Two Weeks in San Fran, Day 3

July 5, Sonoma

Dave was back in the City working today, so I took the car and drove around a bit. Two places worth noting:

Tiddle E Winks "Vintage 5 and Dime"
Run by Heidi Geffen, "Proprietress", this little gem is just off the main square in downtown Sonoma. On the door is a sign that says "yes, it's all really old (except for the candy)" and it sure is. A bright, cheery store filled with old tchotckes from the 30's, 40's and 50's candy stores and beyone. Everything from Xray Glasses (remember those ads in the back of magazines for glasses that could see through clothing?) to sewing notions to flashcards. Reasonably priced from 50 cents and up. I took home a little cardboard game with two tiny balls you roll into the holes where a monkey's eyes are supposed to be. Cute!

Down the street, on the main drag, is the Spirits in Stone Art Gallery (a ridculously New Age-y name that I did not even remember until blogging this, and had I actually noticed it then, I probably would not have gone in) where I found the art of Wosene Worke Kosrof. A painter from Ethiopia, his work incorporates Amharic scipt (his native language) in contemporary abstract paintings. I felt honored to have seen a few of his originals in person in this space, I wish I could have afforded one. Instead, I picked up his brand new catalogue, "WORDS: From Spoken to Seen. The Art of Wosene Worke Kosrof" for $30. Worth every penny, it's 74 pages with many of them full color plates of his work.

Two Weeks in San Fran, Day 2

July 4, Sonoma

It's the 4th of July and we moved up to Sonoma for a couple of days.

I picked up a copy of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and am thoroughly engrossed. Oddly relevant in that I grew up near Lake Forest (where the author is originally from) and am currently spending the next two weeks in SF, where much of the rest of the book takes place. I highly recommend the book, but as it's already a best seller many times over I hardly think it needs another endorsement.

Went out to dinner with Dave and Kevin Jones (the guy whose home were are crashing at) in Sonoma and drove back in Kevin's (wife's) mini with the top down, watching the fireworks. Amazing.

Two Weeks in San Fran, Day 1

July 3, San Fran Mission District

Just for the night, we're staying at one of Dave's customer's condos in the Mission Dolores area. While walking to pick up the keys, I stumbled upon a 18" plastic letter R in the trash. Wow! Ever since my Trunk Show in December, when I put up large paper letters spelling A-R-T on my house to help direct traffic in, I've wanted to find more permanent letters that we could leave up--you know, be the "ART" house of the neighborhood. I have been looking for good, old letters about 18" tall on ebay and they keep going for ridiculous prices.

I take this as an omen of good things for this trip. Tucked the letter under my arm and continued on our walk.

Bring paths from Illustrator CS into Photoshop CS

I kept running into a problem in Photoshop when trying to copy a path from Illustrator and paste it in. Older versions would automaticallly popup a window asking if you wanted to paste it as a Pixels, Path, or Shape Layer. CS does not automatically do this, so my path kept being rendered to pixels every time I'd paste it in.

To bring a path into Photoshop from Illustrator, you actually have to set a preference in Illustrator (counterintuitive, I know). Here's how:

Go to Illustrator Preferences > File Handling & Clipboard


In the bottom box, "Clipboard on Quit", be sure the box marked "AICB (no transparency support)" IS CHECKED.


Be sure "Preserve Appearance and Overprints" is selected.

Save your preferences, re-copy your path and try it in Photoshop now. The "Pixels, Path or Shape Layer" popup window should come up and you can select "Path" to retain your paths.


Good luck!

But Is That Clever?

I was sitting there flipping channels the other day when Tivo decides I want to watch HGTV's "That's Clever!"--yes, the exclamation point IS in the title--despite the fact that I've given it three thumbs down. I hate this show for so many reasons, not the least of which is how painfully ridiculous the producers require the crafters to act on national television. It's so embarassing, it's actually hard to watch.

To my horror, the crafty chick in this episode is actually showing the wincing viewers how to make "art" out of dryer lint.

No, really, I'm not kidding.

Check it out.

Rock and Roll

I went to the second annual Rock and Roll Craft Show this weekend (twice actually), held at the former Junk Junkie store in south Saint Louis. I didn't make it last year, but based on the amount of hype this year I felt like I couldn't miss it. And in the interest of full disclosure, I'm planning a Makers show for December at Mad Art Gallery so I wanted to troll the vendors and see who was worthy of inviting to our show. Overall, the event was a lot smaller than I had expected. I found out that Bust magazine was one of the sponsors and I had assumed it would be as big as Readymade's Holiday Craft Show in NY or something like a Renegade Craft Fair (I went to Chicago's two years ago and dropped nearly $200 on some kick ass merchandise...), but it was much smaller, almost entirely local, but extremely packed. The gear was pretty varied in quality, but most (if not all) was under $100 and since the coordinators weren't taking a cut at all, the show must have been a real success to the makers involved. I rarely saw a person exit the building without at least one of the small brown paper bags with the RRCS logo stamped on the front of it in hand (nice touch guys). I think the venue was way too small for the amount of stuff they had available--it was hard to move around, and trying on clothes was impossible unless you wanted to do it over what you had on--but that's just a sign that they've outgrown their location and need to find a bigger space for next time.

Pros:
- Marie Oberkirsch's textiles
- Squasht clothing and hats
- Dinosaur Kewpie handbags
- the Design Deli lamps
- Big Headed Bluebird, Red Anvil and LaLaLori jewelry
- Janice Wallace cards, Secret Leaves books
- Anchovy's re-designed stuffed animals were pricey but really funny
- Live music
- Vintage iron-on transfers on-the-spot
- Well run and extremely organized, if not too many volunteers standing around

Cons:
- Some of the merchandise was not very good
- Very cramped space, hard to move around
- No bathroom!

Kudos to the organizers. This event must have been a lot of work. Look forward to seeing it in a larger venue next time.

I'm blue

Ten beautiful colors of blue:
1. Robin's Egg
2. Peacock
3. Sapphire
4. Cerulean
5. Midnight
6. Aqua
7. Ultramarine
8. Lapis Lazuli
9. Azure
10. Sky