Signing Off For Tishrei

by Terri

Image shows chibi Ariela with swirly eyes under a large weight with 'Jewish Holiday Calendar' written on the side together with a calendar showing many days blocked off.

Wednesday night begins the cycle of fall Jewish Holidays that we blogged about in our post "Tishrei Is Coming." Both Ariela and I are observant of the restrictions imposed by these holidays, which means that regular blogging and frankly much work becomes difficult over the next four weeks.

So while you may see Tweets and the occasional Facebook post when we feel something needs to be shared, this blog is going to be quiet. While we will be taking orders for prints and greeting cards, they may be slower to ship than usual. We probably* will not be taking ketubah orders for the next few weeks. 

If you are observant of these holidays, we hope that you have a joyous and meaningful holiday season and a good & sweet new year.

.תחיו ותזכו ותעריכו ימים. חג שמח, ושנה טובה ומטוקה

*Obviously emergency ketubah situations do happen and we will make our best effort (with applicable rush charges) to meet your needs in that case.

Why You Shouldn't Wear Tefillin with Wet Hair

By Terri

As part of her scribal apprenticeship, Ariela is learning how to repair tefillin. The only English word that exists for these ritual objects is phylacteries. And you guessed it, that's not English!* Jews are commanded to bind certain words of the Torah "on their arms and between their eyes." The traditional** way to fulfill this commandment is to write the specific words on teeny tiny parchments and put them into square rawhide boxes, which are then attached to leather straps. The straps are how the words are bound to one's arm and between one's eyes.*** And when I say square, it really means square. We make every edge flat and every corner a 90 degree angle. 

Rawhide being shaped into tefillin.  [Image shows large sheets of ivory colored rawhide with vague and then more precise box shaped protrusions in one end. In the front are unpainted tefillin boxes]

How do you transform rawhide into neat square boxes? You wet it and either mold it over a wooden block in the correct shape, or you put it into a special metal press which squishes the soaked rawhide into the correct shape. Tefillin are worn during morning prayer.**** If you're running late, that sometimes means that your hair doesn't have time to dry properly between getting out of the shower and donning your tefillin. What do you think happens when that same shaped rawhide is put on wet hair?

An example of healthy tefillin. [Image shows a very angular black tefilah***** for the arm. It is comprised of a cube on top of a stitched regtangular base, with black leather straps running through it.]

And so we present the visual essay of why leather boxes on wet hair is a supremely bad idea. 

Upright side view of a damaged tefilah shel rosh (the one for the head). The black paint is worn away in many places and the bottom is no longer flat - though it is resting on a cutting mat, the bottom layer of the base is actually curled.

Upside down front view of the same tefilah shel rosh. The bottom is so warped that it is almost entirely convex. In addition, much of the black paint is worn away.

These are sad tefillin. Please don't wear your tefillin on wet hair and makes yours sad like them. It won't happen instantly, but it will happen over time.

The good news is that this sort of problem can be fixed! You can take them to a scribe, or some other person who knows about both leatherworking and the laws of tefillin and they can re-mold them. However, this is not an excuse to be lax about drying your hair.

This is the same tefilah shel rosh pictured above after Ariela finished its rehab job.

Side view of the upright repaired tefilah shel rosh. The straps have been replaced and are now shiny, all of the tefilah is properly black, and the bottom is now resting flat on the cutting mat.

Overhead view of the upside down repaired tefilah shel rosh. The bottom is now entirely flat, and the stitching holding the entire object together has been replaced.

*Though it pleases me to refer to a large workshop for making tefillin as a "phylactery factory." 

**The tradition in question is the rabbinic tradition.

***"Between your eyes" doesn't actually mean what it sounds like. The tefillin worn on the head are centered between the eyes, but the bottom edge should be flush with the hairline (or the original location of the hairline, if it has receded).

****Mostly. Tefillin are mostly worn during morning prayer. There are exceptions.

*****Tefilah is the singular of tefillin.

Geek Calligraphy Abroad

by Terri

My sister got married just outside of Jerusalem yesterday. I have been in Israel with my family for the last almost month. Working over an eight hour time difference has been... fun. In the way of sticking sharp objects in one's eyes and dental surgery sans anesthesia. On the other hand, I have lots of great pictures. Here is a selection:

Half of Reading Station/תחנת קריה. This is an old bus stop, repurposed into a free library. 
[Image shows a man, woman and stroller in front of a bus shelter filled with bookshelves]

Wine grapes (either cabernet or malbec) at the Tzuba Winery. [Image shows two clusters of blue-purple grapes amid healthy green leaves]

Mosaic map of The Cardo (Roman street in the Old City of Jerusalem.

