dead old blog

Please note, my blog has moved to www.DocPop.org/blog Check it out for my newest writing. Please don't link to this blog entry, you can use http://www.docpop.org/2007/06/24/raw-denim-coffee-cozy.html instead.



I've always felt a little wasteful for heavily using those disposable coffee cup cozies, so I decided to make my own using scraps from tailored jeans.

Introducing the world's first selvage coffee jacket!

Of course I used scraps from raw denim jeans that I had tailored, and I used the new chain stitch machine for all the sewing. It's easy to carry around, I either keep it in my left rear pocket or I wear it like a wrist band. It totally does the job, keeps my drinks warm (or cool) and my hands lukewarm.

The photos are from my fave local coffee shop, Nervous Dog Coffee. Joe at Nervous Dog is big in to recycling, so he loved the cozy.





update: Thanks for checking out my coffee cozy. Please note that my blog has moved to DocPop.org/blog. Click here to see some of my newer crafts (and denim related projects). Or check out my Etsy account at www.DocPopCrafts.com!

Labels: Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

Oh crap... we thought it was Pirate Weekend. Well, pride is cool too.

I gave away tons of crap today and sold my Warhammer army for a billion dollars.

Below is an Exquisite Corpstrait of my roommate, Darius.

Well, it's not really a garage sale... first off it's nowhere near a garage. Secondly, I'm giving away most of the stuff. But I will have some things for sale, like my Eldar Army! That includes three grav tanks, word up!

Here is the craigslist ad.

The plan was also to sit outside and do Exquisite Corpstraits throughout the day, but I don't know if that's going to happen being that we are one artist short. Hopefully Mike and I can still put something together.

Things have been real busy for me lately, I even had to take a break from my 28 Days of Yo project, but I'm back on track with only 4 more days to go. So many yo-yos to write about, so little time!

Union Special Chain Stitch Machine

I offering a Union Special industrial sewing machine for $200. It is a chain stitch head that can use 1-4 needles. I believe the machine is designed for making the waist bands on pants.

I am only offering the head, but I can suggest a great place to find motors, tables, and repairs. I have not used this machine, but the previous owners said it still works great and I believe them... Union Specials are built to last.

Email me with any questions please.

After two months of preparation, I'm glad to announce my newest project is finally rolling. I've started doing tailoring for Kiya's high end denim store Self Edge. Offering chain stitched hems has been very important to Kiya, so he contacted me to help him find an industrial machine. He had already picked out one, that turned out not to work for hemming, but luckily we found a fantastic Union Special at Wai's Sewing Machine Repair in Chinatown. I think the price was great, and James even helped teach me some basics of using an industrial machine.

The Union Special now sits in my apartment, between my studio and my drafting table. I've been sewing a lot during the last year, but using an industrial machine is such a different experience that it's literally like starting back at ground zero. Even finding thread was been way more difficult than I expected.

I'm thinking that once I get the fundamentals down, working for Kiya will be a fairly easy gig that I can totally do on my own time. It sounds pretty stress free, right? I thought so, at least up until I did my first jeans yesterday. I had been practicing on several scraps before I moved on to my first actual pair... Let me tell you, cutting up a $400 pair of jeans is stressful enough, but when the owner of the jeans is the guy that has invested heavily in the same machine you are tailoring with... wow.

I spent about 7 hours working with the machine yesterday, and another 6 today. I found several interesting features on it today, but I think there are still tons more to learn about. Hell, even threading the thing is a nightmare.

All that being said, I think 8 jeans I did today turned out great and I'm feeling way more at ease than I was this morning. I pick up and drop off orders on Mondays and Thursdays btw.

Astute readers of this blog will probably know what I'll be doing with all that new scrap! After all, that's how I got the gig from Kiya in the first place.

More pics of the machine can be found here.

Labels: Self Edge denim raw Samurai blue jeans selvage

At the foot of my loft bed is a shelving unit that I use to store most of my circuit bent instruments and musical toys. I snapped a photo today to show a few of the shelves. You can see my 10 Casio SK-1's.

In the center, you can see a tamborine with a Drew Tetz sticker on it.

There are also a few Speak and Spells on the top shelf.

