Mandala Records at the Portland Jewish Academy

Last month, I had the pleasure of teaching a mandala workshop for kids at the Portland Jewish Academy in conjunction with their unit on upcycling.  Here are some photos of their beautiful creations!

Please contact me if you are interested in having me teach a workshop at your school!

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. 

Hit Record Earrings by Eye Pop Art

Hit Record Earrings - "Flower and Blue Sky"

 New from Eye Pop Art:  Hit Record Earrings with hand painted, original psychedelic designs! 

Hit Record Earrings - "Bohemian Style"

These earrings are handmade from triangle-shaped pieces of recycled vinyl records.

These are pieces that are left over when I cut up records to make Roman Record Cuffs. Over the years I've saved every scrap, and now I'm proud to introduce a new line of eye-popping jewelry for all the Eye Pop Art fans!

Each piece is hand painted by me using acrylic paints in light washes of bright and pastel colors. Each painted pair is one-of-a-kind - there will never be another pair exactly like it!

(They are painted on one side only, and the back of each piece is just the solid black vinyl record. The best of both worlds!)

Hit Record Earrings - "Carnival"

Each design is outlined with a layer of iridescent silver which gives it a unique sparkly glint when viewed from different angles and in different lighting.

The dramatic yet incredibly lightweight painted record "beads" vary from 1" - 1.75" in length, and from 2" to 3" wide at the widest point. The larger styles are $32 each and the smaller ones are $25.

They are paired with high quality sterling silver jump rings and sterling silver ear wires. All edges have been carefully sanded and smoothed for your comfort.

Hit Record Earrings - "Constantinople"

Hit Record Earrings in Pink and Purple

Hit Record Earrings in Red and White

Hit Record Earrings in Red White and Blue

Hit Record Earrings - "Red Windmill"

Hit Record Earrings - "Green Starflower"

Hit Record Earrings - "Little Sunset"

A great gift for a DJ, record collector, musician, or anyone who appreciates eco-friendly fashion!

Let the music live on with Hit Record Earrings.

In addition, I have several pairs of earrings available from Trillium Artisans, including Basic Black and a couple of painted and even wire-wrapped styles The painted earrings in the Trillium shop are actually made from pre-painted records that started out as other items and then were cut up into smaller pieces (as opposed to scrap pieces that were individually hand-painted for the purpose of making earrings.)

I wear the black ones ALL THE TIME!  They also go great with my record cuffs.

(These last two photos were taken by, and modeled by, Lee Meredith.)

I hope you'll check out my earrings if you're looking for something truly different in the jewelry department - original, wearable, eco-friendly art that nobody else has!

Junk to Funk - Saturday, November 14

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be vending my Roman Record Cuffs at Junk to Funk this Saturday evening (November 14 - after the Trillium holiday sale!).

I'm really excited just to get to be there to see the recycled fashion show. It's going to be really cool. If you're going, stop by my table and say hi!

Virtual Trunk Show with the Trashion Team

Tangereen's first job - it's crafty!

This weekend Chuck and I took our daughter to the studios of Ex Libris Anonymous, where she started work at her first job, doing some piece work for Jacob in the creation of his awesome journals made from old hardcover books!
He and Tangereen met during this summer's Recycled Arts Festival, when she helped out a bit at his booth.

The studio is awesome, with hardwood floors, exposed brick, high ceilings, and a great view of the Willamette River and downtown Portland. And it's filled with stacks and stacks of books and journals in various stages of completion.

Tangereen's job consisted of slicing off book covers with a box cutter. These are mostly old books that the library gets rid of because they are falling apart, or because people have drawn in them, and for various other reasons. It's an awesome way to recycle, which is why I'm so glad Jacob is a member of Trillium Artisans! The great thing about his product is that there is something for absolutely everyone. Just look at this huge stack of completed journals:
So there's an inside peek at this little cottage industry. I'm so proud that my daughter's first job is such a cool one!

New cuffs and other news

I made a few new cuffs this week and listed them in my shop. Above is "Butterfly Love."

Here is "Autumn Leaf":

And this one is called "Groovy Flowers":
In other news, the Foster Art Walk happened on Saturday, and some vendors set up in the plaza outside of the Trillium Artisans store. Here are some photos - this is Jaynette and her daughter, from Bluejaye Crafts:

Here is Elissa from Elissa Tree Designs (really wonderful beadwork!):


And back in the corner there we had Mary from Lolly-tots and Autumn from Autumn Comfort Candles.
I did not set up a booth, instead I headed over to Gilly's and had Emie cut all my hair off!
Emie is also a fashion designer and she is submitting her items to Trillium for product review. Check out her website: www.beautymarkdesigns.net.

That night Chuck played his (supposedly) last show as the temp drummer for Advisory. It was a benefit show for the Rose City Rollers. Also, Andrew was in town for his 21st birthday! Yes, I have a 21 year old stepson. NO, I am not old enough to be his mother!

I'm also happy to announce that I received an official purchase order from Viva Terra, for 100 of my Mandala Record Bowls for their spring catalog. So I am pretty much going to be working on that for the next couple of months! I've applied for the Crafty Wonderland Super Collosal, but that will probably be the only craft show I do (oh, and maybe the da Vinci Arts Fair too, gotta support my kid's school!).

Okay, time for me to get to work!

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!