WARNING:
Copying my Stuff is illegal and Really Bad Karma.
Please don't think that people who use phrases like:
"Bad Karma" don't have very Competent Attorneys.
We do.
It's time again to consider your 2010 calendars. May I suggest a trip to the amazing Dolphin Studios?
This is where you will joyfully meet the Ffrenches, one of the most creative families imaginable. John Ffrench and Primm Turner are now in their 80's and ready to hand the family calendar production & distribution over to Crispina and Sofia, two of their 3 daughters.The hand-screened hand-printed calendars are 12" x 24" and so Freakin' AMAZING. I suggest that THIS be number one on your wish list for Holiday 2009. Where, I ask you, WHERE can you find twelve hand screened 12" X 24" images for less than $60?
Here's a peek at 2009's delightful images. The upcoming 2010 is Off The Charts excellent as well:
Okay. So after you read the Ffrench Family story on their site, come back here for more about their daughter, Crispina. I first "met" Crispina when my friend Julie George Windsor (more about HER in a later post) showed me a unique blanket made from pieced together, super soft recycled material. Oh, and Crispina was distributing her catalogs in a collapsed cereal box in the early 90's, LONG before using cereal boxes became Green-Cool. Now Crispina has a web site, a Blog and an ETSY where she sells her stuff. Hooray for THAT. It used to be really hard to find.
Look at some of her coolness:
How great is this? >>>
I love the way that she integrates sketching with her photos:
Look at this chair!
One of her specialties are these little RagaMuffins. The perfect toy:
Of course, there's a book for you Fabric People (Bless your talented Hearts)
So enjoy the season as it roars down upon us. Buy Handmade when you can.
Next up? More cool people to meet, books to investigate, whatever I can toss your way....
I wasn't going to post about Sundance Channel's MAN SHOPS GLOBE, but in the last week, several of my very design-savvy friends mentioned that they had NO IDEA that it existed, so I had to do my Bloggers Duty and pick up my bullhorn. Let me tell you FIRST, that if you don't receive The Sundance Channel, you can purchase the shows on I-Tunes. $1.99 each. TOTALLY worth it and less than half the price of the Sunday Times!
A few weeks ago, my friend Linda Warlyn gave me a "heads up" about this show (look for Linda's work as the Featured Artist in an upcoming Somerset Studio!). She had me at ANTHROPOLOGIE!
Stand back as the lovely Keith Johnson enters the scene: He's the main Treasure Seeker for ANTHROPOLOGIE. He travels the World looking for displays and unique, craftsman-made, one-of-a-kind products for the 120 national and international ANTHROPOLOGIE stores. Sometimes he artfully combines pieces that he finds, right there, on the spot, creating an even MORE unique spin. He takes the viewer on each trip, narrating and sharing his thoughts and strategy. You get to meet the accompanying staff and craftspeople. Oh, help me over to the couch!
Keith's partner is Glen Senk who is a brilliant mind behind the stores and has a fascinating history. Read an excellent article about Glen here at the
Wall Street Journal Digital
Network. Just thought I'd toss this in because these guys are SO fascinating.
See that amazing chandelier? It's made from recycled plastic and pretty much JUNK, by craftspeople in South Africa. Guess who commissioned a duplicate for his daughters play room? President Obama.
I found out that Keith and his crew were at the Denver ANTHROPOLOGIE on October 6 to raise funds for a local art school. Yes, I was 3 weeks too late. I hate that.
It's on Wednesday nights, but again, feel free to scarf 'em up at I-Tunes.
This tale starts with a very quick visit to Santa Cruz. My good friend Erin and her lovely partner Margot agreed to make the drive up from their home in Morro Bay (better known as Paradise). If you don't already know, Margot owns Sassy Feet. She and her business partner Destiny run a company that alters shoes of all kinds. There's a bridal division, there's a Sassy Feet book. There's a Blog. Margot teaches classes and participates in Altered Clothing Worlds previously unknown to me. Being a former resident of Santa Cruz, Margot knew the area like the back of her hand and we had a fabulous 20-some hours. We packed a lot in, but I HAVE to tell you about my Aqua work boots!...Knowing Margot's Mad Skills, I had told them weeks before about my vision for Aqua Work Boots a la David Bowie. The MOMENT we got together, they whisked me away to a Payless where we found THESE affordable and somewhat "Practical" boots:
Back to the hotel parking lot where we unpacked the shoe workshop supplies from the back of her car. This cute, 30-something guy was watching us and drove slowly up to Bark:
"OHMIGOD!!!....are you three going to Be-Dazzle Tee Shirts??!!!!" I loved that he even knew the word "Be-Dazzle". Up in the room, I glanced through the swatches and found the perfect color, but it was a Glitter Paint that didn't make the trip up. Also, I wanted "Bowie" but not "Bowie does Vegas" so I opted to mix the un-glitter paints (which had a delicious, subtle metallic glow) to get the same color:
A few coats later, a new pair of laces and my vision was realized EXACTLY the way that I hoped it would be. How often does THAT happen???? Margot is a VERY patient and skillful teacher. She's also VERY fun.