Labels: drown pirate radio cool and strange music nerdcore podcast space

Upon recently hearing about the ApeLad's Re-Inking Thor Flickr group (via Big Time Attic [via Stwalley], I picked up my brush and started working.

The Re-inking Thor group has been all based around taking the original pencil art of the legendary Jack Kirby, encouraging individual artists to try their hand at inking it. The specific page used is from a issue of The Mighty Thor.

I'm not a fan of Kirby (FYWOI?!), but I imagined the challenge would be a lot of fun, especially since I've really been focusing on my brush art lately. As I started though, I was surprised to find just how tight Kirby's pencilling was, which didn't leave me with much room to breathe artistically.

I think I did a good job, up until the point that I drew the word balloons. God I hate drawing word balloons. I think I'm some sort of color blind that effects the way I percieve simple shapes rather than colors... Shape blind? Imediately after I posted my picture to the group, I found somebody that had created a useful template of an inked word balloon, text, and borders for this page.

I should also mention that I skipped doing lettering and used my own "Doc Pop Brush" font for the panels. I also niavely believed I would be the first person to come up with some silly text for the page. I guess after spending a day tracing such tight pencils, we all just wanted to goof off during the lettering.

Hey, check out Kevin and Zander Cannon's re-inked Thor page here.

I think it's time that we disposed of our outdated units of measurements.

I propose a new system based around the Singing Tele-Gram.

"The AXLerator appears to be heavy for a looping yo-yo but it's only 1 Singing militelegram heavier than the Raider."

or

"The common street selling price of cocaine hydrochloride powder is $80-$100 per singing telegram.

Lately I've been busting my ass doing Go Games locally.

While I was doing one in San Jose on Tuesday, a car pulled up to me and rolled down it's window. I was in front of a Best Buy yo-yoing while I was waiting for the next team to come by. The driver of the car said "Hey are you Doc?".

"Yeah" I replied.

"Oh thats so cool, me and my girlfriend were just driving and she spotted you. This is so cool, we say you on the Master of Champions about a year ago, it was great."

"Yeah that was me."

"We bought a betta fish that day and after watching the show we named him after you."

"Neat! You named your fish Doctor Popular?"

"Yeah."

I forgot to mention that the entire week before that gig at the Moscone Center last week, I was troubled with nightmares.

I guess because of where I am financially, this gig was pretty important to me, but I really wasn't that worried about it. At least not while I was awake.

Each night I had a dream about something terrible happening from my hand. Most of the dreams where different, but a few times I had a dream that I was getting mugged, so I fought back, landing a couple of good punches before being overwhelm by my muggers and getting the shit kicked out of me. In the fight, I broke my hand. In none of my dreams did I ever think "Man, I can't do that show now." but as soon as I woke up I would panic before realizing that my hand was okay.

Let's see, during the week my right hand was crushed in a fight, smashed by a car door, broken in a fight, and mangled in an escolator.

I spent a few hours today playing the role of a spy in a scavenger hunt. In between scavenger teams I whipped up this spy sketch and tried my hardest to color it in photoshop. The orginal sketch was drawn straight to paper with brush.

So I had a long yo-yo gig at the Moscone Center last week. It started fairly early, and was a bit longer than most gigs I agree too, but I need the cash for a new computer.

It was just me, a contortionist, a stilt walker, and some jugglers.

I was performing in front of Moscone Center West, just doing my thing and greeting convention goers. At around noon, I woman came into the center. She was obviously a model, and by that I don't mean she was gorgeous or had a certain a certain je ne sais quoi or anything. I simply mean she had inhuman breasts, leathery skin, and botox lips. I guessed she was probably a spokes model that hung out at one of the trade show booths. She was nice enough though, when I greeted her at the door she said "Your job looks awesome, but I bet it couldn't beat mine."

"Are you kidding, you know what I do on my breaks at this job? On my breaks I head into the green room [our dressing area] and yo-yo more. I love my job! I mean how often do you find yourself laying in bed trying to go to sleep when suddenly you get this feeling and you say to yourself 'Man, I've just got to model!'?".

This is just more practice with coloring using photoshop.