Favorite Things: Brownie Edition

Its hard working in a grocery store. We have delicious food of every variety constantly around. Christmas candy season is the worst. The other night I was cruising the aisles looking for something delicious that didn't list butter as the first ingredient, and I settled my gaze on this:



At first I was all 'ehh... these will probably taste like cardboard'. They don't, and in fact, I strongly encourage you to eat these brownies. Straight away.

Pros:
1) Prep is simple-- they mix up with a little fat free vanilla yogurt.
2) There's a really easy microwave recipe for a single serving, which strongly curbs my needs to leave the knife in the brownie pan and return 20 times throughout the evening. Instead I mix up the little single serving, pop it in the microwave for 45 seconds (perfect fudge-ocity) and then eat it right there in the kitchen in all of its hot delicious glory.
3) 110 calories, no fat. It feels like you're getting away with something.

Cons:
none as of yet, though I'll keep you posted.

I have a four day weekend, so I'm taking advantage and working on a couple of prints and a custom order. Look for them up the shop by Monday.

Craft x2

Back in that ever so heavy-handed rant about Target a few weeks ago I mentioned that maybe we'll start to see design activated on a local level, or perhaps we'll find that there are simply more attempts at making corporate design appear handmade.

What I couldn't find in that moment was an example of this trend-- Adam later brought it to my attention that we'd had a discussion previously about one recent and glorious example:





Starbucks. Holiday 2008. Very Crafty.


In other updates of the creative variety, I received my first edition of Craft Magazine today and was thrilled to see Amy Sedaris gracing the front cover. She wrote an article inside on parties and shares a hilarious angel food cake step-by-step. I love her brand of funny because it always seems like everything is perfect on the surface, but a closer inspection reveals that something is terribly, disturbingly wrong. I uploaded a photo of the cover because its such a perfect example-- I didn't even notice she had smooshed cake clasped between her hands until later.




(click to see larger)


PS-- if you're Craft Magazine or Handmade Detroit reading this, thanks for the free year of issues! I can't say it was the highlight of having a table at the show (because that was 8 hours of meeting incredibly awesome people) but I was super excited to win a bonus door prize! I usually only drool over issues at the art supplies store.

Subscribe to Craft here.

I was informed today via Design Sponge that Domino Magazine is closing up shop, so it looks as though this subscription of Craft started just in time-- though I think I will find Domino hard to replace. I didn't approach Domino so much as a shopping mag (because I can't afford and wouldn't want a $2000 ottoman) but I think it was a great resource for inspiration and for keeping up with trends on design's place in the home.

What I would love to see is a shelter magazine like Domino that featured exclusively handmade and salvaged/thrifted art and goods. Now that would be exciting.

Favorite Things: Google Reader Feeds Edition

If you're not familiar, Google Reader is tool that allows you to track internet information and blog entries from a variety of sources in one convenient place-- like your own constantly updating internet library of favorites. I check it almost every day-- here's a handful of my must reads.

1) GOOD Magazine Blog
GOOD, which I also subscribe to (you can name your subscription rate, so its entirely affordable) is an amazing magazine jam packed with visuals-- graphs, diagrams, charts-- it completely entertains my visual leaning mind and fills it with useful information. It constantly references the greater world, and helps me remember to think outside of my bubble.



2) Cake Wrecks
Cake Wrecks is a hilarious blog with photo after photo of cakes gone bad. My favorites are the cakes where the client presents the baker with a specific photo and winds up with a much different result. Don't read with a drink-- you'll spit it everywhere.



3) Obsessive Consumption
Kate Bingaman-Burt draws everything she buys and posts it for you to see. She often adds side comments about how she feels about her purchases or what drives her to buy them. I find the personal habits of others highly entertaining, so this stream is really delightful. She also has a really cute illustration style-- her daily drawings definitely push me to maintain a sketchbook.



