If you haven't gotten a chance to check out the PBS' youtube series Off Book, I highly recommend it. It takes a quick glimpse at a variety topics dealing with contemporary issues in art, trends and culture by means of seven-minute fast-paced videos. I have found numerous videos to be inspired by, learn from and show my art students. With a new video being posted every other Thursday, there is a lot to take in.
To stay on topic to this blog, I've pulled out a video that gives a brief history of etsy and showcases some of it artists.
If for nothing else, two of the artists I was sure to run to etsy and favorite right after watching.
Showing posts with label Etsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etsy. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2013
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Home addition: ashleyg
I can't tell you via blog how excited I am to have checked my mail yesterday and see that my ashleyg postcards arrived! I ordered these off etsy not even a week ago. That night (last night to be exact) I ran to Ikea to buy some frames, framed them this morning and this is the end result. Couldn't be happier. So cheerful, colorful, yet simple. And well for 15 bucks there is no going wrong in this situation. I recommend you all get off this blog right NOW and go buy some of your own. It'll make you a better person ;-)
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
It's hip to be square
Who in their right mind thought math would ever be fun again? Well, it's currently all the rage, but not as we remember it from high school. Now-a-days it's hard to not spot those lovely basic shapes we all became familiar with in our geometry books, but now they are adorning our necks, walls and clothes! These shapes are like pod people and are starting to take over. Run for your lives! No don't do that better yet run to esty and join the cool kids.
I have to admit I am all about this current trend. I've never been one for girlie floral prints, and a couple year ago when getting married it was hard to find something that wasn't covered in it! So I say keep on keeping on you lovely geometric shapes... Below are some of my most favorite objects and designs of geometric love.
1. Wrapping Paper: This comes to us from one of the most exciting websites since Design*Sponge, Plenty of Colour. This website is all things color and most things geometric, both of which warm my soul.
2. Poster Design: This one is also from Plenty of Colour, I know I know I'm not being diverse in my choices, but hang with me and we'll get there!
3. Chevron Christmas ornament: While searching for the best felt Christmas ornament to make this year, I ran across this gem. You can pick it up one etsy for twelve bucks, or try and make your own. Note I made one the other night, it's not the quickest process. However, since I need to make about fifteen, I'm too poor to shell out the twelve bucks a pop. Either way, this ornament on any tree would be a win!
4. Triangle necklace: Now this is one etsy object I can't make. But I am absolutely in love with! It's priced at 18 GBP at the current exchange rate (watch right when I post this the rate will have changed) 1 GBP = 1.5 USD. So this necklace would cost you around 27 dollars without shipping. Well worth it if you ask me.
5. Wallpaper: While trying to find something to paint on one of my walls in my office I ran across this and thought it would be perfect! Now if only I could make more hours in the day, or clone myself like a mogwai I'd be all set. Then again I don't know if gremlins could paint such straight triangles.
Or if you have money--unlike myself, you can purchase the wallpaper version from Minakani a studio on Paris.
Last but not least and probably my most favorite...
6. Wooden geometric vase: This one takes the cake. It's on my Christmas wish list. 30 dollars well spent--hint, hint!
So there it is, six ways to be part of the "in" crowd.
...It's hip to be square!
I have to admit I am all about this current trend. I've never been one for girlie floral prints, and a couple year ago when getting married it was hard to find something that wasn't covered in it! So I say keep on keeping on you lovely geometric shapes... Below are some of my most favorite objects and designs of geometric love.
1. Wrapping Paper: This comes to us from one of the most exciting websites since Design*Sponge, Plenty of Colour. This website is all things color and most things geometric, both of which warm my soul.
2. Poster Design: This one is also from Plenty of Colour, I know I know I'm not being diverse in my choices, but hang with me and we'll get there!
3. Chevron Christmas ornament: While searching for the best felt Christmas ornament to make this year, I ran across this gem. You can pick it up one etsy for twelve bucks, or try and make your own. Note I made one the other night, it's not the quickest process. However, since I need to make about fifteen, I'm too poor to shell out the twelve bucks a pop. Either way, this ornament on any tree would be a win!
4. Triangle necklace: Now this is one etsy object I can't make. But I am absolutely in love with! It's priced at 18 GBP at the current exchange rate (watch right when I post this the rate will have changed) 1 GBP = 1.5 USD. So this necklace would cost you around 27 dollars without shipping. Well worth it if you ask me.
5. Wallpaper: While trying to find something to paint on one of my walls in my office I ran across this and thought it would be perfect! Now if only I could make more hours in the day, or clone myself like a mogwai I'd be all set. Then again I don't know if gremlins could paint such straight triangles.
Or if you have money--unlike myself, you can purchase the wallpaper version from Minakani a studio on Paris.
