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!
There is no drug quite like the drug of playing in a rock and roll band, especially when one gets the privilege of "hogassing" the spotlight, as I do every year on the occasion of our Halloween show, when I perform a recitation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. Last night at the Jolly Inn I had the true Janis Joplin moment of my life, when The Raven was performed with full backing rock band and doo-wop girls. It was a big hit!
I first memorized The Raven when I was in eighth grade. My English teacher challenged me to memorize it, so I did, and recited it for our class. Melodie Beirwagen was in that class too. Here she is now with our best friend Suzie Q:
It was Suzie who started the Halloween tradition - when she heard that I had the poem memorized she demanded that I recite it at the Halloween parties. It has since evolved into quite a performance piece and I love the chance to share it with the world once a year.
The she-devils of Cootie Platoon were looking especially sexy:
Dartgun rocked!
But that's not all - we have another show coming up on Halloween night - that's Friday, October 31 at Hungry Tiger Too (207 SE 12th in Portland), with Pitchfork Motorway and 48 Thrills. See you there!
