Jaunty, no?

Oh, there are so many reasons to be jealous of Shauna Alterio and Stephen Loidolt, the duo behind Something’s Hiding in Here, but I’ll try my best to stay focused. The project that has my heart today is called Forage… and it’s fantastic! Hand-made bow ties, in a range of styles and sorbet-esque colours. I’m jealous of this idea, I’m jealous that they get to hunt around for beautiful fabrics, and I’m jealous of the final product… but I have to say, it’s their hand-printed promo postcards {complete with teeny-tiny little bow ties}, that have pushed the designer in me over the edge!  Jaunty, and soul-crushing… not bad for a Tuesday morning.

{…and speaking of accessories, ‘the house that jealousy built‘ got a walk-in closet today! come for a visit over at sfgirlbybay!}

Forget hanging out longer… I just wish I could hang out a little bit! I’m so totally and completely jealous of the people who will actually get to go to this weekend’s Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco! It’s a weekend chock-full of fantastic work, and amazing artists. Speaking of which, whoever takes that ceramic/thread brooch home… please, please, take good care of it. It deserves a soft and loving lapel. Sigh… I wish it could have hung out on my lapel, at least for a little while.

{The artists shown above will be there this weekend. They are 1) heyday design [jewellery] 2) heyday design [ceramics] 3) Mama’s Little Babies 4) The Mincing Mockingbird 5) molly m designs 6) The Heated 7) miki and nora 8 ) miki and nora 9) Raw Toast Design}

Ooh, here’s my Friday crush… Grapefruit Crush to be exact! These very cool vintage bottle cap necklaces are currently on my top ten list, filed under ‘Stuff I Really, Really Want’ {hint, hint}. I found them on Etsy, so all I can tell you is that they’re made by a woman named Beth, and she’s from Wilton… um, where’s Wilton? Ok, so this is not a very informative post, but at least I can send you directly to her shop so that you can buy one of these necklaces right now!

{These reminded almost exactly of some work that I wrote a post about last May… which, by the way, can also be found on that same top ten list!}

Wondering what to do with all of those Barbie dolls you have left over from childhood? No problem. Send them to Brooklyn NY, Attn: Margaux Lange… she’ll take care of them for you. Well, she won’t ‘take care of them’, but she will chop them up and turn them into very cool wearable art. These amazing, and hilarious, pieces are from her series called My Plastic Body. It is “the result of [her] life-long fascination with the icon, and a desire to re-purpose mass produced materials into handmade, wearable art”. My favourite piece is the necklace directly above, titled Mounds. Yes… they are what you think they are!

{If you’re in  Pittsburgh, she has a solo show called ‘Wearable Nostalgia: Deconstructing Barbie & Ken’ on at the Luke and Eloy Gallery until January 16, 2010.}

Another amazing night of button trading at the 6th annual Hot One Inch Action show hosted by Jim Hoehnle and Chris Bentzen. A little too amazing actually. I was so distracted by the hunt for my favourites that I totally forgot to write down the names of the artists whose buttons I was hoarding. Damn. I even had a little note pad with me and everything! Oh well, next year. There were a few extra hot buttons that everyone seemed to be in pursuit of… I got most of them eventually,  except for the elusive ‘Cupcake Zombie’… you’ll just have to imagine what that one looked like. Speaking of cupcakes, one of the best titles of the night was the button shown on the top right – Immaculate Confection. Awesome!

Coming up on November 7th, 2009

1 night. 50 artists. Crazy amounts of hot one inch action!

This is such a fun show (I wish I thought of it!). It was started in 2004 and has become an annual event in Vancouver. Here’s how it works… The founders of the show, Chris and Jim, choose 50 artists from the many submissions they get. The artwork is then made into 1″ buttons and hung on the gallery wall. At the show you pay *$5 for 5 random buttons out of the 50. You then spend the rest of the evening in a totally packed out gallery engaged in hot trading action trying to acquire the buttons you really want/love. It’s fun, it’s crazy and you come away with some very cool wearable art… albeit very tiny.

… I have to point it out – how awesome is that nipple button?! Worn strategically on one’s jacket you could be quite the conversation piece.

*Last year is was $5, I assume it will be the same this year, but don’t quote me on it.