Tag Archives: design

we’re in the fucking woods! again!!

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ok folks. it’s that time again.

i’ve gotten several queries about whether i was going to print these again or not. and yes, i am, due to popular demand! as usual, i am only going to hand-print these on easy-to-acquire hanes or fruit of the loom mens ribbed a-tanks – because i don’t have to work very hard to find them in town readily and i really don’t have the time to figure out anything else. if this shirt style doesn’t work for you, just hang on… when i get a minute to breath i’m going to work up another teespring campaign and offer the design on tshirts and other items too, since that’s much harder for me to manage printing at home. but i’m going ahead and putting up the paypal button here for the tanks, for those who’d like the traditional style. (i will also mention it helps me more if you order here as the reason i do this is to help fund my time in the woods and i make more $$ on the ones i print myself. but i know lots of folks want shirt styles i can’t offer so i’m going to do the teespring campaign to make everyone happy!)

wereinthefuckingwoods

 

so. hit “buy it now” and it will take you to a paypal checkout page. sadly, paypal’s buttons no longer work with wordpress to specify sizing so the only way i could do this was to have it be for ONE tank plus shipping. if you want more than one, just email me what you want and i can invoice you individually for it. (or i guess you can always just go through and make several orders and i can refund you the excess shipping charges.)

i will leave this up probably for about a week and then i will close pre-ordering and acquire shirts and print sometime next week so i can get them in the mail well before long crew leaves.

thanks everyone for the support and your continuing enjoyment of this silly tshirt. it makes me smile every time i see one of you in it either in person or in pictures. and stay tuned as i have another fest-related shirt idea i will be running in the next coupla weeks and hopefully bringing with me to fest to sell.

UPDATE 6/29/14: i have taken the paypal button down. if you still want a shirt, email me or leave a comment here and we can talk about it. i have 1-2 of each size  (small through 2xl) extra that i am planning on bringing to fest to sell at the worker craft sale but if you want one before then, we can work something out.

pretty pretty princess…

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take two using this stencil. it’s not the best photo, as it was really overcast when i took the photo. the colors aren’t showing up all that well. but i like it, for the most part. i wish i had used smaller letters on the meow’s but since it’s the last layer, there’s no way to fix it without starting over basically. so i’m leaving it. i’ll fix that in the next take. (fae and i have always referred to our cat sticker as a pretty pretty princess.)

really have to get working on a stencil of the other cat, stencil, before he gets jealous!

on the topic of fashion…

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last night, several members of the new orleans craft mafia (and myself) trekked out to metairie – almost kenner, really – to east jeff’s massive public library (have you ever been there? the place is impressive.) to offer a free t-shirt recycling workshop. the library there is doing some great programming and had invited us to do our always-popular demo for the suburban crowd.

though it wasn’t a huge turnout, those who did come were really interested in getting some ideas on what to do with their old t-shirts. in the past, all of the times we’ve done this demo, we’ve had pretty enormous crowds; thus we’ve streamlined it to usually only offer 2-3 basic concepts of what to do with an old shirt, like a tote bag or a halter top or a hat. simple things that require little sewing, so we can move the crowds through quickly and not get bogged down in the details. but these ladies who showed up last night were not satisfied with those basic ideas and wanted more! most of them were competent sewers (usually those who come to these workshops are not), and were looking for more complex projects. me not being a sewer or clothing maker, well, i had no idea what to tell them. i felt fairly useless. but thank god three of the five of us from the mafia who were there actually are clothing designers, so they were able to improvise and come up with all kinds of things to show the women to make. from various scarf ideas to shrugs and skirts, those in attendance came away with several recycled garments and accessories. one woman even made herself a great fringe top that she planned to go home and add beads to!

afterwards, we celebrated the success of the evening with dinner and drinks at where else but applebees. (when in the suburbs, do as the suburbans do!) i don’t think i’ve eaten at an applebees since i was in high school, but they do serve a mean bacon cheeseburger and pour a lovely pint of blue moon on draft. seemed the right choice for the evening we’d had and it was delightful to spend time with mallory, kerry, rebekah and harla.