4) Nothing But Bonfires
Holly Burns' is a British ex-pat living in San Francisco who has a really lovely writing style. She's funny and self-deprecating, and despite her constant assertion that she's boring, leads a really interesting life as she bounces around the globe visiting family and writing for Travelocity. She also makes occasional Best!Things!Ever! posts, which is where the idea for My Favorite Things came from.

5) Post Secret
Another site that fills my need to better understand human idiosyncrasies. Here's how it works-- you make an anonymous post card that shares a secret. You mail it to Frank. Frank scans it and posts them all on Sunday morning. Then I sit at home and wonder about the story behind it while I drink my coffee.





If you have any favorites I would love to hear about them! If you'd like to add this blog to your a feed program like Google Reader, there's a link on the sidebar.

I make jewelry?

So I've had my eye on beautiful nest necklaces like these for a long time. They immediately made me think of my mom, who has three daughters and taught me everything I know about having an earthy, rustic sensibility and style. I knew she'd love one, it was just a matter of when I'd pick one up.

As I investigated further I thought they seemed a little chunky I wanted something lighter and a little messier-- so I rounded together a few supplies and tried my hand at making a pendant of my own. It was actually really easy to put together with a trip to the store and some jeweler's pliers. I found these tiny turquoise/sea green beads and used less wire to put this one together:



(by the way: I thought it was hard to photograph prints, jewelry is much harder- even with a macro lens. I have a whole new appreciation for those amazing jewelry photos I see on etsy)

So its a tad wonky, but for the size I was aiming for (it measures just under 1/2" across and is remarkably light) its dainty and perfect. I now have supplies to make.. ohh... 50 more of these. I already had clasps and findings, so once I bought the wire and beads I immediately had a ton of materials.

I may do a shop giveaway or two with them around Valentine's Day-- at the very least, I have gift inspiration for awhile.

Other great jewelers to check out on Etsy: Ragtrader (I picked up a stunning twig necklace from her in November which I love and wear with almost everything) .... and more locally ChainChainChained (my table was next to hers at Etsy at the Market this past fall, and I loved the work there.

If you haven't purchased jewelry on Etsy, I would highly recommend either of these sellers-- the goods are really high quality, and they both have great prices.

I had a lovely three day weekend putting together a record number of orders following my Buy One Get One sale. Thanks to everyone who picked up a print or two or six (like my new Medici, Rachel) My closet is significantly less cluttered, my prints are reorganized, and I am looking forward to what's next. I even figured out what to do with those prints with a dinged corner or two, but I'm going to have to save that for next time because I have an action-packed day of sign making in exactly nine hours.

Goodnight!

This Land was Made for You and Me.

Happy Inauguration Week!



I have a hard time putting into words how amazing, beautiful and symbolic this moment is for me, for us. That 46 years and a day after "I Have A Dream" this man can take the oath of office on Lincoln's Bible. After living for so many years with the door closed, finally the light will again shine in. Everything had to happen the way that it did. It is written.

Buy One Get One Sale!

After combing through my inventory and trying to figure out where I'm going to put new work (under the bathroom sink?) I've decided to throw in a freebie of your choice when you place an order. I would much rather see it up on your wall than hidden away in my closet, so....

Drumroll Please...
Purchase any print at regular price, and I will throw in another item (of equal or lesser value) for free!!!

Edit: One exception: due to the elevated cost and materials needed to ship glass, I cannot send a $20 framed print with the purchase of an $20 framed print. So if you purchase a framed print at that price, you are limited to any screen print or unframed woodcut print. Unless your name is Rachel, because that means that you ordered before I realized it and you win!!

now through Sunday, Jan 18th.

You can leave the print you'd like in the Message to Buyer section once you've placed your order. If you forget, I will contact you and ask which one you'd like, or you can feel free to email or convo me.


At the very least, you could pick up a 5x7" woodcut print for free-- the above four are all available in the shop right now.

If you'd like to pick up a gift and get a little something for yourself too, then this is the perfect opportunity.

