Thank you 2015!

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We've been taking a few days for family time. Out of town visits and moving our eldest boy out as he begins his college adventure. Hopefully you all have been able to squeeze some good times out of the last few weeks of the year.

2015 has been an incredible first full year in business! (We've only been in business for 16 months!) We've learned a lot over the past 12 months. Discovered what products of ours are loved and which ones need some work. We have three big craft shows and one trade show under our belts. We're hoping that there will be many more in 2016. Lastly, we've discovered endless possibilities with our custom manufacturing services. An aspect of our business that wasn't much of a consideration in our original business plan. It has turned out to be our favorite thing to do! Constant fresh ideas coming from an array of companies and individuals.

John, our kids and I, all want to say a big thank you to everyone who generally supported us this past year. We truly win in the friends, family and business friends/customers department. Thank you so much! 

We already have many exciting things up our sleeves for 2016! It's definitely going to be a great and big year for us. I hope you'll keep following us along with our adventure.

Lasers, love and gratitude - John & Thea 

Last chance for Priority Mail TODAY and a sale on discontinued stuff!

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We’ve been busy cleaning up post craft show season. We’re also already looking ahead at what’s next for us. We’ll be at the Seattle Gift Show next month along with new and redesigned items.

So we do have a small handful of items that will be discontinued. I’ve posted a few at discounted prices over in our Etsy shop: www.6by6arts.etsy.com

I’ve also included a few display signs that were used at events and shows. Get them while they are hot!

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To my fellow procrastinators, today is the LAST DAY for USPS Priority Mail shipping. We are headed out with our last orders around 3pm today. If you miss out and still want something sent, it will cost ya, but we can arrange it- just shoot us a note.

On a personal note, college kid #1 is coming home today; volleyball kid had a practice at o’dark thirty this morning what a way to start my birthday week (my birthday is Friday –yep THAT day). This week will be ending with the college kid #2 moving out. He waited to start his adventure until winter quarter. The party never ends over here.

I hope you all have short workweeks this week!

Lasers and love -Thea

Love and humor never go out of style

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We had an amazing weekend in Portland at Crafty Wonderland! Our fellow makers will attest, that doing shows like these are quite the work out. Set up, the show itself tear down and unloading. Not to mention the actual work of producing your products. I've burned all the calories I consumed at Red Robin, in just a few hours. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

We doled out a lot of "hater bonding" signs over the weekend. 

Its really quite fun! We love answering questions about our work in person and getting to actually meet them too! The organizers behind Crafty Wonderland run a tight and awesome ship! 20,000!!! Shoppers came out over the weekend to support handmade. It was truly amazing. Thank you to each and everyone of you who came to the show and especially those who stopped and shopped at our booth.

This was our third craft show. What a way to end the first full year of business for us! We had a great time hearing feedback about our work. The geek appreciation for our D20s and other D&D themed items. Our PNW lifer wares are a big hit, us PNW folks love our area! Ans our sentiment signs we're the most discussed as you can guess. I don't think it will ever get old seeing someone stop dead in their tracks after reading "We Hate Everything Together" and bursting out in laughter. There was an older woman who stopped by and purchased one and looked me right in the eye and said "That is love."

*melts*

As you can see, we have another "sweet sentiment" sign. "I Like Most Things About You" - I'll try to get it listed ASAP. It was quite a conversation starter at our booth. As if "We Hate Everything Together" and "BoozeMe" wasn't enough. 

It's heartwarming to know that love and humor is a constant with everyone. 

Yes, that is our 13 year old faking a nap in the middle of the show next to our Spend Your Fucks Wisely sign. Don't worry, we teach her lots of other words. Although I feel strongly about about the words of wisdom on that sign. 

Thanks again so much Portland! You have been nothing but absolutely awesome to us. 

Lasers and love -Thea

A little late night rambling.

in

Over the weekend I, (Thea) vending at Seattle's premier craft show - Urban Craft Uprising. It's one of my favorite weekends in the year. Lots and lots of work, but equally as much fun. John tagged along to help me out all weekend. We also celebrated our eldest son Calvin, 19th birthday. He'll be flying the coop soon heading out to college. I made the "traditional" worms in dirt birthday pie.

