sidewalk sale.

 

hello, people, i just wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone who came out to the bloorcourt arts & crafts street fair yesterday - there were so many of you! with perfect weather and perfect vibes i could barely have been happier with how the event came off. note: this was not only the first outdoor show i have ever organized but also the largest show (in terms of vendor numbers) that city of craft has ever run.

i am very tired now, but wanted to make everyone know how grateful i am for the great, great day on bloor street.

you win!

you win.

i got all the pieces remaining from my first run of awards for nothing back from printshop forever. if you are still reading this after the months of stillness, i think you deserve one. or rather, i will give one of you one of them.

i have had a fairly rugged and blue half year, so i will selfishly ask for comments that may make me feel happier. i don't want to fish for compliments; i want to shoot them in a barrel.

here's to the endless summer that will be 2012, change, growth, rebuilding and all manner of awards for nothing.

i will pick a winner from your comments on valentine's day.

hands. shop. vanishings.

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).

my imperfections are your deals.

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).

awards for something.

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.

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!

charmed.

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.

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

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.

home stretch.

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.

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.

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!

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.

erotica.

first of all, i would like to say thank you to the folks over at vitamin daily for featuring my smuttons (pictured above) on their site today. they've given me a big boost in traffic.

if you are new here, thanks for stopping by.

this also seemed as good a time as any to say that the smuttons will be the focal point of my display at this saturday's erotic arts and crafts fair. i am spending most of today and tomorrow making more. they were such a fun hit last year, that i committed to doubling the collection this year. so if you want to come down and pick your own this weekend, do! they will be the same price as in the etsy shop (minus the shipping) and you get to say hi and you get to check out all the other awesome vendors.

be the change.

happy black history month! how dare i forget thus far?

i just finished this little custom order for a local school group. it's good to see the good doctor still holding favour with the youth of today.

new buttons for a new decade.

i stayed up last, deep into the wee hours to finally slug through some images and etsy listings. above and below and the two newest button sets, florals by alec thibodeau and botanical magic by matt "matty 8080" cipov. they are both in the etsy shop now.

also new to the shop are these darling pins by missy kulik. entitled 'craft pals', they were made on my last tour. i guess i never got around to photographing them while travelling from place to place. they are also available online at shana logic, so i guess i was not in much of a rush. they really did belong in my little shop, too. and now they are there!

flora.

just got the artwork for this lovely new button set designed by rhode island artist, alec thibodeau. i will be working into the night to package the first of these and matty cipov's botanicals up for tomorrow's trunk show. can you believe that i have never made any floral or botanical buttons in all my years of button making? i know. what's wrong with me? at any rate, i think these are perfectly timed for valentine's day.

botanical magic.

here's a little peek at the new botanical artist button set my matt "matty 8080" cipov. more info to come, but i thought the world deserved a taste.

show time.

this has been a very button-heavy week. i've had a lot of outside orders to complete. first off, this batch up top is for (can you guess it?) laugh sabbath. laugh sabbath is a weekly comedy show in toronto and a collective of local comics of diverse practice (stand-up, monologue, video, improv, sketch comedy) who create a truly exciting string of shows and micro-bits. most of the associated funnies are also very good friends of mine. the rest are (equally funny) enemies. just kidding; there are some new folks who i do not know very well. if you are in toronto or visiting, this is one of the comedy shows i would easily send you to. it certainly fits into the "alternative" brand (whatever that means) so if you prefer awkward comedy and pathos to misogyny and frat ethos (as i do), this is your show.

and trampoline hall has been invited to do a one-off show in vancouver again. since the show needs to present its entire package to those westies, the merch display is also being packed in a hanging folder box and crossing the continent, too. my old pal johnny b will be manning the table which will house the trampoline hall back catalogue of pinback buttons, the last of the comic zines and these new buttons made just for the vancouver instalment. i shifted the colours just for vancouver (to what i consider a sea-to-sky blue) and made the normal run of buttons to celebrate are the lecturers and lecture topics. will bruce willis be lecturing or will he be discussed? i guess you should go to find out. really, you should go. trampoline hall is one of my favourite things and its presentations out of town are becoming awfully rare.

memorandum.

as i sift through my stuff and try to make order of it (and gleefully eject the things i don't want to cling to) i have, obviously, been rediscovering various little treasures of mine. these were not deep into the mess. no, those chasms are reserved for more mundane things like paperwork and receipts.

pictured here is 4/5 of my collection of memorial buttons. being a buttonneer has made me uniquely interested in the origins of my 'craft'. it is a little weird to call button-making a craft since it was not designed to be a skilled trade. instead, it is the imagery used on the buttons that required skill to create. making a button is just grunty labour.

these little artifacts represent some of the earliest days of pinbackery. politics and smoking also played their parts in the development of the ubiquitous pinback button but i have always been more drawn to these ghostly images. ever notice how smiling for photos didn't come into vogue until the 20th century was a little more underway? i particularly like that about these images.

i have been working on my own memorial button project off-and-on for years now but it just never seems to work. my standards are high and my vision clear. it is also hard to have a specific vision when it requires a skill set that you don't have. basically, if one of my pals out there has mad photoshop skills and a high threshold for working with nightmare artist-clients (with no money) i want to hear from you. i will hold my breath until the phone rings...without smiling.