EXPECTO PATRONUM!

If I didn't try very hard, I don't think it would ever feel like Christmas during finals. Finals have a tendency to suck every bit of joy out of your soul- in fact, finals and dementors (HARRY POTTER REFERENCE) are equals.

Studying for my nutritional science exam could have never been bearable without Archway cashew nougat cookies, a sparkly sugar cookie candle, or warm vanilla chai tea in a fancy "S" mug that was a Christmas gift from the one and only Emily Mitchell.

Hearts & Bows- A Collaboration by Ariel Arnson and Sammy Luterbach

All My Badgers Love Me

Inspired by Take Ivy, I recreated a look from one of the images in the book.

How's that for teaching you how to Bucky?

Original image:

(kspace.tv)

....aaaaand this post is pretty much the most school spirit I have ever shown, ever. I guess it's in there, deep down somewhere.

Oh, Dear Blog World,

How I've missed you.

I promise to never leave you this long again.

Love,

Sammy

Sweet Lorraine

I did this drawing my junior year of high school. We were assigned to combine three famous works of art into one, picking and choosing elements from each and creating our own composition. My work, entitled "Sweet Lorraine" after the Nat King Cole song and my great-grandmother, is a compilation of Edward Hopper's "Automat," Wayne Thiebaud's "Cakes," and Andy Warhol's "Cat Named Sam."

It hangs in our kitchen at home, and I generally pick out a different cake featured that I would like to eat daily.

Andy Warhol and Me = Practically the Same Person

Jk, guys. Jk especially if you've seen Factory Girl. What a creeper.

Anyways, when I was at Mount Mary, we had to take a class called 2D Design where we learned many important things, one being how to silk screen (that's where the Andy joke comes in, see?). We silk screened all of our own designs in color schemes of our choice.

These are my three favorite projects I did!

This is my very first attempt at silk screening. I just used a single screen with the one asterisk symbol cut out of it over and over again.

This one is done in an Art Nouveau style. I designed the image that is repeated! Vincent is such a smarty, even if he did chop off his ear.

This is my final project for the class, and it is a beast. It's probably 10 feet by 5 feet, and it was really complicated to make. I dedicated my life to this monstrosity for a while, and looking at it still stresses me out, but I love how it turned out so much and can't wait to use it for something cool someday!

Pillow Talk

I love to make pillows. If I could, I would make pillows all day, everyday.

I made these first two pillows for my boyfriend, Steve, about a year ago for what was his brand new apartment. I knitted each square for this first pillow and attached them with a whip stitch. The back of the pillow is an old leopard print sweater of mine.

This pillow is my favorite! I cut Steve's initials out of felt and stitched them onto this rockin' geometric fabric. What pillow is complete without orange ball fringe?!

This is the first pillow I ever made. In high school, I took a class where we learned how to cross stitch, and I made this owl. I decided to make it into a pillow, because I loved it so much!

Pop Art Pop

I did this painting my junior year of high school. Everyone in the class was assigned to paint a portrait in a different style. I was given Cubism to work with- my favorite! This is my dad, and it's entitled "G.L."

I still like to paint in my interpretation of Cubism. Here's another one of my paintings in this style. It's called "Midge's Apartment." I don't know who Midge is, and I certainly have never seen her apartment, but her apartment would totally look like this.

I'm calling it...

...the Clueless look is going to be the next big thing. I'm stocking up on plaid mini-skirts, sheer knee high socks, cropped tops, and chunky mary-janes as you read this.

I just moved the movie up to the #1 position on my queue on Netflix, and I recommend you do the same to gain some rockin' fashion inspiration for fall, people.

J'adore!

This is the first shirt I made in my first year of college at Mount Mary. It's a combination of three shirts I already had- the gray shirt with the puffy sleeves stayed how it was, but I added the black sleeves and the "Bonjour mon amour" square from two other shirts. The pink ruffles that I frayed, black stitching, and beading are extra little touches!

New logo, perhaps?

Normalcy's Not Really My Thing

This is my final project for one of my introductory classes at UW-Madison. The three pieces display my newly acquired skills of plaiting and crocheting, and my love for bold accessories.

Headband? Headpiece? Head ornament? Helmut?

Bracelet

HUGE Ring

My least favorite day...

...is when everybody has eaten all of the good taffy. The only remaining flavors? Cinnamon, banana, watermelon, and whatever black is.

Gross.

Your love isn't my drug...

....magazines are.

For the past six years of my life, I have been unhealthily obsessed with magazines; I devour them, then rip out my favorite images. Those pictures are then glued in a very particular order to sketchbooks. This may seem very simple and maybe a little odd, but nothing brings me more joy in life.

During the school year, I don't have much time to devote to my magazine addiction, so I get really behind and have to catch up in the summer.

I have my work cut out for me this summer and couldn't be happier.

Me Times Three

After high school, I attended Mount Mary College for one year where I had this drawing professor who scared the living daylights out of all of us students. I'm pretty sure at least one of us cried in every single class. There was even this girl who informed me once that she stopped at a bar after every class before she went home for the night just to wind down after being tormented for two and a half hours.

I never had the opportunity to get hammered after class, but I did find myself with a great deal of motivation to get my artwork done and done well so that he would stay off my back. This plan worked for the most part, and somehow, I even was able to sneak a little bit of self-expression into some of my pieces. I'm pretty sure I created some of my most successful art in his class, but honestly, it was all done in fear. Can you see it in my three part self-portrait?

My favorite day...

...is when my mom fills up our candy dish with a new delicious treat. The latest Luterbach sweets obsession?

Taffy.

Inspiration Board

For the jacket project shown in my previous post, we were required to pick a word that was our inspiration for the design. Then we had to create a board that further displayed our inspiration in a visual way.

My word was "spring," and my main inspiration came from flowering trees, particularly lilacs (my favorite time of the whole year is the, approximately, three weeks that lilacs are alive on their trees). I also felt the need to put a picture of decorated silverware and a picture of Gemma Ward wearing a humongous hat with a veil on the board. If I'm being completely honest though, I drew no inspiration from those things while creating my jacket; they were just really cool pictures that happened to fit in with my color scheme at the end. Shhhhhhhhhh.

Flower Power

So, the final project in my first sewing class at UW-Madison was to take a kimino jacket pattern, alter it in some way, and add any kind of embellishment to it, like buttons, stitching, beading, etc. Being Sammy Luterbach, naturally, my first thought was to completely cover my jacket in flowers, but not just any flowers, mind you: flowers HANDMADE from a variety of fabrics, ribbons, buttons, and beads. While you were off gallanvanting, relaxing, and enjoying the world's beauties, I spent my entire spring break making those stupid flowers. I really have no explanation for my madness other than I thought it would look pretty.
I can't wait for the perfect occasion to wear this crazy thing!