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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?

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!