the sweetie pie press

hands. shop. vanishings.

2011-12-30T10:22:00.003-05:00

a) i would like to thank handmodel.ca for supplying me with some kick-ass photos.
b) store news! i have a new slick shop via big cartel. check it out.
c) as you have probably noticed, i have been quite absent lately. there is lots of work and family stuff to deal with at the moment. i hope to be back in the new year (and hopefully a bit more relaxed).

crunch time.

2011-12-08T16:00:00.001-05:00

if a messy work space indicates a troubled mind then what does the above picture say about me? that heap indicated the dishevelled state of all of my home, mind and schedule these days in preparation for the impending city of craft weekend. at least i have been getting lots done, though!

there will be both new and old stuff on my table for the show, too. i just got some long out-of-print button sets returned from consignment in rural saskatchewan, so there will even be some rare old chestnuts on offer.

speaking of which, i should get back to everything!

see you on the weekend.

city on the horizon.

2011-12-05T08:20:00.001-05:00

city of craft 2011 poster by sandi falconer

this week i am all city of craft all the time - organizing, plotting, planning, emailing, blogging and, of course, making stuff to stock my own table. if you don't come out next weekend you are missing some serious magic!

my imperfections are your deals.

2011-12-02T15:22:00.003-05:00

who likes deals? you. who makes a lot of mistakes? me.

i whipped up this batch of super deals especially for tomorrow's handmade holiday show. if you don't mind the odd ink smudge, fluff bit or prototype, then this is the deal for you. get 'em while they last . these packs are a perfect way to secretly cheap out on your stocking stuffers or office gifts (just remove packaging).

socks appeal.

2011-12-01T15:07:00.001-05:00

these socks are troopers. also ground zero for my experiments in various darning techniques. i thought i would share these evolutionary images of their continued frankensteinification.

happy friday!

a handmade holiday.

2011-11-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

this weekend will be my first fair of the winter season - a handmade holiday. it will also be my second-to-last, as i scaled back considerably this year to make time to work on running city of craft.

run by the amazing mike, bianca and jordy at kid icarus there isn't enough time or space to express how great this show will be (or how great they are as artists and humans). just check out the vendor list if you like to be wowed.

just to keep things interesting, i have set aside a few products to be fair exclusives at each show. for a handmade holiday there will be deep discount multi-packs of buttons and some of my mystery loot bags (while supplies last).

plus, i will have my all my button sets (including the newest ones) available at both shows!

handmade holiday arts & crafts show
saturday, december 3rd 2011
11:00am – 6:00pm
st. stephen-in-the-fields
103 bellevue ave
(college and bellevue)
$2.00
$5.00 with a mystery bag
12 and under free

sweater weather cometh (or time to fill in holes).

2011-11-25T15:00:00.001-05:00

i am just about to head out to make a mountain of pom poms, but before i do i thought i would quickly share last night's mending project. above is a favourite woollen sweater vest that had gotten a little chomped by moths while we were away this summer. not wanting it to unravel completely i laid into it with some pretty lace weight yarns. expanding upon the swiss darning technique i have become some entranced by, i was extra proud in this case to actually mend holes (swiss darning is usually just use for reinforcement or decoration). i don't currently have time to explain the whole process here but basically, i made loops where there were none and pinched them with my fingers until i came back through on the next row up. thankfully, these particular moths were not too hungry. i also reinforced the weakest, most eaten parts by doubling over some sections (in a different colour for reasons of pure aesthetics). i say if your mending can't blend entirely, make it show!

aitor says it looks like a video game from the 80's.

no wrist for the wicked.

2011-11-24T03:35:00.001-05:00

2011 has been a long, strenuous and daunting year with no end in sight. in fact, it seems very likely that 2011 will still be happening well into 2012. carpal tunnel syndrome is not on the to-do list, though. that is why one of my lone personal craft projects this month was to crochet a duo of wrist wrest for myself and my sweetie. made with scrap yarn and stuffed with scrap fabric, they are basically a free solution to a growing problem we were both lamenting. and they work like a charm (so we can keep working like beasts of burden). it is amazing how much gets done in the current world at the flick of the wrist.

pom pom power.

2011-11-16T14:00:00.001-05:00

i spent a few hours yesterday laser cutting little stacks of hardboard donuts at the workroom. why? well, to use as template for pom poms, of course. the city of craft decor is going decidedly pom pom this year. what's more? you can help! we are hosting a little mixer and craft party next friday to generate the massive heap we need to adequately decorate our two venues this year. you can read more here or see the event posting here.

puff it up, friends!

city of craft & other distractions.

2011-11-09T15:52:00.003-05:00

no, city of craft is not really a distraction; it's a focus. either way, it has certainly absconed with my time of late. with just days over one month left before the show, i don't see that changing much. and with kickstarter rewards to catch up on, orders to ship and my own stuff to make, the blog has certainly fallen by the wayside. i miss it.

that artwork up there is by sandi falconer. each year at city of craft i work with a new toronto designer who creates an annual theme. sandi's been doing a totally bang-up job this year. her sense of space and balance blows me a way - i have to admit to some serious pangs of humility when i get artwork from her. not that i consider myself some hot shot design, but still...

speaking of poster design, i have started a small side project - a blog of posters from the indie craft world. i know, i know, if i am so busy why do i need another project? well, this one operates as a sort of latent activity. i started it with a big collection of poster files i found on my hard drive and already have a queue a few weeks long of daily images. now it's up to the world (you or someone you know) to submit more. i warn you, though, i did not set out to be comprehensive. as a latent side project it sort of serves to satisfy my end-of-day senses. in short: i am curating selections to my own whims and tastes. enjoy!

happy hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T09:49:00.001-04:00

from your favourite spooky pies. this is a photos taken by sandi at her awesome party saturday night. what fun! stay safe tonight, goblins!

awards for something.

2011-10-15T17:39:00.003-04:00

the folks at broken pencil asked me to make some custom awards for next weekend's canzine. they also gave me total free reign and, other than the fact that they should be awards, absolutely no constraints. so i made these. yup, three glorious inches of isosceles triangles. these is no greater meaning or rationale involved in these except that i like triangles and i like colours. what fun!

i also have to admit to being so swamped these days that i don't rightly know what they are for. i am sure you can win one, i just don't know how. pitch a book? pirate a zine? discuss mental health? regardless, you should come to canzine, do everything and feel like a winner with or without a big fat button.

laugh attack.

2011-10-13T17:30:00.000-04:00

this is another knuckle-busting custom order for my buds at laugh sabbath. if you come to their show on sunday, you will probably be able to sweet talk your way into one. they are generous that way. the design is by emma segal. she's great!

craftstock rising.

2011-10-12T10:00:00.002-04:00

poster by selena wong

have you been dying to get your hands on sweetie pie press goods, old and new? do you like to be cool and listen to live music? if so, then your are doubly in luck. i will be setting up shop at craftstock 3 this friday night. an effortless fusion of indie pop and crafts, this quarterly event reminds me so much of the craft/art/music mash-ups of my youth (r.i.p. pedal to the metal). i love shows like this because the back and forth between music and craft makes for an easy evening and because i am so uncool that i get exposed to wonderful new music without making any big effort. you can turn with cool with me, too!

craftstock 3
friday, october 14, 2011
8:00pm - 2:00am
kapisanan philippine centre for arts & culture
167 augusta (kensington market)
toronto
19+
$8

night terrors.

2011-10-11T22:00:00.002-04:00

oh, spookiness is in the air. on the way to the workroom's 4th anniversary party i managed to steal a quick peek at brette gabel's latest show, bad dreams, at gallerywest. brette has taken iconic images from scary movies and worked them into a series of quilts so that you can snuggle right into your nightmares (bigger image). although i don't know what movie it references (the omen?), my personal favourite was the black-on-black cross - creepy, subtle, cozy, cursed. eerily, the cross showed up red in my pictures but it didn't look that way in person. totally haunted.

charmed.

