Discriminating Weirdos

Big Big Photo Shoot: The First Photos!

I'm so excited, I just have to share some of the great photos we took this last Monday.  Check 'em out!

I'll be listing one of these this evening at the Etsy class. 

(Emily)

How To Be a One-Woman PR Blitz

As steady readers to Discriminating Weirdos know, I've been preparing for some time to teach a class introducing Etsy  to the makers in my little hometown of Grand Marais, Minnesota

Most of this preparation up to this point has been me talking about how I want to teach the class.  I was pretty confident that unless I stopped talking and started booking dates, it wouldn't happen.  I've come to terms with the reality of the creative life: there are more ideas than a person can create in a lifetime.  Lots of my ideas will stay in the talk phase.  This class, I feel, is a really good idea that should go beyond talk. 

My first problem to solve is that no one in the area seems to know anything at all about Etsy.  So I could put a million posters up saying "Intro to Selling on Etsy," and not a single person would show up.  This is big problem.  To overcome it, I have become a one-woman PR blitz. 

My first tactic happened months ago.  I went to visit "key" figures in the arts community just to talk about the project.  I chatted with a lot of people, ran into a lot of dead ends, got looks like I was crazy from a few more, and managed to find a couple of people that could really help The Cause. 

I also drank a whole lot of maple lattes (homemade maple syrup from Wild Country Maple Syrup at the Java Moose.  The maple lattes were a real sacrifice), stitched a bunch, and talked my head off about Etsy and what it can do for the community. 

Apparently I'm not the only person who's worried about the economy in a tiny little town cut off from everywhere.

That was my teaser phase. 

I've got under a month now until the class (July 3 at the Cook County Community Center), so now my PR really has to get underway. 

Fortunately, I've got a brilliant press-release writer on staff at Moe Sew Co.  Adam used to be a journalist at the Cook County News Herald, and has written more press releases for our other projects than you could shake a very large broom handle at.  I twisted a few arms, batted my eyelashes and made a batch of cookies. He came up with a good one for me.

Diane Booth at the Extension Office (who is sponsoring the class) sent it to the community radio station and the non-profit internet provider. 

Yesterday, I put together a pretty decent little press packet.  This is an important skill to develop as an artist.  Press packetry, that is.  This time I designed it for people who know nothing about Etsy so that they would not only have the practical information in the press release, but also some background information about the company. 

Etsy's got a massive press page, with all sorts of possible articles.  I wanted three.  I went with the Financial Times, Anchorage Daily News, and Forbes because they provided a nice cross section of company info.  Anchorage Daily News did a really nice piece on an artist that's making her living off of Etsy.... just what I want Grand Marais to see. 

With the articles, I'm enclosing a page that has Etsy's "About" and "Stats", and of course the press release. 

It just occurred to me that perhaps I'd better put in a personal bio.  I guess I'll have to write that after I finish this post.

I called the editor of the Cook County News Herald and the program manager of the community radio station, WTIP,  early this week to ask if I could get any more coverage for the class.  I explained that I was worried that people wouldn't really know what Etsy is and what it can do for them.  I asked them if they'd like for me to send the press pack... both readily said yes. 

I've already got an interview scheduled on WTIP on the AM Community Calendar, one of the more listened to programs.  I'm hoping for a larger piece in the News Herald.  After I send out the press packet, I'll follow it up with a phone call. 

I also called Bob DeArmond with the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council to let him know what I'm doing.  ARAC is in charge of a state-sponsored grant program for artists of all kinds in the arrowhead region.  I used to sit on the board, so I know Bob, which helps.  (But you don't need to know someone to call them!  Relationships have to start somewhere.)  He asked me what he could do for me, and I told him that I figured he knows every artist in the area.  I just wanted him to pass the word along.  I'll be sending a press packet to him as well.  (he had never heard of Etsy either.  is it any wonder that I feel like I have to do this class?). 

After I send out these packets, I'll probably end up sending them to the other newspapers and radio stations in the region.  They aren't close to Grand Marais, but if I can get some grander coverage, that would be a good thing too. 

