Goings-on
A huge thanks to the Soho Beach House and all the members who took part in the Stencil1 DIY Art Party during Art Basel!
We’re really excited to announce that Stencil1 will be part of Art Basel 2013! We will be hosting an Artist Printmaking workshop at the Soho Beach House in Miami on December 6.
I am really looking forward to sharing a cocktail with all of the attendees while we create fun and unique art! We will have colorful picnic tables set up with all the art supplies needed to create mess-free, one of a kind pieces that the makers can take home with them as a souvenir from their stay at the hotel.
The Stencil1 creative artist crew and I will provide guidance to guests in helping them get creative and become the artist. We will use stencils, inkpads, and rubber stamps to make artist’s prints during this intimate 3-hour event. We are especially excited to be working with materials provided by Plaid, Clearsnap, and Art Alternatives.
We will make sure to take many pictures to share with you as soon as we’re back in Brooklyn!
Maybe you’ve been to a Stencil1 free event. If so, wasn’t it fun? If not, do you want to attend one? Well, we are seeking a grant and need your help. If we win we will be having lots of free promotional events in our hood as well as taking the show on the road with pop-up events all around!
So please click below to vote for Stencil1. It’s at no cost to you. This is via Facebook and run by Chase Bank. We are a small business looking to grow and spread creativity so we hope you can join in with a simple click. Much appreciated!
Let me get to the point with this post, my Camp experience was life-changing. Business growth, spiritual growth, fun. Can’t say enough good about it!
So, I was asked to do a stencil workshop and discuss my brand at the Unique Camp, a project created by Unique LA founder Sonja Rasula. Camp is basically a 4-day getaway in this case to Big Bear Mountain, 2 hours outside of LA. The conference helps entrepreneurs focus on their business goals with classes and workshops ranging from how to raise venture capital too well, how to stencil! Yes, the balance of business, art, physical challenges, dancing, and drinks at night all worked well together!
Sonja’s welcome chat included a reading from Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s book CAMP and sort of set the tone for the entire experience. I took the reading to mean ‘Yea. you will be slightly uncomfortable and challenged and out of your element here but this is where growth occurs and some great bonding as well.’ It, for me, was rather spiritual to grow myself as well as my business. As a rather quiet gent, I set my intention to come out of my shell, listen to people and have fun – I think I met all 110 people! Oh, and BTW, we were UNPLUGGED. ESSENTIAL!
AS for the stencil workshop, I chose a place under 5 large pines. We had a variety of supplies and I showed how to stencil paper, t-shirts, bags, and more. One lucky winner received a bunch of Plaid supplies, she was the star student for stenciling her Everlane bag with my arrow stencil. Amazing job. I spoke about starting Stencil1 from a dream to a full-time business while we got creative. So many people were there to start their own business, I hope I inspired their ideas. I too was inspired by many of the workshops including Sonja’s which was about getting press and Whitney Chamberlain who owns a few businesses including Smile Booth and how his biz goals basically came out of his own needs in life. I also kept observing the fine details that the Camp crew put into their branding, from table cloths to archery targets. Branding details matter.
I have a bunch of photos from the time away, I hope you enjoy them. I can’t recommend enough to go to CAMP!
Here’s a recap video of the Stencil1 book launch and DIY event at Converse Rubber Tracks Studio in Brooklyn.
Big thanks to Converse, Cool Hunting, Bushmills Whiskey, Polar Seltzer, Art Alternatives, Pebeo Paints, Sharpie, DIY Bangles, Clear Snap, Plaid, and Chocolate Bar NYC for your generous support. Enjoy the video!
+ music by Video Helper, edit by minimal dose
I was asked by Plaid Enterprises to lead some stencil demos and make-and-takes at the Winter 2013 CHA in California and I of course said YES! It is so great to get away from my daily design tasks and be creative with people. The Plaid booth was decked out with so many fun examples of what you can make with their products, everything from ModPodged frames to glitter covered bowling trophies, super fun stuff. Well, my project was stenciling mason jars with Folk Art enamel paint and these awesome sticky stencils. The creative folks at Plaid painted an area of the jar with chalkboard paint for labeling the jar contents, people ate that up. The stencils we used are sort of like ColorForms material, remember those? Well, they are rubbery and wrap around surfaces easily and remain sticky after you wash them! I got to chat with people as they stenciled words or other iconic images onto the jars, it was gratifying to say the least.
My booth mates and new BFF’s were Jade Harrington of JaderBomb, Rachel Faucet of HandMade Charlotte, and the ever popular Cathie and Steve of Creative Juice. Handmade Charlotte is a must see line of stencils with a sweet retro, indie feel the them, I especially love the campfire theme! Beckie Farrant, blogger and sweetheart also lead some crafts in the booth. And Cathie and Steve are the mad minds behind this new development for Mod Podge, Mod Podge Meltables. Fun silicon mold designs that you fill with this melted formula using a hot glue gun and the Mod Podge Meltables sticks(no it’s not glue and i’s not Mod Podge). So no more resin mixing mess! Dries in minutes and can be painted – ENDLESS USES! Blogger and smartie Heather Man of Dollar Store Crafts posted this great video of C&S doing a demo here. Notice below my pic with Glossy, the Mod Podge mascot, she’s pretty sassy.
Oh and I got to meet the Graphics Fairy, Karen Watson, bestower of free graphics, a humble and sweet doll of a gal. And ran into my fav craft gals Vickie Howell and Kathy Cano Murillo, both always fun and spreading the creative energy. Also got paid a visit by Miss Erica Domesek of PS-I Made This who ps… has a new book coming out soon!
The best of all is we all had great food and drinks and drinks and drinks each night and I can gleefully say I got to know this group pretty well. FAMILY was a word that kept coming up. I was grateful to be a part of the Plaid weave and you may be hearing more about my adoption into this family, stay tuned!
Then I headed off in a rental car to Los Feliz to unwind, see some cool street art, eat tacos, then head back to Brooklyn. A great West Coast visit! Well, In the mean time, enjoy my pics below!
