Annnd I'm back. Maker Faire was great this year! (Of course, it's always great!) It was wonderful to meet so many of you in person, and to meet a whole bunch of new folks. It was a different sort of experience for me this year, as I was helping out with the giant Plush Team booth, instead of manning my own table: And boy, was it fun! I didn't get a chance to take a whole lot of photos, but here's a few highlights. There was an amazing little steampunk carnival, with hysterical games. The above picture is of the post-apocalyptic rifle game.
There were art cars! Like this one:
New this year was this giant 1930's B movie style rocket. So cool.
I'll be there, Chickenpants in tow, as part of the Plush Team booth! If you're anywhere near Northern California, I heartily encourage you to come by. It's a really amazing fair. And, since I am lazy, here's what I posted on http://theneedle.org:
In case you didn't already have a good enough reason to head to San Mateo this weekend, how does this sound?
Ongoing FREE plush making classes taught by pros!
Shop the plush goodies of 30 incredible creators in one spot!
Meet 8 amazing plushiers in person! Not holograms!
And it's all happening THIS WEEKEND, May 22 & 23rd at the San Mateo Fairgrounds.
For way too long, I had pages and pages of possible things to pack for shows. Pages I downloaded off the internet, pages I hand wrote, pages pages pages. All of which just left me feeling panicky that I had forgotten something. Well, no longer! I finally bit the bullet and condensed all those pages full of things that only half way applied to me, and made them ONE. And I'm sharing it with you. Behold! The one page show packing list! Click here to download the Craft Show Packing List! It will open in a new tab. To save it, click on File, then Download As. Pick your favorite format, and you're good to go.
A caveat, of course: Look over this list. Personalize it. Everyone brings slightly different stuff with them to shows. Take the time, and your future self will thank you. (It's really not that much time.)
Let the recap commence! Sort of! It turns out I accidentally took 450 pictures at the San Diego Zoo, and roughly none of anything else. It's going to take a little bit of time to sort through all those to find the 5 or 6 interesting shots. So we'll talk about another facet of the trip: Unique Los Angeles! Look, a photo! Of my table! Taken with my crummy camera, as that is my way. Unique Los Angeles was wonderful. It was so nice to meet so many of you! And it was great to meet so many new people, too. We were in between a ceramics artist, and Necessary Baggage, who made fantastic men's lounge shorts. They also had male models wearing those shorts (and generally not much else) hanging out at the table all day. Best advertising ever! You can see some photos they took on their Facebook page. There is so much more to say, but a persistent headache isn't letting me get to it right now. Just know that I am back, things are good, and my pugs won't let me out of their sight: More soon!
It's finally here! Unique LA is THIS VERY WEEKEND. April 24th & 25th aka Saturday & Sunday. Come on by and say hi! Parking is easy. Hundreds of vendors, crazy hipster chow, and other goodness. I'll be there with ALL 68 CHICKENPANTS in tow.
Here's the site with all the details: http://uniquela.com. Hope to see you there!
I am very happy to announce that the Chickenpants and I will be at Unique Los Angeles this April! It's April 24th & 25th, and you can see all the other pertinent details here. I hope I get to meet some of you in person! That's always an amazing treat. We were at the December 2008 show, too. Here's a few photos I dredged up: Note to self: start taking more photos at shows! More updates later. Happy Wednesday, everyone!
I was invited to participate in the Go Ask Alice plush art show in Santa Barbara. I had really grand plans of making a whole cast of characters...but, um, life kind of got in the way. Anyway, here's what I did make. Of course, I had to make an Alice: All that time spent making Blythe clothes has not been a waste! Turns out, it's very useful to know how to make tiny dresses after all. In the Disney version, the Queen of Hearts always freaked me out. She was so angry! I was inspired by the John Tenniel illustrations of the Queen for my version. I was a little nervous to make a Mad Hatter, namely because of the hat. How does one make a plush hat? I'm glad I did it anyway, though. Turns out it is really not that difficult. Yay! Perhaps I'll be making more Chickenpants hats in the future... (and yes, that is a Re-Ment cup in his hand. Turns out collecting Re-Ment is useful, too.)