We've shifted gears as we both plan to take 6 by 6 down to Portland for Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Holiday Sale!

We're super excited! We'll be there for the First Pick Pre Show too! We're coming stocked with all of our Lifer goods, chalkboards, Pop-Up Villages and signs! We'll have boatloads of the small "We Hate Everything Together" signs since Crafty Wonderland included a photo of it in their newsletter recently. We've been getting so much love from that. (Thank you!)

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I'll hopefully squeeze in one more post before we head down Friday. We do have a couple new products that we've been waiting to introduce! Things have been so wonderfully busy that I'm a bit behind on the posting. We hope everyone is making it through this holiday season as best as you can possible. 

Lasers and love - Thea

Holiday Shipping Schedule 2015

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A little late in the day here for a blog post. But I wanted to make sure that I posted this very important information before this weekend!

Holiday shipping schedule for 2015!

This Thursday (November 26, 2015) is the U.S. Thanksgiving Day - No post. We'll resuming shipping on Friday November 27, 2015.

We'll ship daily through out the holiday season and I will be updating some of our items turnaround times to shorter ones. We are limiting color selections and customizing options to able to ship out quickly.

We will be in Portland, Oregon at the Super Colossal Crafty Wonderland Winter Show December 11-13. We will be unable to ship those days but will resuming shipping on Monday December 14, 2015. 

To receive your items by Christmas. Orders must be received December 19, 2015 (First Class & Priority US Mail)  for Christmas arrivals. We are willing ship until December 24, 2015 via FedEx & USPS Priority and Overnight mail services at an extra cost, but no guaranteed Christmas arrival. 

Whew! I wanted to post all of that information before this Thursday. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday! We hope you have a good one or at least survive it the best you can. 

Lasers and love - Thea

 

Working through the weekend!

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Happy weekend friends! We ended up without power Tuesday through early morning Thursday. We live in a some what rural area with lots of trees that can topple over. There was a big one that came down on our main road and knocked out a few lines. We're used to that sort of thing  here and anticipate it. We have an amazing wood burning stove that kicks out so much heat that we were walking around in t-shirts. 

Baberham & Toki = fireplace fans. 

Here are two of our brood napping in front of the fire. They came home peeled off some wet socks (left the towels and wet socks on the floor as you can see) and passed out. 

Here are two of our brood napping in front of the fire. They came home peeled off some wet socks (left the towels and wet socks on the floor as you can see) and passed out. 

We've been playing catch up since. We only had one delayed order to a fellow local maker (Hapertas & Co.) who was also sitting in her home without power. 

I created this design a while back without a project in mind. Hapertas & Co. contacted me wanting a fresh option for stylish lapel pins for her line. A perfect marriage happened! We altered my original design to suit her product's needs. American sourced maple and walnut woods that she pairs with the most wonderful fabrics. Please check out HapertasCo.com for more information.

I know this is an unusual day for me to post. I try to keep our posts to Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. But you know how the rollercoaster of life goes. You just jump on where you can. I hope everyone stays warm out there! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Pop-up Villages!

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Being laser art designers there's a lot of pressure to either create kits or intricate boxes. It's the basic thing for a laser cutter to do.  I'm personally not a fan of doing what everyone else is doing and we're more than just laser cutters. Being in 100% control of our laser time and designs I wanted to create something fun and functional. 

We are proud offer our Pop-up Village Houses "kit". Simple, unique, lightweight, Made in the USA by us (duh) and something that you can customize! I LOVE the coloring for all movement. So many of my friends post pictures daily of their work and current books that they are working on. I'm personally a paints girl. I love doodling with paint. I wanted to offer something that someone could have as is or indulge in customizing it with paint or markers.

Customizing a village of pop-up houses.

