And we're back.

Sort of. We’ve reopened our shop here to move away from Etsy. It feels icky there now.

If you visit our shop, you’ll notice that we only have a thing or two in stock. We are in the midst of a big move. Having a limited stock during this time, will make life manageable for us.

Mushrooms - Walnut Wood Indoor Plant Stand

Never fear PNWers, we’re not leaving just relocating to an area that is more our speed within state.

As with many places all over, our current small town is now filled to the brim with towering apartment buildings for the population increase on what used to farmlands. I’m not hating on it, it’s just not for us.

We’ll do a big update about our new location and new items that will be launching later this year.

Thank you so much for keeping up with us and all of the love and support.

-Thea

Slower Shipping Times

Hello! I guess I haven’t updated since the holidays here. I hope all of you have had a good start to 2022!

Also, Happy Lunar New Year and welcome to the Year of the TIger tomorrow! Xīnnián hǎo!

As many others, we are dependent on the supply chain and things are still moving at a slower pace. Orders will take a bit of time longer to fulfill. But as always, contact us directly if you are in need of an item at an expedited time.

We are also updating our catalog and will be discontinuing a few of our products. However, many of those items we offer only through wholesale accounts. This gives us the opportunity to focus on what is in demand and the ability to focus on new designs.

Our all time best seller - Our roots plant stand.

Thank you again to everyone for your patience and patronage!

Gōng xǐ fā cái!

-Thea

Thank you!!! See you in 2022!

Our shops are closed for the next 3 weeks. We will be revamping, retiring some old products and introducing some new ones too.

While we didn’t offer anything new this holiday season, we sold an incredible amount of plant stands! I honestly cannot believe it. (Thank you!!!) Extra special thanks to those who reached out to thank us and share photos of how you use them in your spaces.

We are so incredibly grateful!

John & Thea

2021 Engraved Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!

It’s that time of the year to engrave pumpkins. We’ve done this every year since we’ve owned our laser. We own an Epilog laser and we use sugar pie pumpkins. They become pies after a brief display time.

Enjoy and stay spooky!

AdobeMax is this week!

It’s that time again for the annual AdobeMAX Creative Conference. John and I have attended this conference for the last 3 years. While the in person conference was a great experience each time, last year’s virtual experience was great too. The bonus was that is was free last year and the same goes for this year.

If you are an Adobe product user, you should check it out. Often there are sneak peeks at product upgrades, creators who share tips and tricks and some famous people if you’re into that thing.

John and I use Illustrator, Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Adobe Fonts and Creative Cloud just to name a few. We always learn something new from the sessions at MAX.

Lastly, we will be one of the featured creator shops in the MAX Marketplace. Those who are “attending” MAX will get a discount code for our shop.

Friend to friend - I hope you take advantage to learn something new or just check it out while Adobe foots the bill for attending again this year. The in person conference is amazing and I look forward to them again, but it is an investment for yourself/company.

If you’re wondering what sessions I plan to attend, leave me a comment or shoot me a dm on IG, I’m happy to share.

Lasers & love - Thea

Vlog: Pumpkin Patch Trip & Small Business Setbacks

Hello!

Apologies for the lack of updates all around here and on IG. We have been busy with keeping our Roots plant stand in stock. We sold out of them briefly, but they are back in stock now! We are so thankful that the response to that design has been well received. (Thank YOU!)

A few have asked if any local retailers carry our Roots plant stand and in two weeks I will announce one that is in Renton! I am also updating our new stockist list today.

While we’ve been busy with keeping those in stock, I haven’t been able to release some new items that I had hoped to. I talk about it in the vlog video below.

With John working full time and I being the only half of our once full time maker team, we’ve had to streamline, adjust our methods and schedules. We’re doing well and can call in back up when needed from our daughters. It’s the design process that takes a bit more work for new items. I will have a small update of a couple of new items that we did very soon.

That’s all for now and thanks so much for your continued support!

Thea

No In Person Craft/Maker Shows For Us This Season

After some long discussions with other fellow makers, a few with small children who cannot be vaccinated yet. We’ve made the decision to not participate in in-person events.

