Arts and Crafts

December 7th 2020 Artists of the week

Published

4 years ago

December 8, 2020

Nero

Beartarian creatives! We are back this week with a set of very talented artists. Our beartarian artists show off their skills with painting, drawing, and wood sculpting! Remember to check out the artist’s social links and give them some support and don’t forget; If you are an artist yourself, send in your portfolio to be featured in next week’s gallery! Onward to Beartaria!

Click on the gallery images to view at full proportion.

Please send all Artists of the Week submissions directly to arts@beartariatimes.com. Include a short bio, piece title, piece description, and social links.

Below are December 7th, 2020 Artists of the week!

Martin Rybacki

Martin’s Instagram | Martin’s Website

Hello Bears. My name is Martin and I am a polish-born artist living in Waimar Germany (the sequel). Things are not looking pretty here right now.

I’ve been watching BB on and off since the Crowder and Peterson days, then lost track of him and rediscovered him through the genius MadebyJimbob. His streams help me reflect, shift perspectives, and understand many things that are wrong with the world, and most importantly with myself, today and in the past. I have still a lot to learn and seeing the bears grow is inspirational. I wanted to show my appreciation for my skills as an artist, so I did a piece of the Benjamin family. It is inspired by the streams I have watched and the things in them I found meaningful. I was very happy when he graciously shared it on his Instagram, some of you might have seen it.

I found his rural vs. urban spell breaker to also be very important for the understanding of modern and contemporary art. I have been thinking deeply about the degeneracy in the arts for some time now, digging through philosophy, art history, and even theology to disarm and discredit the attack on beauty, meaning, and truth. I did quite ok philosophically and theologically in this endeavor, which I would call „soft arguments“. But only BB’s rural vs. urban dichotomy provided the „hard tangible reality“. So the tendencies in modern and contemporary art are relativistic, nihilistic and anti-human, because that’s what city life is fundamentally like and what it is actually designed for.

Art for culture is what a dream is for the individual, said a wizard of psychology once, in that he was not incorrect, with the exception that a healthy culture is dreaming awake and with its eyes open, while a sick one is a dormant, blind slave to its dreams. The dream of a Christian city on the hill is a vision of light and hope. The unconscious dream of the modern city is a dark nightmare – or: could it be?
No wonder art became more and more „strange“ with the industrialization and the growth of „factory cities“. On the one hand, it reflected the pain of the modern soul, but on the other, it was hopeless and relativistic, and it tragically became propaganda for keeping the workers away from beauty (and essentially God), and keeping them (wanting to be) trapped in the cities or at least making them accept that there was no alternative (to “progress”). Hence art might not be a reflection of “our times” and “our life”, as we are always made to believe. Maybe it is a reflection of a place, most importantly a spiritual place. This sounds trivial, but with the new dichotomy in mind, this could change art history and history in general.

The art world and art education left me stranded with self-doubt and cynicism, searching for a place of meaning and goodness. I think some artists feel the same deep inside. I struggle every day, not knowing what is right and wrong in (my) art, where to go with it or why to do it in the first – this manifests itself in all the different styles I switch between. I will keep searching though and hope to find that good place someday.

Thank you and keep crushing everyone!

AJ Rhino Bear

ajrhino.com | AJ Rhino’s Instagram | AJ Rhino’s D-Live

Good evening Beartaria! AJ Rhino Bear checking in from my new place in Pennsylvania. The bears here are all fantastic, brilliant people and we are actively building a community. This is a painting I recently did for a bear from Canada. It was from a beautiful photo reference of an area near his home. I really enjoyed doing this one and am grateful for this wonderful and supportive community. Onward to Beartaria!!!

Daniel Ramos | KatanaBear

Katana Bear’s Instagram

Based in Chicago. God inspires me in my life everyday, Grateful for the beautiful garden we live in. Much love to all the Bears!

Doug Moreland

Doug’s Instagram | Doug’s Website

I care Bears and many other things, all with chainsaws and Power tools. I’ve been at it for over 20years, but what I thought was interesting is that my first business name was “Doagie Bears”… when I heard Owen on Crrow I felt such great relief in the things you spoke about. My wife and are on the homesteading/homeschooling/ homeopathy path too.

I’m also a musician with a western swing band and I’ve been having anxiety over the sudden suspension of my unalienable rights, like freedom of speech (masks), freedom of religion( masks too), and freedom to assemble( no gigs) So it’s nice to hear all y’all beard in here.

Thank you to all the creatives who submitted their portfolios!

Please continue to support your local paperboy by submitting your art each week here, at The Beartaria Times

Continue to create and seek the Good, the Beautiful, and the True; and as always, Onward to Beartaria!

You can find out more about the Artists of the Week here.

Sincerely,
MC-Bear

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Arts and Crafts

Announcement: Beartaria Times National Festival Poster Contest

We want to announce a fun and friendly contest for a poster design for our National Festival this year.

Published

12 months ago

August 14, 2023

The Beartaria Times

Calling All Artists!

We want to announce a fun and friendly contest hosted by BudBear, for a poster design for the Beartaria Times National Festival this year.

BudBear will accept submissions until August 24th.

Twelve finalists will be selected, and their designs will be printed and sold at the festival. Whoever sells out of 100 copies or sells the most by the end of the festival will be the grand prize winner with bragging rights and could allegedly receive a copy of their design signed by the Big Bear himself.

Designs should be digital renderings, 12×18 inches vertical, and 300 dpi. As always, please keep it to the clean and family-friendly standards of The Beartaria Times Community.