A solo cat and a cat who owns a person consider each other, rather like the cats in The Aeronaut's Windlass. [Image shows a thin cat with a white belly and calico back staring down a much more well fed grey and black tabby with a red collar]

Monster at the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount (also known as The Kotel). [Image shows a small child in a red t-shirt and rainbow skirt touching the stones of a wall that's over 2000 years old.]

Making friends with a boa constrictor at the Biblical Museum of Natural History. [Image shows me with a large brown snake wrapped around my arms whose head is extending up my neck. The expression on my face is half amused, half terror]

Wide interior shot of the stalactite caves in the Sorek Valley. Visible in the center is the stalagmite feature often referred to as "the ice cream cone with three scoops."

Classic shot of the Kotel and Temple Mount. [Image shows the stone wall of the Temple mount and the gold dome of the Dome of the Rock mosque]

I Love Coloring

by Terri

Animated .gif of me coloring a tulip purple.

Knitting is my primary hobby. So much so that I shipped a large box of yarn to Israel to make sure that I would have enough to knit while on vacation there.

But in addition, I love to color in so-called "adult coloring books." No, they don't have naughty pictures in them (though my favorite book so far has many many naughty words), but they are often more difficult to use than ones designed for children. Typically the images are subdivided into many small shapes, that require more fine motor control than the average five year old possesses. In theory they are designed to be calming and somewhat meditative. Before discovering the F*cking Awesome Coloring Book, my favorite books were generally based on on mehndi designs or other geometric shapes. 

Ariela, on the other hand, finds the whole idea of coloring line art she didn't draw herself twitch inducing. She likens it to wearing someone else's underwear. So the idea of Geek Calligraphy coloring pages never actually occurred to her - she doesn't find it enjoyable, so why should she make them for other people? 

First test version of the Spoon Dragon coloring page. Monster has since absconded with the original.

In my house, there are Monster's markers and Mommy's markers (generally very fine felt tip pens, but I also like brush tips for larger area coverage). I also have a box of colored pencils, and have branched out into gel pens. I have discovered the joy of coloring cabbages and achieving exact radial symmetry in my work. Coloring taps into the part of my brain that is more than happy to choose a radically different yarn than the pattern designer intended, but won't make structural alterations to the pattern itself. In my world, Spoon Dragon is a lovely shade of lilac with blue hair. Fantastic blues and greens show up in every bird, not just peacocks. And I always have something to do while waiting for major web edits to do their thing. In fact, while working on this post, I have been coloring a large raptor type bird wearing sunglasses and holding a piece of pizza in its talons. The bird is in magnificent flourescent shades and the pizza cheese is sparkly. I didn't have to create the bird myself, which is awesome. I just get to choose what it looks like.

So if you like to color, you're in good company. And we'll continue to turn some of Ariela's line art into downloadable pages for you to enjoy.

Fun With Flowers

by Terri

Stock photo of a bouquet of flowers in a green glass vase. It has pink roses, baby's breath, ferns, pink & white lilies, purple statice flowers, forget me nots, blue daisies and a purple flower not tagged.
Photo via 123rf

When advertisers exhort us to "say it with flowers," they often don't know how deliberately flowers can talk. While everyone knows that roses mean romance, did you know that daisies mean innocence? Or that larkspur means haughtiness? And that's only according to this flower dictionary.*

When we set out to make our Covertly Hostile series of cards, we took inspiration from the Victorian** custom of using flowers to send messages without words. People used to send each other bouquets that could be anything from a poem to a gorgeous insult. According to our favorite dictionary, the stock bouquet pictured means something along the lines of: "You are my true love because of your innocent, elegant, beauty and loyalty." And that's just what I could figure out from the flowers I actually know. 

The knowledge that flowers can carry intricately coded messages is not longer quite as popular as it used to be. This helps us create our Covertly Hostile cards - the average person doesn't dissect the image of a bouquet of flowers the way the Victorians might have. This means that they usually see "generic pretty thing" and leave it at that, and you can feel free to say exactly what you need to.

*There have always been multiple flower dictionaries. Flowers could have incredibly regionally specific meanings, that often contradicted meanings from the next county over.

**While the Victorians took the custom to their usual elaborate conclusions, flowers have carried meanings since at least Shakespeare.

