Valuing Experiences More than Stuff - and other thoughts on Reuse Conex, vintage record players, and traveling 'round the world

Last month I had the opportunity to participate in the Reuse Expo at Reuse Conex, a three-day conference on reuse and sustainability put on by national group Reuse Alliance.  My friend Joanna Dyer (co-founder of SCRAP) invited me to vend at the Expo.

At one point during the day I noticed there was a rack of reusable shopping bags for sale (did you know that in my city of Portland, Oregon, single-use plastic bags have been BANNED from grocery stores?) and they were printed with a very interesting legend.  They said "I value experiences more than stuff" or something like that - wish I'd thought to snap a picture because I found it so intriguing. I could not agree more with that sentiment and I think it sums up the goal of the whole reuse movement.  If you haven't seen it before - go watch The Story of Stuff right now.  (It's only 20 minutes.  Seriously, go watch it.  I'll wait.)

It was a fun and inspiring day.  I was between Oregon Breakers (they fix and rebuild circuit breakers to keep them working and out of the landfill), and Long Way Home (they reuse plastic bottles and tires to build schools in Guatemala).

I also gave a little presentation on "10 Ways to Repurpose Vinyl Records."  Dont' worry - I will be sharing those tips in an upcoming blog post!

Here are some pictures of my table:

It dawned on me that I can and should use old record players in my display!  The one you see in the above photo is my old "Linoleum Hogass" record player. 

Long story but once upon a time at St. Vinny's in Great Falls, Montana, there was a roll of beautiful psychedelic vinyl, and we called it Linoleum.  One day Chuck said he would build a wall from this linoleum to make a room divider in our studio apartment, and I called him a linoleum hogass.  The wall was not built.  The linoleum came back to Portland.  I liked the pattern a lot and named my business Linoleum Hogass Records when I started selling mandalas at Portland Saturday Market in 1998.  I painted the pattern on the record player and used to have it on display at the market with a painted record spinning on it (every booth came with electricity) until something happened, it fried the circuit for all the booths surrounding me, and the lady who made knitted hats yelled at me.  The site manager for the market even attempted to fix the record player for me (maybe he felt bad for that one time he had my car towed after we left it too long in the loading zone) but the fix didn't last (and I do value that experience).  I think the cord is broken.

SIDE NOTE.  Interestingly enough, I have discovered the word hogass in the urban dictionary. And here I thought Melodie made that up in our 11th grade economics class to describe the horde of students descending upon the box full of magazines from which we were to cut images for a collage on the joys of consumption in a free market system.  What a bunch of hogasses.  (Or, hogii.)

Anyway, the record player doesn't work anymore but I can still use it in my booth!  I might never have thought of this, but recently an old friend of mine from high school (not one of the above-mentioned high school hogii) gave me another cute vintage kids' record player - which you can see here:

This particular old friend was in the process of getting rid of all of his belongings in order to embark on a journey around the world with his wife and daughter!  Now THERE is a family who values experiences more than stuff!!  I am honored to be gifted with his childhood toy record player.  I remember many an afternoon hanging out with friends at his house in downtown Oregon City...wishing them all the best on their big adventure!

(They have a blog and you keep up with their journey at www.travel-junkies.com.  There was a great article about them in the Oregonian this week too.)

What you see above is some cool new packaging I've come up with for my Vintage Record Clocks.  YES!  Finally, a solution for the boxes and boxes of album jackets (they can't ALL be made into coasters), the lack of wall space for displaying the clocks, and the difficulty of storing them in between sales.  I am making the boxes out of 12" album jackets which make a perfect package for a 10" record clock. 

Obviously the jacket used is not for the same record as the clock that's inside (that would not be possible) but I did have fun matching them up loosely based on a general theme.  (You can now buy these at Tender Loving Empire and SCRAP's Re: Boutique.)

Ad don't forget, PORTLAND RECORDS!  Because Portland rocks!  And PORTLAND is still the secret code you need to save 20% off everything in the Eye Pop Art shop during the month of November.  Not that you need any more STUFF...but there is a big gift-giving holiday coming up, and if you're going to buy stuff, may I suggest you buy stuff that is handmade by an artist from reused, recycled, and repurposed materials?  That way, you can value the experience and the stuff...at least, a little bit more than when you buy something from the mall. 

It's the Holiday Season :: Come see me at SCRAP and Crafty Wonderland!

The holiday season is upon us and I know you are going to be looking for some eco-friendly psychedelic gifts! 

I will be doing two holiday craft shows this season and if you are in the Portland area I would just love to see you there! 

