Urban Vancouver

I know I wished everyone a Happy 4th of July already in a previous post, but this print was just so fitting, and I love it. It's called Grande Finale and is by Rachell Sumpter available at 20x200. Via Apartment Therapy SF. Have a good weekend!

The folks over at Modernica are having a sale this weekend (July 4th-6th) on four of their Case Study Storage Units. Looks like a good deal if you've been eyeing them, like me.

We all need one of these to oogle over our latest cupcake creation. Another finalist from the Fred Flare Next Big Thing Contest. Amanda Goss made this amazing handblown cupcake stand and entered it. Read more about her work here. Via Shine.

Another market is almost on it's way out. It's last day being today. You still have till around 9pm tonight to shop the tables of all the summery goodness! It was a pleasure to represent these amazing artists/designers/shop keepers, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did putting it together. Please join us monday for our next market, "Home Sweet Home", a housewares themed market full of some exciting new vendors and new products! See you then, and Happy 4th of July to our American readers. Have a safe and fabulous long weekend!

Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop

I have a problem with commitment. Once a project is over I clear off the walls immediately. Time to move on. Looking work age before my eyes is kinda like when you watch a Halloween sitcom episode during Christmas time. Just out of time and time to move on. Here are a few things that always seem to make the cut


I made this maybe a decade ago. It hangs near the window sill where I don’t sit and smoke cigarettes. One day I will see them congratulating each other on a great mystery solved.They still haven’t solved the mystery.



Always at the foot of my computer in different configurations. This is what they look just before they kiss.




I love graph paper. Makes me feel like a scientist. I hang sheets on the wall like a poor-man’s Agnes Martin. Always keep these handy.



Duh. This is beautiful.

Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop


Editor's Note: Thank you Christine for your perspective this week and introducing us to artists and designs from your part of the world. I really enjoyed your posts!

My heart actually fluttered, does that happen to you when you see things like this? It fluttered and flipped when I saw this Chinoiserie Bed in Anthropologie's new July catalogue today. Aluminum frame (also comes in white) juxtaposed with lines and floral-like curves. Duvet shown is Kapali.

Bon Voyage, Dear Paul
Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop





Here are some paintings by homeboy, Paul Wackers. One of my first friends from art school is leaving his San Francisco home to make it out east. Track his progress and see more gems at his website, paulwackers.com. Boy has got skills. He recently won the Tournesol Award from the Headland Center for the Arts, but he ain’t above sharing tecates on the roof. Love and Bye bye for now, Paul.




Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop

Florida-based artist, Jen Reninger has just the item to keep things a little calmer for us with this uplifting Everything is Going to be OK print. Available at her Etsy shop, Please Be Still.

Please vote for another one of our favorite artists, this time an American, Mati McDonough who has been selected as a finalist at Fred Flare's Next Big Thing! Click here to vote:

New wallets by Lisa Congdon (shown) and Melissa Contreras are now in at Poketo. These would be so fun to have!

Also if you haven't heard, there's a fundraiser coming up next weekend for the upcoming documentary Handmade Nation, the folks at Poketo along with Faythe Levine of Handmade Nation, are having a silent auction on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 (between 6 - 10pm). There are over 30 artists donating their work to support the post production phase of the film. Click here for more info.

Check out these hoop.de.doo bulletin boards just spotted at Little Pretty Studio via Free People via Craft Stylish (a new crafting community site).

Created by Jennifer Pebbles and her husband John, they are made using different sized embroidery hoops and interchangeable fabrics. They are selling the bulletin boards at her Etsy shop, Little Pretty Studio.

Yeti Compound West - Day 3
Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop

Ever oogled interior design spreads of glossy design mags whilst sitting on a moving box that has been functioning as a bedside table/laptop desk for two years? Ever wondered why your meticulously curated coffee table was plagued by unopened mail, fingernail clippers, and half-chewed dog toys? Me?…. No. Never. As a Poppytalk exclusive I present my humble abode: Yeti Compound West.

