PIN PALS

Pin Pals Collaborate

This is Darling Little, she's almost as cute as her hand stitched boarder.
ETSY!

Posted by: Sara

Man T's

On Etsy. We'll be adding more throughout the week. Check them out!
Thanks Brandon :)
Posted by: Sara

The Heat, Hot Air and Fuzzy Hair

Me heat setting a shirt with a paint dryer gun (in our already really warm studio) with a tall can of coconut water (yeees!) Well, it's officially summer and Montreal has been hit with the first wave of heat and sticky humidity of the year. I'm not complaining though, I love it! Sam and I each have our fans pointed towards us from a foot away. We recently bought some new colours in the tri-blend style by American Apparel and both Sam and I are holding ourselves back from grabbing one of each colour. I'm wearing a mask because I've been printing with a new fluid that you mix with the printing ink and it takes a bit of the fabrics colour out so you can print with one pass on darker colours. When you heat set the ink it releases a toxic (and stinky) steam. The result is a bit of bleached looking effect. I'm really happy with how they look. We also just got one of those stamps that you change the letters around on. So, I've been personalizing everything. It's addictive and want to name everything now. I started by naming the Gnomes. Of course, it's hard to not use friend's names. Kuno, Young Darryl, Kate, Molly and Yana. Posted by: Sara

Watching Clocks may relax

I spent some time recently creating a pin called "The Clock Watcher"

I actually do find clocks relaxing. I've had a wall clock since before I can remember, I think one of my earliest ones was called a "Clickity-Clock" it was blue and had lines and sqiggles on it, and a neon yellow second hand. A sincerely 90's wall clock

I can't say I'm one for living by the clock though, in fact I like to become so immersed in what I'm doing that I forget what time it is, but I do like the soothing tick tock.

This piece is something I'm working on, I must admit, I really love working on a bigger scale! I think the gauche piece I made a few weeks back ignited something in me, I've already started sketching some new designs!

We've been busy designing new packaging and generally enjoying the nice Montreal weather. This town is in festival mode right now which means street fairs, music, ice cream and food. The perfect way to forget about time altogether!

Posted by: Sam

How Gauche of us

A little late, however, these are the pieces we entered into the Gauche show at the Long Haul a couple of weeks ago.

By Sara

By Sam 

Posted by: Sam

Spiffy New Packaging

Designed by Sara

In the Shop

Also, Hi!

Posted by: Sam

Worn Fashion Journal Sole(d) Auction/Issue release/Shake a Tail dance party

I was asked by Serah-Marie McMahon of Worn Fashion Journal to participate in a project for issue #8, which is themed entirely around shoes. Of course I jumped at the chance, even without knowing how exactly I was going to cross-stitch a pair of white canvas keds. 

That was the essence of the project. To take a classic pair of keds sneakers and turn them into a unique, and artistic interpretation based on the original skills of 23 artists. 

Here's what we had to work with

and here is my interpretation

This image is taken from the Worn website and flickr page. It's a much better picture than I could ever take of them!

The project centered around a fundraiser auction with a portion of the proceeds going to Fashion Cares.

The auction was last night at the Bata Shoe Museum and I was able to snap a few pics of the event (albeit some are a little more blurry than I hoped!)

Angie Johnson of Norwegian Wood, Elif Saydam, and Patrick Lundeen  

Dana De Kuyper of Damned Dollies, Allyson Mitchell

Hollie Dzama, Mark Laliberte  

Kelly Freeman and Rory Lindo of Damzels in this Dress, Karyn Gingras of Lillyput Hats

Hilly Yeung, Sonja Ahlers, Clayton Evans of Complex Geometries    

Marina Dempster, Tim Mitchell of Team Macho  

Renata Morales, me

Tyler K Rauman, Dane Richards of Dangerus  

The Deadly Nightshades, Tyson Bodnarchuk  

Grant Heaps

and last but not least, Funktion Gallery

There was so much creativity in that room, I highly recommend checking out the photo spread in Worn's latest issue. The photos really do each pair justice, and all of the artists have informative blurbs about their inspiration and current locations.

Here's more photos from the show, 

Two great friend's, Scott and Debbie

Scott and I

Auction Time!

Getting some after-show coffees with our new magazines.

It was great to be a part of this event, and I was happy to tackle a cross-stitch project on a larger scale. It has certainly sparked an interest to broaden my subject matter in the future. Little stitch by little stitch!

Posted by: Sam

Frankie

Frankie is a great Australian magazine with colourful pictures and articles focused on art, fashion, craft and music. We were lucky to have our infamous jetsetters "Burnaby and Alicia" grace it's pages. I really enjoyed flipping through this magazine. A lot of the articles are about artists, illustrators and Etsy merchants such as ourselves. Other articles are humourous,rude (something I'm a fan of) and witty. And still, some attention is payed to serious topics related to politics, history and great fashion of course. My favorite is this peeps jumper by Von Zipper

Posted by: Sara

Welcome to our Studio

This past weekend the tenants (that's us!) of the Long Haul
opened their studios to the public. This was a great opportunity for us to get to know our neighbors and chat it up with new faces stopping by to take a peek. It was a nice change from the old cooped up, antisocial and hunched over the drawing board routine that we're used to. And we did manage to get a few things done. I'm still working on a few of these gnomes for Etsy and General 54 We also had a fashion shoot and posted a bunch of tshirts for spring on Etsy. And we had another photo shoot which probably took up most of our time and attention.

Introducing Pancake I'll leave you with this blurry photo that pretty much captures the essence of our new friend. Actually it's Pan Cake, Mr. Cake or just Pan. We just discovered, or rediscovered something we forgot about.  Our camera takes videos! We've had our camera for a couple years so you could imagine the surprise. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble with the format of Pancake's video debut so hang in there!

Posted by: Sara

Western Thrift Score

I had some real luck thrifting last week..

Not only did I find a golf sweater and a curling sweater, I found a vintage curling tea set (my mom officially thinks I love all things curling now..which I have to admit is kinda true) a planter wishing me to "please get well", an amazing cup and saucer in a cross stitch pattern (!!), and a danish centrepiece which is already proudly displayed on my coffee table. 

Also, a little sneak peak photo of something I found for my partner in crime , that I know for a fact is the only one in existence and was downright made with love!

Here's the loot:

I took these photos on my last day in Calgary.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and just the right temperature, my mom's cat George was on the balcony with me wondering what I was up to. I wish I had taken a picture of him too, he's a big funny beige cat!

It's back to all things Pin Pals now, Sara and I are involved in a group show at the Long Haul studios where we rent a space. This year's theme is "Gauche", so if you're in the neighbourhood Thursday night, stop by and have a beer and check out some great artwork!

Posted by: Sam