Come find Eye Pop Art on Saturday, November 24 at SCRAP's Annual Holiday Bazaar.  This is also Small Business Saturday!  What better day to support microenterprise?  All items at the show will be locally made from at least 75% recycled and reclaimed materials.

AND...I'm super excited that on December 8 and 9 I will be vending at the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale!  I splurged on the full 10' x 10' booth and I will be filling it with amazing and groovy items for your holiday shopping pleasure! 

To recap:

SCRAP's Annual Holiday Bazaar
Saturday, November 24
10 am - 6 pm
2915 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.

Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale
Saturday and Sunday, December 8 & 9
11 am - 6 pm both days
Oregon Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.

Hey, both of these events are on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd!  That makes me happy.

Here are some other ways to shop this holiday season:

Order from my Etsy shop at eyepopart.etsy.com!  You can use the coupon code PORTLAND at checkout to get 20% off your purchase through the end of November.

You can also find my work at various stores around the country.  CLICK HERE for an updated list of locations that carry Eye Pop Art. 

Thank you!

Trillium Artisans 10th Anniversary Holiday Sale - Saturday, November 14

It's Trillium Artisans' 10th anniversary! Join us for our annual Holiday Sale and Open House.

Date:	Saturday, November 14, 2009
Time:	11:00am - 4:00pm
Location:	Trillium Artisans store
Street:	9119 SE Foster Road
City:	Portland, OR

Meet the artisans.
Enjoy wine and goodies.
Shop for locally handmade, eco-friendly, fair trade gifts, made from recycled and reclaimed materials.

Giving recycled is twice as nice!

Take 20% off your ENTIRE purchase during this event.

(Shop with us throughout the holiday season! Our regular store hours are Tuesday-Friday from 10 am - 6 pm. We'll also be open every Saturday from 11 am - 3 pm, November 21 - December 19.)

Preview our items online on our website, on Etsy, or on World of Good by eBay.

I'll be at the holiday sale this Saturday from 11 - 2, so come before 2 if you want to say hello to me - but it will be going on until 4, and everything is 20% off which is great! You'll find all kinds of beautiful work from more than 40 local artisans, including Eye Pop Art cuffs, clocks, mirrors, magnets, and suncatchers.

I work at Trillium on Tuesdays and Fridays, and some Wednesdays. Come see me at the store some time! We've also just opened up a new Trillium Annex at SCRAP. I took a batch of merchandise over there yesterday and helped Bethany set up a little store in a designated area of SCRAP's big warehouse-like space. It looks really cute! My black cuffs and suncatchers can be found there, and I hope to add clocks, bowls, and other items soon.

How to make Candy Cane Cookies

These festive holiday cookies are a tradition at our house. Although they are not particularly delicious, they are really cute and fun to make!

You can find the official recipe from Betty Crocker, although I use almond extract instead of peppermint.

Here's how it's done - you mix up the dough, then divide it into two sections. Set aside one half and tint the other half with red food coloring, like this:
You will then have two lovely lumps of dough, one white, one red.
If you've ever done ceramics, you'll like this part. Form coils from the dough by rolling it gently back and forth on a lightly floured board. I always like to tell kids about this when I teach ceramics classes: "Remember this method at Christmas time, you can do it with red and white cookie dough and make Candy Cane Cookies!"
The recipe says to make the coils or "ropes" about 4" long. I started out this way but ended up making them longer and longer for bigger cookies.
Press two pieces together and get twistin'.
You have to be careful with this step as the dough can fall apart easily.
You can then roll the twisted dough lightly to smooth it out.
Curve one end down to make a candy cane!
Place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 9-12 minutes or until the white part becomes a very light golden brown.
Be ready with your crushed peppermint candy! I unwrapped some real candy canes, stuck them in a bag, and whacked it repeatedly with a hammer. There is probably a better way to do this, but I don't know what it is.

Mix your crushed candy with an equal amount of granulated sugar and sprinkle this on the hot cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. It will stick to the cookies and give you some added textural interest and peppermint flavor.

Enjoy!
I made these for the SCRAP Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale, which happened on Saturday, and here are a few pictures from that event. Here is Lee from leethal:
Here is Liz from 1.by.Liz:
My table looked cute:
And here I am, black Santa hat and all:

Mandala Magnets have arrived!

Mandala Magnets are here!

I found a bunch of round magnets at SCRAP, a program here in Portland, Oregon that diverts tons of materials from being thrown into the landfill by reselling them to the public. Somehow or other they got ahold of these "I Support Green Power" magnets from Utah Power (which you can see in the last photo). I bought 'em up, because I love circles...

