Let's Share: The Berkley Blog

New round things + contest winner!

Well shucks. Can we just start this blog post by saying how much we loved all your rhyming contest entries last week? We kept laughing to ourselves (in a good way) about how you were all so sweet and made rhymes about us and our goods. I was hoping for at least four rhymes about pizza and/or James Franco but I'm perfectly delighted over everything you came up with. 

So without further ado, the winner of the contest, picked using random.org, is the one lettered rhymesmith known as K. While the winning pick was totally random, you have to give her some props for her entry:

I find these smart dearlings astounding
As embroidery's clearly abounding!
I hope they'll be minesies
To give for Valentinesies!
So I find that my heart is pounding, 
With great anticipation, 
And much fixation,
It's the rhyming I find so confounding.

So I hope you don't think that I'm hounding.
Though I know that it has started sounding
Like I'm being coy
In a desperate ploy
So that gifts in my lap will be mounding.

But really I just keep expounding
For the wonderful prize is compounding
From not just stitching
But for the prints we are itching,
The unanimous vote is resounding!

Congratulations K. and thanks to everyone else for your entries! We like this contest stuff so I think we'll have more of these in the future.

Elsewhere, in the "new round things" department, we have a few little Etsy shop updates to share. 

One, we've added a couple more bottle opener designs: 

The Otter who seems to use "Tally Ho!" as his bottle opening catch phrase:

and the Marmoset who is apparently just as sweet as his button implies.

Two, we've finally finished a much-needed updated to our 1" button selection for our button packs. The bears, cats, and other old friends have been appropriately miniaturized for all your bookbag or jean jacket applications.

I think one of my favorite parts about doing that was making the circle chart above. Why is it that some things just look so spruced up when they're contained in a circle? 

Of course, this button project was entirely assisted and supervised by Walker, the super helper:

Ummm...wait. Walker - that's not helping, buddy.

We're going to take Walker and ourselves to a cottage in the woods for the rainy weekend. We're planning to listen to the river and work like crazy on projects for a couple upcoming shows.  This Sunday would have been my dad's 59th birthday, too, so the mini-escape will be good for all of us. We should have some pictures and drawings to show you when we're back.

Have a great weekend!

Embroidery Day + Contest!

While we haven't done many, Ryan and I really like collaborating on embroidery projects. Our tried and true blog followers [hi our moms!] might remember our Kenny from a show last year. I like to compare our process to comic book pencilers and inkers. Ryan does the initial sketch on fabric and then I get to whoop it up with stitches and colors. 

We just never seem to have time for to do a project on our own, so we're super thankful to our pal Pamela for "forcing" it upon us in a new group show opening tonight in Portland at Redux. The show is called "Lovesick" so we used this opportunity to feature our loving cardinal pair in stitches - something I've wanted to do for a while.

We're looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up with. It's always so interesting to see the differences in the way people do their stitches.

You probably already saw our other exciting embroidery news if you follow us our Facebook or Twitter pages, but it's definitely worth mentioning again. We are extra thrilled to have a new pattern available through Sublime Stitching!

[Please note that while the packaging proclaims, "This ain't your gramma's embroidery", we would be quite pleased if any gramma, or great-gramma for that matter, wanted to use one of these patterns. If you and your gramma do work on some patterns together, will you send us a photo?]

Jenny Hart, proprietress of Sublime Stitching and all around fantastic human being, did the translating of Ryan's drawings to embroidery ready patterns and we think she did a brilliant job. You can even get a little tutorial on floss-blending technique over at her blog here. *Hot insider tip* I used some floss-blending on the lady cardinal in the above!

***HERE IS THE CONTEST PART***

We're feeling like game show hosts today, so we're throwing a giveaway contest to celebrate all this animal stitchery!  Just leave a rhyming comment on this post and we'll pick a winner at random to receive one of the Sublime Stitching patterns as well as a 5x7 print of each of the animals in the kit for a little inspiration. Those whole deal looks something like this: 

Actually, it looks exactly like that. This is exactly what you'll get. Sound fun? We'll pick a winner next Friday, February 11th. 

New animal day!

We have three new animals to release! They are all birds so you can take them as seriously or ironically as your particular inner bird dial dictates. We won't judge. 