I'm going to call my "key" artists again next week and email the press packets to them as well.  I want them really talking it up to their cronies.

One woman PR blitzes don't have much time.  One of these days I'd better start working on content for the class. I know what I want to cover but... (to be continued)  (Emily)

News of the Moe: Back from Vacation

First, we really need to share the Moe Sew Co. news.  Turns out that what really makes me feel like a rockstar is being noticed by one of my favorite rockstars, in this case John F from They Might Be Giants.  He picked not ONE but TWO of Adam's ties.  Woo-hoo! So so very cool.  I mean seriously, I've been singing Don't Don't Don't Let's Start since high school.  Adam claims I don't sing the lyrics right, but when you've been singing a song for that long, they sorta morph.  Isn't that why there's so many variations of folk songs? 

Anyway,

Check out our moment of fame:

















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Since we have been on vacation, I'm going to use that as an excuse to share family photos!  Check out our fun time in the extremely cold but nonetheless beautiful and relaxing North Shore of Lake Superior! 


I made Adam take the camera this time so there's lots more pictures of me than of him. Like this one, in a hammock, not even pretending to read.



Spoof is a bad hunter.



This little warbler hit our window and got stunned a bit.  She took some big naps on my lap and we spent a couple of hours together before she decided to take off back into the woods.



What'cha really go for. Staring at the cold cold water of Gitchi Gumee.

 

We really like rocks.



Oh yea.  Note brand new Carhartt's.  Feelin' real North Woods Girl.



We had two chipmunk friends on our porch.  This one is Satchmo. He was a bit skittish, but hoovered more sunflower seeds than you could believe.



And this is my bestest friend Wiggle Butt.  He liked me lots.

Two more of things that amused us:





I promise tomorrow we'll be back in gear and into our crafting habits.  Later! (Emily)

Craftstravaganza Prep: The Moss Covered Three Handled Family Grudunza Problem

As regular readers of Discriminating Weirdos know, I've been stuck on my hat stand problem for a while. 

My original concept, entitled The Moss Covered Three Handled Family Grudunza, was constructed out of galvanized pipe, and had little red rubber balls on the ends to hold hats. 

The pipe concept was great, but the rubber balls (however jolly) didn't do a very good job of staying attached to the pipes, and weren't shaped properly to hold hats in even a mild breeze. 

Last December, Adam started making melted record bowls (see previous post).  It occurred to both of us that these bowls would make perfect hand stands, if only we could figure out how to attach them to the pipes. 

Months later, and only with an impending deadline, did we come up with a really easy solution that was entirely obvious from the beginning had we thought about it at all. 

A tutorial on attaching record bowls to a grudunza: 

Start with a melted record bowl. 

Easy to make.  If you need a tutorial on this, just ask.  But you'll have to wait until next week.  I've got a lot of stitching to do.

This was my idea.

Also my idea.  It seemed so obvious that the nut thingy should screw on the bolt thingy.

This was Adam's brilliance.  He's very good at using whatever happens to be at hand.  Sometimes this involves far too much wire and rubber bands.  This time, he found exactly the right tool for the job.  The red thing is one of those electrical insulator end nuts leftover from ceiling fan installation.  It fits perfectly into the end of the pipe.

He's feeling very clever.

This was the scary part. 

Would it work? 

Would the bolt fit into the red thing tightly enough? 

Would the red thing hold in the pipe?

YES!

The completed Moss Covered Three Handled Family Grudunza.

Version Two.  Inverted Melted Record Bowl.

(Emily)

Lists!!! Glorious Lists!!!!!

I can't say that, as a whole, I'm a great deal neater than Adam is, but I am definitely a great deal more organized.  I tend to categorize, and subcategorize, and then alphabetize.  I make lists.  Lots of lists.  I do actually keep tabs on them (most of the time). 

Today, -I- don't have the energy and time to go rooting about for objects that I love and adore, for this morning, I realized that our first craft show of the spring is coming up in less than a month.  EEEEEE. 

