villagers

Hi there!

Those of you in Seattle or its environs, please join me this Friday evening (May 9) from 6-9pm for the opening of my show at Schmancy!

My show is called "villagers", and features 21 new characters that represent the inhabitants of a fictional premodern village. I love these guys, come out to see them and I'll introduce you.

The kind folks at Schmancy are going to offer the pieces from this show for pre-sale, starting today. When I get a link I'll post it here. Also, I plan to upload images of the dudes to flickr at some point today - keep an eye out!

So, how have you all been?

thank you

After some deliberation during the holidays, I've decided to stop blogging, at least in the usual sense. I'll still be using this url as a kind of "update" about stuff I'm involved with (shows, shops, whatnot), but I probably won't be posting more than every few months or so.

It's been a really interesting three years. When I started this blog in February of 2005 I had no idea what to expect... I wanted to participate in Loobylu's Month of Softies (ah... memories), and wanted to have some outlet for my seemingly obscure toy-making obsession... and things just rolled from there. I eventually got some outside interest in my knitted toys; created a pattern booklet due to popular demand; then realized that offering patterns wasn't what I wanted or needed creatively or personally; got involved with several really great art shows at fantastic galleries that support toy art and the art/craft overlap; and most importantly, got in contact with so many wonderful, amazing, absolutely spectacular fellow artists from all over the world. It's been marvelous. It has helped me grow as a craftsperson and artist and has helped me develop more confidence in my abilities. Before this blog, I never showed any of my creative work to anyone.

Lately I've found myself wanting to make stuff just to make it, not necessarily to show to anyone, and not to seek response. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting feedback - I just feel the need to be a bit more private when it comes to my creative work, at least while I work out what it is I'm trying to accomplish with all of this. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think I'm going through a creative transition of some kind and want to figure out what it's all about. I'm really enjoying myself and I'm enjoying keeping a lot of it in my head for the time being. Then at some point it'll burst out of me and I'm sure I'll want to show it to the world... after I clean up the mess, of course. Heh.

That said... over the next few months I'll be gearing up for my very first solo show, at Schmancy in Seattle. Kristen Rask, who owns the store and curates its shows, is the gal behind Plush You!. The opening will be on May 9, 2008, and if you live in the area, please stop by to say hi. I'll be showing some toys, I'm sure, and what else... we'll have to see! I'm so excited to explore new options.

I will still be posting images to flickr from time to time, whenever I feel like I want to share stuff, and again, I'll do an "update" post here now and again to tell you about anything I might be involved with of a public nature. And I'll also have my etsy shop going. Thank you so much for your continued interest in my work. It has meant the WORLD to me.

Love,
Jess

happy holidaze

Hi there. Sorry for the break, I just got really busy there for a bit. And the busy-ness continues, so I'm going to extend my bloggy break until after Christmas. Then perhaps I'll finally post the photos I took of the shrinky-dink ornaments we made this year...

Hope you're enjoying the winter holidays!

robots for sale

Yes, that's right, I'm putting some robots up for sale on etsy tomorrow. In fact, they're famous robots - they were on the cover of the first issue of Craft magazine. I've held onto them for a while (in dust-free storage, of course), but I figured I needed to share the joy.

Please swing by my etsy store around noon tomorrow (California time) to snag one. They may actually go up a little later, just refresh until you see them.

I will also have a couple other knitted toys, these ones are brand new. Although, if you don't see them, it means that I'm running behind in getting them posted, so check back a bit later in the day. I've got a sloooow connection so sometimes things take a while.

So, um... how are you guys? Having a good holiday season so far?

open

Hey all. The shop's open now, there are still some toys left, and lovely prints!

I have prints of Nan and Gom, Big!Toy!, and the sisters. $16/each. Absolutely fantastic quality. The shop can be found here (jesshutch.etsy.com).

Next Sunday, forget not, I'll have some knitted toys and an additional screen printed toy.

I wish I had something else to talk about but I've literally only been thinking about the shop for the past few weeks. I'm having a lot of fun getting it all together.

OH! I went to the tinyshop show opening at double punch in SF last Saturday night, met Antoi for the first time, and snagged some fab items. Including, my friends, my very first Blythe-related toy. It's a kubrick of Blythe in her Medieval Mood outfit and oh, it's so great. I have her on my desk at work next to a squishy robot stress toy. She's like the ultimate Celtic tribal princess. So RAD.

Here's a photo (she's on the far left).

That's all. More soon.

shoppe news

Here are some of the dudes I'll be selling beginning tomorrow at noon PST. There will be seven painted toys, each of them a doozy.

In addition, I will have some number of screen printed toys.

I promised knitted toys, and I will deliver, but due to a severe cold I wasn't able to finish them up for tomorrow's shop opening. They will go on sale NEXT Sunday, December 2, at noon PST. They will be worth the wait.

I also have some lovely, lovely prints of some of my favorite toy photos. Please click on the photo above to go to my flickr set, which features some photos of the prints. I tried to capture how thick and soft the paper is - they were printed by iolabs, and they did a great job. I had the photos printed on etching paper, which has a lovely soft feel and a gorgeous texture. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do.

So, tomorrow at noon, please go to http://jesshutch.etsy.com and check out my wares. I'm excited to finally have items available for folks who like my stuff.

shoppe

So I decided to do something new this year. For kicks. Starting Sundae, November 25, 2007, at 12pm PST, I'm going to be selling actual items. There will be high-quality prints of some of my photos, some painted toys, some knitted toys, and some screen printed toys.

Think of it as the Jess Hutchison Holiday Retail Experience. Toy art gifts for all your favorite people, in celebration of your favorite winter holidays.

More information (along with photos of the offered items) as the day gets closer.

The photo above is of some of the toys I'll be selling, still in their newborn gesso phase.