John had to reign me in with this project. I drew up at least a dozen classic traditional styled homes. I had dozens of accessories I HAD TO HAVE! I also wanted to design the house to look like the houses or houses that were in the neighborhoods that I've lived in. That will be in the next round - or we can talk about customizing a design similar to a house you might have in mind. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!

One of the many design phases for the Pop-up Houses. I also can't draw a straight line to save my ass. 

One of the many design phases for the Pop-up Houses. I also can't draw a straight line to save my ass. 

We settled on a core group of accessories, planters, grass, hedges and a stylish potted plant. But a mailbox, Christmas tree, forest trees and fencing are coming soon too.

The complete village set including standard accessories. 

We designed these with a simple set up in mind. You simply slide the houses and accessories onto the footers. That's it. They are nice and lightweight and fairly small in size. They can be displayed anywhere. I have to put out the warning that since there are smaller pieces that can be swallowed, we recommend this for pre-teens and up. 

A little display in our living room. 

Our pop-up houses are available as a set or individually. I can't wait to see some customized by you!

Lasers and love -Thea

Where in the world is Whidbey Island?

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When I tell people I'm from an island in the Puget Sound, they instantly assume I'm from Vashon, Bainbridge or one of the San Juans. That always seemed odd to me, because everyone seems to overlook the largest island in the state of Washington - Whidbey Island. It's the fourth largest and longest island in the contiguous United States. 

I'll openly admit that I've had a long love/hate relationship with the island. My fellow Islanders understand that statement. There are two ways on and off that big rock. (Unless you are lucky enough to own your own boat.) The big tourist attraction that is the Deception Pass Bridge, was my main way off since I grew up 3 miles away from it. There's no place like it. Mother nature is commanding with the deadly currents below the industrial bridge's impressive span where you can view Mount Baker to the east and the Straight of Juan De Fuca to the west. To northenders, the south end was largely for secret fishing spots, the county fair, art galleries, loganberries at the Greenbank Farm and a ferry ride to the mainland. 

John's first trip to Whidbey Island 2013 - The north side of the Deception Pass Bridge on Fidalgo Island.

A desktop cellphone shelf we designed a while back, based on the architecture of the Deception Pass Bridge. 

I was born in the late 1970's when there were still forests in "downtown" Oak Harbor. Which in later years when I was in high school the parking lots that were once forests became a meeting/hangout spot. A grocery store parking lot. Yes, friends that is an insight to part of the hate relationship I have with the island. There wasn't a whole lot going on. I grew up in a very rural area about 7 miles north of "town".  I spent a lot of my time on my bike prior to getting my license. Well, if you knew me then, I did drive a little bit before I had my license. :D In retrospect now, I feel lucky for growing up that way even though I longed for mainlander city life. I know a lot about plants, trees and animals that are native to the island. I was forced to be creative not only for entertainment but also during times the power was out due to 60+ mile hour winds. There are many things like that I share a bond with my childhood friends that no one understands or can relate to. It's kind of special and many of us joke about writing a book to recount our islander childhood. We all seems to share a love and appreciation for that rock now. 

Since the inception of our business I've been asked and have created many Whidbey themed items. We all seem to want to have a piece of "home" with us in our lives.  While I have a huge list of half-done projects, I've decided to share one item that we made that I love. A Whidbey Island mini chalkboard for my fellow island people. 

Admittedly, this post took me sometime to write up. "Home" especially with such character is hard to condense down into a few paragraphs. 

Lasers and love - "Dorothya from The Rock"

Heavy Metal - Retro Mechanical Labs

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Retro Mechanical Labs (RML) from Portland, Oregon, is a long time client of John's. John has been laser engraving RML's distortion boxes for years now. They met through a series of events that are rooted with both being fans of Nine Inch Nails. RML was 6 by 6's first official client and is definitely one of our favorites. We've mentioned them before here on the blog and a few of their distortion box photos live in our gallery. 

