Print Preview: Log Slices

I'm back in the saddle and I've been thinking about the best way to make this log print from my sketch book all day-- it originally started as a pile of logs, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around how that might be conducive to the method I use. So I decided to focus on one little log slice and I'm loving how it turned out-- I think turning this idea of many logs into one was really smart.



This is the first screen in the print. I'll go in with a orangier brown next and screen it on top of the center (which will pull the tree rings back a little and let the bark come forward and then I may or may not put a barely there blue around the edges. Once its wrapped around the frame the log will take up most of the composition all but a few tiny corners around the edge exposed.

I'm also going to intentionally off-set register the other screens this time, so I'm really excited to see how it all turns out. More to come!

measure once, cut twice

Already a snafu! My coworkers in the Art Dept. will tell you that this is how I start all major projects-- spilled paint, a wrong cut, painting an entire chalkboard upside down-- the list goes on and on and on.

I carelessly measured the fabric for this first edition, and now I'm discovering that I didn't make the cuts large enough to wrap around the frame. I'm off by TWO inches on one side! How I didn't notice this is beyond me.

On the upside, the prints themselves turned out quite nice-- in trying to turn lemons into lemonade I framed up one and turned another into a quick pencil pouch and they look lovely either way. Even if I don't use them I'm only out $12 in fabric, a little ink, and around 3 hours of my time.

I'm struggling this time with how many supplies to acquire at a time. This fall I bought supplies in many waves because I was never quite that confident that I would sell enough to make the cost back. This is especially true with fabric-- I don't know how many collective hours of my life I spent in the cutting line these last few months. Even last week I only bought three yards, half of which I already used on this 'oops' edition. Tonight I've decided that my new motto is GO BIG OR GO HOME. I'm buying 6 yards next time because I will obviously use them. I think making a big supplies investment will encourage me to get going!

Since I have nothing to show for my evening I'll leave you with this Handmade Portrait on Etsy that melted my heart. Etsy puts out these little documentaries featuring their artists from time to time, and this one might just be my favorite, though I absolutely love what SunnyRising has to say about the nature of sharing processes with others in her portrait, and also when WoodMouse discusses the benefits to open-ended toys in hers.

This one is particularly sweet though-- maybe because I find it really easy to imagine my third chapter years this way-- though I'd probably have to find a way to get around the raising my own chickens part. I had an incident on my uncle's farm involving one very nasty chicken at the impressionable age of 5 and I have never been able to get past it, but that's another story for another day.

Today's story is about Robin and Kathy Tucker of Wood Mosaics.

Favorite Things: Secondhand Picture Map Puzzle

I found this Picture Map Puzzle of the United States several months ago and did a happy dance of glee right then and there. It reminds me of textbook thematic maps in elementary school-- the type that would illustrate agricultural or industrial data in social studies texts.



This isn't a superb shot, but the detail is incredible and varied about this country we all share. It sits in a shelf above my kitchen sink and the amazing illustration inspires me on a daily basis.



It also helps me to remember the Alamo!

Etsy Updates

I've done a little housekeeping on Etsy this morning, adding some new images to previous listings and reducing my shipping rates (yay!)

I finally put together all of my shipping costs (packaging/time/postal rates etc) and felt like it was possible to lower them, especially on subsequent items purchased. I've been trying to streamline my shipping process, which is a little difficult because I love making packages look pretty and also try to ship with reused materials as much as possible. If it were up to my boyfriend I'd stick it in the free Priority mail box and get it over with (he doesn't really care for my ever rotating cardboard "collection") but I try to reuse as much as possible to that end.

Speaking of reusing, I'm trying out listing some canvas panels unframed for $3 a pop. If you sew then these panels would be awesome and really unique for a wide variety of projects, or you can just frame them yourself and save a little cost. These are the last puppies at the pound so to speak, so they're not perfect, but would still make really interesting objects. I can't wait to see what comes from them!



Other than that I'm just putting together images to apply for some spring and summer shows. I'm going to throw together some dinner and start my first new screen print!

Process Post: Time to go Shopping!

I have the next three days off and will be holing myself up in the apartment making screen prints. The snow is back in SE Michigan (boo) which will make a pajamas and coffee lifestyle much more appealing during my off days.

I have enough materials to get started, but will be ordering again from Dick Blick this weekend to take advantage of the 5.95 shipping deal they haphazardly host every so often. So it seems appropriate to discuss the next stage after ideas: materials acquisition. But! In order to talk about the materials needed to make screen prints, its important to shed some light on exactly what screen printing is, so that's what I'll try to do below and talk about materials in one big convoluted post with lots of non-sequiturs. Ready?

