Let's Share: The Berkley Blog

One week of summer

One week of summer down!  

That's just the first week!  Rounding the corner into our second week, we're planning on a friendly bbq tonight and tomorrow a picnic at a location I am really way too excited about.  I'm trying not to make too much of a big deal in case it's not as cool as I remember it, though.

Oh yeah, I guess we should really be preparing a lot more for Renegades LA and San Francisco too.  Our big California crafty roadtrip is coming up really fast.  Look up over there to the right to see the dates. Somehow I'm sneaking prep in in between all the summertiming, so don't worry California.  We've got your meerkats.

Also, lest you were wondering what became of all those arcade tickets in the bottom photo, voila: 

Ryan wasn't able to join us for our mini-golf/arcade adventure so we brought him back plenty of presents!

Urban Jungle, Farm, and Arctic

We've been getting reports of animal sitings in urban outposts around the country for the last week or so but we've been reluctant to make a formal announcement until we had a stone hard link for you.

Now we do!

Exciting news!  You can now buy three Berkley Illustration animals from Urban Outfitters right here:

You've got the Cheetah:

the Goat:

 

and the Polar Bear:

As you can see, they all come neatly, ovally framed.   We love that look.  There is also picture hanging wire on the back so they can go from shop to wall in the time it takes to hammer a nail.  They are the ancestors you never had!  Or maybe you were lucky enough to have a polar bear for a great-grandfather?  If this is the case, would you mind if I ask you a few follow-up questions?  I'd really like to hug a polar bear one day and if there is any chance this can be achieved without mauling or slashing, I'd be much obliged.

Pro environment, pro sale!

Edit: The sale is over now - thanks for shopping!  

We are really quite excited about this new announcement:  

We are converting all our print packaging over to biodegradable bags and 100% recycled backing boards. Our new packaging bags are made completely from plants and are certified biodegradable and compostable!

This means you can throw any future print wrapper from us straight into the compost.  Really!  It's exciting!

Yes, these are a little more expensive.  And yep, we're going to have to raise our prices a bit to compensate. We hope you'll understand.  To say thanks though, we're going to offer a buy two, get one free print sale starting right now and lasting until 11:59pm Friday (Pacific Daylight Time), June 19th.  

To take advantage of the sale, simply buy two prints at regular price and let us know in the "notes" field at checkout which extra print you would like.  Obviously the customary small print applies, ie. the third print must be of equal or lesser value.  This sale does not include the limited edition prints, originals, or buttons/magnets.  For each two prints you buy, you're entitled to one extra print so if you bought six, you'd get three free.  Make sense?  

Please note, too, that this only includes prints purchased between 12:01am Thursday, June 18th and 11:59 Friday, June 19th Pacific Daylight Time.  That is just about 48 hours of Berkley Sale Madness.  Have fun!

This stuff was made in New York City

Well, actually, it was not all made in New York City but it was all found in NYC.

I wanted to show off some of the awesome finds/people we found at Renegade and in the city at large.  I am also highlighting the carpet tiles we decided not to order for our art room floor in the background.

From Renegade:

Well, first of all let me explain that I haven't worn necklaces for years, if ever, because I have this whole phobia of things touching/clinging to my neck.  Have I mentioned this before?  It's bad.  Even Ryan can't usually touch my neck without me squirming.  Well, somehow at this Renegade a light clicked in my head (or neck) and said, "Hey!  Idiot!  You can wear LONG necklaces".  Okay, light.  You are right.  Check this out:

Leaves necklace by Cursive. Let it be known that I want everything Sarah and Jon of Cursive make.  Let it also be known that they are incredibly sweet and charming people.

Keeping the whole long necklace, yellowish colored, feathery shaped trend alive, I also nabbed the last gold feather necklace from Erica Weiner.  (More are available on her website, though.  I won't think you're a copycat.)

Still gold, but not feathery is this THIRD necklace by a vendor whose name I can't recall because the necklace was procured in a frantic last-minute trade during closing time of day two.  If you made Mr. Donkey, please step up and identify yourself.  

The wood magnets are by Wook Woodworking.  (Type that five times fast!)

Charming letterpressed coasters by ________ (I'm hoping Ryan will fill in the blank on that one because he bought them.  Man, we did a bad job of documenting names. This is probably because we had to go to our shopping during the mad little bursts of free time.)

From the "I want everything they make" category again, here is a vase from Kindling:

and here is the vase at work next to another Kindling purchase from Renegade Chicago last year (it's the twig photo holder).

We also bought a couple t-shirts and a poster from Magick Outlaw.  I really liked their booth because it was different from a lot of the stuff you see at Renegade.  A little more "in your face" if you will.  

Black light posters for the indie craft kids is definitely an untapped market.