Photo by Retro Mechanical Labs 

We laser engrave blank powder coated distortion boxes and panels in various depths and widths. We remove any residue from the engraving process by hand. It can be a bit tedious but completely worth the delicate effort to show off the amazing retro industrial artwork of RML's designs. Powder coating has a distinctive look that I personally developed a love for growing up with a working auto body garage in my backyard. 

An overhead view of freshly engraved distortion boxes and panels for RML.

Each distortion box is built by hand. They share a lot of their process on Instagram. Building boxes to drilling holes manually. We wish we could do some custom metal cutting for them. That requires a plasma cutter, which is on our company wish list. 

We've visited the RML shop in Portland, Oregon a few times. They're always busy and have the most interesting vintage gages that find new lives in custom pieces that they create. An amazing process for amazing products.

You can see the final products and demo clips on their site. 

Laser and love - Thea

Demo Sign - The Lettermate

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A few months ago Kimberly from The Lettermate contacted us hoping we'd do a small project for her company. Some simple trade show signage. It was a simple job and the end result looked great!

We actually had the opportunity to meet Kimberly in San Francisco at the Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason. She was so super nice and her show display looked awesome. (I unfortunately do not have those photos handy at the moment.)

We were totally thrilled that she hit us up again for a large scale version (15" x 12") of her product for teaching purposes in her instructional classes! Oh, in case you're wondering what exactly The Lettermate is, its an awesome hand lettering tool for addressing snail mail envelopes. We will be picking up a couple for our own wedding next year. A few of you fellow Pinterest junkies might have seen The Grommet sharing info about The Lettermate.

Like our work - The Lettermate is made in the USA!

We love projects like this! It doesn't hurt that the lady behind The Lettermate is pretty stellar too! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

New stockist - Throwing Mud Gallery

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Part of the fun of opening up your business to wholesale accounts is discovering local places that are unknown to you. Our newest stockist is Throwing Mud Gallery in Tacoma, Washington.

Located at:

2212 North 30th Street
Tacoma, WA 98403
253-254-7961

Throwing Mud Gallery is a place to learn, shop and make! Owned by Mark and Eileen, who are long time Tacoma residents. They support fellow artists in the Pacific Northwest area by featuring regional makers in their gallery. We are honored to be a part of that group! Throwing Mud gallery now carries a selection of our keychains, magnets and wall art. If you're in the Tacoma area be sure to stop by!

Lasers and love - Thea

 

New Stockist - The Space Needle

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I'm not even sure how to begin this one because I have so many feels about it!

I'm a native Washingtonian that grew up on Whidbey Island during a time where there really wasn't much but trees and the Navy. My mom is Asian and we'd often make trips into the city for "Asian" food supplies long before there was any ethnic markets close by. I distinctly remember my dad driving, my mom singing off key to the current tunes of the early 80's and me peering out of my backseat window and seeing the Space Needle rise up on the horizon as we got closer to the International District. 

Every time I saw the Space Needle I'd imagine one of two things - that Seattle was the land of The Jetson's or that Wheedle was sitting atop the Needle. Seattle was a magical land to this small town island girl and the Space Needle was and still is THE landmark of the city.

A page from a vintage coloring book I've had for years. I referred to this for inspiration during the design process. 

When you think of city landmarks, you think tourists. When you think of tourists, you think of souvenirs. A lot of times they are cheap little magnets with a glossy photo enclosed in plastic, or something along those lines. When we were approached by the Space Needle people; A.) I don't think I've ever tried to act so cool and collected in my life. B.) They told me that they were interested in adding some new but different products for their gift shop. I think I actually looked around to see if I was the person who that question was being directed at. And C.) When they told me to "just see what I can come up with" and gave us permission to use their image and brand name, I went into full on panic. 

Why would the great and awesome Space Needle people ask me and my extremely tiny company to do anything for them? They could ask anyone to do this sort of thing for them, but they asked us. A local mom and pop shop. Whoa.

While we can get down with some elaborate design work, I really felt that we should keep the products we pitched at them simple and functional. 

Pages from my sketchbook: Although, the artwork is crude, we first spend a lot of time flushing out the concept before we laser cut the prototype. We decide if the layout works or in this case how usable would the writing area be. I often leave question marks on the pages about various things. 