Typically the type of events that we do hosts thousands in attendance and is over multiple days. For us, there are still too many unknown risks with new variants, even if our whole family is fully vaccinated.

We will host some online events and participate in Adobe Max again this year. More about that soon!

Thanks so much for the understanding,

John & thea

Oregon Coast and the new plant stand.

I apologize for being such a tease last week. I was actually posting heading down I5 with my laptop tethered to my phone. We’ve long had this Oregon Coast trip planned once we knew the vaccinations were rolling out a few months ago.

A couple of the offspring on the beach.

Our entire family went on this trip. My son in law, my younger son’s long time girlfriend and even our doggos went to meet up with extended family. It was so good to see faces and hug everyone after the craziness of 2020. I know the pandemic isn’t over but everyone who attended our vacation was fully vaccinated.

6 by 6 Arts | Roots Indoor Plant Stand

I was just so excited after a long process of trying to make ideas work for a new plant stand - that we finally sorted one out.

This one really seems like a no brainer - Roots for a plant stand. Visually it’s great. Of course we test everything out first before we release them into the wild. One thing we figured out right away with this design that it only works for one size of stand. The layout and all that rooty goodness looks best within the 6.5” x 4” size. The roots are very delicate. Shrinking them will make them extremely fragile. Enlarging them made them a bit chaotic and cartoony.

I was so happy to hear such wonderful feedback already about this design. I did take a little hounding about the lack of their availability over the weekend. But here we are and they are available in our shop.

We recommend these for indoor use only. Aesthetic outdoor photos are acceptable.

Please let me know if you have any questions about our plant stands in the comments below.

xo-Thea

New Things!

Coming next week - but here’s a sneak peek!

First up - a new indoor plant stand design: Roots

6 by 6 Arts - Roots Plant Stand

Next up: D20 Walnut Wood Stand Up Sign

I’ll give all the details after the 4th! But just had to share because I’m pretty darn excited about them.

We hope you have an excellent and safe 4th!

xo-Thea

Hi! Random Update!

The Golden Girls Lobster Cake Pan is hard to find. So, I had to come up with something to send my loved ones to let them know I was thinking of them. But if anyone is sitting on a pile of those cake pan molds, let me know! :) Bless the set designers of The Golden Girls.

I recreated an image of the famous lobster copper pan in alder wood form. I secretly sent off a handful to a handful of my friends and the feedback and photos of these bad boys hanging in their kitchens made it all me so happy.

As said in the video - all of my creations are experiments. This one was more on the random and a little off brand for us. But I can’t resist the potential for a good chuckle. If you are interested in sending one to a friend they are available in our shop.

I honestly meant to post this last week and I had to survive “The Heat Dome” this week. But we’ve been processing wholesale orders that are coming in with shops reopening. It’s been a challenge with John working outside of our company but I’m managing and I have more new designs coming NEXT WEEK. I’ll do a sneak peek post later today.

xo- Thea

Free Domestic Shipping! Giveaways and a Virtual Show!

I shared most of this information on my vlog yesterday: (In this video you can see a timelapse of our engraved Thanksgiving pie.)

Starting today on our Instagram, we are giving away a few items (US residents only) as a thank you for your support. So be sure to follow us there to get in on that action.

Tomorrow we will be participating in Urban Craft Uprising’s Virtual Winter Show.

I (Thea) will be live in the chat every day:

• Wednesday - Friday Noon to 2pm

• Saturday - Sunday Noon to 4pm

So be sure to pop in and say “Hi” to me!!! When you sign up for a free virtual ticket you are automatically entered to receive a door prize! We are contributing TWO of our super popular indoor plant stands to that event.

Lastly we are offering free shipping (US residents only) and ship daily to get you your goods before the holidays.

As always thank you so much for your support!

Thea

Before November ends, this was our fall display.

Do you remember a while back we did a custom kitchen corner nook thing?

We did do an update for fall!

Within the next week or so, we’ll have our winter display up and we’ll do another video for that too. We’ve managed to turn a weird dead space in our kitchen into a fun display nook.

Okay, back to a bunch of 2020 nope ornaments. (Thanks so much friends.)

