Any other name

I love to name things - Christmas trees, cars, plants, animals - but not anything of my own.I am taking a leap this Fall. I am going to start - FOR REAL - making and trying to get an audience for all sorts of art and craft-related things that float around in my head but never see the light of day.So I need a name. What should I call this venture? I welcome any ideas and thoughts and suggestions. The name I'm mulling over is "Beehive Crafted." I love bees and their unwavering industriousness. Someone opined that this is a forgettable name (JERK) and someone else said it might be "too cutesy" (DOUBLE JERK) for the things I make. So...back to square one? Or not.The first step in my giant leap was to apply to vend my wares at Handmade Arcade. I've done this show in years' past at the L2 Design Collective table and I love every second of it. It draws a huge, selective crowd with great taste and to be accepted to exhibit is a pretty big deal. Fingers crossed.I'll be posting more in the coming weeks about the products I'll be making. Of course I will feature my Love Letter to Pittsburgh series of prints on wood (along with bees, chickens, etc). But there will be other new things in the works. Standby.And do let me know if you come up with anything magical.

**UPDATE: My dear, sweet, best big brother pointed out that by calling people JERK and DOUBLE JERK for giving feedback might dissuade others from offering their thoughts. He's so right. He's always right about everything.

Handmade pewter loveliness

OK - I am NOT tooting my own horn, here. I don't like to do that and I cringe when other people do it. What I'm talking about here is the loveliness in something - anything - that is so clearly made by hand. Yes, I did some illustrations for Wendell August but their artisans turned them into something really worth putting on your tree. I was happy with the photos I saw in their catalog and online but when I received the samples in the mail this past week, I loved what I saw. You can tell, looking at each ornament, that someone - a real, live person, touched every piece of pewter and softened the rough spots and polished the surfaces. Each piece is stamped on the back and - gasp - the stamps aren't uniform! I love it. I am so thrilled to be a part of this great group of people in Western PA that appreciate the value of the handmade.

Love letter to Pittsburgh

I have started my second love letter to Pittsburgh. (The first love letter was a project for Wendell August Forge and I'll certainly shout from the rooftops when it's complete.)It is no secret that I am in love with this place. I love most everything about it and I think it's absolutely gorgeous and, more importantly, filled with some of the nicest people I've ever met.So I've had this idea flitting around in my head ever since I was lucky enough to have an exhibit at Wildcard (awesome shop if you haven't been there - and if you have, you know of what I speak!) and since I'm an ace procrastinator it's taken me this long to get on it. But I did get on it. Today. And I think I'll even have a few pieces done in time for Handmade Arcade this weekend. Stop by the L2 Design Collective table and say hello, will you?     

First collection!

Wendell August Forge is America’s oldest and largest forge, producing hand-wrought ornamental metalware and elegant giftware in aluminum and other metals since 1923.It's here! I've been working with Wendell August since early this year and I'm excited and proud to announce the first launch: Gifts from the Sea. A hearty thanks goes out to Hilary Meurer for hooking me up with the great team at Wendell August and making this collaboration possible.The first step was to create a thumbnail sketch for a 9x12 piece of art featuring shells and their names. Below is my sketch.And here is the final illustration:From there the craftsmen at Wendell August made their magic happen and hand-hammered the design to create a mold from which to cast the products in the collection. I am going to head up north soon and take the tour of the factory and learn more about the production but in the meantime their website says this: "This process includes Die Engraving by a master engraver, Material Selection and Cutting, Repousse (Hammering), Surface Anvilling, Edging, Carbon Coloring, a three step polishing process, and Forming. "I am thankful for the opportunity to work with Wendell August as so few things seem to be made in America anymore, let alone made with care by artists and craftsmen who love what they do and take pride in it.Today feels good.

Prints Charming

Opening Friday, NOV 19, 2010I am busy busy busy getting ready for my upcoming show at Wildcard in Lawrenceville. I am collaging and sanding boxes and burning screens and mixing ink and printing and repeating. And repeating. And repeating. I am so thankful to Rebecca and Brian for giving me this opportunity.Now, back to work.More details and photos (maybe NOT from my phone?) to come. Until then...

On how to draw a hay squeeze

Recently a super terrific woman contact me through my etsy store and asked if I would be open to creating four "boxes" for her son's room. The jumping off point was this print:She requested that I use this and another illustration of a tractor that I had already done. Additionally she wanted a hay truck and a hay squeeze. "Oh sure, a hay squeeze," I said. Of course. A hay squeeze. Who doesn't know what a hay squeeze looks like? I could draw one from memory, with my eyes closed - like those art class exercises where you had to do "contour drawings."  But fret not, Fox, she was kind enough to send me some photos of the very hay squeeze that her husband drives.I loved this project. I was super bummed to package them up and ship them off. But just last week she sent an email and said (and I'm for real quoting - hope she doesn't mind) "they are perfect! My son and husband are completely mesmerized with them."I am blushing.14"x14" screenprints on wood. Four coats of varnish.