I'm now pulling MORE shoes out of my closet knowing that all it takes is a little trip to Sassy Feet and Voila!...new life!
Hey. Nobody has boots like this. I custom blended the paint. If you have to pass on Nordstrom's shoe department this fall due to harsh economic times, or if you're all about re-purposing and cheering for a lower carbon footprint (get it?)....just hook up with Sassy Feet.
Did you HEAR IT? ...were you listening to National Public Radio this morning??!!!! I almost missed it. A little "blurb" telling us that when the Polaroid Instamatic Camera was discontinued last year, a great public outcry ensued. Not only "typical" end users, but professionals like photographers, people in fashion, construction, realtors and everyone else that had a Real World Reason to need hard copy, sent out their dismay in letters, emails, faxes and even posted on SAVE THE POLAROID websites. They needed their shots NOW, not later, not later at home at their computers...NOW. I'm thrilled to pass on the announcement that within the next 6 months, the film will return. For those of you that sold or gave away your old cameras? fear not, Polaroid is releasing new cameras too. I posted here about the new Fuji Camera convinced that Polariod was dead. REALLY dead. Now we have options. I may have to write a letter of THANKS to the company for being brave enough to back-track and rethink a BIG decision. Good for them. Good for US. Now it's GOCCO's turn.......
I have a bumper sticker that announces my belief, pasted to my messenger bag. I traveled a bit in the last month and several people stopped me at airports to ask where the sticker came from. I had the pleasure of telling them that not only could I direct them, but that I met the designer and she was out to change the World...indeed.
While visiting family in Half Moon Bay California, I had the pleasure of meeting Emily Pilloton. She and her partner Matt had pulled their vintage airstream trailer into the courtyard of C2 design firm and were busily working, after the recent release of Emily's ground breaking new book:
I was struck my Emily's intelligence, accessibility and energy. Spending a little time with her, reading her book and watching her Inspiring You Tube presentations, I realized that there is NO reason that we, as artists, designers, writers, knitters, cooks, HUMANS.....cannot infuse our work, our art, our passions, with a higher purpose. Maybe we can just start to THINK about it. Plant the seed......
As we sat and talked, I told her my plans to mainstream construction refuse into the school systems to use as art supplies (more on that some other day). She listened intently and before I knew it, she handed me the number of a construction refuse clearing house IN MY AREA OF THE COUNTRY. This woman gets it done. Walks the talk....okay, maybe RUNS the talk.
Let me give you a small taste of this must-have book. I love the straightforward layout. I would consider this the perfect gift for inducing "Motivated, Creative Inspiration". When you see how simple, beautiful and clean these products are, you'll wonder why YOU didn't think of them. THEN you'll ask yourself what else you can dream up that may just make a difference:
excerpted from
the Foreword by Allan Chochinov:
In
January of 2008, with a thousand dollars, a laptop and an outsized conviction
that design can change the world, rising San Francisco-based product designer
and activist Emily Pilloton launched Project H Design, a radical non-profit
that supports, inspires and delivers life-improving humanitarian product
design. "We need to go beyond 'going green' and to enlist a new generation
of design activists," she wrote in an influential manifesto. "We need
big hearts, bigger business sense and the bravery to take action now."
Featuring more than 100 contemporary design products and systems--safer baby
bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, low-cost prosthetics for
landmine victims, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children,
wheelchairs for rugged conditions, sugarcane charcoal, universal composting
systems, DIY soccer balls--that are as fascinating as they are revolutionary, this
exceptionally smart, friendly and well-designed volume makes the case for
design as a tool to solve some of the world's biggest social problems in
beautiful, sustainable and engaging ways--for global citizens in the developing
world and in more developed economies alike. Particularly at a time when the
weight of climate change, global poverty and population growth are impossible
to ignore, Pilloton challenges designers to be changemakers instead of
"stuff creators." Urgent and optimistic, a compendium and a call to
action, Design Revolution
is easily the most exciting design publication to come out this year.
Emily's website is HERE. I'd love to see coffee groups brainstorming products that could change the lives of people. Why not? ....drag out the sketchbook and have at it...you needed an excuse to write in that pile of unused sketchbooks anyway, didn't you?
