June Printable 3D Calendar

The folks at Scout Creative launched their June printable calendar today - featuring a cute 3D sailboat called Scout's Honor.  The free printable is from their Calendar of the Month Club which you can download from their site here. 

Dispatches from Dublin: Dublin Flea Market

Contributor post by Emily Westbrooks of From China Village

Hello, Poppytalk readers! I'm back with another Dispatch from Dublin - this time, a visit to the Dublin Flea Market and the Jam Art Factory.

On the last Sunday of every month, you can find the Dublin Flea Market Newmarket Square in Dublin. Filled with vintage clothes, bric-a-brac, and even a seamstress who's on hand to make alterations, Dublin Flea Market is held in an indoor and outdoor venue - perfect for the unpredictable Irish weather. Each month, the organizers commission a local artist to create the Flea Market's poster - and each of the previous month's posters can be bought at the poster stall. My favorites are the Christmas market posters.

Fun Announcement: Pop-Up Course!

We have a little surprise (pop-up style) for you today and I couldn't be more happier to tell you about it!  As many of you know (or maybe you don't) Earl is an instructor teaching New Media and Web Development at a local technical institute here in Vancouver.  His background has always been of a technical nature here on the blog and at our site, Poppytalk Handmade for the past seven years and now he's taking that background and offering up a "pop-up course" of sorts on Image Design and Typography for Blogs especially customized for you our readers!

In the past seven years we've been blogging, we've received numerous requests on how we created our layouts, blog banners and animated .gifs.  Earl decided to package those requests and offer a course specifically for the blogger. The course will cover everything you need to know to produce great looking images and fantastic image typography for your blog –so you can start creating the blog layouts (and more) you have always wanted.

The first one will run June 16th + 17th/12 at The Hive (here in downtown Vancouver) - exact times TBA (but plan on about 8 hrs each day).  All the info is up at his official site Pop-Up Course.  We will also wind down the two-day course with a mini meet-up (Q&A) with me (surprises in-hand)!  There's a limited amount of spots available, and I think you've got the best teacher out there, so if you're interested you can sign up for the course by clicking here!  Hope to meet you!

Dispatches from Portland: PDX Flea

Contributor post by Andrea of Hula Seventy

The Portland Flea  is up and running again and I couldn't be happier. I'll tell you, we're hurting for fleamarkets out here in the great Pacific Northwest. Not sure why but it seems there's a bit of a fleamarket shortage so when something like the Portland Flea comes along, I jump on it. A couple of Saturdays ago, I grabbed my camera (and a little bit of spending money) and hit it up. Here's a little look at the PDX Flea fun:

The market features more than twenty vendors of antique and repurposed furniture, vintage clothing and collectibles (which you can read a little more about here). And of course it just wouldn't be Portland without a few stellar food carts to round out the experience-- Voodoo Doughnuts, Fifty Licks Ice Cream  and The Taco Pedaler were on hand with the good eats and sweet treats.

(Portland Flea runs every third Saturday of the month-- catch the next one on June 16th at Union/Pine)

***

Andrea (Hula Seventy) is a photographer, writer and occasional modern dance teacher living in the Pacific Northwest. She's also a mama to two wild, beautiful children. For the most part, she is self-taught and shoots images with whatever she can get her hands on. film, digital, she loves it all. You can find her work on Etsy and visit her blog here.
 

Spray Paint Lamps + Weasel Wrks

I like hearing ideas of how someone's business began and artist Matias Pigni has a real organic one. It all started as an experiment in art; curious about what art was and where the lines are drawn. Matias had the idea to buy some blank skateboards and tried some abstract paintings on them. None of them satisfied him and he kept sanding them back to blank and re-trying. Naturally he ended up with an excess of empty spray paint canisters, and no idea what to do with them.

Sharing the Process : Beehive Kitchenware

Guest Contributor Post by Heather Smith Jones of Blue Sparrow Press.

Hello and welcome to another installment of Sharing the Process! Today Sandra Bonazoli talks about the line of metal and ceramic wares that she and her husband Jim Dowd make for their company Beehive Kitchenware. Earlier this year they were part of the Poppytalk Handmade Market and I asked them to be part of this series of interviews. At the time they were swamped wholesale orders so I'm very pleased that Sandra kindly contacted me and was able to share with us now about what they do. Thank you Sandra!

. . . . . . .

Beehive Kitchenware is the collaborative team effort of my husband, Jim Dowd, and me. We started our company in 1999 in the Pantry of our house. We met in art school while getting our degrees in metalsmithing and jewelry. Now we live in a small cottage by the Sakonnet River in Tiverton, RI and work out of a 2,500 square foot studio space in Fall River, MA.

