We were so excited when we found out that one of our illustrations had been chosen to be made into a wallet by the awesome Portland, Oregon accessory company, Tinymeat. Our excitement was compounded four-fold when we learned that we were going to do three more wallets to complete a themed series on the “elements.”

Our first wallet and element, fire, was released today. All we’ve see so far are the photos, but the man himself, Merch Mikey, said that they turned out great. I’ll be heading into Portland tomorrow to pick up a few of them that we get to keep and then it’s time to set in on finishing the other three elements. The next one to be released should be water and then Earth and wind. Collect all four, make sure they face East, and they should bring you added value on the value menu… of life. Hawr hawr.

They can be seen here at the Tinymeat store.

A new venue, a new opportunity to meet potential lovers of plush and all things handmade! There’s always a great deal of excitement surrounding a show, especially one you’ve never done before! The high before the actual event-so wonderful! What if we sell out? What if some fantastic magazine is there, and wants-dare I say-to talk to us about our little project?! So many, many possibilities, the fantasy, the dream, the hope.

Ah, and then the harsh reality of a show scheduled on a major holiday weekend. Families that take the long weekend to the coast, or visit relatives, or finally take the tour of the local cheese manufacturer. Whatever the reason, let me just say that no one was checking out the local craft scene at the Rebel Rabbit Craft Fair! Where was everyone? And what a shame, because, there were plenty of very talented artists showing their goods this last Sunday.

Hipbone Studios is a lovely space, lots of natural light, open space, and hardwood floors! We will be proud to be in attendance again in August, or is it July? Way too early to commit publicly,however, the point being, Rebel Rabbit, has the potential to be a great venue! Our feeling is that it was bad timing, what with Memorial Day weekend and all. But it takes more than that to bring down Dolls for Friends!!! And after all, that is a risk you take.

On a whole other note, I think we are all feeling the strains of the economy. Check out the plushyou blog and you’ll know what I’m talking about. As a parent, I really get that if given the option to have a gallon of milk in the fridge, or a really sweet new plushie, I’m going to choose the milk. Who would’ve thought we would see four dollars a gallon for gas, and rising everyday? However, I hope that all of us in the community can continue to support each others endeavors by buying handmade, trading, and telling others about the wonderful goods we are all creating.

Of course, there are those that continue to see the value of having that cute little goodie, and for that we thank our buyers! We have a few that own many of our creations, and we are so grateful to them-Natalie, you know we are talking about you!!! And for that we say thank-you, we love you and we value your support!! With that we say good night (I need a glass of milk.)

So… the phone rings at 10:40 on Friday morning. Me, in pajamas sewing leisurely preparing for the much awaited Buckman Art Show & Sell. Answer phone calmly, only to be thrown into terrifying panic mode because we are supposed to be in Portland setting up our table for the show! What?! Of course, I’ve misread the instructions and gotten the setup times mixed up, the doors are closing in 20 minutes, and we live not in Portland, but across the bridge in Vancouver! Needless to say, several unladylike words later, and sweating like a banshee, we were in the car and Dolls for Friends arrives at the Buckman Show! TA-DA! Thank goodness Erin was calm, and he was driving, so we arrived safely.

Fast forward several hours, and we return showered, and ready to roll! Immediately, the talent is VERY apparent, and I was really excited that we were getting to be a part of this cool event.  So, everyone we met that was involved with this show, were just fantastic. I can only imagine the countless hours they put into planning this exceptional venue. For instance, Mary Bradshaw who coordinated the silent auction, and gift bags for the musicians was so wonderful, and I really enjoyed getting to meet her. And our neighbor at the show, Peri of Perisponchos, was super. We swapped a doll for her daughter, and she is going to donate fabric scraps (garbage bag full at a time, mind you) for our plushies. How cool is that? And of course, one of my favorites, and who is quickly becoming a good friend and ally, Shannon of Mayabella was there with all of her sweet owls, horses, and octopi! And a shout out to Chris Haberman, a fantastic artist- we were lucky enough to snag one of his paintings over the weekend. And the list goes on and on, I think we had a great time, can you tell?

If you’ve never been to Portland, consider this a formal invitation! You should come visit, it will be an experience you won’t forget, the scenery is gorgeous, the people smart and friendly, and the depth of talent will blow you away!  And  don’t forget us Washingtonians, Portland’s friends across the river, we’re cool too!

We were oh, so happy (and very surprised) to see that we received some great press from Portland local and wonderful alternative newspaper, Willamette Week. They recently started a new section entitled The Pocket Shop Shopping Guide. It features cool little shops from around the Portland Metro area that carry hand-made pieces by local and national artisans. One of the first to be featured was Tender Loving Empire (which carries DFF stuff) and included a great great write-up with details about the shop and included an interior shot.