Experimentation

So I have been fine-tuning how I do things over the last few weeks. I've learned that everything related to growing a creative business is about trial and error. I've only been doing this for around six months, and I've already learned so many lessons. I've learned that being present with my work is more successful than leaving it somewhere-- that fairs and shows are much more suited for it than exhibitions are. I've learned that its important to engage people visually and mentally, to share your stories-- although this is something I would have done anyway. Perhaps that's part of what makes Etsy such a wonderful tool-- that you can share the story behind a piece right there.

The lessons I've been working on lately have been more practical in nature. The paper I have been using for woodcut prints these last few months (Japanese rice paper) is beautiful and delicate, and perfect for hand pulling prints, as I have been doing. But-- it bruises so easily, and is pretty floppy. I have been backing it with reused corrugated cardboard, but the paper will bend around the cardboard, and get all roughed up, especially if the print is at a show and hundreds of hands are flipping through it.

So I asked for a tabletop press for Christmas (thanks, Mom!) and am now using heavier textured card stock. The new paper is sturdy enough that a backing isn't necessary, it comes in a variety of colors, and doesn't get bruised up unless you force it! The overhead is a little more, but in the end, I'm not tossing almost perfectly good prints with a dinged corner or two. (Anyone want a perfectly good print with a dinged corner or two?)

I printed up a few Fleming Creek prints on this stock yesterday:


and love how they turned out. I bought some nice greens and browns too, some more will probably show up the shop throughout the weekend.

I've also been working finding ways to brand everything a little more cohesively. I purchased a custom-made stamp with the shop address on it (in Futura, my favorite mid-century font) and created a tiny lino-cut leaf to accompany it on correspondence and on prints.



I also thought I might be motivated to get extra prints matted/framed/stretched/photographed if I gave myself some kind of deadline, so I signed up for the Reinvent Your Space showcase on Friday.

This showcase didn't do wonders in terms of sales, but it did pay for itself and might drum up future sales, which is important to consider. All in all-- I probably wouldn't buy a slot again though.

I never thought business was that interesting, but I have come to look at it differently. You can see a direct correlation between cause and effect, and its fun to try new things and see what happens.

Another Day at the Office

We are getting ready for February events at the store-- and our theme for the next flyer is the weather, since its what everyone in Michigan plans their entire lives around this time of year. I'm so excited about this theme-- here's a sneak peek!



This is paint on white foam board with spacers between each layer-- there will be snow falling from it, and it'll be hanging just feet from the real snow, in the store's front entry.

Consumer Psychology 101: A Trip to Target

I rounded the back corner in Target today and was immediately sucked in by their newest home design campaign. Not to hate on the bullseye, because without it I don't know where I'd shop, but you know that a particular theme in design has reached the top of the arc and is on the way back down once Target pulls it in for their stores. I say that and yet, guilty as charged, I buy it too. Its the best place to find cute on a budget, even if the cute is a little past its prime.

I was amazed at how well this area was staged at first-- I think its something about seeing such a large retail area pull off such a cohesive sense of ambiance. They paper the back of the shelves with rich graphic shiny retaily wallpaper to create that tone, (see the rusty orange on orange plant silhouettes below) and then throw in products on top in groupings that pair well. All in all, its really smart branding at work-- and I've got to respect them for that. (Even if I can't respect them for charging $4 a potholder, sheesh)



Although as a sign maker, I get a lot of mixed emotions when I see this sort of thing:

My coworkers and I joke all the time that we have an antiquated job-- take a look around you the next time you're at the store and you'll notice that plan-o-gram style corporate signage is everywhere. Rather than designers finding employment on a store or area level, a small group of core designers do the work for the entire company and the artists... are running the registers, I guess. Corporations work this way to save money-- an in-house art department isn't cheap. It does boost sales though, and hopefully that idea is catching on. I'd like to think that as a part of this movement toward handmade goods, we'll start to see design activated on a local level again. Or we might just see more attempts at making corporate design look handmade.. PS target: your type is too small here.