Circle, of course, is what the word "mandala" means in Sanskrit, and mandalas are my middle name!

So I printed stickers of my mandala designs and put them on the magnets to create cool new upcycled love!

The images are all digital photos of my original designs, which started out as paintings on recycled vinyl records.

The magnets are 2.5" in diameter (6.35 cm).

They would make a very groovy stocking stuffer! You can find them here for $2 each - Or click here to get 3 for $5!

I do think it's sad that Utah Power didn't have enough green power customers to get rid of all their magnets - but at least they are getting a new life now. And I'd like to add that the Eye Pop Art studio runs on green renewable power from Portland General Electric!

By the way, I'm going to be selling cool upcycled stuff, including Mandala Magnets, at SCRAP's Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale this Saturday - here's a flyer:

Have a cup of tea with your coloring book

I've updated the listing for my the Mod Mandalas Coloring Book with some new photos. I am hoping to make it look a little more cozy. Does the teacup help?

I think these look much better than the old photos - here they are:




Do you think the new photos are an improvement?

What's new in my life? I have a wholesale order in the works for Doctor Trip, and I am getting ready for the SCRAP Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale next weekend, so I have to make some Christmas cookies. I have some new clock designs which I want to call "Goth Clocks" (photos coming soon to a blog near you!), and I'm thinking about making some Eye Pop Art Gift Packs. At Trillium, we've been super busy with holiday sales and selling online at WorldofGood.com, which means that I've been learning how to use eBay (weird). The order for Viva Terra is done but I can't ship it until December 22, so I am living with many large boxes.

Tonight we are going to do a little shopping at da Vinci and go check out a performance of a kid/teenage rock band class at Ethos Music Center. Our friend Aiden (Melodie's oldest son, he is a 12-year old guitar shredder, just like his mom and dad!) will be performing and so will our 15-year old friend Mel (daughter of Chad, the bass player for Dartgun). I love it when rockers have rocking kids. I'm excited.

Jolly Times at the Jolly Inn and Other News

Dartgun & the Vignettes played a kickass show last night at the Jolly Inn - many thanks to all those of you who came out for the show, it was a blast!

Emie was sweet enough to take the above picture, and then my stupid camera battery died! So this is all ya get.

I am working on designing some brand new clocks - I got a custom order through Grasshopper 510 in Chicago - it's just for one clock but I am going to create a small line around it for my shop, and will post pictures soon!

I also have some other weird things in the works. I went to SCRAP with Julie and bought 100 of these funky little plastic hinged pillboxes, or whatever they are. My plan is to make stickers of my mandala designs and come up with something similar to my old Mandala Travel Tins, which sold out a while ago and have been discontinued.
So far I'm not satisfied with the process. My original idea was to glue a little round mirror to the inside of the lid, but I can't seem to find the right size of mirror, and I think the size I got is too small. I'm lining the bottom of the insides with a circle of felt - I found some felt with adhesive backing, so that makes it easy, but I had a surprisingly difficult time making a circle template of the right size! Then I finally realized I could draw the circle on the computer and print it out. Duh!

I also thought I would collage the images onto the lids, instead of doing stickers, so it would have a more protective and long-lasting finish. But the prints didn't turn out that great and the stuff I used to coat them doesn't look so hot either. So I'm kind of stuck on that. Ideally I would have laminated stickers, or laser printed stickers at least. I guess I need to go to Kinko's but I don't think they carry glossy sticker paper for color copies...

Anyway here are a couple of prototypes. (Earrings by my good friend Elizabeth Etchepare of Artifacts International - they're actually Chuck's earrings by the way.)

Your thoughts and suggestions for this project are most welcome! I am pretty clueless about things like what glue to use for collaging and stuff.

I have finished a couple more Mandala Record Bowls too - may I introduce Rockabilly and Purple Purple?
What else is going on? I've mostly just been enjoying the hot summer days, hanging out in the backyard, getting some sun and relaxing in the pool! Julius turned 12 this month and Tangereen is planning her 14th birthday party.

I've been working on fun stuff at Trillium - recruiting new artisans, creating newsletters, listing stuff for our new online venture that is launching in August - we'll be selling on the all-new WorldofGood.com, an eBay marketplace - and working with some ladies who will be giving our retail store a feng shui makeover!

I'm also working with LeBrie on a "How to Sell on Etsy" workshop that we plan to offer at the DIY Lounge this fall.

I joined a new yahoo group called Mandala Oasis, which has been inspiring, and I am going to be interviewed by a researcher at Portland State University who is working on a book about Portland's artisan economy - that should be interesting.

So that's all my news, off to work on my new clocks!