2011-10-11T10:00:00.002-04:00

fall is in the air, it is a bone-chilling 23 degrees celsius and the leaves would be turning and falling if it didn't feel like nuclear summer outside. that can only mean one thing - hallowe'en is right around the corner! i can hardly contain myself. for me, hallowe'en is the absolute best holiday of the year - it's all witchy and tricky and theatrical. so imagine my delight when i connected with sandi falconer this year over the city of craft design job and, in so doing, discovered a comrade in charms (you can see what i mean over on the city of craft website).

this set was created as an extension of our mutual love of all things superstitious. sandi selected five charms - a crystal, a rabbit's foot, two arrows, a wishbone and a watchful eye. not only will these charms protect you and keep you lucky but they also provide a comely set of accessories that you can wear to your next spiral dance or dark alley.

the charms sets are available in the etsy shop now and in person at all upcoming events. look for them in discerning independent shops near you sooner or later.

chair repair.

2011-10-05T20:48:00.001-04:00

this just in from the late night fixit files: tape your rotten old chairs up for fun and decoration!

i probably should have taken a before picture but tidying and fixing is so manic these days there is no time for such diversions. the point is this - chair + duct tape + washi tape = possibly temporary but nonetheless pretty repair solution.

this picture also illuminates the greater disaster that i am up against in my office. we use it as our storage room when we tour so there is always a pile of boxes being chipped away at for months after returning home. the mess is definitely adding weight to my psychic strain at the moment, but with non-stop city of craft tasks to attend to through december, i don't foresee this space being entirely clear until february. oh well, at least i fixed that holey chair aitor gave me! and i am back to work at the making desk.

sneak peeks - new artist sets from andrew zangerle and sandi falconer.

2011-10-04T18:15:00.002-04:00

looky, friends! here are some special peeks at some buttons i have been working on - a set of charms by sandi falconer, a quintet of country homes by andrew zangerle and some to-be-punched custom buttons for my buds at laugh sabbath*.

i was excited to negotiate a few fall button set releases over my summer of touring. now that i am home, it's even more exciting to be back at my work desk watching them come alive!

i am hoping to have sandi's sets all packed and ready for sale after i get through this thanksgiving long weekend. drew's set should be coming out with another architectural set the week following. i love the newness. i also really love having such talented friends.

oh, and while you are waiting for all that stuff to get released, why not go grab some laughs on queen street?

*laugh sabbath logo by the incomparable emma segal.

white night.

2011-10-02T10:50:00.001-04:00

harbinger by ryan livingstone

for those not from toronto, nuit blanche is an annual, city-wide (kinda), all-night art party. from sunset to sunrise, the city is encouraged to stay out and do stuff. some events are official and some are just chaotic ad-hoc happenings. it happens in the fall and usually i am away somewhere. but not this time! fresh back from tour, aitor and i decided to take in some night sights to welcome ourselves home. we both agreed that planning and research were recipes for disappointment and decided to just walk from roncesvalles east along queen street until we got tired of it and then come back. easy peasy!

the last year i was around for nuit blanche, i remember parkdale being a total wasteland. don't get me wrong, i prefer wastelands to club districts but it was really nice to find out about the parkdale bia's leitmotif cube van artist installations. the programming was all over the map as far as style, quality and realization (in my eyes), but i liked that about it. most pieces, even those with heavy concept, provided an easy entry point for observers/participants. a program that spans everything from white noise to a capoeira circle really expresses the community nature of bia activities. in this way, the vans provided a wide range of engagement to the actual community of parkdale, families included.

brian's songs by caroline and gord langill

infinity in the palm of your hand by quality slippers

all night stitch and bitch at the workroom

chromatic high five by amanda browder

the vibe totally changed after we crossed dufferin. it no longer felt like the programming was for the community it was in, the streets were jammed with taxis, drunk people were screaming at aitor about his moustache and the 'art' felt like a thin decorative veneer over the normal drinking that goes on at all the bars that have overtaken the strip. in spite of all the really lovely things going on at the smaller galleries and spaces (like the knit cafe), the might of the big bars was winning out. by ossington, i was getting anxious and everyone was pointing cameras at aitor. our nice date was turning ugly. we strolled back along side streets and relaxed immediately upon crossing dufferin again.

the giant, flaming, bloody altar at queen and dufferin has progressed somewhat. a woman was now scrubbing the entire concrete seating area on her hands and knees, the foamy red spill-off trailing onto the sidewalk and into the sewer. everything smelled like lavender.

after bemoaning the growing night club culture of our neighbourhood, we found a party that was more our speed:

your special day by brette gabel

yup, brette gabel's your special day at gallerywest invited folks in from the street with balloons and signs promising an awesome party just for you. once an hour, the gathering became a surprise party for whoever walked through the door next - complete with sparklers, people singing, homemade cake, a pinata and a fresh-delivered pizza. up there is our birthday boy breaking his pinata. such a wonderful way to end the night - a party about people instead of posing and drinking. we went home beaming and said goodnight to the neon crow at the top of our block.

working in pairs (or the fabricate show at freedom clothing collective).

2011-09-30T21:55:00.002-04:00

this evening, i managed to stop by freedom clothing collective to catch the closing reception for fabricate, a show co-presented by freedom and meredith keith gallery. conceived from the current overlap of art, craft and design, the show paired makers of different disciplines into collaborations. since most of the programming was at the other gallery, i only got to see the collaboration between lizz aston and jen kneulman (the ghostly and structured woven pieces pictured throughout). i wish i had time to see the whole show. this particular discussion is a very interesting one to me at the moment. plus, the images i saw online of the other pieces communicated some great skill and curation. freedom's head curator, marsya maharani, wrote an interesting note about the origins of the show and how it fits into the overall complexity of the freedom project and contemporary art/craft/design interplay here. full show write-up is here. great work, everyone! man, it is nice to be back home.

home run.

2011-09-24T18:00:00.003-04:00

running doesn't even begin to describe how i hit the ground upon returning to toronto. the city of craft jury session was the afternoon after our late-night return to toronto. the jury session is a joyful slog. but returning home to a crazy mess is not. yes, after six years of exceptional luck with summer subletters we finally terminated the 2011 endless bummer tour with a rude awakening. tupperware used as ashtrays, broken bowls in the cupboards, tea towels burned right through, filthy walls and floors, spills, grime, toe nails, boogers, broken and missing art, trashed furniture - it was pretty disheartening.

i was upon until morning before the jury session just scrubbing the bedroom into a state that felt clean and clear enough to sleep in.

don't get me wrong, i am still really happy to be home. broken possessions and a general sense of thoughtless invasion are pretty nominal concerns on a global level.

after cleaning the bedroom, i began to establish it as our oasis while we work on the rest of the place (between work obligations). it was really satisfying to assemble a collection of art and objects from this trip and before in the hopes of creating some calm in the storm. pictured in this bedroom vignette are works by shannah burton, bernadette greule, tara bursey, gold fools, rcboisjoli and erin dollar (click on the images to find out who made what).

hammer time.

2011-09-20T21:16:00.001-04:00

so we cheekily planned the end of our tour to stop off in hamilton. why is this cheeky? in good traffic, it is only half an hour from toronto, especially with our west end home. it's like coming home from a night out and falling asleep on your front lawn. that said, our pals mike and jen bought a house there and moved in while we were away, so we wanted to visit. and it felt good to keep a one-day buffer between crazy driving days and crazy home time.

while the boys sorted tomatoes and smoked pipes, jen and i got to have a little outing to eat on a patio, sip wine and then visit some of the sights on james street north. below is the vestige of the massive knit facade that the beehive collective made to cover the brain for the recent supercrawl. we also visited some awesome retail shops like mixed media and white elephant (way below). i hope jen and mike don't get sick of us because i totally want to come back to the hammer when my mind has cleared a bit to take in the lovely indie scene in a less dishevelled manner.

it's alive!

