Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Things I Know so Far



This month has gotten off to a roaring start! Between filling orders for Portland shops, etsy sales and getting ready for the Crafty Wonderland Holiday Sale (fingers crossed), I have precious little time left to myself. Thanks goodness I love my work! In addition to all this mayhem, I am proud to present my first solo show "The Things I Know So Far". Kettleman Bakery, located at 2235 SE 11th street, was kind enough to offer me their enormous wall space to display my collectionof work, which I have created since arriving in Oregon.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Fire 2010

This past weekend was the annual Fire festival in NW Oregon. Three stages of electronic music over two nights. Backwoods camping, breath taking views, thumping bass, a great weekend.
There is nothing quite like walking through the untouched Oregon forest, high above the clouds, with distant trance music.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Super RAD PDX Craft Show

I am so excited about the Super Rad PDX show this Sunday at the Portland Nursery! There will be free beer, live music, and more local artists and crafters than you can shake a stick at! Come by, enjoy a drink, and come to my booth where you can pull your own silk screen print, all for free.
www.superradpdx.com

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Illustration of Richard Erdoes

I recently bought a Life magazine from 1957, and these illustrations blew me away. The use of form and scale is so fun!
They are the work of the late Richard Erdoes, an Austrian born illustrator photographer and author. Here are some more inspiring images from his books, and other magazines:

Monday, July 12, 2010

Beautiful Amy Ruppel Poster

This poster has been catching my eye every time I walk to the post office.The simple color scheme and use of negative/positive is really inspiring!
The artist is Amy Ruppel, and I realized after looking her up that I have seen her Oregon print all over. Quite simply, her work is beautiful. You can see more and commission her for work here http://www.amyruppel.com

Friday, July 9, 2010

Create an Etsy Treasury

Creating an Etsy Treasury is a great way to give a shout out to people with great stuff! But its not as easy as it looks, it can actually be quite tricky. Here is the first treasury I've ever created, featuring some beautiful stuff in my favorite color, orange.
Anyone who uses Etsy can create a treasury, and it can help draw traffic to your shop. Here are some tips:

1. Use a range of items (vintage, home decor, art, tools, clothes), so everything isn't identical.
2. Stick to a loose theme, being too specific makes it hard to find items.
3. Use colors that look good as thumbs tiled next to each other.
4. As always with Etsy, Photo quality is paramount!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Shipping

I woke up to some sales today (nothing makes the morning better!), so they shipped before the post office closed. Wrapping is so much fun, its one of my favorite parts of the job. Here are some images of my packaging, and printed goodies that go with them.



Mailing posters can be tricky. I used to roll, but this can damage the fiber of the paper, which I hate to do! The posters are backed and wrapped in hand printed wrapping paper, and then sandwiched between double card board. Then I wrap the whole thing up in heavy weight brown paper.

For card board I just cut down some presentation boards.