Showing posts with label trader joes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trader joes. Show all posts

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Season Change.

The first pallet of Michigan's signature summer brew, Bell's Oberon, came rolling off the truck this week. We have been using the same Oberon sign for the last few years, so I decided to put together a new one.

I painted the sun and sky on black foam board and added the mosaic look with black paint on the end. Then I used a very technical combination of miscellaneous cut foam board pieces and hot glue to give the sign a 3/D look.



So I've had summer on the brain lately-- and for that reason I was shopping around this week for a vacation spot, and I booked the perfect place. Wilderness State Park is at the very top of the mitten, just to the left of the Straits of Mackinac. The park has miles of trails, a traditional campground and a handful of secluded beach-front cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 30's.

The cabins were already booked through the summer-- with the exception of one, which still had a couple of nights open on the tail end of Labor Day Weekend. The cabins sleep anywhere from 4 people to bunkhouses for 20+ with hardwood floors, wood burning stoves, and lovely rustic furniture. Each one even has an outhouse and water supply-- considering we usually pop a tent in the middle of nowhere, this place is the Hilton in comparison.



image credit: wildernessstatepark.net

Perhaps the best part about this cabin is that its just a quarter mile east of this amazing stretch of archipelago leading out to Waugoshance Point and Lighthouse. The water is shallow enough to hike out to the Point, canoe or kayak.


image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/odalaigh/3524713435/


Plans make this rainy/windy spring Saturday much more bearable.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Oh yeah--

I also have a day job! Here's some signs celebrating early 2010 holidays.




The manliest sign I've ever made. I have no idea what those X's and O's mean-- I just copied them from a Google search. This sign is so busy it drives me nuts, but after making painstaking grass for fifty years last week I was somewhat forced into commitment.


The girliest sign I've ever made, and by far the most pink I've used... ever. On anything. I did have a blast making the feathers though.



A metallic and dolphin gray cardstock "disco ball" -- part of our New Year's display. This took approximately 55 large hot glue sticks.


An icy-toned board that accompanied said disco ball. The '5' is 40 feet high (almost)

These are all from the last few weeks-- we don't celebrate holidays annoyingly early like most grocery stores-- we don't have the space!

Speaking of work, my good friend and former coworker, Adam, is currently in the midst of an epic Great American RV tour with his lovely boyfriend, Joel. They're keeping a really amazing little blog of their journeys at The Bunny and the Burrow. If you're longing for a road trip, they're a great pair to live vicariously through.





Thursday, June 11, 2009

Celebrate Summer

We always pull together a 'look' for the store entry for each new flyer-- this time we decided to go with 'Celebrate Summer' because it was nice and simple and we're just so glad that the sun is finally here!

I cut down a truck-load of triangle flags from four shades of textured cardstock in fantastic beach-side colors-- and then we hot glued each one to white string at 4 inch intervals and hung them up in long, graceful, 'county fair-like' swags. Adam made all of the signs-- from hundreds of gathered paint chips.


Its really simple, but came together so beautifully.
I love the negative space on the sign.

Here's a closeup of the fabulous paint chip job.



love this 2!


we carried the flags throughout the store. they were the perfect punch of color-- easy to make and effortless to hang. we'll definitely be revisiting them again, maybe with scantron sheets and old lined paper for back to school!


This seemed fitting to post tonight because I'm off to celebrate summer myself-- our first camping trip of the year starts tomorrow! Chris and I are meeting up with our friends Andy and Holly on Lake Michigan for a long weekend. I will be back next week with photos!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A creative activities update!

I've been out and about this past week-- the options for passing time are much more plentiful now that the warm weather has returned! I have managed to sneak in a little work and have also developed a really fun eye twitch in response to the work yet to be done!

As promised, here's the super exciting theme for the new flyer at the store:



We wanted something really fresh because green is shooting out of the ground like crazy, so we went with sprouting. My coworker Adam created the sprout from foam board and wire, and then applied multiple layers of felt on top before nestling it in this little shadow box behind plexi-glass. Several components of the actual sign were cut from paper that was applied to the chalkboard-- a totally new way of working for us that we'll definitely be coming back to. The rest of the store is filled with downed branches that we covered in kraft paper tape and little paper leaves.

In my own work, I'm happy to announce that I have a new favorite material-- his name is Mr. Burlap.

(click for texture bliss!)

I purchased this organic hemp burlap a few months ago, but just got around to using it this weekend. I love the effect when a somewhat modern image is screened on top-- the contrast is heavenly.



The only problem with Mr. Burlap is that he's really thirsty. These prints require at least 4 times the amount of ink required to screen a regular print-- the dried burlap weave is like a sponge! I haven't decided yet whether or not to charge more for these prints-- either way, I'm in love.

This reverse technique (where the negative space is screened in) is going to play prominently in the prints I pull in the next few weeks I think-- I'm hoping it will be a fun way to breathe some new life into successful images. At the same time as the burlap prints were created I pulled another Ladder Fern edition where the brown negative space is screened on top of a variegated panel of greens.





For this effect, I cut the screen opening to just under the size of my piece of canvas, and then dollop on a few shades of green in random spots and pull the ink across the whole panel. Then I screen the negative space on top in brown. I already used this method last winter with the Huron River Bed series, which I'll be bringing back in addition to these Ladder Fern prints and some Honeycomb style prints also using this method.

That's on my to-do list between now and the next show, in addition to (as always) pulling lots and lots and lots of woodcut prints. I have my work cut out for me!

