Twas the Night Before Craftmas

Craftmas is coming!

What is Craftmas? Craftmas is a season of events from the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team (RNEST). RNEST received a grant from the amazing folks at Etsy.com to host a series of FREE events for the community this December. Check out one, or all of them over the next couple of weeks. All are welcome to attend!

• Craftmas: Etsy Style! First Friday Holiday Craft Sale
  (Friday, December 2nd, 5pm-9pm & Saturday, December 3rd, noon-4pm)
  A Handmade Holiday hits the Hungerford Building! Come shop from a selection of quality items made by local artists. Give the gift of handmade this holiday season!
  
  
• Clothing Swap
  (Monday, December 5th, 7pm-9pm)
  

  It’s time to clean out that closet!

  Bring in your unwanted clothing and take home some new-to-you pieces for your wardrobe...all for free! RNEST artists will also be available to teach demos with techniques for altering and upcycling your clothes into fun, new items!

  *Any clothing left over at the end of the night will be donated. Nothing will go to waste!
  
  
• Creative Play Session
  (Saturday, December 10th, 7pm-8:30pm)
  Creativity boosting activities and exercises to spark your artistic inspiration and get out of a rut. Come with an open mind and leave with ideas for new projects! (For ages teen and up)
  
  

• Open Craft Night: Etsy Style!
  (Thursday, December 15th, 6pm-9pm)
  Demos: glass pendant soldering, knitting, bead weaving and MORE! Everyone is invited for a handmade, fun-filled evening of simple planned projects and unstructured time with RNEST artists. Bring your crafty works-in-progress, share our supplies, experiment with provided tools, and ask about tips and techniques. A small sampling of work will also be available for sale.

Giveaway! Get your Giveaway! (yes, that means FREE)

Hop on over to the RNEST blog, and you could win a Jackbear original. I created this cute little ACEO (Artist Card Edition/Original) that is the size of a poker card, and printed from two hand carved stamps. Click on the picture below to learn how to win!

Craftmas is coming !

Merry Craftmas everyone! That's right, mark your calendars, text your friends, post on your facebook, Craftmas is coming!

Craftmas is a month of great activities hosted by the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team (RNEST), and sponsored by ETSY!

Here are the details:


Stop on by the Facebook events and join us at the First Friday and Saturday Art and Craft Show or Open Craft Night.

Halloween Treasuries Galore !

Wow, I have been featured in a ton of creepy cool treasuries on Etsy in the past week.  I guess the Halloween spirit is now in the air!  Here is a sampling:

Halloween Treasury

 Nevermore Nevermore

Keep Calm and Zombie On

Fire Walk With Me

Purple, Orange and Black

Here is a treasury on Etsy that features some of the fine works of the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team (RNEST) created by yours truly!  You can shop in it on Etsy.

RNEST Treasury on Etsy.com

Winning

I won the RNEST team September Challenge! The theme was "vampires" and I carved a cool classic image of the godfather of goth, Dracula, as represented by the face of Bela Lugosi for my rubber stamp. I can see this stamp used on trick or treat bags, Halloween postcards, on envelopes of Halloween cards, party favors, or all over a blood stained t-shirt (no, haven't tried this one myself).


I had some gory competition from FrancescaDeCaire and Sculptress Link but I will admit I really wanted to have my monster stamps at the top of the RNEST blog for the month of October. So what do you do when you want something? You call up your friends. So I harassed my letterboxing comrades and they responded in droves! Thank you my inky brethren!

Hope you have fun this Halloween season, and be sure to check out all my Halloween themed stamps at my etsy shop!

Drinking Blood

I have been working on some stamps for Halloween.  I am very attracted to the classic movie monsters.  I think these are so iconic that people know right away who they are!  Here is Dracula, as portrayed by Bela Lugosi.  I entered it in our RNEST Challenge for September with was themed "vampires."  Voting is going on now.  If I win the vote I get the prime parking space on the RNEST blog for my etsy shop mini.  That would be cool going into October, because I'm adding new monster stamps each day.

Artist Row 2011

I'll have my stamps at Artist Row again this year! This is an AWESOME event. Over 150 artists with wonderful arts and crafts. It all goes down at the Public Market in Rochester on Sunday, September 18th from 10-4. I'll be in booth A37. My father-in-law Dick Beery will have his incredible photography across the isle from me. Some other folks from my RNEST group too! See you there!

P.S. I will have some limited edition "Greetings from Rochester" hand stamped postcards as a giveaway when you make a purchase!

