What About Love...

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Let me just say...I don't really hate Valentine's Day. I just find it slightly annoying. If you love someone, you should let them know all year round....not just on Valentine's day! The day is completely jammed down our throats, I barely had time to take down my Christmas lights. As soon as the new year began...hearts and candy began to choke the aisles of my neighborhood convenience store. And I might just throw up if I see another Jared commercial!

Ok, so my mini rant is over...I feel better getting that off my chest! Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to highlight a few etsy artists that have some "anti-valentine's day" items. The one thing that I love about etsy is that you will probably find something cool, interesting, and definately one of a kind!

ArtByLupeFlores

Until next time....happy crafting!

Nordea nordeasoaperie

Artful Embroidery

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So, I admit to being a bit obsessed with embroidery. The act of creating art out of thread is very appealing to me. Especially since my drawing skills are not much advanced past stick figures.

I taught myself how to embroider by buying a couple of books and practicing. There are so many different stitches that can be used to create beautiful pieces of art.

I love this card which spells out a cute & clever message with thread. I also love how there are different colors used to create contrast on the white background.



This beautiful flowering tree is a stand alone picture. The embroidery is fantastic, and becomes its own picture frame by hanging it with the hoop! It would be great to hang a few of these clustered together on the same wall.



The holidays are right around the corner...these little Christmas tree ornaments are super cute!

I hope you have been inspired as much as I have! Embroidery is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. What I love most of all, is that it is easy to do on the go....something to pass the time while commuting to work.

-Nordea
nordeasoaperie

Who is the NewNew?

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Our group tag line says "hand crafted in the NY Metro area." And if you've ever been to a team meeting, you know there are quite a few of us. But really...who are we? Who makes up the NewNew? 

I decided to find out with a little help from Survey Monkey & their free 10 question survey. So, let me introduce you to the NewNew...survey-style



We are overwhelmingly female. Not that we don't have some boys join in our fun. We do! But, for the first time in the NY Metro area, they are in the minority.

We are mostly a group of 30-somethings. We do have representatives in the 20 somethings category & several people in each category above 30-somethings so the age range is really long in this group. Isn't that cool? I feel like I am honing a craft now that I could potentially keep up. Or change! Hand crafting is ageless!

We seem to be a highly educated group. Most of the group who responded have a 4 year undergraduate degree with a large percentage with graduate degrees. Look at us - all little smarty pants :)

So who are we so far? So far the NewNew is a 30-something female with at least a college degree...and she isn't married. The largest number of answers on our survey in the marriage category were for those who had never been married, but it was almost a 50-50 split with those who are married. So, not the strongest question to determine who we are, I suppose.

We also don't have a lot of kids. Actually more than 80% don't have any at all. Perhaps this is a good time to mention that we have close to 200 members & only about 30% of them answered the survey. This is not a scientific analysis, but I would go out on a limb to say that we have plenty of members with kids & that perhaps that's why the response rate was a little low. It's cool, ladies! Next time...

Our most popular borough to live in? Brooklyn. Followed closely by Manhattan. The only borough not represented in our group appears to be the Bronx. Go figure...

And now for the nitty gritty...what do we make?? The answer: Jewelery. Lots of it. Here's my very first pie chart since high school, showing the break down. The list of categories in the key on the right are the categories you will find NewNew shops in & comes from the list on the Etsy homepage, fyi.



After jewelry, the majority of our makers are in the Paper Goods & Art category, though we are represented in almost every category. We are a pretty diverse set of crafters. Also interesting to note is that a lot of our members do more than one thing. One jeweler in our group also makes cake toppers. One photographer also silkscreens.

Almost done! I also thought it was interesting to know whether or not our 30-something Brooklynite without kids who has a killer jewelry line sells anywhere other than Etsy. And the overhwhelming answer is YES!

Where does this lovely lady like to sell? All over! Seriously almost each respondent had a different market that they look forward to. Of course, you can almost ALWAYS find representatives of the NewNew at the Brooklyn Flea. If you had a visit to Governor's Island this summer, we had a nifty pop-up store there. Also check out Better than Jam NYC in Bushwick & Black Bear Vintage in Windsor Terrace (Hello! Both Brooklyn!). To really find us, try our events page, right here on the blog. See the tab at the top? Local NYC Events? There you go...