CONvergence

by Terri

The CONvergence flier. It features their mascot, Connie. The theme of the convention is Space Opera, and so the flier contains a lot of recognizable imagery from famous space operas.

There are many things to both love and hate about the United States Postal Service. One of the things we like is that it enables our art to go to conventions when neither of us can be there. Urged by a friend, we have sent our art to CONvergence, a fan run Science Fiction and Fantasy convention in Bloomington, MN. This year, the convention is taking place July 6th-9th (this weekend).

We have pieces hanging in the Art Show, and multiples for sale in their Print Shop. If you're going to be there at any point, give us a shout on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr! We hope you enjoy the con and take a little something of ours home with you.

Terri Goes to Madison, a WisCon Report

by Terri

The larger matted prints hanging on their panel. 

2016: It was Memorial Day weekend and my phone wouldn't shut up. The weather in Boston was horrible, as was the weather in Upstate New York.* And my best friend in the world appeared to be having the time of her life.

My phone wouldn't shut up because WisCon 40 was when Ariela discovered Twitter. She was tweeting panels and squeeing about the people she was meeting. When she got home, it was all she could talk about for a couple of weeks. I decided that if we could make it work, next year I wanted in on this thing that my best friend loved so much. After all, I'm a feminist. I'm a fan. WisCon seemed a logical fit.

So this year, I boarded a series of planes in order to arrive in Madison, WI on Thursday May 25. I got to the hotel, checked in, unpacked, got a drink,** got my badge, scanned the program book and waited for Ariela to show up. 

When Ariela arrived, we may have broken the eardrums of anyone in the parking lot. It was so wonderful to be at a con with my best friend again. That colored my entire weekend, even the parts where I didn't have as much fun as I was hoping to. "This person might not be very nice, but ARIELA IS HERE! WE ARE TOGETHER!" was a thought that occurred more than once. That being said, Thursday evening was when I began to meet some truly awesome people whom I am glad to know now.

The greeting card and small matted print display.

On Friday, we set up the art. For this con, since we inadvertently ended up with a significant amount of table*** space, Ariela made a set of nifty cardboard display stands (as seen in the image below on the left). There was so much art to be nervous at (including a debut coloring page - my idea!), but I was good and tried to only fidget with it a few times over the weekend.

As is often the case with conventions that I am excited to attend, there were more things in the various programming slots that I wanted to go to than the laws of physics would permit. There was an amazing Leverage panel, moderated by the fabulous Michi Trota. Leverage is one of my favorite TV shows, and listening to people gleefully enjoy it with the entire room was wonderful. I also attended a great panel about Unpopular Opinions and how to not yuck your friends yum, while also acknowledging that you might not like things that they like. It was wonderfully affirming to be in a room with people who all had things that they didn't like that it was assumed everyone else did.

Ariela on the left with her fabulous blue dress, satin gloves, feathered fascinator and Impressive Makeup. I am on the right with my fabulous dress from Pendragon costumes, purple hair, glittery headscarf and Impressive Necklace. The temporary tattoo on my left shoulder is in the style of a band-aid that reads "I Am Enough."

There was much socializing, a trip to the hot tub, more drinks, my homemade braised minute steaks, and tasty breakfasts with great conversations. Of course, it would not be WisCon without the Dessert Salon and Guest of Honor Speeches. 

This year's Guests of Honor were Amal El-Mohtar and Kelly Sue Deconnick. Both spoke about their relationships to story and storytelling. I'm still processing their speeches, but here are my favorite pull quotes from each speech:

"Every time I try to pin down a truth about myself, about my identity, it's like trying to pin down mercury." ~ Kelly Sue Deconnick

"Why do we talk about losing an argument instead of learning a truth?" - Amal El-Mohtar

I could simply list quotes from the speeches, but that's not what you're here for. Suffice it to say that they were full of hard yet inspiring truths, and they had me on the edge of tears. I think that the best response to those speeches is the tweet Ariela sent out at the end of the con:

"We are getting progressively more angry and intersectional feminist in our art. Because eff 2017. #WC41 #WisCon41." No one is perfect, but we are taking the energy and trying to do our best. 

During what WisCon calls The Great Sign-Out,**** I got the all important photos of the Guests of Honor holding my knitting:

Kelly Sue Deconnick holding the cowl I was working on throughout the weekend. 

Amal El-Mohtar holding the cowl I was working on throughout the weekend.