The basic premise of screen printing is stenciling. Remember in the 80's and 90's when stenciling was all the rage and people bought those plastic stencils and tappy brushes and stenciled country kitchen borders everywhere?

(I'm having mauve flashbacks!)

Here's an example of a pretty awesome and refreshing stenciling job in case you're interested in seeing this process work in a more modern way:

(mm... tone on tone goodness. Unfortunately, I've had this photo saved on my computer for eons and have no idea where it came from-- maybe Design Sponge?)

Martha is leading the charge in bringing stenciling back to home decor in a hip way (another story for another day) but I use this example to illustrate the idea that screen printing is really just making a rather complicated stencil-- the methods involved are much more precise though. Instead of the spotty tapped-on look, screen printing results in a smooth, graphic application of ink and can be printed many times with consistent results.

Side note: Here's a Crafter post on freezer paper stencils if you'd like to get your hands on this method without a lot of start up costs.

Obviously, I could talk about stenciling on walls all day, but I'm a renter and doing so makes me sad, so I'll leave it at that!

The most obvious tool you need to stencil is some kind of plate or buffer where paint can be pushed through the exposed areas to create the image. In screen printing this tool is the actual screen frame-- a wood frame with thin mesh stretched tight across the back. Some people make these, some people buy them. I've done both, and am ambivalent about which is better. My DIY spirit says 'make it!' but the cost differential isn't huge. You can get a decent sized screen for under $20.

(from dick blick)

The mesh stretched across creates a sort of blank canvas of tiny open pixels. If you've ever examined a screen door or window closely you notice that there are tiny little negative spaces created between the criss-crossing strands of wire. In the screen frame mesh these spaces are very small, so when ink is pushed through some and not others the results are very precise.

If you printed off the screen right out of the box, you'd get a flat even coat of ink across your surface because all of those spaces in the mesh are open. You create an image by controlling those open spaces. You control the open spaces by blocking parts of the screen so that the ink can't get through.

There are many methods for blocking the mesh in the spaces you don't want printed, and they range from very simple with little investment to very complex with lots of light bulbs and chemicals and fancy machines that burn your image into a screen coating.

I use a very simple method because I don't have the setup for the the other stuff, and I don't like using all of the harsh chemicals to clean the screen afterward. I also like the method I use because it forces me to create simple images. I have a tendency to push an image 'too far'-- the reason why I was, in my own opinion, never that great a painter. If I have direct control over the image I don't know when to leave well enough alone!

Rather than burning an image I've drawn onto a screen, or using drawing fluid to apply it directly to the screen, I use a method where I cut my image out of a film that is applied to the screen. Cutting forces me to think in simple terms. Its a restriction that helps me.

Which leads me to the next supply item: clear Contact paper. I capitalize the Contact because Contact brand works the best. As tempting as it may be to pick up a roll on your next trip to Target (they carry some other knock-off brand) don't do it! You can find it in the housewares section of most department or hardware stores and it looks like this:

(look for the brand Contact! I swear they're not paying me!)

You cut your image out, stick the paper onto the back of your screen and viola! The mesh is open in your image. This will make more sense when I post about the actual process.

You'll need something to print on. I use canvas for the most part because its sturdy, looks great and stretches nicely. You can find canvas on the bolt (also known as duck cloth) at any fabric store for around $8 a yard. I'm not a big JoAnn's fan but I always buy a bunch there when they mail me a 50% off coupon. Do not buy it in the fine arts section at an art supplies store: they charge way more for virtually the same thing.

You can screen print on anything you can get your screen under. Tote bags, t-shirts, furniture, wood, paper-- the possibilities are endless. The ink will do different things depending on what you're printing on. Canvas is great because the ink actually seeps into the thick fabric-- if you print on paper it just sits on top of the surface.




Here's a chunk of my banner-- you can see how the ink reacts to the canvas and pools a little in the valleys created by the weave. I feel like this method provides an extra layer of texture and softness that isn't there when you print on paper.

So next you'll need ink. I have a fun and inexpensive shortcut here, too. You can buy little jars for ink for $5-10 a pop, but I feel like the color is too strong and abrasive. I buy what's called an extender base (a clear fluid with a snot-like consistency) and then tint it with acrylic paint. You can pick up a big ol quart of Speedball Extender Base for around $12.


So you'll need paint too if you go this route. Here's quite possibly the only instance I've ever encountered where craft paint works better. Its more fluid and mixes into the extender with greater ease.

You'll also need:

- a squeegee (like the window washing kind-- Target has an awesome one with a clear handle and black rubber)
- spatulas
- little plastic containers (save your yogurt cups!)



Next time I'll cover the first part of the printing process!

