Introducing: Colored Vinyl Cuffs!

This last week, I somehow managed to find the time (while working on the big catalog order for Uncommon Goods) to launch a brand new product line - colored cuffs! These new Roman Record Cuffs are made from fabulous vintage colored vinyl records.

There are two types of cuffs - a larger Men's style which includes the original record label, and a smaller Women's style. I am selling them online as pairs. Each pair is made from one 45 rpm record.

A sweet gift for that DJ, musician, record collector, punk rocker, goth chick, eco fashionista, or Roman gladiator in your life!

How did this come about, you may ask? Well, I was lucky enough to be contacted back in November by Rebecca Pearcy, owner of Queen Bee Creations. She used to make bags like this one......but has discontinued the line. She was also getting ready to have a baby, move her studio location, and open up a retail store. She had a lot of leftover 45's to get rid of, and made a deal with me so that I would provide her with cuffs for her new store in exchange for receiving a mother lode of awesome colored vinyl. SCORE!

You can now find these cuffs in Portland at Queen Bee Studio & Store (3961 N. Williams, Ste. 101), and at Pop-Up Shoppe (919 N.W. 23rd Ave.) . You can also order them from my Etsy shop.

Eye Pop Art Commercial - "So good, it's almost illegal"

You gotta watch the first ever Eye Pop Art commercial!

This was created by my young friend Traver Danielson, who has an amusing youtube channel called trilleneum.

Traver is the son of Mark "Mad Dog" Danielson, who is my collaborator on the Mandala Pinwheels. Mark is the "dood" who engineered the design in order to make them super-duper-spinnable. He is currently prepping the records and steel rods for the Uncommon Goods catalog order.

Mark is a hoot. Here he is in my kitchen, with one of the prototype designs for the pinwheel:His son is pretty hilarious too. As Mark says, "The nuts don't fall too far from the tree..."

Please watch the video and let me know what you think!

Records and Videos and More Records that Spin

Just a few fun things today...

I'm following a facebook fan page called Records, which is full of nifty links like the Vinyl Record Generator, where you can make your own "record" like the one above! Check it out at http://www.says-it.com/record/.

Also through the Records page, I discovered the following two totally fascinating videos, showing how vinyl records are made - something I've always been really curious about. Finally, all my questions are answered!





Pretty cool to watch if you have a few minutes!

Speaking of records, there sure are a lot of old ones in the world. I recently put out a call for records, because I need them for a big order, and my friend Jacob from Ex Libris Anonymous hooked me up with the owner of Q is for Choir, a local used record and zine store which, unfortunately, was closing. I was able to pick up a whole carload of records for free.

As you see, they filled up my living room too. Chuck and I are still in the process of sorting them out - a few are worth saving, and I have to sort the thinnies from the thickies. All of the album covers are going to a local artisan who makes journals from them. I dropped off a load with him this morning and still have tons more.
What is this big order, you ask? Well, the Mandala Pinwheels are going to be in the Uncommon Goods Summer 2010 catalog! They are on the UG website right now, why don't you take a look?

I'll have to tell you more about all of this exciting news in another post...for now, check out one more video! My young friend Traver (son of "Mad Dog" Mark Danielson, who is my collaborator on the pinwheel project), added some Dartgun & the Vignettes music and some text to this one, so now you can watch 'em spin and rock out at the same time! Enjoy:

News from the band

This is a collection of some of my favorite photos taken of Dartgun & the Vignettes over the last few months.

Please check us out on facebook and become a fan! We're currently #17 on the Reverbnation Rock Charts for Portland. We also have some videos you can enjoy on youtube, and as always, you can be our friend on myspace!

In case you're wondering, I used picnik to edit these photos.

Our next show is this Friday night, February 12, at Kelly's Olympian, 426 SW Washington St. Hope you can make it.

1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse - a book!

For the first time ever, some of my artwork has been published in a real, live book!

The book is called 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse by Garth Johnson, of Extreme Craft. You can buy it on Amazon.

Five of the 1000 ideas are mine! Such as the Basic Black Classic cuff (above), and the Lavender cuff (below).

The page above was also featured in an article on Etsy's blog, where you can read my advice about creative reuse, and my new year's resolution! (Happy new year, by the way, and let's just say I took a month off from blogging and leave it that, okay?)

I love the red-and-black themed spread (pages 200-201), where you can find my Goth Clock in Vampire Red and Black, and my Rockabilly Record Bowl.

My Hawaiian Wedding record bowl can also be found on page 222, close to the cool Octopus Pint Glasses by my friend Amanda of Bread and Badger.

Lots of my crafty friends have work in this book, including Lee from leethal, Megan from Ta-Dah, Liz from 1 by Liz, Taylor from Red Semilla Roja and Live Debris, and Sister Diane of Craftypod.

I'm honored to be in their company! And I'm dazzled and inspired by the hundreds of other artists whose work is in this book. I hope to share some of my favorites with you on this blog in the near future. So check back soon!