affordable art: embroidery!

We just had a blogging class at the shop last week which was taught by Fern Richardson of Life on the Balcony-lots of great tips and, "oh that makes sense" moments. One of the things she brought up was the Wordless Wednesday deal that some bloggers do, they just post pictures.  I think i am going to start doing that with the art posts (albeit with a few words for links).
Anyways...embroidery awesomeness.....

(little sasquatch)

(laura amiss)

(mary's granddaughter)-LOVE THIS

(woodroots)

(holiday art)

(twigs and lace)

(neawear)

(wall work)

affordable art: canning!

i'm surprised it took me this long to post something like this...

(from VgoT, available at the shop of course!)

(Old School Stationers deserve their own blog post-check out their VW bus print!)

(YES YES YES- we are getting this soon people!!!-Bespoke Uprising Textiles)

Canning is in full-swing and what better way to celebrate the love of things in jars with art!
ETSY has a number of great things promoting jar-love and you don't need to do more than step into your kitchen. Jars are everywhere, and you don't need to be a preserver to appreciate the simplicity of the basic glass/ceramic piece.
Go-go vintage: I don't want to sound Three Amigos, but there is a plethora of jar beauty available at your  local thrift store/fair. Yes, i do the 127 craziness, but estate sales, ESTY, and neighborhood shops have a number of things that is art suspended in time. i love the old-school blue mason jars, we picked up a  number of them on 127 and not only do we sell them at the shop, i also have them in the kitchen and living room as decor (occasionally putting flowers in them but they really look great alone).

(the easiest way to go is Ebay is you live in So Cal)

(tea towels, prints and bags with a canning diagram from Girls Can Tell-COMIN' SOON!!)

(H is for Handmade has this great post on different things you can do-but I LOVE this idea)

(the Ball stamp from Sugar Skullz is sweet-Santa, are you listening??)

(Nicole made me a solar lamp for Christmas, these kind of remind me of them)

(love this modern canning print from Ollibird)

ceramics with a side of screen printing

when i was in high school, i used to be in ceramics class and LOVED every minute of it-i was pretty good on the wheel and made a number of cups, bowls and art work depicting the funny inside jokes i had with my friends...such good memories.
over the years, i have been wanting to go back into the studio, but either had zero time, scheduling conflict or no money for classes.

(kombucha on tap with Mark-a quick drink before class)

my friends at Avanti Cafe have been trying to get me into their ceramics class in Huntington Beach which is very affordable and if i just rearrange my schedule, i could do it.  after a year of asking me,  i finally got my act together and started taking classes every tuesday for the past few months.
Our instructor Matt is a super nice fellow who teaches computer art stuffs, ceramics and painting/drawing...really funny and one day had scissors screened onto his pants, when i asked where he got them he replied, "i screen printed them in the next room".
AWESOME...

Matt recently made me a screen of a mason jar, and last week showed Mark and I what to do with it....

(attaching the screen)

(Mark spreading fabric ink over the mason jar screen)

(the original drawing-turned into screen-into cuteness on a dress!)

(Matt explaining to Mark about photoshop for his screen)

i brought in a few items that had stains on them o i could cover them up with cute mason jars!

(already wore this to work!) 

(going to wear this to work!)

next up: Backyard In A Jar aprons, tea towels and Road Less Traveled staff tees and other merch! Coming in 2011

and i do do ceramics in this class :)

affordable art: blue bicicletta

do you love??
yes i do.

I adore these pieces from Davis, CA artist Nicole Docimo, all in black & white. so clean and simple....they remind me of papercuts that i love so much too.  and as we all know, black & white goes with just about any decor and color scheme too-perfect!
Originals cost around 150 (a deal!), and you can get small and large prints for under 25....but there are also cards (last picture) and these ADORABLE pins that would be cute on a blazer or on your laptop bag.

Blue Bicicletta has prints that focus on the geometric patterns, fun images matched with meaningful phrases and nature (line the food/veggie series)...but there are also a few of these anatomy-type images, like the one below that i really love...maybe it is the biology chica in me.

Don't worry, all this will be coming soon to The Road Less Traveled!!!! we have the pins, holiday cards, posters and even bags that say, "eat well and slowly"-LOVE!!!

You can read about Nicole and Blue Bicicletta  on her blog, where you can see new images and inspiration. 

affordable art: roosters!

(just the feet!- by Liz Scott, a local gal!)

(art by Erica Harris)

 having chickens are becoming a pretty big thing these days, the eggs really can't be beat and they make great pets (my guy used to have one when he was young and always speaks fondly of her)...
unfortunately, here at the apartment homestead, chickens are not an option-there simply isn't enough room to fit them (and there are 3 wandering cats in the complex)-we simply need a yard for this.
but that doesn't mean that we can't celebrate chickens or the rooster which most people around here don't have b/c of the noise-though i actually like it a lot it's a better alarm clock than some screeching bell.

(super cute and country paper cuts by Rural Pearl)

so to compensate, we have brought the rooster indoors with art. we have a few items most of our rooster/chicken art is in the kitchen, some from friends shops and others that we picked up on 127.  I love the mix of old-school with new-school rooster art, they really compliment each other!

(this poster from VGoT is available at the shop!)

(i LOVE this collage idea from Sparklepants Industries-a great project to do with children too!)

(we used this flower pot with a rooster on it as a paper towel holder)

 (this is one of my favorite prints-very modern and so Industrial Folk-sale!-by Brigittes Haus)

(this fave print of ours was purchased at an art show at Avanti Cafe)

affordble art: Fréya Art & Design

LOVE

that is all i have to say about these absolutely wonderful prints from Fréya.  Each of these prints look like they could have been block prints, but are actually the work of a graphic artist on the computer.  Besides the playful images of food, animals, boats and other things that look like a playful dream, i really love the print styles...can they make it into a font??

(theme of my life!) 

Fréya also makes adorable wedding and baby announcements-can you image how cute they would be!?! Just make sure that if you do order customs that you plan well in advance, she is based out of London.  Prints run about $75 max and you can also swap up cards for $5, just go on her site and check out the rest.

affordable art: treasure frey

hooked on etsy-and this is why.
etsy allows you to find some really wonderful and affordable artists like Treasure Frey who has these whimsical and intelligent watercolors that have prints that allow you to have amazing works in a crazy recession.  these images so remind me of childhood favorite books where you can stare at the images and hear the story without reading them. plus she is in LA!

(so needs to be on a shirt)

(Where The Wild Things Are, Where the Sidewalk Ends anyone??)

Here is her ETSY shop for buying!