lovebugs!

I recently installed a customer's lovebugs in the family's stairwell. They bought 60 of them, enough to make a lovely loop in the 18' expanse of wall. It was a challenge figuring out how to get up there, but the end result was worth it.

sack full of devils

My Bride and Groomzilla figures were mentioned on a really fun blog called Sack Full of Devils. Thanks!

jet set bunny

I am pleased to announce that many of the items in the Bunny with a Toolbelt line will be featured in a book to be published this fall in Taiwan and Japan about dollmakers. Here are the proofs I received for the inside pages, but word on the street is that we will also be the cover art. Yay!

happy families

I made this special family for a wedding cake. Second marriages for both the bride and groom, and they wanted their kids to be included on top of the all-important cake.

new items!

I've been thinking lately about birds and their habitats--here are some pieces I made which will soon be listed on the Bunny with a Toolbelt site. Enjoy!

cute sushi!

flora and fauna sale, now on etsy!

Hey Beautiful People! I just started my latest sale on Etsy and the focus is birds! Click here to go see what one of a kind pieces I'm offering, some of which are in the image here.

At the HOP!

Hey Beautiful People!

Come join Art on Alberta this Saturday, May 17 for our biggest party of the year--Art Hop! This year we are featuring three artists in our quest to find Synergy on the street. The artists are Adrienne Cruz, Tripper Dungan, and Analee Fuentes. There will be over 150 art vendors, three music stages, sponsored by Siren Nation andGreat Magnet Recording Concerns , and a gospel stage down at the Terrell Brandon Barbershop at 12th Ave and Alberta. At 2:30 our beloved parade ensues, including March Fourth Marching Band, Tears of Joy Theater, a drum corps, a Pretty Dress Bike Entourage organized by Carye Bye, school bands from the Alberta neighborhood and more surprises. Art Hop runs all day from 11am to 6pm, and there's a free after hours shadow puppet show by Tripper Dungan at the Alleyway Cafe (2415 Alberta) at 9:30pm. Click here for more information about the 2008 Art Hop!!!(Programs with the most up-to-date information will be available at the event.)

A big shout out to Combustible Media, without whom this year's Art Hop would not have been possible. (or half as cool!) Thanks also to collage and the Oregon Arts Commission for their generous sponsorship.

I'm even going to have some of my work available for sale from the Bunny with a Toolbelt line--I'm sharing a booth with friends which will be somewhere in the 27th Ave and Alberta block near Bink's. I made a posse of Love Monsters and will sell them for only $20 apiece! (Special Art Hop Price for this weekend only!) Get 'em while they last and you are guaranteed to bring love and happiness into your life.

Kicking off the event is a special fundraiser for Art on Alberta--Cork, the wine shop at 29th and Alberta (who also sells beer and amazing bulk olive oil) is having a 2nd anniversary wine tasting on Friday the 16th. The cost is $10 per person and all proceeds go directly to Art on Alberta and all the hard work we do to preserve this street as the only arts-identified neighborhood in Portland! The wine tasting is from 5-8pm. Please come and help support my favorite nonprofit organization!!!

Indie Goodness Giveaway!

Hey Beautiful Person! Want to get in on a big bunch of free goodies just in time for Mother's Day? I was invited to take part in Scoutie Girl's "Indie Goodness Giveaway" along with 23 other top independent designers. I thought my love monster would be the perfect mother's day gift, so that's what you can get from Bunny with a Toolbelt. And did I mention this stuff is FREE???!?

Now here's what you have to do: go to the Scoutie Girl website by clicking here.

Visit one of these indie designer's websites by clicking on the links or images, browse around, find something you like, make a mental note.
Come back to Scoutie Girl, make a comment on their post about what you liked and where you saw it (no hotlinking necessary, just the website's name).
That's it! You're entered.
Repeat as many times as you like for each designer listed, make a separate comment for each one, and you're entered each time. There are your 24 opps to win this incredible bounty of handmade goodness, valued at $547!
To make it even easier, I'll break the big group down into more manageable, bite-size pieces...
Each day, for the next 6 business days, I will post a grouping of 4 donations, and you'll be able to enter on that post as well.
The Scoutie Girl Indie Goodness Giveaway ends Wednesday, May 14th at midnight. All entries must be rec'd by then to be eligible. One winner will be drawn - selected by a random number generator.

silly spoons

Great idea for a thing to keep people from sticking your pens in their purses from a Portland sushi restaurant--someone drew funny faces onto these plastic spoons and taped them onto the pens. I loved the way the looked all sitting in the cup.

here comes the bride!

