Alberta Street

The draw in moving to Portland was not just having my big sis to adventure with, or watching my twin nephews grow and explore their world, but also the promise of an abundant and thriving art community. I have the luck of working for a company that embodies old world artisan spirit and therefore work alongside numerous local artists, but have found this first year in Portland that the way you enter into the community of artists is not just by creating, or through work contacts, but with the support of friends.

local printmaker Emily Riley and our shared table outside at
Last Thursday on Alberta Street yesterday

One such friend is Emily Riley, a truly skilled print maker and painter. She is a member of the Talisman Gallery, a cooperative gallery on Alberta Street in NE, and one of my closest friends in town. I'm pretty familiar (and comfortable) with selling online; much of my business plan is still focused on the Internet as means of communication, networking and expression, but Emily has played a role in encouraging me to show my drawings around town, in person, despite my shyness, hesitations, scheduling conflicts... or all the other road blocks that have manifested since arriving in this arty town.

Yesterday I left the glow of the computer behind to set up shop at my first ever outside booth. Attending Alberta Street's Last Thursday was a complete blast, with the constant river of people flowing by, odd parades making their way down the street, and such pleasant weather after a day of overcast foreboding skies. I was surprised to find people were eager to talk about art, process, and other sellers out that night whom they had enjoyed pouring over. It was great fun.

ink drawing on woodblock print BELONGING
by Emily Riley

I was surprised, also, by just how inspiring spending a night out talking about drawing, printmaking, design and other local artists could be. It was very, very hard arriving home at 11:30 p.m. and not cracking open the sketchbook.

ouou shows off her wares; single cards,
stationary sets, journals and original drawings

I feel as though I'm entering into the weekend with bold exuberance for some fresh new drawing, as well as mindful that I've been posting about a new year with new experiences lately- only to stumble into one such experience! :D Find out more about Emily's art at her website here, or visit her Etsy shop here.

some endings, some beginnings

Oh what a crunch, getting everything into the shop before Valentine's day! How is it going with all of you? I hope everybody is having a good week, and looking forward to tomorrow's historic inauguration.

Yesterday was Sunday, and on Sundays I like to take advantage of the slow and quiet nature of the day~ going into work hours early (I'm a weekend worker) to paint and draw. These are leisurely hours with a whole building to myself, and one of the more anticipated parts of my week. I usually camp out in the printmaking studio, or in the back at the Production desk, listening to music and slowly nursing my coffee. After a little reading or doodling, this week it was straight into painting, those final touches on the originals I've been posting about these days. Finally finished!

Tea 2

Today was much more focused on home & Etsy. I finished all the painting I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks and took tons and tons of photos. Although it is windy and blustery here, we are still enjoying days of sunshine. From there is was hours of fun-filled photo editing, breaking up the monotony with some cleaning & organizing of the house. From there it was packaging the rest of my outstanding orders and posting my framed pieces! All of this as a build-up to tomorrow, my last day before vacation.

In order to make sure I'm still able to fulfill orders within the 3-5 business days I've promised in my Shipping section, I have decided to go on Vacation Mode for this time:

Wednesday January 21st to Friday January 23rd

Just a small string of days, and by its end I will still be in MA and can figure out at that time if I should wait out the remainder of my own vacation or open back up.

In this, my first year in Portland, it has been 8 months of moving (three times now!) ,transition, new friends and new family. Leaving for Massachusetts kicks off the end of yet another chapter in those months and the beginning of an all new adventure once we get back. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming months where I intend to~

1. get myself a studio space in our new home
2. learn letterpress and hopefully new skills in silkscreening
3. explore the state of Oregon and take a trip to California, too
4. grow some potted plants (oh how I miss you)
5. get back into reading, knitting, sewing and *cooking*!
6. begin serious work in freelance illustration

...and that makes up for not having posted a New Year * New Leaf post here on the blog. I'll be home with my family in a matter of days, catching up on all of the changes my nephews have gone through in the last month (the words "crawing" and "teething" and "laughing" are still too hard to believe). It has been heartwarming spending the last months in the company of the R Family, being a part of their day to day pattern of living. I'm so completely grateful for all of the help and friendship they have shown and all the new friends I've made in this exciting new city. A break will be good, seeing family will be great, and then taking the next steps into becoming established in Portland will be all the beter with these sweet people in my heart.

Thank you friends, thank you readers, thank you Etsy, and happy new year.

Hello from the windy and cold corners of Oregon, where the Spring-like days that blessed us throughout this past week are gone but not forgotten. The sun has been wild this week, after rain rain rain we were all a bit dazzled by 4 sunny days strung together in yellowy hues. We woke one morning to a magical, crystalline frost right about when it started getting cold again.

I'm packing my bags and getting ready for a trip home to my original coast, the Eastern one, so all these fluctuations in temperature have me thinking of my new home, and all the differences here, maybe hyper-aware of small changes or details. I'm pretty sure the shop will remain open through the vacation since I have people to help me with shipping. I am very much looking forward to going home (also because I have this place to come back to) and feel for some reason that it will prove to be a very inspirational trip.

