Made in Deaf Facebook and Surface Pattern Designs May 23 2021

Hello!

It has been way too long since I last blogged or reached out to my customers and curious on-lookers. I still have a few more years of "work - work" until I can fully retire and shift my focus on designing more and keeping in touch with a community of designers and designers from the Deaf community. I can't wait to do this full time!  

My mom, Irene Kane, is an artist and is Deaf :). She introduced me to a Facebook group called "Made in Deaf". I recently joined and was accepted. They accept CODAs. Thank you. I'm looking forward to interacting with other creators/desginers in the Deaf community.

I recently completed an on-line course for surface pattern designers offered by Bonnie Christine. It was an amazing 8 week course!  I learned SO MUCH! One of the best thing about it is the course materials will be available to me forever. We learned how to make repeat patterns on Adobe Illustrator and Procreate. We also learned how to market our products, license our products and so much more. I hope to one day show the Deaf Community what I learned. So much fun!

That is it for now. If you have any questions please email me at mary@sayitinsign.com

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Mary

Designing ASL Fabric April 29 2017

Hello. Its been awhile. My day job takes time away from my real passion - creating and making. Its all good. It just takes me awhile to get back in a groove again to create and make. 

My latest goal has been working on becoming a surface pattern designer. Its fun and challenging. I try to incorporate ASL signs into a pattern or design. From there I print the design as a fabric. Now I have to either learn how to sew or hire someone to sew for me. I would like to make baby leggings, baby bandanas, pillow covers, tea towels, etc.

Spoonflower.com is my inspiration and I have a shop on their website. Go to spoonflower.com/profiles/marykane to see my latest designs.

That is all for now. Just wanted to touch base and let you know what I am up to. 

I hope the Spring brings you warmth and inspiration.

Mary

Lenticular Safari Poster May 20 2015

Aug. 2015

I was able to raise enough money to make a redesign of the cards and turn the images into one large lenticular safari poster. I donated 3 posters to 3 schools.

Below is an image of the final design of the Safari Poster. When looking at the actual poster on a wall you can see the images move by leaning left to right. The children show you the sign for the animal they are standing next to. Its a fun way to learn some animal signs and a nice piece of art for the wall.

If you are interested in purchasing the poster please contact me and I will give you the price for the size you want.

Thank you everyone for your support and donations.

Mary

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May 20, 2015

I'm excited to let you know I am planning on bringing back the ASL Zoo Animal cards. I will need you help with this endeavor. I designed this set of 15 lenticular cards about 4 years ago.

Since crowd funding has become such a sucessful way to raise money I thought I woudl give it my best try. I opened an account with GoFundMe. The link to the campaign is gofundme.com/ASLZooCards. You can read about my goals and plans for the ASL Zoo cards and rewards for donating. Please feel free to share this information with your family and friends.

With your help I know I can reach my goal.

Thank you.

Mary

Today's ASL Sign: STARFISH (more current name is SEA STAR) April 17 2015

The Evolution of Signs.

I like seeing new signs come along. There are a lot of words or ideas that are fingerspelled in ASL. Most of the time it doesn't bother me. Occasionally there will be a word here or there that doesn't have a sign and are fingerspelled or signed incorrectly.  
Today's word is STARFISH. 
Starfish or sea stars are not fish. Once in awhile I'll see someone sign STAR and then FISH. This combination of signs together does not fit the concept of what a starfish is. It always throws me off too when I see it. smile emoticon
Some people will sign STAR and then finger spell F-I-S-H. Ok - not bad. And some people will fingerspell the whole word S-T-A-R-F-I-S-H. Thats ok too.
I saw a new sign I really like for STARFISH or SEA STAR. It goes like this - make one hand a slightly bent 5 Handshape. The other hand is your base hand - representing the ocean floor. The bent 5 handshape moves and twists above "the ocean floor" hand as if it is moving across the ocean floor. Very cool! The sign does exactly what a starfish/ sea star does. 

A New Look at Language Delays in Deaf Children with Autism April 10 2015

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150406100702.htm

This is a great article. I saw the authors present this information at a conference. This is my take-away from this article. I am not an expert - so please read the article. The use of pronouns in ASL seem relatively intuitive. Point to yourself for ME or I. Point to a person for YOU or HE/SHE. Deaf children with autism do not use pronouns as easily as other neo-types/ neo-typicals (people who do not have autism). If you suspect a deaf (or hearing) child may have autism - look at their use of pronouns. Again, please read the article. I am summarizing.

Giving ASL Name Ruler to Students March 20 2015

I designed some ASL Name Rulers for a few kids at a local elementary school. They let me take some photos with them showing their new little gifts. SO cute.

Hanging out with Ursula Bellugi March 01 2015

Hanging out with Ursula Belligi. I would call her the Mother of ASL linguistics. Her research was ground breaking in the 1970s and she is STILL asking questions and looking for answers about the structure of ASL. A great lady and an infectious energy for curiosity.

In broad terms we were talking about accents in ASL. When someone learns a second language in later in life they usually have an accent. What does an accent look like in ASL. What is it that makes it not native? 

ASL on the Rise at Colleges and Universities February 19 2015

I found this article to be interesting and not surprising .....

http://m.chronicle.com/article/Foreign-Language-Enrollments/189913/

Here is a snippet from the article ......

By Maddy Berner from the Chronicle of Higher Education 

Across all institution levels, Spanish and French continued to be the two most-studied foreign languages, with Spanish posting higher enrollment numbers than all other languages combined. However, the new data are significant because they reflect the first decline in Spanish enrollments at every institutional level in the history of the survey, with the numbers falling 8 percent over four years.

Ms. Feal attributed the decline to the rising number of other languages being offered in both high school and college, and she added that colleges are doing a better job of promoting other languages. The new survey covered 34 languages that were not included in the previous one.

On the Rise: American Sign Language

One language that bucked the downward trend was American Sign Language, which continued its fast rise, eclipsing German as the third-most-studied language over all. At the graduate level, ASL enrollments increased by 216 percent. At two-year institutions, it was the second-most-studied language.

The MLA said the increase could be attributed in part to a shift in how it now counts American Sign Language enrollments, which were first counted in the 1990 survey. The survey now counts all courses­—such as French history—that are taught in the language, instead of only those that are formally structured around the language.

Ms. Feal said ASL had seen such increases because more students are being exposed to the language through classes like linguistics or psychology, where learning it is integral to the subject.

For many students, Ms. Feal said, learning the language is "a totally different experience—one that intrigues them, that interests them—and they think they can use the language in their work."

The MLA’s report was based on a survey of 2,435 American colleges and universities that offer programs in languages other than English. The report compares foreign-language enrollment data from two- and four-year institutions, as well as graduate programs, from 2009 to 2013.

Enrollments in language courses at two-year, four-year, and graduate programs all dropped over that four-year period. Graduate enrollments suffered their second such decline, falling further after a drop between the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2009. All but five of the commonly taught languages at this level experienced double-digit losses.

- See more at: http://m.chronicle.com/article/Foreign-Language-Enrollments/189913/#sthash.bLGejnwa.8gGrQHNh.dpuf

ASL Name Ruler Video May 20 2014

Here is video of the ASL Name Rulers - what they look like and you design options.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6DSW5BSgHk