These gorgeous photographs are the amazing art of our friend Anna White who came into our home a few weeks ago to take pictures of us (Mushpa y Mensa)and our cat Jefe. She is working on a photo collection of couples and individuals in their NYC homes. Anna wanted us to convey an American Gothic style, hence our stoic demeanor.
It was mad fun and the pictures turned out fabulous!
Enjoy.
-Mushpa
We have a newsletter that rocks. Scan this QR Code above to read our latest one, Cara Elaine and Maria Emilia (Mushpa y Mensa) Are Getting Serious!
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– Mushpa
We would love to share with you this fantabulous Mushpa y Mensa Earth Day extravaganza!!! It is happening this very weekend!!! What? Yes!
La Mushpa y La Mensa will be selling wares in the flesh at The Market NYC (159 Bleecker Street) all weekend long (Friday – April 19th 12pm-9pm, Sat – April 20th 11am-9pm, and Sun – April 21st 12pm-8pm).
Please, if you live in the city or are visiting, make sure to stop by and show us some love. We are unveiling our much awaited 100% organic cotton shirt designs (“Put a Bird on It” designed by Mushpa and “Mama Earth” by Mensa). These shirts are printed using water-based eco-friendly inks (301 ECO-Series by Matsui), free of PVC, phthalate, heavy metals, azo compounds, nonylphenol and formaldehyde. We clean up after ourselves using mostly water. When necessary, we may use a citrus and soy based eco-cleaner from Chemical Consultants Incorporated. We also do everything by hand from the design, to printing transparencies, exposing the screens and lastly, printing them on the shirts.
It’s exhausting, but we are making art!
-La Mushpa
p.s. – We also have an official web url, www.mushpamensa.com. So official, check it out!
Need a quick and cheap idea to make your own business cards?
1. Gather some card stock paper, a paintbrush and some water colors and prepare to make a little mess….and now make a mess!!! Splatter some water colors all over the place! Get you Pollock on : )
2. Let it dry and cut into small rectangles. If you have a custom stamp (which we will be having soon) put it on the back, or just hand write your information down.
Easy Peasy!!!
-Mensa
Original and one of a kind terra-cotta necklace.
Each bead is hand rolled, hand made, and polished using the simplest of tools
(hands, a needle and a spoon!)
If you are looking for original one of a kind jewelry that no one else will have, and you want to support our small business, and want to support two crafty ladies then this is the piece for you!
The main bead is imbedded with a white nacre sea shell. Beautifully strong, resilient and iridescent.
You can find it, ponder it, and maybe even purchase it at our Etsy store!
-Mensa
We take a million pictures and need a place for all our behind the scenes, living the life, Mushpa y Mensa, and Cara Elaine & Maria Emilia photos. Instagram it is.
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-La Mushpa y La Mensa
So remember how Mushpa is getting a tattoo? Well here is the first session!
We went to Dare Devil Tattoo, where Michelle Myles took the original design and adapted it to make it fit around the already tattooed fairy.
The frame was made smaller, and it fits perfectly in her arm!
Ouch! Two hours of a needle piercing through your skin, all while having a casual conversation about old movies and what not.
And there she is all happy and bandaged up!
After cleaning it up, the close ups look nice! So far the outline is done, and it is so exciting to finally see this actually on skin rather than paper!
It is still a little red, so she has to give it some time to heal up enough to begin the shading…
I cant wait to see it finished! In a couple of weeks she will have the final piece all done!
Sweeeeet!!!
: )
-Mensa
Check it out.
New on Etsy!
Home-made corn starch based polymer clay.
Hand-made beads with turquoise accents.
Orange color made with 100% natural and organic dyes (turmeric based).
Designed and Made with Love by Mushpa y Mensa.
❤❤❤
-Mensa
So you try to be conscious and it ends up you didn’t do much better than you originally thought you would.
I looked, and searched for home-made clay recipes all over the internet. I was looking for a clay that would be malleable yet durable enough to make beautiful things, cheap enough to produce and make over and over again, and a recipe that didn’t use nasty or toxic ingredients.
And I found one! It was perfect….or so I thought.
The ingredients?
-1 cup of Non-Toxic Elmer’s glue
-3/4 to 1 cup of Corn Starch
-2 tbsp of mineral oil Olive Oil
-1 tbsp of lemon juice
Not so toxic, right?…. Well, I looked into what mineral oil really is, and essentially it is the “by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline and other petroleum-based products from crude-oil”. That same oil in the clear bottle and the pink cap that you put on a baby’s bum bum, that stuff (plus some fragrance), comes from an incredible unsustainable source. On top of that fun fact, the World Health Organization “classifies untreated or mildly treated mineral oils as Group 1 carcinogens to humans.” (Source) Group 1 carcinogens = DEFINITELY CARCINOGENIC TO HUMANS. What?!?!
So since I am being all aware and into this, I decided to replace mineral oil with OLIVE OIL!
Cool… That’s great. So I am happy I’ve done my research and I feel better about myself.
I go about following this recipe, which at first I was hating, because it did not come out like it said. After reading the comments from other people though, I cooked the dough longer and realized that the most crucial thing is to KNEAD the clay when it’s REALLY HOT. Then all the parts will blend.
ps. I also added turmeric to the recipe to give it some natural color.
But then something else happened…another question that should’ve been obvious to ask, but I did not. Where the heck does Elmer’s glue come from???
Oh here we go again….. Elmer’s glue is made of polyvinyl acetate which, you guessed it, comes from petrochemical sources. Come on world!!! Really? Which really makes me think about all the “non-toxic” things we buy, that are actually quite toxic to our environment, our bodies, and our world! Of course elmer’s glue is toxic if it’s source and main ingredient when extracted from the ground pollutes and kills everything around it!
Agrrr… I’m not so happy about this at all. I want to be able to make my own clay/dough at home, with decent ingredients that won’t harm you and me.
I haven’t experimented again, but I will once I find the perfect ingredients.
In the mean time, I will try to use up all my “non-toxic” glue, and try some more natural glue recipes. And lesson learned. Check ALL ingredients and where they come from regardless of now “natural” and non-toxic they are.
-Mensa
You might say…. Outrageous! Sexist! Oh how far we’ve come along!…..
For war! Or just around the house…
Apparently smoke made us follow you anywhere.
But did you flip through this decade’s magazines? Or even last month’s magazine?…..
Progress? Not so much…
What thing did you need to remember? Or maybe just a picture to remind you…
Or just simple and blunt in your face?
The pictures speak for themselves.
This is only a reminder, because we should already notice.
Because it still exists.
This is a reminder, to remember that 1950 was just yesterday, and that we are still drinking the kool-aid today…
That’s it.