Come out this weekend!

I will have work in the W7 Collective sale this weekend. It will be the first opportunity to see/buy my new photo block collection.

I am very excited about these pieces. I took the photos within about the last year, and I had processed some of them, but having this show to prepare for led to me finishing out the set.

The photos are mounted on high quality plywood board prepped for hanging. They have a beautiful surface achieved by a hand-brushed varnish that gives the photography a layer of surface protection and ultra-violet protection. I will definitely be taking photos of them at the sale, because I didn't have time to before I dropped them off. I will have both photos and pastel paintings at W7. Come out to St. Paul this Thursday, Friday, or Saturday - details below!

New Presentation Method

I have now claimed another area of our house for studio space. This new setup shares our extra bedroom along with the excercise stuff.


I got a lovely vintage laminate table that is the perfect size to hold some supplies and some pieces to work on. (That's my drop-cloth underneath.) I've been working on a new photo product, and testing out methods and surfaces. I do believe I've found the one I like, and I plan to debut it in December (details in an upcoming post).

...testing in progress...


The end product will be ready to hang. I love the way this display method is clean and modern! Let me know what you think.

Pompeii

Awesome wedding video

Check out this awesome "cinema-style flip book" of a wedding shoot by Aves Photographic Design from Fort Worth, Texas. It is too cute... especially when the weimaraner joins them!

Click here

Meetup with Maria Thomas, Etsy CEO

Well, I said I would come back with a post about the meetup at Nye's Polonaise Thursday evening. I had a great time. I met many people from the HandmadeMN team that I've never seen in person before. Maria talked with all of us very honestly about how things work at Etsy, and specifically in regard to our questions. She was very personable and it was nice to see that she took our concerns seriously. For more on the evening, click here to view Corrin of Athena's Little Owl's report on the HandmadeMN blog.

Etsy videos

Etsy held a contest for videos promoting Etsy. I thought this one by Estellelle was too cute. It won 2nd runner up.

**Sorry, I had to remove this video, because it was forwarding my blog to Etsy.**

Around town

Last Friday, I went to the St. Paul art crawl with a couple friends. It is always fun to go around visiting the artists' studios, and finding some great art. Our favorite artist discovery was Mary Barrett. She had a large printmaking studio filled with many landscapes, primarily woodblock, but also intaglio, collage, and pigment paintings. Mary was very willing to talk with us at length about her work. She used to teach printmaking at UW River Falls. I'm sure she inspired many students!

Tomorrow, I'm going to go to a meet and greet with the CEO of Etsy! She's in town, and there's going to be an event over at Nye's. I'm very excited... will report back this weekend.

Welcome to MN Maria!