Shipping Container Pipe Dream

Raw and gravity-defying

I've really been digging shipping container construction lately. I like the aesthetic, industrial and sort of a la Brooklyn / Williamsburg artist warehouse lofts when it was still all rough, before the developers got ahold of it.

Actually made of shipping pallets and trailer homes, respectively.

I really like the aesthetic of the buildings by Infiniski, a company operating out of Spain and Chile. Their whole focus is on the re-use of materials... containers, pallets, etc. I love the way they maintain the aesthetic influence of the original material. Probably my favorite is their "Forest House" on their site (which is all flash, so I can't pull the image). Go look at it!

I also like Lot-Ek's CHK (Container Home Kit). Scalable and flexible, with lofts and catwalks to boot.

Lot-Ek's Puma Building. The front is very similar to their CHK design.

And I really love what Canadian Designer Kieth Dewey has done with his Zigloo home. He really maintained the industrial elements, even using chain link in the interior and salvaging stairs from another industrial building. Plus, he has an extensive photo gallery of various phases of building.

The Zigloo's front steps

Despite the quantity of imagery available, there seems to be very little in the way of how-to information. Shed and Shelter has a pretty good list of companies who actually do things related to shipping container (or ISBU: Intermodal Steel Building Units) construction, rather than individuals or small groups who have done one-time projects or experiments. I just found out Google Sketchup has a whole section on container housing. I'll probably be browsing that a lot...

But of course, lack of information hasn't kept me from designing my own dream studio made out of containers. Nowhere to put it yet, but hush, reality. Dream a little dream with me...

Way to go, paper!

(Via Facebook --> Craftzine --> All About Papercutting)

(Via Zuzutop) Totally worth a click the the original article to see all of the amazing paper awesomeness!

Sneak Peek!

Just a little sneak peek of something I've been working on for Phaedra Paperie...



January's coming along nicely. Some successful printing, a few wedding orders in the works, frequent lattes, and a new laptop in the mail. No complaints!

January Goals

December wasn't such a great month for getting things done...

• Finish HSC painting! Still not quite done. But close.
  
  
• Continue not wasting my life away in front of the computer. Good so far.
  
  
• There are a couple of local galleries whose submission period is during January, so I need to get my packet ready to go. I always 'mean' to submit, but let my procrastination/fear/anxiety get the best of me. Not this year. (Oh please, oh please.) Didn't do it, but I'm going to, I promise.
  
  
• I have a stack of artist registry forms. Once I've got packets together for galleries, it's not much more work to submit to some artist registries. My official goal will be getting 6 of the 8 I've printed out actually sent. Didn't do that either. May or may not do it.
  
  
• I promised some people prints of my work forever ago and never followed through. Get those ordered/sent so they'll get them in time for Christmas. Did it. So at least I feel like less of a jerk.
  
  
• I'm going to be teaching a class (through Paper Zone) on screenprinting wedding invitations in January after the Portland Bridal Show, so I need to fully outline the class syllabus and handouts. I can finish them in early January, but the hard work will need to be done before the last minute. Did it somewhat. Still needs finishing, but very do-able.
  
  
• Photograph Valentine cards. Prepare publicity email(s). Nope. Gets moved to January.
  
  
• Create mural proposal or OSU Engineering department. (Not sure this is going to happen; it will definitely have to take a backseat to the HSC painting.) Didn't happen. I'm ok with that.
  

Most of this month's goals are unfinished things from last month.

• Submit to galleries that have January submission dates.



• Send image of HSC painting to client. Discuss money, shipping, timelines, etc.



• Photograph valentines and get them out into the digital world.



• Make confirmations for Bridal Screenprinting class and finish syllabus/materials list.



• Get laptop repaired.



• Give my truck some love. An oil change, maybe a new turn signal light.



• Finish sewing projects for other people that I've had sitting around for way longer than is reasonable. Apologize for keeping them so long.

Monthly Goals: December

Made it through November -- though I certainly had some days that were incredibly trying on a personal level -- but I made it through. (If you're wondering what this is all about, it's called the Monthly Goal Meetup. It is spearheaded by the Modish Biz Tips blog as a way for small creative business owners to stay focused and offer each other moral support and encouragement.)