So, that's that. If you're in the area, please stop by! I hear they're having a tea party to celebrate the show opening. It's on December 5th, and you can find all the details on their site.
*also: psst! i'm picking the winner for the chickenpants baby contest this evening! i think there's still room for a few more comments...*
If you're in the Sacramento-ish area, come on by! I'll be there with Chickenpants apletny, and perhaps some of the new Bad Dog paintings (assuming I can fit them onto a 6' table...which let's face it, probably won't happen, but, you know, I might have them with me.) I think most of the proceeds from this show will go towards getting Buster fixed. ^_^
The annual National Bird Day show benefiting Born Free USA will be this Saturday. (As in tomorrow. Yikes!) I was privileged to have a small part in last year, and I'm happy to say I'll be there again this year! If you're in the area, please stop by. Last year was lovely, and this year is sure to be, too. (Thanks SN & R for the mention! It will be at Body Tribe Fitness, 920 21st Street;(916) 444-2384. Reception from 6-10 pm. See you there!
Oh my goodness, I have so much to share with you all! Things are beyond messy over here. You know how when you were a kid your mom would come into your room, wrinkle up her nose, and declare "This place is a pig sty!" Well, let's just say mom's head would probably explode if she could see the flat now. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to share with you. My point was that I can't get to my camera (or usb cables) at the moment, so we'll have to make do. I met so many great artists and crafters over the weekend. And I must share with you this:
This bit of awesomeness brought to you by The Frantic Meerkat, who you can find on Etsy. I'm the proud owner of a few of her wonderful prints now.
KLEAN Bath & Body was awesome as ever. Her new seasonal fragrances...yum! I can't recommend "Where angels go..." enough. It's a lovely cake-y sort of scent. Fabulous! Photo by ktafoya. And there was so much more! But now, I must attend to my pig sty. So I'll leave you with this: Ba ba ba baaa! That's right, there's a great big gorgeous shop update on the way. Very, very soon. I'm hoping by the end of this week. It's my very next project (after the whole pig sty debacle gets cleared up). If you want to be among the very first to know, join the mailing list. I think I'll be enclosing a code for a free gift with purchase in there...just for our mailing list subscribers. Just drop an email to absolutelysmall {at} gmail.com with subscribe in the subject line, or just use the handy dandy form up in the top right hand corner of this page.
December 13th & 14th! I'll be there! And 200 other vendors! Woo! It looks like it's going to be great fun, so if you're in the Southern California area, I heartily encourage you to drop by. I'll be at booth 5012, across from the babies/kids section. Visit http://www.uniquelosangeles.com/ for all the details. See you this weekend! (or not!)
Here's the utterly amazing Leslie Hall holding two Absolutely Small plushies! Not only was she great live, she was really, really nice. (And liked my work. Whoa!) This photo actually isn't at Felt Club at all. It was taken at GR2 the night before. James Kochalka, Claire Chambers, and G. Pete Chickenpants Originally uploaded by absolutely small
It's James Kochalka, me, and G.Pete Chickenpants. So, there's the highlights, chickadees. All the rest of the photos are up on Flickr now, but I have yet to upload the videos anywhere. (Singing and dancing, y'all.)
I had to take a few quick shots of my new batch of plushies. They're all going with me to Felt Club this Sunday. If you're in the Los Angeles area, I hope you can make it. It's this Sunday the 16th, and this link tells you all you need to know about how to get there. I kind of hate the thought of them just going to their new homes and possibly not leaving an internet trace, so here they are! From left to right: Davis, Marty, Penny. (Penny's my favorite!) L to R: Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Bringer, Sammykins, Isobel, Mardi Gras. You can see a few more pictures of the new guys at my Flickr, too. And if you're in the LA area, please stop by and say hi! I'd love to meet you.