For the record, IKEA employs interior designers on a store-by-store basis to create their rotating faux homes, no corporate mandated looks there. And plenty of local businesses hire visual merchandisers, along with a handful of department stores, particulary in high foot traffic areas.

In the meantime, I'm trying to buy more mindfully right now-- the less new goods you buy from the store, the less the manufacturer sends to that store, then less is produced from raw materials and so on. It seems to me like America is finally scaling back the Dollar-store, mass quantities, living-on-credit mentality, and getting back to the idea that its ok to buy something of high quality that you'll have forever-- the idea that you don't need a new fill-in-the-blank every year or five years.

Most of the shops I see on Etsy support that mission in one way or another. Not only are handmade items intrinsically more precious because you know they were made with care, but they often make excellent use out of second hand materials-- if for no other reason then because they're cheaper-- I definitely think of my bottom line when I use leftover wood for stretcher bars, secondhand carboard to back my prints, and thrift store frames.

I don't know where I'm getting with all of this-- like Target, this post sucked me in one direction and then left me feeling something entirely different.

These are a few of my favorite things

I have been meaning to throw out a steady stream of great discoveries, but since I haven't started by now, I'm going to compress what would be several entries of that nature into one. Without further ado, here's a short list of favorite things.

Design Websites

I make the rounds of most of the popular design websites and blogs- and I find the following two to be indispensable.

First up is Print & Pattern, a blog devoted exclusively to current trends in surface design. The entries are great because they're so image heavy, with only the occasionally sprinkled caption. Its my first stop if I'm looking for quick bursts of inspiration. Its constantly loaded with international designers (the writer is British) that I've never seen before. Entries run the gamut from super-cute kawaii designs to intricate and subtle stationary and everything in between. Many of the images are photographs taken by the writer as she stalks out trends both home and abroad. Her entries around the holidays really juiced up our design process at work this year.

Some of the featured work is predictable and all over the design circuit, but a lot of puts a fresh spin on what's going on. The illustration above is a prime example. Birds and flowers in some combination are everywhere right now, but this designer's treatment of them is refreshing-- I particularly love the colors used.

This design comes from the wonderful Lucy Clarke, via Print & Pattern.



The second website is as specific as Print & Pattern is general. Grain Edit shares work with very specific mid-century aesthetic references, and if it happens to be your thing then you're going to think you've died and gone to blog heaven. The mix of old and new is awesome, and sorting by tags allows you to read entries specific to an era or style. Here's a sample of the delicious goodness they dig up:

I know, right? I lovelovelove everything about this little vintage hotel tag, especially the combination of sleek modern script with utilitarian sans-serif fontage. And the color, and the shapes, and the screen-print looking feel with the white outline...



Entertainment
The first movie I'd like to talk about is the worst movie I have ever seen. Ever. I'm discussing it simply because its so bad you have to see it. The Happening, starring Mark Walberg is about an act of airborne eco terrorism caused by plants. (possibly) This movie is so incomprehensibly bad from start to finish I wouldn't even know where to start-- the script is terrible, the directing is some kind of nightmare (made obvious by Zooey Deschanel's terrible performance despite the fact that she's normally such an amazing actress). It was so bad that the New Republic compiled a list of its worst moments here. I would highly suggest you watch it-- if for no other reason than to see people try to run from the wind and to cringe over the world's creepiest old doll.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I watched the pilot for Showtime's United States of Tara this weekend, you can check it out on Fancast. Toni Collette plays a mom with dissociative identity disorder and John Corbett of Sex and the City fame plays her sweet husband. They have a pair of highly dysfunctional kids, and a whole array of personalities that Collette plays with amazing hilarity. The Season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords is also available on Fancast, and is just as funny. I'm so glad HBO brought it back.



My storage closet is bursting at the seams, and I will be announcing a sale tomorrow. You might even go so far as to say it'll be a blowout. Its time to clear away the old so I can make the new-- I'm starting to think about what shows I might like to apply to over the summer.