2020 Shop Small Guide

*This post will be shared on Thea Starr’s blog and 6 by 6 Arts blog.

In our 2020 Holiday Ornaments video, John and I mentioned that each purchase that is made in our shops supports a small business. (It’s us, we’re the small business.) A mom and pop shop. I noticed in the first few purchased that were made for our new ornaments were made by fellow makers/small business owners. Not only did this warm my Grinch heart but it inspired me to share a list of fellow small businesses who would appreciate your orders more than Mr. Bezos would.

Please support small businesses this holiday season. Spend your dollars at places you want to see exist and share the crap out of this list too. This is list will be US shop based with sellers who ship.

GIFTS FOR THE PERSON WHO HAS EVERYTHING

We all have at least one. One dang person who has every thing or doesn’t know what they need. Here are a few of my usual suggestions.

• Ugly Baby Shower Art. Our friends Doug & Rosalie Gale are hella funny and Tik Tok famous. Shower Art is weird and wonderful and exactly what you think it is.

• Estrella Soap - A long time favorite of mine. So much so that my adult children even shop with them now. In the year of the pandemic cooties - soap is a solid choice.

• The Handmade Showroom - Marlo and her team have curated the best handmade goods in the PNW. While the store is open and operating at a reduced capacity, they do offer online shopping and gift cards. Gift cards = the perfect gift for that person you don’t know what to get.

• Seattle Candle Co. - Are you even giving gifts if you’re not gifting a candle? I love the long burn time on these candles. no. 1 is favorite in our house.

• Attic Journals - This mom and pop shop (one of the truly nicest couples I have ever met) save hundreds of discarded books and give them a new life as journals and more. You all know I love that personally, but it’s truly a great thoughtful gift to give. Everyone needs some where to doodle!

GIFTS THAT ARE CUTE

These are not necessarily kid oriented, but they sure are dang cute and in 2020 who doesn’t need that?

• Catshy Crafts - Handmade hoop art made by one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Her hoop art pieces are adorable. Perfect for someone who loves cute.

• Kitschy Delish - A little saucy, a little pun-y and a whole lot of kitty cute. Kelly’s work is gorgeous and makes me smile when I look at it. Food with faces on them?!?!? Yes please. I highly recommend her enamel pins. Her swimming in the noods is * chef’s kiss *.

• migration goods - Ugh. Everything Eling makes is so cute it hurts. She even has an “Ugh” Bunny illustration. Her paper and stationary goods are the good good. Perfect stocking stuffers of moody cuteness.

• Devout Dolls - This shop makes all of my lists all of the time. The unusual cuteness makes me smile! Handmade two headed deer plushes, bat scarves and Blythe dolls clothes.

• World of Whimm - Kayce is amazingly talented and creates the most whimsical pieces. While her Etsy shop is currently closed. There is a small offering of her work at Monster Gift Shop.

GIFTS FOR THE CLOTHES, HATS AND BAG LOVERS

• Slow Loris Studio - Hailing from Guemes Island. Team Slow is one of my all time favorite t-shirt slingers. I treasure Jessica’s designs like collectible art. Intricate music themed designs along side nautical and alpine PNW themed designs. So good. Our whole family are fans of their work and the quality of their t-shirts and hoodies.

• Crystalyn Kae - I own two of her bags and I love them so much. Mine were constructed from reclaimed fabric. She has a few styles and accessories to choose from.

• Flipside Hats - Hats and more made from abandoned fabrics from production and dye houses.

• Period Corsets - This pic is highly influenced by recent obsession of historical clothing. I have about 15 YouTube channels I can recommend on the topic. While this might seem like an impractical and expensive gift, the way I see it is we’re locked up in our houses and we should be wearing whatever makes us happy. For me it’s all of my wild wardrobe pieces I’ve collected in my life and for some a corset is needed. Perhaps you have a very extra dresser in your life too? This is a small business that does a lot of work for theaters (which are closed of course) so they’ve been making masks along side their beautiful corsets.

