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Holiday Market Schedule... So Far

Though I am not out vending this weekend, my whirlwind of holiday markets will begin soon. Here's my holiday vending schedule, for the month of December, as it stands right now:

Craftland (Providence, RI)
December 6-24th, 11am - 6pm (open til 8pm on Thursdays and Saturdays!)
Opening party December 5th, 5-9pm
235 Westminster Street, Providence, RI
http://www.craftlandshow.com/

Freret Market
Saturday, December 6, 12pm - 5pm
Freret Street @ Napoleon Avenue (4400 Freret)
http://www.freretmarket.org

First Unitarian Universalist Church Holiday/Tree Sale
Sunday, December 7th, 9:30am - 5pm
Claiborne @ Jefferson, uptown

Frerestivus - A Special Freret Market
Saturday, December 13, 12pm - 5pm
Freret Street @ Napoleon Avenue (4400 Freret)
http://www.freretmarket.org

24th Annual Marigny Candlelight Caroling & Holiday Art Market
Sunday, December 14th, 10am - 4:30pm
Washington Square Park (Royal @ Frenchmen)
http://www.faubourgmarigny.org

Last Stop Shop - a New Orleans Craft Mafia event
Thursday, December 18, 6 - 10pm
snacks, music, cash bar, and a handmade ornament giveaway
free parking at Fleet Tire
The Big Top Gallery, 1638 Clio Street
http://www.3rcp.com

Broad Street Bazaar
Saturday, December 20th, 11am - 4pm
Robert's parking lot, Broad St. @ Bienville

I'll have a lot more to say about the New Orleans Craft Mafia's Last Stop Shop when it gets a little closer to the time, but for now I just wanted to put all these dates down so folks would have a reference point to check to see where I will be in December.

Obamania Continues

Well in case anyone was thinking that the frenzy for all-paraphernalia-Obama had subsided any, let me just tell you, it hasn't. I've already sold through half of the shirts I printed and posted yesterday - and that's even with a few hours of my site being down, thanks to Dreamhost - and I seem to all of a sudden be getting a new wave of sticker requests, even though I'm no longer selling them through the site. And the weirdest thing? All the recent sticker requests have asked me to SIGN the stickers. I mean, I guess I understand - I'd dig things being signed by any of the artists I have stickers, prints or posters from - but it's just funny to me, because no one has ever asked me for my autograph before!

Also, yesterday in the mail I received the lovely shot glasses you see in the pic above, from New Deal Distillery in Portland, Oregon. They'd asked me a while back if they could use my image on some drink recipe cards they were thinking of making to hand out as promotional items around the time of the election, but then that idea apparently got nixed and the shot glass idea was hatched. I gave them permission, as these are promotional items and not for sale, and voila, my set arrived yesterday. Aren't they awesome? Thanks New Deal! And good luck!

For those of you who aren't as obsessed with the Obama art as I am, I have been making other work, and do still have a lot of other stuff for sale in my Etsy shop. I'll be ramping things up in the coming week or so, adding all kinds of new things to the shop in anticipation of the busy holiday season, and embarking on my month of non-stop vending around town here in New Orleans. (I'll post my full schedule soon.)

Also, the New Orleans Craft Mafia have a lot of plans for the next six weeks, so you'll be hearing about all of that soon, too. Stay tuned, OK?

New Obama "Believe" Shirts Available Now!

For those of you who don't read the front page of my website, I thought I'd give you a heads-up that I've posted a Paypal "buy now" button for my new, very limited run of my Obama "Believe" t's.

These new ones are on charcoal gray, 100% ringspun cotton Gildan t's, sizes small through 2xlarge, and are $20 each. They will go fast, though, so order now if you want one!

Hop on over to the homepage now to order!

More International Obama Love

A few days ago, I got a call from an editor of a German weekly newspaper, Der Freitag. It's one of Berlin's political newspapers, which I had actually heard of before. They wanted to use one of my Obama images they'd found on Flickr. (That $24 Flickr pro-membership has definitely paid for itself at this point!)

She sent me an email with several of my images - and one of Shepard Fairey's, which I had to inform her was not mine - asking for high resolution copies, for their art director to choose from, for the paper. So I sent them to her. She'd already told me up front on the phone how much they were willing to pay, which wasn't all that much, but hey, how I can say no to a German newspaper? (Really, I'm just so flabbergasted that these European publications know and acknowledge that they have to get permission and pay for graphics they find on Flickr, as their American counterparts are much less likely to do so.)

So I sent them to her. We wrote back and forth about the logistics of international payment. (Who knew all the European publications pay their contributors via bank wire? Within the European Union, it's free - like ACH transfers between banks here - but for international exchanges, they have to do SWIFT wire transfers, which aren't free. I learned a lot from this!) And today, I got a pdf of the publication, using my image. So cool!

I guess now I can say not only am I big in Norway, but now I'm also big in Germany! Woo hoo!

(I promise at some point I'll stop being so excited about the use of my silly Obama stencil, but it still just blows me away, that this little thing I did to make myself feel like I was contributing in some small way to the campaign has had such international reach, and struck a chord with so many. I'm honored and humbled, really. And of course, excited!)

