Our new space

So we've been making improvements to our "studio" in our temporary living space. We'll be moving to our permanent place in the next couple weeks, but meanwhile check it out! Joe spent last weekend building this REALLY functional and REALLY beautiful storage unit. It's large enough to house all of his huge pieces of paper, mat board, cello bags, and even his finished unframed pieces! It's the cat's meow. Ha.

Also thought I'd share the cool bulliten board system we arranged. Each person who contacts us about commissioning a custom piece gets a post it note with their name and a description of what they'd like. Then as we progress through the stages of custom work their post it moves from the "Contact" board to "Design" then "Cutting" then "Shipping." I think it's a pretty ingenious way of staying organized. It's helped us get through this last crazy bout of custom orders.

Finally, Joe completed his weeks long dream of creating a map that identified each town he's sold art to. We started with a map of North America since so few sales are international, but it's really cool to be able to visualize all the cities in all the states (and territories) that he's sold original art. That's a lot of red dots. Maybe some day we can fill them all in!

And finally, a bit of good news- We have an appointment on Monday with a local gallery who is interested in featuring Joe's work, and may even want to do a solo show! We've got to talk it over so we're trying to stay calm, but we're hopeful that it will lead to good things

Christmas in September

Ok, so even though most people would say "it's only September!" from a production standpoint it's more like "oh no! it's already September!" which basically means we need to make sure we've got appropriate inventory for those winter holidays.

We're not really sure what kind of demand there will be for art this holiday season. Last year we weren't as serious about getting art selling for Christmas, but lately we've been on a roll. Basically we're trying to make some new fun pieces, especially making sure we cover a broad price range.
One of our bigger pushes is creating tasteful ornaments/decorations. We're looking to find reasonably priced silver (at least silver plated) small squared frames, similar to those from crate and barrel or pottery barn. Then include classic winter papercutting designs, perhaps even on a colored background (either evergreen, cranberry, or blue)We'll keep you updated on Joe's designs for these, as well as the progress (and ultimate unveiling) of his new Maine themed pieces.

Oh yeah, and we finally made an offical listing for a "Custom House Papercutting" since these have become quite popular lately. So if you're in love with your house, your old house, or your friend's house, just send us a picture and Joe will creat a beautiful piece of art for you.
Enjoy!