I drew out a simple layout of a small chalkboard with the silhouette of the Space Needle cut out. Lots of usable space for love notes or reminders. I envisioned someone picking one up on New Year's Eve and someone writing a proposal on it. (Hey, I said I had the feels with this one!)

The second thing we pitched was a souvenir magnet. We really wanted it to be unique amongst the others. This was my opportunity to incorporate a small bit of my childhood imagination. The Jetson's shapes and sounds always made me think of the Space Needle. So I sketched out a mid century modern shape and John found an image of the Space Needle that included the architectural underground footings in their image archives that he liked. We selected a font similar to one on their website. Their website by the way, is AWESOME. 

Pages from my sketchbook: I drew out many versions of the wood magnet. I had a mid century modern "Jetson's like shape in mind. Like always with my raw drawings John took an actual picture of my drawing and used it as a guide in Corel to fine tune it. 

We did this as we do all of our original work, we both do crucial parts of the development. I depended on John to help me finalize the shapes I was hoping for. Sometimes I just can't draw the exact thing I had in mind. Also, I am far better at drawing freehand rather than in outlines. I initially spent a lot of time actually drawing the Space Needle in great detail. PAGES of drawings. The our final prototypes were approved on the first submission. 

We rounded the edges from my original drawing. 

Close up of the laser cut out Space Needle. We have a bunch of these cut outs now in the studio. 

We were able to engrave the product details and pricing on the back. Which is so awesome in a retail environment.

The final shape was the shape I had envisioned. I want to publicly compliment John for being so great at figuring out what I was trying to get out. The architectural design with the footings looks so great! It's hard to tell here because this is a picture from my phone, but I was so excited to share this news I took a quick photo to share.

It's an honor to have been asked to do this for the Space Needle. We're continuing to develop more too! Next time you're at the Space Needle look for our work. 

Lasers and love -Thea

Trying To Stay Tidy In A Sea Of Work

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Earlier today I shared on Instagram that we actually don't have anything interesting to share at the moment. Unless you find sanding/staining/painting/assembling interesting. 

Lots of saw dust and sandpapers and paint brushes everywhere. It's the not the pretties sight. Of course this is the prime time for companies to request some "behind the scenes" pictures or videos. My knee jerk reaction is to say, "Uh no you don't want to see our studio." But I personally do like seeing where my favorite makers work. They usually have beautiful studios separate from their homes but a few are like us and work out of our garage and spare bedroom. So I am working on keeping things tidy to provide that insight on us. I can't promise it won't be kid or dog free. There are far more of them than there are of us. Lots of living happens here.

Pictured above is a thrift store $5.00 score. It's a rusty vintage metal toolbox. I LOVE toolboxes. (Side note) John and I love metal furnishings it's a nice thing to have in common as it's not for everyone. My dad owned an auto body shop (that we ran out of our garage) when I was growing up. When I was little, it was my responsibility to keep the tools organized and sorted in large toolboxes. I fell in love and appreciated them when I was old enough to work on the cars myself. This one will house all of my "fancy" pens and drawing tools. Not to just keep organized in the wave of work but also to send a signal to the kids "These are expensive pens and tools, mom might be really angry if I use these." I can hope for that right? 

Well, I'm going to get back at it. We have our last early (5 am) morning tomorrow for our volleyball daughter so I only have a few precious work hours left today. Stop back by Friday for  a special post!

Laser and love - Thea

New stockist - Powell's Books

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One of THE places to go in Portland, Oregon is Powell's Books. Their stores are a book lovers dream come true. I've always found treasures and had excellent customer service every time. Also, they host great events too! We are beyond excited to announce that Powell's is our newest stockist!

Look for our Oregon and Washington chalkboard magnets at Powell's.

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We were asked to include a little sign so folks who walk by know who made them. We're so excited to take up even just a tiny spot in such an awesome store.

Happiest Friday to all!

Lasers and love -Thea