Adam's waaaaay more on top of this problem than I am.  He's already got a few lists going.  (I taught him the value of lists, just like I taught him the value of not wearing multi-color acrylic sweaters and piping.)

I'm going to spend my blog time today sharing with you my list for getting ready for

THE ST PAUL CRAFTSTRAVAGANZA ---- April 26 ---- St Paul, Minnesota

(this is the first of likely many shameless plugs.  be ready)

1.  Finish hats. 
    That's pretty obvious.  I have several that are very close, and several more that aren't. 

2.  Get more straws (so I can make more hats).
    I better quick call my buddy Raymond who recently took over the management of ManHatCo and get me some more straws.  Late April is definitely a time when people are looking for more sun hats.  And these vintage onion skin straws from Judith M are pretty great too. 

3.  Procure housing.
    I'm already on my way on that one.  I emailed my good friend Sarah this morning to see if we can crash at her place again.  Doing the St Paul show is a grand excuse to go back to Minnesota to see her and her husband Brad.  Looking forward to another dinner maybe at La Cucaracha....yummy.

4.  Find packaging. 
    I've been on a quest for a reliable source for hat boxes for a while.  I'm thinking I'd better wait on that for the moment, and just go with bags and loads of tissue.  Thoughts?  Should I take the plunge and buy these boxes from Presentable Packaing?  If I'm going to, I'd better do it soon. 

5. Work on display.    
    Likely this one's not going to happen until about the week before.  But I'm thinking I'm going to adjust my hat racks, and instead of using rubber balls, use upturned melted record bowls.  A bit like this, which Adam made me from the mid-section of our Sit and Spin.  I'm thinking that somehow, with the right washer, these upturned record bowls could be affixed to my existing galvanized pipe "three handled family gredunza" concept.

6.  MoeSewCo signage. 
    Hmmm.  I'd like to find a way to get the logo more prominently displayed at the booth.  Anybody have any ideas? 

That about covers it for now.  Lots to do!

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Also, I've been extremely errant in my duties toward blog tagging.  The Main Chelsea of eighty8 words tagged me on March 20.  And I am only now getting to it.  I've been walking around with a tag on my back for weeks now.  How embarrassing. 

Fortunately, there's a list I can follow to get the dang thing off and pass it around like a virus.

(aside:  I've lately come to be utterly enchanted with Cockney Rhyming Slang.  One of my personal faves:  virus, Billy Ray (Cyrus).  So let me write the above sentence again!

Fortunately, there's a list I can follow to get the dang thing off and pass it around like Billy Ray. Or Miley.

The rules of tagging are as follows:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Six random things about me:

1. I'm afraid of bananas.
    I'm not the only one.  Honest.  I've met others.  I won't name names because I know how much of a problem public knowledge of this fear can be.
2. I can roll my tummy in waves. 
    Adam can too, actually.  We're the only two people we've ever met who can do this, and we both discovered it at precisely the same moment: sometime in elementary school, long before we ever met, while watching Real People.
3. When I was small, I thought I was a bat. 
    I watched television by the hour upside down, and couldn't sleep, so I thought I was nocturnal.
4. I love to break the ice that accumulates on puddles with the little air bubbles below it. 
5. When I was a teenager, my best friend Lisa and I used to get together on Wednesday evenings to bake a massive amount of something (cookies, cakes, whatever).  We'd go up to the local college and give it all away.  We had a route, and anybody on the floor of the various dorms we went through got cookies. 
6. I have a higher gravitational force around my head.
    It's true.  Any flying object launched in my general direction will definitely hit my head.  It's happened since I was little.  No flying object sports for me! 

Watch out!  And now for the Billy Ray!  You're tagged!

1. Snicker-Snack

2. Cold Antler Farm

3. Kim Bagwill

4. Something's Hiding in Here

5. Clearwater Outfitters

6. Flutter

(Emily)

Finishing time again

I'm not an extremely organized person.  I know that some makers like to keep everything in nice, neat stacks and folders.  They separate items that require numerous steps to complete into neatly labeled piles.  They track their sales on special computer spreadsheets.