Hi everyone who may still be reading this poor neglected blog! I have a bag full of excuses why I haven't been updating, but instead, I want to share something AWESOME:
Eh? Eh? AWESOME. Anyway! If you're in the San Francisco area this Sunday, come on by to Capsule! It's a street fair, and I'll be there with roughly a seven nation Chickenpants army. Hope to see you there!
And yes, the Chickenpants will be there. http://tiny.cc/1nrk9 I'm working harder than a one legged guy in a butt kicking contest (as a certain friend's dad would say). Hence the total absence of blog posts, etc... All this time spent stuffing goats and dogs and bunnies(!) has led me to think, hey, you know what would be great? A business partner! Or at least someone to handle the marketing...I'm going a little nuts all by myself. (See the lack of a CP Adventure movie this month, as well as the lack of a CP Limited print...wait, why am I telling you this?) *ahem* So...Come see me in Santa Cruz at the Cabrillo thing this weekend! And here are the promised better photos of the CP Ninjapants. I'm happy to say these two have already found homes (thanks, guys!), and more are on the way. Sho Ninjapants "The Paw" Ninjapants Not a Ninjapants at all! But a rather cute little bird named Victoria. She's new in the shop.
Annnnd we're back! SF Zine Fest was really fun. It was really inspiring to be in a room packed with so many creative and talented people. It reminded me that oh, hey, shouldn't I be like, drawing or something? Hmmm. Our table was right next to Motormouth Press, who makes the most adorable letterpress stationery. And she was super nice! Alex was kind enough to lend us his camera so we could take a few snapshots. (I was to lazy to lug the D50 around this weekend.) (There's more on my Flickr site, if you're so inclined.) Some random highlights of the weekend: Isby Blue coming by our table with her whole brood. (And some of the brood wanted to have their photo taken with me! Whoa!) Getting to meet Vanessa Davis...and then later, she came by my table, and liked my work. (Again, whoa!) Telling Mike Hales I was afraid of the 500+ pages of pure crap required before you make any decent comics, and him saying "Oh, 30 pages or so of crap should be enough." So encouraging! I think that alone might have me drawing again. Francois dragging me up to read numbers for the raffle. Thanks Francois! All in all, quite the fun weekend!
And I'm taking this with me: I whipped up a new sign at the last minute. Hooray for last minute photoshopping! Anyway, we'll all be at the SF Zine Fest this weekend, which looks like it will be very fun- if you're in the area, I hope you can swing by! It runs from 11-8 on Saturday and 11-7 on Sunday, and here's their link for all the other important stuff. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Greetings from an insomniac! I have two blurry, exciting bits of news tonight: 1. This weekend I'll be at the SF Zine Fest with all my creatures...including (exciting bit #2) new blind box goodies! Here's a peek at some of what went into the boxes: If you're in the area, I hope you can swing by. It's in the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. (July 19 & 20th, 11-8) Should be a pretty fun show! Here's the link again for directions and further incentives to go. ^-^
Not to be forgotten: if you are in the St. Louis area TONIGHT, do stop by Crammed Organisms! (Also if you are/ will be there any Friday this month) The grand opening of the show is tonight. (And thank you, Crown Dozen, for mentioning the show {and me!}) *this is the sound of me realizing it's already 9 pm there* GO ANYWAY, it is going to be awesome!! *this is me, bossypants*
I'll be at table #61 at Bazaar Bizarre / Maker Faire in San Mateo! Click on the photo above for directions and all that other important stuff. It will be this Saturday and Sunday, from 10-6 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. It's a part of Maker Faire- so if you don't feel like trekking to San Mateo just for crafts, maybe the robots can convince you!
Or, if heading to San Mateo this weekend isn't happening, perhaps you'd rather go to Folsom? Due to a double booking on my part, Absolutely Small goods will be at the One of a Kind Handmade Craft Fair. It'll be this Sunday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at 52 Natoma Street. Here's a map! I hope you can make it to one of these fun events. Have a great weekend, everyone!