• Poshmark - I know this one is not handmade. However, I know we’re not living in the idyllic everyone wants handmade clothing. This is an affordable way to do that. Think online thrift store but sorted and clean. Whether it be a preloved item or a new item with tags that someone got and decided it wasn’t for them. Every seller on Poshmark is a small business too.

GIFTS FOR THE PET LOVER

If I didn’t have human children, I would be that person who talks non-stop about their dogs. It’s such a joy to spend time with these sweet little beings. They need gifts too!

• handmade la Conner (Henrietta’s) - For the gift guide’s sake instead of raving about Robyn’s amazing lotions and soaps, (please check those out too). I am going to direct your attention to Henrietta’s line. I’m a repeat buyer of the calming spray and dog wash for my girls.

• The Cat Ball (cat bed) - If I had a cat, my cat would have at least three of these suckers. I recommend

GIFTS FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO PUT THINGS TOGETHER

Assembling, sewing and more. Perfect for lockdown activities.

• JCR - When a fellow laser artist recommends another laser artist, I feel that says something. Julio is insanely talented. He creates kits to assemble in shapes of animals and insects. They are mind-blowingly beautiful.

• Delish Beads - Jenny offers affordable kawaii brightly colored beads and cabochons for your DIY crafting.

• Wren Birds Arts - Another idea I love. Mend what you have but make it pretty. Grab a mending/embroidery kit to extend the life of a damaged garment you love.

• Marshmueller - Buy your DIY dumpster fire pillow right here!

• Smile Mercantile - I love all of the little crafting supplies available in this shop! German glass glitter, trims, bottle brush trees and more!

GIFTS FOR YOUR FRIEND WHO WOULD’VE BEEN BURNED AT THE STAKE 400 YEARS AGO

My people. Don’t @ me with any negativity or the “reason for the season”. My birthday is on December 25, believe I KNOW.

• Unusual Cards - * chef’s kiss * Some might get their panties in a bunch over the content featured in Francesca’s fine work. And that’s why we LOVE IT. Jesus riding dinosaurs. Need I say more?

• Candy Relics - With the growth in acceptance of the benefits of cannabis finally happening here in the US, I smile every time I see something of Candy Relics shared online. David is genius with his designs. This is the home of the original ceramic can pipe.

• Ravnvolk - Pagan and occult craftwork. This was a serendipitous find among shops I follow on Etsy. This is a former craft store co-worker of mine from years ago. I’m glad to see him doing creative work that I know a few of my pagan friends will like.

• Vinyl Devotion - Excellent vinyl pics with categories of Doom, Stoner and Sludge or Death Metal, Gridcore and Metalcore alongside indie and pop categories too. This husband and wife duo are serious vinyl pickers (we’ve had the pleasure of seeing their picking skills in action).

GIFTS FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO BE ADORNED

In the maker space, there are many jewelers. Here a a few that I love to recommend.

• Foamy Wader - Hailing from South Whidbey (my island!), Alexa creates minimalist nautical jewelry. Her pieces are my favorite for their dainty nature. Which is in high contrast to my actual maximalist ridiculous self. I receive many compliments on earrings I’ve purchased from her. My favorite piece from her is my wedding ring that she custom made for us. (I also believe I owe her a shop sign and everyone should publicly shame me for this and make purchases from her to help me make up for it.) I cannot recommend her work enough and I’m eyeballing a few things for myself.

• OTTI Goods - (Formerly Salty & Sweet Designs) Again when a fellow laser artist recommends another it says something. Her laser cut feather weight earrings are beautiful architectural inspired statement pieces. She also does awesome modern hanging mobiles.

• Christine Stoll Studio - She makes mask chains you guys! She’s known for her beautiful reclaimed watch piece jewelry and her collage work. And for also being one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

• Magpie Mouse Studios - Enamel jewelry inspired by the PNW. Vibrant colors on wearable pieces. With a couple tarot card pieces tossed in there too.

• Fern Works - Nature’s specimens captured in resin, as well as hand painted jewelry pieces. So beautiful and incredibly unique.

GIFTS FOR THE TABLE TOP GAMER

• Game After Game - Yes, I am tooting our own horn. This is the link to our Etsy shop that focusses on DnD and retro gaming themed goods. Ornaments, coasters with the DnD dice and our Critical Hit signs.