The article also contained a sidebar, which talked about us and some other wonderful, local creators. The highlight was seeing that we were compared to carnage, Frankenstein and Ugly Dolls (the latter being a bitter-sweet reference that comes up quite often lately) all in one paragraph.

The exact wording went a little like this:

If the Ugly Dolls had a rager that ended in carnage, and the splattered remains of the cloth creatures were miraculously reassembled, Frankenstein-style, you would have Dolls for Friends. Strangely, they’re pretty damn adorable and even appropriate for the preschool set.

All-in-all the press was wonderful and very unexpected (which is always a good thing when you stumble upon these types of things.) A special thanks to Eye Pop Art who posted the WW article and included the information about us. And another special thanks to our daughter Mariana who went scouring the net for press recently on us and came across the article.

We were contacted through Flickr a week ago by an editor (connected to affalog) who wanted to do an interview with us for a magazine in China called City Pictorial. We admittedly know very little about the Chinese media, and China for that matter, beyond what we hear on the news. Yet, we do know that China is opening up its borders, relaxing its grip a bit and starting to look to the West for media coverage.

After spending some time talking it over, Jill and I decided that we would like to work with them on the piece. Our reasons were simple; beyond the obvious press benefits we would receive by being featured in this wonderful publication (we did some research on them before committing, and visually, they rawk!), we want to support and contribute to the amazing arts dialogue that takes places every year through the myriad of electronic and printed media around the world.

Overall the piece was wonderfully easy to put together in terms of answering the questions from the interviewer. What proved to be a tad more difficult was the collection of pictures they were looking for to accompany the piece. We had to assemble nearly a dozen high resolution photos of our studio space, the work and ourselves. Some of the photos we had, while others we had to setup and shoot on the fly. We were in a mad rush because we only had a total of three days to put the entire piece together in order to hit the editorial deadline. Yet, somehow we managed to coalesce our work schedules to get everything done in time.

We are not sure when the issue is supposed to come out, but we have been promised that a copy will be sent to us from our new friends at City Pictorial. So, now we wait with baited breath for the arrival of the publication and hope that our answers translated well into a language that is fundamentally more complex, intricate and beautiful than our own. Sadly, though, we might never know unless we can find someone to help us with the translation. Hmmm. Any takers?

In April we’ll be participating in the Buckman Art Show & Sell in Portland. This is a yearly fund-raising event that helps to raise money for arts related programs offered on the Buckman School campus.

Sadly, due to years of massive budget constraints, the Portland Public School district has had to cut back on many of their programs, leaving the non-core subjects (essentially everything other than math and science) on the short list to be scaled back or completely obliterated from the classrooms. As a result, and not too surprisingly, the one area that has seen the most devastating effect has been the arts (both visual and theatrical).

Thankfully, The Buckman School, through a variety of fund raising events, has managed to weather the district’s financial storm and keep the arts alive on their campus. It now sits as one of the only public schools currently offering an expanded arts curriculum in the city of Portland (an amazing fact given that this city has to be one of the most creatively minded cities we’ve ever lived in.)

Buckman’s yearly event culls together local artists to a two day auction and vendor sale in which the school, the arts community and the community at large can gather together, commiserate and through financial support help to fund another year of the arts at the school. And from what we’ve heard it’s perhaps one of the most fun events to take place in the Portland area all year long.

You can imagine how excited we were to find out that our application to participate was accepted. We love the arts, it’s how we make our living, and so this represented a great opportunity to give a little back to what could be the next generation of up and comers (wee-Picasos and picasettes.) For our end of the fund raising, we decided to do a custom piece (Avery) that would be auctioned off during the show. She is a female lamb character who is nearly three feet tall and has to be one of the cutest pieces we’ve ever put together. She is completely hand-sewn because the material we used was new and proved to be a real bear to deal with on a sewing machine.

The wonderful part of this whole story, beyond the fact that we are a part of this great show, is that we were just contacted by the coordinators of the Buckman show and asked if we would donate another five pieces for the gift bags that will be presented to the musical performers at the event.

What rawks, in a wonderfully huge way, about this is that two of the giftees will be Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement and The Jicks) and James Mercer of the Shins (and Flake Music), a few of my all-time favorite groups. Not to mention that Dirty Martini (local faves) and a variety of other great talent will be on hand as well.

We are now getting ready to put together our little loverlies and ship them off in the beginning of April. We will post some advance (whooooo…shhhh) photos once we are done. So… if you can peel yourself away from another set of reruns of last season’s American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, and you’re in the Portland area, please stop by at the show on Friday or Saturday, April 11/12, spend a couple bucks for a worthy cause and say, “Hey!”

We’ll be waiting for you.