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.

box of nothing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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).

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.

a raum with a view.

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.

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.