Search results (tags) for: "circus"

Fresh Shops: Roadside

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:12:00 -0000

I found a new shop, Roadside which opened in Apr 17, 2008, while browsing the Art category on Etsy to see what would catch my eye. I thought these paper creations were so whimsical and lovely; they really jumped out at me. I had to look for a long time at the print to figure out whether it was three dimensional or two dimensional. After carefully reading the description, I realized that Roadside's Jayme McGowan makes such excellent quality prints of her shadow-box paper cutouts, that the prints include shadows! You can buy both the originals and the prints in her Etsy Shop. To read more about her process, please see the interview below.

Can you tell us a little about the people behind Roadside?
My name is Jayme McGowan and I’m an artist living and working in Sacramento, California. I’m a recent college graduate, and I opened Roadside last April as an experiment, with the hope of exploring project ideas I couldn’t really pursue in school. I studied painting in college but have been making 3-D works with paper for several years in my free time. I thought that would be a good place to begin Project 001.

My boyfriend, John, contributes elbow grease in various ways. On the current project, he helped out with the construction of the wood frames that house my paper sculptures. We’re currently working together on some more utilitarian art for the shop.

What inspires you as a creative person?
Paper, music, and people. I’m moved by polka dots. I hoard patterned paper and shuffle through it randomly, hoping for something to pop out. I listen to music when I’m working and I watch people out my studio window. I work out of a second story apartment overlooking a busy street. There’s a post office right across the way (that’s really coming in handy lately!) and a bus stop below my windows. So I watch people go by, imagine their stories to music, and look at paper. That’s usually enough. I have an overactive imagination.

And of course having access to the work of so many amazing artists through Etsy is a huge inspiration, just seeing what kind of creative things other folks dream up.

How do you like Etsy so far? What are your favorite features of the site?
I absolutely love it. There’s such a strong sense of community here. People have been very helpful and encouraging; I feel like I’ve found a very receptive audience for my work as well. Etsy makes it so easy to reach people from all over the world that I would have never been able to meet otherwise. I’m a big fan of the “Favorites” feature. I think it’s a fantastic way to navigate the site — hopping from one shop to another by browsing a person’s favorite items and sellers.

Anything else you'd like to add is also welcome! (Your blog, etc.)
You can check out images of past and present projects at: Flickr.com/photos/roadside, or peek behind the scenes at projects currently in the works at my blog: Roadsideprojects.blogspot.com.

See more Fresh Shops and say hey to a new seller!

Handmade Portraits: Topsy Turvy Design

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:27:00 -0000

Milliner Kim Dye of Topsy Turvy Design has always had a passion for history. From a young age she built elaborate sets and costumes, in an attempt to recreate the bygone eras she'd read about in books. Nowadays, her handmade hats channel this passion and combine her interest in theater, costume, puppetry and architecture. She dreams of the day when everyone will return to dressing up for every occasion with hat and gloves. However, for now she makes do constructing beautifully anachronistic hats for burlesque and circus performers, and the occasional fashion daredevil.

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Etsy sent independent filmmakers Anne Alvergue and her husband Michael Isabell, aka milorocks, to visit Kim at her home and studio in Oakland, California. (See Anne and Michael's film production company's site, EyeSpyFilms, for more information on their work.)

(Music credit Jon Brooder)

Want to learn more about burlesque and circus couture? Check out our coverage of this burgeoning fashion phenomenon!

Watch our other Handmade Video Portraits and subscribe to our Youtube Channel!

Trends: Circus & Carnival Couture! Cuffs, Ruffs, & Stripes Unite!

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:38:00 -0000

Okay: let me start off by saying to you all that I am absolutely IN LOVE with Steampunk. That being said, there's a new, almost sub-genre, of Steampunk called Circus Couture. Like Steampunk, Circus or Carnival Couture revitalizes times past, and encourages participants to inject a bit of carnie color and energy into their wardrobe. Lately, this trend has been flying off the Etsy seller shelves, so I've decided to introduce it to readers of the Storque. It's a style that borrows from the big-top, burlesque and pin-up alongside some of the dark-MadMaxness from Steampunk, minus the metal decorum. I believe Black Rock City residents from Burning Man may have clearly pioneered this fashion, especially with the vaudville performance groups Cirque Berzerk , and fellow relative Lucent Dossier Vaudville Cirque. Both troupes showcase incredibly amazing performances with costumes and talents that might literally knock your socks off, so you should definitely plan to see them live for yourself.

