The other day I headed off to do another room at at the Ace Hotel. My friend Charles assisted me while simultaneously working on my new website’s redesign. I also asked another friend Tami,who does indie PR for me, to meet up. There we all were, full of Stumptown coffee and in Room 1105. I forgot this was one of the smaller rooms but we all found our place, Tami and Chaz in the bunk beds (yes) and me doing my thing. The wall was already painted a chalkboard matte black and so I decided to do a black gloss stencil pattern on top of this. This pattern, Birds on wires, is actually in my new book, Stencil 101 Decor. I cheated a little and had the pattern cut larger so I could work faster but the way I executed this was the same as you would with the standard sized stencil in the book. I started top left, and using the registration marks on the stencil, I created a grid on the wall using blue tape and a pencil. This went fairly fast and I worked around a door on the wall and a tv mounted as well! The reason I made the registration marks on the wall was so I wouldn’t have to paint in order. This is done so you don’t overlap your stencil on top of a wet area you just painted.  I painted the stencil with a dense foam roller, my favorite. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened the door to see this super cute gal named Valentine. She works for the Ace, blogging and holds the title “hunter/gatherer” (yes!). She took some pics and later a gentleman by the name of Jeremy visited to take more pics. We got to chatting design, and turns out he is a designer/art director for the hotel and did a vast amount of the signage and custom work I drool over  all around the hotel. I’ve mentioned this before but the attention to detail in the hotel design is just so clever. If you are a typography nut, there’s a lot to admire. They blogged about the progress on the Ace Blog. I digress… So I bounced around the wall, bent the stencil around some areas, until I covered the whole thing! The black on black gave this dramatic vintage wallpaper effect and I highly recommend it.  The photos show more contrast than in real life, it’s a subtle effect. I am dying to do more of this tone on tone effect with colors and white.  We finished the evening by me first asking Tami to hold the bunk bed ladder and walk on my back, then we walked down to Veselka for a nice warm, Polish dinner. Best Borscht in NYC!  Quite a New York day!

The new February/March issue of ReadyMade does not disappoint. No, not because they wrote up our new book Stencil 101 Decor, well not only because of that! The issue seems to have a lot of super thought-out diy graphics this issue, totally pulling me in to each article. The table of contents has these great handmade looking wood numbers for the page reference, there are great articles on the Ace Hotel(where I currently do art for rooms!), a great pancake article(yum!), and a guide to escapism, what we all need in the winter! I don’t know, you’ll see, there is a difference, an effort in this issue. So ReadyMade declares Stencils are back and I declare ReadyMade is back, fantastic issue!

Every Monday night, excluding holidays, Etsy has a FREE craft night where they provide materials and instruction on all sorts of creative projects. I was asked to do a stencil how-to event and I jumped at the chance. I love Etsy and was curious to see their Labs.  Well, the facility is an artists dream-  fabrics, paints, silkscreen station, three huge work tables, sewing machines,  tons of supplies…could play all day in here. So we were scheduled to do the event from 4-8pm and I have to say this was the best event I have ever done! The crafters who attended were my true audience, some eager to learn, some insanely talented artists, all doing their own thing with the stencils. I instructed people throughout the night and then Julie, our Etsy lab Leader, led me through the Virtual Labs how-to. This is where Etsy over-delivers! If you were not in the area or couldn’t make it, you could login and “pick a seat” in this virtual auditorium. It was part chat room, part video conference, a great application for extending the craft community.  Viewers could ask me questions, chat together, then share what they made on a flickr site.   Well, I can’t thank Etsy enough for a fun time and all the people that attended in person and virtually. So Let me know, would you be interested in attending an Etsy event virtually?

Stencil1 meets A Baker in Brooklyn

My friend Christian Sumner is a dedicated artist. Painter? Sculpture? Well sort of, but his materials are of the edible nature. He is a baker.  Before I get into what Christian made with my stencils, let me start by saying nothing can leave his kitchen unless it is mouth-watering! It ain’t just pretty is what I’m trying to say. So last year, when I released Stencil101, Christian made a rich chocolate cake and stenciled my Chimp on it!  This year, with the release of Stencil 101 Decor, I gave him pattern stencils from the book and also the smaller versions I sell as well. Since he is an artist, I left it up to him what to make. I just wanted to see pattern! Well, he over-delivered! Spiced cakes with chocolate icing and powdered patterns on top, placed side by side, forming a new pattern on our display table at my book launch events. Alongside them, I placed the cookies he stenciled with the tiny patterns. These blew me away, great colors and such detail! My favorite, A gingerbread man with a brick pattern within his frame!  Please visit his blog A Baker In Brooklyn to see how he made all these goodies! He often mentions the music he is listening to to while baking, I like this added inspiring note. He also made my birthday cake last year, not stenciled, yet full of berries and chocolate! Hire this man. Thanks Christian, you’re a talent!

