Like a Glove: A Love Story

Some ideas take a while to surface, time to percolate, breath and take the shape of what they are meant to be. A few years ago I hosted a Julefrokost and made some fun invites – a knitted nordic advent-calendar-inspired card with little flaps that open to show party details like 1) how much pickled herring would be consumed, 2) what time to show up promptly by, and 3) a partial menu printed in both English and Danish.

Julefrokost party invitation with knitted nordic design. Invite has four advent calendar style door flaps that open to reveal party information.
Julefrokost is hard to pronounce for Americans, so my friends called it Joogala Froogala.

Some time passed, and I added a title to the idea when I was inspired by someone and sent them a book of words and pictures. More time went by, and the moose wouldn’t leave me alone. I thought: they need to be Bigger! Grander! Fuzzier!

Most things start out simple and kind of ugly, like this. Usually they get better. These sketches gave me enough of an idea of what the thing should look like to fire up Illustrator.

So I started working on the most complicated illustrator file I’ve ever made and nearly succumbed to carpal tunnel syndrome. My hours of toil wouldn’t be for naught as I planned to share the story of smitten moose, fuzzy creatures and a house in the woods. Stories are for sharing, right? Friends, people I admired or who inspired me, clients, agencies, people I’d like to work with – the list was all encompassing. I even sent one to Conan O’Brien. I hope he got it.

A large part of this project was finding a vendor to produce the poster. Flocking seems to be a very niche market, and my goal of producing it in the U.S. was a long shot. After Googling for weeks, following endless phone leads from local screen printers, and being told that China was the place to go for this kind of thing, I found the American Flocking Association. Flocking has many purposes: lettering on t-shirts, lining telescopes, glove boxes and jewelry cases, and looking like fake snow on fake Christmas trees. All of the companies who flock these items were mighty confused when I called and asked if they could just flock a piece of paper.

Finally, I found Great Lakes Flocking, who was not only in the US of A, but also had a very nice employee WITH MY SAME LAST NAME that helped me on each step of my flocking adventure. After a few weeks of production, a giant pallet arrived at my studio. “Like a Glove: A Love Story” had finally arrived!

I think the third time was the charm on this idea, and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. If you ask very nicely, I will send you a copy.

My pioneer rabbit, lurking in the background. Sneaky fellow.
What it's all about.

How to be an Ironic Hipster and Ironic at the Same Time

If I’ve learned anything from watching Bones, it’s that the best anthropologists go under cover when studying their subjects. Well, that might be the only thing I’ve learned from watching Bones, but I’ll take what I can get. So when my friend Michael put together a “Keep Portland Beard” art show at the Tribute Gallery, my curious side got the better of me and I decided to investigate.

All the beardiest folk in Portland would be at the show, so I concocted the perfect get-up to blend in. I field tested this accoutrement at the show, which was a slice of Michael’s online journal of beard-related ephemera and reviews.

Mustache on a stick.
I present you the mustache on a hand on a stick or "stick of irony".
A finger mustache on a cut-out paper hand.
The real deal in action.

Once I got there, however, I learned that sporting facial hair is less about actually growing the follicles and more about the attitude (and math can prove it). I had no attitude, and my inflated feeling of hipness quickly wore off until I fled the scene to re-watch “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Musical” in an effort to rebalance the scales of normality. Nothing puts a bearded hipster in perspective like a group of singing and dancing vampire killers.

We can sing! We can dance! And we are definitely not cool!

Aside from Michael’s exuberant acceptance of my masquerade, my faux ‘stache was met with hip indifference and a few furrowed brows. Maybe Portland isn’t the place to make a statement with a mustache-on-a-finger-on-a-stick, but I have a feeling this thing will really take off in Idaho.

How to be an Ironic Hipster and Ironic at the same time. Diagrammed. Put a mustache on a finger. Just add a stick. The apex of cool at your fingertips. Go forth and be hip!
Go forth and be hip, Idahoans!

Update: After a request from Australia to use the mustache-on-a-hand-on-a-stick at a hipster party, I made a template which you can download here.

Stop Time With A Penfelt Watch

On the first real day of summer in Portland you just want to stop time, because before you know it summer will have flown by and you’ll be stuck again with the rain and your bottle of vitamin D chewables. Luckily, Portland maker LeBrie Rich feels the same, and made this felt watch for just such occasions. See more of her stuff on Etsy at Penfelt.

Teal and lime hand felted watch by LeBrie Rich.

A Unicycle Family

It’s not often that you find something that surprises you (in a good way) while searching for stock photos. So when I came across this picture of a family unicycling together, I couldn’t keep it to myself.

A family of unicyclers, rolling down a path.
Getty Images #tlp918722