• Doize Demos - DnD themed enamel pins, patches and more.

• Mox Boarding House - (Order online and pick up at the stores.) Seattle & Bellevue, WA and also in Portland, OR.

Honestly, this a bit harder than I thought it would be. Many shops have closed or have temporarily closed.

Here’s a direct link to our stockists.

As well as links to our own shops:

• Thea Starr - Fabric Flower accessories made from vintage kimono fabric.

• My etsy shop has vintage clothing and vintage fabric available too.

• 6 by 6 Arts - Wood home decor goods + some sass with a nature vibe. Coasters, ornaments, indoor plant stands, magnets, signs- you know the schpeel.

Please try your best to shop local too. The small businesses in your town adds to the uniqueness of your spot many have online or curbside pick up shopping options. The small family owned restaurants too. The national restaurants will be okay. If you have any added suggestions to this list, please add a link below!

Again to all of our friends who shared our video and have placed an order this week we are filled with gratitude for your support. We’re damn lucky in the friend department.

Thank you so much - Thea & John.

2020 Ornaments!

We have long created “basic bitch”- esque scroll text signs with funny words and phrases. Something familiar looking but with a bit of a surprise bite to it. Keeping along those lines, we present to you our 2020 ornaments.

2020 Hated It / 2020 Nope / 2020 Meh Wood Ornaments

John and I wanted to create funny sentiments to engrave on our ornaments this year. While we both think the image of a dumpster fire and a roll of TP are funny things, we wanted to do something a little different.

We love vintage and retro looking things. That gave us the inspiration for each one of our new pieces.

Baby’s First Pandemic Ornament

We even made a customizable ornament!

Our First Pandemic Personalized Ornament

Each one is lightweight, made from US sourced wood and designed and created by John and I in our home studio. We even created a YouTube video to show them off.

In the video we mention that each purchase supports a small business. (We’re the small business.) After seeing where some of our first purchases came from, they are fellow makers/small business owners too. Not only did that fill my heart with gratitude and thankfulness to have such supportive people in our life, it has inspired me to share the crap out of our friends’ works for the holiday season. I’m working on a shareable list of small businesses you can support now and through the holiday season. Bezos and the Walton family have enough money. Spend your dollars at places you want to see around. So keep your peepers peeled for that upcoming post and thanks for your continued support.

Lasers and love - Thea and John

Our Annual Engraved Spooky Pumpkin

Although we’ve been in spooky mode since mid August. Time is weird anyways this year so who cares. But pumpkins unfortunately tend to mold here the PNW after they are cut. So we waited a bit longer to do our annual engraved pumpkin.

We made a little video with a little insight on our process of what we do to engrave a pumpkin.

I hope you’ll check it out.

Lasers and love, Thea

Adobe Max Marketplace

During the pandemic, we’ve kept a little very 1990’s home video style vlog on my YouTube channel for friends and family to keep up with us. Phone tag, different time zones and political talk can be rough. So this has been our most consistent way to communicate with our loved ones.

Yesterday, we shared very briefly a little tidbit about what we know about our participation in Adobe Max Marketplace this year. You can check that video right here:

That vlog was a bit rushed since we were short on time yesterday. But we will definitely be sharing more as the conference draws near. Definitely sign up for it too, because who doesn’t love free? John and I both have packed schedules filled with sessions. We’ve attended the conference for the past two years and both times we learned was inspired by so much. I know that sounds like sales pitch, but we truly love their applications and makes our creative endeavors grow.

More information about all of that soon. We hope everyone is doing the best that they can be right now.

Lasers and love - Thea

September 30 = Spooky Season Eve!

Honestly, we’ve been in spooky season mode since mid August. Being stuck in our pandemic lairs with the itch to decorate for some sort of reason has been STRONG.

We did our Kitchen Nook thing and then we just went full on Halloween mode here. We brought down decorations from the attic and tossed all of that up. But there were little touches I wanted to add to that. An obvious choice for a house full of people that like to leave their drinks on every flat surface of that house and forget about it for hours, are coasters.