In December,  I made an appearance on Home with Lisa Quinn to show some unique ways to use Stencil 101 Decor stencils. Here’s a link to the video, hope you like it!

Stencil101 Decor featured on Home with Lisa Quinn

Recently, I have been commissioned to do artwork in various rooms at the Ace Hotel in NYC. I am very honored to be doing this work since the Ace aesthetic is this perfect combination of classic design meets street art. It is also a graphic designers dream as there is clever signage and wonderful typography galore used throughout the space. And  It’s actually a fun day in NYC for me when I get to do this. I go to the hotel where a dapper yet trendy doorman greets me and I get a key from the front desk lovelies for the room I will be working in. I drop my things in the room and run back down to StumpTown Coffee in the lobby. This is my favorite coffee shop in NYC. As a people watcher, I like it because the baristas are tattoo covered and look of a time gone by. The coffee is perfect and the packaging of their products are beautiful. They also have oddly shaped pretzels and great pastries. Ok, once caffeinated, I can head back upstairs to start.

I have done two rooms thus far. In Room 1101, I did a piece inspired by Dolly the sheep who was cloned some years back. I stenciled Dolly a few times over the headboards then I added a sentence diagram above the cloned sheep (I have had a sentence and Venn diagram obsession since grade school).  In Room 1009, I created a stencil of a 7 foot tall grizzly bear, my tallest stencil to date! I used Benjamin Moore paints and a dense foam roller for both the sheep and the bear.  When you sit at the desk in the room (yes, with record player!) , he stands behind you, guarding you.  I have a few more rooms to do and will post again with updates.  Make sure to visit the Ace!

Two months ago, I did an in-store event for the opening of Michaels in Manhattan.  At the end of the night, I of course bought some art supplies and while online,  I spotted my swallow stencil on the cover of Somerset Memories magazine. I immediately bought it and saw that it was the beautiful work of Dina Wakley.  Dina is an artist-extraordinaire, putting a cool edge on scrapbooking and journalling.  Some people hear the word scrapbooking and think it’s not for them, but if you like painting, collage, making cards, and expressing yourself, try to digest the word!  I am drawn to Dina’s palette choices and the splattery fun sprayed look to her work.  This look can be achieved with my Stencil1 Sprayers. I also like her layering of handwriting over the stencil designs, such a nice personal touch to say what you really want to say.  I am always inspired to see how far an artist can take a simple stencil image. Dina teaches her techniques all over the world and online so I urge you to check out her inspiring blog. Thanks Dina, we look forward to seeing all you create!

Please come to ETSY LABS for a night of Stenciling! Bring a t-shirt, a tote bag, a card, anything you’d like to stencil!

Title: Craft Night at the Etsy Labs: Stencils with Ed Roth
Location: Etsy Labs 55 Washington St Suite 512 (5th floor) Brooklyn, NY 11201 7188557955
Link out: Click here
Description: We hope to see you at our first Craft Night of the New Year! Ed Roth, of Stencil 101 fame, will be joining us for an evening of stenciling.
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Drop in anytime between 4-8pm to craft with us each Monday. Instructions are given throughout the night as participants arrive. So don’t worry, if you swing by after work at 6, for example, you won’t be missing out on the demo.
Craft Night is a time to make things, sharpen your craft skills, meet new friends, and hang out. See you there!
Start Time: 4:00pm
Date: 2010-01-25
End Time: 8:00pm

Stencil1 goes West! Yes, we are headed to San Francisco and Seattle to promote Stencil 101 Decor! So many great events are taking place before the holidays and we are happy to take part in them. Check out all these events and come say hi. I’ll be at all these events, signing books and doing some demos! Hope to see you there!  – Ed Roth

That’s right, it’s time for to celebrate the launch of Stencil 101 Decor, our second book published by Chronicle Books! I will do a demo while you eat stenciled edibles, drink from the bar, and stencil on cards or grasscloth to make your own art print! I’ll be signing books, this is a great holiday gift for the creative and decorative people in your life! Hope to see you there!

Saturday, December 5, 2009, 4-6pm

powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn

Ed Roth and Stencil1 offer a DIY event for all ages with stencils from Stencil 101 and Stencil 101 Décor.

RSVP to rsvp@powerhousearena.com

and be sure to look at our Events Calendar to the left for events in other cities!