Staff Infection 7

At the University of Rochester, they have had a gallery show called "Staff Infection" for six years for the staff of the IT Center and Rush Rhees Library. This year, they opened to all staff university wide. I submitted my "Rochester in Rubber" exhibit that I premiered at ArtAwake this year, and I'm proud to say it was accepted. The showing opened today (8/8/11) and continues through the end ofAugust.

The gallery is in the Art and Music library on the ground floor of Rush Rhees library (in what we call the Tunnel Level). There will be a closing reception on August 30th from 4-7 pm.

As part of my exhibit, you can make a postcard with my stamp that says, "Greetings from Rochester".

I hope you can drop by and see Staff Infection 7.

Mayday Underground April 30th

This will be my third "Mayday Underground" event! The first two have been smashing successes that I am really looking forward to this one. It's April 30th, from 10 am - 4 pm.

What I love best about this arts and crafts show, is the wide variety of artisans at the show, and the knowledgeable crowd that frequents it. Amanda and Casey do an incredible job organizing and executing this show, and this time around we will be at the Main St. Armory at 900 E. Main, Rochester, NY.

I have lots of my usual correspondence stamps (Air Mail, Snail Mail, Owl Mail), as well as some of my "LOL stamps" (brb, h8r, omg, etc.), "man stamps" (tools, westerns, beer), horror/goth stamps (Vincent Price, zombie, Creature, Godzilla, etc.), as well as a big selection of bird stamps.

Did I mention this is going to be the biggest Mayday yet? Around 90 vendors! I doubt it will be this big again. This is going to be a fun day of shopping. I'm going to have a hard time not trading all my stamps away for other great art!

See you all there!

ArtAwake: "Rochester in Rubber"

ArtAwake is another one of those shocking events for me. Let's role play for a moment. I am pitching an idea to you. Here's the idea: I want to have an art event that shows fine art, interactive art, and musicians, all from the Rochester community, and I want to find some old abandoned spaces in the city to use for the event, and I want to get dozens and dozens of student groups to sponsor it, some that have very little to do with art, and I want to throw this incredible party. Oh yeah, we'll throw some food and drink in there too.

Sounds crazy. Sounds unlikely. Sounds brilliant. This is Artawake.

This is the fourth ArtAwake. I was a spectator at the first, and I have to say, I was blown away. I couldn't believe how many people were there. And not just students. There was a real cross section of the Rochester Community there, wandering around this old warehouse, looking at art, dancing to music. It was nuts.

So when the idea floated my way to enter some art this year, I got kind of jazzed to do it. I got accepted, and "Rochester in Rubber" was born.

What is "Rochester in Rubber?" I tried to take some images that are iconic to Rochester, and capture them in a rubber stamp. I have created a display of those images, and some of the stamps. Images include Susan B. Anthony, the Kodak Tower, a lilac. To go along with the visual, we have an interactive component. We have a big rubber stamp of a front of a postcard that says, "Greetings from Rochester: ArtAwake)." You can stamp this yourself, and take the postcard home with you as a souvenir of the night. Attach a stamp and mail if you want.


When I heard about a week ago that I couldn't mount anything to the wall, I rushed to make a display that could be self standing, and luckily my savior and friend Brian came up with a design and helped to execute it with his Valhalla of power tools. Of course, this took hours and hours of time to assemble, and I owe the luxury of this time to my wife Laura for helping keep everything else a float last week. Big hugs and kisses!



So, I hope you can come and check out ArtAwake on Saturday, April 16th, from 3 pm to 1 am in the Alliance Building, 183 E. Main St., Rochester, New York.

Review of Bears and Brews

First, I should start by saying that Bears and Brews was truly AMAZING!  It was held on April 1 at Crocus Clayworks in the wonderful Hungerford Building in Rochester, NY.  It was part of the First Friday series, an ongoing tradition of artist galleries and studios staying open late on the the first friday of the month for special exhibits and showing.  I was selected by the amazing potters known as Sabre, Jennifer, and Marie at Crocus Clayworks. 

I am taking a guess that we had over 200 people, but it was hard to count, since there was people coming and going the whole night.  I stayed busy talking to people and explaining how I make rubber stamps, and taking custom order inquiries.

Lucky for me my sisters Ellen and Angela,  from St. Lawrence Chocolates, and my wife Laura, were there to help pour beer, wash dishes, and keep the supply of goodies on the table!

We had beer from Custom Brewcrafters, Rohrbachs, and Rogers Pale Ale, as well as A&W Root Beer (which used to be made in part in the Hungerford in its earlier life).  Ellen and Angela made Guinness Truffles, and Maple Carmel Creams, and my mother-in-law Sandy made six dozen mini Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's frosting.  Needless to say, all the sweets were totally gone by the end of the night, and only a little beer was left over.