Here's how I did:

• Print winter holiday cards. Photograph them. Get them listed on Etsy. Send out email announcing their existence (by November 10th!). Done. I had to reprint one of my designs due to a design brainfart on my part, but I did get them done and announced/listed on the 12th.
  
  
• Finish up shipments to Bluebottle, Wholly Craft, etc. and get them out the door by the 15th. Also done. Out the door on the 18th, and one order already generated a re-order. Yay!
  
  
• Finish printing 2010 Valentines cards and photograph them. If they don't make it into my shipments, that's okay, although it would be awesome if they did. Still have to photograph them, but they did make it into my shipments, so that makes up for it.
  
  
• Blog at least once a week (not counting monthly goals post). Nope. Posted twice. Thought about posting a lot, but didn't. Story of my life.
  
  
• Spend more quality time, less time total, on the computer/internet. Somewhat successful. Focused on not ending up in front of the computer in the evenings unless I had a specific task, and that worked. Spent a little more quality time with A and the animals.
  
  
• Figure out what I'm doing with painting versus paper goods. Launching a separate wedding invitation shop/webpage/company? Integrating it more into my overall studio umbrella and focusing more on painting as my 'main' thing? Paper goods will be splitting off from Carly Bodnar Studio to become Phaedra Paperie. The webpage is partially built, and I've set up an Etsy and a Gmail account... but how serious I get about it is currently in limbo pending changes at my day job. Ah, the artist and the day job. The eternal struggle.
  
  
• Finish HSC commissioned painting. Eh... definitely did some work on it. But it's definitely not done. Damnit.
  
  
• List recent drawings and works on paper on Etsy. I still have more I could list, but I got all of the ones I've posted on Gloriously Awash in Sin listed on Etsy. That was the essence of that goal, so I'm calling it a win.

Now on to December's goals:

• Finish HSC painting!
  
  
• Continue not wasting my life away in front of the computer.
  
  
• There are a couple of local galleries whose submission period is during January, so I need to get my packet ready to go. I always 'mean' to submit, but let my procrastination/fear/anxiety get the best of me. Not this year. (Oh please, oh please.)
  
  
• I have a stack of artist registry forms. Once I've got packets together for galleries, it's not much more work to submit to some artist registries. My official goal will be getting 6 of the 8 I've printed out actually sent.
  
  
• I promised some people prints of my work forever ago and never followed through. Get those ordered/sent so they'll get them in time for Christmas.
  
  
• I'm going to be teaching a class (through Paper Zone) on screenprinting wedding invitations in January after the Portland Bridal Show, so I need to fully outline the class syllabus and handouts. I can finish them in early January, but the hard work will need to be done before the last minute.
  
  
• Photograph Valentine cards. Prepare publicity email(s).
  
  
• Create mural proposal or OSU Engineering department. (Not sure this is going to happen; it will definitely have to take a backseat to the HSC painting.)
  

Holiday Cards are here!

A few days ago I finished printing my holiday cards; they're currently arriving at select stores around the country! And of course, they're also available on my Etsy storefront.


I also want to share with you another little project I've been working on. My friend 'Casey' is in New York getting his MFA in writing at Columbia -- we had talked about doing some sort of art & writing collaborative project, but it wasn't until he swapped coasts that we actually got around to it.
The result is Gloriously Awash in Sin. The basic premise is that we each respond to the other's postings in our own art form, a vehicle to keep the creative juices flowing. We have declined to state any particular limitations, and have agreed that our pieces need not be polished (because we are both the type that can go back and edit endlessly). Enjoy!

Portland State Recent Grad Show

A painting of mine was chosen by guest curator James Yood for this upcoming show of alumni work in PSU's Autzen Gallery. The show opens this Thursday, with an opening reception on Saturday from 6 to 9 pm. Yood also is giving a lecture on Monday the 16th in Shattuck Hall (Rm 198) at 7:30 as part of the Monday Night Lecture Series.

Judging by his curator's statement, Yood seems pretty cool. Straightforward about art rather than pretentious and uber-conceptual (my perception of what many artists bound up in the academic world seem to be -- I likely just need to meet more people in that category). I'm going to try to make it to the lecture and see if that impression pans out.