I received a really fun special order recently from a regular customer who have some friend getting married and wanted a bride and groom set. The thing is, this couple is from India, and the traditional wedding outfits are very different from what we're used to in the Western World. She sent me these two images, showing how the groom wears an off-white suit (not pure white, which is a color of mourning in India) and the bride wears red with a gold detail.
I was up for the challenge, and did a drawing for the customer so she'd have a good idea of what to expect. I wanted to keep the figures simple, yet discover the most important elements in their outfits to use in my design. I really loved the beautiful brocade down the front of the groom's jacket, and decided to make a subtle dot pattern down the front of my figure, and of course a simple turban was going to be another key element.

The bride I usually do has a subtle raised dot pattern on her dress, but in this case I wanted it to be real metal so I found the right size brass nails to make her dazzle. The raised dots replace the fuzzy flocking I usually use, but I do not flock the wedding cake figures in case someone wants to use them on their wedding cake. The paint I use is foodsafe and cleanable, so they can be displayed in the home following the wedding as a memento of their special day. A matching brass bindi on her forehead completed the bride figure.


Here's the finished pieces! I really love their simplicity and it was a really fun challenge!

bunnylicious!

My friend Anita just sent me this image of this cute little bunny necklace she bought in Las Vegas when she was there for the "Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender." Anita is a great artist herself who goes by the name of "Miss Artypants"--check out her work by clicking here! I bought a great apron with an Elvis impersonator she designed named "Elvin" from her Cafe Press store before the Presley people threatened to sue her! Now he's named Reno Reynolds and all is well.

special orders don't upset us!

I wanted to share some images from a recent commission I got to recreate the two beloved kitties Bunsen and Goose, in the manner of the Fat Purple Cat in the BWAT line. First is the image of the fat cat, and if you click here to go directly to its listing on the Bunny with a Toolbelt site. The owner of these furry felines (or do they own her?) sent me these images to work from:

And then here's the final result. Ta da! I love them and it makes me want to expand the fat cat line to include some more breeds.

on the dot!

Bunny with a Toolbelt was mentioned today in a sweet little blog called On the Dot which is all about....you guessed it: polka dots! Julie updates her blog every single day with new polka dotted goodies, which are definitely near and dear to my heart. Her etsy site features her fun dotty desktop designs that allow you to showcase your own personal images. Click here to check it out!

how they work!

This video shows how the magnetic clasps work in my new line of sculptural necklaces.

hot off the workbench!

Hey Beautiful People! I'll be testing the virtual waters next week with my first online sale of my new necklace line for women AND men. The sale starts on April 5 at 9am, and items will be available on my etsy site until they're all gone. I did get a mention in yesterday's ultra, and there's one more potential design blog I adore who expressed some interest, so if you are hankering for one of these babies, get on my special mailing list by entering your email in the box to the right. (If you're already on my mailing list, you can get into your account by entering your email, and then you can see the various mailing lists I offer for my bunnywithatoolbelt lines, or my special sales of one-of-a-kind work that will happen throughout the year.) Here's a sneak preview of the necklaces I'll have on sale next week. Enjoy!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Food for Thought

I was looking through my postcard collection the other day and found this great one--thought it belonged on my studio wall, if not on the blog. Now that the website is done, I'm thinking a lot about what new products I want to make. I would like to expand the Christmas village or Putz offerings. This is in part because I scheduled a December show at Guardino Gallery, where I'm planning on doing a six foot holiday scene in their window with many of the items from the Bunny with a Toolbelt line. It's really hard to see what's at the bottom of this wonky castle, even on the original postcard, but it still inspires me to get back to the workbench.

P.S. I created a poll at the bottom of this page where you can vote on items you'd like to see added to this section. If you think of anything I haven't, email me at info@bunnywithatoolbelt.com ! Thanks!!

it's alive!!!

Thanks to my sweetie who helped along the way, including the final push yesterday (with details like getting the shopping cart feature to work!) We are now officially open for business! I know there are still some broken links I'm trying to fix as they rear their ugly heads, but it's a big relief to have this enormous project done.

Toolbelt? Check.

I found the perfect ribbon at Collage
, my sweet little neighborhood art store. After debating something cartoony (polka dots on red ribbon) or clever (a ribbon ruler that's sort of like a tape measure?) I decided to go with classy--a nice maroon with gold dots. They remind me of rivets, so it's perfect. Here's a little film I took to show all the tools on the toolbelt.

To see the product image of this item, click here and go to the "critters" section!