Monday, November 09, 2009
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Coming to Chicago December 5 + 6!! Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, from 11-7. Please stop by and say "hi"!
Carrie and I are happy to announce that we're going to be at this year's Renegade Handmade Holiday show in Chicago!
It's our first show as 1canoe2, and we're busy busy busy printing. We don't want to run out of anything! We know we'll be in good company. Honestly, I would want to go to shop even if we weren't going to have a booth.
Check out these photos from last year's event.
So you 'll be seeing updates that include lots of new printing, and probably some old, and if posts are spare around here, or short, it's because I must be printing!!
Labels: 1canoe2, printing, shop, shows
Friday, November 06, 2009
Look who's REALLY printing all of our calendars!
Curtis and Colin are my co-workers sons. They went as Super C's for halloween. Katie got their costumes from BabyPop on Etsy. They are awesome! Curtis is five years old, and really into art. He was super excited about his "letterprint" bikes. And then of course Colin had to try it out as well.
Hey, I'm doing what I can to pass letterpress printing on down to the next generation!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Marketing Schmarketing
It's true that being an artist is not just getting paint (or ink) all over your hands everyday. That artwork won't sell itself! Okay, so with the internet and Etsy, you might get lucky, get on a big blog, and it might sell itself a little. With a little effort, however, you can sell a lot. And sales on sites like Etsy have a snowball effect...the more you sell, the more often you're listed at the top of the "recently sold" list, and when you relist you're bumped to the top as well, and therefore the more visible you are.
This month I purchased a spot on Poppytalk Handmade. I don't have hard facts to prove it, because frankly, Google Analytics wisdom eludes me just a little, but I think my sales have already gone up because of it. The first day that our gallery was up I sold at least 5-6 items, which virtually paid for the gallery spot.
The best thing about gallery sites like this is that they are curated. I love the "come one come all" flavor of Etsy, but SHEESH! there's a lot of crap on there. (Sidenote: have you wasted any time on this site yet? OMG!) So the gallery websites really direct people to the good stuff.
Go checkout Poppytalk. It has some really great art and usable items on there. I'm just honored to be a part of it!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Cakey cake.
This weekend our dear Nashville friends Aaron and Jenn came to see us as part of their 1 year anniversary trip. At their wedding last year, they had the most delicious pumpkin cake. Yum! So I made a mini one for them, and put it on my new mini cake plate!!
This was so moist and delicious!! I traded most of the vegetable oil for applesauce, and next time I think I'm going to use only applesauce. I also used less sugar than the recipe called for. My adjustments are written in this recipe:
PUMPKIN CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING (adapted from cooks.com)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2/3 c. applesauce (sugar free)
2 c. canned pumpkin (just a little more than 1 can)
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 of an 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 (1 lb.) box powdered sugar
A few splashes of skim milk
2 tsp. vanilla
Prepare Cream Cheese Icing. Combine icing ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, adding milk and powdered sugar until it's the right consistency. take about 1/2 cup of the icing and heat it in the microwave for 15 seconds. Spread this on the cake as a very thin crumb coat, and then chill in fridge or freezer until set. Spread remainder of frosting on cake!
Makes 10-12 servings.
I don't love cream cheese icing, so I used 1/2 the cream cheese, and also some milk to make it more like buttercream.
Now go get a large glass of milk and a fork. And some friends..because it would be easy to eat the entire thing if you didn't have witnesses!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
My love for Blurb continues
My honeymoon book is finally done, and you can see the whole thing online at fabulous Blurb!
I really love how it turned out. The cover is awesome, and I included my sketchbook pages and watercolor paintings from the trip.
Now for my plee: I know this is shameless begging. I don't ask much for all these pages of delightful drivel ... do I? But I NEED you to go vote for my book.
Blurb is running a competition for the best book, and after you see some of the others on their website, you'll agree (I hope) that I could be in the running for winning $3000!!! You can also go on there and see the whole book in preview mode. And like I said before, I think it's pretty great. The photos look dark, and I hope that it looks better in person.
So just go to this page and vote!! PLEASE! I just need to get voted into the top 15 books by website visitors, then the jury will take over and I won't have any control.
I love you guys! You love me too, right?...right? Uh, guys? Hello?
Just because I love you, here's another photo of Walter from the weekend.
He wants you to vote, too. Maybe if I will $3000 I won't make him wear this sweater anymore.
Friday, October 23, 2009
New arrival
I've been MIA this week because we got a new baby at our house!
Meet Walter. He's an 11 week old Boston Terrier, and let me tell you: he's both a scholar and a gentleman.
Now many of you who know me personally have heard me say that I'm not a dog person. And I'm really not. But we're working out our differences. He sits on my lap while I'm on the computer.
I'm still a little freaked out, just because I'm not used to having someone to watch out for, and I don't know what's okay or not. I am getting better, and he's getting used to his new surroundings also. He's not a barker or a biter, so that helps some of my anxiety. And the fact that he is so darn cute. I mean come on. It doesn't get much better than that.
Well, actually, check out this link to photos of Boston Terriers in halloween costumes. That might be cuter.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
What I Did Last Summer
This is the post where I admit that I can't do everything. I should have spent all the time in my class learning to do at least ONE decent mug, as opposed to thousands of crappy items. I had almost gotten the plate thing down at the end.
Considering how much time I spent obsessed with YouTube videos of pottery throwing this summer, you would think I might have learned at least how to make a decent mug. Maybe not.
This is a decent pitcher, but for the atrocious handle.
I'm afraid that my new brother-in-law will find this cake plate so hideous that he won't let my sister bring it into the house. Hey, when you're glazing, you just dip your precious pot in a bucket and pray for the best. Sort of like finding a boyfriend.
I actually kind of like this cake plate below. When we were carrying all the pieces out of the studio, Jason said "would you cry if I dropped all of these?" I said "If it comes down to your face, or that floweredy cake plate, you better save the plate. The rest I don't care about."
My attempt to be the fabulous Whitney Smith whose work I love but cannot afford.
And what the crap is this? I didn't even think it was worth glazing. Now I don't know what to do with it.
As for the pottery: super super fun, but I'm going to stick with what I do best...now if I can just find the post-it note where I wrote exactly what it is that I do best.