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.

So…

A really cool idea came up amongst the members of the needle, to do a swap between contributing members of the needle. Katie Park of caffaknitted organized the event, and we are so pleased to introduce our new friend, Acorn! She comes to us from the fabulous shop of Bumblebird. She is absolutely adorable, and I highly recommend checking out Bumblebird’s shop on etsy—her work is awesome.

Here at Dolls For Friends, we love and fully support trade amongst the creative community. Sharing work with one another is what makes for a stronger arts movement and opens the way for communication between colleagues! Go Plush!!

We’ve been approached by some wonderful creators lately interested in doing some trading. There is simply so much good stuff out there, who are we to say, “no”?

Our new little friend, Reginald P. Stanwick arrived a week or so ago from the studios of Ugly Pretty Things. He’s wondrefully constructed, white and full of plush stuff. He’s also a monster, so he has that hard exterior that he puts on. As a result, Mr. Stanwick was immediately put to work on guard duty watching over our thread, needles and sewing floss.

If you are interested in seeing more of Emma’s work at Ugly Pretty Things, check out her Etsy store, or if you want to see her post about our end of the trade you can check it out on her weblog.

We were to thrilled to receive our half of a trade we recently initiated with Dawn Ramerman of Look What I Can Do. Jill contacted her on the off chance that she might be willing to share one of her wonderful creations with us in exchange for one of our pieces. Thankfully, she was up for the trade. Patty the owl came to us a few days ago in the mail, and we just love her. The craftsmanship (craftswomanship) of the piece is top notch and her choice of fabric was wonderful.

The art of the trade is something that is essential to the DIY/craft experience. There is so much wonderful and talented work out there that if two artists are in mutual admiration of each other’s work, it’s wonderful when a trade can be arranged between the two to foster that mutual appreciation.

If you are interested in seeing the piece we sent Dawn, you can check out her post on the Hanetori we sent her and all about here work on her weblog. Better yet, after you’re done with that check out her Etsy store to see what she has available for sale. Her pieces would surely be a welcome addition to any home.

Thanks again Dawn!

Here are a few of the pieces we’ve put together for the upcoming 2nd Sunday Sustainability Fair being held in Portland on February 10. All the pieces we are bringing with us will either be made from mostly recycled and/or reclaimed materials.

Jill and I have learned quite a bit about the extent to which we can push certain types of reclaimed materials while getting ready for this show.

There were several designs that we made it quite far into the process with, only to be abandoned because of limitations and flaws that surfaced due to the types of reclaimed materials we were trying to use. It’s also allowed us to take some mental notes on our processes and eliminate certain types of reclaimed materials because they are simply too hard to work with.

Our newest friend up on our Etsy shop.

A little back story perhaps? Sure:

Percival is extremely fond of techno, dub, trip hop and downtempo music. He’s been known to attend a variety of rave and house style parties, spending days grooving to the hypnotic, repetitive musical structures while hopping around in a semi-trance like state alleviating his cares and concerns.

He’s extremely mellow, widely read and loves to talk about a variety of subjects. Despite being a bit squinty from a variety of strobe light induced corneal burns, Percy is extremely friendly and outgoing.