SF Etsy Sampler

Hi everyone! Happy Memorial Day, and we just wanted to announce our selection into the SF Etsy Sampler! This event is a trunk show (with free refreshments) that was curated by the owner of the gallery. From their website:

Special Event: SF Etsy Sampler (Trunk Show)

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010
Time: 1:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Artist-Xchange
Street: 3169 16th St

http://sfetsy.blogspot.com/

We are excited to announce that the Artist Xchange will host the SF Etsy Sampler, the first-ever SF Etsy Team Trunk Show!

Nibble on free refreshments while sampling the superb work of 20 talented Etsy artists from the San Francisco Bay Area. At the SF Etsy Sampler, you'll find an assortment of awesome art and irresistible handcrafts -- delectable jewelry, terrific textiles, fun accessories, beautiful home decor, fabulous fashions, and yummy bath and body treats.

There's something for every flavor in the SF Etsy Sampler: sweet, spicy, a little bit nutty, rich, dark, or thoroughly decadent.

Artist Xchange Gallery 3169 16th St. San Francisco
June 12th from 1-6 p.m

Anyhoo, we hope to see you out there as we love meeting people face-to-face! We are definitely excited as we'll have some new stuff that's not yet up in our Etsy shop. Wooo!

The Handmade Ho Down!

So Monkey has been hard at work as part of the organizing committee for the newest craft fair in town (at least, if you live in San Francisco): The Handmade Ho Down!

We're going to hosting this at 1015 Folsom, a nightclub that will be transformed into a crafting extravaganza! It's going to be held on December 3rd, from 6pm til midnight! There will be music, live art, and tons of awesome vendors of handcrafted goodies!

We also got sponsored by Etsy itself, so you know it's going to be good. On top of that, we're also putting this on to help raise money for Draw Bridge, an organization that organizes art programs for homeless children in all seven of the Bay Area counties! Awesome! They'll have a gift-wrapping station, so come and do some handmade holiday shopping and then get your gifts wrapped to support an awesome cause!

Of course, Monkey + Seal will be on hand with new products! Woo!

Monkey + Seal wants these shirts!!!

So the other day on Etsy, Akumu Ink was featured in the highly inspiring "Quit Your Dayjob" blog posts. Besides being insanely jealous of all the "quit your dayjob" features, Monkey was especially green with envy on AkumuInk's awesome illustrations. Both Monkey + Seal are huge Edward Gorey fans, and AkumuInk captures a lot of what we love about Gorey's work. We especially love The Storm (Monkey's favorite) and Silver Cat (Seal's favorite) shown below. Check out their site for links to their blog/twitter, etc. Woot for awesome inspiring Etsiers!
The Storm
Silver Cat

Hopefully this will be enough for Monkey to get off his tail and to work on his top-secret screenprinting projects! Congrats Akumu Ink on the feature and keep up the good work!

Friday Promo!

To kick off the weekend, Monkey + Seal is pleased to offer 15% off to all blog readers over the weekend! Buy anything between now and 11:59 PM PST at our Etsy shop and enter "PENGUIN" in the "Message to Seller" field and you'll get a Paypal refund for 10% of your pre-tax/pre-shipping purchase!

Samples of our fine wares include:

The ever populare Bad Date Zine Issue 2:

Seal's Swamp Treehouse print:

The award-winning "Delicatessen" illustration:

Monkey's squid print:

Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!

Saturday fun+ Etsy wishlist

This Saturday Monkey + Seal had the pleasure of heading out to SPACE gallery on Polk to check out a gallery event put on by SIR, a cutting-edge Japanese-living-in-SF show. If anything, you need to check out their website to hear some awesome music that plays when you load their site. We were super lucky that Seal got handed a flyer by Lavit Sea, who was on hand to display a painting and do some on-the-spot watercolor portraits. Also, one of Monkey's friends AKANE was there with some cool abstract pieces. The drinks were also tasty (although not as strong as Monkey might have liked), and Monkey + Seal had a great time overall.