Monday, February 9, 2009

On My Nests

An Etsy shopper recently inquired about the wall that I photograph prints on, so I thought I'd show you the whole thing in all of its glory. This is the left living room wall in our 'nest'-- where most of my Etsy photos are taken:





I have a spot on here (currently occupied with a honeycomb print) for rotating 8x8 screenprints for photos. Of the other prints-- some of the prints are mine, some were made by others-- around half of them are rotated and replaced with some frequency.

Of what's always up: the photo is of my grandparents woods. The long topographic looking bit is embroidery on dyed cotton made last year-- I have a wood plate drawn out that will return me to maps (where some of my fine art work from college is from) to print in the next few weeks. The teal map of the world is mounted on foam board above the lamp and was recently acquired for $1 at an Ann Arbor thrift store. At night the lamp light hits it and it looks amazing.

The cabinet below was another thrift find-- hand carved mid-century mod for $14 at our local Salvation Army. After finding it I literally RAN to the front of the store to get a cart to fetch it. Its really hard to find that sort of thing around here-- it was my lucky day!

The gorgeous danish modern chair belonged to my boyfriend's parents-- the joints fit together so well it feels like it was carved away from a single piece of wood and sanded for years. I wish you could see the legs-- they're so nicely done and the lines have such a clean organic feel.

We have an huge south facing window just on the other side of the plants that actually raises the temp. of our apartment on sunny days. We get a lot of light of this place on even the bleakest Michigan winter days, so I'm thankful for that.

As for the actual nests that birds live in, I am working on some new ones. My woodcut editions of the Robin's Nest (all in all-- around 200 prints!) are sold out, and I am done with them! I stuck this little nest on a chalkboard at work last week, and might be adapting it for screen prints:



Maybe a new woodcut too. I am starting to apply for Spring/Summer shows, and would like, for the most part, to kind of launch everything all at the same time, with a similar feeling and aesthetic. I'm trying to figure out exactly what that is right now-- I do know it's going to be more subtle than the work I've been making for the most part.

After June I will be turning my focus to finding a teaching job and, in all likilhood, leaving the mitten-- so I want this set to all work together and carry me through that time.

Monday, December 29, 2008

A Very Handmade Christmas

Like most people who make things, I come from a long tradition of do-it-yourselfers, particularly on my Mom's side of the family, where we have been exchanging homemade gifts for as long as I can remember. My grandpa makes maple syrup on the same land he was born on. My grandma painted beautiful oils when I was young and now, she makes stunning quilts. My mom can draw and paint and embroider anything she wants, even if years have passed since last worked in the medium. My sisters and I all grew up loving and making lots and lots of art.

My homemade gift wasn't an all-out artathon this year (I framed an old trade card of Colorado Springs for my Brother-in-Law who went to college there) I did receive something absolutely stunning from my grandpa, who had my name.



This meticulously created cutting board was the result of carefully fitting together small pieces of wood from trees on their land. I could have received nothing else for Christmas and been totally and completely happy with just this. Its a symbol of where I come from, both physically and figuratively. Its perfect and I will cherish it always and be sure to pass it down. Tonight I cut up a few potatoes and I couldn't even bear to use it!

Most of the handmade work I made this holiday season looked a little something like this:


Tomorrow night the store's holiday decor comes down-- which we made almost entirely and painstakingly by hand this year. Each of the ceiling ornaments is two-sided, hand painted on black foamboard. There are around 40 of them throughout the store, along with a giant painted tree, endcaps that look like gift tags, and and entire wall of falling snow.

I don't know who I was kidding about starting new prints in the midst of all of this-- I finally made a whole slew of thumbnail sketches tonight and after a little research, will be starting some new work by the weekend. I consider myself lucky to be in the company of so many creative individuals-- and I look forward to another year of continued inspiration fueled by their influence, love and friendship.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Plugging Away & My Day Job

I am switching gears tonight and working on woodcut prints. I tried this method prior to the last show-- where I amass a pile of screen prints and then focus only on woodcuts, and it worked really well. The hope is that I make around 200 5x7 prints between today and tomorrow. Those sold the best at my last show, and I'm thinking this next one will be very similar.

I have one more day off to really pump them out, and then back to the day job for another 40 hours. For those of you who don't know me very well, I am very fortunate to have a really wonderful and creative day job, so you won't hear too many complaints from me on that end.

In addition to spending the last few months selling prints in shows and online, I also work as a sign designer for Trader Joe's. If you're wondering what that entails, its probably a safe bet that you haven't been in the store. Trader Joe's is a kind of wacky gourmet grocery chain-- there's around 300 stores in the US, most of them around metropolitan areas. Each store keeps a small staff of local artists on who make every single sign in the store by hand. In addition we've worked a lot on the visual merchandising end this year-- giving the store an entire new look with a community theme and creating and working within cohesive brands and images for events. Right now we're about to hang huge hand-made ornaments from the ceiling for the holidays. Here's the theme introduction to our Thanksgiving-- its the first thing you'll notice as you walk in:


This setup is a collaboration between myself and Adam, by colleage and creamate. For those following along at home, a creamate is a soul mate in the creative realm, and yes, I just made it up. I will post more about Adam and his many amazing talents later. We spent around 4 hours at 4 thrift stores putting this look together. The shadow boxes are made with black foam board and old wood frames and they're so perfect that we're going to recycle them as gift boxes for our Christmas display.

All right, I'm fresh out of stalling material-- time to get to printing!