Category Archives: art and craft

holiday shopping season is coming…

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i just realized i hadn’t updated here in a long while, so let me catch you up now that we are slowly making our way into fall and soon the holiday shopping season. as usual, if you want more frequent updates, you should really follow me on instagram or facebook or patreon.

i’ve spent the last many months struggling to nail down the process of creating film positives and burning my own screens to print. it sounds like it should have been simple, as i’ve been doing some variation of printing since i was in college, but due to the fact that i’m working in my tiny house that has no doors and is FILLED with cat fur from my two fat happy cats, with chemicals i’m not familiar with and a laser printer that is not the correct type for printing out film positives… well, suffice it to say it’s been a trial and error fiasco. i hesitantly say i *think* i have it mostly down now and have successfully (so far) made a few usable screens with which i have printed some shirts and paper prints, but i know the learning process continues.

all of this trial and error has cost me a lot of money and has resulted in very little to show for it in the way of sellable goods. thankfully my supporters over at patreon have helped cover some of that cost. and hopefully i will recoup some of that money when the holiday sales start picking up.

in just the past two weeks, i have restocked my RESIST tshirts in my etsy shop, in both mens (in both black and white shirts) and womens cuts, and i have done a short run of KEEP LOVING KEEP FIGHTING shirts on a new color, which are also in my etsy shop.

i also updated my teespring store with a new RESIST design offering – flags!! i can’t wait til the one i ordered arrives so i can see what it looks like. i’ll be sure to update this post with a pic when it does.

my newest design is actually an old design reimagined. SPREAD LOVE was one of the sayings i used to make on stenciled bottlecap signs years ago. when the sticker company i use sent me a recent sale email, i decided to resuscitate that design to take advantage of the sale and see how circular stickers would look. here is the result:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i only got 50 of them cuz that’s what the sale was for, and i’m holding half of them for my patreon subscribers, but i’m thinking of running more. i can’t decide if i want to keep the circle, though, or turn it into a small rectangular or square design instead. thoughts?

so. i haven’t exactly been dormant the past six months or so, but there also hasn’t been a lot to share. until now. but stay tuned, cuz i have a lot of things i’m working on and that will hopefully see the light of day soon! watch this space!!!!

jazzfest!

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i love jazzfest time! i only get to go one day each weekend this year, and today was my day this first weekend. it was so lovely out there! overcast and windy helped balance out the warm and muggy. and no rain! hope that holds for folks throughout the rest of fest. i ate way too much amazing food, saw some incredible art and craft, and heard all kinds of great music while hanging out with dear friends. it was perfect.

today i wore my LAST NIGHT A BRASS BAND SAVED MY LIFE shirt out to fest and got stopped a ton by folks diggin on the design, taking pics of it. so for any of you who may have followed my website address that’s cleverly added to that design on the shirt, i just wanted to thank you for your interest and help navigate you to where you can order both t-shirts and stickers of the design.

t-shirts can be found here, on teespring. (and tanks can be found here.) lots of sizes and styles and a few color choices too, so check both links cuz they are two separate listings with lots of different options.

and stickers can be found here, in my etsy shop.

enjoy the rest of your jazzfest!

PERSIST stickers are in!

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the PERSIST stickers are in. they are 6″x1.5″ matte finish, like the larger of the RESIST stickers (which i also still have some of). $1 each if you paypal (mags@artbymags.com) me via friend payment so there’s no fee, or use squarecash ($mags) or venmo (mags504), since neither of them has a fee either. or you can get them in my etsy shop where they cost a little more to cover the fees.

i feel like the timing of these is perfect as i know many of us are suffering from resistance fatigue… but we really must persist!

post mardi gras regrouping…

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how did it get to be march already? whew. i hope all the locals had a good mardi gras and the rest of you, i hope you’re hanging in there through these first 45 days of 45’s presidency. yes, hard to believe it’s only been 45 days.

as for me, i put my etsy shop on pause midweek before mardi gras, knowing once wednesday hits, it’s a nonstop marathan of parades and work and parties and costume making and drinking and eating and recuperating and then fat tuesday and then OMGTHANKGODITSOVER. i knew i wouldn’t be able to package and ship any orders that came in until ash wednesday at the very earliest, so i figured i’d pause the shop to give myself a breather. i had to tidy up and drunk-proof my house for my annual endymion party, too, so it all made sense.