2011-09-15T10:45:00.001-04:00

photo by cortney heimerl

after all the hard work (and no small amount of picky photography by cortney), edition #001 of the awards for nothing project is now up and for sale in the printshop forever shop. i owe cortney a big debt of gratitude for figuring out how to release this huge edition. also, for being so articulate and complimentary in her release post about the project. thank you also to faythe and aaron for hosting our real-world awards launch, for documenting and for posting about it. also, big thanks to lish for posting on the craft: blog.

now, go and browse it up, buds!

at last.

2011-09-08T22:00:00.004-04:00

100 awards, all done, packed in a box and ready to jet off to milwaukee for full packaging in the morning. of course, i had to test out the packaging right away. that accounts for the two on top. it all works!

below are the last additions to the run. it is too bad that i only came up with the notion of ligatures at the end of the process. next time there will be more!

awards for nothing, edition #001 will be available in person tomorrow night at sky high gallery in milwaukee. as of september 15, the rest will be released for purchase via printshop forever.

home stretch.

2011-09-08T15:57:00.003-04:00

last night i stayed up into the wee hours working on a few very picky awards made from vintage fabric. i can't even think about what my hourly is going to end up being on this project. it's probably right of the decimal, though. regardless of that, the experiments and risks turned out some pretty lovely results (says me). also used for this batch: tapestry yarn, ledger paper, labelling tape, price tags, baggage tickets, elastic, dental floss, aitor's misprints, coupons and dental floss.

and, in very exciting news i manged to chase a ups truck down the block and collect my backing card delivery sent from nicholas in toronto. they look great! i foresee a long night and morning of fevered packaging and taping and stamping and sorting. i can't wait to see them all done and carded. but before that, this delivery means it is time to battle the chi-town traffic and get to milwaukee. see you there!

awards in person.

2011-09-06T18:00:00.001-04:00

hey internet, you want to see the first edition of awards for nothing in person? if you are in milwaukee this friday night, then you are in luck! i will be setting up shop for the evening in conjunction with sky high gallery, printshop forever and the misanthrope specialty co.

my little pop-up shop will be piggy-backing on the opening of catherine ryan's new show, these things they do, at sky high. i am really looking forward to seeing her work in person. plus, with all of these projects and artists in one place, it's sure to be a raucous fun night.

friday, september 9
6pm-10pm
sky high gallery
2501 south howell ave.
milwaukee, wi

here's the link round-up for more details:
facebook event
sky high gallery posting
printshop forever posting

and those awards up there (pardon the glare) include materials like rick rack, cicada wings, my hair, wrapping paper, yarn, handmade paper, thread, seam binding, bio-rythm charts, topographical maps, price tags, moss & ttc tranfers.

aitor and the chipmunks.

2011-09-05T17:50:00.000-04:00

today aitor caught the chipmunk that has been running loose in phil and noelle's house for the last couple of days. this was extra good as it entered the house on our watch. i can't say that it is aitor's fault that one of the cats likes to bring him gifts. at least this time it was not a cockroach or a snake.

in tandem.

2011-09-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

some images from our bike ride picnic to the bell tower where jaime and jerry got married the day before.

skyview.

2011-09-03T22:40:00.001-04:00

look what we spied on our way out of belleville. had there not been so much work to do, i would have loved to explore that place more.

box of nothing.

2011-09-03T12:21:00.001-04:00

shannah gave me this perfect box to keep my growing pile of awards from getting crumpled or crunched on the road. i think it makes them look like a box of sugar candies. yes, it is time to leave this southern illinois oasis, pack the travelling studio (ie. junk pile) back into the car and shove off for our next destination. see you all in indianapolis!

sweet nothings.

2011-09-03T12:03:00.003-04:00

i am now five days away from delivering my first edition of awards for nothing to cortney in milwaukee and more than halfway to my total of 100. the latest additions include materials like security envelopes, sheet music, handmade paper, doilies, nozzle checks, tissue paper, chopstick wrappers, seam binding, bias tape, thread, leather, rick rack and more!

while staying outside of st. louis, award making has benefited greatly from space to work in bruce and shannah's living room and material acquistions from shannah, bruce, the upcycle exchange and cranky yellow. autumn at upcycle was particularuly helpful is getting me the ribbons and sewing notions i have been short on. if you are in st. louis, you should totally check out the exchange. you should totally not check out cranky yellow because it is currently closed.

the experience of trying to do such a picky, scrappy project on the road has been a challenge to say the least. as much as i love the road, i am yearning for home and my studio.

nothing in particular.

2011-08-31T21:32:00.000-04:00

here is another sneak peek at some awards for nothing. i made a huge materials score last night thanks to one of my hosts here in illinois, bruce. bruce makes art out of collections and experience a cling all too familiar to me. but he is currently having some sort of great change of impulse and has been clearing out collections. this task being easier when the materials will be used and loved, he loaded me up with scraps, envelopes, waxed wrappers, handmade papers and more.

i have a tonne to work with now. the last batch was so colourful, too!

and nicholas says my packaging is almost ready, too. now to make sure it collides with me as i move. nomadic life in the modern era takes a fair bit of planning (and luck). feel free to wish me both.

ps - i have recommended dave's book to bruce.

breakage.

2011-08-31T21:20:00.001-04:00

one of the most heartbreaking elements of the awards for nothing project is breakage. the experimental nature of the project lends itself to disaster and yet every piece consumes completely one-of-a-kind materials. with so much unknown jamming into my machines, i feel like a potter waiting for the kiln to fire. it's never entirely clear what will emerge. i'm always nervous the result will come out busted.

i like to think these broken pieces pierced their own mylar coatings to maintain their ephemeral natures.

i might leave them in public places.

it's also worth noting that those broken awards are lodged on a stack of new security envelopes given to me by the great bruce burton (no web presence at this time). sorting and slicing through them last night really made me want to revive the project.

final fantasy.

2011-08-26T10:30:00.000-04:00

hey, lawrence, kansans, guess what! tonight we will be hopping into the one year anniversary edition of your final fridays as special guests of the fabulous wonder fair shop and gallery. the wonder fair has actually gone through some recent changes - three of its four members moved to kansas city in recent months - and has changed hands. the new owners, meredith and paul, were actually planning on taking this month off from the art evening because the space is in flux and under construction. then we connected.

presenting...for one night only...
the wonder fair / sweetie pie press / misanthrope special company
pop-up staircase gallery and boutique!

peruse crafty goodness! get your unflattering portrait done! purchase amazing pinback button sets designed by artists the world over! meet the new wonder fair brain trust! get mired in ephemera! have fun!

and most importantly, tell your friends. we only know about seven people here.

further nothing.

2011-08-22T20:12:00.002-04:00

a little update from tulsa, oklahoma, where we are holed up in a large, strange hotel making things and stocking up for upcoming fairs. i am making lots of progress on the first batch of awards for nothing and wanted to share a few samples with y'all.

from this early batch, materials include wrapping paper, safety certification stickers, clothing labels, thread, gold seal, sheet music, shelf lining, tissue paper, motel coupon books, fringe, rick rack, butcher's twine, seam binding, eye lashes. it is interesting to feel how this project is making me see the things around me differently. the process is certainly teaching me a lot about the cognitive shifts that are possible when perceiving things. it's very illuminating but mostly in a way that i can not articulate yet.

speaking of hotel factories, the pile of scraps and bits below is what i woke up to this morning on my bedside table. the sordid aftermath of an all night craft binge.

doodles.

2011-08-22T16:36:00.001-04:00

office supply stores always tempt me. i am a sucker. at the very least, i am glad that these pens are doing their jobs well because i have a bunch of doodling to do. there are some things to make for city of craft and some collaborative projects i am currently working on. after years of working with artists on my commissioned artists button sets project, it is really exciting to be on the other end of the process.

first among the collaborations i am trying to draft up is a design for alexx boisjoli's bottled project. it's heavy to think of a design that will be emblazoned on porcelain, so i am taking the process really seriously - maybe even too seriously. either way, how thrilling!

zine dreams.