Shop Local Promotion From The Gambit

Well it seems that finally folks are starting to think about the upcoming holiday shopping season. I know personally I've been taking inventory of what markets and sales I can be part of in December to vend my wares - sadly noting that it is sorely lacking this year due to no Festivus, but more on that later - but it also seems like our local alt-weekly The Gambit is being proactive in wanting to stimulate the local economy with this awesome Shop Local promotion/giveway.

According to Best Of New Orleans Blog writer Jeanne Foster:

"The readers of Gambit Weekly and more than 70 alternative newspapers are being urged to spend at least $100 of their holiday money this fall at locally owned stores in their communities - a move that could pump more than $2.9 billion into the national urban economy during this recession-plagued season.

The project is based on data showing that money spent in locally owned businesses tends to stay in the area and circulate through the community, increasing economic activity. Economists call this the “multiplier effect.”

If every one of the 195,000 Gambit Weekly readers were to spend just $100 with local, independently owned merchants, the impact would be 19.5 million on our local businesses. Shopping at locally owned businesses, helps re-circulate dollars in the New Orleans area, supports more local jobs and keeps our neighborhoods unique."


So, head on over to Bestofneworleans.com and register your pledge to spend $100 with local shops and businesses and be registered to possibly win one of two luxury prize packages from local retailers. (On a personal side note, I wish the prize packages weren't gender-specific, as I'd personally MUCH rather win the "For Him" package than the "For Her" package, plus I feel like the guys get the better package, but whatever - it's the thought that counts, right?)

Shop local, and support independent artists and businesses!

Catching Up On Obama Gear News...

In all the mayhem of the last few weeks leading up to the election, I neglected to toot my own horn about the fact that my Obama "Believe" stickers - which I am now out of, by the way - were included in a commemorative Election Collection Obama sticker pack issued by Stickerobot.com. Only 200 were sold, and they went pretty fast - a collector's item for sure. But I was very honored to have my sticker included amongst such luminaries of the street art world as Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Morning Breath, Munk One, Billi the Kid, Sam Flores, El Mac, David Choe, and Zoltron himself. I can't wait til mine comes in the mail, as I really wanted many of these stickers, which are largely based on posters of the same designs that I couldn't afford to purchase. This will surely be a wonderful way to remember what has consumed me much of this year, creatively and passionately.

I also forgot to let folks know that my Obama bicycle spoke card was included in a Business Week article "Election Designs 2008: Designs For Democracy." You have to flip through to number 18 to get to the spoke cards, and I don't really feel like many of the designs they included were all that notable, but it's still cool that it was included. I mean, come on, it's Business Week!

So now that the election has come and gone, and Barack is our new president... I'm kind of left in a quandary: Is it time to retire the Obama design and move on to other things, as I was kinda thinking leading up to the election? Or should I do another run of the "Believe" shirts, and/or make a new design to celebrate the win and commemorate this moment in history? I've had several requests since election night for my "Believe" shirts, and I also had the idea to make a new design, possibly using the stunning photo of him that was used on the cover of the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. Part of me thinks I should keep selling all this stuff from now through the inauguration at least, because folks are going to want it. And if sales on my Etsy site of the remaining "Believe" shirts are any indication, that is true. But part of me also feels it's time to give it a rest and go back to focusing on my other creative work, since so much of this year has been taken up with this one design.

What do you think? Please leave a comment if you are still interested in the "Believe" shirts or would like to see a new Obama design from me, to commemorate his presidency. Or, even if you think the opposite, that you'd rather see me moving on to other stuff. I'm just trying to gauge interest and decide whether it's worth investing the money in right now. Thanks!

Zotz Night Market Tonight!

The flyer to the right pretty much spells it out, but here's the official press release with all the skinny:

Who: The New Orleans Craft Mafia
What: Zotz Night Market
Where: Zotz Coffeehouse - 8210 Oak Street - 504-861-2224
When: Friday, November 7th - 7pm - 10pm
Further Info: neworleanscraftmafia.com

After the success of our last Night Market at Zotz back in July, we're doing it again - though hopefully in much nicer weather conditions this time. For those of you who maybe can't make it to daytime art markets due to work or other scheduling conflicts, or are just night owls, the New Orleans Craft Mafia is adjusting to your schedule and doing another Night Market at Zotz Coffeehouse (8210 Oak Street) Friday, November 7th, from 7pm til 10pm.

Don't miss this great opportunity for early holiday shopping from your local New Orleans crafters. Participating members include greenKangaroo, dismantled designs, art by mags!, Flambeaux Design Company, prix-prix, Kristina Renee Jewelry, and Bluebird Art. Come check out our hand-made and recycled jewelry, accessories, clothing, housewares, décor and more in the laidback atmosphere of Zotz! We'll be out front and also in the back patio area with our wares - meet some of our newer members and see what we're all cooking up for the impending holiday season!

I've Voted, Have You?

I got up at 6am this morning and made it to the polls by 6:30. Thankfully, I only had to wait about a half hour to vote - apparently the line had been much longer right at 6am when they opened but had diminished by the time I got there. Everyone was in good spirits (or only half awake, like me!), and you could feel the excitement in the air.

I am cautiously optimistic but not letting myself get too giddy about things until much later in the evening tonight. I really think he's going to win, but you never know what shenanigans could be pulled. I hope to be posting here tomorrow with good news and tales of late night celebrations. Cross your fingers!

GEAUXBAMA!



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