New items added to etsy store!

I have Fall Fever and a few commissions (which, I believe I have mentioned before, I LOVE) and so I've been busy printing. I have managed to finish a few new "box" pieces and I just put them in my Etsy Shop. Thanks for looking!

New collage in time for Spring

We've been snowed in around here and I have used a bit of the time to get back up to my studio and make some new pieces. I have one done and one in the works.I have heard people say that collage "isn't really art" - I think I don't care what they say. I love it and always have.

New commission finished (!)

A woman asked me to create this for a friend's baby shower. I get so excited when strangers contact me. I think I've mentioned before that of course I love when family and friends show their support but somehow, when it's someone I don't know, I feel like "they must really like my work...not just pretend to since they know me." Terrible thought, I know. I can't help it.Anyhow, I loved doing this piece. Thank you for asking for it, great customer. Now I need to do a bunch more because my stores are pretty well cleaned out and what remains is looking a little stale to me. Tell me to get on it, will you?

Handmade Arcade 2009!!!

This is it - tomorrow is the big day. It's time for another Handmade Arcade and I can't wait. Hours and hours of meeting new people and being surrounded by so much handmade awesome. I'll be at the L2 Design Collective booth showcasing our holiday cards and banners, totes and gift tags and whatever else we happen to make today (this morning I've just put the last coat of varnish on these little test print boxes, for instance).Stop on by (and I wouldn't be too too upset if you brought a cup of hot chocolate with you) and say hey.And here's one more little idea - this Christmas when you're thinking of how to spend your money, think handmade.

Keeping Secrets

I have been printing journal covers for the last few days. I'm pretty sure my favorite part of printing comes at the end of a run when I've successfully printed my stack of paper and filled my drying rack and I start looking around for anything else I can throw on the table and pull a print on. I have printed the walls and posts in our basement. I have printed cereal boxes, shirts, aprons, cardboard boxes, envelopes, shopping bags - anything that'll take the ink. A couple of weeks ago I printed the tractor on a wooden "box" frame. I liked it so much that I've decided to keep a stack of boxes handy. I started printing bits of the screens I've been using for my journal covers and out came this test print box!I love the test print randomness.I'm throwing a few coats of varnish on this and giving it to my best big brother for his birthday in a few days. He flies in tomorrow so don't say a word. Swear to it.

Aging Farm Equipment Love

Have I mentioned that I love printing? I think I have. A friend liked the tractor art I did for the Fresh Fridays at the Northside Farmers Market and asked me to do something for her son. My practical nature makes me love an assignment so I tried printing the art on a wooden "box" frame. Not to toot my own horn but I love the way it turned out. It makes me excited to print more things directly onto wood. Maybe collage the background and overprint an image? We'll see. I'm supposed to be packing for the big move in about six weeks. In the meantime, a quick shot of the tractor print on wood. If I can steal some time I plan to print a couple more for my etsy and supermarket stores.

Giant sunflower tote bags

A long time ago I did this woodcut of a sunflower and I've used it a few times on cards and mixed media pieces. Summer is just starting to arrive here in southwestern PA and I got the itch to print up some tote bags for beach trips. I started out simple with three bag options and one ink option but I'll certainly do more (especially if the orders start flooding my inbox as they surely will) in the next couple of days/weeks. I can't say enough how happy mixing up ink and pulling prints makes me. Totes available here and here if you're interested!

Birds + Bees

I mentioned that some super awesome woman bought a bunch of my pieces from etsy. Well, she practically cleaned me out. I started a couple of pieces and hoped to have them up last week but, as you well know by now, I am an ace procrastinator so I now have only one done. The other is languishing on my table, waiting to be painted. The right color hasn't hit me and I actually have some ideas for pattern so...we'll see. I'm totally out of sorts right now because for a long time we've been in limbo about where to live. We live in an amazing, huge, old victorian row house in the city right now but it's...complicated. There are countless great things about living here but a couple of really bad things about living here. And with the sweetest kid on earth in our lives, the bad things loom large. So...we fell in love with a house today and we're spinning out of control about what steps to take next. Hence the out-of-sortsness. I'm very sensitive about "Place" and "Home" so this is a big issue for me and for S, as well. Sorry for the ramble. I'll shush myself and post the new piece - a pretty bird for May. Goodnight, all.

New stuff in the works - finally!

Got the burst of Spring Fever energy I needed and I started two new pieces this past week. I have the ink work done and now I'm just mulling over colors. I got so lucky this week, too. A "customer" bought SEVEN pieces from etsy! "Customer" sounds so lame. I consider this person a friend now. I might invite her to my kid's third birthday party, I like her so much.

Anyhow, as great as it is to sell seven pieces (I still can't believe it) it certainly cleans me out and make my etsy and supermarket storefronts look especially bare. Thank God for the burst of energy... Here's a quick snap from the phone camera. I have to admit that I quite like the quality (or non-quality) of the phone pics. I hope to have them painted and varnished and posted by the end of the week.