2011-08-20T10:35:00.003-04:00

tomorrow marks toronto's fourth annual zine dream zine fair. and, oh, how i wish i could be there. it's a great event. if you are in the toronto area, i suggest you go.

it feels like i have had zines all around lately (even though i have not made one yet this year).

some things:

1. zine dream.
2. i made a treasury of favourite book works i found on etsy. so lovely.
3. the wundrkabinet's reading raum installation closed last night at the etsy labs in berlin. by all acounts, it was an unflinching success.
4. some pals i was chilling with in albuqueruqe are currently working on the first ever abq zine fest. they just launched a kickstarter to help, too. they are booking table spots through it and even offer some zine packs for out-of-towners to purchase.
5. toronto's canzine is now accepting sign-ups for tables at their november show and proposals for art rooms. i've already got my table!
6. the 2012 toronto comic arts festival is also accepting applications for sequential book-makers at the moment. i haven't been in town for this event in years but word on the street is that it has grown into quite the concern.

with all this bookish activity rolling around, maybe 2011 really does mark the revenge of print.

good thing i have a tour zine in the works. it has to be out by the end of the year. oh my.

nothing lasts forever (or awards for nothing meets printshop forever).

2011-08-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

as those who follow this blog will know, i have more than a passing interest in stuff. why do objects hold such value in our lives? and why do certain objects hold more value than others? why does that value shift from person to person? where is the line between collecting and hoarding? these questions have lead me all over the place and are borne of my earliest days and experiences.

for over a year now, i have been percolating awards for nothing, a button-based gallery project that addresses some of these concerns by illuminating scrappy detritus and converting it into markers of worth. but finding a venue for the project's initial outing has been a challenge. enter printshop forever, a milwaukee-based one-year project of monthly artist editions that matches awards for nothing so much in aches. what's more? cortney thought so, too!

initially, i had envisioned editions of 1000 unique awards for gallery installation, but since printshop forever is an mostly online project that number didn't make sense. at 100 awards, this first release is still going to be the largest release she will deal with this year (thank you, cortney!). 100 is probably a more reasonable edition to start with, anyway. and it's nice to have conditions that force me to be at least mildly reasonable from time to time.

so here i am in albuquerque with a month (and roughly 1500 miles) between me and the launch of the project. i will be driving to milwaukee (with plenty of stops in between) to hand deliver my edition. i am lucky enough to be piggy-backing on an opening at sky high gallery there to release the first awards into the real world. but more about that event soon. for now, i am armed with a porta file that is quickly filling with scraps from portland, arcata, eureka, berkeley, oakland, phoenix and my mother's home in vancouver and the first awards are seeing the light of day...

come with me (or a map of indie north america).

2011-08-10T16:30:00.000-04:00

hello folks,

in response to a growing number of requests for touring information and resources, i have started a streamlined project for sharing the network of indie shops, boutiques and galleries i have encountered in my years of touring - the indie map of north america!

this is by no means a comprehensive list of every boutique and gallery out there. instead, it is something of and organically-curated group of places that has mostly sprung from my own experiences. although there are a few places there that i have never visited (and i mean a very few), this map can also serve as a loose vouch from your friend, becky.

hopefully, this will tide y'all over into the full touring resource zine is done at the end of the year.

of course, i strongly welcome your suggestions. feel free to leave tips about your favourite indie haunts in the comments section here. i have painfully few in brooklyn and new york, for instance. and i know the places are out there.

and if you run a space that should be on there, go add yourself to google places. you have to be the business owner to do that, and i get distressed every time i go to look up a favourite shop or space and can not find it. i want to tell people about you!

safe travels, mama.

2011-07-18T00:19:00.003-04:00

last night, on saturday july 16, 2011, my mother succumbed to the cancer she has been battling for just shy of a year and passed away. she fought hard and kept her head above water and was doing very well for most of this time. all of this changed about a week ago when she took a rapid down turn. it all happened very fast. her passing came swiftly and without pain. although it is a blinding shock to the family, there is great comfort to be found in these facts.

i could go on about my mother's influences on me but the basics amount to this - she taught me most of my craft skills, filled my life with making and always support even my most wild creative impulses and "career" choices.

my father took that picture above before i was born. they maintained a strange yet great relationship throughout their lives even though their marriage lasted only a couple of years into my life. i can only hope and imagine that they are now irritating one another in the great beyond.

me, i am off to the northwest to be with my family and say my goodbyes.

i am sure this comes as a shock to those of you who knew my mother and am sorry if this posting is bringing you the news. she seemed so full of life and tenacity that her disappearance from this mortal coil still seems impossible to me.

my mother had so very many friends, colleagues and acquaintances that i feel overwhelmed with the task of spreading word of her passing. please help if you can. my family is planning an informal wake/open house this thursday in vancouver. i will share more details as they emerge. i, for one, plan to laugh through tears, make terrible puns and share long stories - just as she would have wanted (and done).

anne theresa hershoran garber
1946 - 2011

you are loved, missed and not forgotten.
i will see you in my weird hairline, pointy face and huge teeth every day.

live in brooklyn and online (or a workshop on the business of indie craft).

2011-06-20T23:00:00.001-04:00

photo by stacey bode

first, a big thank you to stacey for doing a brilliant and impromptu photo shoot with me in atlanta. i look like a hero through her lens and have already found a bunch of uses for them. it was time to admit that crafters can use promo pictures, too (read on).

secondly, i will be rolling through new york and brooklyn at the end of this week and have a packed schedule of awesome activity to share with you all.

a) i will be speaking at the etsy labs on a broad range of offline indie business topics. you can check out info on attending (it's only $5) here and here. if you are not in brooklyn, you can also watch live online here. isn't that crazy? watching online is free and can be done in your underpants, too. as for the workshop, i am going to start simple with a few basics and general insights about my years travelling the continent crafting then let audience questions guide the rest of the conversation. i have a big messy brain to pick. feel free!

b) i am also polishing up some details for a visit to the kickstarter offices (also in new york). as you may or may not know, kickstarter (and a large collection of friends and strangers) had a lot to do with making this year's tour happen. i am way overdue on a blog post about that process and am hoping that a visit to meet the crew gives me an excuse to share the piles of info i gleaned from the experience in some coherent manner.

to new york, and beyond!

but now, to make some buttons into the philadelphia night.

peachy.

2011-06-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

photos by young blood gallery

big thanks to young blood gallery for being on the ball and taking pictures at this weekend's ice atlanta. it is so nice to see my booth from the outside. for this show, aitor and i opted to share a six foot table for the first time in years (our displays have grown so big and full of stuff since we started). it felt like a back-to-basics display and it was so easy to keep stocked and sorted!

thanks to all who came out, thanks to the ladies who put it all together and extra special thanks to our awesome neighbours for the weekend, faryn, missy and raoul!

---------------------------------------------->

2011-06-12T02:32:00.003-04:00

photo by the workroom

look over there! that way! look!

i know i am weeks behind on this blog. i will catch up. you will hear all the tales of junk in texas, craft in the midwest and the tantalizing treats of the deep south. but until i manage to catch my breath, might i encourage you to check out my now (nearly complete) list of summer tour supporters (that's what all those banners are to the right). a stroll through that link list is sure to delight your senses with the output of brilliant makers the world over. there is music, photography, comedy, pertinent reportage, paper goods, hand sewn sartorial delights, ceramics, independent retail and more! in my exhaustion and neglect, this is a worthy list of friends to immerse yourself in. enjoy! and feel free to report back on any shocking awesomeness you find.

a raum with a view.

