walking tour.

london wanderings: motorists do it yourself shop, tumbleweaves, flower market & crafty street art.

london called.

in london (the original one) for a few days to perform. please brace yourself for images and terse tales of indie art and street beauty. today, misty mornings, blooming spring flowers, and giant john waters.

 

home run.

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.

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.

awards in person.

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.

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.

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

skyview.

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.

final fantasy.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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!

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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.

laundry day.

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.

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.