Presenting...

The Horned Owl

Ever since his was an owlet, this Horned Owl has dreamed of flying to the moon. Until NASA finally approves his application, however, he will continue training in the anti-gravitational chamber he has made out of twigs, found string, and pellets.

The Peacock

As much as he loves playing a banged-up banjo on a dusty porch, this salty troubadour can't deny his peacock heritage. No matter how ramshackle his musical venue, he'll always sport his bowtie/bowler combo and check the mirror before he performs.

and

The Swallow

This swallow wears a sailboat pin as a personal salute to all the sailors who have tattooed his likeness on their arms. He wanted to return the favor properly, but the tattoo artist couldn't find his bicep.

Please enjoy them with our compliments. More things coming very very soon!

O.ther P.eople's P.rints (and originals)

Hi there!
We are about to start releasing a bunch of new Berkley Illustration wares but before we start bombarding you with our heavy hitting self-promotion, we thought we'd take this time to highlight some of the art we've acquired recently from other people. We like it and thought you might too. 

It  turns out that we have some subliminal patterns to our art purchasing. For instance, this Christmas Ryan and I unknowingly bought each other a print featuring prominent men from our television adolescence.

To Ryan, From Me: Jacques Cousteau by Lisel Ashlock.

To Me, From Ryan: Coach, Luther, and Dauber by Brandon Bird. 

(Bonus information! I also received this!)
(Extra bonus explanation! I don't even think I watched Coach all that much! I don't really know enough about the plot to conceptualize what exactly the rules of this video game might be. Maybe something about Coach's commitment issues with his old lady? I actually hope you just get points for giving a really great pep talk. The more explosions, the better. The important thing here is that I now own the art so I can continue my theories until the end of time. I also just really really love that the girls are into this video game.)

 On the other end of the spectrum, apparently we really like square paintings of the natural world. 

This photo doesn't really show how lovely the depth is in this resin painting by the equally lovely Faryn of Fernworks. We bought this well before all the red winged blackbird chaos of the new year. Whoa. That was weird, huh? Somehow this painting makes me a little bit happier and a little bit sadder when I think about that secret sign of the apocalypse. 

Our other recent square representation of the natural world also comes with its own air of mystery. We bought two iceberg paintings from Jeremy Miranda (we love his shop).

We have them temporarily resting on a door ledge and on one recent sunny morning (the only recent sunny morning in the last three months, in fact), I looked up to see a sliver a light shining onto the painting in exactly the spot of the iceberg highlight. By the time I grabbed my camera, the light had almost vanished and the above was all I caught. I love a good iceberg mystery! 

I do fully admit to being enamored by coincidence and that leads me to our last show and tell for today. We bought this print by Mark Warren Jacques because we are huge fans of his work, loved the title: "In The Summer I Am Dreaming Of You" and then when it showed up, I was almost as excited that we received #50/100 edition. It just seems like the perfect number to have for this piece. Halfsies.

Halvsies? According the world's most reliable grammatical source, either might be correct.

Okay, we'll see you soon with our new commerce activities! Have a great weekend, friend!

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back

Well, hello friends of 2011! It's so good to see you again. We have grand ambitions, schemes, and travels plotted for the upcoming year and it's about time we got back into spilling those beans to our little corner of the internet. 

Below is a highlight reel featuring high-tech freeze frames of life since we last saw you:

A photo super sleuth might detect that we've been to a couple Oregon beaches, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Los Angeles (thrice, if you're keeping score), Seattle, Yosemite, Palm Springs, and other locales, including but not limited to our own house and the city we live in.

While I'd like to say we have just been busy for the last six months, the main reason this blog went on hiatus for so long was because my dad passed away rather unexpectedly last August, at age 58, due to complications from T-Cell Lymphoma. I've been trying and trying to write all the things I want to share about him and I haven't been allowing myself to blog about anything else until I said everything I had to say on that subject. Of course, putting that amount of pressure on myself has only made the words harder to come by. My dad was a man dedicated to the written word and as such,I feel compelled to use the right ones in memory of him.

I miss him all the time. 