2011-06-02T12:31:00.003-04:00

photo by leah buckareff

my constant ambling has made me a little late to the table on this one but last friday saw the opening of berlin's wunderkabinet #3 - the reading raum. congratulations on getting her rolling, leah! the display looks absolutely lovely, as always. and i was totally tickled to see that my shelf mate (pictured above) is the incomparable robert dayton. if you have not checked out his impressive and varied body of work, you might want to change that. i am deeply pleased to have our zines canoodling together under those lacy rocks for the summer. in fact, there are so many favourite people and artists in this show that it is almost pointless to list them all. and if i know leah's selective abilities, i bet even more wonders are held in the works of those who i don't yet know. leah is working on a full artist list with links. until then, you might want to do as i am going to and put google to work on this list.

for those who don't know about the wunderkabinet, it is a now-travelling series of themed contemporary curiosity collections that sets in in instalments around berlin's art and craft sphere. it is all curated and maintained by leah buckareff. the current incarnation is housed at etsy's berlin/international headquarters in a modular construction called 'the turtle'. i hear there is an arm chair there and possible some floor cushions to support comfortable and easy literary perusal. if you are in berlin, you should go there, read some zines and take a few home with you if you like. i would.

laundry day.

2011-05-30T23:38:00.000-04:00

it is memorial day and we are in a small town in arkansas. we had main street to ourselves as we got caught up on our clothes cleaning.

the mending.

2011-05-30T23:32:00.005-04:00

socks, shoulder bag, table. a pit stop means fixing the things that have been falling apart. can't see what i did to the shoulder bag? that's because my first stab at saddle stitching was so awesome! slightly less awesome is the durability of washi tape as a mending material - but it sure is purdy.

setting up (work)shop.

2011-05-29T23:00:00.001-04:00

can you tell which trailer the crafter is in? yup those are some neck warmers hanging out to dry after one last refreshing soak before they get their buttons sewn on.

setting up to hunker down.

2011-05-29T22:56:00.000-04:00

here i am setting up for a few days of hunkering down in this small arkansas town. the motel is cheap and the neighbours scream and yell daily. but give me my folding table and i can make just about anywhere feel a little like home.

return to sender.

2011-05-29T21:05:00.005-04:00

greetings from carlisle, arkansas, an oasis we found years and years ago on an earlier tour. even though the past can never entirely be called back and memories make everything mistier, there is still a kind of fun in return to places that felt magical. and besides, we saw signs that a new mexican restaurant had popped up since our last visit. here it is:

there is kind of nothing outwardly magical about this place. it's probably not magical at all except that we have been here before and had a good time together. i dunno - i like it here.

scenes from a motel.

2011-05-28T20:54:00.001-04:00

homes away from homes. this time, in benton, arkansas. there is a real beauty to these non-chain establishment - right down to the painted signs.

children of the 70's.

2011-05-27T21:21:00.000-04:00

on the way out of dallas, we also managed to stop in on another shop we have heard a lot about over the years, we are 1976. for indie craft wares, it does not disappoint and i saw a lot of familiar indie lines there. plus, they have a big, presumably old, mural in the shop (a la wholly craft). i am such a sucker for such architectural touches.

oil and cotton.

2011-05-27T20:42:00.000-04:00

and as one thing leads to another, julie emphatically recommended that we look up oil & cotton when we shoved off to dallas.

newly opened in the fall of 2011, owners shannon driscoll and kayli house cusick founded oil and cotton to be an educational epicentre of sorts. although they do carry some support supplies, the studio's main focus is skill sharing. as we travel, it is deeply heartening to find spaces like this popping up all over the continent. workshop spaces exist beyond the constraints of retail, working to ensure that craft practices endure as well as goods. even as a workshop space, oil & cotton distinguishes itself in the scope of its class roster. the offer all sorts of workshops that i have not encountered before in this community - prenatal art, basket weaving, music (to name a few), and all sorts of syntheses between these practices.

not to mention that its uneven and dusty walls provide for one of the most textured and photogenic spaces i have ever encountered. and did i mention they make their own inks (above)? and use its rooms and flex spaces for pop-up events and happenings? amind the supplies you can even spot vestiges of such events (like the large bag of gold suspended from the ceiling) - and each object has a story. this space, and its owners give the sense that anything is possible and that whim and business are perfect counterbalances for one another.

more images here.

webbed.

2011-05-27T19:31:00.000-04:00

based on an emphatic recommendation by russell, we made our way out of austin today and straight to a specially arranged gallery visit to the webb gallery in waxahachie, texas. even at off-hours, we were lucky enough to get to meet both owners, bruce and julie webb. the place is beyond amazing, and so are the webbs. passionate about what they do, kind, generous with their time and knowledge and, as it relates to the gallery, each of them has a killer eye for the obscure and the heartfelt.

housed in a spacious old building in the centre of waxahachie, the gallery is such a feast for the eyes and senses, that it is hard to even begin to capture a visit in pictures.

the main exhibition at the moment is a grand-scale collection of sculptural works by camp bosworth entitled 'plata o plomo'. in exploration of the mexican drug trade, it features relief portraits of drug lords, massive hand-carved wooden guns that fold out into bars and the biggest piece of bling i have ever seen (bling not being a word i use often or lightly). it is a brilliant show, dazzling and scary, that is installed perfectly into the spacious gallery.

in their smaller loft space upstairs is another show by another texas artists, esther pearl watson. i have been aware of miss watson for a long while now from the zine scene. in fact, some of her zines must be some of the earliest added to my collection. but i have never had the privilege of seeing her paintings in person. i found this collection - an autobiographical series based her childhood home and family happenings from her formative years - incredibly touching. for me, it fell somewhere between fine art, self-revelation, sequential art and snapshot. you know those moments when you feel incredibly broke because artwork is so reasonably priced yet you are so outpriced? yup. i felt really compelled by these works.

and all of this not even to mention the webb's extensive collection of circus ephemera, secret society regalia and general wonderfulness. suffice it to say, if you are in the area, you should seriously make a visit. especially you, faythe.

more pictures here.

leaving austin.

2011-05-26T23:00:00.003-04:00

it has come time, we need to move on from this lovely city. above are a few last snaps (mostly of lettering and signage) from our last day here. in the mix, you may spy parts & labour, austin's preeminent, all-texas-all-the-time indie boutique. they have recently opened an adjoining poster shop, too - shark attack. i definitely recommend a visit.

under the bridge.

2011-05-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

and to cap our incredible day off, i finally got to see the famous austin bats stream out from under the congress street bridge. my attempts to take pictures of the bats we crazy, but i did get this picture of bat gawkers. thank you, austin!

junk rock.

2011-05-25T23:41:00.002-04:00

as if our austin adventure day was not filled enough already, we ended our daylight hours with a trip to the cathedral of junk. thank you for the tip, scott! akin to structures like the watts towers, the cathedral's construction is amazing - totally teetering and solid all at once. and massive. so massive. i am always completely in awe of this sort of self-figured engineering.

dust in the wind.

2011-05-25T23:23:00.000-04:00

i have been hearing tales of the museum of natural and artificial ephemerata since the last time we passed through austin. on that tour, i abandoned aitor in bat city for a week while i flew up to edmonton to shoot a movie. he got to explore everything while i jumped from oil town to oil town. his excitement over the museum was palpable - he even wanted to turn our apartment into a rotating display as a result. although we never fully acheived this dream (well, not yet, anyway), i have felt a great desire to visit this inspiration point ever since.

the museum, run out of the front room of co-curators scott and jen's home, is usually open only on saturdays but we were lucky enough to schedule a special appointment today. partly inherited from a mysterious great uncle of scott's, the 'impermanent collection' is a deceivingly small assortment of sub-categorized (aura, trace, natural, artificial, abject) cultural relics - elvis' hair, marilyn munro's cigarette butts, a yeti toy, glass from new york's doomed crystal palace, a bottle of sleep, incubator air, a flamingo head, snow globes, hair wreaths. although this collection is quite dense and dazzling enough, scott and jen also program a themed show or two a year with pieces from their own collection and relics on loan from kindred locals. they just wrapped up what looked to be a great show about the underground and caves. it was extra funny to see the cave room complete with fabric stalactites making its transition into their growing son's room.

the packed collection made my head spin with thoughts of other projects and general notions about objects, story, value and collecting. many of these themes have been ongoing in my life and i very much enjoyed being immersed in an environment dedicated entirely to the exploration of collecting. i was reminded of works by collectors and arrangers like barton lidice bennes, william davies king and even some friends like faythe and leah. as a side note, one of my most haunting regrets of last year's tour was becoming too run down and harried in california to collect on mr. king's invitation to visit his nothing collection. hopefully, i will find my way to rectifying that situation this year. but, i digress...

even with such a relatively small collection, i can't wait to revisit the museum should we ever find ourselves back through austin. even looking at these pictures i see objects whose stories i did not hear. we did go home with a bit of ephemera of our own - a couple of publications from the museum's past shows and impermanent collection. these books are as slim and dense as the museum itself and i hope they serve to fill me with thoughts and stories that will tide me over until we find ourselves deep in texas once again.

plains and simple.