Even though we both have Master of Fine Art degrees, we think of ourselves more as makers than artists. The objects we like to make are decorative and useful, which comes more from the world of craft than art. We both grew up making things as kids; Jim made tons of model cars and eventually moved up to bikes and repairing cars, and I made just about every 1970s craft there was. It wasn’t until we took Metal-smithing classes in college that we both realized that’s what we wanted to do.

We try to gather as much visual inspiration as we can get our eyes on: we look at design trends, folk patterns, nature imagery, illustrations, vintage kitchenware, etc. Then we filter our discoveries through the parameters of our manufacturing process and develop ideas for things we want to make. We go from a sketch, to a more finished mechanical-type drawing, and then to the jeweler’s bench. Usually we build a quick prototype before we get to work on the original model. Making a metal original can take many days to complete; it involves various tests and examples, then the actual bench work, which includes metal forming, machining, hand sawing, soldering, and usually lots of sanding. The decision making process while creating the prototype is where the ‘art’ process happens, determining the weight, look, feel and balance of the actual piece. Then the completed original gets molded, the production pieces are then cast into the molds, and then cleaned up and polished.

 

A couple of years ago, as metal prices sky-rocketed, we thought about working in other materials. Once we realized that we could take our process (of making a mold off an original) could be translating to other materials which could be cast, we decided to create a line of ceramics. We pretty much start the same way, exempt we are not working in metal: we usually turn wood or hard foam on a lathe, or hand carve it, and then mold the original in plaster. The pieces are then slip cast at a ceramics factory that specializes in hand made pottery. It has been a real learning experience, but very fun and refreshing to work in a new material, in a larger scale, with more dimensional objects. 

We kind of love working for ourselves and creating cool things. It would be nice to be doing it in a studio that was a bit warmer in the winter and have more fun tools. We love metal, but we have lots of ideas for non-metal things that we want to make, so branching out into new materials is on our to-do list. Also, selling your own work takes a lot of time, which requires a lot of administration — I think we would both rather be doing more creating, and less bookkeeping and admin, in the near future!

Beehive Kitchenware
Website : http://www.beehivekitchenware.com/index.php
Shop : http://www.etsy.com/shop/beehivekitchenware

. . . . . . .

Heather Smith Jones M.F.A., is a multi-media artist, arts instructor, and author. She lives with her husband in Lawrence, Kansas and loves painting, printing, and drawing. Find out more about what Heather does here:

Website : http://www.heathersmithjones.com
Blue Sparrow Press : http://www.bluesparrowpress.com
Poppytalk Handmade : http://market.poppytalkhandmade.com/author/blue-sparrow-press/

A Little Link Love

10 Beautiful Terrariums

My Top 10 DIY's on Wired

Absolut Black

Mini DIY Round-Up!

1.  Yarn fonts from Bloesem Kids
2.  Tie-Dye Denim for summer from Flare
3.  Ombre Tassle Necklace by Oh the Lovely Things

Pins to Follow: Bloesem Blogs

 

Images: 1+ 2 Kitchen (Photo: Stellan Herner, Styling: Lo Bjurulf för Elle Interiör) via Riazolli 3. Pencils through Image Spark (via April and May) 4. Home of Tess Lloyd of Polli (Pictures Naomi Leonard) for Bloesem Kids

Today I'm visiting Irene of Bloesem's beautiful Pinterest boards –whom I've been a fan of for years.  Her eye for beautiful design is one of the best I know online and her boards are the same.  From Dutch Designer Profiles to Kid's Color Palettes, they're all worth following. Click here to see.

 

 

Images: 1. Mini viewer kids DIY at Bloesem, 2. Utilitarian ceramic Vessels by B.Fiess, 3. Potomak ceramics, 4. Beneath the Sun textiles


Bloesem on Pinterest - pinterest.com/bloesemblogs
Bloesem Living  
Bloesem Kids 
Bloesem Studio

I Like Big Crumbs: Double Ginger Rhubarb Crumble

By Jeannette Ordas of Everybody likes Sandwiches

Spring and rhubarb go hand in hand and because I love rhubarb so much, almost every time I head to the market, I come back with a few stalks. I just can't help myself. 

Rhubarb, stop being so gorgeous!

So what was I going to make with these beauties? Luckily, I had just dropped off some cards at Tiny Finery (a cute little shop in New Westminster, BC) and was talking to the owner, Stephanie, about rhubarb. She told me to look up Jamie Oliver's recipe for a rhubarb ginger crumble because it was the best she had ever had. Ginger was key, she said, as it almost candies itself into the rhubarb mixture. I was sold.

Ginger + rhubarb. A match made in crumble heaven.