I'm not like that, though.  I just sit in my recliner and stitch.  And stitch.  Then I take a nap, eat something, and stitch some more.  When I get a tie or a patch to the finishing stage, I generally just toss it on a pile in my closet / office desk and move on to my next idea.

This weekend I realized that I had a lot of finishing work to do.  I could tell by the way I had to sweep unfinished ties and patches to the floor because I couldn't find my wallet, keys, hat, and computer monitor.  My whole desk was covered with finishing work, and I figured that I had better get it done.

So this weekend I didn't spend any time on Etsy looking for items to feature.  I didn't read any blogs or even keep up on my Scrabulous games (anyone out there want to play?).  Instead, I backed and cut out a whole pile of new patches.  I don't even have pictures right now because it basically took all of the making time I had yesterday to finish them off.

And I still have a stack of ties to complete.

So instead of taking new pictures of the new pictures of the new patches right now, I'm going to share a couple of pieces that have recently sold, either at a show on on Etsy, and spend some time sewing ties back together.  The patch on the right is Boid 'N' Woim, and the tie on the left is called Toot 'N' Hiss. The fact that they both have 'N' in their titles is nothing but a happy coincidence.   Feel free to click them and visit our Etsy store!  (Adam)

At Long Last: New Hats Ready for Etsy

Done!  Four hats, done!  Four sets of photos, done! 

Ready to go! 

Except for one very big problem. 

None of them have names.  Aigh! 

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  In the meantime, here they are; nameless, but finished!

I imagine that sometime in the next four hours (before The Complete Jane Austen on PBS), I'll have some sort of panic/creativity attack and come up with something for at least one of them. 

So keep an eye peeled to our Etsy store for new late winter/early spring hats!  (EM)
   

Hat Block Dance of Joy!

I'm so happy!  Yesterday I found a hat block maker in Shakopee, Minnesota!  Until recently, the only hat block maker I could find was in England, and though it was very clear that his work is of the very highest quality, his cost and the cost of shipping made all purchases pretty much impossible. 

Finding someone in the States is a big deal.  Finding someone that I can afford is a big deal. 

Hat blocks are hard to come by.  Each shape of hat (and to a certain degree size) requires a different hat block. 

This block here will make a cloche that's slightly assymetrical.  It'll come down a bit over one eye.

Hat block from the collection of Eva May Design Studio.

So you see, in order to make a variety of hats, a milliner needs to have a whole bunch of hat blocks. 

Doing so, here in the States, is both easier and more expensive than it was in the past.  Ebay makes finding hat blocks easier, but since you don't have to go scrounging through antique stores and flea markets, it also means that every milliner in the country is looking to buy basically the same set of hat blocks on Ebay. 

Really basic styles are easy and cheap to find (round, bowler, sorta squarish on the top....), but the more complicated the block is the more difficult it is to get a deal. 

  Hat Blocks 
  Originally uploaded by the justified sinner

Obviously, the picture I found from a flea market in Antwerp is really about enough to make me hyperventilate. 

It seems that all the really cool blocks are either in Europe or Australia, and shipping is just a beast.  These are big heavy blocks of wood! 

I've been looking for a while for a pinch front fedora.... you know the basic "man's" style seen on everybody from Indiana Jones to Sam Spade to the Rabbi down the street.  When I show my hats, inevitably several men will ask me if I can make them one. 

I can, I just don't have the block.  It's a frustrating position to be in. 

I've started ordering the really beautiful block from the guy in England (who's name is actually Guy) several times.  It's just so expensive, I can't really get it done.

  Hat Blocks used to shape felt hats 
  Originally uploaded by denovich

 

Yesterday, I searched on Yahoo instead of Google.  Apparently there is a reason to keep Yahoo web searches around, because I found a block maker here in the States, just forty minutes from where I grew up, in a building I must have driven by more than a thousand times. 