2011-05-25T22:54:00.001-04:00

after making things and trying desperately to catch up on ethereal concerns, today's outings began with a visit to a much-recommended shop, spartan. housed on the ground floor of what looks to be a new condominium development, spartan shares its space (and one dividing wall) with bows and arrows, a harmonizing sister shop that tends more towards apparel. both stores sell housewares although spartan leans more towards gifts and paper. they occupy a space of cool southwestern design that snowy tourists like myself are easily taken by. there is really not much to say. both shops are so thoughtfully stocked and arranged that i may as well just let my pictures speak for themselves (click on any image to find out which shop it came from).

batting average.

2011-05-24T23:48:00.000-04:00

we tried to see bats tonight and failed. i think we were too late. a free night dip in barton springs provided more than cold comfort, though. it has been under a week and we have already busted out the bathing suits twice. tour thus far = success.

free moustache rides.

2011-05-24T23:00:00.001-04:00

i am sorry to admit that the crafty moustache trend has never entirely been my thing. i admire the work from afar but somehow it has never entirely gotten its hairy claws into me. maybe it is because i share my life with an awesome handlebar or maybe it is because my eastern european roots have me growing one of my own. regardless, when our friends jesse and darcy invited us out to this excellent austin taco stand i was thoroughly tickled to see it's accompanying moustache seesaw. i mean, c'mon.

ps - i am extra sheepish to admit my trend rebuffing because i have some great friends doing excellent work with moustaches. see? see? i am the worst kind of jerk.

bookstore cowboy.

2011-05-24T22:57:00.001-04:00

guys, i just fell in love. i mean we connected, chatted for hours...it was amazing. i am so grateful to austin, renegade and will bryant for connecting me with the increbile domy books austin and it's singular manager/curator/shop daddy, russell. really, words can not express the fireworks of connection.

what's more? their current exhibition, as above so below, is a collection of secret society paraphernalia and influenced artwork curated and assembled by bruce lee webb. i thought aitor's head was going to pop open at the display. bruce and his partner julie also run a gallery and ephemera emporium called webb gallery in (relatively) nearbu waxahachie. after russell's description of it, we are really hopeful to arrange a visit while we pass through on our way to arkansas. if you are in the austin area, bruce is giving a talk about the exhibition at domy on saturday. i so wish i could be there, but the climb back up north calls us so we won't be around. if you go, feel free to regale me with reports. i would love to know some of the stories behind this collection and the stories of the objects within.

as if all this wasn't enough, you ca't do that on television was playing on a loop all day. oh, canada. i even spied some people i know on the screen! yes, canada can be that small.

domy, you have changed me forever and for the better. thank you. oh, and you can now find some sweetie pie button sets and zines there, austin.

birds of a feather.

2011-05-23T19:50:00.001-04:00

oh. okay. okay.

factory showroom.

2011-05-23T19:46:00.004-04:00

it has taken us only a handful of days to accumulate a massive karmic debt to leslie at the stitch lab here in austin. she housed us for the weekend, hooked us up with another place to stay for the rest of our visit, gave us a bunch of local tips and now has given us an afternoon and evening of space to commandeer at the stitch lab - her awesome supply shop and workshop hub.

this place is amazing. austin's only source for wool felt, a packed and varied workshop list (tonight it is screen printing in the next room), notions, vintage buttons and samples from all the workshops neatly displayed in every little corner. some places just feel immediately comfortable to me - like a slice of home...only better.

i even spotted a stitch-up of one of the new berkely illustration/sublime stitching collaborative patterns in the washroom. home sweet home, indeed.

well, back to work. opportunities like this are not to be squandered.

all taco, no angstin'.

2011-05-23T14:29:00.002-04:00

i possibly just ate the best tacos of my life. i highly recommend the deep fried avocado with arugula. holy crap! these austin food trailers are blowing my mind. they really took the edge right off my sweaty morning of running around town trying to find an small yet consequential part for the new car. thanks for the recommendation, ron and leslie! my angst has been cured by good food.

ps - the title of this post is an attempt to best aitor at obtuse puns. you should visit his blog to see what i mean.

halfternoon.

2011-05-23T14:24:00.002-04:00

i think this guy was on 'home improvement'. i like this town.

death and texas (or, things on which to rely).

2011-05-22T23:33:00.002-04:00

my favourite screen prints by timber!

custom letterpress coaster station from andrew le & tim cook

examples from heidie kenney's diy doll kits

i am way too zonked to pull actual thoughts together so i am just going to leave you with a few favourite images from today. i was also too zonked to take the whole event in properly - such is the beginning of a tour. the exhaustion of touring can never compare with the exhaustion of leaving home and i am a couple days away from feeling stable again. i know that there were more awesome vendors lurking in the depths of this show that i did not find. what i did happen into was lovely enough but i wish i had the mind power to see more. my photos from the whole show can be found here. yeehaw! now, off to sample some home-infused drinks i have heard about here.

trailer culture.

2011-05-21T23:39:00.001-04:00

i have heard a lot about food trailer culture in austin but only just had my first experience today. i feel that this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

lone stars (or renegade austin, day one).

2011-05-21T23:37:00.004-04:00

today marked the first day of the second annual renegade craft fair austin. it was our first time doing this specific show and only the second time that austin has figured into our tours at all. texas is big and austin is very far away from everything (by american standards, anyway) so it was a great treat to find ourselves back in the lone start state.

we had a great time checking out all of the incredible interactive programming - including the friendship bracelet making station hosted by renegade (top) and the vintage baseball card set-up presented by local rock star collective, public school.

i even found a few moments right as the show was opening to build a brand new display for my diy security envelope installation kits (constructed from materials aquired on the way down, no less). the installation kits are a hard project to communicate to people, so i am hoping that this visual presentation will at least draw people in to ask questions.

and what launch of a tour would be complete without reunions and new friends? look below for some of the amazing crafters we collided with (berkley illustration, miss natalie/canoe, leah duncan). as per usual, i wish i could have collected so much stuff, but we restrained ourselves to two things on our touring survival list - a big key chain and little wood-burned pocket knife from miss natalie's new canoe line.

and now, if you will excuse me, i have a pool party to seek out.

austin translation.

2011-05-21T10:32:00.002-04:00

the tour begins. our first fair is today. c'mon down and say howdy, austin!

a matter of degrees.

