Dreaming of Fall!

Here in Texas it is what is known as the dog days of summer. We are all busy dreaming of when the temperatures will drop below the 99 degree mark. What do you do when you are dreaming of fall? Well we make art to help us remember that it is coming. Edward has been busy in the workshop making rustic pallet pumpkins. These pumpkins will make a wonderful display on our porch, and yours in the fall. Take a look at these beauties!

 

We are just so excited about these pumpkins that we have decided to have a GIVEAWAY!!! We are going to giveaway one pumpkin to one lucky follower! You can get up to three entries! First head over to our Facebook page and like our page, then head over to the shop and like our shop, and lastly comment here with your email so I know how to contact you! The winner will be announced Friday, August 18, 2017.

Life and Custom Furniture

It has been awhile since I have been here to our blog. We have had a lot going on since we opened the shop. Lots of things that have been good, and some that have been very challenging for us. Many setbacks and disappointments have plagued us in the last few months. So much so, that we have almost given up on the whole endeavor. We have heard this is common, so we are giving it another try!

Edward has been very busy in the last few months making custom furniture. Three pieces he did sell in his mom’s booth in Oklahoma City. Edward used recycled materials to make a beautiful wood and steel media cabinet. He also made a small table with wood and rebar that he hand turned, and upcycled some stools.

 

He has been working hard in the shop the last couple of weeks on a commissioned piece that is also absolutely beautiful. This piece is a three foot long media cabinet using wood and steel. As an added bonus he designed a barn door for the front of the cabinet as well. We put this piece in the shop because he can recreate it as a custom piece for anyone who is interested.

So come on over to our Etsy shop and take a look at all of our pieces!

 

Art that Speaks For You

Did you know that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner? I kind of forgot. Not that I don’t completely love my love, but time just seems to fly by around here. We are always working on some project or planning the next one. My love, however, did not forget that it was almost here. He is definitely a hopeless romantic at heart. This year Valentine’s Day has inspired him to create a few new products.

Thanks to my mom, at Christmastime he received a scroll saw. This was very exciting because it meant that he would be able to create very intricate wood pieces. His inspiration for Valentine’s Day gave him the perfect opportunity to use his new scroll saw for the very first time.

When Edward is creating he goes through different stages, as most artists do. The first thing he does is look at the stuff that is already out there to get inspired. Then he starts thinking and sketching. After the sketching is done he begins creating. These signs were no different.

They did pose a different question for both of us though. Why can’t we find much out there that is specific to the LGBTQ community? I am sure that all the signs can be inferred with whomever you love in mind, but what about something specific. So, this is where Edward thought that he would begin his creative process.

He began by designing the hearts to go on the signs. After the design was set he cut them out of the wood with his new scroll saw. Then he cut the fence board painted it and distressed it to prepare it for the hearts. The first round of signs looked like this.

We posted them in our shop on Etsy, and we let our friends on FB know where they could find them. When they were shared, a friend reshared them and put the caption “Sometimes art speaks to you, and sometimes it speaks for you.” I absolutely loved this caption because I felt like that is what Edward was going for, but he felt like they were missing something. So Edward went back to the creating mode. He decided to add some words to the signs and they turned out so wonderful! Now I do really think they speak for you! Check them out now!

If you need something for your sweetheart check these out here.

Granite Speaker Stands

Art with a purpose. Our brand, our philosophy. We make art that serves at least two purposes. The first purpose is to enrich lives, as is the purpose of all art. The second purpose to help our fellow humans that are having a tough time right now. These beauties also serve other purposes.

The story behind these stands is an inspiration from a potential client. We had someone ask us for a modification to these stands.

 

He asked if a piece of granite could be added because he had read that granite was good for the sound. After some extensive research on the subject of sound isolation and the such, Edward decided that modifying the stands to include granite would indeed be a good idea, from the standpoint of form and function.

The granite was found with other beautiful pieces just waiting for a new purpose. Edward scooped it up and brought it home. He worked for two days cutting, shaping, sanding, and polishing the pieces. They got a new life as the bases of these beautiful stands.

The client decided to go with something different, but we are thankful for his inspiration, and now everyone can benefit from this new design.

Who are we?

Who are we? Who are you? Why do we do what we do? All big questions in life for sure, but I will try to answer at least two out of three of them in this first post of ours.

For starters, we are a couple of artists who found each other in the this big wide universe, and fell in love. This can be interesting at times, because as artists we are SENSITIVE about our stuff, but most of the time it works pretty well. 🙂

Recently, we have become a part of the homeless community here in the Dallas Metroplex. No, not how you might be thinking, we didn’t become homeless, yet. 😉 But, we have started to volunteer at a shelter here in Dallas. The shelter is very large and it is able to accommodate a very large amount of people, but there are still people sleeping on the street just right outside the shelter. We know this can happen for many reasons, one of them being that the people don’t want to be in the shelter because of the rules. However, every time we leave the shelter it tugs at our hearts that these people are sleeping on cardboard in the streets of Dallas steps from a shelter.

This lead us to do some heart and soul searching. We really wanted to help in some way, but everything we came up with seemed not big enough for us. We really wanted to go big, we had grand ideas and we had no idea how to implement them, let alone fund them! We are regular people, for the most part. I am a mom, full-time teacher, part time writer, and crocheter. Edward is a great step-dad, full-time artist, and Domestic God. So we put our heads together and this little venture was born.

We decided to start a business that we could market and sell Edward’s art, and also give back to our community. I decided to throw a few crochet items into the mix, and we opened our Etsy shop. When we opened we decided that 25% of our profits would go back into the homeless community here in  Dallas.

We are glad you are visiting our page and hope that you find our products helpful, beautiful, interesting, or all of the above. Please visit our shop here, and our Facebook Page here. We would love to hear your comments and feedback about our products!