Solitude in the Snow

Admittedly, I've been disconnecting on social media recently. I've been using my time behind the scenes to put effort into things that mean something to me and my family as a whole. With our sarcastic and snarky products, it's hard to believe that we're all a bunch of "Pollyannas" at heart.  We are and we believe in good.

Snow day 2/6/2017

Snow day 2/6/2017

Today was a forced reminder to unplug, clear our minds and enjoy the moment. Focus on the important and meaningful things. No power, no school and family time in the snow.

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  I don't want to get too political or go into "parent mode", we do make snarky stuff for a reason. We're just silly laser cutters in the PNW when it comes down to it. But it's nice to unplug, refocus and refresh. We hope you all are able to do the same for yourselves.

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Because no one should really want to punch their cousin over they're dumb social media posts.  😏

Lasers and love - Thea 

2016 Holiday Markets

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Want to shop with us in person? Mark your calendars those opportunities are right on the horizon!

We're looking forward to vending in Seattle for the first time and really looking forward to our return to Crafty Wonderland in Portland! 

Hope to see you there!

Lasers and love - Thea 

Work, work, work, work, work.

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Hi! We've been working up a storm behind the scenes. The college babes are descending upon our homestead this evening and I've been baking up pies and other goodies in between jobs.

I've been organizing our inventory for upcoming shows and I keep happening upon prototypes and discontinued pieces. I found one prototype that I was particularly excited about creating. 

Circus Font Letters

Many laser cutters offer monogram and basic wood letters. They usually come in the standard fonts. When we received requests for similar jobs we really wanted to offer unusual fonts. I'm not a fan of clowns, but I am a huge fan of circus style fonts and typography. I hoped that someone shared that love and would be inspired to create themed display with our pieces. Manufacturing jobs pushed this project to the side but I still had our prototypes. 

With the holidays upon us, I thought I'd post this full circus font alphabet set for sale for any families that get inspiration for home decorating before friends and family come for visits.

This full alphabet set features 26 pieces of capital letters in circus font. They are 3.5" inches tall with varying widths from 2" to 5.5" depending on the letter.  They are an 1/8" inch thick and are made from birch plywood. Extensive engraving time was needed to achieve this great look. Each one has been lightly hand sanded. 

There is only one set available so get it while you can!

The listing for this set is available over at our Etsy Shop. 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Winter Shows!

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Ack! We're so excited to announce that we will be vending at two large craft shows this winter season! We wanted to do a few more shows and will be doing one private event in mid December, but there is only so much time on the calendar. So we had to choose wisely and hoped that we got picked and we did!

Our first show is a month away! We will be vending at our first ever Seattle craft show - Urban Craft Uprising. I (Thea) am no stranger to this show. I've been a vendor in every single UCU show up until this one. But I am more than excited to be bringing my new company to the show. It's fun to mix it up a bit. This show is so much fun! There's even a Preview Night and for the first time ever there will be adult drinks! Preview night is December 2nd and entry is by ticket only. For more information about Preview Night check out the link here. 

Details about the open to the public show are available below - entrance is free! 

After a super fun weekend in Seattle, we will be heading down to Portland for our return to Crafty Wonderland's Holiday Art and Craft Market!!!

Crafty Wonderland will also be hosting a ticketed First Pick Pre Show Party. More information about tickets are available here. 

Details about the open to the public market is below and entrance is free!

www.craftywonderland.com

We are so excited to be vending at both of these shows! We're excited to meet with new and returning customers and catch up with our fellow makers too! 

Mark your calendars and start making your lists! Both shows are unique and have their own vibe. I can't recommend them both enough!

Lasers and love - Thea 

At home with 6 by 6 - Domestics and product development.

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As you know, we work at home. Once upon a time when I worked at a corporate accounting firm I dreamed about being able to do this. No more long commutes, spilled coffee in my lap in the mornings and rushed lunch breaks. 

Waking up and strolling down the hallway "to go to work".  Having a fresh pot of coffee all to myself. (In our case, John and I share.) It all sounded like a dream and I have personally be so fortunate to work from home for the past few years with my other business.

View out of our kitchen window while we cook. 

View out of our kitchen window while we cook. 

My fellow work at home self employed friends know that "dream" is not that simple. While our commute is just a few doors down the hall or down the stairs depending on what stage of production we're in, we do have a rigorous schedule to get things done. 

When the shop is too cold for things to dry in we bring them indoors. Which usually means our dining room or kitchen room table. 

When the shop is too cold for things to dry in we bring them indoors. Which usually means our dining room or kitchen room table. 

I'm up bright and early before the sun (which is a huge challenge for me because I am very much a night owl) with my kids to usher them out the door every morning. I then guzzle down a cup of coffee, not out of tiredness but for comfort and begin the work day. Often I have to take domestic breaks during the day to do mom things. Then I pick back up after dinner or into the late evening. 