2011-05-21T07:11:00.001-04:00

today was the longest driving day. in fact, today turned into tomorrow while we rolled from tennessee to texas. up there is a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich from our lunch stop in...you guessed it...memphis, tennessee. in the strip mall shadow of graceland, we plotted out course and ate touristy things. let's just say that saying i have done it is probably the highlight of that particular culinary experience.

we popped into mississippi for my first time ever, too. i got a perfect skirt and a goodwill then we moved on to arkansas. the weather is getting warmer and i needed something breezy.

these deceivingly bland images (above) are from the lovely gem of carlisle, arkansas. it is unclear whether or not the place is actually a gem worth recommending to other people but this town just east of little rock holds a special place in our hearts. it was a pit stop on our first ever craft tour in 2006 - before i was blogging or taking pictures - and our tours have not even passed by it since. it is also the backdrop for my most popular photo of all time. of all the places we have stopped back into (a favourite thrift shop was gone from memphis), carlisle has remained comfortingly the same. there have been changes, of course, but the trailer motel whose bargain basement prices lured us there in the first place is still under twenty dollars a night. we are hopeful for a stay on the way back up north to columbus. maybe you can't relive old magic but there is something about this gas station motel that sets me oddly at ease. arkansas, i want to know you better. i hardly ever even hear your name.

i will leave you with this message from an arkansas interstate:

photo by reverend aitor

part of the family.

2011-05-20T07:48:00.000-04:00

as some of you may know, two nights before our departure some parkdale hooligan smashed both side mirrors off the car i had had for four days. above is the amazing fix-it job that my lovely mechanic eric came up with. with these new piercings, the as-yet-unnamed car is looking more like a frankenstein than boris did. also of note: zigzag afghan as seat cover. just trying to sync this ride up with the crafty lady who is going to live inside her for a third of a year.

day one in review.

2011-05-19T23:55:00.001-04:00

waylaid by some car vandalism and general exhaustion, we left toronto later that we had hoped yesterday. this makes our journey to our first stop of austin a fairly stacked series of driving days. this means our adventuring and ability to update you all will be minimal through the weekend.

hopefully, we will actually get to visit some of these cities and towns on the way back up to columbus. anyone have any fun plans for memorial day that we can crash? arkansas? tennessee? kentucky?

but for now, we'll take that extra time zone hour and try to get some rest for tomorrow's big drive.

shoving off.

2011-05-18T23:35:00.002-04:00

here's part of our building in toronto just before we set out on four crazy months of road time. look what we stumbled onto right before leaving town...

we will miss you, too. all of you. until we find you all down the road. all of you and more.

wish us luck. we're off!

mirror mirror.

2011-05-17T14:21:00.001-04:00

open letter to the person who knocked both side mirrors off my car last night: i hate your guts.

swiss miss.

2011-05-17T10:30:00.002-04:00

by day and by night, swiss darning is a new love of my life. i had to cut myself off and get back to packing. but look how mesmerizing...

and the possibilities for this technique are extreme.

trunk rock.

2011-05-16T07:35:00.003-04:00

caitlyn's trunk, pre-set-up.

i would like to offer a massive thank you to everyone who came out through the pouring rain to warm up the workroom during yesterday's spring trunk show. i would especially like to thank all the vendors who, as always, had an incredible array of wonderful crafts on display - and who offered great chats all day long.

toast and boob by rachelle wilson

vintage goodies from the arthur

screen printed cards by petra c.

i had a great time husting my rummage in "let's make a deal" mode. and on a personal note, it was a great send-off. i will miss the workroom while i am gone but am happy to remember it this way (rain on the sidewalk and rain in the window display)...

more photos of more great wares here.

red runner.

2011-05-13T23:47:00.002-04:00

photo by reverend aitor

i have a new car!

i am not going to lie to you, the crunch to find a new (well, used) vehicle in time for the tour to start was really getting to me. i was secretly within a hair's breadth of cancelling at least our first stop. after all, it is friday and we need to shove off wednesday. i didn't have another moment. but the miraculous has happened to me once again and today i picked up my new ride - a 1998 subaru station wagon. i move up a decade with every car! even more miraculous is that this was accomplished on a budget that was hard to serve in this fancy city. amazing! a million times amazing!

i am definitely feeling some adjustments coming on. i miss boris and his charms (as well as ample storage space). i am also getting used to driving something so...red. i feel like i need to up my style to match the car! like i should be dressing like a hot mom. but the safety features, leather interior, moon roof, sun roof and other silly extras i have never had before (like an antenna) really ease me away from most of my awkwardness. so...let the naming begin! any ideas? we will see what fits as we get to know this new ride.

prayers that the car has no secret, looming issues also gladly accepted.

oh, and i was happy to see that the new car was 'team crafted' - in indiana, no less! i have a feeling this car was made in my friend jerry's hometown of lafayette. is this possible?

the process of finding this new ride would not have been possible without gracious help from michal, dusty, everyone who kicked into the 2011 tour kickstarter campaign and my absolutely wonderful mechanic, eric. thank you all endlessly! the tour is rolling!

women's work.

2011-05-12T23:18:00.002-04:00

this evening, the reverend and i went to the opening of our good friend serena's new documentary installation, three women. the show deals with a topic dear to my heart, art-making in the wide open spaces of rural saskatchewan. serena and her erstwhile partner, tyler, are my main connection to this part of the world and i revel at all chances to peek into the things hidden in its seemingly open expanses.

i particularly liked the images from the prairie ursuline centre. they communicate a special kind of time-warp that i find deeply entrancing - as if the past can live longer in certain places. here is aitor in front of one such image wearing his fancy boutonnière from alison - multiple levels of the past's survival.

and here is what cowboy poetess, bernadette, looked like when she was paused during the artist and curator introductions:

...thank you to robert for pointing that out.

now everyone go see the show!

bye bye boris.

2011-05-12T17:41:00.002-04:00

today i finally screwed up the gumption to open the above envelope, delivered to me by mike. it contains the remains of my beloved boris carefully collected by mike before the tow truck came to take the car to the scrapper. i have to mail the plates in to get my insurance money back but the other little bits may find their way on tour with me in whatever new car i end up with. boris always took care of me before...i kind of want him around still, if only just a little bit.

thank you mike. so much.

spring thing.

2011-05-11T13:00:00.000-04:00

friends, if you are in toronto this sunday, please come down to the spring trunk show at the workroom and say hi. this will be my last show in toronto before shoving off for my summer tour. i will be offering a bunch of sweetie pie goods from the archives as well as some vintage goodies from my life that i need to part with. and the vendor line-up is great! see you there.

crafty brew.

2011-05-09T12:50:00.003-04:00

flyer design by deadweight

one thing done. applications for city of craft 2011 (the december show) are now alive and kicking. the applications will stay open until august 31, but why not cross one thing off your list super early? by the way, sandi falconer's designs for the year have been knocking me out from every direction. i know i say the about the designer i work with every year but it it always true.

mummers.

2011-05-08T18:26:00.001-04:00

happy mama's day.

photo of my mother by my father.

spring training.

2011-05-06T23:11:00.000-04:00

spring time means that this fern starts to grow again in leaps and bounds. it also means we can start training it up the kitchen curtain if we want to. i hope our summer subletters are equally charmed by this project.

sunrise kitchen.

2011-05-06T11:24:00.001-04:00

jetlag has been waking up pre-dawn and aitor has been demanding that the kitchen table stay clear as a singular oasis in our chaotic pre-tour home. so this is what i look at in the morning as i try to collect my thoughts. i really want to force myself into minimalism. at least i have this nook.

car dreams (and panic attacks).

2011-05-06T08:20:00.003-04:00

artwork by tyler brett from 2009's 'brokeback pontiac' tour findraiser

i am home now, back in toronto, with just under two weeks until we have to depart, austin-bound, to start the tour. we still have no vehicle. although my lovely mechanic is on the job, helping me look for the perfect vehicle, i figured i would put my dream list of car-qualities out into the ether to see if i could scare up a new touring chariot.

do you, or someone you know, have a station wagon that is reliable, good on gas, relatively easy to find parts for, safe and for sale? it also have to be relatively affordable. i am hoping that this new vehicle also bring me firmly into the 1990's.

it's a lofty wish list, but i know there is a new car out there to help me tour. okay world, let me know what you possess.

love,

becky

ufo.