Earlier in the day, Monkey got the chance to make a quick trip out to the Center for the Book's Roadworks, where Megan from Aviary Press was one of the featured artists. She's starting a new line of letterpressed cards based on strange sea creatures like this Southern Bobtail Squid. Awesome stuff! Monkey also got to run into friends Dutch Door and New Lights! Yay!


Additionally, Monkey was browsing Etsy and found this little gem (shown above) in one of the treasuries. ATHD, the creator of the piece, also has some amazing (and expensive) other pieces of jewelry. If Monkey + Seal were into jewelry (we're sorta minimalist on the jewelry), and had the cash, we'd totally be down with some of her stuff.

Last but not least, Monkey will be working in a collaboration with another designer to do a new screen-printed poster based on typography. We're thinking it'll be one color, edition of 50, perhaps with some color variants thrown in for good measure. More details when we're closer to printing!

New Illustrations by Seal

So Monkey + Seal are giddily excited about their newest investment - an Epson R1900! This giant wide-format printer has awesome new ink technology that boils down to our prints being archival and even clearer and more true to the original paintings. Woo!

Seal has been busily drawing away and has posted some of her newest works on her personal blog, including this graphite drawing:


We've also listed two new items in our shop, including an old-skool comic that Monkey drew four years ago called Percy the Emo Ninja, and a new punk pirate stationery set! Also, you can sign up for the monthly e-newsletter or follow us on twitter easily on the right sidebar! Have a great Friday!

Ever Awesome Etsy - Sept. Edition

So a neat little thing about Etsy is the Treasury. It lets people find neato items and showcase other people's work. Very fabulous, but a bit tough to get. So, Monkey + Seal has decided to do a little (and we do mean little) treasury of their own each week. Here's the first! I hope you enjoy our picks!

This super-cute card by OrangeTwist is definitely a very Monkey + Seal card. Our last year's holiday cards had tons of penguins on it, and they hold a very special place in our hearts, especially since we got to see them at the Penguin Parade in Australia.



This awesome digital print by HidenSeek is super cool. Monkey loves the colors and the neato idea of having the girl's hair as waves. We always think it's a great thing when as an artist, you see something else and say "Damn, I wish I thought of that."



Monkey + Seal are also digging this embroidery of Stalin in a bunny hat (!!) by Little Red Bicycle. All we can say is that this makes us laugh. Great stuff!

We're keeping it short and sweet today. More items next week, and stay tuned for some new products in the Etsy shop!

Friendly Friday

Hello blog world!

Monkey got a little caught off-guard by today, as last night he was diligently meeting with Rebecca from Jim Dandy's to plan a (as of now) super secret collaborative project between the members of the SF Etsy street team. We're all super excited to get this underway, and definitely check back for more updates on that!

Overall, our experience with SF Etsy (an Etsy street team) has been super positive and helpful. We highly recommend checking out any (and all) street teams that may be useful to you if you sell on Etsy - they're an awesome resource!

Anyway, sorry for the short post. We should be kicking off our next newsletter on Monday, so make sure you're on the mailing list if you haven't already signed up! Also, Monkey + Seal is thinking of switching over to MailChimp for our newsletter provider - after all, it seems to have an easy UI (we're not programming geniuses over here) and plus, the logo is a cute-ass monkey (Monkey has been sold on this idea for weeks, but wants feedback). Thoughts anyone?

Welcome!!

Thanks for visiting! We are Monkey + Seal, the collaboration between artists Eve Skylar and Ri.S.K. We publish our own mini-comics, zines, and paint, illustrate, and make stationery and such.

We sell our wares on the friendly Etsy site, as well as on our current site designed to keep Seal in art school. More of our paintings and artwork are on our personal site, but we're working on getting them up on Etsy.

Thanks again for stopping by and we hope to see you again and again!