Last but not least and probably my most favorite...
6. Wooden geometric vase: This one takes the cake. It's on my Christmas wish list. 30 dollars well spent--hint, hint!
So there it is, six ways to be part of the "in" crowd.
...It's hip to be square!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
High Art vs. Low Art: Are we winning or losing?
So why is everyone creating things with their hands now-a-days? It appears to be all the rage. In a mere five years this June sites such as Etsy have taken off like wild fire! Handcrafted typography and hand-drawn illustration are becoming common place. And many are choosing to knit their own sweaters rather than purchase machine made. But why? This topic was a recent discussion between my mother-in-law and I. Neither of us seemed to come to any strong conclusions, however, I do have a couple theories.
From a personal standpoint I loathe technology, seriously! It took me months before I gave into even creating a blog. I'm not good at texting, I know next-to-nothing about twitter and I'm horrible at facebook. But give me a paint brush or a sewing machine and I'll Martha Stewart the heck out of it— or at least try. But how do you take something such as "craft," which by some would be considered low art and recontextualize it to make it acceptable to the aristocrats of the art world?
Well I might just have your answer.....By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art. Feeling bad that I had spent seven years in college to become a "fine artist" and currently I'm spending more time using felt and fabric rather than oil paint and canvas, a fellow M.F.A. graduate introduced me this book. While trying to avoid being too melodramatic this book has seriously been my recent art savor. I felt like what had been creating would have been mocked by my professors in college, but after reading this book I feel as though I can make a valid hybrid of all the things I love—although I'm still working on the hybrid/conceptual part.
I remember the first time I read it, saying to myself "Yes! That's exactly what I was thinking." The book emphasizes on personal experience, which for myself was the reason I was doing what I was doing. The act of doing it was far more satisfying than the final outcome. I gathered joy from each stitch; the materials I use remind me of my mother, the process is rather slow and methodical and the final outcome doesn't have to be anything more than what it truly is. The book looks at thirty-two contemporary artists and designers who are doing the same thing in an attempt to "get closer to their own lives and to the lives of others" by means of using their hands.
The "why" for each of these artists slightly varies, but every action has a reaction. 1990s was a time of "more is more" with computers, video cameras, and Adobe programs being more readily accessible. The time it took to "make" something was cut in half; not to mention the tools they were using made the craft of the final outcome almost flawless with little-to-no effort. Yet, in the end this all leads to mass production. What fun is it to be an artist if you can't get your hands dirty or you're being stripped of your "individuality"? So artists began to rebel.
Kiki Smith might of put it best when she said, "We are all the same yet everyone is different." So the question may not be "why" is creating something with your hands become so popular...but when will we all be doing it and run into the same problem of no longer being a unique snowflakes?
From a personal standpoint I loathe technology, seriously! It took me months before I gave into even creating a blog. I'm not good at texting, I know next-to-nothing about twitter and I'm horrible at facebook. But give me a paint brush or a sewing machine and I'll Martha Stewart the heck out of it— or at least try. But how do you take something such as "craft," which by some would be considered low art and recontextualize it to make it acceptable to the aristocrats of the art world?
Well I might just have your answer.....By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art. Feeling bad that I had spent seven years in college to become a "fine artist" and currently I'm spending more time using felt and fabric rather than oil paint and canvas, a fellow M.F.A. graduate introduced me this book. While trying to avoid being too melodramatic this book has seriously been my recent art savor. I felt like what had been creating would have been mocked by my professors in college, but after reading this book I feel as though I can make a valid hybrid of all the things I love—although I'm still working on the hybrid/conceptual part.
I remember the first time I read it, saying to myself "Yes! That's exactly what I was thinking." The book emphasizes on personal experience, which for myself was the reason I was doing what I was doing. The act of doing it was far more satisfying than the final outcome. I gathered joy from each stitch; the materials I use remind me of my mother, the process is rather slow and methodical and the final outcome doesn't have to be anything more than what it truly is. The book looks at thirty-two contemporary artists and designers who are doing the same thing in an attempt to "get closer to their own lives and to the lives of others" by means of using their hands.The "why" for each of these artists slightly varies, but every action has a reaction. 1990s was a time of "more is more" with computers, video cameras, and Adobe programs being more readily accessible. The time it took to "make" something was cut in half; not to mention the tools they were using made the craft of the final outcome almost flawless with little-to-no effort. Yet, in the end this all leads to mass production. What fun is it to be an artist if you can't get your hands dirty or you're being stripped of your "individuality"? So artists began to rebel.
Kiki Smith might of put it best when she said, "We are all the same yet everyone is different." So the question may not be "why" is creating something with your hands become so popular...but when will we all be doing it and run into the same problem of no longer being a unique snowflakes?
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