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This past week we launched several new products at the Long Beach Art & Crafts show. We had been working for several months to create new items for this years crafts show around the tri-state, and the reaction was excellent. We created three separate items, a whale, and anchor and frames all handmade and created from locally sourced reclaimed wood.

The process starts working with local carpenters who provide us with the wood needed to make the art. This batch came from a cedar floor that was laid in a Long Island home in 1934. We then strip it of any nails and get rid of the wood that doesn't have enough character to be considered. Our customers and ourselves tend to like the pieces with a lot of aging and knots. We then glue them together and the pieces form one solid piece to be cut into shapes. Our original pieces, a whale and an anchor, are those that are standard for any ocean community like those around the Tri- State area.

After selling out at the show, we are steady building more pieces and coming up with new shapes. No doubt we will continue to keep innovating in this area. We love the whole process of creating something from scratch and in this case we are taking wood that is normally wasted and up cycling it into a piece of art.

We also launched some new frames made of discarded pallets. People have been using pallets for a many years to create fencing, art and even furniture. A quick stroll on pinterest will blow your mind on how much you can do. We decided to take this concept in making full finished frames. We are offering them in 11x17 inches with grooves for sliding in glass. We also have them as fully planked with a piece of glass face mounted to the front with art undernearth.

For now these are only available out at our local shows. We are also going to be launching a line for sale for our wholesale accounts that come out to the NYNOW show this August at the Javitts Center. So you will need to come out and see for yourself these hand crafted pieces of art.

Here are some images of the process...

The floor that will soon be art

Hand cut and painted signs made to have a vintage distressed look. We use Annie Sloan chalkpaint then wax the frame afterwards so that it maintains the finish

Team carpenter and artist Steve Corrigan looking over one of the pieces prior to sanding.

School of raw wooden whales ready to get some paint.

Painting up the whales

Some of the finished planks that we're sold at the show.

Obviously I am dumbfounded by the devastation around our area. A lot of friends, families and our customers got affected by Sandy. We got spared from some of the major effects the storm brought so I am working on some new art and some fundraising options to help support. My hands and hearts go out to all those affected.

Here's a few quick desktops and icons for your computer or FB page.

Mark your calenders for some great events coming up. 

Long Beach: August 25-26th on the boardwalk

Argyle Lake Arts & Craft Fair, Babylon NY: Sunday, Sept 9th

West Islip Country Fair: September 23rd

Bay Ridge 3rd Ave festival: Sunday September 30th

Irish Fest Long Beach: October 6th

Oyster Fest 2012: October 13th and 14th inside the tents

St. Anthony's Mothers Guild Holiday Fair: November 3rd St. Anthony's High School, Hicksville NY

I added a few more stores on where you can find some of my type maps. 

Here's an updated list of who, what and where.

MANHATTAN

Harlem Flo (currently in construction merging boutique and florist)

2276 Frederick Douglass Blvd (Eighth Ave)
Harlem
Time out article about them here.

Carries New York City map framed and unframed

51 Avenue A  

New York, NY 10009
212) 228-0145 

Website

BROOKLYN

Shop Exit 9  Cobble Hill

Carries Brooklyn map framed and unframed

127 Smith Street  Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 422-7720

Thank you's go out to everyone that came out for the fair this past weekend in Fire Island. Was great to see some customers from last year and just as nice to make some more people happy with our art. Luckily the weather held up for the entire weekend and into the night.

All posters that we ran out of and that need to be shipped are mailing out tomorrow. You should have by the end of the week or early next week the latest.

Next up for me is back to Long Beach on the  25th and 26th. I will actually be away on vacation but some of the metalbox crew will be holding down the fort. I will have a few new things available at this fair as well, so come out and say whats up. Until then check out some of the images of the fair and the weekend.

Jam session during happy hour 

Dude named Tom Brady buying on of Genes pieces....Irony!

Best dressed on the beach too.

Water was rough all weeknd. Didnt even get a change to get wet....sucks. Next year were staying an extra day.

Michelle and me winning in darts til 3 in the morning. We were the official King and Queen of the dart board on that night. Check out that form!

2 maps hanging in the window at Klines. Great store for getting your beach gear and souvenirs.

View from the ferry of the Great South Bay and the Robert Moses bridge in the background.

  I am proud to announce that we have added a new store to the mix of places where you can buy some of my posters. Welcome SiteNYC in Astoria is the newest location to join Harlem Flo Boutique up on Marcus Garvey Blvd in Harlem and Kline's in Ocean Beach, FIre Island. If your in the neighborhood of these stores go ahead and stop in, they each offer some really great product and I could'nt be in better company.

 One week to go before I get married. The last few months have been filled with designing, printing, cutting and assembling all of the materials needed for the day. It really is a lot of work that go’s into it, especially if your a designer. Shout out to all the invitation designers out there, i could’nt imagine having to deal with a bride and groom on all the back and forth changes needed. I never understood why an invitation could cost 10 bux a pop until now.
The above picture was taken after an xacto cutting sesh in my studio. Their have been about 12 of these and a good 5 more to go. Am psyched on how everything is coming out, i have nice theme going. I’ll show all of the materials made after the wedding and mini-honeymoon out in Montauk.

Was great to be out in Babylon over the weekend to take part in the annual art and craft fair held at Argyle park. We met a lot of cool people, had some laughs and sold some merch too. Though the details of the story witll have to be kept off the internet, the best part was giving Gene, Victor and his wife a lesson in good ol' fashion economics of buying low and selling hi.

Here are a fe other pics.

Future customer checking out a print.

 The Captain just couldnt resist checking us out

I recently made my version of a Brooklyn type map to add to the rest of the print collection. It has been on my list for a while in what my Chinese calender refers to as the year of the type maps. After I made the first 6 or 7 , I figured it was time to tackle the place where I have been living for almost ten years and after finishing I think it's time to give a recap of where I am at with the project as a whole.

I got inspired to a Long Island map after seeing a few others and knowing I could do a better job. The main difference being mine are done in my own hand style and use no fonts at all. Every letter to all of the hoods, countie, states or prefectures was created freehand which takes hours of time drawing on and off the computer. Props due to some to other ones that are out their, especially this one from a girl out in the UK named Ursula Hitz who has done some nice maps including one of London city as well as a cropped section of the 5 boro's very nicely. Here is a shirt by the team over at BK Industries that uses some typefaces, not really feeling that one though. And while I dont care much for the design and use of a single font, I got to give this girl props for building a solid line of maps. Finally the team over at Axis Maps that use type and traditional cartography to make some truly beautiful and accurate maps. I just bought their map of Chicago as a memento to where i recently proposed to my fiance.

So their you have it, a little bit of a reference for different type maps. I hope you'll find mine to be different from the others, at a great price and worth your hard earn $$. I sure enjoy making them and have several more on the radar and  in the works to complete my collection.

The team over at Axis Maps that does a really great job on their maps. I think they have some sort of software that generates these since they offer many different types of mapping services.

Dope London city type map with hand letteing and kerning. Really well done.

Some color options. Still not sure which one I am going with.

The gluttony of hoods downtown and beyond.