Big Umbrella Studios! Bazaar Bizarre!

Yay! Lots of Monkey + Seal action coming up this week! We're going to be vending at two different shows this week (!) and we'd love to see you there! Both are free to attend, so we'd love you to stop by and say hi!

The first is going to be at Big Umbrella Studios at 906 1/2 Divisadero St (x McAllister) this Thursday (the 9th!). Not only will we unveil our new workshop program for 2010, but there will be some live painting, and Monkey + Seal will not only have set up shop, but there should be some other great stuff for sale by the other artists!

Additionally, we'll be doing live screen printing for a new shirt design! Fancy! Hint: If you want to bring your own shirt (as opposed to buying one from us), we'll knock $8 off the regular shirt price! We would probably recommend a red shirt. Especially if you like angry pandas...

The Big Umbrella Show goes from 5-10 and we'd love to see you there!

And for everyone who wants to shop handmade + local this holiday season, we'll be vending at Bazaar Bizarre this weekend! It'll be at Fort Mason in the Herbst Pavillion on Saturday the 11th from 12-5, and Sunday the 12th from 12-6. The show is free and there will be over 150 vendors to choose from - holy moly! We, of course, would love to see you at the Monkey + Seal booth, but you should definitely check out some of the other awesome vendors.

There is also a pretty awesome Cocktails and Crafts party Saturday from 7-10pm at the same location where there will be hands-on workshops, and tons of sweeeeet goodies! Tickets for this special event are $10 and you can buy them here.

Just to avoid confusion: During the day, it's free, during the night, you gotta sign-up and pay. Yay! Oh, that rhymes...

Anyway, we'd love to see you at the show so please drop by and say hi!

Production mode

So sorry for neglecting our little bloggy for a while, but Monkey + Seal have been hard at work prepping for the Zine Fest this weekend.

Monkey is putting out a new zine called (aptly titled) "The Monkey Zine" which will have a fold-out coloring poster, never-before-seen short stories, some poems from his poetry slam days, an article on medical ethnobotany, and more!

Seal will be doing an all-day painting demo both days, and will be selling some of her newest work (as well as some prints!).

We'll have 1" pinback buttons, the Bad Date Zine (issues 1 &2), The Story of Seal, the True Ghost Story zine, and hopefully more (depending on how crazy we get). We are also hoping to sell some cool-ass bookmarks and greeting cards that some of our friends make. We've also upped the ante on our table display, so hopefully it'll be easier to shop!

Anyhoo, off to bed so we can get up early tomorrow and get crafting! We hope to see you soon!

Free workshops and fee workshops

So Monkey + Seal both enjoy teaching arts and crafts to people. So much, in fact, that we are both teaching some workshops in the near future..for free!

The Freebies:
Seal's Gouache Demo - August 22 + 23
As I'm sure you saw, Seal is planning to have a big-ol' long gouache painting demonstration at the SF Zine Fest (Aug 22+23, SF Country Fair Building). She will be sitting at our table with in-process works, so you can see the various stages of her work, as well as finished pieces and you can watch her paint! Lots of insight on how to paint with gouache (unlike how they teach you at Academy of Art) and trick and tips with working with the medium.

Monkey's Bookbinding Workshop - August 22 + 23
Monkey is co-instructing the Book Binding Basics and Beyond Workshop at the SF Zine Fest. He's not 100% sure what day or time it'll be, but we'll let you know ASAP! He is teaching alongside the amazing printer/writer/book artist Aaron Cohick of New Lights Press and they'll be doing some single-sheet books, some pamphlet stiches, and stab binding.


Anyhoo, Monkey and Seal also will teach small workshops for you and your friends at the venue of your choice. Please check out the workshops page here!