He was a big reason we have an Etsy shop at all, in all kinds of ways.  It's incredibly  hard starting a new year without him. On top of every other Dad chore he excelled in, he was also my typo-catcher on this blog. So, for now, this one's for yuo dad;

~Lucy

While We Were Out Rapid Fire Update, Part I

Hi blog.

Remember me? 

Since I last typed in you, we went a bunch of places and did a bunch of stuff.  It was more exciting that I just made it seem. Would you like to know what was included in all those bunches?  Okay. Here is a whirlwind recap that in no way includes all the fun and adventures we've experienced. It's good to keep some things a mystery though, right? I think it will keep the fire in our relationship. 

 

First, we released some new animals that I never told you about. They were our "Shout-Out to Australia" trilogy, though I'm fairly certain Australian animals probably appeal more to non-Aussies. (I've even confirmed this with some actual Australians.) We have received so many nice orders and notes from our Australian friends over the past couple years that we wanted to do something nice for them. We looked into doing a helicopter drop of lollipops over the entire country but it was a bit cost prohibitive so animals ended up being our second place idea.

The Platypus:

 

The Koala:

  

And the Kangaroo mama:

  

I also think it's worth mentioning any time you and your friends go to get beehive hairdos together:

 

The gals and I swept it up for Chloe's birthday party in May. And while the updos were fun, I was almost as enthralled with the hair aftermath that came the next morning:

A few days after that we went to Austin. (I warned you this was rapid fire.)

 

We didn't have time to canoe all the way there so we settled for a brief afternoon row on Ladybird Lake. (Though, it sure looks like a river. I'm still confused about that. But doesn't Ryan look cute in a life jacket?)

 

We met the world's cutest skunk family at Uncommon Objects, everyone's favorite antique store. This picture is technically contraband - I think you're supposed to get permission to take photos there - but I was willing to risk antique jail for these guys. 

The reason we were in Austin at all was for their first ever Renegade Craft Fair. It was loads of fun, we met great people, and got lots of creative inspiration.

 

One such fun item was meeting the fellas of Public School and doing an impromptu interactive activity book.

 

They photographed the whole thing (because they are awesome) so if you are so inclined, you can check it out right here.

In somewhat lamer news, we visited the Whole Foods flagship store and it. is. GINORMOUS. (Being vegans we sometimes get a little nerdy with excitement over accommodating grocery establishments.) While this photo is terrible, we felt it was important enough to share:

 

THIS IS  ALL HUMMUS!!!!!!!!!

 

Some of this

 

This

 

And a new hat!

Maker Faire is pretty insane what with their giant rockets, Tesla coils, and traveling porches.

 

  

 I wish we'd had time to wander around and witness all the fantabulous contraptions more but Droids are impatient customers.  

 

(We were selling at Bazaar Bizarre inside of Maker Faire alongside our pals Cathy and Nicole of  Bossanova Baby and Vinyl Frontier. Good times.)

Of course, it's pretty much impossible to sum up an eight day trip to New York so this is going to be the ridiculously abbreviated version.

After having lived in NYC when I was little and visiting tons of times since then, I had never been to see the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island in person.  Up close, she looks some thing like this:

 

We couldn't get a good look at her face from our angle, but luckily the museum inside had an artist's rendering of  what we were missing:

 

Elsewhere in the city, we went to the American Folk Art Museum for the first time and really regretted not having been there sooner. 

 

The museum is full of well curated and fascinating pieces but Ryan and I really went out of minds in the Henry Darger exhibit (above). 

Like Austin, our main purpose of this trip was for the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. It was an outdoor show and we did some battle with the wind and a bit of rain but overall it was really fun and we met lots of cute gals and guys like these ladies:

One of my favorite parts of sitting in our booth is watching people sort out which animals they like and which go together. The above ladies did a fabulous job modeling this scenario without being asked!

And, of course, what trip to New York would be complete without Ryan adding to his collection (that  he just started on this trip) of photographs with supporting players of Late Night TV shows?

 

End Part I.

Part II coming soon!

Ye Olde Seattle Trip

I'm getting a real reputation with myself for lousy photographic documentation at Ryan's art openings. We had a lot of fun at the Bluebottle opening a couple weeks ago. It was the first show by new owner, Jessie, and she and her husband Danny and their two pugs could not have been sweeter hosts.

