Crafty Wonderland Pop-Up Shop

Multnomah County Central Library & Finnegan's Toys has a new neighbor for November & December. The City of Portland has asked Crafty Wonderland to participate in their Pop-Up Shop program. Basically they fill vacant storefronts downtown with local talent over the Holidays. The Crafty Wonderland ladies have exclusively hand-selected 80-some awesome crafters & artists to sell their hip handmade work at their storefront in downtown Portland. They call it a "pop-up shop" because it is only open temporarily, from November 9th through December 30th. I was pretty stoked to be asked to sell my artwork and jewelry there, along with all the other local talented artists & crafters.

The shop is located at 802 SW 10th Avenue in downtown Portland. It's on the corner of SW Yamhill & 10th.

There's a SmartPark parking garage right across the street. Oh so very convenient. There is also parking available at metered street spots. The shop is open from 10:00am – 7:00pm, Monday through Saturday and 12:00pm – 6:00pm on Sundays. There are going to be some fun special events at the shop. For example, wacky holiday photo booth on December 4th, which is this coming Saturday. For more information about events, visit www.craftywonderland.com/pop-up-shop.

I took lots of snaps of the shop and have posted some below. If you would like to see more of them, hop on over to my Flickr here.

Give the gift of handmade this year. Instead of giving your dad a clichéd sweater, give him some something creative and unique!

Support a local artist. Viva handmade!

Caturday

Today has been fun. I took a trip down to Jo-Ann's, stocked up in some crafty supplies. I'm getting ready for the humongous show coming up next weekend! I then hit up Best Baguette for lunch. Delicious! It's becoming one of my favorite lunch spots. It's like French and Asian food fused together. This time around I ordered the grilled chicken with Asian spices on a baguette. I couldn't resist ordering one of their Mango Boba teas as well.

After lunch I made a visit to the Goodwill and found a vintage suitcase for only 7 bucks. What a steal! I also found a vintage travel Scrabble game. I plan on making some jewelry out of these mini letters. Since I brought them home, Yoshimi has been really into playing with the letters. I better be careful and keep them away from her. Otherwise they may be on the floor in every room very soon.

I'm really excited for next Saturday and Sunday! I've been counting down the days until Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Spring Show. Everyday I've been doing a little bit to prep for it. I have even made some new handmade goodies that haven't made their way into my Etsy shop. I found some great frames at Ikea the other day. At next weekend's show I decided that I will be selling some of my prints already in frames like above. I have even went in and signed the mattes.

Yesterday I found out where my booth will be next weekend! I posted it so you know where exactly where to find me and my handmade goods. I'm super stoked about my neighbors too... Soma Venus & Camp Smartypants. We are going to have so much fun.

Welp, need to get off the Mac. I have a date with crafting for the rest of the evening. Maybe Yoshimi will join in on the fun. Checking out the dvd collection... maybe watch some Veronica Mars (Yes, I'm a geek), Curb Your Enthusiasm, or Freaks and Geeks? Decisions decisions decisions.

Sierra sings and plays guitar and flute. Bianca sings and does percussion.

"CocoRosie are two American-born sisters, Sierra and Bianca, who started making music together in Paris in 2003. Their first album, La Maison de Mon Rêve, was released in 2004 and their second album, Noah's Ark, followed in 2005. Their third and, to now, most recent album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, came out in 2007. All three of these albums were released worldwide on Touch and Go Records and earned critical acclaim both overseas and at home. The nomadic duo (currently and temporarily residing in New Mexico) spent much of 2008 writing and recording in Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Berlin, New York, and Paris, finding amazing and diverse musicians to collaborate along the way. The result is their eleven song Sub Pop debut, Grey Oceans." -via Insound.com

Last week I discovered that one of my top 10 favorite bands, CocoRosie is releasing a new album this May! AND you can pre-order the LP from Insound.com!  In college/dial-up days I used to regularly surf Insound, I feel a lil' nostalgic for the first days of exploring all the bands out there. Epitonic was another favorite site. Hmm... I wonder if they are still up and running. I'm really really really looking forward to putting some new vinyl on the turntable!

And then yesterday while flipping through the Portland Mercury a friend and I found out that CocoRosie is performing here in Portland on June 26th! I have never been to one of their shows. Their music is pretty wild... very unique. Their genre is kinda indie... folk... experimental... and a little bit electronic. In a few of their songs you can also hear children's toys playing in the background. I first heard their music back in Nebraska on UNL's radio station, KRNU.

A few interesting facts that I found out about CocoRosie...