All proceeds will be donated to Beartaria Ozark Campground at BeartariaCampgrounds.com

Poster designs can be submitted to bearposters33@gmail.com for consideration.

Arts and Crafts

Too Many Mittens

My mom has always loved seeing her children be creative, so she was thrilled when I showed interest in learning how to make mittens. So, in 2016, she taught me how to make wool sweater mittens.

Published

2 years ago

January 1, 2023

Guest Writer

By: Charity (@trailerparkgirl on BTA)

My mom started making wool sweater mittens sometime around 2014. She got the idea from visiting a local Mennonite-owned store. She found patterns online and started out just making them for the family. We’re a family of ten, so there are plenty of us to make mittens for.

In 2015, at eighteen, I became her right-hand businesswoman and began photographing her mittens and selling them on Etsy. My younger sister, Madeline, drew the mitten in the shop logo.

My mom called her shop “Too Many Mittens.” She may or may not have gotten the idea for the name from the 1958 children’s book “Too Many Mittens.”

It’s one of a few books she remembers from her childhood. My mom grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the story takes place in Michigan.

My mom has always loved seeing her children be creative, so she was thrilled when I showed interest in learning how to make mittens. So, in 2016, she taught me how to make wool sweater mittens. I found them to be pretty simple to make. Very fun, too. I already had some experience with sewing, so it didn’t take long to get the hang of mitten-making. The excitement of pairing different wool sweater fabrics together and adding cool buttons to the cuffs was enough to get me hooked.

We make the mittens out of wool sweaters from thrift shops. And we line the mittens with fleece. My mom and I have had a blast sifting through thrift shop clothes racks in search of funky wool sweaters. We’ve gone through hundreds of wool sweaters in the past several years. Sometimes I see a sweater that I love so much that I’m tempted to keep it for myself to wear. But then I think, “Nah, that’ll make some really cool mittens.”

A few years ago, I invested in an embroidery sewing machine and lots of machine-embroidery thread. It’s been lots of fun to play around with different designs on mittens. They really give mittens extra character. The machine was definitely worth it. And it was fairly affordable. I use a Brother SE625.

Now, in 2022, my mom is far too busy for making mittens. She’s focused on helping raise some of her grandchildren. So, my mom decided to let me take over Too Many Mittens. I’m planning on adding other handcrafted goods to our shop in the future, like cold-process soap. I’ve been playing around with soap-making since 2018. I’m currently working on perfecting recipes. My goal is to have soap available by Spring 2023. I’m even trying to get my younger sister to design the labels for the soap. After all, it is tradition.

One day, I hope my mom will have some extra time on her hands so that she can get back into making mittens. She really enjoyed it, just like I do. Together, we have sold over 350 pairs of mittens. I’m grateful for the time we’ve been able to bond because of our mutual love of mitten-making. If I ever have a daughter of my own, I plan to teach her how to make wool sweater mittens and so many other wonderful things.

Visit my Etsy shop, Too Many Mittens, Here!

Bears get 15% off with the code: TRAILERPARKGIRL

Arts and Crafts

A Pointed Pen Calligraphy Tutorial

The fun thing about calligraphy is that there are many scripts, many pens, and many styles to learn.

Published

2 years ago

November 3, 2022

Guest Writer

By: Snow White Bear

Pointed pens have pointed tips. They come in straight and oblique holders.

Some pens can do both. Choose whichever is more comfortable.

First, clean your nib by putting it in your mouth for a few seconds (older calligraphers still do this), or get a potato from your garden and stick all your nibs in it (a minute should be enough, but some do this overnight) or my favorite using up all the unnatural toothpaste the dentist gives you to clean your nibs. If you skip this step, I’ll get a message from you saying, “Snow White Bear, I tried to write, but the ink won’t come out.” For ink, any calligraphy ink will work. Thinner ink is easier to work with; slowly add distilled or filtered water. Walnut ink can be made at home or bought and is easy to work with. Iron gall ink is tremendous but slowly eats at the nib. “Dinky dips” are popular for pouring ink in.

Don’t use printer paper. Any paper that is 32lbs or more (Hp 32lbs is popular) and smooth will work. Some like resume paper even though it has a slight texture. I print calligraphy guidelines I find online on these papers then I’m ready to practice.

Pointed pens are great at Copperplate script. Here are the basic strokes:

Always write using guidelines. Traditionally Copperplate is written at 55 degrees. Practice the basic strokes until you can do them at least 80% consistently. Now it’s time to move on to letters. Letters are made up of basic strokes. The basic strokes usually group the letters they are composed of.

Practice and practice writing letters and practice writing them slowly. You know when you’re going too fast when your pen keeps scratching or skipping on the page. Clean your pen with water and a paper towel every once in a while when writing after letters are mastered, and practice many words with attention to letter connections (I’ve seen this be a whole course) and spacing. Traditionally calligraphers are taught to practice pangrams like “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Writing long phrases can help master spacing and words more quickly. Next, majuscules and capital letters are learned, and unfortunately, they use different basic strokes and spacing than the minuscules or lower cases letters.

There are other scripts one can write with a pointed pen. Spencerian, a script invented in America by Platt Rogers Spencer, is the second most popular. My favorites are Engrosser Script, Italian Hand, and Open-Shaded Script.

Modern calligraphy is based on traditional calligraphy but stylized differently. Although you don’t have to learn traditional calligraphy first, many calligraphers recommend it. What’s fun about modern is that after you practice hard and learn the rules, you make your own style.

The fun thing about calligraphy is that they are many scripts, many pens, and many styles to learn. I only mentioned a few. It’s technical art that is limitless, and you keep improving your script every time you practice.