Occasional Room: Here is the sitting room where we discuss the sad lives of people that watch television. Opera Charades! Name that Critic! ArtForum Trivia! After many brandies Evan tells the story about the Klee etching. We got it for a song at an estate sale (AHH…we were so young!).



Emerald Salon: Complementary colors are the name of this game where we frequently entertain visiting Irish aristocracy. !TIP! Red Food coloring gives Jameson a feminine twist!



Master Bedroom: Bleak German hotel romance. We pushed the beds together after the wedding. !WINK!



Dining Room: Blueberry salad. The lavender china (not shown) would do any standing rib roast proud.



Study aka War Room:
I gave the decorator carte blanche with only two words of inspiration: phalli and Caligula.



You are welcome to join us nightly for dinner at 123Faux Ave. Cocktatils served promptly at 7.

Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop

Interior decorator, Ariel Ashe updated this teepee for friend and actress, Jennifer Carpenter using fabric by Hable Construction (as seen in the Summer 2008 issue of O at Home). Chairs by Toord Boontje for Moroso. Look inside the interior of Jennifer Carpenter's home here.

Over the weekend we picked up a tent to pitch in the back (a new summer space to go to, to read a book, snack or just lay back and grab a different outlook). And then today I was paging through O at Home again which reminded me that I've been seeing teepees popping up here and there in magazines and catalogues alot lately. The one from O at Home (above) is from actress Jennifer Carpenter's backyard. I started looking online for good how to's on making one and although the Ktunaxa people are the ones to teach us, I couldn't find anything directly from them. Below you will find a link to a video how-to (that seems easy enough if you have long branched trees nearby) and this pattern based on the Plains Indian Teepee from shelterpub.com. And then I got to thinking, why not pull out the whole kit? Summer camp in the backyard. So if you're like us this summer, stuck in the city, this might be the ticket.

Tipi from gandiablasco.com, lantern from Toast, fire pit grill from Toast, beanbag seat from pbteen.com, binoculars from Canadian Tire and heavy duty cot from cabelas.com.

Toast out of the UK had this one in their summer catalogue which I posted this past month. I love this image and wish I could jump into it each time I see it. (I thought it was worthy of another look).

HOW-TO VIDEO on making your own teepee. A family of three constructs a huge teepee from the trees around them. (The furniture goes in first).



Update: Thanks to reader Anne of Prêt à Voyager for letting us know about the new Steven Harrington traveling art show which has lots of fun teepees. Click here to find out more. Thanks Anne!

The folks down at Emily Carr's Studioshop sent notice of a nice little sale happening down there this weekend here in Vancouver! The Take Away!

Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design
Concourse Gallery,
1399 Johnston St
Granville Island
Vancouver, B.C.
July 4th 6-9pm and July 5th 11-6pm

New works by studioshop artists, and they are welcoming artists such as Liam Hogan, Leah Benetti, Aaron Carpenter, Sarah Edmonds, Kajola Morewood, Dennis Rosenfeld, Sung-Kyu Hwang, Amy Pelletier, Chris von Szombathy, Denise Cordrey and more to the site!

You’ll have a chance to see some works online now - and the rest will follow for July 4th. A great opportunity to see art, buy it and take it home!

Shared Territory - Day2
Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop

Jan van Eyck has some new century zealots in Richard Coleman and Matt Leines, They both work with meticulous pattern and a self-generated iconography. I think I would like to see an episode where residents of each folk land meet. It would be like a psychedelic “Flintstones meet the Jetsons” or maybe more like “Alien vs. Predator.” A rumbling sea of clashing electric diamonds, mustachios and lions.



Get Matt in portable zine form for 6 bones at Cantab Publishing. Or check out his installation this winter at the Clementine Gallery NYC.



More Coleman visual feasts on his website Cantab Publishing.


Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop

It's Canada Day here and to celebrate I was trying to find "new" product from all the Canadian artists/designers out there. I came up with a couple images (above). And I've also made a list of many of my favorite Canadian designers or shops that have visibility online that I'm aware of. (Forgive me if I missed someone, and feel free to add your name to the list in the comments if you are a Canadian designer/artist/collective or shop). We're taking the rest of the day off, meanwhile, check out the amazing list of Canadians below. Happy Canada Day!

(Above image links:)
1. field dress from Bookhou
2. red tree pouch from Bookhou
3. pear eyelet letterpress notecard, by sweetbeets
4. sunflower eyelet letterpress notecard, by sweetbeets

Designers/Artists/Collectives:
Banquet
Bookhou
Cabin + Cub
Cartolina Cards
Coe and Waito
Colleen Baran
Cul de Sac Design
Dear Pony
Douglas Jones
Ecojot
Elizabeth Burritt
Helen Dardik
Horn of Plenty
Jasna Sokolovic
Jenna Rose
Karin Bubas
Lily Yung
Loyal Loot
MADE
Meic+Villeneuve
Molo
Nesting Emily
Nightjar Books
Om Home
Ouno Design
Paige Russell
Pascale Girardin
Propellor Design
Ray Fenwick
Regional Assembly of Text
Rollout
Sonja Ahlers
Sunlit Letterpress
Supercapacity
Sweetbeets
Thout
Trans Canada Etsy Team
Virginia Johnson

Online Shops:
Studio Shop, eciad
Good Egg Shop
Poppytalk Handmade
The Souvenir Shop
Uppercase Gallery Shop





(penant image from Fiona Richards)

OK, this is a little country biased but because it's Canada Day and even though there's a few faves over at Fred Flare's Next Big Thing (finalist list), the ONLY Canadian that we're 99% sure of is, Colleen Baran! Her piece is her Framework series ring, "Reminiscent of an engagement ring that captures the beauty of negative space". She's also a Poppytalk Handmade participant. And we are urging you to vote Canadian! (Also because her work is very beautiful!). Click here to vote! (It says voting starts July 2, but it looks like it's already working)!

Just a few samplings from You Work For Them's latest online pdf zine, ZINE TWO. What's so cool about this free zine is that you can actually click on applicable links pertaining to each image which contains downloadable vector art, images and patterns! Instant gratification!!!! And then you can make your own beautiful art using them! (Above uses a variation of four different brushes, vectors or patterns - brush 17, botanicals 13, night life, water color and vatercolor 01). (Below: Mr. Hyde & Trygve 02 by Designed by Emma Trithart. And below that, Ray Fenwick's Infinityland 01 patterns with Radius 04). Click here to download the zine or here to go to their site.

WAKE UP EYEBALLS - Day 1
Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop


Hello there. This is Christine Schmidt from Yellow Owl Workshop coming at you from San Francisco. Big thanks to Jan and Earl, my lovely hosts this week!

From my view atop Bernal Heights I can watch the rainbow ships and homes below slough off the grey evening fog. The colors surge backing the morning sun. Although his work has a depth and disconnect belying the eye-searing spectrum, SF’s own Keegan McHargue uses full spectrum beautifully. And he is a cool dude. Can’t swing a painting from Metro Pictures? Yeah, me neither. Gets some Keegan in zine form from Nieves.


Or in monograph a rad store here in SF called Park Life.

Special Guest Post by Christine Schmidt, Yellow Owl Workshop & Yellow Owl Workshop blog

I hope you're enjoying this "Special Guest" series we've been hosting these past couple of weeks. I know I sure am, seeing a different perspective on things and each one so unique. I'm excited to announce this week's new "Special Guest" is Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop out of San Francisco. If you don't know her work, visiting her Workshop is definite must! She makes really original prints, cards, plaques, journals and things. And besides all that, she's just a sweet person. I'm really looking forward to her perspective and I'm sure you will too. So stay tuned this week for daily posts from her neck of the woods!


Yellow Owl Workshop
Yellow Owl Workshop blog