• The name CocoRosie comes from their nicknames from their mother. "Rosie" is Sierra's and "Coco" is Bianca's. • Both of their parents have Native American ties which influences their music. • Sierra & Bianca lost contact for about 5 years. Sierra wanted to be an opera singer and moved to France to pursue her interest. Bianca had an interest in visual arts & writing. Off she went to New York. They reunited in 2003 to begin making music together.

Lastly, I leave you with some of my favorite tunes of theirs. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

• Rainbowwarriors by CocoRosie

More CocoRosie music on iLike

• Butterscotch by CocoRosie

More CocoRosie music on iLike

• Werewolf by CocoRosie

More CocoRosie music on iLike

A clustering from the Month of Love

The month of February has flown by. One single post won't even cover half of what I have been up to this month. Hopefully next month I will be better about updating more often. Cluster o' items...

I love cameras. I've been giving my digital Rebel some attention this month. I'm sorry to say that in the past 6 months it has taken the backseat. I kinda forgot about it and have been distracted with a convenient digital point & shoot that can be easily slipped into my pocket. I started missing the quality of Sir Rebel, so this month I made it a priority to snap photos left and right with it. Actually all the photos posted on this entry are taken with it. I've been thinking about getting back into photography. I've had my eyes on another camera too... ever since I saw Zooey with her jogging camera club crew in Griffith Park in the flick, Yes Man. I did some research earlier this month and discovered that they use a Fujifilm Instax mini7. I can't wait to get my lil' hands on one of these some day.

I love Thursdays. In fact every Thursday morning of this month I've had coffee+drawing club with some lovely friends. To be exact, I have drawn 7 herbs in my sketchbook to be included in my Herb Series. Most of which haven't made it yet from the sketchbook... to the scanner... to the Illustrator. Thus far, rosemary is the only one that has gone through the steps.

Rosemary print :: 8" x 10" :: View in Etsy Shop

"Primarily a meat herb, as used on the roast of beef, rosemary is the leaf of an evergreen shrub and shaped like a curved pine needle. It has a fresh, sweet flavor, is better fresh from the garden than when dried. It is excellent with lamb, fish, and poultry."

I love Spark Cards. I'm thrilled to announce that my greeting cards are on their sleek shelves, ready to be snagged by the nearest set of hands. Spark Cards features greeting cards created by local artists. Many are printed using artisanal methods — letterpress, screenprint, lino block, and hand assembled one-of-a-kind collage.

Spark Cards :: 4430 SE Hawthorne Blvd :: Portland, Oregon

Herb Series & Standard Movement Series greeting cards

I love earrings. I handmade a bunch of new earrings over the month. They will appear in some upcoming craft shows this spring in the Stumptown area. Some will gradually be listed into the Etsy shop.

Little Beavers, Little Tree Stumps v. 2 :: earrings :: View in Etsy Shop

I thought I'd end with some bulleted miscellaneous items that I have discovered & hearted over the month.

• Calimyrna Figs from Trader Joe's • Design Milk article on Wayne Coyne's (of The Flaming Lips) bathroom (more info...) • Happy Sparrow on Belmont • Community meeting about Last Thursday on Alberta (more info...) • Snapple Green Tea Mango • WEST exhibit at Land Gallery on Mississippi (more info...)

New Earrings, Giveaway, & Etc.

Oh my! I haven't written a blog post since October 12th! Here's a quick run-through of the latest.

New Earrings... October Nights and Black Kitten's Green Eyes are available for purchase in my Etsy Shop.

My Dill drawing of my Herb Series is featured in an Etsy Treasury called Dill or Sweet. They can't be beat! Click here to view.

On Sunday, November 8th I will be selling my art and jewelry at Crafty Wonderland. More info here!

I'm doing my very first give-away on here! I will be giving away an 8" x 10" print of my Poppy Seed drawing!

There are 2 ways to win:

1. Send a tweet on Twitter with the hashtag: #atealeaf. Maybe something like: "Hoping to win this awesome print: http://tinyurl.com/poppyseed! #atealeaf". I'll watch the hashtag and automatically register you for the contest.
2. Or register using Facebook. All you have to do is invite 10 friends to become fans of the A Tea Leaf Facebook fanpage here. Once you've done that just let me know in the comments below and I'll register you to win.

The winner will be contacted and announced on Friday, November 6th.

00016 - Western White Clematis

Introducing my 16th piece of my series, Standard Movement.