Print Preview: Terrariums

I finally kicked the holiday hangover and got back to normal with a little printing action this weekend. I have been stopping in at Amy Merrick's charming blog for awhile, and was amazed when she shared her lovely dresser of terrariums in all of their Victorian-esque glory. For her well-written instructions, visit this how-to she put together on Domino's website-- which is where my terrarium photo a few posts back comes from.

Anyway, Chris treated me to a terrarium day of awesome for my birthday. We drove around town collecting moss, potting soil, gravel, old glass containers and a couple of houseplants, and I spent the rest of the day assembling them into my first terrarium village. I sketched out a fun little print inspired by this process a few weeks ago, but just got around to printing and listing today.

My favorite part of this whole process, like making actual terrariums, was deciding what to 'plant' into my containers. In the end I went with a tropical plant, a little cypress tree, two stalks of jade, and some ivy. You can find this print up on the Etsy shop.

I also printed a small companion edition of the jade in the clamp jar on leftover bits of canvas. I will not be stretching these, but custom matting and framing them instead. In fact, I may even mat and frame some of the larger ones-- I think a heavy wood border will give this print some nice weight. Anyway, here's a sample of what I intend to do with the small ones:


This is popped into a 4x6 frame, I think they'll look a little better matted into 5x7". I will be on the hunt for those in thrift shops tomorrow, and they will be up on Etsy soon as well. I'm getting braver about shipping glass* so I will probably be offering more framed prints on Etsy in the future.

Lastly, here are the prints from my Icy Tundra Trade with Shannon of Loaded Hips.


I received so many compliments on this pair while over the holidays. They hang in our bathroom right between the doorway and a set of shelves.





* My childhood friend Vicky purchased a framed print over the holidays and it got stuck in the package chute at the post office in such a way that the box was taking a direct hit anytime you tried to open the drop box door. I couldn't get it out and couldn't get it to drop down. I ended up leaving a note on the drop box begging for USPS patrons not to bust it open on a Priority Mail address sticker. After all of that it came to her in perfect condition!

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.

Finding Me

I always find out later if my work has been featured anywhere-- like the time I had no clue that my shop was on the front page of Etsy until I found a photo of it after a Flickr search:

(center column, third row)

I had four items in my shop at the time-- all slow sellers that I was growing less fond of by the day and have since taken off of their frames and retired in the lessons learned category.

Such was the case again when a random search turned up this article. A pleasant surprise from the paper of my most recent alma mater. I vaguely remember talking to someone from the Echo-- I think I was still star struck after meeting Jennifer Guerra of local NPR fame.

Anyway, no surprises were necessary after swapping prints with Shannon Buck of Loaded Hips Press last week-- she wrote a lovely post about our Icy Tundra Print Trade in her blog, and I will be returning the favor very soon.

I've also recently started a Flickr account, you can find a brief synopsis of the last six months of my life here.

To answer a few questions ahead of time:
1) yes, we really did canoe that much this summer. we're addicted.
2) the 2 photos of my cat only represent about one half of one percent of the total photos I have of him. my poor coworkers can vouch for this.
3) the big green monster biting Adam's finger is actually a timed sculpture I made with my art team co-workers to benefit the Scrapbox. This is one of my favorite places in town. They have pieces of rubber that cut down like big lino-blocks (but easier!) for $1. They have envelopes for 2 cents each. I most recently found a pack of rounded-corner mat board pieces that I have been printing on and sending along as notes! My plan is to mail off a pack to one lucky blog reader (or maybe my only lucky blog reader, time will tell) so check back for that!

My birthday is this weekend, but I'm still hoping to kick out a new screen print I'm really excited about. Here's a hint-- the theme is terrarium.

wow!

(a portion of this week's art to be shipped out!)

It has been a busy week here at HQ (aka, the storage closet off of my dining room). I have had plenty of holidays sales off of Etsy-- which is amazing to me, because Etsy is such a dense web of sellers and work that I feel like its easy to get overlooked. I was preparing a shipment to the four corners of the country when I received an email asking me to ship to the UK. After a little research and math, I'm happy to report that I am now shipping internationally! I sent prints to both the UK and France this week, and am thinking about their long voyage ahead.