I also got an opportunity to meet and geek out about comics with Jess Plummer (who writes for Book Riot Comics, among other things). Mostly we talked about how Nick Spencer is driving Marvel Comics down the drain and into the sewer,***** but I also heard her talk about G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel books and how awesome they are. It's so refreshing to meet a woman comics commentator who is supporting female comic creators and who won't stand for any nonsense in her comics.

Was it a perfect con? Nope. There's no such thing. I met some wonderful women (and a few men), had some conversations I'm still pondering, heard speeches that inspired me to keep working and fighting, and even attended some panels. Will I be coming back next year? You bet. 

*Memorial Day weekend is typically a small scale SCA war, and we were hoping to day trip Sunday. With rain both here and there, no such luck.

**We stayed on the fancy floors of the Madison Concourse, which entitled us to free cocktails, free breakfast, and other free nibbles during our stay. I am never one to turn my nose up at free alcohol.

***As opposed to pegboard panel

****Instead of having various signings throughout the con, they hold one MASSIVE one on Monday, after all the panels are over. This way no one has to miss a panel to get something signed.

*****We remain a #SayNotoHYDRACap establishment around here.

Ded of Con

by Terri

Chibi Ariela and chibi Terri are both very tired. They have the swirly eyes to prove it.

The accompanying image really says it all. It's been a wonderful weekend, but we're both quite conned out. Next week, I will regale you with tales of my very first WisCon!

We're Off to WisCon

by Terri

Chibi Terri & chibi Ariela are ensuring that All The Art is properly labeled.

Once again, we get to go to a con TOGETHER!* 

Ariela and I will both be attending WisCon 41 this weekend at the Madison Concourse hotel in Madison, WI. Con starts on Friday and ends Monday.

Our art is also attending! The WisCon Art show will be open from Friday afternoon through Monday. Our selection will be a small subset of what is available on our website, but there will be lots of everything we bring, including a new product and a con exclusive. Also, the art show there is instant sale only, no bidding, so whatever you buy can leave with you immediately.

The art show formally opens at 6 on Friday with a meet and greet until 7:30. We will both be there, so please stop by and say hello!

I will be attending panels, being Nervous At The Art, and generally having a good time and meeting people. If you're there, you can probably spot me due to my Art Show Shawl in our business colors.

Ariela will be on the following panels:

Saturday

Wait...This Is About Sex?
8:30am-9:45am
Capitol A
Fairy tales are full of sexual symbols, stories, and injunctions. Come listen as our panelists unpack some of your favorite stories.

Sunday

Where the Fuck Are the Femmes in Space(s)? The Radical Nature of Femme
10:00am-11:15am
Conference 1
There have been a number of panels in the past centered around the place of "femme" within the feminist context, particularly within feminist spaces. But for those who identify as femme, such constant need to justify our identity serves as both threat and erasure from a sphere where femmes are constantly engaged in emotional labor. This panel seeks to move beyond the question of "can femme be feminist?" and instead explore the ways in which femme is a radical identity, including some of its history and evolution as a term originating in queer community that is being co-opted by the mainstream straight lexicon.

F*ck You, Pay Me: Equally Compensating Marginalized Creators
1:00pm-2:15pm
Caucus
"Do It for the exposure! Aren't you just grateful to have this opportunity?" Too often, marginalized creators are thrown these aphorisms as compensation for their hard work and creativity instead of receiving financial compensation for their endeavors like their privileged counterparts. In this panel, we'll discuss the importance and obligation of equal compensation for equal work. We'll also discuss the benefit of outreach, and how that's led to opening geek culture markets to creators and consumers who don't look or think like the "good ol' boys."

You can also catch us at the Dessert Salon, as well as perusing all of the usual things a good con has to offer. Hope we see you there! If not, be warned - our twitter feeds will probably be a lot more active than usual.

Art at ConQuesT

Our art is also going to Kansas! It travels more easily than we do. If you are at ConQuesT in Kansas City, KS, you will be able to see and buy our art in the art show there as well.

*When your best friend and business partner lives halfway across the country from you, shared time is precious. Shared fandom time doubly so.

We Used Up All Our Sick Days...

A large blue plush version of the rhinovirus, accompanied by a blue tinted microscopic image of same. Image courtesy of ThinkGeek, where you can buy this cutie.

by Terri

...so we're calling in dead. Both Ariela and I are getting over various forms of rhinovirus, and Monster* decided to celebrate Daddy coming back from California by running a nasty fever. So neither of us has the brainpower to be clever at our wonderful public. We'll be back next week to talk about the importance of employing** sensitivity readers.

*My 3.5 year old daughter, whom I do not publicly name on the internet

**Employing being the operative word