I was able to get some pretty good shots of the frosty morning while out on a walk...

Alright, back to business: there are some changes going on in the shop as we enter 2009. Now that the Holiday season is over, I've taken out USPS Priority Shipping as my shipping method. I was thoroughly disappointed in Priority (this year was my first year using it as my primary shipping option) and saw no significant improvement. I bet "5.00" under shipping probably had some people scratching their heads, too, although my motivation was to have as little concern as possible for items arriving punctually. I'm putting my faith back in old reliable First Class and checking out my options in tracking... more on that beginning February.

As for now, there is an option in the shop to "order" Priority Shipping~ and that will include the cost of tracking/ insurance. I figure people ordering large orders or Gocco prints will like having this option and am more than happy to provide expedited shipping. Hopefully this will ease the shipping confusion of this past season, as well as get me back into one of the fun parts of this whole Etsy project for me: making packaging! Believe it or not, a lot of love went into my mailers last year. I'm particularly proud that when you order an ouou item, the whole production is a unified project.

together - hand drawn Valentine

Oh, and also- I've listed another Valentine- this one on a folded (and larger) card tonight. I was happy with the clarity of the photos, too! Next up are the little framed originals, but for tonight I'm considering whether or not I want to go into those with watercolor or leave them black and white in pen. Hmmm. Maybe I'll sleep on it.
:)

You are my...

I love that Etsy has added a Vacation Mode. I'm tempted to go on "Vacation" just to try it out. A lot of shops are temporarily closed right now- and that's wise if you had a busy Christmas. I had a good holiday season this year but will be taking an actual vacation mid-winter. I'll save the learning experience of Vacation Mode for that.

My hope is that today I'll be able to come out with two new cards. I printed them last night & have them prepped and ready to go this morning. I'm even up, drinking my coffee and furiously typing away at 6 a.m. because I'm so giddy about having new items for the shop! Next week I'll introduce new designs, too. Definitely *not* in vacation mode over here.

Other than the drawing, scanning, cropping, printing, cutting, scoring, packaging, mailing that goes into the card making aspect of ouou, I've been changing around my freebies once again. The winter, spring, summer, bunny tags I made last year are perfect little give-aways... and after some awkward packaging phases I think I've found the one I'm sticking with. Now all I need is a new set of Moo cards and I'll be golden.

tweaking

It appears the beginning of December is big on "brainstorm" mode. Between Thursday and today I've thought of countless versions of new ideas I want to try out in the shop, filling the corners of my tiny notebook I carry around for on-the-bus scribbles. This is encouraging for my whole relationship with the shop- it feels really good to have a longer view of being back on Etsy than just Christmas.

Right now projects have different levels of involvement since the shop is still in it's early stages of being back in circulation. Some of you may remember the mobile I made for my sister when the boys were first born, I would love to try out a few of those for ouou the shop. Involvement = high. Other things, like adding some 4 card sets to the currently only 6 card set stocked shop = manageable. It is the things in between, those just out of reach, that really have my imagination going these days...

I'm picking up on wholesaling to Brick & Mortar stores this season: more on that later. With the handy coincidence of working in the letterpress industry I've learned what I like to see on cards/ art, the value of having fun with design, and a thing or two about exceptional, minimal design. With another logo-avatar already inked I hope to have a small logo on the back of my cards on upcoming batches soon. Some designs that never quite flew last year, as well as a few that did but I never really felt were finished, are having small-detail makeovers before returning.

That's the news for tonight~ things are still in the works around here, behind the scenes. Before I go, let me just add that my sister absolutely made my day by bustin' out one of last year's iron-on ouou gear onesies. Shoghi is above sporting just such a design that never made it into the shop... not half bad! Thanks, sister... hopefully he'll fit this for more than a few seconds (smile). I'll be bringing the iron-ons back in full force any day now. Ah, sweet sweet encouragement.

More Autumn color tonight, this time from a neighborhood walk some days ago around the Mt. Tabor area. What is this amazing bush that has these wonderful purple berries!? I was so glad I had my camera at the ready (and it wasn't raining. this is Portland, after all).

I have been sketching, I promise... and here's a sketch to prove it. Things may be really up in the air for me right now but it feels very good to have a goal of increased creative output, the first most immediate goal being new designs for the Gocco. More sketches to come, both here and on my Flickr. Short post tonight... it's my Friday!

catching up...

...with sketching :)

Shazam!

When I wake up there is still fog day after day lying over the grass. My apartment is just homes away from a Stumptown Coffee shop, and the smell of roasting coffee drifts in on the breeze. Most of the time I wake up blocks away at our friend K's after staying with their family and my sister, brother, and his girlfriend who are still in town. This morning we are eating waffles and bacon, sitting together in our jammies, while Meet the Press fuels our political discussion.
Not bad.
Not bad at all.