Process Post: Idea Time!

Writing out my process for pulling ideas together has been difficult, but really helpful. This stage is definitely the most organized I'll ever be in working through a group of prints.

So I feel like I've got a decent handle on what comes next. Perhaps the most important lesson I took from printing in my undergrad was not to try to say too much with my work. Coincidentally, I didn't learn this message until after I finished the degree. You should see my final pieces about women authors, yikes! I actually sewed a real spoon onto a canvas and modge podged rocks into the pocket of a handmade apron for a piece about Virginia Woolfe. It was bad.

These days, I try not to fill work with grand, sweeping meanings but with simple truths. Sometimes I try to think of it like a poem, where writing a beautiful line about the unnoticed detail carries more weight than the tired cliche. Anyway, I might need to pull in the reigns a bit more on this group-- there's certainly a lot going on in it.

Oh, I also want to say this about the idea stage: I am a firm proponent of idea freedom! Many artists try to bottle up their ideas into tight little copyright bottles as if they were handed to them by God himself. The idea that artists have these original visual epiphanies is a myth. Everything builds on what's come before. With that in mind, I think pulling from others is not only ok, but kind of necessary. There is, however, a big difference between a copy and an original-- it should be taken and then made your own-- made better or different or put together with something new and interesting.

I'm going to put these in steps for the sake of saving a little type:

1) I thought about the work I had made before. In previous work I focused completely on simple natural images-- some stylized to meet a graphic aesthetic, others more subtle and organic. I've decided to keep going in that direction, but to pull toward the more subtle from now on.

2) Find new meanings. So once I figure out the general direction, I try to find a few new ways to approach the images I will be pulling together. Its like a game-- once you know what the category is going to be, it becomes a lot easier to find items that fit within it.

My first focus is in going from macro to micro. I'm going to pull out far enough to depict a topographic map of Yellowstone Nat'l Park and then zoom in, one print after another, until I'm at the cellular level. This difference won't be a super big deal-- I won't sell them all as a set that can line up from one to the other or anything, but I'd like see what happens when I pull in slowly, and its help me explore some images that I would otherwise leave be.

The other way I'm going to broaden my scope is to commit a few works to exploring how humans and nature interact. How we study it, consume it, collect it, etc. Again, not to display together, but because its helped me better find images.

3) Impose limits.
These have the potential to be all over the place visually because of the ways I'm building on what I've done before, so in order to keep them under the same umbrella I'm committing to a few aesthetic choices:

1) Softer colors-- lots of white ink
2) Using more screens in each piece for a less graphic, more gradual effect
3) Organic, not harsh line work
4) Using natural, unbleached canvas.

4) Play Pictionary with yourself.
Next I start making lists. I filled a few pages in my sketchbook with random words: agate, brush, prarie, driftwood, stone wall, etc. Anything that fell into the range of my broad categories above. I went back and starred the ones that seemed interesting and circled any I had a personal connection with or was really excited about.

Then I turned those into some rapid thumbnail sketches, and decided that I liked where they were going or didn't. Some I scrap, some I think about and come back to, some I love and keep. I also think about prints I've made in the past, and if revisiting any of those ideas will fit in nicely with the sketches that are coming up.

So here's that list organized by each print type and size, going from micro to macro. I try to assign another word at this point to better describe them.

8x8" screen prints: leaf zoom, honeycomb, overlapping iris, circling fern, vintage wheat, driftwood collection, log pile, water table, rural british landscape.

4x16" screen print diptych: river stones(micro) and a rooted redwood tree (macro)
These will sell separate or together for a deal-- I'm really excited about this one!

Woodcuts: plant cells, stones, fleming creek, braided root, nest, Yellowstone map.

5) Render images several times.
Then I sketch it out a little more-- usually I add color to make sure they're all kind of working together. The color is in no way accurate, but gives me more information than pencil alone. I make small sketches because I think drawing is kind of boring and I like seeing everything on a page together.

So I make tiny ones that don't take long-- these are in a little 5x8" book.



On the left are some of the square screenprint ideas-- on the right is the diptych. They're kind of doodley at this point-- the printing process is great because I lose a lot of control over what they look like-- the end results won't be nearly as bubbly. They'll look nothing like this at the end, but its a start!

I'm going to start with screen prints this time because I feel like those came together a little more naturally than the woodcut prints during this process. Working back and forth allows me to put some ideas 'behind the couch' as an art teacher once said to me. She was a big fan of things working out in their time-- without being forced. So am I.

