27th, 2009
What you’ll need:
A canvas
Paint
Paint brush
Pencil
Ruler
A thin sharp object (think nail, screwdriver)
Christmas lights
First decide whether you want to spell or draw something like the old school light bright or if you want to incorporate the lights into a drawing or painting.
Once you have a good idea, paint the canvas. We went old school and kept it basic choosing to paint the canvas one solid color, using three coats and waiting for the paint to dry in between each.
Once your canvas is ready, use the pencil to faintly spell the word or draw the design. Next, count your light bulbs so you know how many holes you can punch! Put your math skills to work and measure the length of the drawn lines, then divide by the number of lights on your light string; the number you get will help you measure where each insertion should be made.
Once everything is spaced correctly, use your sharp object to puncture the canvas. It’s smart to put something on the other side so that the canvas doesn’t stretch (Tip: a pair of socks work). Once the holes have been made you can erase any pencil left on the canvas.
Now you’re ready to unravel the Christmas lights and, through the back of the canvas, poke one light through each hole you’ve made.
Once that’s done plug in the lights, hammer a nail into the wall and hang your masterpiece for all to enjoy and make flattering comments about.
I hope you heart their twinkle!