I also took this week to make some trades with other art lovlies for Christmas gifts. I met Chrissy of Boh Bon Soap Co. at the Detroit Urban Craft Fair-- her table was across the way from me and she came over to take a photo for a DUCF write up on IndieFixx, and then the whole day was so busy we didn't get to look at each other's tables at all! I now have six wonderful bars of soap on the way to disperse to friends and family for the holidays-- I'm sure they'll all be very excited to get something other than one of my prints!

I have been eying prints by Loaded Hips Press for months-- I love her scenes of Chicago, and I think they would work really well hung near each other. So Shannon and I made a little trade this week as well. This was probably the most direct trade I could ever do on Etsy-- we use the same basic process, in around the same size, and price them about the same. The only difference is that I ordered urban scenes from her, and she natural ones from me-- its funny how that works!

Aside from all of that I actually spent a large portion of the weekend relaxing. I can't remember the last time I made it a point to relax-- the older I get the more I'm becoming one of those people who can't sit still for very long! We did take a trip to the DIA-- Chris is a huge Dali fan and they have a fantastic modern art exhibit right now that promised to include Dali by way of its title. In the end, it only had one Dali, which was a little disappointing. I had never seen a Dali up close though, and that was amazing. It looks like it was printed off on an inkjet-- the surface is so smooth and crisp, not at all painterly. I was also slightly perturbed because almost everyone in the exhibit was on an audio tour, and walking around like dumb cattle hooked up to cordless phones. I like to get my face right up in paintings-- I think because I feel like I might be able to gleam a little knowledge from brushstrokes or application-- that was a lot harder with 40 people in front of a piece staring at it while their phone entertained them. I don't know-- I just did not like the vibe in there. Everyone attached to machines, being fed what to think about each piece. Almost none of the whispers you hear in museums as friends exchange impressions of disgust or delight. Surprisingly, my favorite piece in there was by Otto Dix-- I thought it was really exciting to see something once deemed degenerate by the Third Reich. His portraits say a lot more in person than they do on the slides or textbooks where I saw them in art school.

We went to the modern wing afterward, and I got to spend a little quality time with my favorite at the DIA:

(Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay. 1965)

This photo does it no justice, but I used to look at this like Africa with Egypt hooked on and then one day I realized wait! this is a bird's eye view! I haven't seen it the same since. I'm always trying to figure out what the orange spot means-- other than the fact that it might indicate the best place to live, ever. Frankenthaler pioneered this stained canvas idea (one I have tried before-- its VERY hard) I am in awe of the beauty and control in this huge piece-- the colors are so vibrant that they radiate off of the canvas.

We went to the Golden Fleece in Greektown afterward-- Chris used to go with his family when he was young. The gyros were amazing, tasty and huge! The lamb was perfect and the tzatziki sauce was the best I've ever had.

I have today off as well-- I'm trying a longer 4 day work week-- so I am off to do a little holiday shopping today and not trapped in the back of the store where I can't see the sun. I will pay for today with an extra hour tacked on to T-F, but I'm hoping I discover that its worth it.

I did experiement with making a little something new this weekend-- I will be posting about that this week!

Shadow Art Fair Wrap Up

So yesterday was the Shadow Art Fair and I had a blast! 12 hours made for a long day (especially on only a few hours of sleep) but it was so much fun, and I wouldn't trade those last couple of late night hours with the reallly drunk patrons for anything-- they were hilarious! It was also my most successful show to date, and of course, I sold all opposite things than I did in the last show. Its so bizarre how some prints don't sell at all at some shows and then fly off the shelves at the next one. The bestsellers yesterday were the Honeycomb and Ladder Fern screen prints, and the Bird's Nest woodcut, but only the ones with the green added in the tree top! I also made some really amazing trades with the folks at Letterform, Wei's Open Secret, and with Lish Dorset --all of which I intend to give for Christmas gifts! I also made a trade with a mystery girl who brought some beautiful blown glass she had made herself and wanted to trade for some prints. Mystery glass blower, I love the vase! I put some water and a floating candle in it and it throws the most amazing shadows on the wall! Call me!