2011-05-05T13:34:00.005-04:00

aitor and i just looked up from our happy reunion, subletter interviews and pre-tour panic to see this drifting past our home. we couldn't entirely tell what it said. "life ___ clear today"? does anyone know what is going on? have i just been duped into caring about some corporate stunt? or political message? i am really hoping that the answer is more magical than that.

family time.

2011-05-03T23:32:00.001-04:00

tonight i had the great luck to spend some time with some of my favourite people/an awesome family, the corries of virginia-brooklyn-berlin. creative exploits and yummy food abounded - just look above. oh, and conversation turns to action on a dime with these guys. case in the point - the images below. anda's new homemade tattoo was inspired by the chit chat notion that "bunting is the hobo sign for the craft community."

i felt like a real stodgy wimp for not getting my first tattoo with the same gusto as anda. maybe next time, okay pete?

painful election.

2011-05-03T02:40:00.001-04:00

i was hoping i would never need these again. oh, canada.

car and tunnel sydrome (or more musings on the power of objects).

2011-05-01T05:56:00.006-04:00

3151445km by the misanthrope specialty co.

driving back from austria yesterday, i was really focused on the cars on the highway - checking out every station wagon that passed us. i am wracked with nerves and guilt over finding a new car and disposing of my old one (that latter deed is done). i feel like i let boris down and am having a really confused time figuring out my feelings towards what amounts to a bunch of metal. i think some of this examination speaks to a greater relationship with stuff. it's a field of exploration that i often find myself in. after all, i am in the business of making things. i hope they are things that will last, be useful and/or enrich the psychic space of those around them, but they are still objects, material. i do know deal in transcendental awakenings. well, not that i know of, anyway.

my friend sarah recently mentioned me in a post she wrote about similar issues of stuff, repair and quality. i am happy to find compatriots in this material-based confusion. i don't feel much closer to any awakening, but it is nice to know that other people are plumbing these same murky depths.

but back to boris, i still cry whenever i think of him. like now. i cry like he was a friend i have lost. worse, still, i had to made the call to terminate our relationship. it feels obscene to spend time embroiled in such angst over a material object when the world is filled with people struggling through real life and death challenges daily.

still, when i told mike (a dear friend and car enthusiast who helped me retire boris while i was in europe) about my shameful weeping, he had this to say:

I'm glad Boris spent the night at our place and that I had the solemn charge of making sure he went away with dignity.

When the man picked him up he parked out front and asked me to drive it out from the back. I rolled the window down to let him know that he'd have to get in through the passenger side and he stopped me when I went to roll it back up saying no to worry about it.

It was raining that day. I did not leave it down.

thank you, mike, for understanding my feelings possibly more than i do and for being unapologetic about them. none of it is making me less of a materialist, i guess, but it sure makes me feel better.

feel free to call me opulent or share your own feelings about material emotions below.

two worlds collide.

2011-04-20T22:20:00.003-04:00

two worlds, one space.

and then we performed at the etsy labs in berlin.

huge thanks to anda, matt and dave for helping make this wonderful evening happen.

and thanks to kayla for a fantastic tour.

yarn dazzle.

2011-04-20T20:54:00.001-04:00

just look at this aghan my friend trixie is working on. she even sent me on my way with a square so i could be mesmerized while i travel onward to germany.

zascitna.

2011-04-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

i know i bought this hand cream just because of the packaging.

eggcetera.

2011-04-12T20:28:00.001-04:00

it's coming up on easter which means that these traditional slovenian easter eggs are all over ljubljana.

peppered tales.

2011-04-04T19:46:00.001-04:00

today our friend nadine took us to her friends' (julia and manou) indie craft shop tucked away in the side streets of the würzburg city centre - {herr} pfeffer. i have to say that in the midst of this performance your, it was incredibly comforting to round a corner and see the telltale markers of indie craft - banners, colour, flags, scalloped edges, bunting. to me, the sense of similarity between shops like these is a gentle gateway into the differences between crafting communities.

i like that indie craft develops in a mixture of isolation, community and cross-pollinated inspiration. it develops work that is both recoginizable in its kinship to...say...what i do while also expressing unique personal voice. at {herr} pfeffer, i saw work that was more playful than the muted tones and minimalism i have been seeing back home. even the politics were dealt with in a more playful manner (fonts communicate a lot when it comes to political messages - see below). not that either is right or wrong, i just like the sense that overlap and independence can coexist. it's organic.

while we were in the shop, manou was working on a large crochet piece intended for public intervention. she also told us a great story about making massive beanies for the city's iconic bridge statues. they were apparently left up on their heads for months before they slowly disappeared. eventually, she saw one of them reemerge in the city on the head of a beleaguered man with dreadlocks down to the ground. this has something to do with the way indie craft operates - work is put out into the world without any control over what the world will do with it. you could say the same about the mass market, but as a maker, the reunion with a single piece would be impossible it that context. unique, handmade work inherently holds story and collects it.

if you find yourself in würzburg, i highly recommend a browse through the shirts, dolls, magnets, pins, notebooks and more of {herr} pfeffer. their stock comes from all over europe and feels like little peeks into the minds of all those makers.

würzburg.

2011-04-02T19:42:00.001-04:00

just a few images from an afternoon walk in würzburg begining with, of course, a self-superior declaration that it has gone beyond spring here today. sorry, toronto.

swell supplies.

2011-04-02T07:38:00.001-04:00

looking for little denim iron-ons today, i was directed to würzburg's multi-level department store. they have a little section for that kind of stuff on the top floor, i was told. look what greeted me at the top of the escalator. pure trouble. this was only the yarn part of the craft section - and the whole complex was not very big as department stores go. this clearly speaks to a greater basic integration of craft into the culture than us north americans are used to. i allowed myself the patches, some thread and a couple skeins of wool and alpaca to crochet on trains. some lucky future shoppers can pick up neckwarmers made from these personal rarities, once the weather gets cold again.

play misty for me.

2011-04-02T02:39:00.000-04:00

so...we woke up to this this morning. hey germany, why you gotta look like such a fairy tale?

the old countries.

2011-04-01T11:34:00.003-04:00

after sixteen hours of travel, kayla and i are finally at our first stop in wurzburg, germany. we will be here for a few days, teaching performing and getting over our jet lag.

packing light.

2011-03-31T11:08:00.002-04:00

in all the kickstarter hubbub circling 'round the campfire here, i have hardly had time to talk about my impending trip to europe. for the most part, it is not a craft-related trip (although i will try to find the time to take small side-trips and report on crafty happenings). i am going on tour to perform a string of dates with one of my improvised theatre collaborators, kayla lorette. you can find out more about all of that and our work together here.

phew! what a whirlwind of ups and downs this past few weeks have been. i can hardly believe the date of departure is upon us. as split as over-burdened as my multiple projects/lives can make me, i am sure am happy for the opportunity to travel so far afield and to perform with such an incredibly talented young lady.

to slovenia and beyond!

vancouver's got craft will match your pledges!

2011-03-30T14:30:00.007-04:00

a stroke of magic has befallen me today. i am a few days into my kickstarter campaign and have been offered an amazing push. the wonderful folks at vancouver's got craft? have offered to match all incoming pledges dollar-for-dollar up to $1000! that means from this moment (at $1085) until i reach $2085, andrea and rob will be there to match every dollar along the way. this is unbelievable news and

to further understand their collective greatness, all you have to do is behold the video below. not only do they run vancouver's biggest indie craft fair, they also have the artfulness and wherewithal (not to mention lighting) to make that brilliant time-lapse. i feel like half my life is spent in environments just like, going through the ebb and flow of pop-up events. what a beautiful glimpse behind the curtain.

got craft? runs its flagship indie craft fair twice a year (spring and winter) and the spring show is just over a month away. vancouver pals, i would go if i was you. it looks incredible. i will bring you more updates as the show draws closer, too.

i have posted a kickstarter update about this here and highly recommend you check out got craft's website here.

totally. amazing.