Other notable acquisitions from other places in the city include:

Top: Handmade bird paper holders from Kate's Paperie

Middle: Books and zines from Printed Matter, one of my favorite shops/ideas in New York.

Bottom: Vintage math glasses begging for me to create a math inspired cocktail.  We got these at Ugly Luggage in Brooklyn (a ridiculously great vintage shop).

I think one of the best things about going to do these big art shows is how you get to immediately get to turn-around and support all the other amazing artists and craftspeople.  Not only does it feel awesome to put your money into good people's pockets but you get to take home great things to boot.  Win-win!

Magnetic Personalities

Ugh.  Sorry about that lame subject line.  But guess what?  We finally have magnets for sale!  

If this was the 19th century I might grab a bell and ring it around town shouting "Magnets For Sale" in a half British/half southernly drawl but luckily for all of us, this is the 21st century and typing will suffice.

Sorry again, I'm a little punchy after a day spent digitizing and posting all these guys.

Anyway, here they are!

We've debated for the better part of the last year how best to offer magnets and we're both really happy with how they turned out.  Obviously this line is suited for additions in the future too.  (Honestly, no pun intended on that one.)

Here are a couple close ups:

See the whole line at our shop here.

*Bonus* If you are featured on any of these yearbook pages, you get a free magnet!

I'll Take New York

Obviously it's not easy to sum up a week's adventures in New York City because it's taken me almost a week to write anything about it.  Suffice to say, we love New York and if it wasn't for this whole pesky desire to have more than one bedroom, a yard, and no trash on our property...  Oh wait, I found a discarded crockpot in our wildflower patch last week.  Strike that last one.  I guess we'll just stay in Portland for now.

Here is the edited NYC daily diary recap:

We called numbers for Polish instructions we couldn't understand

Ryan found his dream graffiti

We got the cutest bill in the entire world

"Seven happy blueberry"!  (Or maybe this was only cute because our table had consumed seven of these happy blueberries.)

We battled rain without an umbrella thinking we were tough Portlanders but really we just kind of looked like soaked rats.

Went to Renegade with our friends Bossanova Baby and Arcane Arts and had beautiful weather and amazing crowds.

Thanks to all the awesome shoppers who came by!  We can't wait to do the Los Angeles and San Francisco Renegades next month.  [More Renegade photos here]

Went to the Natural History Museum

which gave us lots of inspiration for the future and I also found my new favorite animal ever:

(too bad it existed millions of years ago).

And then on the way home we got stuck at the airport for five hours and didn't get home until 3am west coast time.  I slept for 85% of the next day.

Oh yes, one other thing you might be interested in from our visit to Chinatown.  We got our auras photographed!  Check. It. Out.

As you can plainly see, we're both really busy but we have success coming our way and I have a pain below my waist (which is obviously that stupid knee that I hurt a couple months ago).

Okay, that was definitely a really abbreviated version of the trip but it will have to do for now.  I need to make room for lots more announcements in the upcoming days!  If you'd like to see more photos of the entire trip, though, please go here.

All kinds of animals

At last!  The new animals for May are finally here and guess what?  The calendar just turned over to June. Curses!  I thought we could make it in time.  The truth is that the animals have been done for a week but I am to blame for the delay because I just couldn't get the right ideas going for their back stories.  I apologize for holding out on you, but I had a serious case of animal back story writer's block.

Anyway, I'm happy with them now so why don't we go ahead and show them to you?

Exhibit A: The Octopus

(Available with and without banners)

Exhibit A Fun Fact: Ryan has argued for almost a year now that an octopus was impossible to do. I finally convinced him to give it a try and, as per usual, he not only figured it out but he totally knocked it out the park.  Let this be a public declaration to Ryan L. Berkley, illustrator: You can draw anything!

Exhibit B: (The winner of your vote) The Pygmy Marmoset

Exhibit B Fun Fact: We honestly had no idea what a Pygmy Marmoset was when the votes started rolling in. You all like to pick some crazy obscure animals! Whatever happened to cows and pigs and generic snakes?  Nevertheless, we're really glad to know about the marmosets so thanks for the lesson.

The other reason for the delay and the lack of blogging is because we've been prepping like mad for the Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair this weekend.  We have a couple new products we're going to test out on the unsuspecting citizens of New York City and if they are greeted with approval, they'll be making their way to an Etsy shop near you soon. {Hint, the shop I'm referring to is our own!}

Meanwhile, the one day in the last week we weren't housebound with the 2D animals, we jaunted out to the country to hang with some 3D animals.  Our pal Audrey turned two and invited us to celebrate with her on a farm out west.  

I am quite partial to the bottom rabbit.  He most certainly knows something that I don't know and somehow that makes me feel good.