Unite! Unite!
Put up a fight!

We’re tired of the jokes
The punches, the slaps and the nasty eye pokes

We simply just want the freedom you see
To live and to thrive, nerdy and free

But until we reach our new level of life
We will fight, we will scream, we will rage against strife

So take your footballs, your beer and your racing machines
We’ll settle for fortran, c-sharp, comics and zines

Because we are rising from the ashes like that bird-I think it’s a stork
To proclaim a new age, yes the time of the dork!

It’s not easy growing up in the lakes of Southside Philadelphia. You have to have smarts-Philly lake smarts to keep your head above water so to speak. Ronnie James is just such a jellyfish. He was born in the harshest of conditions and learned from a young age that a clear head and quick mind are the keys to keeping yourself straight in a tough situation.

when he was old enough he leveraged his love of music into a position as tour support for the powerhouse rock group Dio. It was his key to a better life. Once off the streets, Ronnie James was able to parlay his experiences into several self-published, self-help novels. His breakthrough work, "When Trouble Strikes, Keep Your Legs About You" sold nearly 2,500 copies and landed him an AM radio spot.

After a few years of radio time, RJ came to us hoping for a change an a simpler, less hectic lifestyle (of course we’re not quite sure how you can get much less hectic than AM radio), which we were happy to oblige him with.

RJ swears like a sailor, appreciates a good cheese steak and loves to filter feed in the bathtub.

Duuuuuuuuuuude.

Hi, my name is Geranium Rainbow. I was born in an organic kelp patch in the cold waters of Northern Cali, I thrived in an environment built on honesty, faith and freedom of expression. I believe in spiritual exploration that allows one to grow into the true color they were born to become, you know? I totally don’t get harshness, right? I am looking to be united in a family that believes in the code of color and love, you know?

peace

A definite high point of the show was that we did our first ever radio interview. It was only about five minutes long, but we got to talk about what it’s like to be doll makers on a daily basis, our thoughts about art and a bit about our plush making process. The interview was for the weekly show Convention Crashers on pdx.fm and airs today at 3p.m. After that, the show will be available in podcast form on the iTunes store.

As always Crafty was great (thank you Cathy and Tori), and we are eagerly looking forward to their Super Colossal Holiday show in December. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us. And a huge thanks to Jolby for their ongoing support of what we do and who we are.

Mark your calendars! February 25-March 20 at Together Gallery. A fabulous tale of folk, myth and tales of the sea to be viewed, loved and wanted all for your enjoyment! Join us for a salty good time, and leave with a little more hair on your chest-tattoos free of charge! Keep your eyes open for our four foot anchor, complete with a two headed serpent. Here is the official press release, with more information on Jolby’s website.

While we are optimistic about this year, we have come to the realization that the lovable, children friendly Dolls for Friends that we have worked so hard to create is more than likely coming to an end. The CPSIA is knocking at our doors and we have decided not to answer. We have spent the last few months pondering our future in the plush arena, and while we have made the decision to carry on where so many others have not, we are faced with the sad realization that we are being governmentally (we can still use made up words) forced to grow up.

With the start of 2010 we have officially moved into a new arena. We will be expanding our focus to work more on illustration and film projects, while at the same time, taking our plush goodness and enhancing those skills and marketing to grown up kids. We will elaborate a bit more on this in the coming weeks, but suffice it to say, we are evolving. We will remain the Dolls for Friends that we have come to know and love, but we’ve officially applied for the installation of chest hair. Here’s to a wonderful and exciting decade.

We had pretty much forgotten about the upcoming press when Colby (of Jolby fame) dropped us a line (and photo) showing us that we actually ended up being the ONLY photo used to publicize the show. “Man that is awesome…” quickly turned to “Holy Crap, that’s crazy!”

Thank you to Portland Monthly and for its support and for thinking we were worthy to represent the craft community here in PDX. Thank you to all the other fantastic artists in this crazy, awesome town as well. We happily live in your shadows.

It’s been just over a month and half since we decided to join the Twitter brigade and peep portions of our work and personal lives on the interbew. During that time we’ve seen the number of followers grow from just a few hardcore DFF lovers to a mob 160 strong. While we have a long way to go to catch up to some of rockstars tweeters, we have really enjoyed sharing little snippets of our lives with everyone.

Twitter has provided us a great opportunity to open up and share our ideas, thoughts and work. We have so many new things planned for the rest of the year and some great new giveaways that we are looking forward to sharing with all our friends. So, thanks to all our followers for taking an interest in us and the work we do. Without all of you we would just be a couple of weirdos sitting in a room making dolls for each other.

Erin just published some words on his site about the new business cards we produced for DFF. You can read the full post about the project on webclique.net.