A very slight shop update

I spent tonight tweaking my shop banner a bit-- I think my photoshop skills are slightly improved since I last made it, and wanted it saved as a .png so its a little less fuzzy

I'd throw up a before and after for comparison, but I just realized that I don't have a before anymore! I bought a new computer this week and its either hidden in some super secret folder from my old files or the banner on etsy was my only copy!

Anyway, here's the new banner:



The back image has changed to a plant cell diagram, the text color is a little lighter than it was before, and I filled the little tree with a different woodgrain and refined it a bit. Just for fun (and because I was curious about this font) I made an entirely new banner as well:



I love how this turned out-- the font is really unique and the distressed look came together nicely. It just doesn't seem to match up with what I'm trying to do though-- there's something about it that doesn't do it for me-- too old fashioned maybe. I'll actually save this one though (what a concept!) and maybe pull it out in the future. It might work nicely with this group of prints I'm stringing together right now.

Speaking of new prints, I've started some sketches for this new series of prints and made a lot of choices already about which direction I'll be going in. One of my goals with this blog was to share the total process of screen and woodcut prints from idea inception to matting and framing, so look for the first post of that series in the next few days. Instead of working print by print, I'll be carrying this new work through each step at the same time and making much larger editions than before, so it'll be a journey worth documenting.

There is Only Make (literally)

No sooner did I write about my incredible first issue of Craft magazine than the O'Reilly publication closed their print shop and threw in the towel. Craft is also folding-- or, as they call it to soften the blow: ceasing to exist in print.

Current subscribers like myself will now be getting the rest of our subscriptions filled with Craft's parent publication Make, which seems to look a bit like the musty old collection of Post-war Popular Science magazines that my grandparents kept in their basement when I was a kid.

By that I mean to say: boring and involving lots of tubes and wires.

If only Dwell weren't so damn bougy-- looks like I'll be ingesting strictly an online inspiration diet from now on. I'm pretty sure print is dying.

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.

Q: What's for Dinner? A: Mexican Layer Awesomeness!

(bonus: its pretty!)

I really don't have any excuses not to keep fresh produce in the house at all times, but I hate when we can't eat it in time and I have to pitch it! At least once a week I try to make something that uses up all of these fresh ingredients and some leftovers-- this morning we had loaded omelets and tonight I dumped another half of our refrigerator contents into this recipe.

Basically its a burrito with layers of filling in between each of 4 tortillas. Here's what I used for each layer-- this would be delicious with whatever's sitting in your fridge though!

1) fat free refried beans
2) browned and seasoned ground turkey
3) more refried beans and a cream cheese/canned green chilies spread (just add 2oz cream cheese and a splash of milk to 1/2 can of chilies, microwave until warm and blend-- its like a jalapeno popper spread)
4) spanish rice: leftover brown rice, roasted corn, dried red pepper flakes, and a tiny splash of tomato chutney or tomato paste (heated together in a pan first)

I layered these between flour tortillas in a pie pan and baked the whole thing at 350 for about 25 minutes with tin foil on top. Then I removed the tin foil and allowed the top tortilla to crisp up. I took it out and added some sweet red bell pepper slices and green onions and then served it up with romaine and spring greens on top. This would also be really easy to make vegetarian-- we have delicious soy chorizo at the store that I might throw in next time!

(it was so tasty and I have no wasted produce guilt!)

Custom Orders

shh.. its past my bedtime! I had to squeeze in a quick post about two recent orders though.

The first print was created for Jason Rozen of Grinding Tapes Recording Co. Jason originally ordered a single Honeycomb print and then we worked together to create an entire grouping of Honeycomb prints, the larger one with a zoomed in feel that proportionally works out perfectly when hung next to two smaller prints.



It was a challenge creating this larger print-- fitting together images on two different screens was quite the exercise for my often neglected left-brain, but it came out just lovely despite an evening filled with expletives! The larger print is 17x17" and is also stretched (tight as a drum!) onto a custom made frame. The canvas in larger pieces can dent much more easily than the 8x8"s I usually sell, so stretching it as tight as it can go and using lots of staples is much more important.

I also recently finished a project for my dear friends Adam and Joel. They have these adorable matching yellow kayaks, so we thought it would be cute if I appliqued them onto "Someday the Waves"



I embroidered in a hearty brown split stitch onto hand-dyed 'safety yellow' cotton and then used fabric bonder to apply them to the canvas. I'm so glad I used the thinner cotton-- I love how you can see the ghost of the waves underneath! I also fell back in love with embroidery a little bit while working on these prints-- maybe it'll show up in the shop again sometime soon!

I found myself out and out pining for a summer day on the river as I worked on these-- Michigan winters are torture! This week its been exceptionally nasty frostbite-through-gloves kind of cold.

All right, to bed!

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!