The Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio recently asked us to participate in their Get Stuffed! gallery show in December. We gladly accepted and have been working frantically to pull our pieces together in the two short weeks we had to prep for this show.

Normally, we like a bit more time to contemplate our work when preparing for a show, but this was an opportunity to flex our muscles a bit to see if we could “rise to the occasion” as they say. I’m glad to say that our pieces went out last Friday, and while it was a challenge, the work that was produced for this show is unique and definitely carries our mark.

The Get Stuffed! show runs from November 19, 2010 – January 21, 2010 at the Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio.

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.

Mr. President: “Mrs. Dolls for Friends please,”

Mrs. Dolls for Friends: “Speaking, how may I help you?”

Mr. President:”I’ve just read your email concerning the new safety laws and regulations, I’m very worried, and want to help, what can we do to rectify this potential economic disaster?”

Mrs. Dolls for Friends: “Yes, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, I am also very worried, not just for myself and my family, but for all of my super awesome friends that make all of the phenomenal products for kids that are keeping children unique, and supporting their communities at the same time.” “I have many ideas that I think you may be interested in, perhaps we should meet, do you have time next week?”

Mr. President: “Damn, next week is no good, are you and Mr. Dolls for Friends available, say, tomorrow, and uh, transportation shouldn’t be an issue. We’ll arrange that for you. What do you say?”

Mrs. Dolls for Friends: (yelling) “Erin, you free tomorrow?”

Mr. Dolls for Friends: (yelling back) “Yup”

Mrs. Dolls for Friends: “Yes, that would be lovely, what can we bring?”

Mr. President: “Salad, bread?”

Mrs. Dolls for Friends: “Perfect! See you tomorrow”

Ahhhhh….Shakespeare has nothing on this lady. Anyhoo, here is the actual message I sent him, not quite as dramatic as the previous little diddy, but maybe it’ll do some good.

Dear Mr. President, it is with great respect and concern that I am writing to you. February 10th, is a very important date for my family, and many of our friends. The new laws and regulations for the CPSIA become effective on that day. Many in the community have begun referring to it as national bankruptcy day. Please consider revising this law for the sake of the many hard working artisans who love creating, encouraging and supporting a handmade childhood. Thank-you, Dolls for Friends

I would love to say that we have busted into the new year like a couple of savants-barely able to keep our creative nature under control-but sadly, this is just not the case. We have been knee-deep in research about the future of our loverly little enterprise, while also trying to get ourselves and our work environment re-located to new digs.

Now that we are just about settled, we have begun to ramp up and dive into the immense workload that has been quietly piling up. Having your life turned upside down and then trying to get it right side up again is not the easiest task, but sometimes life just sees no other option but to drop a hot, steamy pile on your head and you have to navigate with a bit of hot crap in your eyes. But life is life and you either adapt or simply go the way of the do-do (or doo doo in this case).

Here is a quick shot of a pretty, new friend of ours. She will be joining the ranks of plushies that have been piling up around our space over the last few months, and hopefully she will make her way to Etsy in the coming weeks.

The catalyst driving the change is that we are being featured in the upcoming October issue of Computer Arts Projects magazine.  Being featured in CAP is something that we have wanted for a long time, so we thought we’d pull out the stops and do some remodeling. Turned out kinda nice, huh?

Craft Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup (June 14, 2008)

National Hot Fudge Sundae Day (via nowpublic.com) – We were asked to contribute a photo of a recent trade (between us and the fab Love and a Sandwich) to a story on National Hot Fudge Sundae Day.

Meet Sam and Pete (We made their “Plush Goodness” section)

Tinymeat (Friends are good to have)

Pop’s Book Shop

Thanks again to everyone for your support.

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?

What I love so much about doing these shows are the people we meet. I’m always so touched by people’s reactions to our pieces. Young children that are so happy to squish a jellyfish, or that get to pick out a monster doll to take home. This weekend I met several older patrons who did not purchase, but just held our dolls, and laughed at the expressions on their faces, and talked at length with us about our process. I’m always amazed at the baby in the backpack who reaches out for our table and points at our dolls with excitement. That’s the very best part of what we’re doing.

The other very big positive in this new endeavor is all of the great artists we’re getting to know in the area. This weekend, we were next to Rachel, the PDX buttongirl. Her vast array of awesome buttons makes it very difficult to choose what to get. She’s very knowledgeable about the Portland art scene and is great fun to sit next to at any venue.

We also had the pleasure of getting to know Mike and Mona of TinyMeat. They’re so warm, and open to collaboration and sharing of ideas it was really cool getting to talk with them. We hope to have the opportunity to work with them in the future on various projects. And let’s not forget the very talented Karina of Luna. Wow! We swapped product for one of her awesome skirts-I love it! Portland is simply overflowing with talent, and we’re so happy to be a part of this very diverse and unique community.

On a final note, we’re very pleased to announce that motokitty will be carrying our pieces in their shop starting early next year. Thanks very much to Cari of mottokitty for her support, the folks of the Etsy street team who made the event possible, all of our patrons this weekend, and especially to all the wonderful local artists in the Portland area. Good weekend, good people, and good night until next time.