one thing that came up in conversation was this: did you know that new orleans is having not just one but TWO fashion weeks this spring? i’ve heard of fashion week in new york – i watch project runway like everybody else – but i guess i was unaware that new orleans actually had a fashion week. i knew there were various recycled fashion shows that happen at different times of year, as many in the mafia have participated in the past. but i really didn’t know that there was the coordinated effort to present not even just one but two fashion week events, in back to back weeks in march, to put the spotlight on local fashion designers and the new orleans fashion scene. (we have a fashion scene?)

so interesting. and kinda cool.

not that i’m really all that personally into fashion, obviously. i design t-shirts, yes, and have been known to silkscreen and stencil on various other items of apparel over the years. but that’s about it. i don’t sew, despite growing up with a mother who was a very accomplished seamstress. (she died when i was 10 so i was too young to have learned much from her.) and, well, honestly, growing up a tomboy and coming into my butch-of-center dykeness, i rejected so-called “girlie” crafts like sewing and making clothes like my mom did as a kid and teen. i realize that was silly now, and i regret it, but also feel not terribly motivated at my age to learn. it’s just not what i’m drawn to, though i’m fairly fascinated with the process as a creative endeavor and like watching other people do it.

nonetheless, i’ll be interested to see how these two (competing? don’t know the backstory) fashion week events play out, and if they get much media coverage beyond the fashion underground, if such a thing even exists. we shall see.

if all this piques your interest, one of the upcoming fashion week groups is having a preview party tomorrow night to get folks excited about the march events. if you go, tell me about it!

new work…

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so i’ve been busy over here in the outdoor studio (otherwise known as my backyard), despite the rollercoaster weather. a few weeks back, i decided i wanted to start doing more stencil portraits, of pop culture icons, local (s)heroes, and yes, even pets. i know it’s crowded field – artists doing paintings of people’s pets – but i frankly don’t know anyone at least in new orleans who is doing stencil spray paint/urban folk-pop art style stuff. so i figured i’d give it a shot.

the above piece is my first attempt at doing a cat. my cat, specifically. sticker is his name, but my friend nita calls him mr. toes because he’s one of those hemingway cats (polydactyl) with extra toes all over the place. he has big mitten feet, and he’s a tubby, not very coordinated, princessy feline with a lot of character. i love him dearly. it was challenging trying to get a good one-color stencil that captures his unique look, but i think i pulled it off. after shooting about a hundred photos of him, i found one that worked well as a stencil, even though it didn’t include his funny feet.

about a year ago on one of my daily walks around the neighborhood, i salvaged four small weathered cabinet doors from a rotting set of cabinets on the curb out for the trash. i just really liked their look, and they’ve been sitting in my shed ever since, waiting for just the right project to come along. so when i did the first portrait in the series – frida kahlo (yes, i know she’s overplayed, but i’ve been a fan of hers since the early 80s and looking back through books of her work actually did help get me out of my funk, so i thought she deserved to be the first portrait i tried in this new style) – after testing it out on a scrap piece of plywood, i just jumped right in on one of these cabinet doors and started to play. i think it turned out pretty cool:

i love how using the cabinet doors makes it look like a readymade, already-framed piece of art. and gives it that folk-art feel. i had originally envisioned making mixed media pieces, putting various paper items as a background that would then be painted over such that parts of the print peeked out of the paint blasts… but i just spontaneously started making this one and decided i didn’t want to wait for all that mod podge to dry (usually takes overnight) so i just went with layering paint and design motifs. and this is what i ended up with.

i also did another rachel maddow piece, because, well, i’m obsessed. clearly. those of you who’ve been following me for a while know that i did a bunch of rachel maddow pieces a year or two ago that were really labor-intense 7-layered stencils. while it was a really good challenge and fun to do, once the stencils started deteriorating, i quickly realized i didn’t really want to keep recutting 7 different layers of facial features over and over again. i was able to make about 4 small canvases and a handful of prints on paper with them, but decided that was it for that particular incarnation of rachel maddow in stencil form. so this time, i chose a different picture to work from that was easy to turn into a one-layer stencil. whew.