During the late evenings I do a lot of design work. Lots of drawing and arranging ideas for product development. I doodle all day but late at night I've collected a lot ideas during the day and have time for them to resonate in my brain and I'll flush out ideas on paper. That way they'll be ready for John to critique and provide feedback on the following the day.

A vintage metal wire basket that I'll be repainting for a show display containing our small 8-bit heart magnets. 

A vintage metal wire basket that I'll be repainting for a show display containing our small 8-bit heart magnets. 

Our home also becomes one big workspace. Aside from the designated work areas when things are going, things spill all over into all sorts of areas around here. It can be a little frustrating at times, especially when the kids want to have company over. But we make due until we hit the next accolade - a designated shop.

I wanted to share a little insight on how we work at home, we've had a few friends ask us how we do it. 

Lasers and love - Thea 

We're back! Sort of.

in

We're still recovering from our wedding, all the things that surrounded the wedding and also a big show immediately after that in Chicago. Hello! To all our new friends that are finding us from that Chicago show! I'll have a separate post about that show and the incredible things we saw in Chicago later on this month. 

One thing to note, is that we currently have our Etsy shop on vacation mode for the rest of the week. I am revamping some old photos and adding some new products to all of our shops. 

Now on to some wedding pictures! I'll have more detailed DIY wedding posts over on my personal blog, which is more suited for wedding things. Quite honestly, I am still in complete shock that we pulled it all off. We had a rollercoaster of a ride making that event happen. We did everything ourselves with help from friends and family. Our wedding story includes a tree falling down onto a house, thousands of lumpia and a boat filled with beer. 

John and Thea on their wedding day. Appropriately taken by the friend who introduced them. September 3, 2016

We did things our way. We even made use of that downed tree and created a display at our ceremony site. Our ceremony included jokes, NIN, Richard Dawkins and Parks and Rec references and were announced "carbon based lifeform to carbon based lifeform". Everything was very us. 

6 by 6 Arts family. (5 out of our 6 kids)

Our wedding was very much handmade. It was also an intimate wedding under 70 people. We made our own food, bought our own tents, thrifted our decor, I made my wedding bouquet and boutonnière, John's best friend married us, my mother in law was our photographer, my nieces made the most beautiful wedding cake for us and our kids gave us way to each other and were our wedding party. It was so much fun. We felt so loved and honored to celebrate with ones we hold so close. 

Our wedding favors. 

We gave out some very unique wedding programs and favors of course! 

Photo by M&K Daoang.

Thank you all who have emailed/messaged us congratulations. It has been really awesome to receive those. 

One last photo, you'd think as laser cutters we'd have a laser cut cake topper. We did on a gluten free cake for our friends and family who are gluten free. But the very first thing I bought when we became engaged was this cake topper, so we had to use it. :) 

Lasers and love - Thea

Our cake topper. 

All is well again with 6 by 6 at Handmade at Amazon

in ,

I just wanted to do a little follow up about our recent strange experience with our shop at Handmade at Amazon. For a quick refresher about what happened to us - visit this post.

I posted that post link on various social media outlets and even tagged Handmade at Amazon in a post or two directly, hoping to gain any attention. Being in the Seattle area, we have a handful of friends who work at Amazon and extended offers to connect me to someone who could help. Which ultimately got me in contact with someone at Amazon! 

I received an email a day or two after posting my blog post about our experience from an actual person at Amazon. He inquired about my issue and I directed him to my blog post for reference, since I laid it all out there. Soon after that contact our account was restored! He did offer a direct phone call with me after our account was restored just to make sure that we were good to go. I declined because we got what we wanted, just to have access to our account again.

Shortly after that, I received a direct email from the leads at Handmade at Amazon team. They just wanted to speak with me about my experience over the phone, which I appreciated. They were very apologetic and told me that what happened to us was a weird isolated event, which was reassuring. The two that I spoke with were very nice and gave me the platform to mention things that I felt were frustrating. For me it I was bent out of shape about not being transferred to the department that I needed to speak to by a customer service representative. C'mon I know Amazon has that ability! Secondly, my disappointment in the the on site representatives promoting makers to join Handmade at Amazon at a large local craft lack of information for contacts for sellers. Lastly, this one was more on my own personal expectations as a long time maker, I'm used to having one on one contact with selling sites (I've been with Etsy a long time and have met quite a few admins over the years and they were always very accessible) and direct contact with customers. It's apart of the charm of the handmade maker scene. You are buying from a person who put their hard work and hands on the products. It's a personal experience. I felt that element was missing from Amazon's support. 

In the end, we got the help that we needed after all. I hated having to get the attention that we wanted to resolve the issue the way we did though. Thankfully, we were told it was an isolated incident but they wanted to make sure something like this will not happen to other sellers, which was nice to hear. 

Thanks to everyone who shared this and got us the help we needed.

Lasers and love -Thea