New!

I've been making a lot of repeats recently, so it was exciting to get to change up the lumberjack beard a bit. Woo hoo!

!!!!!

Tell me this is not the funniest promo card you have ever seen:

Amazing, right? This is the card from last years Crafty Wonderland holiday sale, and the card for this years is just as amazing (but my scanner is on the fritz, so I can't show you!) I went to a meet and greet for all the Crafty Wonderland sellers last night, and was completely bowled over by how friendly and generous people were. I only got a chance to talk to a handful of people, but this didn't stop me from feeling like I had finally found "my people." Such a nice feeling.

Anyway, if you live in Portland, it would be a shame to miss Crafty Wonderland this year. It's going to be epic. How do I know? I just know. Buy local, support your crafters and artists, and come out to the Convention Center on Dec. 14th from 11-7pm.

Tiny Showcase tipped me off to this gem:
"1. You email Keith Shore a bearded photo.
2. Keith Shore paints you a 5" x 7" acrylic and ink portrait on an archival Arches Cold-Pressed 140lb archival paper.
3. Keith Shore emails you a scan of the piece for approval.
4. You send Keith Shore $200 bucks.
5. Keith Shore mails you what might just be the greatest portrait you or a loved one has or ever will receive.
6. The end."
Officially on my Christmas list.

Apparently I missed hearing about this until it was almost over, so maybe you are already familiar with Movember, a month-long fundraiser and awareness raising campaign for prostate cancer, among other men's health issues. It seems that the fundraising is centered around a moustache growing competition, where you get people to sponsor your 'stache. Brilliant. If you weren't able to grow a moustache this time around (or ever), this time next year I'll have a whole stash of 'staches (hah) ready made.

They even have a page on their site dedicated to showing you how you'd look with a moustache. Nice.

orangey

sorry i've been a little light on the posting recently. more to come!

It stopped raining today for approximately five minutes. Can you tell how happy I was?

bearded musicians

A couple weeks ago, a fellow Etsy seller contacted me asking if I made Jona Bechtolt (of the Portland band YACHT) a beard in the last few years. I replied, "I wish!" Apparently he did a tour with Devendra Banhart a while back, and was jealous of the many beards worn by his fellow musicians... Thus, a fake beard. The fellow etsian was nice enough to send over this photo:

Amazing, right? If only I knew how to knit/crochet... My first rainbow beard was undoubtedly influenced by Jona's other beard, but unfortunately, we have yet to collaborate.

A reader tipped me off to innocent drinks, smoothie makers in the UK, who recently featured me on their blog! I love the little hats that go on each bottle!

New grey beard in the shop today! Tried to go out and take photos of it this morning, but my camera wasn't cooperating. It would have looked amazing though; there was this beautiful, soft white fog drifting through my neighborhood all morning. Is the weather nice where you are?

blue grey day

Today was lovely. Perfect crisp fall weather, and sadly I didn't spend more than an hour outside. Instead, I was inside, working on all sorts of projects, and admiring the blue-grey tinge of the light on the walls. It felt like a good day to make a list of beautiful things, like this one:

It's a treasury I made in Etsy. You can view the treasury for the next couple days, in case you see anything you want to buy! I bought one of the items this morning, but I'll let you guess which.

All these blue/grey/greens got me inspired. Here's a hint:

Zeus? Santa?

It can be whatever you want it to be. Approximately three times larger than any of my other felt beards, this one is going to earn some lucky beard buyer perhaps TOO many compliments. heh.

In other news, took a letterpress class at the IPRC tonight. It was excellent, even though I've already done some letterpress work. Kinda like a refresher. It had been a couple years, so it was probably for the best. Anyway, expect some excellent letterpressed goodies to be appearing in my shop sometime soon. Actually, I've got a screenprint in the works, so look for that first.

good news!

I want to thank Sarah from Cursive Design for mentioning me on the design*sponge guest blog today! I am seriously excited; I've been a fan of design*sponge for years.

In case you were concerned about my lack of posts lately, I've been working on a few special orders, and haven't had any new beards to post. Not that you were worried, but I will have an epic new beard to show you by the end of this week... it's one of the largest I've ever made!

The rain has finally let up a bit today, so I think a little jaunt around Portland might be in order. I'll report back on any good beards I find.

would you be interested in...

A donegal beard? A white one? Eh? I'm not super crazy about it, and I'll probably just add a moustache to finish it, but the donegal beard has been on my mind lately. Maybe I'll make a darker one, a la Honest Abe. Actually, that would mean I've got two Lincoln projects in the works... more to come on that later.

Have you seen Growin A Beard? I watched it about a year ago, and I still think it was rather compelling for a movie about growing facial hair.

ps: one weird side effect of the beard project: my face has started to look naked without one.

vacation?

I'm visiting LA this weekend. The weather is perfect, sunny and warm. Great change from Portland's drab color recently.

Finished this beard yesterday. Bright and sunny, very California.

AMAZING!

While I probably won't be talking politics much on this blog, I do want to thank every person who went out and voted. Last night was historic and incredible, and I am proud that so many people came together to stand up for what they believe in. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for doing your part. I don't know about the rest of you, but I woke up this morning feeling more hopeful, more excited about where our country could go, than any other morning in recent memory.

chugging along

I feel like fall is ending before I had a chance to really appreciate it. That tree that I took a photo of last week? It has already cycled through the reds, oranges, and yellows, and now has about three little yellow leaves hanging on to the naked branches. Crazy how quickly things seem to be moving these days.

Today I finally remembered to take a photo of this beard, and as usual, I look slightly insane.

At least the beard is a nice one.

I forgot to thank Mike for mentioning me on his blog recently. He also has an excellent etsy shop called mudpuppy, his tiny ceramic mushrooms are adorable.

nuclear!

I love this new green beard. It has a very nice "nuclear waste glow" to it, don't you think?

Not exactly sure who is going to be most interested in this beard... maybe it's bright enough to glow at night, and bikers will want a neon green beard to help them get noticed? Actually, I did see glow in the dark yarn online last night, so maybe that's another project altogether.