 

Here Ryan chats with (or ignores) three of Seattle's finest ladies.

 

And here Ryan's broods again while posing between a black bear and some kittens in t-shirts.  

You can buy some of the original art online here.  Prints will be rolling into the Etsy shop over the next couple months as well.  

While we were in town, we stopped by for a long overdue visit to my cousin friend's third grade class.  Actually, it was three third-grade classes total.  The kids were familiar with Ryan's work and he promised them a drawing lesson using the school mascot, a bobcat, as a model.

 

 

 

We couldn't believe how wonderful each and every drawing was!  Thanks to Mrs. Cherian and all the third graders at Blackwell Elementary for the opportunity to have so much fun drawing during class!   

The kids even insisted on procuring our autographs first thing and, as you can see above, we are now noted famous people.  I hope the paparazzi doesn't catch wind of this! 

Tonight! This weekend! Last weekend!

Tonight!

 

Ryan's new animal show, "Sophisticated Menagerie II" opens at the Bluebottle in Seattle.  We'll be there from 5-8 for the good times. You can get a sneak peek of the show online here.

This weekend!

 

 

 

Ryan has three pieces in the "Tiny Art" show at Gallery Meltdown in Los Angeles. Everybody had to keep things under 3x3" and Ryan kept the theme low to the ground.

Last weekend!

 

"Glory Days" for Balls Out II at the Grass Hut. Don't look too close if you are my grandma.
 
   

 

Our first collaborative embroidery piece debuted at Redux.  It was so much fun to do that we're definitely seeing more in the future.  

 

...and meanwhile, our trip to the woods was pretty fantastic.    

Quick! Escape!

We feel like we've just completed a two month marathon over here at Berkley Illustration headquarters. Ryan has drawn for two solo shows, three groups shows, a new Crafty Wonderland poster,

 

[bing!]

and he completed a couple other projects in that time too (which are still top secret) all during the last month.  I'm probably forgetting a couple somethings in there too.  To celebrate this accomplishment, and to clear our heads for 1.75 days before the next round of hustle starts, we're heading up to a cabin on Mt. Hood where this promises to be the view, albeit a rainier one:

 

While we're really jazzed about the mini-escape, we can't help but be a little bummed that we're missing the openings of two of Ryan's group shows tonight in Portland as well as the opening reception and book release party for our pal Kate's show at Land. I'm pretty sure Kate must be the hardest working woman in indie-art business.  If you are in Portland and don't happen to be going to a cabin tonight, you should definitely be checking out all three of these shows:

 

 

 
  

Oh yeah. Know what else we also managed to find time for??  Haircuts!  In prepping for this, I found time to terrify Ryan with these photos:

 

so that was fun.

When we're back you'll get to see the art on the computer, so that will be fun too.

Into "What You're Into"

Hey hey hey!

If you haven't already snuck a peek at Ryan's "What You're Into" show, here is a quick sampling of the delights that await you: 

 

"Tripper  1. Moth Man  2. Tattooed Ladies  3.  30 Rock"

 

"Faryn 1. Narwhals  2. Fancy Cheese  3. Robert Duvall"

 

"Billy  1. Vikings  2. Death Metal  3. Giant Isopods"

 

"Ayumi 1. Chewbaka  2. Sloth from Goonies  3. Falcor from The Never Ending Story"

You can see all the work, except for poor Chloe's piece that I forgot to scan, right here.  And, bonus news, if you're into these things too, you can now buy the art through Buy Olympia!

We had tons o' fun at the opening last Friday. So much fun, in fact, that I did a really terrible job of photographing the merriment.  Luckily for us, Pat picked up the slack.

 

 

(A 3D version of the drawings!)
 

(What You're Into dance party!)

(All those photos are from Pat Castaldo - thanks Pat!) 

In that bottom photo, you can see the zine we made to accompany the show.  I suppose it's really more of a catalog than a zine but we made it ourselves, even bound it with gold thread, so it's got a zineish thing going on.  We hope to have those available for sale real soon.  

Things aren't even close to slowing down around these parts.  Ryan has another solo show next month as well as a couple group shows so apologies if we are seeming a little scattered right now. Luckily we have this gentleman on hand to keep things real.