and i’m glad i did it, for my mental health. but now, since i reactivated it, it’s a slow climb back to the activity level i had going before mardi gras. everything is back in stock – all the RESIST stickers and patches and shirts, plus i’ve printed off some of the NOT GAY AS IN HAPPY BUT QUEER AS IN FUCK YOU shirts too, in red. i’ve had a few sales, but mostly just stickers, a dollar or two at a time, which, sadly, i don’t actually make money on, thanks to all the etsy and paypal fees. but i’m taking advantage of this lull in activity as an opportunity to work on new things and get my website updated.

 

i’m heading out to a new art supply store i’ve never been to this morning. i have a few hours this afternoon that i want to use to make some new screens for new tshirt designs, but i realized i had no screens! so after googling to find out that the art supply shops i usually go to are all closed on sundays (what’s up with that?), i found a new one that is open and it’s right downtown under the expressway/bridge. so hopefully i’ll be able to nab a few so i can get busy on some new stuff.

i’ve also updated the teespring shop with all the old designs – RESIST, BEWARE THE PUSSY, KEEP LOVING KEEP FIGHTING, and ARMY OF LOVERS – with continuously relaunching (every 3 days) campaigns so they will always be available. and the fact that they will print every 3 days means your stuff will come faster. so feel free to refer friends there when they ask you where you got your shirt!

ok, that’s my update for now. #thesidehustleisREAL

the #RESIST factory keeps churning…

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i love y’all. you keep buying as much #RESIST gear as i can turn out. i can’t keep up!

thank you all so much for the support and all the love! and thank you for helping me to make some donations to organizations i trust and believe in. so far $50 has gone to the people’s institute’s scholarship fund for their undoing racism trainings, over $150 went to the #J20NOLA coalition that i worked with on the inauguration day march, $25 has gone to the local planned parenthood, and smaller donations have gone to the new orleans abortion fund and the local women’s march committee. so probably about $250 so far, and i’m about to do another round of donations this week to a few different organizations. i don’t set a specific percentage or amount because i’m never sure how something is going to sell and the intermittent way i produce products means i always have some of my money tied up in ordering/inventory, but trust that i’m making regular contributions to nonprofits and grassroots groups with some of what i’m making from this gear.

i am of course keeping some of it too, to grow my art/craft biz, purchase some new equipment so i can keep making stuff, and buy supplies. i might have to use some of it to fix my 20 year old ailing car, too, but it feels like a luxury to be able to do so.

so, updates about the merch:

stickers: i’m almost out of the 6″ matte stickers and i’m not sure i’m going to keep ordering them since they are more expensive to get made. but they are also much faster to get made, so maybe. there’s a few left. i have plenty of the smaller 5.25″ glossy ones (pictured) left. you can get both via my etsy shop but feel free to just email me directly to place an order for stickers. $1 each. (you can paypal, venmo or squarecash me directly – ask me for details.)

embroidered patches just got restocked! i have about 175 left. you can get them via the etsy shop or you can email me directly to order those – $5 each.

as for the tshirts, i’m in constant restocking mode on those. i am trying to keep 3-4 of all sizes in stock at all times but it’s hard to keep up with, so forgive me the periodic outages. you can see the current inventory in the etsy shop in the individual listings for both mens/unisex and womens cuts – i try very hard to keep that tally current daily as things get bought. if you don’t see the listings for the mens or womens shirts, it’s cuz i’m out. just keep checking back. they are $20 each.

i’ve also decided to go ahead and just keep them available via teespring. it’s a less than perfect print-on-demand situation but the quality for one color prints is always good and there’s just so much selection for brands/styles/cuts/sizes of shirts there. visit my teespring store to order. i get paid either way and it gives me a breather from the hand printing.

my friend dix keeps quipping – “who dresses you for the revolution?” at the sight of so many folks wearing my gear at all the marches and meetings. i keep thinking about ways i can work that into a tagline for the business. “dressing the resistance since 1992” or something like that. send me your thoughts!

thanks again everyone!