Arts and Crafts at the Labora-Torrey

Many of you have heard the term "Camp Grandma" as it refers to kids going to their grandmother's house and getting to do all sorts of fun and crafty things. But, I am SO not a grandma. And, my studio is NOT a camp--it's a Labora-Torrey.

I do, however, have nephews...and one of them is spending the summer with us (his name is Neal).  But the question arises...what fun projects does one do with a 20-year old Goth/Anime-styled young man? I mean, braided friendship bracelets out of embroidery floss and God's Eyes made of yarn and sticks are just not fashionable anymore (though I still like them).

So, while I was mindlessly browsing "stuff" on Pinterest, I ran across a tutorial on transforming a plain-Jane T-shirt into something...cool. It involves cutting various holes into a T-shirt to form patterns or images. I thought this just might be something my very artistic and highly-stylized nephew, Neal, might like. So off we went to the thrift store in search of a T-shirt. Since Neal is a crazy-talented artist, I handed him a piece of paper and a pencil and said, "Go for it".

His design is inspired by a character from a video game. The character is "Blot" from Epic Mickey. Blot is the villain. It's this big, black shadowy-looking dude with an eery, drippy smile.

Blot

Neal and his "Blot" T-shirt

Neal designed and cut out the image on a red T-shirt. I carefully hand-stitched around all the holes to help preserve its integrity so it can actually be worn...and washed. He's wearing it over a black T-shirt. I think it's WAY cool.

Here is another example of the same technique. I love this one too...maybe I'll attempt something similar down the road...but more holes = more hand-stitching. Ugh.