I'm going to embed a video here, but I encourage you to watch several presentations that feature Emily. You'll see the links on the right side of the You Tube screen. I hope that this post will remind you that even a small thing, a small product, idea or concept can change the World around you.In very Large ways.
Funny how stuff that gets written in that little note pad just won't leave you alone. Maybe a sketch, maybe something innovative that just knocked you over. It keeps circling you. Maybe for years. This was the case with a certain "Bag" that I saw several YEARS ago at Victoria Price Art and Design in Santa Fe. It's a very cool store and gallery owned by Victoria Price, daughter of Vincent Price. This fact alone did me in. ANYWAY....there I was, swooning over the furniture when I saw these...these BAGS. Not exactly purses, not exactly portfolios.....they were obviously made from the heaviest canvas (think Ships Sail) and the designs and colors were amazing. So well made. Bulletproof. Kinda like Prada meets BrickLayer. I didn't snap one of these beauties up because they are not (and were not) in my price range. After I thought about it (and had walked away) , I realized that you would probably never have to buy another bag ever-ever-ever again.
Fast forward to a week ago, and there I am waking around in a very cool store when what do I see again?....one of these bags. Love again. Oh no. This is bad. Or good. This time I pursued the story of these things and found the website which is excellent. READ THE STORY. Read about the designer, Sherry Stein and her journey. Yes, the bags were designed based on old doctors, carpenters and studio bags. She and her very creative, industrious sisters were always traveling around the World in their various design capacities and Sherry made their bags. Bags that will withstand almost anything. All pieces and parts are procured from American, family run companies. They are assembled by women in Santa Fe. You can buy from her website. You design the colorway that you want.
There are the Coolest Diaper Bags that I've ever seen and I would carry one NOW, even though my Baby is in grad school. If I were looking for the perfect gift for a young family, it would be one of these bags. Hey, you can totally get a color that works for everyone if such things occur or matter to you.
In case you didn't hear, the FTC Is now insisting that Bloggers disclose when they are PAID or "gifted" to "advertise" a product. All I can say is : "I WISH......!!!!"
....I think that it comes from having owned a Creative Store. I just have a habit of grabbing people by the arm and dragging them over to show them ANYTHING that I find inspiring.
By the way....my next post will feature a young designer that I had the privilege of visiting with in Half Moon Bay. She's changing the World and creating a Design Revolution.
...so there I am in Barnes & Nobel, sitting in a big, puffy chair cooking up stuff with my favorite designer, Matt Wood, when my eyes fall upon the magazine rack and a cover featuring my second favorite designer/illustrator: Maira Kalman. Swish and Swipe. It's MINE. NO, but I PAID for it.
This issue of The Artist's Magazine is a good one, but I would have bought it for a one page Kalman article let alone a SEVEN page spread!
Maira Kalman is a New York institution. Take a moment to get to know her on Wikipedia and if you ever, ever, EVER have a desire to draw or paint, you MUST jump deeply and passionately into her work. I first met her when I read her fabulous "Max" children's books to Micah. Her painted illustrations are SO fun, whimsical and inspiring that I have since given those children's books to adult and teen painters with nothing but new converts and raves. My personal favorite is "Oooh La La (Max in Love)" but they ALL rock. Good for boys and girls alike.
The New York Times invited Maira to keep a Blog for a year, illustrating about one new thing per day (I know...."whew!") so up popped her amazing Blog which you can access by clicking on her name in the first part of this post. You'll find the current and updated version. For the original Blog year posting, order The Principles of Uncertainty. It's about to come out in paper, but I've found the hardcover for a very reasonable price. Although almost completely text free (except for her delightful handwriting/calligraphy) this is the book that I would take to that desert island.
The article also lists her technique and her favorite materials. I love it.
EDITORS NOTE: Apparently Typepad is having some "issues" with it's new and "improved" version. I hope that your RSS feed thingy is working. A few people told me that they have not received their usual notification and had no idea that I was posting. EEEeeeewwwww. If you happen to know anyone who reads my Blog (as unlikely as THAT is...) would you mind mentioning that I'm still writing? Many thanks! Here's hoping that Typepad will get it together...SOON. I have some cool stuff to tell you and we just posted Sarah Fishburns new Bonfire story!
