Peet came to us not so long ago. Discovered wandering around the local farmer’s market, happily pocketing items into his pouch. Once apprehended, Peet’s pocket was found to contain the following items: 2 small bananas, 1 green pepper, 2 red tomatoes, 1 small terrier (owner unknown), 1 knitted scarf, 3 hazelnuts, and 2 medium sized eggplants.

When asked his plans for the unusual assortment of items, he simply shrugged, smiled and said, “lasagna”. Now, far be it from us to question a budding chef, but really, a terrier? Anyways, Peet is hard at work in the kitchen as we speak, humming and stinking up the whole place. He is throwing a party for all of the neighborhood cats. He claims to have a new recipe in mind. Oh dear. Well, if you have a small animal at home, perhaps Peet is not the guy for you, but please keep him in mind if you have an adventurous side-especially in the kitchen!

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.

All we can say is “Mitch Rocks!” And you know what? Ms. Keane thinks so too!

(uh, if you like powerpuff girls, you’ll know what we mean!)

Huddled outside in the pouring rain we waited. And waited. And waited. Our contact was late, as usual and we were getting impatient, but leaving was not an option. The legendary gang of three had finally been released and we had taken on the role of safe keeping the villainous trio.

Meet Lucretia, mistress of evil, with an ear piercing scream that has been known to shatter even bullet proof glass. Then there’s middle man Mike, the lookout. He’s perfect since his large blue antennae provide the necessary distraction to those who may stand in his way. And last, but certainly not least is Stevie. Although he looks harmless, he is in fact the most dangerous of the three. The brains behind every operation, and cunning in his calculations-he’s not to be underestimated.

At last, our contact arrived, with our three new house guests in tow. We were not disappointed-they were every bit as monstrous as we had been led to believe. As the driver pulled away, we were faced with the unnerving reality that we were responsible for them now. What had we gotten ourselves into?

As we headed for home, I could see Stevie planning-plotting something in that rotten head of his. Mike began giggling and Lucretia nodded in agreement.

Agreement of what? I fear for our safety. That is why we are reaching out for help. We cannot in good conscience keep these three stinkers together. Separation is the only alternative! Are you strong willed? Can you be diligent in training and learn to sleep with one eye open? If you feel you may be up to the task, please contact us immediately-I think I hear one coming now!!

You can see them on our Etsy shop.

Where would we be without your new saftey rules and regulations? Rules and regulations designed to stifle and maim the small business owner through copious  series of outrageously priced fabric and material testing. Of course those of us in the handmade community who rely on using only dangerous and toxic materials thank you for making us aware of the dangers we pose to the unsuspecting and trusting public. We thank you for saddling us with the responsibility and bills required to perform safety testing rather than placing it on the manufacturers who are producing and bringing these materials into this country. Yes, we certainly appreciate the fees associated with third party testing, fair pricing to be sure-several hundred to four thousand a pop. That shouldn’t take EVERY penny we make. Thank you.

And using reclaimed/recycled materials, what were we thinking? Trying to eliminate the excess and waste we see in abundance while turning it into something useable and loveable? How could we have been so blind? Toys, clothing and other wonders to be enjoyed by little people and their parents, made from items that would other wise sit in landfills. How selfish? But, in the longrun, perhaps the plastic, run of the mill, unimaginative, and frankly crappy, boring toys that line the shelves of your everyday supermarket super store should win out.

Forget about the community of artisans that have crafted the real quality items that we have come to love and appreciate. They will be silenced, waiting for the voice of reason to speak out; to protect the very foundations this country was founded on, the artist, the craftsman and woman, the visionary, and the independent thinker.

In the meantime, we’ll fight, we’ll speak out and we’ll protect our friends in this endeavor and in the end, we believe we will win, because we have to. Yes, we will work for plush.

Regards, Dolls for Friends

We generally tend to fill up our sketchbooks at a fairly rapid pace. We spend a lot of time doodling on napkins, old envelopes, in sketchbooks and generally any type of paper product that we’re be able to lay our grubby little mitts on. Yet, for the most part, the end results of our collective imaginations tend to end up in boxes, on shelves or in a variety of books scattered about our studios.

Some of the drawings are slated for future projects which may (or may not) see the light of day, but a lot of them are kept for our own enjoyment and reference. In large part this is due to not really feeling like we’ve ever had a platform to showcase many of the rough (and some are VERY rough) sketches and drawings that we are incessantly putting on paper. Enter Doodle on the Carpet.

We recently started a tumblr log called Doodle on the Carpet where we could begin to showcase some of the work we’ve accumulated (past and present). It’s primary purpose is to provide a fast, easy platform for us to post rough sketches (the rough stuff folks), doodles and completed illustrations that might not fit into some of our other spaces around the interbew.

At this point the site only contains a couple of doodles, but most great things start small, right? We have wavered back and forth on whether we want to place a commenting system in the weblog, so we’re holding off on it for right now as we want to keep this process as uncomplicated as possible at this point.

So pull up a square of carpet and join us as we do a little sharin’ Dolls for Friends style.

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?

• March 9 – Crafty Wonderland (Portland, OR)
• April 11 – Buckman Art Show and Sale (Portland, OR)
• April 12 – Buckman Art Show (Portland, OR)
• June 6, 13, 20, 27 – Crammed Organisms Gallery Show (St. Louis, MO)
• October – Plush You (Seattle, WA)

There are still several other shows and some gallery invitations that we are looking to get final confirmation on, but it is looking like a full year will be expected.

Thank you to everyone who has given us the opportunity to be a part of their wonderful events. It means a lot to us to be part of such a great community.