Big THANK YOU's to all my friends and family who attended.  It was a real special night and I really couldn't have pulled it off without everyone who helped me out!

(Photos by: Dick Beery)

Review of Shreve Migration Sensation 2011

What I love about Shreve Migration Sensation is that you always get more than you expect. Shreve is a small rural Ohio town where things don't change too much. If you go to something in the elementary school gym, you might not expect all that many people or extraordinary events to occur.

Shreve Migration Sensation defies expectations. This was my second time displaying and selling stamps here, and it still surprised me! The weather was cold, but sunny, so the participants came out in great number (early estimates were 1200). I noticed a lot more activity in the vendor market place than two years ago. I had increased sales, and met some really wonder people.

Dick Beery of 3 Oaks Enhancements again shared a booth with me. I can't say enough about Dick's work, and I am a huge fan of his bird photos in particular. It is really wonderful sharing a booth with someone too, because you get to hear some great compliments from complete strangers, which is always a feel good warm fuzzy. You also have someone who can watch the table when you want to check out the work of others, or go get of slice of Pecan Pie.

I was very impressed by BeeOlogy. David and Ellen are real class acts, and my wife got some of their products and was raving already about them. I'll be working on a custom stamp for them, as well as some other custom orders from the show.

Greg Miller was on hand, and I got to get his autograph. Greg is a local of the area (Holmes Co.) and was featured a few years back in a book called "The Big Year". This October, the book is being made into a movie, and Greg will be played by Jack Black.

I don't usually eat much at a show, but this wasn't the case when the best amish restaurant in town is the booth across the aisle from you, and the boy scouts are doing a chicken bbq outside. Cinnamon roll and pecan pie are not part of the approved diet, but sure are good.

Well, these are just a few of the highlights (did I mention that there are birds to see!) and I hope I can do it all again next year.

Bears and Brews

When I sit down to have a cold beer, I want one that is different.  I want one that is crafted in small batches.  I want one with unique flavor.

This is how I look at my hand carved rubber stamps too.  I want to have different stamps, that are unique, and made in small batches.  I want to make them with my own two hands.

What better way to celebrate them both than  at "Bears and Brews" on Friday, April 1 at Crocus Clayworks studio in Suite 225 in the Hungerford Building at 1115 E. Main Street in Rochester, NY, from 5-9 pm.

I got an email in January from the fine potters at Crocus Clayworks asking me if I would be interested in being their featured guest for one of the the First Friday openings that they have each month at their studio.  A one man show, now how could I say NO!  I met with Marie, Sabre, and Jennifer and worked out the details.

What can you expect when you come to the show?  First, you get to explore and shop.  The Hungerford Building is an amazing place of artist studios, and just wandering the halls is an adventure in itself.  But at Crocus Clayworks, you will find me, all my stamps for sale, all of the wonderful pottery from Crocus Clayworks.  Secondly, we will have beer!  I'm a big proponent of trying to buy local, and I try to drink local beer when I can, so expect different beer from a local brewer (no Bud for me).  There will also be some light snacks, something sweet and something salty, and a raffle for a prize basket.

Those who have been to one of the craft shows I have been at know that my stamps range from a flock of birds, to portraits of historic Rochester figures.  This year, I'm putting a real effort into making stamps with masculine qualities: Man Stamps!  I think "Bears and Brews" will be the perfect place to debut some of these new designs.

Can you tell how excited I am about this event?

Back to the swamp!

I am quite excited to be back at the Shreve Migration Sensation on March 26th, 2011 in Shreve, Ohio!

I set up with my father-in-law Dick Beery two years ago, and we had a great day of meeting birders from the area, and getting a chance to talk about our passions.

I got to carve lots of bird stamps, and will be doing the same this year!  Dick (3 Oaks Enhancements) got to display his wonderful photography and he has even more bird photography to share this time around.  Dick won some of the photography contest categories last time around too.  We will be sharing a booth, so we will have a blast no doubt.

If you haven't heard me talk about Shreve Migration Sensation before, know this, it is a great day to watch birds, or people!  The fine people at Shreve Elementary school help to sponsor the day with many other outdoor organizations.  They have workshops, speakers, and experts set up at viewing areas all around the area.  The draw is migrating birds to the wetlands of Killbuck Marsh and nearby Funk Bottoms.  This year, Greg Miller, who was one of the birders featured in the book, "The Big Year" who will be played by Jack Black in the movie of the same name this year, will be the keynote speaker.

The only part of the day I don't like?  That I'm inside and not watching birds!  I'm sure Dick and I will sneak out on Sunday morning to see what we can see!