A return

It has been awhile but there are a couple of things I'd like to say:

If you want to find loads of great handcrafted merch from Portland Oregon here is a new resource:
Portland Oregon Independent Artisans Cooperative

We are a legal entity, registered with the state and all! This is a group of local creators/entrepreneurs with shops on Etsy and you can use our group tag: piacteam to search for items by our members on Etsy. Many members also have their own web sites for their businesses. Our nick name is PDX Indie.

Another great thing is The Sampler. Coming up for sale soon is the PDX Indie curated Portland Oregon edition of The Sampler.

If you are lucky enough to purchase one you'll get a box full of tidbits, trinkets and small versions of the things that contributors sell, a great way to sample their work. We added 50 Portland Coat of Arms patches (the design is available on shirts in this section of our website, Salmon Street studio.com) and also the "Crafty Things to Do in Portland Oregon" packs that will be in 100 samplers. Other contributors include:

Autumn Comfort Candles
Bread and Badger
Cerulea Bath and Body
Eye Pop Art
Trillium Artisans
Kinman Studios
Leah Pellegrini
LeaK Arts
Melissa Lund
leethal
Lolly-Tots
MMM... Fiber
Namaste Works
Ruby Girl Creations
Scooyou Photography
Skyisland Design
Souly Stones
Ta-Dah PDX
Zeldaloo Studios

And, for no reason a random picture from a little visit to Newport Oregon this past summer:

Earth Day

Hope everyone takes a little time to think about the Earth, and the small things we can do to help it continue to be.

I do not want to come off as a hypocrite for we do plenty of things that may not be the best choice but my point is to take steps where one can, if we all do a little it will add up.

Cheers and thanks for buying handmade, that is one of those small, easy to do things as there is less fuel used in getting the item(s) to market and frequently some of the materials have been reused, yay!

blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures, oh well...

Sub domains

My new fave thing!

Sub domains are a way to link directly to specific content on one's web site without having the long, senseless url.
For example: when I give out the address for this blog I'd use:
http://blog.salmonstreetstudio.com or blog.salmonstreetstudio.com

Guess where it goes?
Yep, right here, but instead of giving out blogsspot's url I am putting salmonstreetstudio.com in front of more eyes, mice, and potential customers. If you had a series of tutorials or something they could have their own sub domain.

Check if your hosting package includes them as there are many other uses too.

Have a nice day!

Salmon Street Studio -video

Handmade NW

Handmade NW is a new promoter of handmade goods, from, you guessed it the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Here's what they have to say:

"Our focus is grounded in Cooperative* concepts. For the ARTISTS, by the ARTISTS! We are a community of local crafters, artisans and artists who focus on promoting unique handcrafted items which you can purchase directly from their creators."

They are off to a great start with Artist/Crafter profiles and they already have a couple of local Craft Shows in the works. The first one is:

April 7^th and 8^th
2008 - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Montgomery Park Atrium
Second Floor
2701 NW Vaughn Street
Portland, OR 97210

Handmade NW is brought to you by Jackie of Scrumptious Suds (some of the best and most moisturizing soap around) and Merritt the Koozie Queen from PDX Softgoods (love the pint glass wraps) .Thanks in advance for helping to bring regional Crafting community together, and helping to connect it with the buyers that seek out the unique, hand-crafted items we all so lovingly create.

Handmade NW looks to be a great resource for the local crafting community and it's supporters!