I'm so excited I have done several dances of joy, and you've got to be certain that the check is in the mail.  Woo-hoo! 

 

I'm already making a list of all the other blocks I want.  The porkpie... that lovely block that flares at the top that's falling apart at Eva's...  a cowboy brim...  so many possibilities! 

I'm definitely going to have to plan a hat-related research trip to England and France now.  I can go make sketches at the Hat Museum...  just look at all those shelves of blocks.... what bliss!  And to France to buy ribbons...  (EM)

Materials

Adam's deep in the depths of an impending day-job deadline, and so it falls to me to blog today.  That's ok, he's probably going to have to cover me when I go teach Dad how to cook over the weekend.  Then again, there might be some good blog potential in that experience.

But until I can get pictures of my father with his hands in some cookie dough or stirring the soup, I thought I'd talk a bit about materials.

I'm still much in process with most of my hats.  If the weather would simply cooperate and not be either extremely cold or extremely snowing, I'd be able to spray them and get on with things.  This is my current excuse.  Last week's was that the snow was preventing me from getting lining fabrics.  But I have lining fabric now! And here it is!

I've been using quite a lot of Thai silk for lining lately.  I feel extremely committed to only using silk, and it just so happens that Thai silk is very easy to work with, unlike so many.  All those tiny tiny little threads sort of floating through the air, sticking onto everything... it's just kind of impossible. 

With Thai silk, all I get are those thick slags (there's a real word for them, I'm just not sure what it is) stuck to everything, and they're much easier to remove.  Besides, it comes in some brilliant and really fabulous colors.  I love linings.  It's the part of the hat that's just for the person who's wearing it.  Linings don't have to match your coat.  You don't have to be shy about wearing chartreuse or electric blue.  It's just a brilliant flash of color that happens when you adorn or de-adorn. 

For the moment, I've been considerably more conservative in color choices for the hats themselves.  I last bought a shipment of felts before winter, and I think I was highly influenced by fall in my choices.

Although there is that Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat which isn't at all conservative.  But I made that last summer. 

I use only very high quality velour or beaver millinery felt.  It's too bad I can't put a whole swatch of it on the blog for you to touch, because that's the best.  It's so very soft it's kind of mind-boggling.  The softness is really why I wanted to make hats in the first place. 

Soon, very soon, it will be spring.  To celebrate, I've got a shipment of some much bolder felts on the way here.  Red! Green!  Woo-hoo!  And then it will be time for straw hats.  And who knows where that will lead!

Adam's got materials too.  He has an extraordinary amount of "string" as he calls it.  Yes, he does save his little shards in what seems like hundreds of jars around the house.  Until they become shards though, he takes the floss and with this squeaky little winder thingy puts them all on bobbins.  The bobbins go into boxes, and the boxes go into a bag.

He's very organized.

I am too, I just can't fit it all onto bobbins and then into boxes.  (EM)

Love(crafting)

One of the Old Ones (#1 in the creature series) 
Originally uploaded by moesewco

About a year ago, I was struck with a strange idea while reading H. P. Lovecraft stories. I had been embroidering ties and patches for a while, and I was playing with the idea of doing some larger pieces. Lovecraft's imagery combined with my fascination with all things horror started to combine with embroidery in my head, and I decided to begin a series of larger pieces featuring monsters.  While the idea began with Lovecraft, not all of the pieces are based on his creatures.  The first one, One of the Old Ones, definitely is, though.

This second piece may have some Lovecraftian influence, but he just doesn't seem as threatening as the Old One. Actually, I always saw him as more of a Chinese dragon crossed with a duck.  That's probably why I've had such a hard time giving him a title.

             
             Untitled (#2 in the creature series) 
             Originally uploaded by moesewco

  Dancin' Bones (#3 in the creature series) 
  Originally uploaded by moesewco

The third member of the series, Dancin' Bones, is definitely NOT Lovecraftian in any way. Maybe it's the purple hat, but he just isn't threatening enough to be included with the Cthulu mythos. But hey, not everything is dark chanting and tentacles, right?