00016 - Western White Clematis – Click here or image above to purchase a print

To begin with, the oval frame. My thoughtful Godparents found it at an antique store. They are so sweet. As many of you know, I love bubbled glass. Who doesn't? I love how it enhances my imaginative 2-D world. Next, something new this time around. I usually use vintage paper for the main background, in this case I used fresh, crisp ledger paper. I wanted this work to be much simpler than the last, so I left a lot of white space and added fewer textile pieces which represent orbs. I incorporated a white flowering plant that I discovered on a walk to Portland's striking St. Johns bridge. The plant caught my eye with it's showy seedheads.

I searched high and low. Alas I found the name of the white flowering plant, it's called Western White Clematis. I read that it is a perennial vine and a member of the Buttercup family. It also goes by names such as Virgin’s Bower, Traveler’s Joy, and Leather flower. It sounds like a terrible idea to get in contact with, its oils are extremely irritating to the skin. It can also cause internal bleeding of the digestive tract if digested in large amounts. Eek! However, Native Americans would use it for headaches and nervous disorders, in small doses, of course.

If you would like to purchase a print of this original artwork of mine, they are available in my online shop, here. The prints are a limited edition of 30, printed on a heavy cardstock paper, backed with matboard, and slipped into a cellophane envelope. Whew! Did you get all that? I will also sign each print and ship them in a bendproof mailer. Live near Portland and wanna save on shipping? I will also be selling these guys at Crafty Wonderland and Skating with Scissors Craft Bazaar. I'm so jazzed to participate in my first two craft shows!

Featured on ittybittybirdy's blog

Last Friday, Chelsea Ann and I headed out to the winding Germantown Road. We sure had fun snapping pictures with her new Canon. You can view the snaps that I took and her very sweet post about me here!

Nurture thy Mind pendant necklaces

Both Nurture thy Mind pendant necklaces have been purchased and sent off to their new homes. How thrilling!

I really fancy these petite artworks, I do, I do. The idea that art doesn't have to be displayed on a wall is sublime in my mind. This is true with my wooden block artworks too. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy working with flat surfaces like canvases and framing art too. I think I love bouncing back and forth, I love having options. So all in all, making these necklaces has been an eye-opening and positive experience for me and I want to continue to pursue them. So this weekend I'm planning on making at least two... maybe four. We'll just see.

A creative motivated mind

What motivates you?

I was asked this simple yet broad question this morning. With believing that motivation and inspiration work hand and hand, I decided to write about this topic today for my weekly inspiration post. Hopefully Yoshimi (my cat) isn't anymore of a distraction. She has been very rambunctious & kind of a nuisance: racing around the apartment, batting at paper, and finding new ways to chew on electrical cords.

This question made me think more about what motivates me to do art. Two distinct reasons have been rolling around in my head like marbles... community and experimentation. There were many many reasons why I moved to Portland from the Midwest. One being, I knew there was a strong creative/diy/artsy/designy community here. Being around these folks' creative energy and the fact that they enjoy the same thing that I have since I was 4 is, well... pretty friggin' awesome, I must say. I wasn't getting this artsy energy nearly as much back home and I felt my motivation to create art was dwindling. Oh sure, I went to art gallery openings and had art discussions & critiques with friends, but it just wasn't enough. So being involved with Portland's creative community is part of the pie. Sharing my final works with people and (hopefully) making their day brighter definitely motivates me to go full steam ahead.

Next, experimentation. Playing Sequence (the board game) with my friends on Christmas, three of us subconsciously made patterns with our unused game pieces. Eventually we noticed this, pointing each others out while we chuckled. I think it's so important for me to have different media to work with and to see the different directions to take it in. Playing around with those game pieces led me to think about drawing the patterns and ellipsis that I include in my artwork. Maybe that's why I love collaging so much. The experimenting is so very limitless. Sometime in the future I can see myself doing installation art and this encourages me to experiment more and more.

Well I'm going to stop there. I've got a proposal to write. I may be working on designing a consultant's business identity package. Weeeeeeee!

So I'm very curious... Artists, Crafters, and Designers out there... What motivates you? What reasons are rolling around in your head?

00012

My 12th piece has been completed! I drew snake grass that I found on Sauvie Island. Off to the right you can see an old map of Omaha.

Breathing Fidelity drawing

Monday, Monday, Monday... hey, let's go back to the weekend! Over the weekend I had a chance to snap some better pictures of my work titled Breathing Fidelity (original) which is for sale in my Etsy Shop here.

A little info about this work: Raindrops evolve into delicate snowflakes while coffee spills and orbs float around them. This original art of mine measures 5"x7" and is behind glass, which has stencil graffiti of a honeycomb pattern.