I had all the ingredients ready to go. Plus, I also had some candied ginger on hand, so I banged that into the dish too. Yup, awesome move! What I love about this dessert is that the ginger doesn't just end up stewed with the rhubarb, it's also a big component of the crumble. Double the ginger fun!

And making the crumb portion couldn't be simpler. Once you've got your crumble dough together, make sure to make a few large crumbs by squeezing bits of dough together. Like the song says, I like big crumbs and I cannot lie. Or something like that. 

This crumble is awesome for dessert - I served some up with freshly whipped cream sweetened with a touch of honey. But I think I might like it best as breakfast. Topped with a few spoonfuls of plain, tart yogurt, this crumble is a great way to start the day (along with a cup of joe, of course!)

Double Ginger Rhubarb Crumble

(adapted from Jamie Oliver)

7 cups sliced rhubarb

2/3 cups brown sugar, divided

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, diced, divided

2 tablespoons candied ginger, diced, divided

1 large organic orange, juiced & zested

1 cup all-purpose flour (gluten free blends work well too)

1/2 cup organic whole rolled oats

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F. 

In a medium sized pot, add in rhubarb, half of the brown sugar, one tablespoon each of fresh ginger and candied ginger, along with the orange juice and zest. Put a lid on it and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Turn down heat and simmer for a few minutes until the rhubarb has softened. Spoon the rhubarb compote into an oven proof dish (or several ramekins, if making individual portions). 

To make the crumble topping, add in the remaining brown sugar, the remaining ginger (both candied and fresh), the flour, oats, salt and butter. Use your fingers to blend the butter into the mixture to create crumbs. Dump the crumbs evenly over the rhubarb mixture and bake for 40 minutes or until the crumble is golden and bubbly. 

Cool slightly and serve with ice cream, whipping cream, custard or yogurt. It's also fine plain too. 

Affordable Art at Poppytalk Handmade (Part 3)

 rock the custard

Today at Poppytalk Handmade

Contributor post by Erin of Dear Edna

1. david scheirer watercolors 2. amanda blake 3. janis nicolay

4. sweet letter press 5. mac and ninny 6. magic markings art

Dispatches from Austin: Feliz

Contributor post by Tracy Castro of Fair Morning Blue

Howdy! I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you today. Local Austin artists Abby Powell and Natalie Davis are teaming up to create Feliz, a celebration of handmade.

The very first Feliz event is scheduled for November 2nd - 4th, 2012 right here in Austin. This handmade holiday event will include a fun mixer at West Elm, followed by a day of small, artisan-led workshops, and concluding with a curated holiday sale. 

Some very talented makers have already been announced, including Paloma's Nest, Leah Duncan and In Haus Press. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the first weekend in November. It's going to be just lovely to have so many greatly-admired artists - all coming together to share their skills and talents, and to tell us the stories behind their beautiful goods. Early November will be the perfect time to visit Austin if you're not here already. Plus, this means we can get our holiday shopping done early this year!

Oh - and if you'd like to join in the fun, Feliz is accepting vendor applications until June 30. 

***

Tracy Castro - a designer and rural Texas Panhandle native - has called Austin home for the last sixteen years. Tracy's new design venture, Fair Morning Blue, features seasonal cards, hand-stamped textiles, and whatever other whimsies come into her head and heart. Find Tracy on her blog, facebook, or twitter.

Mini DIY Round-Up

 Lace Patterned Coffee Table by A Beautiful Mess

 French Cuisine Tea Towel Embroidery (Free Pattern) from My Patchwork

Travel Notebook with Pocket by Simple as That

(via craftgawker.com)

DIY for Father's Day (Bowtie + Necktie Gift Wrap)

Guest DIY post by Erin of BerinMade

Father's Day is right around the corner.  Whether your dad is a necktie or bowtie kind of dad, treat him to a quirkily wrapped present complete with his favourite tie– it's so easy to make and also has a secret pocket compartment for your gift message!

Affordable Art at Poppytalk Handmade (Part 2)

jen renninger

laura evans photography

Today at Poppytalk Handmade

Contributor post by Erin of Dear Edna

1.serena olivieri  2. rock the custard 3. matte stephens  4. jen renninger

Leaf & Orla Kiely's Garden Retreat

Contributor Post from Megan at Room6

Did you guys catch the lovely Orla Kiely artisan garden retreat from the Chelsea Flower Show over on Apartment Therapy last week? I could spend some quality time in that "shed".

While looking for a photo credit for the Orla Kiely bike shot, I discovered a new-to-me digital magazine called Leaf. Their Spring 2012 issue is online here.

Images by Rochelle Greayer via Apartment Therapy & Studio G Blog