so that’s 3 out of the 4 cabinet doors. not sure what i will do with the 4th, though i’m considering doing my other cat, the mighty hunter, stencil. but after playing around with the photos i took of him recently, i’m realizing it’s going to be much harder to do. as an all-black cat, it’s hard to create a one-layer stencil that isn’t just a silhouette – that actually gives him some dimension and features. but i’m going to keep playing with it. he’s already jealous of sticker because he has the extra-toes thing going on – i don’t want to slight him, you know? i love him just as much!

so yeah. that’s what i’ve been up to. i’ve also been making a bunch of love signs and posting up more stuff on my etsy site – valentine’s is coming up soon. but i’m hoping this new direction with the stencil portraits ends up being something i can market and turn into some steady income soon.

let me know what you think.

the empire is expanding…

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ha! if only my arty-crafty biz was an empire. i’ve got a long way to go.

but i am starting to buckle down and get more serious about it. and due to an out-of-the-blue wholesale request the other day via email, i’ve decided i might as well put it out there that i am now interested in wholesaling my stuff to shops and stores. select signs, clocks and even t-shirts if you want ’em. or really anything i make, i’m willing to wholesale if you’re willing to buy in quantity. just get in touch for pricing and minimums and we can work it out.

you can see my current inventory online in my etsy shop – always accessible via the widget in the upper right of this blog, but here’s the url if you want to bookmark it: http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbymags. and please take a stroll through my picture galleries on this site using the menus to the left – they link to my flickr site where you can see pics of all kinds of stuff i’ve made over the years and see the latest things i’ve been working on in the studio.

i’m also now expanding my stencil obsession to portraits. i’m currently working on a series of pop icon prints/paintings purely based on my own interests, but am open to commissions of anyone or anything you might have in mind. i’m even doing one of my cat, sticker, and if that turns out well i might totally start offering that service for pet owners. it won’t be cheap cuz it takes time to go from photo to stencil and then also figuring out the composition and coloring of the painting, plus finding some salvaged material to paint it on. but if this is something you might be interested, please email me.

it’s time to start making some $$ with these skills i possess and stop being so passive about it. so help me out: share me with a friend (or all of your friends via facebook or twitter!), give me feedback about my stuff here in the comments , and let me know what you’d like to see/read more of here on the blog.

new small canvas, working out some new ideas about $$$

refocusing.

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after months of feeling like i’d lost my way and lost all inspiration, finally things seem to be shifting a little for me. i had a day full of energy and firing on all cylinders yesterday, which seems to happen so rarely to me now. (not sure if it was the extra cup of coffee or that big chunk of salmon – brain food! – i cooked up the day before, but i haven’t had such clarity in a really long time. it was nice.)

so i think i’ve decided to recommit to the art life. i was on the verge of abandoning it entirely, but i now am feeling new inspiration and a desire to buckle down and get serious about it. so in the coming weeks, i will be tweaking this website a little, moving some of the less art related stuff over to my new domain, margaretcoble.com (catchy, eh?), which will serve as more of an overall personal and professional site. and in so doing, i will refocus this site more on my art and crafty life and process, with the intention of making this blog more interesting to read. (and hopefully update it more frequently.) i might even shoot some video or make a podcast or something crazy like that!

i took the above picture this afternoon in my outdoor studio (otherwise known as the back yard!). i’m working on a new series or set of stencil paintings that i hope are going to turn out the way i want them to. some will be on salvaged wood and cabinet doors and such, others will be on canvas. some will be straight up stencil paintings and some will be more mixed media oriented. i have a million ideas jotted down, but the process will take a while as it requires me making a LOT of new stencils, both of pop icons and objects as well as textures and patterns. i hope the results will be interesting and aesthetically pleasing as well as marketable. it’s not exactly groundbreaking or even highly original in concept or technique, but it is something that i want to make and express and will challenge me while hopefully also paying a few of my bills. it’s a good place to start. and hopefully it will lead to more interesting things.

one of my favorite soulful house songs has lyrics that say “you’ve got to move to create change.” i love that line. this is me moving. just gotta keep it up.

so stay tuned. and bear with me. thanks!