sweets buttons and other news.

okay, so the new sweets buttons by missy kulik are done and up in the etsy shop here. they will also be making live appearances with me as i do craft fairs in the spring and summer and fall. speaking of which, the city of craft/workroom spring thing trunk show is just around the corner and you should probably check it out if you're in toronto.

shannon gerard will be there. she also happened to get written about on reuters today (regarding her boobs and dinks early detection kits) and they happened to use some of my photos.

back in the straddle.

hey, wondering what's up with button operations at the sweetie pie press? me too.

with a day job and the festival i was running and some illness thrown in to boot, the button factory has slowed somewhat over the past couple of months. but we're currently working to rectify that situation and get the wheels rolling again.

pictured above is a sneak peek of two exciting new commissioned artist button sets - sweets by my favorite southern belle/zine queen, missy kulik, and the as-yet-unnamed set of microscopic exploration by toronto-based visual artist/indie magazine magnate, mark laliberte. despite her diminutive size, missy is a pretty big fan of sweets herself. she names everything after them - her cat, her band, her other band, her home. in a visual landscape where cuteness can seem saccharine-plastered everywhere, missy keeps it simple and comes by it honestly. and as for mark, aside from being the everything behind locally-made art & design magazine carousel, he is also responsible for the 1" buttons project that i give the most props to, pop noire. and this coming from a real button snob. you should probably check out the massive outputs of both these guys. it should keep you occupied for a while. when you're done with that, you can come back here where i will hopefully have the finished sets ready for your perusal.

sock monkeys and boobs and dinks.

above is pictured a recent custom order i did for operation sock monkey, an initiative launched by local lady, lindsey hodgson, late last year to both send sock monkeys and other support to aids affected children in africa. you can read much more about the project on her website. also, i think the buttons turned out pretty cute. we had to rush to get them done in time for this saturday's sock-monk-a-thon (on facebook here, and open to anyone who wants to lend a hand/needle). these sock monkey making parties give you a nice tutorial on sock-monkey creation in exchange for your first born monkey - it either gets sold to raise funds or get sponsored to go to africa.

speaking of precocious animals, look at this guy i saw on the streetcar today on my way to work:

somehow when an elephant with a belly full of mice gives you the finger, you just know everything's going to be okay. thanks for providing me with my daily omen, anonymous artist. (and thanks for making it auspicious. i'm totally maxed out on foreboding omens lately!)

after work (where we watch this owl all day), i also got to go on a hot group date with a bunch of my friends. we went to the opening of shannon gerard's playing doctor installation at open studio.

shannon's work is really interesting to me because it straddles art and craft (and in this case, education) with ease. this merging of art and craft is a big hot topic in local indie craft circles (i can't speak to whether or not the art community wants to foster more "low-craft" fusion). and shannon just flips back and forth between both worlds so effortlessly. she's also got mad crochet skills, which i always respect. these skills are not shown off nearly as much in her boobs and dinks as they are in her upcoming series which i have had the honour to preview. and that's saying a lot. her dinks and boobs are no slouches. the whole project is quite impressive in concept, design, quantity and display.

congratulations on your opening, shannon! here are a bunch more pictures to celebrate you:

frozen mitten # 2

frozen mitten

found april 2, 2008
christie & ashworth
toronto

this frozen mitten was being angrily tossed into the middle of the street along with the business end of a broom today as i travelled up christie street. i guess the lady doing the tossing had become tired of mittens and broom parts accumulating on her property (or possibly just a property she admires). regardless, her timing was good as i am a newly established mitten rescuer.

as a side note, i was on my way to drop off a small button order for this. if you are a youth who makes art, you might want to check them out.

supply swap two: the craftening.

photo of the last supply swap by the workroom

there is another city of craft/workroom collaborative supply swap happening this weekend. on sunday. in toronto. maybe you'd like to come.

to quote myself from the city of craft website:

Sunday, April 6th
1:30pm - 3:00pm
the workroom
1340 queen street west

You get a free lunch bag to fill if you bring a contribution of craft supplies to swap.
Subsequent bags are $5.
All proceeds go to support City of Craft 2008.

now also available in facebook.

note: becky connoisseurs amongst you will notice the witchery karyn's panorama software has performed on my legs. that makes this week's black art photography (sorry, letterpress; you've had your day).

the frozen mitten lost and found

what a difference two weeks make. apologies to my reader for abandoning this blog for a while. i was running an improv tournament/festival here in toronto that burgled all my waking hours.

this is the blog entry i've been meaning to make this whole time. although, it did make a little more sense two weeks ago.

frozen mitten

found march 12, 2008
front & spadina
toronto

as the ice melts on the streets and winter continues to buck its weary head, all sorts of things are melting out into the city. this seems as good a time as any to announce this little project i've had brewing for a while now - the frozen mitten lost and found.

this year, on my birthday, i lost one of my favorite mittens. it was made for me by this lady on barter and was one of a kind. i was pretty heartbroken and retraced all kind of steps all over the city but to no avail. it was gone. and yet i know it still probably exists. but the act of giving up on such a search felt like an admission that the pursuit was impossible, that my mitten was not anywhere i could find it, or that maybe it had vanished all together.

for this reason, i decided to take in wayward mittens in the hopes that someday they might be reunited with their mates. this project also spills into some more interactive/installation-based notions, too, but i still have to propose those so i've yet to find out if they will materialize.

although it probably won't really kick into gear until next winter, i figured i should post pictures of any mittens already collected since the main goal of the project is reunification. if you happen to find mittens, you can also send them to me - just make a note of when and where you found them.

if you are reading this from outside of toronto and feel the call to establish a frozen mitten lost and found of your own, please get in touch. i am also coming up with guidelines for creating sister projects.

my fist time.

so i was approached by this lovely lady at the valentine's trunk show who purchased my last heart worm note card and then got to thinking about some invitations she needed made for an upcoming party.

we got to talking and later got to emailing and i took on the project. it was my first foray into making printed matter on commission. i've been avoiding such activity because i find commissioned work totally nerve wracking. when it comes to working on demand, it seems you've either got it or you've not got it. i feel as though i've not got it. it's just so much easier for me to make things without worrying about someone else's pleasure of them. and in a case like this, where the imagery has to symbolize the union of two people - whoa, the pressure!

all that said, my commissioners (probably the wrong word) were incredible to work with on this, my first project. they supplied me with great imagery as a starting point, gave me lots of flexibility, and totally appreciated the general handmadeness of my approach.

would i work on commission like this again? hard to say. part of me doesn't want to taint this experience with anything else. i also charged way too little (without regrets, guys, this was a learning process for me) and would have a more realistic pricing scheme for future projects. but who knows? i actually think i may have already committed to doing road merch for my friends, woodhands.

oh, and as an aside, i saw emily martin of the black apple on martha stewart today chatting about etsy and making dolls. what a thrill! i guess this indie handmade thing has arrived. congratulations, emily!