Simple spooky spiderweb coasters that is. I know a lot of people freak out about actual spiders. My daughter Nieves and sense a spider’s presense the moment she enters a room. It’s a gift. We do have “spider season” in our parts and I have been known to go running from the bathroom yelling for John to save my life from a giant house spider in the tub a few times. However, I truly love the garden orb spiders and their intricate webs. They post up in our garden area and create the most beautiful big webs. They are the inspiration for our spiderweb designs. Bonus that spiderwebs are a spooky vibe visual too.

So if you’re looking for an added spooky touch this season, we got you covered.

Lasers and love - Thea

Custom Kitchen Nook Decor

Well hello! I apparently forgot to queue up scheduled posts for the past few months. We’re all living in some weird time vortex right now with the pandemic going on, so I’ll forgive myself for that.

We have been creating and selling many plant stands. Shout out to all of you who wanted to spruce up your pandemic lairs with said plant stands. Thank you!

We decided to spruce up our digs too with custom things. I’ve been keeping a vlog on YouTube for friends and family to keep in touch during the pandemic. So we did a little video about the customization work we did for ourselves to share with them. You’re welcome to check it out too!

I didn’t intend to make these into a product for sale but after feedback, we are working on making them available.

We were and still are quite excited about the little customization in our kitchen and will be working on more projects like this.

We’d love to know if this would be something you’re interested in for your own home.

With spooky season upon us, keep your eyes peeled for season appropriate themed goods coming your way this week!

We hope you’re all well and safe during this weird time.

Lasers and love - Thea

Meet Your Maker - johnbron

With incoming custom orders (old and new), I thought it would be appropriate to freshen up some intros. Most of you who follow along, do so because you know me and my other artistic endeavors. But I’m not sure if I ever formally introduced John aka (johnbron). Not only is he my husband, love of my life and business partner. He is an extremely talented, constantly thinking outside of the box designer.

When John and I met he was living in Oregon working for his family’s memorial business, Oregon Memorials. He was a graphic designer in the art department and then later ran big scale lasers that engraved headstones. When we were getting to know each other he’d send me personalized headstone art. As one does when working in a memorials business.

The flirting game was strong.

His family has been in the memorial/funeral industry for a couple of generations. His father was a funeral home owner, funeral director and embalmer when John and his siblings were young. (John is the eldest of 6. Part of the reason for our business name.) John had been around that business the majority of his life. As with every business, it is fascinating to know the process of how things get done. John and other artists would have to design art that memorialized someone. It can be a very detailed process, not just with computer work, but with the actual granite, glass or other materials being engraved or carved.

John at OM - 2013

In 2014, John and I decided that we were going to buy our own laser after a discussion about long term work goals. I had mentioned that I needed a few components for my business and John said, too bad we didn’t have a “small” laser and he could make them for me. That got our wheels spinning. John had an extensive graphic design background as well as a lot of experience operating the large scale lasers. I had years of experience with the maker scene. Combined we decided to take the big plunge and big investment and bought our own Epilog laser.

John is the lead graphic designer for our company. We are Adobe subscribers and do all of our designs with the Adobe programs. 100% of my original physical drawings of new products and art I pass on to John to clean up and convert to digital art because of his efficiency. So when we do get custom work with raw art, John is the one who works with you through the process.

Lastly, this should definitely be noted when mentioning John, he is a long time Nine Inch Nails fan. Why is this relevant? All tester materials for lasering receive the NIN logo as the trial test. Evidence of that pops up now and then on our feeds. :)

Lasers & love - Thea

Swordfern Plant Stands

This morning we flew out of the PNW with a light snow dusting on the ground and landed in sunny Los Angeles. We’re just here for a few days for a friend’s wedding and to do some work. I admittedly am a little worried if we’ll return home to a snowpocalypse. But we’re here enjoying time with friends.

While I love our PNW forests, flora and fauna, it is awesome to see California’s plants and trees. Which prompted me to finally upload new photos of our swordfern plant stands.

PNW stay safe and warm if the snow actually falls this weekend.

xo-Thea