I hope you'll come out & see us at one of the events! Look for a 30-something woman, who looks like she lives in Brooklyn, is probably wearing her very own killer jewelry without a stroller in sight...Very generally speaking anyway...




5 Steps to discovering your passion

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What is your passion?

There is time in many peoples lives when this question can make you feel uneasy. Maybe you are not sure how to express your passion, maybe it feels too much like a "should" be a "thing", like "cooking" or "painting". Passion is such a strong expressive word and this scares many people mostly because they don't think they feel that strongly about "something".

If I was to meet you and ask you "what is your passion?" How do you think you would answer? Would make for some interesting conversation starters at parties, don't you think?

So here are just 5 steps to get you started on thinking about your own passion:
  1. What activities excite you and make you feel good about yourself? What are some of the core feelings associated with those activities - remember, you CAN have more than one passion!
  2. Which of these do you lose all track of time with? When we are truly doing something we love, we forget about time. We are in our "passion zone."
  3. Would you do it for free? Putting the almighty currency to one side. If you had enough money to live on, which of these activities would you choose to spend your time on?
  4. What do you talk about to others when given the chance? We often get excited when we are passionate about something. If you are not sure what that may be, why not ask those around you. You may be pleasantly surprised.
  5. Last but not least.....what do you secretly dream of?. You know, that passionate thing that makes you feel all tingly inside?
The way you describe your passion can change and that's okay. 

Have a go at creating your own "Passion Manifesto"
What would yours say?
Louise Gale - Your Creative Career Consultant for the NewNew Blog

How-To: Making a Miniature Artist's Canvas

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I have always been obsessed with creating miniature versions of the things I use in my everyday life. I think the extra focus required to make miniature objects imbues the tiny things I make with a special quality--as if they are more charged with meaning than they would be at their regular size. Another reason to spend your time making tiny stuff is that it doesn't take up a whole lot of space, which, if you have friends who live in small apartments and want to give them beautiful handmade things but don't want to burden them with a lot of clutter, is a very good thing!

This tutorial will teach you how to make dollhouse-sized blank artists' canvases from empty tissue, granola bar and cereal boxes, which you can then paint and add to friends' art collections. I am hoping I can spark a whole trendy miniature painting craze!

Here's what you will need:
-empty boxes made from thin cardboard that you otherwise would have tossed into the recycling
-muslin fabric
-white glue
-acrylic gesso
-a normal size brush for applying the gesso, plus teeny tiny ones for doing the actual painting
-acrylic paints
-a gridded acrylic ruler is helpful for making accurate right angles when cutting up your boxes

Step 1: Figure out what size you want your miniature canvas to be. You can just eyeball the size if you like, but if you want it to be the perfect size to fit into a dollhouse, you'll want to do a little math. The standard size for dollhouse accessories is 1/12 scale, which means that you want to divide all your regular measurements by 12. If the full-sized painting would be 18 by 24 inches, then you want to make your mini canvas 1 and 1/2 inches by 2 inches.


Step 2: Once you have cut your cardboard to size, spread it with a thin layer of white glue and stick it to a piece of muslin. Make sure that the sides of your canvas are parallel to the grain of the fabric.


Step 3: Fold the fabric around to the back of the canvas and glue it down.


Make sure the folded fabric edge is glued slightly inside the edges of the cardboard so it can't be seen from the front.


Step 4: When your glue has dried, paint your canvas with a thin layer of acrylic gesso. You want to make sure not to put the gesso on too thickly, because being able to see the grain of your muslin is crucial to having a miniature painting that looks like the full-sized version. If you want to have an especially texture-y canvas, try different types of fabric and see which one looks best.


Paint gesso on the edges & back as well.


That's it! These miniature canvases are so easy and fun to make that you can create hundreds of them in nearly no time, then invite some friends over to have a painting party.


Then you and your friends can have a miniature art show:



Stella (lookcloselypress)