From Lucent Dossier's website (photography by: Steven Meisel):

From Cirque Berzerk's website (photography by: Aaron Gautschi):

Here at Etsy, there are several sellers who have designs representing this fabulous style:

From TopsyTurvyDesign:

From Desirapesta:

From LukasAdrian:

Circus Couture wearable art pieces are extremely fun to wear, and somehow, being this gussied up injects a little extra magic into your day.

Check out more from these and other sellers below. I'm excited to wear much of these types of fashions on the playa this year. Only two months away!! Are you ready? Do you have some Circus Couture candidates you'd like to share with us?

Please comment and Happy Friday Everyone! :)

See more of our Trends posts!

Etsy Finds: The Flea (Market) Circus

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:44:00 -0000

When you were a kid, didn't you think that flea markets sold fleas? Well the origin of the name reveals that this is not far from the truth! According to Wikipedia, the first flea market was Marché aux puces in the northern suburbs of Paris. The name translates literally to flea market, and was named for the uninvited house-guests that lived in second-hand furniture and clothing.

This gorgeously offbeat print by tartx reveals a world of a much, much smaller scale than the big bustling flea market, but it's still an exciting event!

Speaking of flea markets: a huge new flea market called Brooklyn Flea is opening its doors in Brooklyn this Sunday (see this Etsy Labs post to find us there!), and I am filled with a mixture of excitement and panic. Any place I can shop for vintage whatnots, handmade goods, and artisinal cheese is surely Shangri-La! Overrun with crazed tchotchke hunters equally stoked to get a deal? (What's the opposite of Shangri-La? A nervous breakdown?)

If you're in Brooklyn and want to find out more about Brooklyn Flea, check out their site. For those of you not in rainy Brooklyn, there's definitely a flea market in your area! Find one on fleamarketguide.com.

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So, flea markets...the greatest show of quirk or antique abuse? Tell me your thoughts in the comments!

Erin from Etsy: New Orleans Trip (Pt 2)

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:30:00 -0000

Four years ago, I spent a year in New Orleans. This past February, since I had begun working at Etsy, I decided to try to meet all the Etsy sellers of New Orleans, and see how they were spending their Mardis Gras. It was great to be back there to see how the city was doing. I hadn't been back there since Katrina, and now, just after the anniversary of the storm, I've revisited some of my New Orleans video footage. I'll be sharing those here on The Storque as a series. Here is Part 1 and below you'll find Part 2.

Watch the Video

I was in touch via email with Monique Leon from gurlygirl.etsy.com before my trip, but she missed our first face-to-face meet-up at the coffee shop. Later that night, at a circus-themed party, she overheard me talking about Etsy and we found each other! Luckily I had my video camera and I interviewed her right on the spot.

The next day I went to visit her at her home studio in the Bywater neighborhood, which is adjacent to the 9th Ward. In fact, Bywater used to be called the Upper 9th Ward until residents decided it needed a more specific name. They borrowed the telephone company’s designation, Bywater (by-the-water), and it has been known that way since the 1940s. It’s a special neighborhood situated right on the curve of the river between the Marigny and the Industrial Canal. The houses are all charming and close together. Stepping out onto the porch in the Bywater guarantees conversation with neighbors. When Monique came out to say hello to me, she saw several people she knew walking by, and they stopped to talk. We all shared a laugh about the skywriting overhead that protested the fact that people were having too much fun in the French Quarter!

The first thing I noticed about Monique’s home was the color. The outside of the house is painted bright lavender. People in New Orleans love to paint their houses in bright colors (not unlike Burano, one of the islands of Venice). A hot orange house with bright blue trim won’t turn a head. It just complements the turquoise house next door, whose bushes and trees are strewn with glittering beads, built up from past years’ Mardi Gras.

Monique’s home is a shotgun and it’s set up with her studio in the front room. Her jeweler’s bench takes up the majority of the space and her polishing station is nearby. She has all of the tools a professional jeweler needs and the enviroment of her studio is cheerful and inspiring! There was a striking hot pink Georgian era wig on the wall. Her television was gilded in gold from a previous experement just to see how it might look. Pretty amazing, it turns out! Her closet was stuffed with costumes. All the boas and sequins mixed unassumingly with her everyday clothes.

You'll find that her jewelery has a similar character to her home. Superb, traditional craftsmanship meets the whimsy of a costume ball, like in these "stearling heart fluff earrings".

I bought this ring from Monique -- and would you believe it, I ran in to a guy in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last week wearing the same ring! I think gurlygirl is catching on.....