Patchwork Underground

Summer’s finally here! To celebrate, we’re having a big ol’ sale at our Etsy shop. All of our handmade one-size-fits-most cotton corduroy wrap skirts are $5 OFF for the month of June so hurry over there and snark ‘em up while you can.

Wanna visit in person?

Me too! When we’re not madly entering our new stuff onto our Etsy shop, we’re traveling all over the state of Oregon selling our awesome handmade wares….

• Eugenians will be happy to know that we’re back at Saturday Market in downtown Eugene every Saturday from 10-5 in the 4×4 booths on the block adjacent to the Farmer’s Market.
• Portlanders will recognize us at Alberta Street’s Last Thursday Market every last Thurday of every month from 4-10.
• You can also catch a choice selection of our hand silk-screened panties and handmade flower headscarves any day of the week at the lovely Frock Boutique on Alberta Street in NE Portland.

I finally took pictures of all the yummy head scarves I made for Holiday Market that didn’t sell. I made 150+ and it was an unusually slow market so I’m still rollin’ in head scarves. God bless self-directed self-photography though, seriously. How else could I take this many semi-decent pictures of myself? I love these new-fangled digital cameras.

Check it out…no two alike!

How did I make them? Well, they’re lined with a cute fabric on the side that goes against your head, so first I serged the edges of the lining and the outer fabric together using contrasting thread. Then I attached ribbons to the ends and then I stitched a felt cut-out of a flower onto the finished product using a star pattern. When they’re all hanging over a clothesline together in my booth they look adorable - you can’t help but come in and play with all the dangly ribbons. The display is a babe magnet.

I wanted to post them here first to give ya’ll a first glimpse before I post them on Etsy. I’m going with the 1 Etsy post a day rule - the theory is that your new listing will top-list in people’s searches and bring more traffic to your shop. We’ll see how that goes.

Hope you guys like ‘em! People seemed to like them at market but they just didn’t go as fast as I’d hoped…

All of the artists I feature in my “Spotlight On:” series are personal crafts inspirations to me. Seems to me that no crafter can really work in isolation because we’re all drawing off that single creative principal. The first artist I want to feature in my “Spotlight On:” series is Taryn and Jeff’s business, Mystic Orb Talismans.

For the last two years I’ve been vending at the Saturday Market and Holiday Market cooperative in Eugene, OR. These folks appeared one day out of nowhere with a completely magical booth filled with jewelery and other needful things. They are both very down-to-earth people and totally passionate about what they do. Check out the pics below to see what I mean….these pieces really speak for themselves.

Mystic Orb Talismans - Necklace with Abalone

Mystic Orb Talismans - Tayrn Wearing the Abalone Necklace

Celtic Knot Inlay Necklace also by Mystic Orb

Wonderland Box! Massive Scrimshaw.

Another Angle of the Wonderland Box

More scrimshaw. This necklace is built around a metal screw-cap container.

Oooo. I'm a vegetarian but antler never looked this good.

Adorable pic of Tayrn wearing another one of their necklaces. Love the carving on this one.

Peace pipe!

(Note: This show-and-tell could go on for ages. I spend years in their booth picking everything up and trying it on. It was a struggle to restrain myself from uploading everything onto this post.)

About technique: The little line-drawings are done using an ancient technique called scrimshaw. Jeff scratches the image into bone (or sometimes stone) and then fills the carving in with ink. These images are TINY - he uses a needle-sized tool and a magnifying glass to do it. I never even knew what scrimshaw was before I met him. I guess it’s a sailor thing. (FYI, I strongly suspect these folks were a pirate duo in a past life.)

Jeff also does fantastic wood-carvings and inlays with whatever kinds of rocks he can get his hands on. Lately he’s been using picture jasper in his work which just really gives me the willies! I LOVE picture jasper and the organic shapes in the stone really compliment his earthy designs.

If you want to read more about Taryn and Jeff (and maybe check out pictures of their little goats or their on-going home renovation project!) visit their website, http://www.mysticorbtalismans.com or check out their Etsy shop at http://mysticorbtalismans.etsy.com. They’re new to Etsy and they’re already 70+ listings strong! These folks are truely epic crafters….

My latest craft addiction: linocuts (a.k.a woodcuts or block printing). It’s a super-easy way to basically make your own huge, arty stamp. Once you’ve carved your “block,” you can reproduce the image again and again fairly quickly….

Unfortunately, what we’re talking about here does involve carving tools. These can be spendy but I found my set at a thrift store and they work great. The rest of the supplies you’ll need can be picked up at your local crafts store - you’ll need a block of linoleum and some printing ink (I used Speedball’s black). Beacause I was planning on making a lot of prints, I invested in this glorified rolling pin called a brayer. You use it to apply ink to the stamp - er, block. Prints are made by placing a piece of paper on top of the inked stamp and then rubbing the paper with the back of a spoon. Hours of enjoyment.

Here’s some new purdy pictures I took of our latest block print/woodcut mini-journals and cards….

I want to post them on my Etsy shop but there are so many different color combinations (we made a BUNCH….seriously) that I’m overwhelmed by cataloging it all for folks’ shopping pleasure….in the meantime, you can see more pics from my photoshoot here.

Welcome to the new PatchworkUnderground.com!! Some of you may have noticed that things have changed quite a bit around here….

First thing’s first. Don’t panic! All of my handmade skirts, headscarves, scarves and other goodies are still available for purchase on Etsy. You can find my new shop here: http://patchworkunderground.etsy.com.

I finally even got around to making that gallery that everyone’s been bugging me about. You can click on that “portfolio” button up there at the top of the screen to check out all the best Patchwork Underground pieces of the last 2 years.

OK, one more big piece of news - brace yourself - because it’s official…my housebus blogging and my crafting blogging are getting a divorce. Trying to fit all that crafting and all that bus-building into one little blog turned out to be too much for one little site to handle.

From now on, PatchworkUnderground.com will be home to my new, non-bus-related crafting blog! (Don’t worry, you can find my bus-building/bus-living blog right where you left it, at http://patchworkunderground.blogspot.com). Check back here often (or better yet, subscribe to my RSS feed!) so that you’ll be in on all the neat craft tips, creative inspiration, DIY news and vintage/retro crafting tidbits I’m gonna be posting here.

One more thing: I just want to say “thank-you” to all my loyal customers for your years of support and encouragement! You are some of the most kind people in the world. I hope ya’ll love the new design, look and feel of the site. Please let me know what you think!

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