It's getting cool here in Loveland. I just returned from a journey to the ocean and a heat wave had the nerve to follow me there. Hey, I'm the one who LOVES a cool, misty day, but in spite of the heat, I was rejuvenated and inspired. I returned with a ton of new posts but first, let's start the month out right, shall we? Our guest author last month left our readers delighted and asking for more. Hey, ask and you shall receive, thanks to the generosity of one Sarah Fishburn. We now get to enjoy Part Two of her Rose-colored Velvet Loveseat tale! To start off, here's a "soundbite" of her writing. When you're done with your "bite", click over to The Gypsy Bonfire and read the next installation of her story....Sarah?......
"Sticks
and stones", we protest, or, "I didn't really mean it!"... If
we're lucky "Thank God", or just plain ugly and mean, "I told
you so." The power of a word is too often dismissed, disowned,
denied. But the very first thing when our children are born we hold them
close and whisper, "I love you my little one; I'l try to protect
you," and nothing can stop us, nothing is stronger.
Here in Northern Colorado, we're very proud of the New Belgian Brewery. When I was in the Rubber Stamp mines with my former company, Uptown, we used to happily make rubber stamps for this "little" business. The owners would come running in with their hair on fire asking for a rush on a stamp, due to shipping deadlines. I'll tell you now that our "little" brewery is no longer "little". It's a fantastic, employee owned, Ultra-Green work of art. Their most famous brand: Fat Tire Beer (so named after Fat Tire bikes) is internationally known. I'm not a beer drinker, but I admit that THIS beer is delicious, rich and....well. Look into their site and don't be put off by the required birthdate screen. They do not EVER send you crap or pass on your data. Read the history and be amazed. The only requirement for working there is the Hip Factor. Now on to The TOUR DE FAT. Once you work at New Belgian for a year, they give you a Fat Tire bike. How Cool is That? In a flash of brilliance, the N.B. people came up with a local bike parade called The TOUR DE FAT. Anyone can participate. Bring your bike and your creativity. The Tour started in Fort Collins and has progressed to Denver, Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, Tempe, Minneapolis......stunning. TOUR money is donated to charity. One person gives up their car at each TOUR and is given a bike. It's another way that N.B. gives back. One less car. Could YOU do it? Do you want to see the last TOUR in Fort Collins? it was a couple of weeks ago: an estimated 10,000 participants in a town of 80,000. Double that number of observers. No citations, no arrests, no vandalism, no drunk and disorderlies. How's THAT for great integrity and community participation? Hooray Fort Collins! Hooray New Belgian! The Tour went past my Fort Collins house and I'm telling you, next year I'm riding it. Look at this sea of bikes at the starting point: and people: An "officer" at an intersection. Bikes and traffic were very polite: It was a solid two hour procession of bikes coming down the road: Why wait for Halloween to dress up? really. Hey, I have those boots! Recently, the observers are starting to dress up and get in on the fun. It's actually a great idea because you can participate and still see the whole amazing, crazy parade: ...some friends that are always willing to jump in and have fun:
Thanks for some of the photos, Sara T!
So if you happen to be anywhere NEAR a TOUR DE FAT, I hope that you'll consider participating. Cheers!
I have to tell you that I've had Andy Warhol on the Brain. I THOUGHT that I knew a ton about him, but once my pal Monica and I spent a couple of hours watching the 240 minute PBS documentary, I felt like I was back at The Factory, dancing and washing off smeared eyeliner in the bathroom at 4 a.m. (not that I've ever DONE that....{clears throat}) getting ready to pull screens and drink coffee til I regained my Reality Momentum. It inspired me to grab a book that I had WAY back on the shelf: Wild Raspberries by Andy Warhol and Suzie Frankfurt.
I'm falling in love all over again. It's a Faux Cookbook by Andy and friend Suzie Frankfurt and well....let me just copy the flap insert...by the way, you can buy used copies on Amazon for very little cashola. I was amazed: "In 1959, artist Andy Warhol got together with his friend Suzie Frankfurt to produce a limited edition cookbook for New York's Beau Monde. They called it Wild Raspberries (Ingmar Bergman's film Wild Strawberries had just been released), and it's hands-down the funniest, most fanciful cookbook ever produced. Nineteen vintage Warhol illustrations accompany the hilarious recipes - A&P Surprise, Gefilte of Fighting Fish, Seared Roebuck, and Baked Hawaii, among others- that were conceived by Frankfurt and hand lettered by Mrs. Warhola, Andy's mother". (I always thought that the cool handwriting was HIS!!!) I strongly suggest this as a gift for yourself or the sketcher in your life. For those of you in Northern Colorado.....you must get over to the Colorado State University Art Museum in the old Fort Collins High Building. You'll be re-inspired by the FLOWERS prints and there you can see the PBS film that has me considering a fright wig (as opposed to my morning hair which is very close). Enjoy!
