I don’t know when the last time I blogged was, but it is safe to say it has been a very long time. This year has turned my whole world upside down, and I have been trying to dodge the curveballs as much as possible, but cannot lie and say that I have not been knocked unconscious by a few. Aside from the personal stuff (“homeschooling” my kids and never having time alone was nothing I ever thought would happen here), my industry pretty much came to a standstill because events have been basically non-existent. So I have slowly been figuring out the pivot – at least for now. I started teaching online classes over Zoom, which I have been loving, but I also started pouring a lot more time into products that I thought might be of use in the world. It has been a year of political strife and civil unrest and (and injustice) and since I have never shied away from expressing my opinions in the past, I thought that maybe I could put these “opinions” to good use and they could become products.
I’d love to talk about some of them so you can see what I have been up to (if you haven’t seen them on IG or in the shop.)
I started lettering quotes from various civil rights activists, artists, and leaders and posting them on Instagram, with some great response. So I made many of them into prints, and print sets.
I am selling the “Good Trouble” series of prints, with quotes from John Lewis, Angela Davis and Sam Cooke. 50% of proceeds go to Color of Change.
After Ruth Bader Ginsburg died (beyond devastating), I created a series of prints honoring her, and when those sold so well, I decided to put one of them on a sweatshirt – which I can’t wait to wear all Fall and Winter. 50% of proceeds on all these products go to Flip the Senate.
With the outrageous threat to dismantle the USPS, I thought it was important to encourage letter writing and mail sending. I also thought that people who were stuck at home and not seeing friends and family might want a fun way to communicate with their loved ones, so I created Quaran tīnes, pronounced like “Valen-tines.” They are really pretty and sweet and also a little cheeky. 😉
I also made stickers to show USPS support for people (especially me) to plaster all over their mail and packages. We sold out the first round of white ones in just a few days, so I made new HOLOGRAPHIC stickers, which I might not want to let go of at all. (For those of you looking to have stickers made, StickerMule made them for me, and I cannot say enough about the quality of the stickers or the ease of working with the company.)
Anyway – just wanted to highlight a few of my favorite products. There are some more in the shop, and we will hopefully be adding a few more soon, so keep checking back. I’m also game for any other product ideas you might have. Anything you’re dying to see from me? Or anything you always wanted but couldn’t make yourself? I’m all ears.