My friend Heather Anne (who used to make signs with me at Trader Joe's) was also a vendor at the show, selling her lovely cakes. As luck would have it her table was right next to mine, so we got to spend the whole day together. She sent me home with a little magical pumpkin cake that is so good I think about the half that's left approximately every 5-10 minutes.

Here are a few photos:


Here's my table in the morning-- not an inch to spare! Sadly, I was so tired last night that I left my beautiful plant in the car and it froze to death! I love houseplants so much, but I definitely have a brown thumb when it comes to caring for them.

Here's Heather Anne's cake table!



To say she likes orange and green is an understatement! The colors definitely kept me cheery while it snowed like mad all day.

So in summation, Shadow Art Fair was excellent. I met even more really amazing artists and art lovers. I only had one beer, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you look at it.

Now I am putting the leftover prints up on Etsy-- most of the screen prints are up today, and the woodcut prints will go up tonight or tomorrow. Then I plan on taking it easy for awhile, I'm currently attempting to talk Chris into roadtripping to Chicago this weekend for some R+R. In the meantime I'm just glad that my house is clean and I don't have ink in my hair.

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!

Print Preview (Shadow Art Fair Edition)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had lots of wonderful traditional food and am fueled up and ready to print like mad over the next two days.

Here is my very first edition of Print Preview! These are two recent prints I will be selling at the Shadow Art Fair next weekend. The top is based on Hazelnuts-- I am drawn toward botanical images with winter leanings this year. Michigan is a gray haze of short days and long nights right now, but you can catch glimpses of beauty in the plant skeletons that remain and in seasonal cuisine. I'm sure hazelnuts are tasty all year round, but they'll always be a Christmastime food to me.




The bottom is a reprint. I have touched on this design (Appalachia) several times and wanted to again make it in green on green. The design is slightly altered this time-- I think it looks a bit more like paperclips. Mmmm... I love brown and green together. I visited the Blue Ridge Mountains with some friends many springs ago, and fell in love with the hills of greenery.

Launch the Blog!

Here's the deal with the blog.

First off, the title comes from a lovely little saying by John Cage:

"Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there is only make."

I'm slowly starting to realize that even if I don't like what I make it served to teach me something about design, technique, process or myself. This philosophy appeals to me for two reasons. One, it values work. Somewhere deep in the family tree I inherited a really insane work ethic, so giving persistence value strikes a chord with that part of me. It also allows me to give myself a break and look at my work more like a process in a continuum than on a piece by piece basis.

So that's the story there. I'd like to accomplish a few things with this blog:
1) Process Posts: I would like to explain how the work I sell is made-- and maybe even teach a person or two how to do it themselves.
2) Print Previews: I would like a place to share work that is not currently for sale on Etsy because its out of print or hot off the presses.
3) Design/Inspiration: I pour through the internet looking for visual bits to jump start my creative juices all the time. I'd like a virtual filing cabinet.
4) Reviews: This might end up going a little off-topic, but I love to share things that are awesome, and I am religious about reading reviews before making a purchase.
5) Random other bits-- work from my day job, bits from my life.

More to come. Soon!!

A quick first post about two upcoming shows 1) Detroit Urban Craft Fair is a juried show with lots of local handmade goods. Everything from night lights to felt finger puppets and everything in between. I will be there next weekend from 10am-7pm. You can check out detroiturbancraftfair.com for more information on the show and to check out the vendors.



2) Three weeks later I will be at Shadow Art Fair in Ypsi! This event is at one of my favorite bars in town and after having lived here for almost three years I'm really excited to be a part of it and not sidelined by my school work. (shadowartfair.com for more details)



My next post will actually contain substance like 'what is this blog about' and that sort of thing.