Thursday at OHSU - Handmade NW Spring Artisans Fair

Hey everyone, I will be selling my work on Thursday, May 1 during the Handmade NW Spring Artisans Fair at the South Waterfront OHSU building (one of the greenest buildings in the nation, by the way - among many eco-friendly innovations, the building features photovoltaic sunshades, a solar collector, a green roof, and a bioswale that feeds into the Willamette River!).

I will also be hanging my paintings inside the OHSU building, in the Daily Cafe at the Tram, on the evening of April 30, and they will be up throughout the month of May. Yes, that's the cafe where my husband Chuck is the chef. Our drummer Billy works there too, as does Justin from Advisory. So if you've been wanting to visit the cafe and sample something yummy from Chuck's kitchen, this Thursday would be the perfect day to do it - check out my paintings in the cafe and visit the artisans fair in the building's lobby too! More info at the Handmade NW website.

I'd give my teeth to be on the front page...

I went to the dentist this morning and had two wisdom teeth pulled. It was scary, loud, and painful. When I got home, I of course had to check Etsy before going to bed for the rest of the day...and what do you know, one of my items is on the FRONT PAGE! (Thanks to littleputbooks for the alert!)

What a great thing to come home to after a traumatic experience in the dentist's chair! To check out this killer treasury of great red and blue art, clothing, and accessories before it expires, please click here. Now, my pain meds are kicking in so I'm gonna hit the sack. Have a lovely day, everyone!

Please help the polar bears

Help the Polar Bears

by Stephanie Taylor and Zavi Kaul

Help the polar bears! Smart scientists say that in 20 years they'll be extinct!

Let me tell you the situation. Polar bears swim sixty miles out to sea thinking they'll find an iceberg to rest on. But when they don't find one, they can't swim sixty miles back to land, so they drown.

Using fossil fuels causes pollution and leads to global warming which melts the icebergs. So while you are driving your car and using lights, the polar bears are swimming out to sea trying to find an iceberg to rest on, and when they don't find one, they drown! They'll be gone in 20 years!

So when you leave the room, turn off the lights and stop using the computers and TV so much and maybe, JUST MAYBE, we can save the polar bears together.

The above article and illustration were created by two third grade students in my school newspaper class and published in the Fall 2007 issue of the Duniway Dragonian. I am posting it here in honor of Earth Day.

Earth Day Treasury

Today is Earth Day. Here is a treasury of great upcycled items from the Trashion team. Today is a good day to think about buying green.

Popsicle Clocks!

I got new clock parts and the hands look like Popsicle sticks! I love it.

The above funkalicious photos are the 6 clocks that I shipped out today with the rest of the order for BuyGreen.com. I really dig the chunky new hands. I think that they look better and it's also easier to tell the time from a distance. The thinner hands could kind of get lost in the design - not so with these thick babies!

The really cool thing is that having to buy new clock parts means I finally ran out of my initial batch of 100 clock mechanisms that I bought three years ago! So, I have made 100 clocks. Wow.

Tonight - Dartgun & the Vignettes at the Ash Street

Buckman Art Show and Sell - April 11 & 12

I'm getting my stuff together for the Buckman Art Show and Sell, coming up this Friday and Saturday. If you're in Portland, please stop by Buckman for this wonderful event that helps support the city's "arts magnet" elementary school.

Check out Trillium Artisans

One of the aspects of my job at Trillium Artisans that I enjoy the most is getting to work on the website and the collective Etsy shop.

We've contracted with local jewelry artist Lisa Gastelum of TQB Designs to do our product photography, and the results have been amazing! We've also added a whole bunch of new artisans to our group in the last couple of months, and I've just been so impressed by the quality of work that everyone is doing. Such great items made from recycled materials!

Please visit our newly updated shop to see more. I think the three pieces above all go really well together. It's like a combo of the perfect eco-friendly bridal jewelry (made with vintage buttons and beads) AND a perfect wedding gift (the cool bike clock).

In the upcoming months, I will be working on helping individual artisans with fun stuff like setting up Etsy shops, using Constant Contact for email marketing, using Photoshop, setting up blogs, and more. The fab Sister Diane will be teaching a craft blogging class for us at the end of this month - I'm stoked!

Trillium has received funding from the eBay Foundation for our "PDX Green Crafts" project, which involves training and resources designed to increase the internet and technical skills of our artisans so they can make money selling their work online. What a fun job I have!

You can learn more about PDX Green Crafts by visiting Trillium's profile and blog on WorldofGood.com, a new eBay community which will be launching a fair trade marketplace later this year.

Mandala Treasury

It's April Fools Day. If you feel the need to get centered, balanced, focused, and back on track from all the insanity - have a look at some of the gorgeous mandalas in this treasury on Etsy.

Bowled over!

Yesterday I posted some pictures of my last big wholesale order, but I forgot to include this awesome group shot!